Story Notes:
Decided to repost the whole thing, but yeah, same story really, didn't make many changes. Hope you enjoy guys and gals.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.
Act 1: Chapter 4: A Ghost Of A Time
Rose groaned both inwardly and outwardly as she tried to fight of the signs of awakening....but much to her annoyance her eyes slowly open. Every part of her body either felt like it was on fire or like she'd left it back in the dream world. With as much grace as a Beautify clawing its way out of its old Silcoon shell she crawled out of her sleeping bag, before resting her weary head on shaking arms...memories of the previous night were flooding through her brain. Nightmare? Well it had to be....didn't it? Sure, she lived in a world where crazy things happened every day...but if it wasn't a dream...did she really have a huge destiny. Instead of instilling the fear that she would have expected to take hold of her, she actually felt pretty happy...on top of the world in fact! She'd always dreamt of having a destiny! What with Amethyst saying it all the time it had to be true!
"...You're leaning...on my tail..." hissed something from behind her which almost made her leap out of her skin, and fortunately for her skin, she had just about enough common sense to remove the elbow. "I swear if you ever wake me up again like that, I'll turn you into human marshmallow," Cyn giggled, her voice taking on a much more teasing tone. Recovering from the shock almost instantly, Rose yawned.
"Not my fault it's so warm and fluffy," Rose replied, wrapping her arms around the small Pokémon, which sighed dramatically.
"You seem to be in an awfully good mood, sweet dreams?" she asked, sitting up and stretching the sleep from her little body.
"The sweetiest," Rose smiled, turning her attention to the day ahead, "You ready to fry some bugs?" Cyn smirked cruelly, breathing a huff of smoke for effect.
"I think the question, can you stand to watch my put those poor creatures get burnt to dust," Rose shrugged, pulling on her coat and climbing out of the tent. She met the crisp morning air head on, sending a huge chill down her spine. Quickly, Rose picked up the Flareon and held her close despite objections, then moved out to the smouldering remains of the fire. Out of curiosity she took a glance over the lake...and was disappointed to see that there was no hidden entrance visible...but she guessed it wouldn't have been a very good hidden entrance if you could see it easily, especially from this distance.
"Maybe it was only a dream..." she whispered, causing Cyn to perk her ears up, but being her she quickly loss interest and re-lit the fire with a short flamethrower. Rose turned her attention to the tent lying behind her, from which loud snoring sounds resided. "How attractive," she snorted.
"I gotta admit, for a human, he's pretty damn hunky, I would," she teased with a knowing smile, "Pity he's taken,"
"Shut it, we don't have any real evidence that he's...you know...um...that way inclined..." Rose retorted, lowering her voice slightly so that David couldn't here them if he was awake.
"Who else was he making out with then?"
"I said shut it!" she said much more curtly, causing the Flareon to back up slightly.
"Touchy touchy," Cyn murmured, moving down to the lake to try and catch something for breakfast. She had a point...Rose thought, she'd always had this image in her head, though...you know, when you're a kid and everything, getting married to that special, handsome guy...and in her mind that had always been David. Of course, she wouldn't admit this to anyone even at gun point, but she was kind of disappointed that he hadn't waited for her...but I guess who could blame him, she did run away from home after all. Picking up a stick, she walked over to the tent wielding a heavy stick, if she couldn't sleep in then no one could.
"Hey! Davy, wake up, you're tents on fire!" she shouted, trying her best to sound alarm, whilst poking the lump in the tent with a stick. In an instant he was up, full to the brim with curses as he frantically grabbed his gear and flopped out of the tent, wow...she hadn't actually thought that would work...but I guess no-one can have looks and brains.
"Crap! Where is it!?" he shouted, searching through his pack for a fire extinguisher, his long hair and sweaty face gave him the look of a deranged cave man, an image which Rose couldn't help[ but laugh at...which he eventually picked up...letting out a long sigh of relief. "You know...if you want me up you could just do it the normal way!" he complained, collapsing in a heap on the wet ground, recovering from the rude awakening.
"But the normal way wouldn't be such fun!" Rose laughed, helping him to his feet. "And anyway, the way you were snoring, you were just begging to be scared shitless!"
"I snore? Wait...never mind... I'm up...god, I forgot how damn annoying you could be," he groaned, wiping the sleep from his eyes, Rose recoiled, mock horror on her face.
"That hurt!" she said, turning away from him, pouting.
"Good, let that be a lesson to you then!" he replied, turning away as well. A brief moment of silence overcame the two, before David wrapped his arms around her shoulders, laughing softly. As much as she hated it, her heart did skip a beat, making it even more painful to think of him with...well...a Pokémon, but that didn't mean they weren't friends. "God, I missed my daily dose of annoyance.
"Yeah, ask Cyn, she's been taking hers and your daily dose of annoyance, she's the one you need to apologise to," Coincidentally, the Flareon was walking past at the exact moment they said this carrying a huge and scary-looking Magikarp in her mouth, but took the time to nod mournfully towards the two, before smirking and placing the fish into one of Rose's many pots and pans. "Awesome! Breakfast has been caught! This is why I'll never get a cool Gyarados...I'd eat the Magikarp before I could train it!" Rose explained, picking up the pan and nestling it on the fire carefully. "Oh! Speaking of Pokémon, lets see your Lucario, I've never ever seen one of those before!" She gave him puppy-dog eyes...he could never resist those.
"You really want to see her? Um....fine....but she's kinda shy...but she's also really cool and awesome when you get to know her...oh yeah! And there's something really unique about her as well which I think you'll like." Rose was confused for a second.
"Shy? Aren't Lucario's meant to be all up in your face and stuff?" Everybody had read stories at one time or another about this trainer and his Lucario from the old ages; it'd always been one of those characters that you can't help but fall in love with due to its determination, bravery, etc.
"As I said, she's unique, you'll see why in a sec!" he assured her whilst rummaging through his jacket for the pokéball; whilst waiting Rose carefully poked the cooking fish.
"Don't touch," warned Cyn, swiping her hand away with a quick paw, "Remember last time you tried to cook food?" They both shivered at the memory, "You're hopeless anyway, I'm much better than you so just sit back and look at the competition," Cyn smirked, raising her eyebrows, Rose rolled her eyes, now an automatic response to practically whatever the Flareon said.
"Ah! Here it is!" he shouted, seemingly proud that he had found the pokéball in his jacket...and looking at the state of it Rose actually agreed that it was quite an achievement. "Ella, come on out!" he shouted....which was kind of lame...that sort of thing had gone out of fashion a long time ago...who was he trying to be, Ash Ketchum? The crimson light from the pokéball spread out onto the ground, depicting the form of a roughly human shaped and sized creature, already in a battle stance, legs wide, back bent slightly and arms out ready. As the red slowly faded away Rose couldn't help but breathe in sharply, Dave was definitely right, this was no normal Pokémon. Instead of the blue fur that you would expect o a Lucario, its legs, arms and head were covered with a delicate golden colour, which seemed to glisten and sparkle silently in the iridescent morning sunlight. She had to admit...if David was that way inclined...then he sure as hell had good taste in Pokémon...not that she would no of course.
The golden Lucario, Ella, looked up curiously at the two new people, and in a second was directly behind David's shoulder, still peering at them through inquisitive...or perhaps suspicious, eyes. Dave put his arms around her shoulder slowly, probably to show how relaxed he was and that they weren't enemies.
"Ella, I'd like you to meet my old friend, Rose, remember, the one I told you about before?" Rose's heart skipped another beat (it really should stop doing that, Rose didn't think that should happen too much), it was nice to know that she'd been such an important memory to him, hell; she hadn't thought of him that much though. Much to Rose's surprise, the Lucario seemed to notice this and glared at her. Crap! That was right...they could see...what was it...somebody's soul...no....chakra....no....insides? Definitely not...oh yeah! Aura! Which meant that it...she could see what Rose was feeling...which wasn't very good...but consequently it meant that now Rose knew that she had feelings for David...which she guessed also wasn't very good. She sure as hell hoped that in this case first impressions weren't everything.
"Hey there...Ella! Um...David, can she speak?" He nudged the Pokémon gently, she looked up at him with a pleading look on her face but after a moment she sighed and looked down.
"Yes...I can..."speak"...or at least communicate with humans," Now this, this was ever weirder than "talking" with Amethyst, instead of the thought rebounding through her mind...it just seemed to come from all directions at once, hell; Rose almost felt claustrophobic from the experience. Another awkward silence fell over the pair....nothing could be heard other than the quite sizzle of the fish over the fire....I mean what else was there to say..."you look cool?" or even "Are you sleeping with my future husband," seemed like pretty bad choices to be honest...but fortunately the ice breaker intervened at that precise moment. Unfortunately for Rose, the thing was not Dave or Cyn...one days Rose really would have to look into sealing Lance into that thing for good, but for now he seemed to be able to pop out after a while, normally at the worst of moments. He managed to appear right in between Rose and the Lucario, stretching and putting on a very hurt expression on.
"My God, one of these days I really am going to have to put you into one of those things, do you have ANY idea how cramped and claustrophobic it is in those damn things, it's than being in a prison!" Rose groaned once Lance finally took notice of the other two. "Wow...look what the cat dragged in...." he muttered when he saw Dave..."But look who followed..." he rephrased in an admiring tone once he saw the Lucario...god, he was such a guy, Rose thought, she really couldn't wait until he evolved into the hopefully much more mature Sceptile....but he probably wouldn't just to spite her for a little while longer...it was going to be a long day...
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The group had packed up and hit the road around 30 minutes ago, walking through the forest to where presumably Eterna City lay, and Rose would soon has a shiny new badge to add to her lonesome collection. But right now, this wasn't anywhere in her mind at all, the only thing on her mind was one thing, the forest. Maybe this was just because she had lived and grew up in a relatively small town with nothing much to see, but she found everything so beautiful. It wasn't just this sight however, it was as if she could feel the forest breathing in deeply...then exhaling, as if the forest itself was just a giant living entity. The emerald forest seemed to speak to her, the bark of every willow tree called to her, the scent of every flower's delicate petals...it was a truly powerful experience to behold...and they were all whispering the same thing to her as the wind passed through them...you are the one. Her sense of being important to the world grew with every second...at it was the most comforting feeling you could ever imagination...yes...it's even better than wiping you ass with silk...it was just...exhilarating.
"Wow, haven't seen you this happy since I evolved," Lance's voice cut through her trance as cleanly as any knife would, severing contact with her fantasy...she immediately felt anger surging up like magma up the shaft of a volcano. But before she came back with some snide retort...she felt a huge sense of loss...and for a moment what they once used to be like with one another, how calm and fun everything had been...but now it seemed that every time they spoke they ended up at each other's throat....well at least she at his. She slowed her pace, was he the one who had changed so much...yeah sure he looked different and acted a lot more immature...but in many ways she'd changed a lot too...and it was only natural for children who shared a bond for a long time to develop feelings for one another...did she have any right to blame him. No. If anything, he had the right to blame her for being a complete bitch to him in everyway.
The others walked on; David and Ella were talking and hadn't noticed Rose's gradual halt, but Lance did. She smiled. He always watched out for her, even after she'd bitched at him endlessly for nothing, he'd been there when no-one else was. Who could ask for a better friend?
"Lance...?" she muttered, he look at her, more concerned than curious, she hadn't spoke to him in a soft tone of voice in years, and when she looked up at him...those were tears? He prepared for another verbal assault, prepared to shrug it off and act like it hadn't hurt him the way It always did...like some-one had shot him through the heart with a barbed arrow. It took her a while to think of anything else today, but the obvious words came to mind, "I'm sorry..." Sorry? Lance smiled slightly and couldn't help it.
"Wow, that's gotta be the corniest thing I've ever heard you say," He knew he shouldn't have said it, but hell, for all he knew she was probably just making up some sort of practical joke, you couldn't really blame him. But this had the opposite effect than he thought it'd have, she smiled slightly, walked up to him and wrapped her arms around a round his shoulders.
"Don't ever leave me..." she whispered, and just like that the moment faded way, Lance still in shock from the physical/loving contact as Rose loosened her grip and carried and tried to catch up with the rest of the group, almost as if nothing had happened. He simply sighed, both out of relief and confusion, before running out to go and meet back up with the others...
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Rose couldn't help but smile as they neared the end of the woods; it felt like a heavy load had been lifted off her chest...she really had no idea how long she had wanted to do that. She knew he'd be confused, which she found endlessly amusing for some reason, but hopefully now they could start off a fresh, she had now stopped wishing for the impossible, for things to go back to the way they were, and started focusing on the present. But as they walked along the path, Ella stopped dead in the tracks, and you don't have to know much about Lucario's to know that she'd sensed something.
"What's up, Ella?" asked David, looking around for any signs of danger, but aside from a few Bibarel and Furret running along the forest floor everything was still...eerily so.
"Not sure," God, Rose really hated that voice, "It's just...well, I'll try explain it...for me the forest is normally alight with the glow of a thousand fluorescent colours, which I think just shows the huge variety of life around here...I can see the town up ahead...but there's this patch which...I can't see?" That made about as much sense to the rest of them as it did to Rose, nothing. The Lucario sighed. "It's empty...dark...dead," That struck home for the rest of them, but bizarrely to Ella they all were interested by this.
"Sounds awesome, we should so go there Rose!" David shouted enthusiastically. Rose nodded.
"There might be some awesome ghost Pokémon, I've always wanted a Gengar...what do you think Lance?" I thought you were scared of ghosts, Lance fought back saying, but in truth he was surprised she'd even bothered to asked him, this whole being nice to him thing, it was really damaging his macho-pokéman persona.
"Hey, any Pokémon's better than the Flareon," he smirked, taking advantage of the fact that Cyn was inside her ball, "But sure, empty...pounding some dead things sound like a lot of fun!" Ella sighed; she'd really lost hope in humans...and apparently her own race, why did the dangerous attract them? To her it just meant get the fuck out of there as fast as your legs can carry you!
"To the mysterious place!" Rose called, "Charge!" she shouted running into the forest.
"Wrong direction..." Ella murmured, then Lance ran off in the opposite direction. "Still the wrong way," Then David, thinking he was the only one not to be proved retarded, ran off in another direction, "There's a Cliffside there..." In a timeless gesture, she connected her paw with her face and walked in the right direction, she really did not understand why humans thought themselves superior intellect to humans when they continuously did things like this.
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Eventually they all ended up in the right place, a mansion partially obscured by some charcoal black trees, whose arms seem to drape across the house as if protecting it from something...or maybe just caging it in...The strangler plants had crept up over the house in the previous one-hundred years, seemingly choking all life out of the possibly once beautiful house, leaving only a blackened, decrepit and totally dead husk of its former self. Rose shivered. There was something most definitely wrong about this house...she'd never actually been to one of these abandoned houses before, and was regretting the choice to come here. There was a big difference between the idea of meeting "cool" new ghost Pokémon and actually doing it. Lance being Lance he seemed to pick up on this.
"I knew you were scared of ghosts," he smirked, he really wasn't making this whole being to nice to him thing easy.
"You're scared of ghosts?" David asked, a smile slowly spreading up his lips like the stranglers on the house. Great, now he was going to make fun of her as well, that was just perfect.
"No! I'm not scared of ghosts...." she said, rather half-heartedly it has to be said. But apparently her "aura" said differently.
"She is sooo scared of ghosts," Ella added with yet another smirk. Why is the world against me? Rose thought, but if he was going to bring stuff up, then technically so could she.
"At least I don't still sleep with a teddy bear...well I can't really, after you started using it," This caused both David and the normally bland Ella to laugh, but before Lance could make a come-back Rose quickly walked up to the door and walked inside. Well, at least she was confronting her fear. And of course...the door shut behind her, plunging her into the terrifying arms of darkness, yet despite all of this fear there was only one thing she was thinking, How Clichéd. But of course, then the fear kicked in and she started to pound on the door desperately...which then proceeded to disappear.
Frantically, she shrugged off her back pack and rummaged around blindly for something...and then pulled out the object in mind, a torch. But, unfortunately for her, she'd figured that buying a proper torch would be a waste of money, so she'd taken the more economically sound option...and bought a wind-up torch. So she stood there for about a minute in complete darkness, having no idea what was around, desperately trying to power up the torch...with a short thank you, the torch came on, projecting a narrow beam of light across the huge entrance room. Everything seemed completely silent as she shone the torch around, not a single particle of dust moved, the only sound was her short, frightened breaths as she tried to get a hold of herself. A stair case lay directly ahead of her, and with no other option she moved forward, step by step, painfully aware of the creak of her footsteps on the rotten wood floor.
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw something which was staring at her with burning red eyes, teeth the size of tombstones standing out from the darkness, but as soon as she turned to look it vanished, a single rumble of thunder surged through the building and sent vibrations that sounds eerily like laughter through the walls. Wasn't it a really nice day outside? She thought to herself, trying in vain to let that thought make it seem like this was another nightmare...but then she was aware of something dripping onto her shoulder...she looked up...and her heart stopped. The...thing...looked at her, mouth agape, tongue hanging down and almost touching her face, drips of saliva now dropping from its tip onto her forehead. For a moment, she was frozen in fear, but she soon found enough voice to scream, and as soon as the first high-pitched sound left her lips the thing had vanished, laughter reverberating through the walls.
Thoughts started running through her head, sure, she knew it was a Pokémon, but that didn't mean it wasn't scary or wanted to kill her...or maybe even worse. How could she escape, the door had disappeared, she didn't have any weapons, if she ran it would surely go for her...so staying still until her friends arrived, sure that sounded like a good idea...right up until the point where she felt a tongue wrap around her legs. She looked down and froze, it was coming out from beneath the floorboards, and it was going to swallow her whole. Thoughts shot through her brain like arrows, maybe it would stop, its probably just harmless prankster, then ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME IT'S EATING ME! Followed by...well actually a really weird thought...she quickly returned her breathing to normal and tried to stop shaking, and whilst ignoring the fact that its tongue was round her thighs now she gathered enough courage to speak.
"You know...this....this is a pretty pathetic way to scare me," she said boldly, trying not to stammer like her life depended on it...which it might have. The creature stopped, confused. "I mean, I've seen this happen like...a million times on T.V before, can't you come...at least come up with something original?" Yeah, well done Rose, she thought, like that's going to help a lot. But, strangely enough the creature disappeared, before reappearing in all of its horror right in front of her, actually look rather unhappy.
"You really think so?" it asked, it was communicating with her in normal Pokémon speak, which thankfully she could understand, "I thought I was actually doing a real good job, I mean you were all shaking and everything," he sounded really depressed and actually quite shocked, as if this had never happened before...Rose kept up her tough-gal attitude, deciding it was either if this or whatever the thing had already planned for her, which she really did not want to know about.
"Yeah, I mean it was a pretty good attempt and everything, you had me going for a pretty long time, but the whole swallowing me thing really kinda spoilt it big time," She had to suppress a victorious smile as the ghost Pokémon sighed at its failure.
"Yeah, but it's hard to be original when you humans keep releasing all of these ghost stories to everyone....but I'll try do something better next time, thanks for giving me the tip and all, but I can't just let a lovely little human like you go, there's still a lot of fun to be had!" Her feeling on victory suddenly gone out the window, Rose's mind spun into overdrive again, and there really was only one option left. She ran.
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When you're being hunted by something that can phase through walls and see in the dark perfectly there really isn't much chance of escape, but she was caught between a deranged Feraligator and a hard place, there wasn't much else she could do. Not to mention the fact that the only source of light she had was extremely dim and narrow, so as she ran along the dusty, rotting hallway she had to try her best not to smash into stray bits of furniture or fall down drops to god-knows-where, ever conscious of the laughter surrounding her.
Rose knew that she would have to stop for breath soon, she'd been running full pelt for over a minute, possibly more than she'd ever ran in her life, and her lungs felt like they'd been inhabited by several Mankey, she could barely breathe. Eventually, much to her horror, her pace slackened and out of desperation she burst into the closest room...only to find the Pokémon...she thought it was a Banette, sitting comfortably on a seat as if it had been waiting for her all the time. It wasn't so much the obvious power that as a Pokémon the creature would wield, it was that insane smile that was constantly on its lips that scared her the most. In a desperate attempt to find something she could use as a weapon, she scanned the room, but founding nothing but damp wooden floorboards and ripped wallpaper.
"I've been expecting you," the Banette said with the classic sinister undertone to his voice, "Now let's get you comfortable, shall we?" A sudden flash of energy burst out at Rose, giving her the peculiar sensation that her body was weightless, but from the back of her mind something told her that she had just been paralysed. "That was a rhetorical question by the way, as you have probably guessed you have no choice in the matter," There was something in the way that he spoke which gave the impression that he had done this many times before, increasing the pit of fear that was now swallowing her heart. "You'd be surprised how many visitors I get here...well to be honest you probably wouldn't be," he said with a snigger, "But normally I get a few every year, those foolhardy enough to think that nothing can stop them, so obviously I have to get as much fun out of them as I can," She tried to scream, but no matter how hard she tried the muscles in her mouth resisted her every attempt, the Banette floated out of its chair and put a ghostly finger to her lips, "One thing I love to see, is their hope slowly die out, the realisation that no-one will be coming to help them...I love humans, so filled to the brim with conflicting emotions, they deem their way of thinking superior to ours, but quite frankly that just isn't true," His clown-like grin came closer to her face, "We don't have any of your petty morals, in our world its kill or be killed, and we've evolved to enjoy ever minute of life by gorging on every pleasure that we are given...and you, little girl, are just another one of those pleasures..." If the grin could have become any larger it would have gone past the boundaries of his face, but it still seemed to grow...he was getting closer...closer.
But just at that minute the others jumped in through the door, Lance first pinned the Banette to the door whilst Ella and David helped Rose out of her state of paralysis, and soon they were all outside enjoying a nice walk through the enchanting forest...that was what should have happened. But it didn't....and Rose was subjected to pain unlike anything she had ever experienced and alien feelings which felt wrong and tormented her soul...and her screams could never penetrate the oncoming darkness....
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Rose screamed, and she heard, finally regaining control of her body she lashed out randomly at the Banette, and felt her first connect with something, she stood up and tried to continue the assault, knowing that she had made contact, but immediately felt her self restrained against a hard surface by an individual must stronger than she was. She opened her eyes. David lay on the floor clutching his cheek, Ella standing by him and checking whether he was okay, Lance was the one who had pinned her to the wall, looking down at her with a grin on his face.
"He had it coming," he said with chuckle. She was at the entrance of the old-mansion, there was no Banette there, no signs on her body of what had happened to her...it had all been a horrible nightmare. For a split-second, she swore she could have seen a pair of crimson eyes and a ghastly smile, but then it was gone. Rose looked up at Lance, buried her face in his shoulder, wrapped her arms around him and cried....Chapter End Notes:Yay, a new chapter, sorry for the huge wait guys, lots of reasons which I don't have the time to explain =P Review, either if you wanna make an suggestions, wanna say you like it, or even just to be harsh if you wanna. =
"...You're leaning...on my tail..." hissed something from behind her which almost made her leap out of her skin, and fortunately for her skin, she had just about enough common sense to remove the elbow. "I swear if you ever wake me up again like that, I'll turn you into human marshmallow," Cyn giggled, her voice taking on a much more teasing tone. Recovering from the shock almost instantly, Rose yawned.
"Not my fault it's so warm and fluffy," Rose replied, wrapping her arms around the small Pokémon, which sighed dramatically.
"You seem to be in an awfully good mood, sweet dreams?" she asked, sitting up and stretching the sleep from her little body.
"The sweetiest," Rose smiled, turning her attention to the day ahead, "You ready to fry some bugs?" Cyn smirked cruelly, breathing a huff of smoke for effect.
"I think the question, can you stand to watch my put those poor creatures get burnt to dust," Rose shrugged, pulling on her coat and climbing out of the tent. She met the crisp morning air head on, sending a huge chill down her spine. Quickly, Rose picked up the Flareon and held her close despite objections, then moved out to the smouldering remains of the fire. Out of curiosity she took a glance over the lake...and was disappointed to see that there was no hidden entrance visible...but she guessed it wouldn't have been a very good hidden entrance if you could see it easily, especially from this distance.
"Maybe it was only a dream..." she whispered, causing Cyn to perk her ears up, but being her she quickly loss interest and re-lit the fire with a short flamethrower. Rose turned her attention to the tent lying behind her, from which loud snoring sounds resided. "How attractive," she snorted.
"I gotta admit, for a human, he's pretty damn hunky, I would," she teased with a knowing smile, "Pity he's taken,"
"Shut it, we don't have any real evidence that he's...you know...um...that way inclined..." Rose retorted, lowering her voice slightly so that David couldn't here them if he was awake.
"Who else was he making out with then?"
"I said shut it!" she said much more curtly, causing the Flareon to back up slightly.
"Touchy touchy," Cyn murmured, moving down to the lake to try and catch something for breakfast. She had a point...Rose thought, she'd always had this image in her head, though...you know, when you're a kid and everything, getting married to that special, handsome guy...and in her mind that had always been David. Of course, she wouldn't admit this to anyone even at gun point, but she was kind of disappointed that he hadn't waited for her...but I guess who could blame him, she did run away from home after all. Picking up a stick, she walked over to the tent wielding a heavy stick, if she couldn't sleep in then no one could.
"Hey! Davy, wake up, you're tents on fire!" she shouted, trying her best to sound alarm, whilst poking the lump in the tent with a stick. In an instant he was up, full to the brim with curses as he frantically grabbed his gear and flopped out of the tent, wow...she hadn't actually thought that would work...but I guess no-one can have looks and brains.
"Crap! Where is it!?" he shouted, searching through his pack for a fire extinguisher, his long hair and sweaty face gave him the look of a deranged cave man, an image which Rose couldn't help[ but laugh at...which he eventually picked up...letting out a long sigh of relief. "You know...if you want me up you could just do it the normal way!" he complained, collapsing in a heap on the wet ground, recovering from the rude awakening.
"But the normal way wouldn't be such fun!" Rose laughed, helping him to his feet. "And anyway, the way you were snoring, you were just begging to be scared shitless!"
"I snore? Wait...never mind... I'm up...god, I forgot how damn annoying you could be," he groaned, wiping the sleep from his eyes, Rose recoiled, mock horror on her face.
"That hurt!" she said, turning away from him, pouting.
"Good, let that be a lesson to you then!" he replied, turning away as well. A brief moment of silence overcame the two, before David wrapped his arms around her shoulders, laughing softly. As much as she hated it, her heart did skip a beat, making it even more painful to think of him with...well...a Pokémon, but that didn't mean they weren't friends. "God, I missed my daily dose of annoyance.
"Yeah, ask Cyn, she's been taking hers and your daily dose of annoyance, she's the one you need to apologise to," Coincidentally, the Flareon was walking past at the exact moment they said this carrying a huge and scary-looking Magikarp in her mouth, but took the time to nod mournfully towards the two, before smirking and placing the fish into one of Rose's many pots and pans. "Awesome! Breakfast has been caught! This is why I'll never get a cool Gyarados...I'd eat the Magikarp before I could train it!" Rose explained, picking up the pan and nestling it on the fire carefully. "Oh! Speaking of Pokémon, lets see your Lucario, I've never ever seen one of those before!" She gave him puppy-dog eyes...he could never resist those.
"You really want to see her? Um....fine....but she's kinda shy...but she's also really cool and awesome when you get to know her...oh yeah! And there's something really unique about her as well which I think you'll like." Rose was confused for a second.
"Shy? Aren't Lucario's meant to be all up in your face and stuff?" Everybody had read stories at one time or another about this trainer and his Lucario from the old ages; it'd always been one of those characters that you can't help but fall in love with due to its determination, bravery, etc.
"As I said, she's unique, you'll see why in a sec!" he assured her whilst rummaging through his jacket for the pokéball; whilst waiting Rose carefully poked the cooking fish.
"Don't touch," warned Cyn, swiping her hand away with a quick paw, "Remember last time you tried to cook food?" They both shivered at the memory, "You're hopeless anyway, I'm much better than you so just sit back and look at the competition," Cyn smirked, raising her eyebrows, Rose rolled her eyes, now an automatic response to practically whatever the Flareon said.
"Ah! Here it is!" he shouted, seemingly proud that he had found the pokéball in his jacket...and looking at the state of it Rose actually agreed that it was quite an achievement. "Ella, come on out!" he shouted....which was kind of lame...that sort of thing had gone out of fashion a long time ago...who was he trying to be, Ash Ketchum? The crimson light from the pokéball spread out onto the ground, depicting the form of a roughly human shaped and sized creature, already in a battle stance, legs wide, back bent slightly and arms out ready. As the red slowly faded away Rose couldn't help but breathe in sharply, Dave was definitely right, this was no normal Pokémon. Instead of the blue fur that you would expect o a Lucario, its legs, arms and head were covered with a delicate golden colour, which seemed to glisten and sparkle silently in the iridescent morning sunlight. She had to admit...if David was that way inclined...then he sure as hell had good taste in Pokémon...not that she would no of course.
The golden Lucario, Ella, looked up curiously at the two new people, and in a second was directly behind David's shoulder, still peering at them through inquisitive...or perhaps suspicious, eyes. Dave put his arms around her shoulder slowly, probably to show how relaxed he was and that they weren't enemies.
"Ella, I'd like you to meet my old friend, Rose, remember, the one I told you about before?" Rose's heart skipped another beat (it really should stop doing that, Rose didn't think that should happen too much), it was nice to know that she'd been such an important memory to him, hell; she hadn't thought of him that much though. Much to Rose's surprise, the Lucario seemed to notice this and glared at her. Crap! That was right...they could see...what was it...somebody's soul...no....chakra....no....insides? Definitely not...oh yeah! Aura! Which meant that it...she could see what Rose was feeling...which wasn't very good...but consequently it meant that now Rose knew that she had feelings for David...which she guessed also wasn't very good. She sure as hell hoped that in this case first impressions weren't everything.
"Hey there...Ella! Um...David, can she speak?" He nudged the Pokémon gently, she looked up at him with a pleading look on her face but after a moment she sighed and looked down.
"Yes...I can..."speak"...or at least communicate with humans," Now this, this was ever weirder than "talking" with Amethyst, instead of the thought rebounding through her mind...it just seemed to come from all directions at once, hell; Rose almost felt claustrophobic from the experience. Another awkward silence fell over the pair....nothing could be heard other than the quite sizzle of the fish over the fire....I mean what else was there to say..."you look cool?" or even "Are you sleeping with my future husband," seemed like pretty bad choices to be honest...but fortunately the ice breaker intervened at that precise moment. Unfortunately for Rose, the thing was not Dave or Cyn...one days Rose really would have to look into sealing Lance into that thing for good, but for now he seemed to be able to pop out after a while, normally at the worst of moments. He managed to appear right in between Rose and the Lucario, stretching and putting on a very hurt expression on.
"My God, one of these days I really am going to have to put you into one of those things, do you have ANY idea how cramped and claustrophobic it is in those damn things, it's than being in a prison!" Rose groaned once Lance finally took notice of the other two. "Wow...look what the cat dragged in...." he muttered when he saw Dave..."But look who followed..." he rephrased in an admiring tone once he saw the Lucario...god, he was such a guy, Rose thought, she really couldn't wait until he evolved into the hopefully much more mature Sceptile....but he probably wouldn't just to spite her for a little while longer...it was going to be a long day...
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The group had packed up and hit the road around 30 minutes ago, walking through the forest to where presumably Eterna City lay, and Rose would soon has a shiny new badge to add to her lonesome collection. But right now, this wasn't anywhere in her mind at all, the only thing on her mind was one thing, the forest. Maybe this was just because she had lived and grew up in a relatively small town with nothing much to see, but she found everything so beautiful. It wasn't just this sight however, it was as if she could feel the forest breathing in deeply...then exhaling, as if the forest itself was just a giant living entity. The emerald forest seemed to speak to her, the bark of every willow tree called to her, the scent of every flower's delicate petals...it was a truly powerful experience to behold...and they were all whispering the same thing to her as the wind passed through them...you are the one. Her sense of being important to the world grew with every second...at it was the most comforting feeling you could ever imagination...yes...it's even better than wiping you ass with silk...it was just...exhilarating.
"Wow, haven't seen you this happy since I evolved," Lance's voice cut through her trance as cleanly as any knife would, severing contact with her fantasy...she immediately felt anger surging up like magma up the shaft of a volcano. But before she came back with some snide retort...she felt a huge sense of loss...and for a moment what they once used to be like with one another, how calm and fun everything had been...but now it seemed that every time they spoke they ended up at each other's throat....well at least she at his. She slowed her pace, was he the one who had changed so much...yeah sure he looked different and acted a lot more immature...but in many ways she'd changed a lot too...and it was only natural for children who shared a bond for a long time to develop feelings for one another...did she have any right to blame him. No. If anything, he had the right to blame her for being a complete bitch to him in everyway.
The others walked on; David and Ella were talking and hadn't noticed Rose's gradual halt, but Lance did. She smiled. He always watched out for her, even after she'd bitched at him endlessly for nothing, he'd been there when no-one else was. Who could ask for a better friend?
"Lance...?" she muttered, he look at her, more concerned than curious, she hadn't spoke to him in a soft tone of voice in years, and when she looked up at him...those were tears? He prepared for another verbal assault, prepared to shrug it off and act like it hadn't hurt him the way It always did...like some-one had shot him through the heart with a barbed arrow. It took her a while to think of anything else today, but the obvious words came to mind, "I'm sorry..." Sorry? Lance smiled slightly and couldn't help it.
"Wow, that's gotta be the corniest thing I've ever heard you say," He knew he shouldn't have said it, but hell, for all he knew she was probably just making up some sort of practical joke, you couldn't really blame him. But this had the opposite effect than he thought it'd have, she smiled slightly, walked up to him and wrapped her arms around a round his shoulders.
"Don't ever leave me..." she whispered, and just like that the moment faded way, Lance still in shock from the physical/loving contact as Rose loosened her grip and carried and tried to catch up with the rest of the group, almost as if nothing had happened. He simply sighed, both out of relief and confusion, before running out to go and meet back up with the others...
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Rose couldn't help but smile as they neared the end of the woods; it felt like a heavy load had been lifted off her chest...she really had no idea how long she had wanted to do that. She knew he'd be confused, which she found endlessly amusing for some reason, but hopefully now they could start off a fresh, she had now stopped wishing for the impossible, for things to go back to the way they were, and started focusing on the present. But as they walked along the path, Ella stopped dead in the tracks, and you don't have to know much about Lucario's to know that she'd sensed something.
"What's up, Ella?" asked David, looking around for any signs of danger, but aside from a few Bibarel and Furret running along the forest floor everything was still...eerily so.
"Not sure," God, Rose really hated that voice, "It's just...well, I'll try explain it...for me the forest is normally alight with the glow of a thousand fluorescent colours, which I think just shows the huge variety of life around here...I can see the town up ahead...but there's this patch which...I can't see?" That made about as much sense to the rest of them as it did to Rose, nothing. The Lucario sighed. "It's empty...dark...dead," That struck home for the rest of them, but bizarrely to Ella they all were interested by this.
"Sounds awesome, we should so go there Rose!" David shouted enthusiastically. Rose nodded.
"There might be some awesome ghost Pokémon, I've always wanted a Gengar...what do you think Lance?" I thought you were scared of ghosts, Lance fought back saying, but in truth he was surprised she'd even bothered to asked him, this whole being nice to him thing, it was really damaging his macho-pokéman persona.
"Hey, any Pokémon's better than the Flareon," he smirked, taking advantage of the fact that Cyn was inside her ball, "But sure, empty...pounding some dead things sound like a lot of fun!" Ella sighed; she'd really lost hope in humans...and apparently her own race, why did the dangerous attract them? To her it just meant get the fuck out of there as fast as your legs can carry you!
"To the mysterious place!" Rose called, "Charge!" she shouted running into the forest.
"Wrong direction..." Ella murmured, then Lance ran off in the opposite direction. "Still the wrong way," Then David, thinking he was the only one not to be proved retarded, ran off in another direction, "There's a Cliffside there..." In a timeless gesture, she connected her paw with her face and walked in the right direction, she really did not understand why humans thought themselves superior intellect to humans when they continuously did things like this.
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Eventually they all ended up in the right place, a mansion partially obscured by some charcoal black trees, whose arms seem to drape across the house as if protecting it from something...or maybe just caging it in...The strangler plants had crept up over the house in the previous one-hundred years, seemingly choking all life out of the possibly once beautiful house, leaving only a blackened, decrepit and totally dead husk of its former self. Rose shivered. There was something most definitely wrong about this house...she'd never actually been to one of these abandoned houses before, and was regretting the choice to come here. There was a big difference between the idea of meeting "cool" new ghost Pokémon and actually doing it. Lance being Lance he seemed to pick up on this.
"I knew you were scared of ghosts," he smirked, he really wasn't making this whole being to nice to him thing easy.
"You're scared of ghosts?" David asked, a smile slowly spreading up his lips like the stranglers on the house. Great, now he was going to make fun of her as well, that was just perfect.
"No! I'm not scared of ghosts...." she said, rather half-heartedly it has to be said. But apparently her "aura" said differently.
"She is sooo scared of ghosts," Ella added with yet another smirk. Why is the world against me? Rose thought, but if he was going to bring stuff up, then technically so could she.
"At least I don't still sleep with a teddy bear...well I can't really, after you started using it," This caused both David and the normally bland Ella to laugh, but before Lance could make a come-back Rose quickly walked up to the door and walked inside. Well, at least she was confronting her fear. And of course...the door shut behind her, plunging her into the terrifying arms of darkness, yet despite all of this fear there was only one thing she was thinking, How Clichéd. But of course, then the fear kicked in and she started to pound on the door desperately...which then proceeded to disappear.
Frantically, she shrugged off her back pack and rummaged around blindly for something...and then pulled out the object in mind, a torch. But, unfortunately for her, she'd figured that buying a proper torch would be a waste of money, so she'd taken the more economically sound option...and bought a wind-up torch. So she stood there for about a minute in complete darkness, having no idea what was around, desperately trying to power up the torch...with a short thank you, the torch came on, projecting a narrow beam of light across the huge entrance room. Everything seemed completely silent as she shone the torch around, not a single particle of dust moved, the only sound was her short, frightened breaths as she tried to get a hold of herself. A stair case lay directly ahead of her, and with no other option she moved forward, step by step, painfully aware of the creak of her footsteps on the rotten wood floor.
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw something which was staring at her with burning red eyes, teeth the size of tombstones standing out from the darkness, but as soon as she turned to look it vanished, a single rumble of thunder surged through the building and sent vibrations that sounds eerily like laughter through the walls. Wasn't it a really nice day outside? She thought to herself, trying in vain to let that thought make it seem like this was another nightmare...but then she was aware of something dripping onto her shoulder...she looked up...and her heart stopped. The...thing...looked at her, mouth agape, tongue hanging down and almost touching her face, drips of saliva now dropping from its tip onto her forehead. For a moment, she was frozen in fear, but she soon found enough voice to scream, and as soon as the first high-pitched sound left her lips the thing had vanished, laughter reverberating through the walls.
Thoughts started running through her head, sure, she knew it was a Pokémon, but that didn't mean it wasn't scary or wanted to kill her...or maybe even worse. How could she escape, the door had disappeared, she didn't have any weapons, if she ran it would surely go for her...so staying still until her friends arrived, sure that sounded like a good idea...right up until the point where she felt a tongue wrap around her legs. She looked down and froze, it was coming out from beneath the floorboards, and it was going to swallow her whole. Thoughts shot through her brain like arrows, maybe it would stop, its probably just harmless prankster, then ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME IT'S EATING ME! Followed by...well actually a really weird thought...she quickly returned her breathing to normal and tried to stop shaking, and whilst ignoring the fact that its tongue was round her thighs now she gathered enough courage to speak.
"You know...this....this is a pretty pathetic way to scare me," she said boldly, trying not to stammer like her life depended on it...which it might have. The creature stopped, confused. "I mean, I've seen this happen like...a million times on T.V before, can't you come...at least come up with something original?" Yeah, well done Rose, she thought, like that's going to help a lot. But, strangely enough the creature disappeared, before reappearing in all of its horror right in front of her, actually look rather unhappy.
"You really think so?" it asked, it was communicating with her in normal Pokémon speak, which thankfully she could understand, "I thought I was actually doing a real good job, I mean you were all shaking and everything," he sounded really depressed and actually quite shocked, as if this had never happened before...Rose kept up her tough-gal attitude, deciding it was either if this or whatever the thing had already planned for her, which she really did not want to know about.
"Yeah, I mean it was a pretty good attempt and everything, you had me going for a pretty long time, but the whole swallowing me thing really kinda spoilt it big time," She had to suppress a victorious smile as the ghost Pokémon sighed at its failure.
"Yeah, but it's hard to be original when you humans keep releasing all of these ghost stories to everyone....but I'll try do something better next time, thanks for giving me the tip and all, but I can't just let a lovely little human like you go, there's still a lot of fun to be had!" Her feeling on victory suddenly gone out the window, Rose's mind spun into overdrive again, and there really was only one option left. She ran.
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When you're being hunted by something that can phase through walls and see in the dark perfectly there really isn't much chance of escape, but she was caught between a deranged Feraligator and a hard place, there wasn't much else she could do. Not to mention the fact that the only source of light she had was extremely dim and narrow, so as she ran along the dusty, rotting hallway she had to try her best not to smash into stray bits of furniture or fall down drops to god-knows-where, ever conscious of the laughter surrounding her.
Rose knew that she would have to stop for breath soon, she'd been running full pelt for over a minute, possibly more than she'd ever ran in her life, and her lungs felt like they'd been inhabited by several Mankey, she could barely breathe. Eventually, much to her horror, her pace slackened and out of desperation she burst into the closest room...only to find the Pokémon...she thought it was a Banette, sitting comfortably on a seat as if it had been waiting for her all the time. It wasn't so much the obvious power that as a Pokémon the creature would wield, it was that insane smile that was constantly on its lips that scared her the most. In a desperate attempt to find something she could use as a weapon, she scanned the room, but founding nothing but damp wooden floorboards and ripped wallpaper.
"I've been expecting you," the Banette said with the classic sinister undertone to his voice, "Now let's get you comfortable, shall we?" A sudden flash of energy burst out at Rose, giving her the peculiar sensation that her body was weightless, but from the back of her mind something told her that she had just been paralysed. "That was a rhetorical question by the way, as you have probably guessed you have no choice in the matter," There was something in the way that he spoke which gave the impression that he had done this many times before, increasing the pit of fear that was now swallowing her heart. "You'd be surprised how many visitors I get here...well to be honest you probably wouldn't be," he said with a snigger, "But normally I get a few every year, those foolhardy enough to think that nothing can stop them, so obviously I have to get as much fun out of them as I can," She tried to scream, but no matter how hard she tried the muscles in her mouth resisted her every attempt, the Banette floated out of its chair and put a ghostly finger to her lips, "One thing I love to see, is their hope slowly die out, the realisation that no-one will be coming to help them...I love humans, so filled to the brim with conflicting emotions, they deem their way of thinking superior to ours, but quite frankly that just isn't true," His clown-like grin came closer to her face, "We don't have any of your petty morals, in our world its kill or be killed, and we've evolved to enjoy ever minute of life by gorging on every pleasure that we are given...and you, little girl, are just another one of those pleasures..." If the grin could have become any larger it would have gone past the boundaries of his face, but it still seemed to grow...he was getting closer...closer.
But just at that minute the others jumped in through the door, Lance first pinned the Banette to the door whilst Ella and David helped Rose out of her state of paralysis, and soon they were all outside enjoying a nice walk through the enchanting forest...that was what should have happened. But it didn't....and Rose was subjected to pain unlike anything she had ever experienced and alien feelings which felt wrong and tormented her soul...and her screams could never penetrate the oncoming darkness....
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Rose screamed, and she heard, finally regaining control of her body she lashed out randomly at the Banette, and felt her first connect with something, she stood up and tried to continue the assault, knowing that she had made contact, but immediately felt her self restrained against a hard surface by an individual must stronger than she was. She opened her eyes. David lay on the floor clutching his cheek, Ella standing by him and checking whether he was okay, Lance was the one who had pinned her to the wall, looking down at her with a grin on his face.
"He had it coming," he said with chuckle. She was at the entrance of the old-mansion, there was no Banette there, no signs on her body of what had happened to her...it had all been a horrible nightmare. For a split-second, she swore she could have seen a pair of crimson eyes and a ghastly smile, but then it was gone. Rose looked up at Lance, buried her face in his shoulder, wrapped her arms around him and cried....Chapter End Notes:Yay, a new chapter, sorry for the huge wait guys, lots of reasons which I don't have the time to explain =P Review, either if you wanna make an suggestions, wanna say you like it, or even just to be harsh if you wanna. =