How are these bones not completely rotten?
It had been mostly dry when we had first entered, but the deeper the rescue party went, the colder and wetter the tunnels became. I could see my breath in the air from the cold.
I heard Winnie behind me grumble about the conditions of this place. The cold didn’t bother him, but he hated his fur being so soggy. In front of us, Yamask turned slightly and gave the grumpy fox a smug look, making a show of how he was floating, and Winnie was not. Winnie just splashed the mask ghost with water, making him hiss and curse at the illusion fox.
I was glad that we had all been provided some tall boots for this, Else I’d be worrying about getting trench foot. The occasional puddle on the ground had slowly grown into the tunnel floor being covered in an inch of salty water.
Slater’s Persian was having an awful time with the water, I could hear the cat Pokemon quietly complaining its tongue off, probably with the same issues as Winnie.
I grimaced as the strange smell in this place increased with the water level. It was a weird mixture of sea salt, stale cave water, and the faintest hint of rotten eggs that was starting to not be so faint anymore. Though Ivy’s Slurpuff helped mask some of the unpleasant scent with Sweet Scent, that helped a bit.
I made a mental note to give Winnie a nice warm bath when we got back. I felt kinda bad for making him trudge through the dubious tunnel water.
Finally, I got sick of the silence and occasionally quiet bickering between Yamask and Winnie, so I asked, “So, is it illegal to come in here without permission?”
“Yep.” Ivy answered, he voice was slightly muffled due to her being two people ahead of me. “The ghosts aren’t the main danger either, it’s getting lost down here and starving to death. It’s happened before, so only researchers or construction workers are allowed in the tunnels and catacombs.”
“It still doesn’t deter kids from daring each other to go in.” Bergin added, “It’s not pleasant to find the aftermath of a kid who gets lost in the tunnels.”
“Certainly didn’t deter these kids from coming down here.” Slater commented, glancing at the skulls embedded into the tunnel walls.
“It wasn’t uncommon for people to overestimate their abilities and enter the catacombs.” Ivy said, “The previous coven master simply preferred to scare them away instead of harming them. Old Dusknoir’s preference for avoiding confrontation is the reason why they’ve been able to coexist with Lumiose city for so long.”
“So how did these, ghosts get food then?” I asked.
There was no answer for a moment before Justine spoke, “No idea. Gengar probably knows.”
Gengar shrugged, “We have the wellspring. We don’t need to go out to hunt for food because of it.”
“What’s the wellspring?” I asked.
“Our food source.” Gengar answered matter of factly.
I see.
I changed the subject and asked Justine another question, “So, how common are evil ghosts?”
“Not as common as you’d think.” Justine answered, “Pokemon generally don’t act out of malice the same way humans do. Ghosts usually aren’t ‘evil’ until they’ve first been pretty badly wronged and have a reason to get revenge.”
“Yeah, fairy types kind of have a similar mindset,” Slater added, “but they get offended or triggered by certain mannerisms or environments. The Hatterene line is a good example of that.”
“That’s nice to know.” I said.
There was a pause in the conversation as we descended a few steps and the water rose to our knees. A quiet hum became audible and the temperature suddenly dropped even more. I was surprised that the water wasn’t frozen.
Gengar turned back to face us, “That tree bitch probably knows that we’re here.”
I told the others what Gengar said and they nodded, raising their guards.
“Sable sableye.” Sableye said.
Bergin nodded as if he understood what the gem gremlin said. “I know that Gengar has the ghosts on our side, but what about the ghosts that are allied with Coraline?”
Gengar answered Bergin and Sableye’s question, “They stay in the same chamber as she does.”
“They stay in the same chamber as sh–” I repeated, but I stopped at the sound of rushing water. We all stopped walking, ready to fight or run.
Thankfully it was just a small wave of water. All it did was raise the water level to above our knees so that the water could drip into our boots from the top. How nice.
Ivy was about to signal for the group to continue, but she paused as she saw traces of red float towards us, along with some jelly-like material.
I picked up the scent of metal as the red in the water spread even more and wrinkled my nose.
Ivy poked the jelly-like material with her flashlight, and Slurpuff gently pushed it to the side. I sternly glanced at Gengar, who guiltily looked away from the object floating in the water.
“What is it?” Bergin asked apprehensively.
“It’s part of an Inkay.” Ivy answered, “The boy called Antoine was listed as having one.”
The group’s already somewhat grim mood became even more grim as Ivy took out a plastic bag and placed the shredded pieces into it before sealing it and putting it away.
Not long after that, we came across pieces of a camcorder that Ivy also packed up.
As we continued, the red in the water faded away, and the water level went down a few inches as we went up a few steps and came to a low-ceiling room with benches made of hand bones. The muffled sound of a woman sobbing could be heard, but it was hard to pick up where it was coming from.
“We’re almost there,” Gengar pointed to the end of the room where there was a short hallway that turned left, “the main chamber is around that turn.”
Justine made her way up to the front, “Let me go first, I want to take a peek at the room.”
“Slurpuff, can you use Sweet Veil?” The ghost specialist asked.
“Puff.” Slurpuff nodded, and the sweet aroma around the fairy type changed from a berry scent to a chocolatey scent.
What does Sweet Veil do again?
Winnie took a few extra big sniffs of the sweet scent. I rolled my eyes and flicked his ear to bring him back to attention. He’d be at a huge disadvantage in a battle against Pokemon that could use Sweet Scent.
Justine took the lead, the rest of us following her down the hallways and around the corner. We came to a tall arched doorway with a set of steep stairs leading up to a massive, dimly lit room that I couldn’t see much of at the moment.
A small stream of saltwater continuously trickled down the stairs as we climbed them. Justine stopped us right halfway there as she took a good look into the room. I had to stand on my tiptoes to be able to see above the steps.
The central chamber was about the size of a high school gym, cylindrical, and with a high domed ceiling lined with Lampent that provided an eerie light for the room.
It was honestly a beautiful place, in a horrific way. The flickering light washed the walls with a sinister purple light, revealing the most intricately patterned bones I’d yet to see within the catacombs.
Ghostly, twisted white trees lined the walls like a forest of dried and bleached trees. I could vaguely pick out the frightened faces of people stamped into the strangely textured trunks of the trees.
In the middle of it all, atop a platform and where all of the salty water was coming from, was a massive, crooked, bleached white tree. It looked like a more grotesque version of the tree that Xerneas could turn into.
Its ridged and twisting branches reached up to the ceiling like withered, clawed hands while its roots were embedded into the bone floors. The majority of its roots reached into this hole in the ground in the center of the platform. It was hard to see with all the roots blocking it, but it seemed to contain the same type of liquid as Mimikyu’s ‘life jewce’ bottles.
Is it me, or is the tree sparkling?
“the main tree looks like it’s been crystalized.” Winnie quietly commented, confirming my thoughts.
“This is bad news.” I heard Yamask mutter, the mask ghost floated a bit closer to Justine and protectively put a hand on her shoulder.
To my surprise, the ghost type specialist had turned a shade of white at the sight of the trees inside the chamber. She hurriedly ushered us back down the steps before telling us what had her so freaked out.
“What is it?” Ivy asked, noting Justine’s serious expression.
“We’re exorcizing them all, right now.” Justine said in an urgent voice, she took out a stack of talismans that looked like inversely colored spell tags and handed them to Yamask. I took a good look at the talismans cause of the weird eye symbol on them, it was like they were looking at me.
“What’s the problem?” I asked. I had no problem with exorcising that creepy ass tree, but I was curious why Justine of all people would immediately jump to killing a ghost Pokemon.
“Well firstly, it’s a Cursola.” Justine replied, “Cursola infestations are ridiculously difficult to deal with. Secondly, the faces on the smaller Cursola confirm that the coven master hasn’t just been taking souls, she’s been using them to create more Cursola so that they can infest a massive area in a single sweep.”
“What, is she trying to turn Lumiose into a ghost city or something?” I asked, half joking.
Justine grimly nodded.
I frowned, “No way.”
The other’s faces looked grim as they realized the magnitude of what we’d just stumbled upon.
Justine reassured us, “Thankfully we found out about this early. It would’ve taken her at least a decade to build up an army large enough to do that.”
I wonder what could make a ghost vengeful enough to try to exterminate an entire city.
“We’re going in, same plan as what I told you during the briefing.” Justine ordered, “Don’t let any of the Cursola touch you, stick to long ranged attacks, and focus on weakening the central Cursola, but destroy any of the smaller ones if they get anywhere near you.”
Then without another word, we entered the chamber. Yamask immediately began flying around the room, strategically placing talismans around the room.
The rest of us were about to jump into action when a burst of chilling ghost type energy washed through us, and a warped voice reverberated throughout the chamber.
“I see sinners before me. Invaders, slavers. Sinners… Sinners… Sinners… Sinners… Heretics… Heeeereeetiiiics…”
The Cursola all rattled and crackled like the breaking of dried bones, turning to look at us with empty red eyes.
The largest tree in the center, coven master Coraline, shifted and cracked. More saltwater trickled down from the pores in the coral Pokemon’s trunks and branches. A pair of unnerving red eyes stared us down.
I gulped. Those eyes were the type of eyes you’d see on someone who’s in full-blown psychosis, they were like empty red holes of insanity.
“I…seeeeee you. Intruders.” The warped voice echoed again in between sobs, “Blasphemers, worry not. I shall help you all repent…Just like all the other sinners who have come to see the truth at the foot of my shrine…”
“Shut up you tree bitch!” Gengar shouted at the coral Pokemon, “You’re the sinner here! And we’re here to kill you!”
The angry sobbing intensified and more salty water poured down the platform as the coven master’s branches twisted and cracked, moving like the legs of a scuttling centipede as it dropped two more twisted, tree-like coral structures at her roots.
“I have just shown these two the truth, come and witness what they have witnessed!” Coraline cried, her voice dripping with a sadistic glee as the two smaller Cursolas turned, revealing the terrified faces of two boys stamped into their trunks.
The rest of the forest crackled and began inching closer to us.
“Dragapult!” Justine shouted, pulling out a glass ball full of a radioactive looking dark purple liquid. The ghost dragon launched itself from her shadow like a rocket and slammed into the two trees, the ghost type energy from Astonish flashed through the two Cursola, breaking them apart into pieces that dissipated with a high pitched scream.
The rest of the Cursola horde continued to inch towards us, their branches greedily reaching out to grab ahold of a new victim.
“Winnie, Banette, Glados you’re up.” I quickly ordered, “Everyone else go help Yamask.”
Winnie and Banette immediately began firing Shadow Balls at the approaching thralls. Glados zapped out of my watch and hummed as it used Conversion to switch to being a dark type. Then the AI began firing throwing Electrowebs at the horde before following that up with a Dark Pulse.
Persian, Lokix, and Sableye joined in, using Dark Pulse as well to blast the incoming Cursola away.
We made progress at keeping the horde at a safe distance, but they just kept coming. The coral ghosts just kept emerging from pools of water in the ground, other adjacent tunnels that lead into the central chamber, and from Coraline herself.
Slurpuff and Ivy began acting as support, the fairy type used Protect and Light screen to block any incoming Shadow Balls or Hexes while the ranger used a function on her capture styler that produced an energy whip that she used to repel attacks and ghosts alike.
Dragapult stayed near Justine as she began throwing the weird glass potion balls on the ground. The glowing purple liquid inside lightly sizzled as it made contact with the ground and emitted a strong scent of spice and flowers. The Cursola did not like that, and backed away from the spilled liquid, giving us room to advance.
Despite not emerging from my pocket, Rotom seemed to decide that this was a great time to use the Pokedex, “Cursola, the dead coral Pokemon. Its shell is overflowing with its heightened otherworldly energy, and its ectoplasm protects this Pokemon’s core spirit. Be cautious, you’ll become stiff as stone if you touch it.”
“Thanks Rotom.” I said as I whacked a Cursola’s branches away with my baton.
There was a wail from Coraline and she screamed, “HERETICS! FOOLS WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE TRUTH! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME SUFFER LIKE THIS! HOWDAREYOUHOWDAREYOUHOWDAREYOUHOWDAREYOU!!!”
The coven master screamed in pain as the Lampent who were perched on the ceiling began bombarding her with Shadow Balls at the behest of Gengar, who yelled down at the bleached coral Pokemon, “SHUT UP!”
Coraline shrieked and sobbed, “OWWWW! I WILL MAKE ALL OF YOU SUFFER LIKE I HAVE! I WILL DROWN YOU ALL! I WILL FORCE YOU SINNERS TO KNOW THE PAIN THAT I KNOW!”
A purple aura began to glow around the coven master. That doesn’t look good.
“Winnie!” I shouted as Cursola began singing.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“She’s using Perish Song! Don’t let her finish!” Justine shouted.
Winnie quickly weaved through the horde Cursola and jumped onto the platform, releasing a wave of dark type energy and interrupting Cursola’s song with a loud Snarl.
Glados and Yamask both hit the Cursola in the face with a combined Dark Pulse, preventing it from starting up another Perish Song.
Big chunks of coral began breaking off of the coven master before almost instantly regenerating. The broken parts wriggled around for a second before forming into a small horde of mini Cursola that began throwing themselves at us kamikazee style.
Slurpuff skillfully blocked them all with Protect and Light Screen while Ivy used her whip to knock the coral Pokemon away. Slater and Bergin’s team then blasted them out of the air with Dark Pulse.
“Don’t let them touch you! They’re trying to use Perish Body on us!” Justine said as she kept throwing those potion balls around to push the horde back.
The team spread out as we were forced to dodge the attacks. Slater and Bergin whipped out their ranger issued batons and began using their taser function to fend off incoming Corsola.
Seeing how its kamikaze tactic wasn’t working, the coven master let out a frustrated high pitch scream. The horde responded with their own screams before they all began singing Perish Song.
Without a second thought, I grabbed the dusk ball off my belt and threw it, “Hyper Voice Kaiju! Sing your heart out!”
“Zwei!” Kaiju landed on top of a few Cursola, crushing them with his weight. The ghost type energy they emitted was immediately dispelled by the dark type energy coming off of the twin headed dragon.
“ZWEIIIIIIIIIIII!” Both of Kaiju’s headed began singing their own song, instantly drowning out Perish Song, though the normal type move wouldn’t have any effect on the ghosts, it gave us protection from the move’s effects and gave the team time to completely eliminate the now dwindling horde of Cursola. It wasn’t hard to kill the weaker ghosts due to their low speed making them easy targets.
I’m probably gonna go deaf from this. I wonder how expensive hearing aids are in this world.
“HERETICS! YOU SHALL SUFFER! SUFFER!” Coraline screamed in dismay at the sight of her army having been defeated, her branches clattered against each other like they were being whipped around by violent storm winds.
A powerful blast of ghost type energy threw me off my feet, and I scrambled to get back up just in time to see the coven master generating a massive whirlpool.
I threw myself back and grabbed ahold of the wall as the whirlpool engulfed the entire room, trying to drag all of us into the coral ghost’s waiting branches. Trying to keep my eyes closed to prevent the saltwater from getting in, I held onto the wall for dear life as the water pulled hard at my legs. I felt something support my feet, giving me a bit more support against the pull of the whirlpool.
I waited for the water level to go down, but it didn’t. My lungs started to burn and I tried to reach into my bag for the oxygen tank, but paused when through a crack in my eyelids, I saw the water start glowing a radioactive purple.
There was a muffled screech of repulsion before the water rapidly drained away. Gasping for air and soaked to the bone, I scrambled to my feet with some help from Glados. There was a series of metallic clanks as the Lampent from before began falling to the ground, having been knocked out by the super effective attack.
I caught a few glimpses of Gengar and some of the other catacombs ghosts popping in and out of shadows as they grabbed their companions and dragged them somewhere safer.
Winnie and Banette appeared next to me, they were also sopping wet, and not very happy about it. Kaiju toddled over to us, as unbothered as ever.
“Dark Pulse.” I panted, “Don’t let it do that again.”
My team didn’t need any more prompting than that and they shot a quintuple Dark Pulse at the coven master.
Three more Dark Pulses from Persian, Lokix, and Sableye joined in, and I saw Justine hurl her remaining potions at the coral ghost.
Coraline let out a loud baby’s wail, its red eyes became tinged a light purple and all of the loose rocks and bones scattered on the floor began floating. Then the coral ghost began flinging rubble everywhere at high speeds, forcing everyone to run around and take shelter unless they wanted to get impaled by a rib bone or something.
I ducked into one of the adjacent corridors and spotted a wet and ripped talisman on the ground. A bunch of the ones that Yamask had placed had been ripped off of the walls by the water current.
Before I could try to even ask how to deal with this, the coven master let out a bunch of incomprehensible sentences and used Whirlpool again.
Fuck this bitch. Stop spamming Whirlpool!
“Follow me!” I shouted to my team as I grabbed ahold of Kaiju’s wings before the water could hit us, “Dragon Rush into Astonish!”
I took a deep breath. Then I felt myself become weightless for a second as Kaiju accelerated, the energy from Dragon Rush shielding us from most of the water.
The shockwave from Kaiju hitting Coraline almost threw me off of him, but my fingers somehow managed to hold on as Kaiju used Astonish. The coven master flinched, which then stopped her from using a full blown Whirlpool like she previously did.
As the water drained away again, I wiped the salt water off my face and used the ranger issued baton’s taser to bat away the coral branches that were reaching for me from above. The rest were hesitant to get near Kaiju.
Winnie dashed in and cut the branches away with a few precise Shadow Claws while Banette and Glados point-blank blasted the coven master with Dark Pulse.
Too bad for us, Coraline seemed to be regenerating faster than we could deal any damage despite the others continuing to blast the coral ghost with dark and ghost type moves.
“They’re ready!” I heard Yamask shout as I ducked underneath a branch grabbing for me. We were almost face to face with the coral ghost. Let’s get some distance.
Justine began chanting in a language I’d never heard before. The coven master flinched and looked around as the newly placed talismans in the room all burst into ghostly blue-purple balls of fire. The fires began shooting from one talisman to another, linking them up with ghostly flames before all shooting into Coraline.
Glados flew up to avoid the line of fire, Winnie, Kaiju, and I ducked down under another line of fire.
Winnie raised an arm and blocked a blow from the coven master’s branches as it began flailing around, trying to get the ghost fires off of it.
Cursola screamed, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” As she flailed around and released a massive burst of ghost type energy that Winnie and Kaiju used Protect to block, though we were pushed back a foot or two despite the shields. Glados was fine cause it had switched back to being a normal type.
I didn’t have any time to check on the others before Cursola’s branches began rapidly growing, shooting out in all directions and filling the entire chamber with a cursed thicket of branches. A Snarl and Night Shade from Winnie was enough to prevent them from growing too close to us.
Justine seemed to be fine, I couldn’t see her through the branches, but I could still hear her steadily chanting, albeit with a slightly strained voice.
There were a few shouts from Ivy, Slater, and Bergin as their teams worked together to repel the branches. So they seemed okay at the moment.
“Azalea! Cursola is still too strong, she needs to be weakened or else she will overpower Justine!” I heard Yamask shout.
Roger that.
“You heard him.” I said to my team, “Let’s wreck this bitch.”
“slice and dice!” Winnie grinned and flexed his claws, covering them in a thick layer of ghost type energy.
“Zwei!” Kaiju opened his mouths and blasted a hole through the branches with Dark Pulse, though they instantly began regrowing.
“ELIMINATE.” Glados shot a Dark Pulse through where Kaiju just did, reopening the tunnel.
I stayed on Kaiju’s back as he steadily made his way back to the coral Pokemon, blasting through the thicket of bleached branches with Dark Pulse and Snarl. Winnie and Banette used Night Shade to keep the branches at bay, and Glados took care of any branches that tried to sneak up on us from behind.
I already had a point of attack in mind. The cursed coral Pokemon had an entire root-like section that was taking energy from what looked like what Gengar called the wellspring. There’s where she was getting the energy to regenerate this fast.
“Destroy the roots!” I shouted, pointing at the hole in the ground where Coraline’s roots were reaching into.
“Gladly.” Banette replied as she sent a barrage of Shadow Balls at the roots, breaking a large section of roots into pieces.
Winnie and Glados did the same with Dark Pulse, blasting away the remaining sections. I ignored the screech of pain from the coral Pokemon and whispered something to Kaiju. The dragon brightened up and stomped his feet, growling.
“ZWEI!” “LOUS!” “ZWEI!” “LOUS!” The teen dragon’s heads shouted as he thought bad thoughts. Then they both opened up their maws.
I held on tight to his wings as Kaiju basically evaporated the coven master’s lower half with a four times boosted, double Dark Pulse. The force of the move was enough to push Kaiju back a foot or two.
Coraline screamed, and the flames from Justine’s ritual flared in strength as the ghost type specialist gained the upper hand in whatever psychic battle they were having. There were more cracking sounds as Ivy, Slater, and Bergin worked with their teams to destroy the thicket of branches, as they were no longer regenerating.
The coral Pokemon’s lower half writhed and swung around as its upper branches dug into the ceiling so as to not fall down.
Meanwhile, I spotted a strange, jagged, iridescent gem sticking out from the bottom of the coven master’s partially disintegrated trunk.
That looks important.
I didn’t even think about it. I leaped off of Kaiju’s back and slid under the coral ghost’s trunk, grabbing hold of the gem and yanking at it. I could see the ghost’s insides writhing as it tried to dispel the dark type energy and repair itself.
I used the crowbar function on the baton and chipped away at the area around the gem, before using the crowbar to pry it out, eliciting another scream from Coraline.
I grabbed the loose crystal, but the crowbar was now stuck, so I left it there as I scrambled out from underneath the coven master. Winnie and Glados helped pull me out the last few feet right before the trunk regenerated over the crowbar.
I could feel a hum of energy coming from the gem as I quickly shoved it into my jacket pocket and zipped it up.
Coraline’s branches seemed to stop emitting the glow of ghostly power that it previously had been, and its crystal sheen had disappeared.
I retreated with my team as the talismans floated off of the walls and surrounded the coral ghost in a circle of purple fire. In front of each talisman was a large eye symbol with blue glowing pupils.
Multiple quiet voices joined Justine’s chanting as Cursola’s shell began cracking and the ghost let out a silent wail as she squirmed.
“XEROOOSIC! I WILL DROWN YOUR CITY! I WILL IMPALE YOU ON MY BRANCHES AND DRAIN YOU UNTIL YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A BAG OF DRIED SKIN AND BONES! YOU HEAR ME XEROSIC!?”
Xerosic the Team Flare scientist? Who else would have such a unique name? Don’t tell me she’s a Team Flare experiment. What the hell are they doing to their experiments?
The maddened ghost’s red eyes fixated on Justine as she screamed again, “YOU! BLASPHEMER! HOW DARE YOU! YOU’RE THE ONE!”
There was a blast of chilling ghost type energy. Chills went through my body as I felt the sheer hate Coraline was emitting. White branches shot out from the coral Pokemon again, this time all of them were directed at Justine.
But the branches were blasted away and blocked by Dragapult, who calmly stated, “Not today coven master. She is not the target of your vengeance.”
“Dragapult! There’s a Destiny Bond!” Ivy shouted.
The dragon hadn’t noticed the thin string of ghost type energy that was hidden beneath the tangle of ghostly coral branches.
“Justine!” I shouted as I began running, but I was too far away. Justine’s eyes were closed as she was still focused on completing the ritual.
Dragapult turned, trying to intercept the move, but was forced to block another incessant barrage of branches spearing at it and Justine.
Then Yamask appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the string right before it could attach to Justine. The fear in his eyes from the close call quickly turned into anger as the ghost dispelled the Destiny Bond with his own ghost type energy.
Cursola simply sent another barrage of branches and strings, completely ignoring its own body breaking apart in an attempt to take Justine down with her.
Dragapult prepared another Protect, but looked at Yamask in surprise as the ghost began to glow.
I stopped running and took a few steps back as ghost type energy burst from Cofagrigus, the coffin Pokemon roared, “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!”
Countless pitch-black hands shot out from Cofagrigus, grabbing and breaking apart the coral Pokemon’s attacks before he grabbed the coven master’s trunk. A cursed purple aura from Coraline tried to grab ahold of Cofafrigus’s hands, but the pharaoh Pokemon simply overrode Cursola’s attempts to use Perish Body on him with his own ability, Mummy.
A series of transparent mummy bandages wrapped around Cursola, tangling through its branches and binding it in place as the ritual came to a close.
Cursola sobbed and screamed one final time as her white exterior broke apart and disintegrated, the ghostly energy inside split apart and was absorbed by the eye symbols.
Then the room was plunged into darkness as the ghostly lights went out. All was quiet.
Flashlights lit the room back up.
“So it’s over?” Someone asked.
I looked around. Besides being a bit battered and sopping wet, everyone looked okay. Justine looked pretty tired, but was okay.
“I guess.” I answered.
There was an unsettling, deep, earthy groan throughout the structure of the room. Perhaps I spoke a bit too early.
We all looked at each other with wide eyes, and without another word, we all filed out of the central chamber.
I returned Kaiju, while Ivy returned Slurpuff, and Bergin let Sableye hitch a ride on his back like a little kid.
“where’d gengar go?” Winnie wondered aloud. I looked around, there was no sign of the shadow Pokemon.
“No idea.” I answered, that was the least of my worries right now.
The group’s pace quickened as we heard another deep groan in the earth. I glanced at Bergin and Ivy since they were the ones experienced with caves. They looked extremely on edge.
Without any prompting, the group’s pace eventually went from a fast walk to a full on run before we heard the third groan, this time followed by a series of rumbles that shook the earth, raining bone fragments and dirt down on us.
At our pace and with Bergin’s navigation, it didn’t take long for us to get back to the entry hole.
The psychic Pokemon there lifted us up and the rangers there quickly gave us all a change of clothes, warm blankets, and hot cocoa, as well as a fire type to snuggle up against. My team and I got to sit next to a fluffy Arcanine to warm up.
Arcanine ended up being the most worried about Winnie. His Houndoom disguise and lack of heat (because he wasn’t actually a fire type) made the fire type quite insistent on basically smothering him in its fur and licking him dry.
That was gonna be a new thing Banette could make fun of him for.
After our team had been given enough time to recover, we were all transported to Santalune city’s police station to fill out reports.
Justine got to skip that step and went with Ivy and Pearce to go talk to the Lumiose city officials about dealing with the catacombs ghosts and to prepping them for their upcoming press conference. The news about the missing boys had already gone viral and the entirety of Kalos was waiting for news. No doubt other regions were tuning in too.
I got to listen to a long rant from Justine about her ideas and plans on how to deal with the catacomb ghosts. First, find a new leader who’s willing to work with them. Then they renovate the catacombs to prevent any potential collapses and change a section to be a museum so that they could both socialize the ghosts and show the public that ghosts aren’t scary as long as you respect them like any other Pokemon type.
That part of the plan might be a bit too early considering what happened to the two dead kids, but Justine’s idea about the museum wasn’t a bad one. By letting people see the catacombs in a same environment and dispelling scary stories about it, while also making the non-museum portion of the catacombs a protected area would help prevent wayward explorers from doing dumb things and hurting themselves or the inhabitants of the catacombs.
Apparently Johto did something similar with its famous Burnt Bell Tower after the discovery of a Spiritomb in its ruins. The project was very successful, so Justine planned on getting in contact with the people who worked on that.
I was glad that I wouldn’t have to do anything that big. Just fill out a piece of paper about what happened, and then I could go take a shower and rest.
After scribbling out everything I needed to, I left the police station and headed for Santalune’s ranger lodge. The Santalune Pokemon centers were still all full due to the early season rush, so the rangers had offered to let me stay in their lodge.
I was pretty grateful. The ranger lodge was SOOO much better than a crowded Pokemon center or hotel. I basically got the entire building to myself because almost all of the Santalune rangers were out dealing with ghosts who had fled from the catacombs, or bug types in Santalune forest who had been scared by the fight with the coven master.
I set Glados to get dinner prepped and set out for everyone while I washed Kaiju and Winnie. Kaiju was pretty well behaved in the bath, and he was easy to wash. Winnie took a bit more effort due to me having to brush him before and after the bath. There was enough fur to make a second Winnie after I was done brushing him.
They got to go off and eat dinner while I took a shower and then crashed in bed without eating cause I was too tired, I’d just eat a big breakfast tomorrow morning.
First thing I did the next morning was examine the jagged, fist-sized crystal I had pulled from Coraline’s trunk. It was really pretty and had a hum of energy about it. According to Winnie and the other ghosts, it had an aura similar to that of a mega stone, but not quite, and it contained less energy. Maybe it was an incomplete mega stone?
Considering it was Team Flare who had a hand in creating this thing, it wouldn’t be a reach to assume that this was the product of an attempt to create a mega stone for a species that didn’t have one.
Or maybe an attempt at creating a keystone. Though the gem was too translucent and desaturated to be a keystone.
I ended up shoving it into a sock alongside a few anti-ghost talismans I scavenged from my bag. Then I put it into a padded jar and tossed it into my key items pocket to be forgotten until it became relevant somehow.
The weather was nice so I ate breakfast with the crew in the small field next to the ranger station. Sahara and Thorondor finished their breakfast quickly and began doing some morning exercises together.
I sent Kaiju to join them once he was done in order to keep him out of trouble while I talked with the ghost gang about evolution.
None of the fifteen or so Litwick had evolved into Lampent yet, but I had plenty of dusk stones in my bag for when they would be needed. Thank goodness I hoarded a ton of evolution stuff back when I played the game.
I gave Misdreavus a dusk stone to evolve with, so she was now a Mismagius.
Haunter also wanted to evolve, so I searched a few things up on the Pokenet. There was actually no widely agreed-upon way to evolve a Haunter aside from the usual trading. But most sources seemed to agree that wild Haunter evolved either due to a burst in negative emotion, or due to age and accumulating enough ghost type energy to evolve, which was how some Dusclops and Lampent naturally evolve as well.
It was Haunters choice, and he decided that he wanted to try gathering enough ghost type energy on his own, which I was fine with. That meant less work for me.
I pulled up the news on Rotom as I took out another breakfast sandwich.
The international news was buzzing about the catacombs incident. The press conference that Justine helped prep seemed to have worked well enough to quell any major worries from Lumiose citizens.
There were also pictures and videos on the news of the parents of the four boys. The kid I found in Santalune Forest was recovering while the kid that escaped on his own was physically unharmed. I’ll bet the survivor’s guilt is gonna be awful. Good luck.
I didn’t bother clicking on the articles and videos about the families of the two dead kids, some of the titles describing the kids were both clickbaity and rather insulting to the dead. Stupid or not, they were kids who didn’t deserve to die horrible deaths. I just hoped that the families were spared on the details on how their sons died.
“I wonder where Gengar went.” Banette said.
Winnie nodded, “yeah, i was wondering about him too. he kinda just disappeared on us at the end.”
I shrugged, “Well I saw him helping the Lampent get out of there, he’s probably still helping the catacombs ghosts work out the mess that Coraline left behind.”
“Well I hope he can work something out with the rangers.” Mismagius said, “Maybe he’ll be chosen to represent the catacombs ghosts.”
Winnie raised an eyebrow, “him? perhaps.”
There were a few minutes of silence as we just sat and ate out breakfast and watched Sahara, Thorondor, and Kaiju run around.
“so, you remember how cofagrigus called justine his daughter?” Winnie asked as he finished his bowl of food and passed it to Glados to put with rest of the dirty dishes.
I paused mid-chew, I had to think about it because everything that happened yesterday was kind of a blur to me.
Then I nodded, “Yeah.”
Haunter, who was eating a macaron asked, “How can a Pokemon have a human for a daughter? Can Pokemon have children with humans?”
Uhhhhh, that’s not a road you wanna go down Haunter. I decided to just keep my mouth shut on that subject and made sure that Rotom did not search that up. These guys did not need to know how uh…weird humans could be.
Banette rolled her eyes, “Don’t you remember where a lot of ghosts come from?”
“Uhhhhh.” Haunter scratched his head.
“they come from dead people and pokemon.” Winnie answered for the gas Pokemon.
“Wait, are you saying that Cofagrigus is Justine’s dead dad?” I asked somewhat incredulously. Well, I don’t remember Justine or Angela ever mentioning anything about their parents…
“Yeah, they’re dead.” Banette confirmed, “Golurk told us a while ago.”
Mismagius nodded in agreement, “Yep.”
“Oh…oof. That’s rough.” I didn’t really know what else to say.
“Wait what? I don’t remember that.” Haunter interjected, “Why’d you leave me outta the gossip chain?”
“hmmm, yeah i never knew that either.” Winnie added.
“I dunno, you guys weren’t there.” Banette answered, “Plus, it’s kinda weird just to suddenly bring up in conversation.”
Mismagius made a dumb face as she mockingly said, “Hey guys! Let me interrupt your conversation about food! Did you know that Justine’s parents are dead? Yeah she’s an orphan!”
Winnie waved Mismagius off, “okay okay, we get it.”
“Wait, I’m a bit confused though,” I said, “Like, if Cofagrigus is Justine’s dead dad, does she know? She has to know, right? Yamask literally carry masked faces from when they were still alive. Even if she wasn’t old enough to remember, they’ve gotta have pictures somewhere. Angela definitely knows.”
Winnie shrugged, “i dunno az, yamasks’s mask wasn’t a very detailed one. none of the Yamask that we’ve come across have very detailed masks.”
I raised an eyebrow at that as I thought back to all of the Yamask that we’d ever encountered. Really? Well, I wasn’t exactly paying attention so who the hell knows.
I sighed and shrugged, “Well, it’s not really any of our business. Plus, dead parents do tend to be a sore subject for people. Let’s leave it.”
The others shrugged and agreed and we left it at that.
I decided to check my messages, the others would probably be pretty interested in a first-hand account of the catacombs incident. But it seemed like Justine beat me to the punch. Well she explained it better that I could’ve.
I got a bunch of DMs from the twins the moment they saw me online.
They asked if I was okay and were wondering if I was still coming to Anistar City.
Chloe (actually Zoe): Hey Az! We heard about the catacombs thingy on the news
Zoe (actually Chloe): and from Justine
Chloe (actually Zoe): How are u holding up?
Zoe (actually Chloe): It must’ve been pretty scary going down there
Zombie: Yeah I’m good, but fuck that place, I’m never going back.
Chloe (actually Zoe): Do u know why a cursola appeared there? I’ve never heard of one appearing in Kalos like this before.
It’s because an evil organization experimented on Cursola and then she escaped.
Zombie: No idea, probably an abandoned pokemon.
Zoe (actually Chloe): I guess.
Zombie: Anyways, how u guys been doing?
Chloe (actually Zoe): We’ve been doing a lot of training ??
Zoe (actually Chloe): Olympia said that we can start battling nine star challengers soon ?????????
Zombie: Noice ?, that’s super exciting! Send the group chat the vs recording when u guys do that battle. I’m sure the battle maniacs will be happy to hyper analyze it
Chloe (actually Zoe): Lol
Zoe (actually Chloe): Lol yeah they would
Chloe (actually Zoe): U can help us get to that sooner
Zoe (actually Chloe): Yeah, u still coming to Anistar?
Zombie: Ye, don’t have anything else to do. Sahara will def be up for a fight
Chloe (actually Zoe): ??
Zoe (actually Chloe): Maybe not her ??
Zombie: U wanna battle Kaiju or Winnie instead?
Chloe (actually Zoe): We heard you just got a rufflet…
Zombie: ??
Zoe (actually Chloe): ??Don’t sell our pokemon short Chloe!
Chloe (actually Zoe): Lol yeah, our team’s a lot stronger than when we last saw each other too
Zoe (actually Chloe): We’ll wreck you in a doubles battle! (? ??_??)?
Zombie: Bet
I looked up as Glados came back with the washed dishes and put them back in my bag. Dang, they beat me to it.
Glados was handling most of the chores nowadays, but I really had to do some of them, else I’d get lazy. I made a mental note to make a chore schedule later as I texted the twins that I was gonna go.
I got up and stretched.
“so, what’s our next destination?” Winnie asked as he got up and stretched too.
“Mmmmm, we’ll take an air taxi to Victory Road.” I said, “I wanna try to find a Garchompite for Sahara.”
Sahara perked up at the mention of a mega stone for her and came over with an excited sparkle in her eyes.
I waved a hand, “Don’t get your hopes up too much, the Garchompite might not be there.”
Sahara snorted derisively.
“Then we’ll taxi to Couriway and walk to Anistar from there.” I continued and then pointed at Sahara, “We’re gonna be battling Chloe and Zoe’s team, and they’re pretty strong. You’ll get to test your mettle against them.”
That seemed to get Sahara’s hopes up again. “Garchomp!”
I nodded, “Mhmm.”
Winnie gave me a sharp toothed grin, “i’m excited to see what they’ve cooked up.”
Hisuan Zoroark – Winnie:
Normal-Ghost | Male
Nature: Jolly (+Speed/-Sp. Attack)
Abilities: Illusion
Moves:
- (Utility) Detect, Agility, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Taunt, Leer, Fake Tears, Hone Claws, Substitute, Protect, Calm Mind
- (Atk) Slash, Phantom Force, Foul Play, Dig, Shadow Claw, Low Kick, Low Sweep
- (Sp. Atk) Bitter Malice, Psychic, Hex, Shadow Ball, Night Shade, Dark Pulse, Snarl, Icy Wind, Hyper Beam
Garchomp – Sahara:
Dragon-Ground | Female | Ultra Ball
Nature: Lonely (+Attack/-Defense)
Abilities: Sand Veil, Rough Skin
Moves:
- (Utility) Scary Face, Sandstorm, Swords Dance, Protect, Spikes
- (Atk) Metal Claw, Dragon Rush, Bite, Slash, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail, Dig, Rock Tomb, Outrage, Brick Break, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Iron Head, Crunch
- (Sp. Atk) Twister, Dragon Pulse, Sand Tomb, Hyper Beam, Flamethrower, Mud Shot
Zweilous – Kaiju:
Dark-Dragon | Male | Dusk Ball
Nature: Rash (+Sp. Attack/-Sp. Def)
Abilities: Hustle
Moves:
- (Utility) Work Up, Scary Face, Screech, Taunt, Nasty Plot, Roar, Protect, Thunder Wave, Endure
- (Atk) Crunch, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Head Smash, Astonish, Body Slam, Dragon Rush, Outrage
- (Sp. Atk) Hyper Voice, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rage, Draco Meteor, Dark Pulse, Snarl
Porygon-Z – Glados:
Normal
Nature: Mild (+Sp. Attack/-Def)
Abilities: Adaptability, Download, Analytic
Moves:
- (Utility) Conversion, Conversion 2, Defense Curl, Magnet Rise, Nasty Plot, Recycle, Agility, Recover, Lock-on, Charge, Protect, Gravity, Magic Coat, Thunder Wave,
- (Atk) Giga Impact, Zen Headbutt
- (Sp. Atk) Discharge, Zap Cannon, Psybeam, Tri-Attack, Hyper Beam, Swift, Psychic, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Electro Web
Rufflet – Thorondor:
Normal-Flying | Male
Nature: Brave (+Atk/-Speed)
Abilities: Keen Eye, Sheer Force, Hustle
Moves:
- (Utility) Agility, Leer, Roost, Tailwind
- (Atk) Zen Headbutt, Peck, Wing Attack, Crush Claw
- (Sp. Atk) Air Slash, Air Cutter
Rotom