Let's Catch a Gastly (How Ghastly! I know!)

Title: How Ghastly, I know!
Pokemon I want to catch: Gastly
Character count: 33969

EDIT: THIS IS THE OLD VERSION. POST #4 IS THE CORRECT

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Chapter 1: Clemont’s Defeat and The Path to Valerie​

Finally Francois defeated that nerd Clemont a second time. All of his pokemon were weak to fighting type moves which his trusty Combusken utterly walled after a simple double kick. They did not stand a chance. Magneton, Magnemite, and even Heliolisk all perished under his Combusken’s mighty kicks.

“Heh.” Francois laughed to himself as he left the Lumiose gym. It was a chilly autumn afternoon and a perfect time for rest. Logically, like any trainer in Lumiose City would, he went to a very nice bar around the Magenta Plaza. There he could relax just for one afternoon after a battle, just taking a moment to celebrate his recent victory. Ever since Lysandre tried to take Kalos by force the people of Kalos recovered, but were also scarred and have started taking more breaks after a long period of work to regain lost energy.

The waitress in a cute Parisian maid’s outfit asked him what to drink, and like anyone with class, he said, “Cafe-au-lait s'il-vous plaît.”

When he received his coffee, he took a sip from the hot froth. He knew he had to get going, his quest to defeat Alain needed to continue. Regardless, he sighed, and took another sip of the delicious brew. Just as he was about to set it down, a chilly autumnal breeze swept through his alleyway and something dark whipped by him, causing him to spill some of his coffee. The other guests appeared to not have noticed a thing.

Looking to a woman sitting at a table next to him reading a book, he asked, “Pardon mademoiselle, but did you see that whip of air?”

“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It was a black wisp!” Stuttering, “It was almost like a ghost!”

“I didn’t see anything! Get away from me!” She instantly turned her body away and crossed her legs and dug deeply into her novel.

He knew he saw something. He just couldn’t tell what. However, to maintain is sanity and refocus on his efforts, he finished his coffee in three large gulps, left his mug and money on the table and left. He needed to keep moving on if he is to defeat Alain. In his last match Alain finally finished him off with an ill-timed sucker punch from his Bisharp and knew to take every precaution imaginable. Alain’s team could not stand up to his Combusken once it evolved and to do so he needed a challenge. Alain had battled Valerie in Laverre City before and knew that his next goal would be to revisit hers. He was surprised that Clemont hadn’t changed his team since the last challenge and was frankly easier. Perhaps a fairy gym will do the same. He returned to his hostel, gathered his things, left and found a store for provisions, and resupplied. When he left the store he hailed a cab which sent him off to the gate for Route 14.

Chapter 2: A Pleasant Welcome to Laverre City?​

The swamp was miserable like he remembered. The rain, the mud, the perpetually autumnal trees, and the graves sticking out of the dry areas gave him a sense of distanced familiarity and pained dread of trudging through it all. He took a deep breath and knew that this was the right to do. The mud was awful and his feet were cold. In the setting sun, the route grew dark and creepy. Luckily he wasn’t caught in the rain as usual. The trainers were a piece of cake. Ripped through them all without problems. With the combination of Noivern, Combusken, and Pupitar, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle. By nightfall he found dry area to set up camp. It was perfect: right on the edge of the woods with easy access through the bog. The following day the ride was just as smooth. No problem.

When he finally reached Laverre City, he was ecstatic. Finally he can properly challenge someone interesting. He headed straight for the mushroom-covered pokemon gym hidden as a tree. He was already imagining the smile on his face when he receives the fairy badge a second time. However, just as he approached the door another huge gust of wind ripped through the town. This time it was stronger than the one in Lumiose, catching Francois off guard.

“Could it be the same…? No…” he thought.

He walked in the gym dismissing every moment. The gym, with its careful Sinnohese gardening and beautiful women wearing elegant and innovative designs by the leader always had a special charm to it. He was baffled at how one could be so good at battling and be so beautiful. Nevertheless he shook himself out of that fantasy and approached one of the ladies in a kimono dress with a Ludicolo pattern at the front desk.

“Pardon moi, but I am Francois Moreau and I am here to challenge the leader, Valerie, again. I have one this gym before but lost to Alain during the Champion battle. I have come back to receive a badge so I can be one step closer to my goal!”

Her smile dropped for a moment, and returned as soon as Francois stopped talking.

“Right. Well normally this gym gives out badges once to trainers and only once. However, you did make it to the qualifying rounds of the Pokemon League several years ago and nearly became Champion. We will let you battle, but be warned we’ll make sure you earn it.”

Francois gasped at that comment, “What did she mean I had to earn it?”

She continued, “We can schedule you in for a battle tomorrow so we can make the necessary arrangements. Have a good day sir, and we hope to see you tomorrow!”

Francois sighed, “Fine.”

Giggling with a smile, “Please take some time to explore Laverre City in more depth. It has a great wealth of surprises. In particular, there is an old man who loves ghosts and knows a secret about them to the south here somewhere on the Route 14. You could also visit the Pokeball factory to the north of the town.”

“Merci, I must be going.”

“Good luck!”

After walking outside and breathing in the fresh air of Laverre City made Francois strangely happy. There was always something charming about autumn and the town looked like a hidden grotto straight from a fairy tale. It was so appropriate to place the fairy gym here. He decided to take a walk and collect his thoughts.

The town was peaceful.

He wandered into the park and walked to the crest of one of the many small bridges over ponds in the park. He let all three of his pokemon out and ordered them to run around, which they all happily agreed to, and he leaned on the bridge. Since Pupitar couldn’t walk, he leaned against the rails with his trainer while Noivern and Combusken ran off and played in some nearby grass at the pond’s edge and in Francois’s view. He asked Pupitar if dreams ever do come a reality. Getting this far did not nearly have an impact on him as great as the first time. Was he getting too old or what? Pupitar sat staring out at Noivern and Combusken playing, wishing he could have fun with them.

A screech from Noivern broke Francois’s train of thought. Another large gust of wind swept through the park, this time sending a large umbrella heading straight for Noivern. Without a moment’s notice, Francois called out to Noivern to dodge the incoming object. After that a giant shadow quickly swam through the pond and disappeared without a trace. It left a trail of rippled behind.

“Again!?” He thought.

Chapter 3: The Battle Against Valerie!​

It was 10:42 a.m. the next day and Francois grinned as he eyed down Valerie across the battlefield. Her grace was menacing but confident.

“As a returning trainer, I’ll let you go first” said Valerie.

“Great. Then, Combusken, I choose you!”

“Klefki, I choose you!”

Francois felt a jolt of nervousness, and thought, “Klekfi!? The last pokemon league battle I fought a Klefki was with Wikstrom! It shouldn’t have prankster!”

“Alright Combusken, bulk up!”

“Com--!”

“Klefki, be a darling and please use thunder wave.”

The little keychain jingled in approval, and it went first, hitting and paralyzing Combusken. “No! That can’t be!” The initial shock of the paralysis prevented Combusken from moving and performing its command.

“You know, I only reserve my greatest pokemon for the strongest of trainers. If you cannot defeat Klefki, then how can you outsmart a fairy, or even outsmart the Champion?”

“Gr…” Francois growled, “I guess we have to play it the hard way. Combusken, use Flare Blitz!”

“Kelfki, quickly set up a reflect!”

Due to its speed, and Combusken’s paralysis, Klefki glowed and produced a wall of light that physical attacks could not penetrate. Luckily, for Francois, Combusken moved past the paralysis and Combusken followed its trainer’s orders and hit the little keychain square. When Combusken regained its footing after the attack, Valerie ordered it to use Dazzling Gleam. It hurt Combusken a lot, but not so much given that those moves are normally effective against it. Francois commanded another Flare Blitz. The recoil damage wasn’t too strong, allowing him to continue. Valerie commanded another Dazzling Gleam*2. Combusken took another showering of light and was noticeably hurt. Luckily, though, the Flare Blitz was accurate and did not miss. In a huge swirl of flames, Klefki still emerged from them with gusto. Both Klefki and Combusken at this point were very hurt and were about to faint; whoever would attack first would knock out. However, Combusken couldn’t move and Klefki, under its trainer's orders, gave another shower of light that knocked it out cold.

Astonished, Francois returned Combusken back into its pokeball. His specially bred Combusken, failed, with the paraylsis, its speed boost ability rendered useless. With only Noivern’s ineptness against fairy types and Pupitar’s lackluster special defense, he knew that if Valerie broke through Combusken, then it would be over. Fearing paralysis, he sent out Pupitar knowing that it was immune to Klefki’s Thunder Wave. Klefki looked nearly fainted, so if Klefki knew a Steel type move, Francois would be in trouble. However, with the Dazzling Gleam, he figured Noivern would take greater damage if Kleki had Prankster. Being steel and fairy will take little, if not any from Noivern.

He ordered Pupitar to use Rock Slide on the keychain pokemon. His Pupitar did not know earthquake at the time, and had to pay the price. Valerie commanded her Klefki to use Mirror Shot, and due to Klefki’s speed, went first, pummelling Pupitar in metallic light.*3 When the blast was over Pupitar was still intact, though even more beaten than Combusken was after taking a Dazzling Gleam. However, Pupitar jumped up and the gym rumbulled. Pupitar summoned large boulders from the ground and with the waving of its body sent them hurtling straight at Klefki. For a while the piles of debris looked motionless but the little Keychain’s protection managed to keep it from receiving to much damage. Very slowly it floated out of the rocks very slowly, much to Francois’s surprise. Before reacting Valerie commanded the weakened Klefki to use another mirror shot. Pupitar could not avoid missing the flash of light and fell on its side. It was brutally injured. However, it just had one move left. Francois told Pupitar one more Rock Slide. Pupitar followed his trainer’s orders and summoned the rocks that befallen on Klefki one last time. Valerie returned it immediately as soon and the chain fell to the ground, knocked out.

“Finally!” Francois thought!

“My, my what brilliant teamwork and luck you have. However, the battle isn’t over as it is a 3v3 match. For my next pokemon, I send out, you Azumarill!”

With a gracious throw, out from its pokeball came an adorable water rabbit. Valerie had sealed Francois’s fate.

“For your first move Zumi, use Aqua Jet!”

A flash of water headed straight for the weakened Pupitar, knocking out the hard shell pokemon cold. Francois was forced to switch out. How could this happen!? For the first time in his life Francois was chewed up, rolled into a ball, and cast aside! He thought, “What is happening!?” He was forced to send out his last remaining pokemon, Noivern. It was at an extreme disadvantage but it was his last remaining pokemon. Luckily he was faster and had just learned Air Slash. So, logically, he commanded his Noivern to use it and, to his discontent, did an alright damage to the Azumarill. Valerie, giggling confidently, commanded Azumarill to use belly drum. This sent a shiver down Francois’s back. Being confident, he ordered another air slash. Noivern’s powerful wings ripped at the air sending a current straight for Azumarill. It knocked it down. For a few seconds it appeared that it fainted and then ever so slowly go back on on its feet, breathing heavily with a serious expression in its beady eyes. Francois fisted his hands waiting for the inevitable command, “Azumarill, play rough.”*

Chapter 4: The Night Terror on Route 14​

Ashamed at what had transpired in the gym earlier in the same day, Francois rushed back into Kalos Route 14 hellbent on catching a pokemon that would aid in in his battle. He knew he had to get some sort of poison type on his team. Luckily for him the bog was filled with them. However your average Skorupi was worthless; he needed something good. Knowing from past experience that several people mentioned that they caught Haunter in the dense bog, Francois immediately knew that that was the right pokemon for his team.

The trainers there on the route were a snap. His Combusken, Pupitar, and Noivern trashed the competition. How could anyone defeat such a worthy combination of pokemon? It was sunset and he hadn’t found a Haunter all day. He was becoming frustrated. His boots were sopping wet and the chilly October air was punishing.

Francois approached a dry spot coming out the bog. It looked fresh and clean, and most importantly, dry. He decided to set up camp for the night. It would be sometime before he could get a chance to capture one anyway. They are very powerful pokemon, so it makes that these ghosts are rare.

Time passed and as he sat down on a mat, he thought to himself of all the mysterious stories that have happened in the rain at night, about the countless people being trapped in a spooky manor that seemed to come out of nowhere. Surely it was a fable, but what if it was true? And if so, he’d imagine it would be the perfect place to where a ghost like Haunter or Ghastly might hide. Ambition drove him to toss his stew aside, grab a flashlight, as it was dark, and head out before the night grew later. He reached into his pocked and noticed that his phone died! He forgot to charge it before leaving! Sighing, he put it back in his pocket. He had no other means of telling time, as he did not predict he would be out this late.

After about half an hour of traversing through the dusk the sky clouded up. There was nothing special: perhaps a Wooper or whatnot. He did not care for them. Another hour passed. The clouds grew heavier and rain started to drip. As soon as the first drop fell on him, he felt a rush of excitement. But as he was in an emotional high, he noticed something fly by, then his flashlight burnt out.

The occasional drip turned to a slight drizzle. He jumped, wondering what just passed by him that took the power from his flashlight. An unfamiliar growling emanated from the blackness of the woods.

He asked nervously, “Who is it?”

No reply.

Out from his left was a blue flame, burning Francois. A Trevanent slowly walked out from the shadows. Before Francois could react, it launched a fierce shadow ball straight at him. He blacked out.

A few hours passed and he finally arose. The gentle rain was soothing on his burn. He realized he was in a part of the route he was unfamiliar to him, if he was even on the same route at all! His memory was hurt. At least he knew that he needed to find the spooky manor. Why would the Trevenant attack him? Did he do something to disturb the forest? Nevertheless, he picked himself back up, determined. The forest was strange. Other parts seemed to repeat. He didn’t think he was on Route 14. The last time he seen this trickery in the woods was when he first walked through Route 20 before challenging the Pokemon League. Being at night, however, made everything more difficult. He called out Combusken and asked him to light his path. At least his pokemon helped. He called out his Noivern and asked him to echolocate anything that might help him find his way and Noivern dutifully flew off in the dark.

Moments passed without a stir and Noivern came back cawing about the way to something important. Francois figured that was his best lead and followed. Before they could move, another blue wisp attacked his Noivern and the same Trevenant emerged from the woods. It looked angrier than ever.

Francois was frustrated, cold, hurt, and tired. He had enough, “Trevenant, come here and fight my Noivern! Let’s end this now!”

The ghost growled in agreement and tightened its fists.

Francois commanded, “Noivern, go! Use air slash!”

“Noi!!!!”

And with a powerful slash of the wind Noivern attacked the Trevenant swiftly. But, the ghost grabbed onto Noivern’s wings sending straight for a tree. The Trevenant proceeded to use a shadow ball. Noivern fell to the ground.*4

“Noivern, are you alright!?”

“Noi!” Noivern got up like a champ.

“Noivern,” Francois commanded, “use Whirlwind!”

And with several mighty gusts of its wings sent the Trevenant flying. It got to its feet and shot another shadow ball, to which Francois quickly exclaimed, “Noivern dodge it and use another air slash!”

Noivern barely dodged the ball of ghostly energy and dove straight for the Trevenant again, hitting straight on. Noticing that the Trevenant was off balance, Francois quickly commanded Noivern to use Dragon Pulse, completely knocking it out.

The rain was harder now. He was almost shivering in the cool October air. Francois commanded Noivern and Combusken to lead him to the place Noivern found. He dutifully followed his pokemon. Running now, thinking that perchance that Noivern had found the fabled Spooky house, he was just imaging the defeat of the next gym leader and the possibility of being Kalos champion getting closer.

After about ten minutes of running Francois could see lights in the distance. Could Noivern be leading him there!? As he got closer the light grew brighter. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a large root. It took a few seconds before his pokemon realized what had happened But this it was too late, the root started to grow around Francios and pull him in. Combusken used flamethrower on the root, but due to the rain, the fire was weakened and did nothing.

Noivern tried to slash at it, and that did nothing to free Francois. The vine continued to drag Francois deeper into the woods. “HELP!!” Francois cried as he struggled. The vines were too strong to break free. He couldn’t see his pokemon, either. Where were they? Francois gave up trying and let the Trevenant take him to where he wanted. At this this point resisting would waste even more valuable energy. Time passed as he was dragged through the woods. Was it ten minutes or an hour? He didn’t know. Regardless he did stop eventually to see the Trevenant at an opening of the woods in front of a large, dark cave entrance. He was still wrapped in the Trevenant’s roots. He could see that all three of his pokemon were also confined within the roots, fighting to be freed.

In a desperate plea, Francois asked the monster, “Please, what do you want with me!?”

The Trevenant looked dead at him in the eye and then turned into the cave.

“Is.. is it something inside that’s bothering you?”

The Trevenant turned its mysterious head back to Francois and released him and his pokemon from his binding. He moved his roots to form a giant wall surrounding the area and stared directly into the cave. He asked Combusken to light the way as he entered. The cave was long and dank and smelled of foul eggs. This was certainly connected to the bog on Route 14 he didn’t know how, exactly. Could it have been that Trevenant stalking him since his victory against Clemont in Lumiose? He wasn’t sure. The cave appeared to be empty. Not a stir. He asked Noivern to echolocate something of interest and it flew off into the dark, scanning the interior.

A few minutes of walking in the cave resulted in Noivern screaming and running back, flapping its wings viciously! He had seen something!

“Noivern, lead the way!”

Noivern darted off fast enough so that Combusken and Francois could follow. The cave seemed to grow narrower and narrower until there was a large room with an underground lake inside, with a waterfall-like torrent entering from the ceiling! The water appeared brown and murky. There was a little pool off to the side with a Florges and Floette bathing in it. The Florges appeared to tending to its Floette. As soon as Francois moved into the main room, Florges heard from afar was startled!

Francois called out, “No, no! Don’t be afraid!” He extended his arms as a sign of peace as he walked across the pond to greet the distraught Florges.

Upon reaching the Florges, “We’re he’re to help! A Trevenant brought me he to help!”

The Florges seemed relieved and excited.

Francois naively asked, “but what can I do?”

The Florges pointed towards the ceiling of the aquifer. There was a torrent of smelly, brown water pouring from above in what appeared to be a metal grate. Perhaps it came from a mechanical source, like the pokeball factory north of Laverre City!?

Francois gasped. But how to stop it!? He needed to return back to Laverre City but the Trevenant would not let him leave the cave until the problem is finished. This is a job for his pokemon, he thought! Perhaps there could be a way to collapse the ceiling or grate carefully enough as to not cause a cave-in but open a way through that grate? He called out Pupitar. Not knowing Earthquake really came at an inconvenient time. Watever. He commanded Pupitar to use Rock Slide at the grate. The cave rumbled a bit and rocks sitting beside the walls began to fly heading directly for grates smashing them open. The grate and rocks fell like lead weights, making huge splashes. Next, Francois returned Pupitar and combusken back into the pokeball and commanded Noivern to fly him into the source the waterfall.

Despite getting wet in the disgusting water, burning his skin and clothes a little, he and Noivern managed to fly through the filth and into the facility above. Inside was a small, strange room filled with machinery and a giant stream of that filthy water falling straight down into the cave. Francois wiped the gross water off himself and summoned Combusken from its pokeball. He asked it to double kick the doors down and did so. Surprisingly no alarms rang! They continued walking through the pale, metallic hallways of this facility. It didn’t look like the pokeball factory north of Laverre City. What could it be?

As he continued to walk down the hallway, he continued looking through the various doors. Were they offices? The stream of filth was present in every room. He kept looking until he heard a, “Hey kid!”

Caught off guard Francois looked quickly down the hallway and saw a large man about age forty in a very dark outfit. “What’re you doing here? How’d you get in?”

Francois was speechless. “Um… I… Was dragged in a cave by an angry Trevenant and I discovered that there was a massive stream of filth coming from here and I had to investigate!”

“And what fairies are real? You’re trespassing on private property! In fact, I wanna battle you so you can get out outta here!”

In a rage the man sent out a Krookodile. With Combusken at his side it was a given. It was fairly risky, but luckily he found a specially bred torchic with Speed Boost to give him some sort of edge in battle. With a deep breath, Francois commanded Combusken to Bulk Up while the man commanded Krookodile to use Mud Shot against Combusken. Francois told Combusken to dodge but it was too late, by the time Combusken had finished its move it had already taken a beating.

“All right Krookodile, let’s send this kid home with another mud shot!”

Combusken was hit. Bad. However, Combusken was fighter, and Francois pleaded Combusken to stand up. It was on one knee and as it stood up, it turned while and grew. In a quick transformation, Combusken evolved into Blaziken! Luckily Blaziken hadn’t move that turn, so Francois commanded it to use a Hi Jump Kick --a new move that Francois knew Blaze must have learned! With Blaziken’s speed boost, it jumped in the air and landed it’s foot square on the fat crocodile’s face, knocking it out immediately before it had a chance to attack.^The man was terrified, called Krookodile back and ran off.

It was fantastic now that he finally had a Blaziken! Now, however, was no time for celebration. If Francois were to get that Ghastly there’d better be some night left to catch it! Taking that as impetus, he ran down the hall all the way until he could see a large room. It appeared to be something like a large drum processing large quantities of food, or something with that same murky water going off in a conveyor belt. Whatever it was it needed to be stopped. He searched the room for anything and climbed ladders and walked across metal grates, the walls were lined with pipes and various equipment. For the sake of simplicity he ordered Blaziken to flamethrower the place to the ground. Blaziken obeyed and the entire place went up in small explosions, smoke, electrical zaps, and fire. He ran out of the room with the drum. The fire hadn’t reached it yet. As he was running through the hallway, Francois peered through the small doors and noticed that the stream of water had stopped. He ordered Blaziken back into his pokeball and ordered Noivern out. He asked Noivern to give him a lift and fly him back in the chamber with Florges. The water seemed cleaner though it would be some time before it could be properly purified. The Florges was ever so happy and waved goodbye as our hero flew on Noivern’s back out of the cave.

When Noivern finally swooped out of the cave, Francois commanded him to let him down. The Trevenant stared at Francois directly in the eye and called back its roots like retractable ropes. He could tell that the Trevenant was thankful for his help. Francois mounted his Noivern and flew straight to the Haunted mansion.

Chapter 5: The Haunted Mansion​

Soon an old mansion emerged from the woods. He slowed his pace and approached the doors. It was the fabled mansion of the lore. He stopped in the front of his house and withdrew his pokemon. Before he could knock the door open and enter, the door opened and emerged a smiling old man.

“Welcome, come in you’ll feel right at home.” he said. “My butler has some nice, fresh towels for you to dry off and… oh my… please take a shower.”

He showed Francois up to the guest bathroom. “Do come down when you’re ready. There will be a meal awaiting.”

Time passed and the dinner was excellent. Was this the haunted mansion? Well whether or not after saving the Florges and getting attacked from the Trevenant, he needed a break. He lied down on the couch in the parlour. For just for a minute he’ll get some shut eye…

Crash! Francois immediately woke up to a sound in the distance. It was still dark outside. “What was that!? How long could this night be,” he thought as he got up.

“Hello…?” he called out, to no answer.

He walked around and the house was silent. “Monsieur…” No reply. “He must’ve gone to sleep.” Francois thought.

He felt an overwhelming rush of tiredness drench his body. Perhaps was the time to really just go to sleep. He walked up the staircase and into the upstairs hallway. Hmm it seemed strange; it was longer than what he remembered. Could it be sleepiness or what? Couldn’t possibly be scarier than the Trevenant. Regardless, there he is walking through this hallway, walking and, walking, thinking, “where does it end?”

Confused he stopped and picked a random door revealing a normal bedroom, but it wasn’t his. When he closed the door he thought he saw some red eyes glowing in the distance. “Oh no, has the Trevenant come back!?” Taking another look at what he saw shown that he seen nothing out of the ordinary. “That was bizarre. Could’ve sworn I saw something. Wow this house really is haunted. Great. More ghosts. Where is that Ghastly when I need it!?”

He continued down the hallway opening doors until he could find his. When Francois finally found it, he didn’t expect to see a Gengar sitting on his bed! As soon as the Gengar saw him, it said, “BOO!” Laughing manically as Francois gasped and quickly shut his door. “What did I get myself into!?” He was leaning against the door to his bedroom out of sheer tiredness and slid to the floor, back against the wall. He could still hear the muffled sounds of the Gengar’s evil laughter. Suddenly the floorboards grew cold and started to tremble. Before he had any time to react, the floor opened and Francois slid down a concrete slide down three floors before finally landing in a rather poorly lit room. The room was filthy. It was covered in papers and tags with strange markings on them. Francois picked himself up and looked around. What could these mean? He put one in his pocket. Perhaps they could be of use?

There was a door at the end of the room. He hoped it lead out but when I tried to open it, the door was sealed shut. He called Blaziken out and ordered he kick the door down. Blaziken did so with ease. However, as soon as the door busted, a shrill scream emanated from the distance! The room turned dark purple. “What have you done…….,” echoed a faint voice that sounded like the man that greeted Francois.

A translucent image of the owner appeared in front of Francois. Paralyzed and not knowing what to do, he clasped that piece of paper he found in his hand. Before long he heard a burning sound grow louder and louder yet there was no fire. The room became freezing cold and from behind the image of the host was what appeared to be a white Mega Gengar ready to attack! It laughed evilly. There was a voice emanating from around the room,

“Thank you for releasing me from my prison! I will now cause panic across thr world…!” The Mega Gengar grew twice its size and laughed menaiacally.

Francois had enough; he was angry. “Not If I can stop it!”

“Oh! And what can a boy do to stop me!???”

The charm felt hot to the touch and when Francois pulled out the charm the once red ink was now glowing black. Francois figured that that these seals contained the power of these ghosts somehow so if he whittled its power down just enough…

That’s it! He commanded his newly evolved Blaziken to step up to the task! He knew this would be no easy battle knowing flamethrower, flare blitz, hi jump kick, and bulk up. Knowing that bulking up would be too much for a few shadow balls, he decided to let Blaziken go ahead and attack with Flare Blitz. Well, being a swift mega evolution, the Mega Gengar took in a ball of dark energy hurled a shadow blast, making a direct hit. Like champion, Blaziken shook off the damage, after doing more than half, the firebird alit itself and rammed full force into the ghost. After the whirl of flames cleared, the Gengar held on just barely. Due to its speed boost, Blaziken managed to get one flamethrower in before the renegade Gengar could attack, causing it to faint.^2

“Foolish human!!!” The giant mega Gengar exclaimed as it faded out into to nothing! However one it disappeared, the room turned black. A swirling black and purple vortex emerged, trying to suck everything in. Francois gave all his remaining strength in giving his Blaziken the paper he found and asked to dive into the vortex. Blaziken followed and soon as Blaziken released the seal there was a loud sucking noise, a gust of wind, and everything was knocked off its feet and onto the ground.

The morning light filtered through the overhead windows onto Francois who was collapsed on the basement floor belly down, face on his arms, covered in dust, and sleeping. The warmth of the light caused him to stir. He made a fist and he woke up, lifting his head to look look around. He saw that Blaziken also collapsed from the night before and noticed that Blaziken also went to sleep on the cold basement floor. But as he turned his head forward he noticed that there was something standing right in front of him, something that he had been looking for this entire time. What was meant to be a quick run the woods turned into a gruesome night of misery, that is until he saw that purple ball of gas in front of him with the huge angry eyes.

“Gas….”

Francois immediately woke Blaziken up, saying,

“Blaze, look! A Ghastly, we’ve been trying all night to find one and it is finally here! Go gently now we’ve worked too hard to capture this Ghasty!”

Blaziken responded confidently, stretching its muscles, “Blaze!”

“Ghas….?”

The Ghastly was a bit perplexed, but before it could run away Francois commanded Blaziken to use flamethrower on it! The Ghastly took the hit and nearly was knocked out! Francois took the opportunity to finally catch it using his favorite great ball. He gave a powerful throw and the ball hit the gaseous body. It turned into red plasma as it entered the pokeball. The pokeball closed and fell to the ground shaking. One… two… three…



~~~~

*According to the URPG calculator, Azumarill, after a belly drum and two air slashes, had 0.49% hp left. After that +6 (belly drummed) play rough, Noivern had -70% from 100%. If It was a Noibat it would have -200% is that the definition of death by fairy, or what?


*2 Klefki could take 4 of Combusken Flare Blitz’s under a reflect, while Combusken took about three, counting Flare Blitz recoil.


*3 Klefki had about 10-13% hp when Combusken fainted. Pupitar’s Rock Slide only did 6% damage to a Klefki under a reflect, while Klefki’s Mirror shot nearly dealt half damage. Dazzling Gleam would have been a more effective option of Valerie’s part but she was going easy on Francois.


*4 I put the Trevenant at max +6 attack, sp.attack, defense, sp.def, and speed for story purposes when I had it block access from the grotto.


^Also the Krookodile took 130% from Blaziken’s boosted High Jump Kick.


^2 Without the speed boost Blaziken would have been a goner.


~~~
ya welcome. Oh and this is my first URPG story. ^.^

 

Hello, friend! I'll be offering constructive feedback on the following aspects of your story:

—Characters and Backstory, which deals with character development and how 'real' the people in the story feel;
—Plot Content and Flow, which has to do with your plot's cohesiveness and the quality of its transitions;
—Grammar, a section that deals with how readable your story is;
—Detail and Descriptions, which consider whether your story evoked a clear mental image of what's going on;
—Dialogue, which comments on the interactions between the characters in your story;
—Battles, which comment on the degree of complexity, involvement, and fun in your story's battles!

I'm going to be quite in-depth, since your target Pokémon— Gastly— is a Complex-rated catch and that means the story needs to meet a high standard for each of these categories! In each case, I'll be stating what is good about that aspect of the story, as well as what could be improved in order to be certain of meriting a Complex catch.

In the decision about whether or not you catch the Pokémon you're after, each of these aspects holds some weight— a story with a strong battle segment but a weak plotline can still catch a good Pokémon, and vice versa— but the best way to catch what you want will always be to achieve consistency across the board. =)

Characters, Backstory:

The introduction of Francois here is acceptable, but leaves something to be desired in terms of giving the reader a sense of his personality. The brief, dry summary of a battle— a move and a list of defeated Pokémon— feels like a missed opportunity.

A flashback, even just a one- or two-paragraph flashback encapsulating the final moments of Combusken's resounding defeat of Heliolisk and a bit of Francois's gloating/celebrating, could draw in the reader with some excitement (a 'hook') and also give an opportunity to get to know Francois and his Combusken. I was still curious, for instance, exactly why Francois was defeating Clemont for a second time; what happened the first time? Even a brief gloating reference by Francois to 'last time' would've given me a better idea of what his beef with 'that nerd' is. =P

On a more positive note, it really helped my immersion as a reader when you included a little bit of world-building:

This reference to past events helps me place everything in a little context and create a mental image of what the average passerby on the periphery of your story is living with.


Plot Content, Plot Flow:
Having won a gym battle, Francois takes a break and is messed with by a mysterious force! Sadly, since Francois has nothing to go on, that force will have to remain mysterious for now, but such is reality. (Good use of foreshadowing here.)

Francois moves on, and challenges Valerie's Fairy Gym in Laverre city; he'll have to wait, though, since the gym is busy and this is his second time battling her, too!

I really approved of putting a quiet moment in the plot for your character (Francois) to reflect and think.

It helped clarify a little of what has already happened (apparently he's already gone through all the gyms of Kalos and challenged the Champion, but failed and took a several-year break from the battling scene...?)
Francois fights valiantly, but is defeated unexpectedly by Valerie, realizing that he doesn't have the type coverage he needs!

Following that, the plot is driven forward by Francois's desire to catch a Haunter or Gastly. He enters the spooky swamps, but has no luck until nighttime when he goes out looking and finds a Trevenant that fights his Noivern and then kidnaps him and his Pokémon, dragging them to a cave and demanding that they fix the issue!

He finds a source of polluted water spilling into the cavern, where it is harming the wild Pokémon. Investigating, he finds a factory of some sort where he has a Pokémon battle during which his Combusken evolves into Blaziken, and then solves the problem of the polluted water with some good old arson. Following that he has Trevenant's gratitude, so the Pokémon allows him to leave and he somehow(?) finds the Haunted Mansion.

Francois is welcomed by a nice butler-like man at the supposedly haunted mansion, chooses to trust him, has a meal, and takes a nap, from which he awakes with a start as the mansion starts to really act haunted! He encounters a Gengar, flees from it, then a trapdoor opens under him and sends him down a chute. There, he has Blaziken kick down the door, inadvertently releasing a sealed-away Mega Gengar, which he defeats in a fight and re-captures using magical paper he found at the bottom of the chute.

The concussion as the Mega Gengar is defeated causes Francois and his Blaziken to black out, and when they awaken there happens to be a Gastly there, which they capture.

A few of the transitions were choppy, such as the transition between losing to Valerie, then instantly cutting to fuming about losing to Valerie while rushing into Route 14 (often, a transition should at least have a sentence or two offhandedly describing what happened since then.)

That said, this plotline overall is nice because there's a clear driving force— usually Francois's ambition— for nearly everything that happens, including Trevenant's kidnapping of Francois (the polluted cavern water.) The only thing I remain confused about is how Francois found the haunted mansion.


Grammar, Sentence Flow:
Your grammar was fine some of the time, but at other times it could be distractingly difficult to figure out what's going on, especially at the beginnings of scenes.

This could have been phrased better: firstly, no burn was previously mentioned, so it might have been helpful to describe Francois noticing that he has a burn, and where (I'm assuming the burn is from the Trevenant's Shadow Ball.) Then, using "his memory was hurt," is rather short and nonspecific, as well as being grammatically incorrect. Describe exactly what is missing, or imply what kind of thing it is that he can't remember (is it just that he can't remember what happened during the hours he was unconscious, or has he forgotten the way back?)

By way of example, I would communicate that paragraph as something like, 'It was a few hours before Francois finally arose. A gentle drizzle was falling, and as it pattered against his face he noticed a pulsing pain on his right cheek where the shadow ball had struck him: a nasty, throbbing burn that was only partly soothed by the cold rain. Getting unsteadily to his feet, Francois took in his surroundings: this part of the route, he realized, was unfamiliar to him— if he was even still on Route 14! Wincing against a growing headache, Francois tried to remember anything past the Trevenant's attack— what the Trevenant had done afterward, or how he had gotten here— but to no avail. He had been out cold the entire time.'

Also, watch your pronouns. As a general rule, when you finish describing one character's actions, and a new character starts acting, it's a good idea to start a new paragraph:

Also, when making such a switch, it's important to use the character's name (or brief description) instead of 'he' or 'it.' When 'he' moves his roots to form a giant wall, and then immediately afterward 'he' asks Combusken to light the way, it sounds like the Trevenant is asking Combusken to light the way, not Francois!

Similarly, try to avoid switching between 'it' and 'he' when referring to a given character. Choose one— is Noivern more of a 'person' or more of a 'tool'? Your choice of word may actually reflect on Francois, since if Francois thinks of his Pokémon as 'it,' then it could mean he's the kind of person to think of them as his tools and little more; whereas referring to his Pokémon as 'he' or 'she' implies Francois views them as individuals.

Grammatical Quibbles: These things aren't a big deal, just minor edits I'd make.

Using 'just' twice in a row here feels a little redundant. Sometimes you'll catch things like this by reading your story all the way through out loud after it's finished— but it's understandable that not everyone has time for that.

I think you missed a word here. I'm curious, though, as to how/why he knew this was the right thing to do! Maybe elaborate on Francois's thought process.

I think 'disguised' as a tree might be a better word here. 'Hidden' is its own verb, with a subject (e.g. 'a hidden gym') but no direct object, while the verb 'disguised' can be used with a direct object (i.e. 'a gym disguised as a tree.') Alternatively, the phrase '...gym hidden inside a tree' would work because it's just a preposition ('inside') with the tree as the object of the preposition.

I've noticed this a few times throughout the story: sometimes, you used the past tense to refer to things that happened to Francois a long time ago (for example, things that had happened the last time he had fought Alain) when the past perfect tense would be much clearer:

I found the use of '...Alain finally finished him off' instead of 'Alain had finally finished him off' kind of jarring because I'm still getting used to the characters' names (I don't remember much about Kalos gym leaders...) and had to check to make sure this wasn't referring to part of the battle against Clemont!


Detail, Description:
Something that can be very helpful when setting up a new scene is to describe a variety of the sensations (sights, sounds, smells) that are around your character(s). Doing so allows the reader to have a clearer mental image of what you yourself are imagining. This was done well in some circumstances, and less so in others.

For example:

This is successful at describing the chill of the autumn air, but later on when the narrative mentions other guests and Francois speaks to a nearby woman, I found myself taken by surprise at the presence of people other than the waitress in the scene (I had been picturing a solitary table outside of a cafe until then, nowhere near other patrons.)

This jarring of the reader's mental image can be avoided by describing a little more at the beginning, such as for example a brief reference to Francois taking a seat 'at a patio table outside the bar, near a scattering of other guests enjoying coffee and conversation.'


Dialogue:
I like the incorporation of French! This is Kalos, after all.

When the dark-clad man in the factory basement appears:

I like that you described the man and his outfit, but a bit more couldn't hurt: is he carrying/wearing any objects that are noticeable (such as a belt with Poké balls that would mark him as a Trainer even before he challenges Francois?) What is his tone of voice like? Until you stated that the man was angry later on, I was having trouble imagining whether the man was more surprised (e.g. "What're you doing here? How'd you get in??" The man asked with an expression of utter astonishment plastered across his face,) or angry (e.g. "What're you doing here? How'd you get in??" The man demanded to know with an ugly grimace of rage.)


Battles:
The detail of the Francois vs Valerie battle was lacking, especially for a Complex target difficulty (which Gastly is.) The names of the moves are in the story, but there's no detail as to what the moves look like. For example:

The attack "...went first, hitting and paralyzing Combusken," but there's no description of the Thunder Wave itself— for example, is it a creeping pattern of electrical arcs that link Klefki and Combusken, getting stronger and weaker like a waveform? Or is it perhaps single wave of crackling electric energy that grounds itself in Combusken's body and rigidifies its muscles with electrical impulses?

And then, what does it look like when Combusken is prevented from moving? Are its muscles twitching and flexing as Combusken struggles to move arms and legs that won't respond to its commands? Or does Combusken's body go perfectly rigid and frozen for a few seconds while painful electricity arcs between its limbs, overwhelming it with pain long enough that Valerie can taunt Francois ("If you cannot defeat Klefki, then how can you outsmart a fairy, or even outsmart the Champion?”) and Klefki can set up reflect?

The rest of the battle continues in the same vein; unfortunately, there's only two brief visual images communicated throughout the entire conflict: a 'shower of light' for Dazzling Gleam and a 'huge swirl of flames' that Klefki moves through to attack again.

The lack of a description of things like what the recoil damage looks like, or what it means for Combusken to be 'noticeably hurt,' make the battle come off as dry... Kind of like playing the handheld games without attack animations turned on.

Instead of treating damage like percentages subtracted from a Pokémon's health bar, it might be helpful to imagine each battle you write as a scene in the animated series, a scene that you (since you're the author) have perfect freedom to storyboard: what does it look like, sound like, when Combusken hurts itself while attacking? For example, you could describe visible bruises appearing on its feet or knees after it tries to kick through the Reflect barrier... Or perhaps just a painful-sounding CLACK! of talons against the hard surface.

This doesn't mean you have to leave behind realism: Combusken can still faint after three Dazzling Gleams from Klefki! But when Combusken gets hit by the Dazzling Gleam, how is it 'noticeably hurt'? Does it cry out with pain as the light saps life from it, or is there visible (noticeable) physical damage from the Dazzling Gleam? Where does Combusken hurt most? Is there a visual cue like Combusken having reddened, bloodshot eyes after taking the first two strikes of the painful light to the face?

That said, the rest of the battle wasn't completely without description. Later, the description of Azumarill's Aqua Jet (a flash of water) is acceptable— it would be a good example of a description deserving of a Medium story difficulty; Pupitar's Rock Slide attack (the gym rumbling and large boulders appearing from the ground, then a weaving of Pupitar's body to launch the rocks) is much more in-depth (the Battle section of a story deserving a Hard catch would require most, if not all, moves to have this level of detail.)

This also has a little bit of description, from the 'grab-and-throw' maneuver by Trevenant to the 'mighty gusts' of Noivern's wings, though it's not a lot and the grammar kind of confused me at times (e.g. Francois saying something, and then jumping right to '...mighty gusts of its wings' referring to Noivern's wings.) Expand on this with some more imagery (sights, sounds, effects on the environment... such as perhaps Noivern crashing through the wood of a rotting tree trunk and toppling it!)

All in all, your battles are believable mechanically-speaking, but the level of descriptive detail needs work if you're aiming for a high-difficulty story Pokémon like Gastly!


Character Count:
I counted 33,287, but either way, the character count is just above the minimum of 30,000 characters recommended for a Complex catch. Nice job!


Overall:
I truly hope I haven't come across as overly harsh. I tried to be clear about what needs improvement for this story to be a Complex-ranked story, and give examples of how to improve it, but the criticism doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading!

It was a fun read and made me curious about Francois's saga. I'd love to know what happened to make him quit for three years after losing to the Champion, and where are his Pokémon from that time?

That said, I think a Complex Pokémon was a very ambitious thing to go for with your first URPG story, and you may have bitten off more than you can chew... I might suggest changing the target of your catch to one or two of the other Pokémon that appear, such as Klefki (a Hard catch) and Floette (another Hard catch).

You can always update the story and try again for the Complex catch, but definitely check out the definition of the Complex difficulty in the "Basics" section of the writing encyclopedia!

"Complex – As the name implies, things get difficult here. Improved storyline and description is a must for captures at this level, and the 30-40 K needed can be quite challenging. Stories at this level and above take time and patience, so don’t try to pump something out for this category all at once."

Result:
Gastly: Not Caught.

Feel free to edit, and ask for a re-grade whenever you feel ready! Hopefully my recommendations above will help you catch something, Gastly or otherwise.

 

Wow thank you! I might go for Klefki and a Ghastly considering that the level of detail required of complex stories will pump out plenty of characters. I'll probably add some some backstory of Francois... This is kind of in the middle of his second Kalos adventure. It was supposed to be rather episodic rather than a continuous novel. But heck, I can turn it into one.

Somehow omitted to say 'In his last battle against alain...He was having flashbacks. I'll clarify.

the Alain I'm referring to is Ash's rival in the anime. I'll alert you when I revise.

 

for some reason the italics didn't paste.
Character count: ~77.9k
Pokemon I want to catch: Kelfki and Gastly
~~~~~

Chapter 1: Clemont’s Defeat and The Path to Valerie​

It was an intensely and fiery match. Francois was breathing heavily on the battlefield. He was certainly not going to be let down by Clemont. This was his second battle against the electric-type gym leader, not because he failed at receiving his badge, but because three years ago he lost to the champion Alain. After Team Flare’s attempt at harnessing Zygarde’s energy failed miserably and Kalos healed it was Alain took a year or two to help out Professor Sycamore tend to the lab. However, Sycamore could not keep Alain long and rocketed his way through the league, smashing through the elite four, and finally Diantha, the previous reigning Champion. It was then a new challenger rose up from seemingly nowhere in Santalune City, and made it to Alain, Kalos’s new Champion. It was a fearsome match indeed, where a battered Bisharp with noticeable scratches and bruises, barely holding on, ran against a weakened Chandelure. His chandelier ghost had very little health near the end, with its cyan flame almost petered out. Chandelure had a choice scarf on preventing Francois from setting up, and Alain had predicted it. Due the the Bisharp’s Assault vest, it had taken its flamethrower. When everyone thought it fainted it rose up. Knowing that Bisharp had a sucker punch Francois gasped as he commanded Chandelure to use another flamethrower. Alain was smart and quickly commanded a sucker punch. Just as the Chandelier’s cyan flame grew larger, Bisharp at a moment’s notice quickly propelled itself straight at the ghost. And in a moment’s flash a quick, dark shadow ripped across the ghost, causing it to spin out of control, the blue flame swirling and poofed out. Chandelure fell to the ground, knocked out as the injured Bisharp’s shadow swiftly returned to its side of the battlefield. It was panting and standing on one knee, but firmly alive. That was the moment everything changed in Francois’s life. All of that effort, love, and dedication, wasted. The challenger was defeated as Alain grimaced as he recalled his Bisharp back into the pokeball.

Shoving that memory out of his head, he reaffirmed himself that today would be no different. His Combusken, though a bit tired was speedy and powerful, having done several bulk ups with a speed boost active, was even faster than Clemont’s Heliolisk. Clemont tried to get his Magnemite to paralyze Combusken with a Thunder Wave, but he avoided it by having Combusken double kick the dirt around it, causing the crippling electrical current to be dispersed. This allowed Combusken to tighten its muscles and glow temporarily red to increase its attack and defense as Clemont’s frustration resulted him trying to attack. By this point on the second turn Combusken’s speed boost had activated and was now much faster than the magnet pokemon. Not risking another Thunder Wave, he ordered his Combusken to double kick the Magnemite, instantly Ko’ing it. Blaziken glowed blue as it started jogging in place for a few seconds. The blue went away and Clemont sent his next pokemon--Magneton. Magneton was no different; sure the fire chicken had to run around the stadium chasing the magnetic pokemon, but with the speed boost active it did not take a while for the double kick--two powerful kicks straight at the Magneton, each of the three Magnemites comprising it closing their eyes in pain. The force of the two quick kicks Magneton flying straight at the gym walls, and with a resound thud, crushed the concrete around it. For a second it appeared that Magneton had been indented into the wall, but a few seconds later it started to slide, heading straight for the ground. As soon as the unfortunate Magneton hit the ground, Clemont wearily recalled the unfortunate Magneton. Only one pokemon remained: Heliolisk.

Clemont fixed his glasses, speechless, and called out Heliolisk to the floor. As soon as it materialized from its ball the yellow reptilian outstretched its neck area, and screeched loudly, its forked tongue menacing. Clemont commanded Heliolisk to run around the stadium to try and confuse the boosted Combusken, now at +3 speed, the blue light that surrounded Combusken shined again for a few seconds and disappeared. Combusken let out a confident “Hyaa!” curled its fists and stomped on the ground. It was ready to take that reptile down. Francois commanded Combusken to run counterclockwise--as opposed to its clockwise motion. Dust was picked up from all around from both speedy pokemon. Clemont commanded Heliolisk to use Surf while Francois commanded Combusken to use another Double Kick. For a moment Francois gasped at the Surf. It could potentially wreck his Pupitar and Combusken! While the electric lizard was rampaging it surrounded itself in a blue light, and a rumbling was felt from underneath the gym-- water erupted from the center of the battlefield and a huge torrent and before Heliolisk could turn, jump on the water, Heliolisk’s ran into Combusken’s foot. It shut its eyes in agony, as its puny limbs flailed. Quickly, Combusken kicked its body, send it flying to the walls, instantly knocking it out on impact. The torrent of water gave out as the sound of Heliolisk hit the wall ended. It pitifully slid down the wall and onto the floor, completely out, covered in dust and pebbles. The impact zone where Heliolisk felt its demise was slightly cracked, but not completely broken like where Magneton had its fate sealed. The dust from the battlefield settled, leaving everyone covered. Clemont was baffled as how such a powerful trainer would let him used that. He took off his large glasses in on hand, revealing a noticeable clean spot around where his glasses weren’t, and Heliolisk’s pokeball in the other. He recalled the lizard and gave it a reassuring comment. Clemont turned to Francois and handed him the badge. Francois gave Clemont a stern look, turned and left the gym without a word with Combusken at his side. Combusken was dirty, its feathers were ruffled, but generally still healthy and energetic.

Finally Francois defeated that nerd Clemont a second time! He was nearly dancing in excitement! All of his pokemon were weak to fighting type moves which his trusty Combusken utterly walled after a simple double kick. They did not stand a chance. Magneton, Magnemite, and even Heliolisk all perished under his Combusken’s mighty kicks. Combusken felt its trainer;s excitement and danced along with Francois. Both made clouds of dust as the danced in place like idiots. After about thirty seconds they shook the dust off themselves and walked off. He had waited nearly three years at the Universite de Kalos to graduate since his disastrous battle against Alain and finally his dream was quickly becoming a reality. The next Lumiose conference was months away and he was perfectly on schedule to challenge the pokemon league.

“Heh.” Francois laughed to himself as he left the Lumiose gym. It was a chilly autumn afternoon and a perfect time for rest. Logically, like any trainer in Lumiose City would, he went to a very nice bar around the Magenta Plaza. There were many guests enjoying their hot French beverages, novels, or small conversations. It seemed like the best place to relax after an intense battle. Looking down at Combusken, it hopped in excitement. There he could relax just for one afternoon after a battle, just taking a moment to celebrate his recent victory. Ever since Lysandre tried to take Kalos by force the people of Kalos recovered, but were also scarred and have started taking more breaks after a long period of work to regain lost energy.

The waitress in a cute Parisian maid’s outfit asked him what to drink, and like anyone with class, he said, “Cafe-au-lait s'il-vous plaît et un pokepuff pour mon Combusken.”

By the time he received his coffee, he was relaxing in a chair next to a beautiful woman reading a novel. For a while he stared at her and quickly turned away hoping she didn’t see. He sighed and looked at his Combusken and chuckled softly to himself. When he received his coffee, he took a sip from the hot froth. The waitress had the pokepuff on a small dessert tray and kindly set it on the floor for Combusken. Combusken couldn’t contain its excitement and couldn’t keep still as the waitress placed the plate on the ground. She smiled, giggled, and left. As soon the waitress left, Combusken dove right in. Combusken loved its treat. The pokepuff appeared to be chocolate and glazed in a combination of vanilla and chocolate icing, and a maraschino cherry on top. Combusken devoured it, and when it was down sat on the ground with some crumbs around its beak. He looked down at his happy pokemon, smiled and giggled to himself. Looking up he saw the other guests happily enjoying themselves. It made him frown. He knew he had to get going, his quest to defeat Alain needed to continue. Regardless, he sighed, and took another sip of the delicious brew. The warm coffee was a perfect for a antidote for the late October chill. Just as he was about to set it down, a chilly autumnal breeze swept through his alleyway and something dark whipped by him, causing him to spill some of his coffee. The other guests appeared to not have noticed a thing.

Looking to a woman sitting at a table next to him reading a book, he asked, “Pardon moi mademoiselle, but did you see that whip of air?”

“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It was a black wisp!” Stuttering, “It was almost like a ghost!”

“I didn’t see anything! Get away from me!” She instantly turned her body away and crossed her legs and dug deeply into her novel.

He knew he saw something. He just couldn’t tell what. However, to maintain is sanity and refocus on his efforts, he finished his coffee in three large gulps, left his mug and money on the table and left. He needed to keep moving on if he is to defeat Alain. In that moment he replayed that last scene with Alain’s Bisharp finished his Chandelure off. “I can’t let that happen again,” he thought. Combusken could not stand up to Alain’s team unless it evolved. To do so Francois needed a challenge. Alain had battled Valerie in Laverre City before and knew that his next goal would be to revisit hers. He was surprised that Clemont hadn’t changed his team since the last challenge and was frankly easier. Perhaps a fairy gym will do the same. He returned to his hostel, gathered his things, left and found a store for provisions, and resupplied. When he left the store he hailed a cab which sent him off to the gate for Route 14.

Chapter 2: A Pleasant Welcome to Laverre City?​

The swamp was miserable like he remembered. The rain, the mud, the perpetually autumnal trees, and the graves sticking out of the dry areas gave him a sense of distanced familiarity and pained dread of trudging through it all. He took a deep breath and knew that this was the right to do. The mud was awful and his feet were cold and can almost feel a cold coming. Trudging through the swamp just made him feel sick. The gasses that smelled like rotten eggs that occasionally gurgled and burped from the gooey water didn’t help, either. The sounds of bugs constantly played in the background. How could anything live in this dump? In the setting sun, the route grew dark and creepy. Luckily he wasn’t caught in the rain as usual. The trainers were a piece of cake. Ripped through them all without problems. With the combination of Noivern, Combusken, and Pupitar, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle. By nightfall he found dry area to set up camp. It was perfect: right on the edge of the woods with easy access through the bog. The following day the ride was just as smooth. No problem.

When he finally reached Laverre City, he was ecstatic. Finally he can properly challenge someone interesting. He headed straight for the mushroom-covered pokemon gym disguised as a tree. He was already imagining the smile on his face when he receives the fairy badge a second time. However, just as he approached the door another huge gust of wind ripped through the town. This time it was stronger than the one in Lumiose, catching Francois off guard.

“Could it be the same…? No…” he thought.

He walked in the gym dismissing what had just transpired. The gym, with its careful Sinnohese gardening and beautiful women wearing elegant and innovative designs by the gym leader always had a special charm to it. Kalos has had a rich tradition and obsessive interest in the regions far away. Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, but it seems that Sinnoh had captured the charm of what is considered exotic here in Kalos yet perfectly expected there. . The styles of kimonos matched each wearer perfectly as if the designer knew herself, her client, and pokemon equally well. He imagined Valerie with her large bug eyes and grace presence walking in a garden showered in cherry blossom petals. He was baffled at how one could be so good at battling and be so beautiful. Nevertheless he shook himself out of that fantasy and approached one of the ladies in a kimono dress with a Ludicolo pattern at the front desk.

“Pardon moi, but I am Francois Moreau and I am here to challenge the leader, Valerie, again. I have one this gym before but lost to Alain during the Champion battle. I have come back to receive a badge so I can be one step closer to my goal!”

The receptionist looked up at Francois smiling. Her smile dropped for a moment, and returned as soon as Francois stopped talking.

“Right. Well normally this gym gives out badges once to trainers and only once. However, you did make it to the qualifying rounds of the Pokemon League several years ago and nearly became Champion. We will let you battle, but be warned we’ll make sure you earn it.”

Francois gasped at that comment, “What did she mean I had to earn it?”

She continued, “We can schedule you in for a battle tomorrow so we can make the necessary arrangements. Have a good day sir, and we hope to see you then!”

Francois sighed, “Fine.”

Giggling with a smile, “Please take some time to explore Laverre City in more depth. It has a great wealth of surprises. In particular, there is an old man who loves ghosts and knows a secret about them to the south here somewhere on Route 14. You could also visit the Pokeball factory to the north of the town.”

“Merci, I must be going.”

“Bonne chance!”

After walking outside and breathing in the fresh air of Laverre City made Francois strangely happy. For a moment life was forcing him to stop. And for a moment he did. There was always something charming about autumn and the town looked like a hidden grotto straight from a fairy tale. The bright red and white polka dotted mushrooms, the vine-covered homes, and the autumnal trees made it feel like he was whisked away from reality. It was so appropriate to place the fairy gym here. He decided to take a walk and collect his thoughts.

The town was peaceful; it seemed as if nothing ever goes wrong here. Just a quiet town tucked away at the northern tip of Kalos. The people here were calm, at least they seemed to be, unlike in Lumiose City where virtually every citizen is apprehensive about the potentiality of Team Flare returning for wreak havoc again. Laverre was never the scene of any trouble during the crisis. It was Geosenge Town that suffered the most. At least Lumiose repaired itself; what was left of Geosenge Town was abandoned. Trainers are still required to go through the ruins of the town since some rare pokemon like Hawlucha can be found, but other than that, it is empty. As Francois continued walking north he closed his eyes listened to the sound of his feet hitting the pavement, walking over the occasional dead leaf and hearing it’s crunch gave him some joy. Everything about this city screamed pleasant living. He continued walking for another thirty minutes thinking about the state of Kalos and as he rounded a corner, he stopped wanting to take a huge break thin. He breathed in heavily and grimace, abruptly ending his pleasure when he smelled the air grow slightly more caustic and sulfuric, rather than crisp and autumnal. Dead leaves of course swirled in the air around him but it suddenly got acidic. He snapped out of thought and realized he had wandered over to the Pokeball Factory! The concrete stairs leading up to it were slightly covered in colorful detritus, looking rather interesting. He never knew factories could look beautiful? The factory appeared to old, made of bricks, yet somehow new and interesting. It was a large facility, being one of the region’s and if not the world’s top producer in the tools that literally every trainer on Earth has. Was it the chrome roof or glass sliding doors? He didn’t know, but honestly he wanted to go to the park and lay on some grass. He turned around, and walked deeper into the city.

He was thoroughly impressed with the facility but wanted to go to the park to let his pokemon out and play. In addition, he remembered that on his previous run through Kalos he had taken a tour through the factory. It was impressive. The tour was a brief one, the standard if he remembered correctly. He say the assembly lines, the spray paint machine, the collector, all of the conveyor belts zipping and whirring throughout the facility all these images came back as vivid memories. Luckily after about 15 minutes the air grew less caustic and breathing became less of a pain. It was getting late and he knew he needed to find the park soon or else miss out before it closed for the afternoon.

An hour or so passed and finally found the park! Who knew it was only six blocks away from the pokemon gym!? Shaking off his silliness, he wandered into the park and walked to the crest of one of the many small bridges over ponds in the park. He let all three of his pokemon out and ordered them to run around, which they all happily agreed to, and he leaned on the bridge. Since Pupitar couldn’t walk, he leaned against the rails with his trainer while Noivern and Combusken ran off and played in some nearby grass at the pond’s edge and in Francois’s view. He clasped the cold, metal railing and leaned forward, looking down at the pond. He then moved his vision over to his Pupitar leaning against the rail. He asked Pupitar if dreams ever do come a reality. Getting this far did not nearly have as much of an impact on him as great as the first time around Kalos. Was he getting too old or what? Was it time to finally give in and accept that he will never be Kalos champion? Pupitar sat staring out at Noivern and Combusken playing, wishing he could have fun with them.

A few seconds passed and he lifted his head up, looking out to his playing pokemon, and reaffirmed to himself, no, he is not too old and, no, he must be the Kalos champion with his pokemon at his side. The pokemon of his previous team fell short, but he needed to start over. It was the right thing to do, even if it meant losing friends in the process. They’re still in storage and can call upon their help at any moment, but he needed to learn to be a better trainer.

A screech from Noivern broke Francois’s train of thought. Another large gust of wind swept through the park, rustling the leaves grass and water, this time sending a large umbrella heading straight for Noivern. Without a moment’s notice, Francois called out to Noivern to dodge the incoming object. After that a giant shadow quickly swam through the pond and disappeared without a trace. It left a trail of rippled behind. Combusken was fine. The umbrella missed Combusken but did not have a chance to help Noivern out.

“Again!?” He thought. This is getting scary. He checked his watch and noticed it was getting late needed to check in his hostel anyway. If he was going to defeat Valerie the next day, he’ll need all of the energy he can possibly get.

Chapter 3: The Battle Against Valerie!​

It was 10:42 a.m. the next day as Francois grinned as he eyed down Valerie across the battlefield. Her grace was menacing but confident. It was your standard battlefield, with your standard sized stadium filled with dirt and the standard white lines trailed the perimeter and filled the center with an outline of a pokeball. The stadium was inside with no windows and there was a metal grate surrounded by white neon lights under the floor, giving off a space-like feel to the arena. Looked super-hi tech yet somehow transported you into another reality.

“As a returning trainer, I’ll let you go first” said Valerie confidently, smiling as she looked at her competitor. He large buggish black eyes glistened as she awaited Francois’s first choice in pokemon. He hands were clasped to here pokeball, obscured by her pink kimono.

“Great. Then, Combusken, I choose you!” He threw Combusken’s ball out, opening mid air and releasing a white stream of plasma which collected in the pokemon’s shape on the ground and materialized. Combusken flexed its arms and let out it’s cry. It was ready for battling.

“Klefki, I choose you!” And in one graceful movement of her arm and body the ball released a tiny, floating key ring that was jingling with excitement. It’s little face smiled as it was moving up and down, jingling its many keys. It rolled in place, and calmed down, floating slowly up and down in place.

Francois felt a jolt of nervousness, and thought, “Klekfi!? The last pokemon league battle I fought a Klefki was with Wikstrom! It shouldn’t have prankster!”

“Alright Combusken, bulk up!”

“Com--!”

“Klefki, be a darling and please use thunder wave.”

The little keychain jingled in approval, and it went first, spinning and and spinning faster generating sparks, as it continued spiraling faster electric zaps emerged from the key chain. Francois tried to get Combusken to do the same with Clemont but the little thing was much too fast, hitting and paralyzing Combusken. The fire chicken’s muscles were twitching as it fell to one knee. “No! That can’t be!” The initial shock of the paralysis prevented Combusken from moving and performing its command. The Klefki slowed down and stopped as soon as it paralyzed Combusken. It continued to happily float and jingle while the fire chicken was suffering. The sentient key chain floated back to Valerie’s side and spoke rather sternly,

“I only reserve my greatest pokemon for the strongest of trainers. If you cannot defeat Klefki, then how can you outsmart a fairy, or even outsmart the Champion?”

“Gr…” Francois growled, “I guess we have to play it the hard way. Combusken, use Flare Blitz!”

“Kelfki, quickly set up a reflect!”

Klefki quickly floated back to the battlefield and spun again, this time producing a pink and blue light that formed a glittering bubble around it. After the bubble was about three times its size, it quickly slowed down and ground to halt. The bubble followed Klefki as it floated gently up and down. Combusken, could not do anything to prevent the keychain from setting up the reflect as its paralysis made it too slow. However, it did pull it’s strength together, twitching less frequently, go up on two feet, scratched the ground with its clawed feet, took a hard look at that Klefki, started glowing red, it bend down ready to spring forward and a fire erupted from its behind, running and and jumping directly at the fairy. Combusken hit the little keychain square in a wallop of fire. Valerie gasped and Francois fisted his right hand in excitement. It was difficult to tell due to the massive outburst of raw flames, but when the flames, dust, and smoke settled, it shown that Combusken was at the wall near the neon lights fairly battered with some of its feathers burnt holding on to the Klefki whose reflect bubble was not about the same size as itself. The Klefki struggled to get loose, but managed to pry itself free. Combusken got back up, but it struggled due to its recoil and paralysis. It seemed to be in pain, but was strong enough to take plenty of hits. The Klefki took some damage but not nearly enough was done for Francois to be satisfied. Francois unfisted his hand and commanded Combusken to use another Flare Blitz. When Combusken regained its footing after the attack, Valerie ordered it to use Dazzling Gleam. This time, the keychain turned white and the neon lights around the stadium doubled in intensity. Francois had to shield his vision from the light, and Combusken was too slow to hide. About six sparks of white light flashed from its body, giving Francois many painful memories of his battle with Wikstrom three or four years ago. It hurt Combusken a lot, however, after the light show, given that those moves are normally effective against it. Combusken was left a little dizzy, swaying a few times, but quickly regained focus as it firmly planted its feet on the ground and shook its head and glowed read again. Combusken could feel the presence of the Klefki as it dug its foot in the ground, preparing itself for the fiery pounce.

Overcoming its paralysis, Combusken jumped off in a fire-boosted rage engulfing itself and the Klefit in powerful flames. It seemed to be a bit stronger than before as it gave off greater light. The room flashed red and the smell of burning feathers wafted powerfully through the battlefield. Another cloud of dust and smoke filled the stadium and settled. While it did hit the Klefki, this time Combusken was quare on the floor face down. Hurt even more than the last with some feathers charred. The keychain looked like it was beginning to be in peril. Its pearly silver keyring was starting to darken with noticeable scratch marks. It didn’t look quite as charming as before and must be very hot to the touch. It’s pink and blue reflect bubble still held. Combusken was on Valerie’s half of the stadium. Just before Francois was going to call Combusken back, he saw it slowly and painfully move and pick itself pack up, claws feeling the rough, cool dirt. The Combusken wanted victory and he wasn’t going to stop at anything. Upon standing up, he jumped into fighting position, grated his foot along the ground and let out a cry. Sparks were flying from the condition but it didn’t care.

Valerie commanded another Dazzling Gleam from Klefki to its jingling of approval. Once again, the intensity of the lighting around doubled and the five blasts of white, fairy light strobed. Combusken took another showering of light and was noticeably hurt, it was panting and appeared it could take the recoil of one more flare blitz. The one more Blitz should be enough. I don’t know how much more Combusken can take!, thought Francois. However, Combusken was angry and it wanted to fight. Never before had Combusken had to work this hard to take down a foe, and the fighter chicken liked it. This was the one to do it all: underperform and lose. It bend down ready to pounce, glowed bright red and propelled itself to the keychain fairy. The wash of flames, dust, and smoke was greater than before. Combusken launched itself into the and landed, holding the Klefki, on the opposite of the battlefield, rolling down to its trainer. It let go of the fairy and it floated back to its side. Combusken rolled to its side facing Valerie and slowly but surely picked it up a gain. At this point were very hurt and were about to faint; whoever would attack first would knock out. Combusken was dirty, scratched up, and had more burnt feathers and Klefki was blacker and more banged up, its protect still active. Its floating became noticeably slower which was a sign that it was about to faint. However, Combusken couldn’t move, as a shock from the paralysis caused it to fall on one knee and let out a cry of pain, granting an opportunity for the Klefki, under its trainer's orders, gave another shower of white light that knocked it out cold. Combusken tasted the cold, tasteless dirt of defeat in its life. Combusken did not know what felt worse: its physical pain or the pain of defeat.

Astonished, Francois returned Combusken back into its pokeball. His specially bred Combusken, failed, with the paralysis, its speed boost ability was rendered useless. To his pokeball, “I’ve never seen such resilience and determination. You deserve a rest Combusken.”

With only Noivern’s ineptness against fairy types and Pupitar’s lackluster special defense, he knew that if Valerie broke through Combusken, then it would be over. Fearing paralysis, he sent out Pupitar knowing that it was immune to Klefki’s Thunder Wave. Klefki looked nearly fainted, so if Klefki knew a Steel type move, Francois would be in trouble. However, with the Dazzling Gleam, he figured Noivern would take greater damage if Kleki had Prankster. Being steel and fairy will take little, if not any from Noivern. He placed Combusken’s ball back on it’s belt and grabbed his next ball. He threw it and out came Pupitar. He landed upright, pumped and ready to battle. He sent out a muffled cry, eyes set on the burnt and scratched floating keying hiding behind a veil of psychic protection. Francois knew that Pupitar couldn’t do much, but it was all he had. It was fairly weakened perhaps just a Rock Slide would be enough? He was distraught enough already from Combusken’s embarrassing defeat, but what else, ...forfeit? No. He’d rather lose with honor than quit.

He ordered Pupitar to use Rock Slide on the keychain pokemon. His Pupitar did not know earthquake at the time, and had to pay the price. Valerie commanded her Klefki to use Mirror Shot, and due to Klefki’s speed, went first, rotating back and forth fast and faster, turning white, and eventually a white sphere of pure light energy form formed in front of the floating Klefki. After three seconds, the light ball raised over Klefki, directed it magically onto its exterior and ricoheted left and right around the gym, finally landing on Pupitar sitting like a duck, pummelling Pupitar in metallic light. He fell on the ground on it’s side, noticeably angry and hurt. Cracks were went up and down his shell, but managed to squirm in the dirt eventually able to change his weight and hoist himself up. One half of Pupitar was completely covered in dirt and the the other: a few cracks. Francois knew letting him take another would be incredibly risky. However, Pupitar jumped up and the gym rumbulled. Pupitar’s eye’s glowed blue, started humming its cry until it creamed as loud as it could, the gym started rumbling, the lights flickering, and then several rocks, some the were large like size of tables or people, to the size of offee mugs, to even smaller like pebbles shot out of the ground, leaving an incredible trails of dust behind. Francois and Valerie had to hold on their stances and cover their faces with their arms to keep the dust out. Klefki was unaffected due to it floating. The rocks gathered in the space above Klefki for a moment and before it could react, Pupitar’s eyes turned back to normal and the rocks fell directly on Klefki, burying it. It caused a massive cloud of dust from the rocks to envelop everything. When the dust settled, it appeared that for a while the piles of debris looked motionless but the little Keychain’s pink-and blue reflect managed to keep it from receiving too much damage. Very slowly it floated out of the rocks very slowly, much to Francois’s surprise. The Klefki was at its wits end, though still able to fight. What was once a beautiful keyring now looks blackened, scratched, and bent. Francois could not believe the persistence of this evil, little creature. Valerie commanded the weakened Klefki to use another mirror shot. The fairy waved back and forth, while Putpitar clasped its eyes, shuddering, the light ball was made and dropped, shooting across the metallic surfaces of the gym walls leaving a white trail behind. It bounced for a good fifteen seconds, finally hitting pupitar so hard, it became airborne. Being a rock, it fell and rolled on the floor, leaving a noticeable indentation in the dirt behind him. Pupitar was covered in dirt, bt it didn’t mind. It didn’t bother getting back up this time. It was barely holding on, and so much so Francois commanded Pupitar to do one more Rock Slide. Pupitar, on the floor, miserably in pain, sucked it in and its eyes turned blue. The pile of debris that befell on Klefki started to pick up again. This time the injured Klefki tried to run away from the rocks, but Pupitar wouldn’t let that happen. Eventually the Klefki succumbed to its own weakness, falling to the ground, giving Pupitar to finally KO that damn piece of sentient metal. The rocks fell like rain on it, using their momentum form following the Klefki, as Pupitar’s eyes returned to normal. Valerie returned it immediately as soon and the chain fell to the ground, knocked out.

As Pupitar saw Valerie finally send back that Klefi, it couldn’t help but smile. Francois saw it and knew what valliant job it did. Francois and Valerie were covered in dirt as well. Valerie’s kimono covered in the brown dirt gave Francois a subtle sense of reassurance that this battle wasn’t over.

“Finally!” Francois thought!

“My, my what brilliant teamwork and luck you have. However, the battle isn’t over as it is a 3v3 match. For my next pokemon, I send out, you, Azumarill!”

With a gracious throw, out from its pokeball came an adorable water rabbit. Valerie had sealed Francois’s fate.

“For your first move Zumi, use Aqua Jet!”

“WHAT!?” Francois thought with a face of utter disbelief as he tried to process what was happening. At least the Protect petered out because the magic bubble reached the maximum time allowed for the bubble to stay. “At least I can attack it now,” he thought. Azumarill would be too fast anyway for him to do anything that could save Pupitar. A flash of water headed straight for the weakened Pupitar, knocking out the hard shell pokemon cold. Sending it rolling back to Francois, knocking him over in the process.The Azumarill returned back its side of the stadium unaffected and received a big hug from Valerie. It returned flexing its rodent-ty muscles. Francois tried with all his might to push off his fainted pupitar, now covered in mud. In fact, there was a very significant streak of mud in the battlefield where Azumarill jetted. He struggled to find its pokeball, and when he did immediately sending the hunk of sentient rock back into its ball, letting him move. Francois had to stretch before sending out the next pokemon. That Pupitar was just too heavy! Regardless, he got out Noivern’s pokeball and summoned his dragon. How could this happen!? For the first time in his life Francois was chewed up, rolled into a ball, and cast aside! He thought, “What is happening!?” Being a dragon, Noivern was at an extreme disadvantage but it was his last remaining pokemon. It didn’t mind seeing the presence of that water rabbit-mouse-thing. In fact as it perched on the ground, it let out a confident battle cry. Luckily he was faster and had just learned Air Slash. Noivern let out another cry and shot up and swirled close to, but high above the Azumarill. It was confused as it watched it swirl and with a mighty swing of its wing, sent a visible stream of condensed air straight at Azumarill. Noivern flew back to Francois’s side sitting idly in the air. The Azumarill went off balance for a little while but regained its footing. There were some scratches on him and had ruffled fur, it looked angrier than cute. Valerie, giggling confidently, commanded Azumarill to use belly drum. It glowed blued, violently danced by hopping from one foot to the other, slapping its belly constantly. For those who didn’t know its effect to maximize its attack stat, it would look like it needs to be placed in a pokemon mental house. After the self beating happened for half a minute or so, and Azumarill stopped glowing, the bruises on itself reflected the intense violence it put itself though. Though its rabbity muscles were bulging beyond belief. This sent a shiver down Francois’s back. Being confident, he ordered another air slash. This time Noivern flew up quickly and with a powerful swing of his wing sent another air slash careening straight at Azumarill. The compressed air cracked through the air as it careened towards Azumarill, knowing it square off its fee like a bowling pin. For a few seconds it appeared that it fainted and then ever so slowly got back on on its feet, breathing heavily with a serious expression in its beady eyes. Francois braced himself waiting for Valerie to command her obscenely buff water rabbit. The time came when she said, “Azumarill, play rough.”

Chapter 4: The Terror on Route 14​

Horribly ashamed at what had transpired in the gym, Francois ran for the Pokemon Center. Never before had his pokemon been so easily defeated! Combusken’s strongest attacks, Pupitar’s luck and Noivern’s type just could break through!How could this happen? The day seemed to ignore Francois’s current mood, as raced to the Pokemon Center. It was late October and absolutely crisp and gorgeous. It was mid afternoon and Francois had literally the whole day at him to relax after what was supposed to be a celebratory day. He even made reservations at a restaurant to celebrate, and he would have to call it off! How embarrassing!

As he sat down at the reception room, he felt a wash if tiredness come over him. He was tired, hungry, and angry. The happy and cute pokemon center music was especially grating to his bad move. He sat stewing in thought with his arms crossed. A few others viewed strangely, mostly because he was covered in dirt and mud from the battle and has several bruises from when his Pupitar involuntarily rolled, fainted on him. Luckily there weren’t any bones broken. He knew he was missing something. If Combusken wouldn’t have been paralyzed, then it would have been able to bulk up and dish out the right amount of damage to KO it. But if had a Blaziken, then he would be able to dish out the appropriate damage. He just needed something for that Azumarill. Perhaps a fast poison type.

It was that moment it clicked! He remembered what the receptionist told him about the manor on Route 14! What if there was a Gastly, Haunter, or Gengar!? Those pokemon are famous in Kanto, and surprisingly they’re found here in Kalso, as well! He had to get one. He found a Sludge Wave on route 13 at the Power Plant and has been meaning to use it! That Azumarill wouldn’t stand a chance, though it’ll need to be prevented from using Thunder Wave, so that’s it! He’ll have to teach it thunder wave as well! He uncrossed his arms and started jogging while sitting in excitement. Onlookers looked him like he was insane. He took a deep breath, got back up, found a magazine on a nearby table, sat back down, sighed, and waited for his pokemon to heal.

Later that day, after Francois received his pokemon healed and called in the restaurant to cancel his reservation, finally Francois rushed back into Kalos Route 14 hellbent on catching a pokemon that would aid in in his battle. It was late afternoon when he arrived at the gates to the bog, Francois knew that is was quick. Regardless, he needed was on a mission and that mission was to catch some sort of poison type on his team. Luckily for him the bog was filled with them. However your average Skorupi was worthless; he wasn’t a classless, filthy member of Team Flare. He researched the encounter rate for a Haunter on this route via his cell phone and from what he read, they appeared to be fairly common. Though, who would take the time to figure out these percentages anyway?

As he drudged through the mire, time and time again kept encountering Skorupi after Skorupi. It was if he was giving off pheromones for them to come and join his team. There seemed to no trace of these common Haunters anywhere. He checked the time on his phone and hours had passed. He didn’t have to see because the sky was growing orange. Unfortunately his battery on his cell phone was going low. He thought for a moment to turn around and head back, or keep pursuing the bog? He brought along camping gear and dinner in the event that he needed to stay overnight. Therefore, Francois decided to keep searching through the thick, slimy swamp.The trainers there on the route were a snap. His Combusken, Pupitar, and Noivern trashed the competition. How could anyone defeat such a worthy combination of pokemon? So far Valerie was his first lost on his rebooted Kalos adventure. Francois had lost only a very few battles in his life, some of which have been the most important. That still doesn’t stop him from being the very best. After nearly tripping on some submerged roots, Francois had reached a tipping point with his frustration. He needed a break.

Francois approached a dry spot coming out the bog. It looked fresh and clean, and most importantly, dry. He decided to set up camp for the night. It would be sometime before he could get a chance to capture one anyway. They are very powerful pokemon, so it makes that these ghosts are rare.

Time passed and as he sat down on a mat with soup he prepared for dinner, he thought to himself of all the mysterious stories that have happened in the rain at night, about the countless people being trapped in a spooky manor that seemed to come out of nowhere. The warmth of stew warmed his hand has held the bowl giving a savory aroma. Surely it was a fable, but what if it was true? And if so, he’d imagine it would be the perfect place to where a ghost like Haunter or Ghastly might hide. Ambition drove him to toss his stew aside, grab a flashlight, as it was dark, and head out before the night grew later. He reached into his pocket and noticed that his phone died! He forgot to charge it before leaving! Sighing, he put it back in his pocket. He had no other means of telling time, as he did not predict he would be out this late. At this point the dusk had set and it was the early nighttime, granting Francois a long time for the ghosts to come out.

After about half an hour the sky clouded up. There was nothing special: perhaps a Wooper or whatnot. He did not care for them. Another hour passed and he was still trudging through the knee-deep mire. The clouds grew heavier and rain started to drip. As soon as the first drop fell on him, he felt a rush of excitement. But as he was in an emotional high, he heard a rustling in the trees beyond what was natural to hear in the bog, the gust of wind like Noivern’s air slash shot through the bog, splashing some water on Francois. Then a black shadow followed the air current, ripping past Francois, splashing more cold, dirty swamp water onto him. After the initial burst the water settled and the shadow disappeared without a trace. Francois’s flashlight burnt out.

Knowing that he would get sick from standing in the bog water too long would get him sick, he left the mire and decided to wander in the surrounding forest. Perhaps he could find his ghost there? The crunch the detritus on the ground was always pleasing to Francois, even if he couldn’t particularly see what was around him. The occasional drip turned to a slight drizzle. The sound the rain pattering on the fallen leaves was somewhat relaxing. It was colder now. He should have brought his jacket. It had not rained long enough for the forest floor to get muddy, yet. He jumped, hearing an abnormal rustle in trees followed by that same gust of wind. It was coming from behind, rustling his hair and sending an icy chill down Francois’s back. He turned around to see what had been following. In a small clearing behind two bushes was a dark area with one giant, red menacing eye hovering above and behind.

He asked nervously, “Who is it?” At this point Francois was utter terrified. The air felt colder he was trembling, not knowing what to anticipate. What was happening? Was this is his fate? Getting lost in the woods and taken forever by a menacing ghost? Most scare tactics from ghosts tend to be harmless, but ambushing someone lost in the woods was low, even for a ghost pokemon. He tried to think positively about the situation. Perhaps whatever was following him would materialize...

No reply.

Out from from the clearing came a burning sound, a small blue light emerged and a blue fireball was shot straight at Francois. The flame appeared to be a Will-O-Wisp. Francois only had time to cover his head but the flame hit his body. He bent over tightly hugging his body with a very pained expression. Why was he being attacked!? Was this some cruel Halloween prank!? An unfamiliar, hollow growling emanated from the blackness of the woods where the flame originated. Soon after the howling stopped the bushes were toppled, roots emerged from the bushes, and a human-sized tree slowly walked out, using its roots for feet, crawling like a spider’s legs. It was a Trevenant. Before Francois could react, the Trevenant held out its branch-like arms in front of him and from the shadows around, out came tiny black, semi-translucent, almost opaque balls the size of golf balls coming in from many places, all gathering to form one larger black, opaque, rotating ball with purple sparks about the size of a basketball floating in the center between its outstretched arms. Perhaps it was the Trevenant that took the power from his flashlight. Trevenant quickly stretched its arms to its sides and the the shadow ball shot directly at Francois as if it was propelled from an invisible string shot, knocking him down like Noivern knocked Azumarill down in the gym battle against Valerie. This time, however, the receiver blacked out.

Chapter 5: Saving A Florges in Distress​

A few hours passed and he finally aoke. He was sprawled out on the ground, breathing in the grassy forest floor. The ground was slick and damp. There were some leaves on the ground just ahead of him and oh was he cold. The gentle rain was soothing on his burn. He realized he was in a part of the route he was unfamiliar to him, if he was even on the same route at all! He had a had a crippling headache that left Francois’s recollection over what had happened foggy. He remembered, fuzzily, that the Trevenant attack him, but did recall anything else that could be of use at the present moment. At least he knew that he needed to find the spooky manor. Why would the Trevenant attack him? Did he do something to disturb the forest? Nevertheless, he picked himself back up, slowly, but determined. The burn and the headache made his muscles sore. He stretched a little; it eased the pain of his headache, but his burn seared. When he took off he noticed that the forest was strange. Other parts seemed to repeat. He didn’t think he was on Route 14. The last time he seen this trickery in the woods was when he first walked through Route 20 before challenging the Pokemon League. Nighttime made everything more difficult. He called out Combusken and asked him to light his path. At least his pokemon helped. He called out his Noivern and asked him to echolocate anything that might help him find his way and Noivern dutifully flew off in the dark.

Moments passed without a stir and Noivern came back flying, cawing about the way to something important. Francois figured that was his best lead and followed. A few minutes passed and the trees and the path looked exactly like any other. Soon, out in the distance did he see a silhouette of a large house, perhaps a mansion? He could see the yellow lights emanating from the windows inside. Could it be the mansion that was rumored only to appear in the rain!? Before he could make a dash for it, another blue wisp attacked his Noivern from the right, forcing both Noivern and Francois to stop. Noivern let out a cry of pain and perched on the ground, tending to its burnt wing. There was a large charred gray patch on its right wing. It looked excruciating. The same Trevenant emerged from the woods. It looked angrier than ever.

Francois was frustrated, cold, hurt, and tired. He had enough, “Trevenant, come here and fight my Noivern! Let’s end this now!”

The ghost growled loudly in agreement and tightened its fists, bracing for a fight.

Francois commanded, “Noivern, go! Use air slash!”

“Noi!!!!” Noivern brushed off its pain, flapped its wings, became airborne and shot at the Trevenant, zooming back and forth in front and behind the ghost. The Trevenant was too slow to keep following its trail. Quickly, when Noivern zoomed in front of the ent, it slowed, turned around and gave a mighty slash of its wing, sending a compressed, translucent wave of air careening towards Trevenant. It clenched itself as it took the blow. Noivern continued to zoom behind the ghost, but Trevenant grabbed onto Noivern’s wings, enough for it to send the bat dragon straight for a tree. The Trevenant proceeded to extend its arms in front of it and gathered golf-ball sized sized shadows, and once it quickly formed the purple and black shadow ball, moved its arm out and shot the ball directly towards Noivern’s back. Noivern fell to the ground.

“Noivern, are you alright!?”

“Noi!” Noivern picked himself up off the ground like a champ, turned to face the Trevenant, growled, and took a fighting stance.

“Noivern,” Francois commanded, “use Whirlwind!”

Noivern obeyed and went straight up, and while airborne, and with mighty flapping of its wings sent the air around Noivern blowing things away with a mighty gale. Francois quickly ran to a nearby tree so as to not get blown away. The Trevenant braced itself but covering its head with its arms and leaning forward on its root-feet. However, despite it being a ghostly tree, it couldn’t take the wind. Noivern’s Whirlwind sent the Trevenant flying. Trevenant landed in some nearby bushes. By extending its root feet and sliding it under its body, the ghostly tree managed to use its roots feet like a lever and was able to stand back up. The ent got to its feet, extended its arms and the shadowy energy started collecting. Francois quickly exclaimed, “Noivern dodge it and use another air slash!”

Noivern heard it just in time as the Trevenant sent the shadow ball hurling at the bat. Noivern barely dodged the ball of ghostly energy and dove straight for the Trevenant again, circling it and when achieved the proper distance away, turn and swung its wings, sending one more slash of air hitting straight on. The shadow hit a tree which shook it sending a shower of leaves, twigs falling down on the battlefield and some birds flying off the canopy. Luckily the tree wasn’t uprooted. Noticing that the Trevenant was off balance, Francois quickly commanded Noivern to use Dragon Pulse. Noivern obeyed. Still airborne, Noivern opened its mouth and slowly and loudly cried its name as it a pink and white ball of energy gathered in its throat. On its second syllable, the blast of draconic energy zapped out in the silhouette of a long, electric, serpent dragon, spiralling directly at the Trevenant, completely knocking it out, toppling over and rolling into some bushes. Noivern closed its mouth and let out a cry of excitement! Finally that annoying ghost was outside of their problems!

“Noivern, great job! Now let’s go to that mansion!”

Noivern agreed cheerfully, “Noi!”

Francois took Combusken’s pokeball out and summoned him. He asked the combusken to light the way. He put the shrunken pokeball back on his belt holder. Combusken breathed an ember, and thus lit the surrounding forest. That battle with the ghost sent them further back than they had anticipated. Regardless, our heroes darted off in the direction of the mansion. The fight with the Trevenant had left him and Noivern battered but still kicking. Their burns were soothed with the rain, but remnants of their pain were still felt. The house in the distance was a lot farther than they thought it was away and needed to continue running for another five minutes or so to reach it running. The rain was harder now. He was almost shivering in the cool October air. Francois commanded Noivern and Combusken to lead him to the place Noivern found. He dutifully followed his pokemon. Running now, thinking that perchance that Noivern had found the fabled Spooky house, he was just imaging the defeat of the next gym leader and the possibility of being Kalos champion getting closer.

After about three minutes of running Francois could see lights more clearly in the distance. They were almost there! Could Noivern be leading him there!? As he got closer the light grew brighter. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a large root outstretched across the open path in the forest. When he slipped he landed square on its face, embarrassed. In the process he lifted several wet, dead leaves and small twigs. But now his clothes surely were covered in mud. It took a few seconds before his pokemon realized what had happened But this it was too late, the root started to grow around Francios and pull him in. Combusken’s ember torch turned into a massive stream of fire, which due to the rain was smoking profusely. Combusken used flamethrower on the root, but due to the rain, the fire was weakened and did nothing. Francois coughed in with the smoke.

Noivern tried to slash at it, and that also did nothing to free Francois. Both Noivern and Combusken were astonished at their inability to save their trainer! The vine continued to drag Francois deeper into the woods. “HELP!!” Francois cried as he struggled. He heard the cries of both Noivern and Combusken! The vines were too strong to break free. Due to the vines his vision was going each and every way. He tried to focus his vision by clawing his fingers in the dirt, getting very muddy. Occasionally a wet leaf stuck to his hand. He couldn’t see his pokemon, either. Where were they? Francois gave up trying and let the Trevenant take him to where he wanted. At this this point resisting would waste even more valuable energy. Time passed as he was dragged through the woods. Was it ten minutes or an hour? He didn’t know. Regardless he did stop eventually to see the Trevenant at an opening of the woods in front of a large, dark cave entrance. He was still wrapped in the Trevenant’s roots. He could see that Blaziken and Combusken were also confined to the surrounding trees within the cocoon of roots, fighting to be freed.

In a desperate plea, Francois asked the monster, “Please, what do you want with me!?”

The Trevenant looked dead at him in the eye, the red double circle looked like it was sad somehow. Francois gasped a little. The ghostly tree turned to face the cave.

“Is.. is it something inside that’s bothering you?”

The Trevenant turned its mysterious head back to Francois and released him and his pokemon from their binding. He moved his roots to form a giant wall surrounding the area and stared directly into the cave, pointing at it with an arm extended. When Francois’s pokemon were freed they fell to the ground safely, stretched the took fighting positions. Francois ran over to them and told them to stop and explained to them the situation. They understood. Noivern, especially took pity on it, having battled it. Francois smiled and gave Noivern a pat on the back. It cheered him up and let a cry of joy. Francois asked Combusken to light the way as he entered. Combusken obeyed and breathed out a small, continuous ember. He told his poke The cave was long and dank, about six and a half feet tall, the walls were roughly semicircular and smelled of foul eggs. The air was caustic just as it was in the bog and around the Pokeball factory. He was surprised that Combusken’s torch didn’t accidentally light the place on fire! This was certainly connected to the bog on Route 14 he didn’t know how, exactly. While walking he thought, “It must have been that Trevenant stalking him since his victory against Clemont in Lumiose City!” He wasn’t sure. The cave appeared to be empty. Not a stir. He asked Noivern to echolocate something of interest and it flew off into the dark, scanning the interior.

A few minutes of walking in the cave resulted in Noivern screaming and flying back, flapping its wings viciously! He had seen something!

“Noivern, lead the way!”

Noivern turned around and darted off fast enough so that Combusken and Francois could follow. The cave seemed to grow narrower and narrower until it suddenly opened up to a large room shaped roughly like a dome with an underground pond inside and boulders on the floor beside the walls. There was a waterfall-like torrent entering from the ceiling! All of the water in this place appeared brown and murky and the smell of eggs grew stronger. As a precautionary measure, Francois commanded Combusken to stop lighting the way. Luckily there was enough light shining in from the source of the dirty torrent. There was an elevated little pool off to the side and shaped like a natural sink, filled with the same dirty water. He saw what he could make was a a Florges tended to a sickly Floette bathing in it. As soon as Francois moved into the main room, Florges heard Francois, Noivern, and Combusken enter from afar was startled!

Francois called out, “No, no! Don’t be afraid!” He extended his arms as a sign of peace as he walked around the pond to greet the distraught Florges. Francois’s pokemon followed. They were equally concerned about the Floette as Francois.

Upon reaching the Florges, “We’re he’re to help! A Trevenant brought me he to help!”

The Florges couldn’t believe it! The fairy seemed relieved and excited that someone has finally come to help. She picked her Floette up out of the water, holding it like a baby. Its flower umbrella still in its hand. It was napping but was very pale. Florges turned to Francois and looked down to it sadly.

Francois naively asked, “but what can I do?”

The Florges looked up pointed towards the ceiling of the aquifer. There was a torrent of smelly, brown water pouring from above in what appeared to be a metal grate. Perhaps it came from a mechanical source, like the Pokeball Factory north of Laverre City?

Francois gasped. But how to stop it!? He needed to return back to Laverre City but the Trevenant would not let him leave the cave until the problem is finished. This is a job for his pokemon, he thought! Perhaps there could be a way to collapse the grate carefully enough as to not cause a cave-in? He called out Pupitar. Not knowing Earthquake really came at an inconvenient time. Watever. Francois picked up Puptiar’s pokeball from his belt, expanded it and released to rock cocoon. The Pupitar was ready to fight and let out a muffled “Hyaa!” Francois pointed to the grate and Pupitar looked up and saw what his trainer was aiming for. He commanded Pupitar to use Rock Throw at the grate. Obeying, Pupitar let out another “Hyaa!” and its eyes turned blue. The largest boulder about Francois’s height was lifted up, causing other smaller boulders to fall back where it was. Pupitar screamed another “Hyaa!” and the boulder flew into the torrent, making quite splash getting everything wet. It didn’t matter; the boulder shot through the torrent directly at the grate lift it straight out. The pressure of the torrent made the grate fall like a lead weight, making huge splash upon falling into the pond. Pupitar’s eyes turned back to normal and the boulder fell through, making an even larger splash. Next, Francois returned Pupitar and combusken back into their pokeballs and commanded Noivern to fly him into the source the waterfall.

Noivern was excited. Francois ran up to him and mounted the bat-dragon. Once settled, Noivern took off. Despite getting wet in the disgusting water, burning his skin and clothes a little, he and Noivern managed to fly through the filth with ease and into the facility above. Inside was a small, strange room filled with machinery and a giant stream of that filthy water falling straight down into the cave. Francois wiped the gross water off himself and summoned Combusken from its pokeball and returned Noivern back to its. He asked Combusken to double kick the doors down. Combusken’s first kick horrible bend the thick steel door out of shape, but it was the fire chicken’s second kick that drove it home. It fell down as it were made of cardboard. Leaving a loud thud and a whoosh of dust as it landed. Surprisingly no alarms rang! When he left the room, he found himself at the end of a long, dark, metallic, and sterile hallway with about six or seven small, windowed, doors like the one Combusken kicked down leading to a corner going off somewhere. There was a door at the corner. Francois took a deep breath and continued with Combusken at his side. It didn’t look like what he had seen in the pokeball factory north of Laverre City. What could it be?

As he continued to walk down the hallway, he looked through the small window on each door. Were they offices? The stream of filth was present in every room, each contained in some sort of sink that extended into each room. In each of the rooms there was what appeared to be a glass covering over the tub, perhaps to keep out its corrosive smell. He wondered why the opening in the room he entered didn’t have a window on the door or a glass covering over the chute. He kept looking until he heard a, “Hey kid!” off to his right.

Caught off guard Francois looked quickly down the hallway and saw a large, muscular man about age forty in a very dark outfit. The man appeared to be wearing a black sweater, black pants, shoes and belt, and even a black beret or cap with an intense shadow covering his eyes. He had on white gloves with the finger slots ripped off. He had one pokeball on his belt. He seemed both angry and baffled and yelled, “what’re you doing here? How’d you get in?”

Francois was speechless. “Um… I… Was dragged in a cave by an angry Trevenant and I discovered that there was a massive stream of filth coming from here and I had to investigate!”

“And what fairies are real? You’re trespassing on private property!” He grabbed his pokeball from his belt, expanded it, grinned evilly, “Kid, it’s time to go. Go Krookodile! Teach this kid not to trespass!”

In a rage the man sent out a Krookodile. With Combusken at his side it was a given. It was fairly risky, but luckily he found a specially bred torchic with Speed Boost to give him some sort of edge in battle. With its fierce eyes and red body Combusken shuddered a little because the sand croc’s Intimidate ability activated. Combusken glowed red for a few seconds and returned to normal. With a deep breath, Francois commanded Combusken to Bulk Up while the man commanded Krookodile to use Mud Shot against Combusken. It get angry, and flexed its muscles. It turned red. While Combusken was bulking up, the crocodile quickly opened its long mouth, leaned back as it generated the mud, and shot a huge ball of mud straight at the fire chicken. Francois told Combusken to dodge but it was too late, by the time Combusken had returned back to normal, the mud shot exploded on impact, it made a high pitched cry, leaving it covered in mud as it fell on one knee, looking down, closing its eyes in agony, and bracing its arms.

“All right Krookodile, let’s send this kid home with another mud shot!”

Combusken was hit. Bad. However, Combusken was fighter, and Francois pleaded Combusken to stand up. It was on one knee and as it stood up, it turned white and grew. In a quick transformation, Combusken evolved into Blaziken! When Blaziken stopped glowing white it kicked the ground, outstretched its arms let a powerful battle cry! Both the man and his Krookodile were shocked at what had taken place; both had gaping mouths. Luckily Blaziken hadn’t move that turn, so Francois commanded it to use a High Jump Kick --a new move that Francois knew Blaze must have learned! With Blaziken’s speed boost, it jumped in the air and landed it’s foot square on the fat crocodile’s face, knocking it out immediately before it had a chance to attack. The man was terrified, called Krookodile back and ran off. When the battle was over, Blaziken took a few deep breaths leaning on its knees. When Blaziken caught its breath, the chicken wiped some of the mud from the Krookodile off itself.

It was fantastic now that he finally had a Blaziken! Now, however, was no time for celebration. If Francois were to get that Ghastly there’d better be some night left to catch it! Taking that as impetus, he ran down the hall all the way until he could see a large room. It appeared to be something like a large drum processing large quantities of food, or something with that same murky water going off in a conveyor belt. Whatever it was it needed to be stopped. He searched the room for anything and climbed ladders and walked across metal grates, the walls were lined with pipes and various equipment. For the sake of simplicity he ordered Blaziken to flamethrower the place to the ground. Blaziken obeyed and the entire place went up in small explosions, smoke, electrical zaps, and fire. He ran out of the room with the drum. The fire hadn’t reached it yet. As he was running through the hallway, Francois peered through the small doors and noticed that the stream of water had stopped. He ordered Blaziken back into his pokeball and ordered Noivern out. He asked Noivern to give him a lift and fly him back in the chamber with Florges.

When Francois returned back to the distressed Florges in the cavern below, he was hovering over the pond within earshot. He called our that everything should be fine now that dirty water source had been stopped. The Florges was ever so happy and waved goodbye as our hero flew on Noivern’s back out of the cave. Francois knew it would take some time for the water to be properly purified, but this was all he could do for the time being.

When Noivern finally swooped out of the cave, Francois commanded him to let him down. He did so and after Noivern landed gently, Francois got off and approached the concerned Trevenant. Francois said, “I’ve done all I can to help Florges and her Floette. I stopped the flow of the dirty water for the time being. I’ve done everything I can. May I please go now?” The Trevenant stared at Francois directly in the eye and after a few minute’s deliberation on the truth of his claim, the ghost called back its roots like retractable ropes. He could tell that the Trevenant was thankful for his help. Francois mounted his Noivern and flew straight to where they thought the mansion was from before.

Chapter 6: The Haunted Mansion​

Soon an old mansion emerged from the woods. Noivern, with Francois at its back, slowed as they approached the building. It was still raining outside and even colder. Francois was tired, beaten, hungry, and his clothes tattered, dirty and torn. When Francois and Noivern got close enough to see the doors, he told Noivern to land. He followed his trainer’s orders and approached the ground safely, allowing for Francois to dismount. It was the fabled mansion of the lore. Francois stopped in the front of this house and withdrew his pokemon. Before Francois could knock on the door, it opened and emerged a smiling old man, dressed elegantly.

“Welcome, come in you’ll feel right at home.” he said. “My butler has some nice, fresh towels for you to dry off and… oh my…” He took a whiff of Francois who now smelt like the dirty cave water and grimaced. “Please take a shower. We will provide you with a… change of clothes.”

He showed Francois up to the guest bathroom. “Do come down when you’re ready. There will be a meal awaiting.”

Time passed and the dinner was excellent. Was this the haunted mansion? Well whether or not after saving the Florges and getting attacked from the Trevenant, he needed a break. The shower and change of clothes felt heavenly. He was now wearing a nice light green button-down and some khakis. The man even provided a pair of nice brown shoes to wear! He lied down on the couch in the parlour. For just for a minute he’ll get some shut eye…

Crash! Francois immediately woke up to a sound in the distance. It was still dark outside. “What was that!? How long could this night be!? Will it ever end!?,” he thought as he got up. The lights haven’t been turned off, lamps still on, so he was left undisturbed.

“Hello…?” he called out, to no answer.

He walked around and the house was silent. “Monsieur…” No reply. “He must’ve gone to sleep.” Francois thought. Suddenly all of the the parlour’s lights shut off. “Odd,” he thought, “must be a power outage of some sort. This house is old so it isn’t unheard of that rooms can suddenly lost their power.”

He felt an overwhelming rush of tiredness drench his body. Perhaps was the time to really just go to sleep. He walked up the staircase and into the upstairs hallway. Hmm it seemed strange; it was longer than what he remembered. Could it be sleepiness or what? Couldn’t possibly be scarier than the Trevenant. Regardless, there he is walking through this hallway, walking and, thinking, “where does it end?” The floor was hardwood and creaked with every step. It didn’t help with calming his alerted state. Confused he stopped and picked a random door revealing a normal bedroom, but it wasn’t the one the monsieur showed him. When he closed the door he thought he saw some red eyes glowing in the distance to the right. “Oh no, has the Trevenant come back!?” Taking another look at what he saw shown that he seen nothing out of the ordinary. “That was bizarre. Could’ve sworn I saw something. Wow this house really is haunted. Great. More ghosts. Where is that Ghastly when I need it!?”

He continued down the hallway opening doors until he could find his. When Francois finally found it, he didn’t expect to see a Gengar sitting on his bed! As soon as the Gengar saw him, it said, “BOO!” Laughing manically as Francois gasped and quickly shut his door. “What did I get myself into!?” He was leaning against the door to his bedroom out of sheer tiredness and slid to the floor, back against the wall. He could still hear the muffled sounds of the Gengar’s evil laughter. Suddenly the floorboards grew cold and started to tremble. Before he had any time to react, the floor opened and Francois slid down a concrete slide down three floors before finally landing in a rather poorly lit room.

The room was filthy. It was covered in papers and tags with strange markings on them. Francois picked himself up and looked around. What could these mean? He put one in his pocket. Perhaps they could be of use... On a table was an old photograph of what appeared to be the monsieur. The photograph was sepia-toned, so it looked old. Francois turned the back of the picture and it read “April 1915.” As soon as he read it, he slapped it back on the table. What! “Surely that must be a relative. The man who greeted him couldn’t possibly be dead!? How silly of a thought! Haha,” Francois pressured to himself. Of course it couldn’t be a ghost. They don’t exist. Ghost-type pokemon exist, but not real ghosts. He found a journal on another table. It was dated May 1915. It read:

Dear Diary,

This house is a very special one indeed! Though I is unfortunate that I have developed this sickness. My Gengar has tried to keep me entertained while I lay ill in bed. It is the only thing that is taking care of me and I simply can only return my gratitude for its service? The poor thing wishes to play and yet I am much too weak. I hope my recovery is soon.

Francois flipped through the pages to one of the last,


August 25 1916

Dear Diary,

My sister visited the other day and gave me a stone that I have never seen before. She tells me she received it from a seeress ensuring me that it will help my companion. I have no earthly idea what it means. I showed the stone to my gengar and as soon as it saw it, ran out in the woods for days! It left me for days to take care of my illness myself. When it returned a almost a week had passed. It returned holding a small purple stone it seemed to have found. It seemed to cherish that stone and pointed to mine. When touching it, there was a mysterious energy emanating from the two stones and Gengar changed into a monster! I was terrified at what had become! However, when it was activated, it was much faster and more agile, and generally helpful despite its scary appearance. I let it stay that way. However, it soon grew out of hand and my Gengar became lonelier, sadder and sadder at my declining health. Every day it became moodier, and moodier and more violent. It would scare guests away, it would even scare me its trainer just to have some fun. Soon it started damaging the house and I, couldn’t take it any longer! I asked my sister to ask the seeress for advice and she returned with the charms to seal it away. I had the trapdoor system built so I could visit my Gengar, my friend. But now I am too bedridden and sick. I don’t know how much longer I have but I feel bad that couldn’t be there for my pokemon. He was my first partner, and I hate that he might have to be my last!

There was a door at the end of the room. He hoped it lead out but when I tried to open it, the door was sealed shut. He called Blaziken out and ordered he kick the door down. Blaziken did so with ease. However, as soon as the door busted, a shrill scream emanated from the distance! The room turned dark purple. “What have you done…….,” echoed a faint voice that sounded like the monsieur.

A translucent image of the owner appeared in front of Francois. Paralyzed and not knowing what to do, he clasped that piece of paper he found in his hand. Before long he heard a burning sound grow louder and louder yet there was no fire. The room became freezing cold and from behind the image of the host was what appeared to be a white Mega Gengar ready to attack! The ghost was ginormous! Its fiery hands lit the floor in an isolated fire with its ghostly touch. It laughed evilly. There was a voice emanating from around the room,

“Thank you for releasing me from my prison! I will now cause panic across the world…!” The Mega Gengar grew twice its size and laughed maniacally. The scariest part was its huge smile.

Francois had enough; he was angry. “Not If I can stop it!”

“Oh! And what can a boy do to stop me!???” It was still smiling and laughing.

The charm felt hot to the touch and when Francois pulled out the charm the once red ink was now glowing black. Francois figured that that these seals contained the power of these ghosts somehow so if he whittled its power down just enough…

That’s it! He commanded his newly evolved Blaziken to step up to the task! He knew this would be no easy battle knowing flamethrower, flare blitz, hi jump kick, and bulk up. Knowing that bulking up would be too much for a few shadow balls, he decided to let Blaziken go ahead and attack with Flare Blitz. Well, being a swift mega evolution, the Mega Gengar raised its lead and gathered around the little shadowy golf balls that coalesced into a larger amorphous ball took in and bent forward shooting the ball at Blaziken, making a direct hit. Like champion, Blaziken braced itself but flexing its muscles and shook off the damage, there were some scratches on him and he was breathing heavily. The shadow ball must have hurt a lot and seemed like it couldn’t take another direct hit. Regardless the firebird lit itself just like when it was a Combusken and rammed full force into the ghost. There blinding swirl of fire and dust. Francois had to cover his face with his arms. After the whirl of flames cleared, the Gengar held on just barely. Due to its speed boost, Blaziken managed to breath a very deep breath and out came an incredible stream of fire headed directly towards the ghost who was still burnt and dizzy from the flare blitz.

When Blaziken’s mighty fire ended, the Gengar was burnt and closed it’s eyes, and screamed, “Foolish human!!!”

The giant mega Gengar exclaimed as it faded out into to nothing! However one it disappeared, the room turned black. A swirling black and purple vortex emerged, trying to suck everything in. Francois gave all his remaining strength in giving his Blaziken the paper he found and asked to dive into the vortex. Blaziken followed and soon as Blaziken dropped the seal into the vortex there was a loud sucking noise, a gust of wind, a burst of dust and wind, and everything was knocked off its feet and onto the ground.

The morning light filtered through the overhead windows onto Francois who was collapsed on the basement floor belly down, face on his arms, covered in dust, and sleeping. The warmth of the light caused him to stir. He made a fist and he woke up, lifting his head to look look around. He saw that Blaziken also collapsed from the night before and noticed that Blaziken also went to sleep on the cold basement floor. But as he turned his head forward he noticed that there was something standing right in front of him, something that he had been looking for this entire time. What was meant to be a quick run the woods turned into a gruesome night of misery, that is until he saw that purple ball of gas in front of him with the huge angry eyes.

“Gas….”

Francois immediately woke Blaziken up, saying,

“Blaze, look! A Ghastly, we’ve been trying all night to find one and it is finally here! Go gently now we’ve worked too hard to capture this Ghasty!”

Blaziken responded confidently, stretching its muscles, “Blaze!”

“Ghas….?”

The Ghastly was a bit perplexed, but before it could run away Francois commanded Blaziken to use flamethrower on it! The Ghastly took the hit and nearly was knocked out! Francois took the opportunity to finally catch it using his favorite great ball. He gave a powerful throw and the ball hit the gaseous body. It turned into red plasma as it entered the pokeball. The pokeball closed and fell to the ground shaking. One… two… three…

 

Nicely done.

The degree of detail in this edited version of your story is vastly improved, and as a result the battles feel cinematic and charged with tension!

Quite a few questions I had before have been answered, especially about Francois's past and about the haunted manor, taking the Backstory/Character and Plotline elements of this story from meriting a Hard catch to a Complex one; between this and the vastly improved conflicts/battles, I now have no qualms about approving this account of Francois's journey as a successful Complex story.

I look forward to seeing you improve your skills even further in the future!

Results:
Klefki: Caught!
Gastly: Caught!

 

yus....! Thanks for you time and patience!