Spirit of Mystery Part 5

Previous: Spirit of Mystery Part 4

There was not much sleep to be had. The scare the night before got to Jena more than she would admit. She had no idea what she was in for with this Pokemon trainer, but she was stubborn, and would not leave. Whether this was to repay her debt to him, or if it was the thrill of the unknown, and the promise of adventure, she could not say for herself, but either was a good enough excuse. When she did sleep, her imagination apparently came up with the image of the voice that talked to him in the radio. It was the face of a horror that she could not describe upon waking. It talked to her then, but she could not understand a single word it said, nor did she know where she was. That was all she would recall when she opened her eyes the next morning, and heard people talking outside of her tent.

Rhys: I told you, I don't want to battle, there is a lady asleep in there, and I don't want to wake her, please lower your voice.

Trainer: Aww come on! You're the only trainer for miles from here! Lavender town is boring! Can't we just go off and have a battle away from her?

Rhys: Yeah, and leave my tent unattended? No thanks. Oh, Jena [Looked at her open her tent flap.] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you.

Jena: Nah, it's okay. [Waved at him.] I'll just go do my morning stuff. [She walked off with her toothbrush and her cup half-filled with water.]

Rhys: Alright, alright, kid. Well now we woke the lady up, and I guess it would be a waste if I didn't battle you.

Trainer: Alright! Now you're in for it! [Pulled out a Pokeball and enlarged it to normal size.] Get ready for---

The little kid trainer did his baseball pitcher move and threw the pokeball between him and Rhys.

Trainer: Meowth! [The meowth was on the field, and it licked its front paw as it exited its pokeball.

Meowth: Meowth Meowth!

Rhys: Okay, Duskull, do your thing.

The Duskull floated onto the field and faced the Meowth. The two pokemon locked eyes, Duskull with her one, glowing red eye gazing at the Meowth, and making it very hard for it to concentrate.

Trainer: Meowth! Quick attack! NOW!

Meowth: Meowth! [Zipped hither and thither across the battleground and jumped at the Duskull, passing straight through it.]

Trainer: What?!

Rhys: Duskull, astonish.

Duskull: Duskull! [Eye turned a bright blue and everything around the Meowth turned black in spectrum, bringing the Meowth into a huge world of gloom so fast that it's heart sank.]

The Meowth could do nothing more than stay there, mouth wide open, and stunned.

Trainer: Meowth! MEOWTH! Snap out of it!

Rhys: Duskull, Night Shade.

The horrors that befell the Meowth at that point could barely be reckoned in numbers. The world it lived in was shattered in a single moment, and it closed its eyes hard to keep the images out, yet they persisted. After the entire world melted away, that was when he opened his eyes once more and saw that it was all just a nightmare.

Trainer: Meowth! Bite attack! Go!

Meowth: MEOWTH! [Jumped at the Duskull and used Bite, a physical attack that dealt in Darkness, and was able to clamp onto the Duskull, causing her physical pain.]

Rhys: Hm, Confuse Ray.

Duskull's eye shined, and a beam of light went straight into Meowth's head. The Meowth's eyes began to swirl, and he was clearly off balance.

Trainer: Meowth! Go! Bite him again!

Rhys: He's a she...

Trainer: Whatever! Just do it!

The Meowth wobbled, and then fell straight onto his face, knocked completely out.

Trainer: NO! Meowth! [Went to his Meowth and picked him up.]

Rhys: Now, I believe it was 50 bucks on the battle?

Trainer: Errrr... [Cringed, as he was hoping Rhys wouldn't remember. He took 50 out of his wallet, and handed it to Rhys.] Alright, I'm gonna to the Center.

Rhys: Have a good one.

Jena: Wow, Rhys, you sure are casual about winning. [Said as she was dismantling her tent.]

Rhys: Well, yeah, battling's not really my thing.

Jena: In that case, I'll get the next battle, my Pikachu needs a good workout.

Rhys: Fine by me. [Helped her gather their things for the day's errands.]

The House of Memories, it was much smaller than he had expected. From a gigantic tower like Radio tower down to a little house like this? It seemed very strange that they could ever fit this many remains into such a small space. They must have been thoroughly cremated. The house looked something like a temple, and a very fancy one at that. When Jena and Rhys went inside, it was very dim-lit and more like a church than anything. There were many tombstones, all of them marked with several names of passed Pokemon, along with the names of their owners. All along the wall, it was more of the same, obviously they couldn't fit all of their names onto simple tombstones. There was an older man in the middle, obviously something of a holy man who was consoling a teenage girl, who had obviously lost a pokemon in recent times.

Rhys reached down to one of the tombstones and placed his hand on it, looking at the rest of them in that row.

Jena: Wow, really makes you think, doesn't it? [Started reading some of the names of the Pokemon, seeing that some of the nicknames were quite clever.]

Rhys: Hmm, yeah, sure does. [Looked over to see Duskull was uninterested in seeing the gravestones.]

The priest nodded to the little girl as she went back into the backroom, and he looked over at Rhys. That was when his eyes widened, and he stepped over toward him.

Priest: Young man, what is your name?

Rhys: My name's Rhys.

Priest: Why have you come here? [He glanced over at the girl, his look very intense and glaring.]

Rhys: I'm here looking for anything out of the ordinary, anything having to do with some of the stranger--

Priest: Young man, please, kindly leave this place. Your presence here is quite disturbing, especially for those who have recently lost a loved one.

Rhys lifted an eyebrow at the man, seeing that he was sweating some, and having a great deal of trouble maintaining his composure.

Rhys: Yeah, I think I will, thanks for your time. [Turned to leave.]

Jena looked at the priest for a moment longer, and then turned and ran to catch up with Rhys, who was walking out quite fast.

Jena: Rhys! Wait up! What was with that? That guy was a man of the church, why did you bother him so much?

Rhys: I don't know, I think maybe Duskull was a little uncalled-for in a place where they say goodbye to their late pokemon.

Jena: Umm, yeah. [She looked over at Duskull, then back at Rhys, her head tilting a little bit. She saw that he was trying more to convince himself than he was trying to convince her.]

Rhys: Anyway, what we're looking for isn't in there.

Jena: How can you be so sure?

Rhys: Because I know when something weird is going on. The only weird thing in there was me, according to our friendly neighborhood holyman.

Jena: So now what?

Rhys: Well, what do you think? [He nodded ahead, and there was the former Pokemon Tower.]

It was extremely tall, and the satellite dishes on top of it were gigantic. It was obvious that they were added far after the entire building was made. There was a nice new paint job on the bricks, and it was very busy on the inside.

Rhys: Alright, let's check it out.

As soon as Rhys put his hand on the doorhandle, he saw two, bright and glaring eyes flash in his mind's eye. Then he saw the two eyes surrounded by gigantic swarms of purple radio waves rippling out into the great abyss. As the radio waves hit him, his other hand grabbed his head and he cringed, gritting his teeth.

Jena: Rhys?! What's wrong?

Rhys: Oh... [Opened his eyes and looked at her, stern and concentrated.] This is the place.

He opened the door, and they both walked in.

Spirit of Mystery Part 6