Ghosts
by MalwareBirb404Cinder woke up earlier in the morning then she usually did, the vulpix glancing at the window and yawning. “The sun’s not even up yet…” She thought.
Cinder then looked over at the scraggy who was still fast asleep. “I swear, ever since he showed up…” The vulpix’s thoughts were soon interrupted by another yawn.
“…I’m not getting back to sleep am I…?”
After shaking her head a bit and blinking a few times, Cinder quietly got out of bed. “ I thought that was pushed all the way back of-… ” She said to herself before glancing at Crash.
“ He better not have… ” Cinder whispered to herself as she walked over to one of the cabinets, and saw that the small box underneath was sticking out in a way she didn’t remember leaving it in. The vulpix stared at the box for a short moment before placing a paw on top of it. She sighed before gently pushing it back under the cabinet. Cinder didn’t want much to do with the box or the contents within. But she could never bring herself to get rid of it.
“ We’re not starting the day off like this… ” The vulpix quietly said to herself as she could feel her eyes start to well up.
Later that morning, Cinder and Crash were sitting at a table outside a cafe near the town square. The two of them each having a plate of pancakes in front of them. And while Crash was eating his, Cinder sat and stared at hers while trying not to fall asleep.
“ When are they coming out with that chesto coffee…? ” The vulpix said to herself, somewhat loudly.
“ Yeah… You don’t look too good…” Crash said as he was chewing.
“ I don’t know, it’s almost like nearly getting killed tends to do that… ”
“I said I was sorry.” Cinder only looked up and glared at the scraggy in response. “ Well I’m saying it now… Like I was supposed to know those guys had evolved.”
“You just better keep that slingshot away this time. Or I’m burning it.”
Crash stared at the vulpix for a bit before looking down at her pancakes. “…You gonna eat that…?”
By the time Cinder and Crash got to the guild, the two found Beacon waiting for them. “You two need to come with me…” The ampharos calmly said. Cinder and Crash followed Beacon inside, and up to Vernal’s office.
As they made their way up the multiple flights of stairs, Cinder turned towards Beacon. “ This is about what happened yesterday isn’t it…? ”
The ampharos nodded. “ Well mostly… ”
“Well it all just started with helping find that bayleef who went after them… But then he asked for our help to find those guys… ” Cinder said, looking down.
“Honestly I just wanted to mess with those three for a bit. But yeah, it just kinda happened.” Crash interjected. “But I do have to admit they stepped up their game. Reeeally wasn’t expecting that… ”
The three pokemon soon made their way into the office at the top of the tree. Opening the door, they could see Vernal perched on a stand in the corner of the room, asleep.
“ Not again… ” Beacon said to himself. “Vernal! Up!”
The owl’s eyes shot open before he stared at the door. “ …You could have at least said something sooner… ” Vernal said, before gliding towards his desk. “I want to talk to you about your mission yesterday. And-”
“How many times do I have to say I didn’t know they evolved.” Crash interrupted.
“…I was going to say that we got word that the Basin Hounds may have been doing something that involved Team Raiders. Specifically Belladonna the Baneful.”
Crash immediately felt ill as his eyes widened. “I think I can feel those pancakes coming back up…”
“So I would like you to tell me what you know about Belladonna…” Vernal said before trailing off, noticing that Crash looked like he was about to throw up. “ Crash… ”
“ … I-… I-I’m… …I’m not talking about that… Succubus!… ” Crash said as he started to freeze up. “ Those eyes… she always looks like she wanted to bang or kill someone… and knowing her, most likely both… ”
“So if you’ll excuse me, me and powder keg have a job to do…” Crash said as he slowly backed away.
As he quickly turned for the door, Crash felt something pulling on the loose skin on his tail. The scraggy turned to see Cinder biting his tail to keep him from leaving. Crash groaned and reluctantly sat down.
“ Bella… She… she’s scary… But not in the same way as Scorch… Crash said as his face began to look a bit pale. “ If you ever find her… don’t breathe in the pink mist… ”
Bella and Hunter stood in the woods behind the tavern they visited the day before. “ Alright, let’s see if they showed up this time… ” The salazzle said to herself. But as she and Hunter walked closer, a blast of water flew past them and hit a nearby tree.
“Hey!” A swampert yelled. “Remember me from yesterday!”
“ And you are…? ” Bella said facetiously.
The water type growled. “Well how about I help jog your memory…” Hunter stepped in front of Bella, prepared to fight the swampert. “You know, you’re not the only one with friends.” The mud fish said as he gestured to a krookodile and a tangrowth to come to his side.
Bella stepped out from behind Hunter and crossed her arms. “Hunter, deal with those two. The fish is mine.” The garchomp smiled and nodded before lunging at the krookodile, knocking them down.
“ So you actually want to do this one on one…? ”
“Don’t mind Hunter. He’s just… protective… ” Bella responded. “But by the looks of things you clearly didn’t.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve trying to scam me like that.”
“ In my defense, I was low on poké… ” The salazzle said, trying to turn on the charm, as her hands inched ever so close to her belt.
“That’s not working a second time you slut!” The water type yelled before using hydro pump. Bella quickly jumped out of the way, landing on her side.
“ Really… Name calling…? ” Bella said, before quickly flipping over and flicking her arm towards the swampert. A whip-like flame shot out at the water type’s face, causing him to finch. The black and purple lizard then twisted her body around, spinning onto her feet. She proceeded to dash towards the swampert in a zigzag pattern, avoiding each of the back to back mud bomb attacks that he began firing at her.
As she ran closer, Bella proceeded to leap over the swampert with perfect form. Her body twisted though the air in a corkscrew fashion, almost as if she had done this several times before. When she landed, the swampert heard the sound of glass breaking and turned around. He was met with a deep purplish-pink mist clouding his vision. The mist had a potent, sickeningly sweet smell to it. The swampert began to feel ill, and could swear he was seeing double.
“ What’s wrong tough guy…? You’re not looking so good… ” Bella said as she slowly walked towards the swampert. As she did so, more pink mist began to flow off her body.
“ And here I thought you’d last a bit longer… ” Bella said, grabbing the delirious swampert’s face with both her hands. The pink mist coming off her body soon changing into a light purplish-pink color.
“ Now do us both a favor and forget about this… ” She whispered.
“ Y-you… You… BITCH… ” The swampet spat with the little energy he had left.
“…Now what did I say about name calling…” Bella said with a less amused tone. “All I did was scam you out of some lunch money… You’re the one who wanted to turn this into a fight.” She said before letting the swampert drop to the ground. Bella stared at the writhing mess of a pokemon the swampert had become and smiled.
“ You… smell… nice… ” A gruff voice behind the salazzle said.
“Hunter, we have work to do.” Bella said, rolling her eyes and turning around. “We can have our time later, okay. Just… Do something about… that while I head inside.” She said flicking her hand at the fallen swampert.
“What do you mean they got arrest-…” Bella yelled, slamming her hands on the bar’s counter.
“ Those idiot dogs… All those seeds, gone!…”
“ The one time I choose to come here on my time off, and you’re here throwing a fit over seeds… ” A dry, monotone, voice on the other end of the bar said. Bella turned to see Brine with a small glass in his hand.
The salazzle stormed up to Brine, snatching the glass out of his hand. “ They were empowerment seeds Brine… Do you know how much those things go for…?!”
“Then maybe you should stop collecting lackeys, and do more of these things yourself…”
Bella hesitated for a bit. “ I don’t need this… ” The salazzle said rolling her eyes, and walking out of the tavern.
Brine looked down at his now spilled drink and sighed. “Do you mind getting me another one of these…?” The inteleon said to the greninja behind the counter.
“And would you kindly use a different glass? I don’t know where those hands have been… ” Brine said, glancing at the salazzle.
“ Just this… overpowering, sweet smell… and… ” Crash said, grimacing as he tried to keep his breakfast down.
“Did she ever… use it on you…?” Vernal asked.
“ Not directly… Bella just used to let that stuff loose all over the camp… Until Scorch made her stop… … Ugh, I can still smell it…”
“I guess now would be a good time to stop…” Vernal said.
“ …Thank you… ” Crash said, slowly leaving the room.
“ I kinda wish I could forget everything you said back there… ” Cinder groaned as she and Crash walked downstairs.
“ Well no one said you had to stay… Arceus dammit, I don’t feel good… ”
“Let’s just go and finish that job we were supposed to do yesterday…”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that… Finding a lost item was it? How exciting…” Crash remarked, rolling his eyes. “But really, can we stop for a bit…?”
When the two pokemon finally reached the guild’s main floor, they came across Char and his teammates who were looking over the job board. The ninetales soon turned to face his sister as she and Crash walked past.
“Hey sis…” Char said in a low tone of voice.
“Oh, hey Char… Are you doing okay…? ”
“ Yeah, yeah… I’m fine… It’s just a bit of a headache… You be careful this time, alright…” Char said, smiling as he watched Cinder leave.
“ Lightweight. ” Thorn said, faking a cough as he brought a clawed hand to his mouth.
“ Really…? ” Char said, turning towards his teammate.
“Really didn’t think you explorers did lost and found stuff.” Crash said as he and Cinder walked into an open field.
“ Here we go again… ” Cinder said with a sigh.
“You know, I don’t think you ever mentioned what the item we’re looking for is.” Crash remarked, glancing at the vulpix.
“Ah come on, tell me… I’m pretty good at finding things… ”
“Finding and stealing are two different things…”
“Let’s agree to disagree on that.” The scraggy said before taking out a tomato berry, and biting into it.
“ Where’d you get that…? ” Cinder asked, raising a brow.
“Found it.”
Amber Plains: Floor 1
As Crash and Cinder entered the dungeon, they noticed the surrounding grass became significantly longer, and gained a distinct yellow, almost golden color. The ground also felt different, it was a lot harder and kind of dry.
“Try not to live up to your name and burn the whole place down…” Crash said, gazing around.
“ Says the ‘mon who almost got us killed yesterday. ”
Amber Plains: Floor 7
“Okay… I see grass, grass… … And look! More grass!” Crash said putting his hand above his eyes. “What a place to lose something…”
“ A TM!… We’re looking for a TM. Now will you knock it off already?”
“Now that wasn’t so hard… So which one? ”
“ Focus Blast… ”
After some time sifting through the abundance of tall, dry grass. Cinder and Crash made little progress in finding the lost TM. “I don’t get it. The job listing said this was the floor.”
“ Maybe someone took it… ” Crash said, turning towards the vulpix.
“UGHHH!!” Cinder loudly groaned.
“Wait, which TM did you say it was again…?” Crash hesitantly asked, holding up two disks. “ Cause I found two… ” One was a shiny, reddish-brown color. And the other was a dull grey.
“ …What, did you do…? ”
“Well…” Crash said before he took a stance, and started to tence his body as a reddish-orange aura surrounded him. Cinder stood there in disbelief. “ You have got to be kidding me… ”
Once the aura faded, Crash began to laugh. “You should’ve seen the look on your face! You thought – You thought I actually used the-…” The scraggy said as he continued to laugh.
Cinder brought a paw up to her face and sighed. “ I hate you… ”
However as the two prepared to leave, there was a loud rustling in the grass. The two turned their attention to the source of the movement and stepped back.
“ Well, well… So the scarred scraggy found their way into a guild… ” The two heard a somewhat high pitched voice say.
“ Oh shit… ” Crash said to himself as he took a few steps back. “ Alright… Uh, Cinder… we need to leave… NOW… ”
“I don’t think so…” The voice said again before Cinder’s scarf, along with her guild badge disappeared. As they did, the two items were replaced by an old cloth and a small stone.
A pokemon resembling a jack-o-lantern stepped out of the tall grass and was holding Cinder’s scarf and badge, as well as two grey skull-faced ghost pokemon also appeared alongside them.
“We’ll be taking that TM and whatever else you have on you.” The gourgeist said, pointing at Crash and Cinder.
“Come on!” The scraggy yelled. “Do I look like I have anything on me?!”
“You’re not getting out of this again scraggy!” The ghost type yelled, before forming a shadowy orb and tossing it at the two pokemon. Cinder jumped up and countered with energy ball. The green orb clashed with it before detonating, causing the five pokemon to get knocked back.
“Get them.” The gourgeist told the two duskull as the area cleared. The two ghost types dashed forwards, and dove into the ground. Two shadows sped across the dirt, straight towards Crash and Cinder. Once the ghosts got in close, they leapt out of the ground tackling the vulpix and scraggy.
The two were knocked back into one of the many patches of tall dry grass. “What the hell is with these guys?” Cinder angrily asked as she got up.
“ Yeah… I may or may not owe them money… ” Crash said, tapping his hands together.
“ …What! ”
The two duskull soon appeared behind Crash and grabbed on to his shoulders, pulling the scraggy out of the grass. Crash then found himself being tossed in front of the gourgeist who now stood over him.
“I’m going to assume you know how borrowing money works right?” The ghost type said, looking down at Crash.
“ And I’m gonna assume you know what I’m broke means right? ”
Cinder now found herself face to face with the two duskull, one of which firing a shadowy orb at her. The vulpix countered it with energy ball, but was soon hit by a wave of dark energy sent from the other one. Cinder got back up and stared at the ghosts, trying to find an opening. The gourgeist in charge of these two had her guild badge, and she didn’t intend on letting them keep it. She shifted to the right, and then the left and watched as the duskull did the same as they tried to block her path.
Glancing around at the dry grass around them, Cinder had an idea. “Try not to live up to your name and burn the whole place down…” She thought, Crash’s joke playing over in head. Cinder inhaled, before running forwards and spewing a stream of fire from her mouth. The two duskull darted out of the way, as the ground in front of them became engulfed in flames.
As Cinder ran through the fire, she could feel a slight boost in strength course though her. The vulpix made her way out of what was left of the tall grass and quickly turned around, using energy ball and hitting one of the duskull. She watched as the duskull fell to the ground while the other used shadow ball. Cinder dodged and used energy ball again.
The two went back and forth for a bit until the duskull was in a similar spot the first was in. Seeing this, Cinder used flamethrower landing a direct hit. Once the two ghosts were down, Cinder began to kick up dirt and pebbles to try and minimize the fire, not wanting it to get out of control.
“ Arceus dammit Crash… ”
Crash jumped and stumbled around the open ground trying to avoid the gourgeist’s bullet seed attack. The scraggy then dove behind a large rock to try and catch his breath. He stood up and took a stance, tensing his body as a reddish aura flowed around him.
“ Alright bulk up, don’t fail me now… ” Crash said to himself before he saw three large seeds fall next to him. The scraggy’s eyes widened as he scrambled to get away. The seeds soon detonated, blowing the large rock to bits.
“Are you sure we can’t talk about this?!” The angry gourgeist responded by using bullet seed. Crash crossed his arms in front of his face and tried to use bulk up again. As he did, Crash saw a small chunk of rock left over from the blast.
Crash then let his guard down and flug himself to the side. The gourgeist stopped and made their way towards the fallen scraggy. Crash readied himself for the ghost type to approach, only to hear them scream instead. The scraggy turned around to find Cinder standing over the gourgeist, who now lay unconscious on the ground.
“ I had that… ” Crash said watching Cinder take her scarf and badge back.
“Anyone else you wanna tell me about?!” The vulpix snapped back.
“If I’m gonna do that, it’ll have to wait ‘till we get back. The list of ‘mons I’ve probably pissed off is kinda long… ”
“Thanks for getting this back to me.” A machop said, as Crash handed over the focus blast TM.
“ I just hope you know what we had to go though to get that… ” Crash muttered.
“What was that?”
“ Nothing. ”
“He’s just messing around. Right, buddy…” Cinder said, gritting her teeth and jabbing Crash in the side with her paw.
“ So you’re saying we’re finally buddies now… ” Crash said in a somewhat dramatic tone, putting a hand to his chest.
The machop tilted his head. “…The two of you are new at this whole team thing aren’t you?” Cinder and Crash both looked over at the machop, the former giving the fighting type the “ really? ” look.
After the machop left, Crash was absent-mindedly glancing around the guild’s lobby, while Cinder went off to talk to someone. That was until his eyes landed on the job board. There, on the board was a poster displaying the gourgeist from earlier. A scowl crept over the scraggy’s face as he took his slingshot out, and raised it at the board before firing a pebble at it. A few other pokemon looked over at Crash as the scraggy prepared to fire another one.
“What are you doing…?” A voice behind him said. Crash turned his head and saw Thorn standing behind him. The sceptile looked down at the scraggy.
“You keep that up, it’s gonna bounce off and hitcha. Trust me… I speak from experience… ”
Crash looked Thorn dead in the eye, and fired the second pebble at the board. “ And you don’t care… ” Thorn said, looking up at the job board.
Crash reached into his skin pouch and took out a third pebble, loading it onto his slingshot. “Okay, I think that’s enough.” Thorn said, reaching for the scraggy.
Crash hesitated for a bit before lowering his slingshot. “ You’re just lucky I’m tired… ”
Cinder and Char soon approached the two. “ Arceus, what’d he do…? ” The vulpix said.
“Nothing.” Thorn said, glancing at Crash. “We were just having a little chat. Right?”
“ …Sure. ”
When Cinder and Crash finally made it back to the vulpix’s home, Crash sat underneath the treehouse and stared at the surrounding trees. “So that’s one group of ‘mons that hate me out of the way… kinda…” Crash thought. “Wait… Who else do I owe money to again…?”
Crash yawned, and leaned his head back. “Right… this is an everyday thing now…” He thought. Sure he liked battling, but something about today wore him out a bit more than normal.
“All this stuff better be easier tomorrow…” Crash thought, closing his eyes.
??? Floor: ???
“What the hell is this…?” Crash said, scanning his surroundings. Everything was black, aside from a small patch of grass that he stood on. Three dim lights in the form of a face soon appeared in the distance, followed by a faint, high pitched laughter. The lights soon disappeared before an opaque, light purplish- pink mist began to flood the area.
Noticing the mist, Crash slowly stepped back. But as he did, he suddenly felt weaker. In his dazed state, Crash could make out two figures slowly approaching him. One of them stopped just in front of the scraggy and knelt down.
“Wakey, wakey Scraggy…” A soft, but somewhat threatening voice said, echoing around him. Crash slowly sat up, and found himself face to face with Bella, the salazzle having Hunter stand close behind her.
“Do you know how long we’ve been looking for you…?”
“Get away from me!” Crash yelled, siding himself back.
Crash took a battle stance, and tried to use bulk up. Nothing. Bella stood and watched as the scraggy charged at her with brick break. She simply flicked her wrist and used fire lash, sending a whip-like flame flying at Crash.
As he got back up, Crash came at them again. This time with a headbutt attack. “Enough of this…” Bella said, snapping her fingers. Hunter then immediately darted for Crash at a near blinding speed, before slamming his claw down onto him.
Crash’s eyes shot open before instinctively reaching for his head. He was breathing heavily and glancing back and forth at his surroundings. “… A dream… Just a dumb dream…” The scraggy said before he soon got up and headed for the staircase.
“ Note to self… Don’t fall asleep against the tree… ” Crash said to himself, as he bent backwards to crack his back. He opened the door and walked inside, only to see Cinder standing over a small box.
“Oh, you’re up…” The vulpix said before quickly sliding the box under the cabinet.
“So… What’s in the-”
“Nothing. It’s nothing…”
Crash stared at Cinder for a few seconds before shrugging and walking over to his bed. As he collapsed on top of it, Crash turned his head to the side. “Right… I almost forgot about that thing…” He thought.
“I need to find something to open it with…” He was about to shut his eyes again before Crash felt something hit the side of his bed.
“ The hell was that for…? ” Crash asked, looking up at Cinder.
“We’re getting food, let’s go.”
“ I think I’ll just stay here… ”
“Well I don’t feel like leaving you here alone right now. So we’re going.” said Cinder, as she continued to prod the bed.
“Alright, fine. I’m getting up…” Crash complained as he slowly got up. “ I think your tree fucked up my back… ”
“ Still going… ”
Crash sighed. “Wherever we’re going… if the seats don’t have backs, then I’m not going in… ”
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