Chapter 12

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone was sitting at a table in
a restaurant.
Bob pulled out a map.  "We have to make a decision.  Cerulean is at a
four-way crossroads.  We can go back to Pewter, down to Saffron, over
to Celadon, or over to Lavender.  I vote for Lavender.  I heard that
they have a tower where ghost pokemon live, and I want to catch one."
"Lavender sounds fine to me."  Jack said.
"I want to go to Celadon.  They have these gigantic department stores
there.  They're some of the biggest in the world!"  Lauren said.
"Of course she wants to go shopping."  David muttered.  Then, he said
louder.  "Lavender sounds fine to me!"
"No!  We're going to Celadon!"  Lauren yelled.
"Why?  So you can get a wedding dress?"  David said slyly.  Lauren
growled and tried to hit him on the head.  David dodged, then ran out
of the restaurant with Lauren running after him.  Bob and Jack
followed.
After chasing David and Lauren for a few moments, Bob noticed
something.  "You know, David isn't as dumb as he looks sometimes."
"How so?"
"Well, have you noticed that he's lead us down the path to Lavender?
I think it was intentional, too."

After about another hour of running, (Lauren can be very persistent
when she's angry.), she finally stopped chasing David and stopped,
tired out.
"Ok."  She gasped, out of breath.  "I've stopped chasing you.  Come
back."
David stayed several feet away.  "You won't hit me?"  He asked warily.
"No, I'm too tired."  David warily walked over near Lauren and sat
down.  She immediately hit him over the head.  Jack and Bob arrived,
panting, just in time to see this.
"Or maybe he's not so smart."  Bob said to Jack.  Then, he walked up
to the other two.  "Nice going!  With that running, we're almost
halfway to Lavender Town!"
Lauren whirled to look at him.  "WHAT?!?!"
"Yep.  You heard me.  If you're done resting, let's get going."  Bob
started jogging again along the path.

Several hours later, they stopped again for a break.
David plopped down onto a rock.  "Whew!  I'm exhausted."
"You think you're tired?"  Jack asked, dropping his backpack with a
loud thud.  "I was the one who had to carry the supplies!"
"Oh, supplies, that reminds me."  Bob said, reaching for the backpack.
"Reminds you of what?"  David asked.  "You forgot to restock them?"
"No, it reminds me that I'm hungry."  He took a bag of chips from
backpack and started eating them.  This reminded everyone else that
they were hungry, and prompted a general rush on the backpack.  Bob,
after everyone had gotten their food, reached into the backpack and
pulled out a table and four chairs.
"I don't think we should all have to sit on the ground."  He said, as
he set them up.
"So that's why it was so heavy!"  Jack exclaimed.  "If you're going to
pack furniture, then you can carry it around yourself."

David sat back and burped.  "That was tasty."  He said, leaning back
in his chair.  Everyone else was also just sitting around the table,
full.  Suddenly, David's chair fell over backwards.
Jack chuckled.  "If you can't stay upright, you shouldn't lean your
chair over."
"Hey, it wasn't my fault I fell.  The ground shook or something, and
knocked me over!"  David responded defensively, getting up from the
ground and brushing himself off.
"Yeah, right.  It's not that bad to admit that you just lost your
balance, you don't have to make up excuses."
"No, the ground really did shake!"
Jack was getting ready to repeat what he said about it not being that
bad just to admit that you fell, when Bob stopped him.
"Wait, the ground really is shaking.  Here, get down and touch the
ground."  Jack knelt and pressed his fingers against the ground.
"You're right!"
"And listen, do you hear that?"  When everyone quieted down, a low
rumbling could be heard coming from farther up the path.
"What is that?"  Jack asked.  Suddenly, with loud cries of alarm,
flocks of Spearow and Pidgey burst from the trees, near the source of
the rumbling, and flew away frantically.
"What is going on?"  Jack wondered again.
"The only thing I can think of that would make all of those pokemon
fly away so quickly is that they were extremely scared of something."
Bob responded.
The rumbling grew more intense, and now a large cloud of dust could be
seen coming their way.
"I'm not sure what that is, but maybe we should get out of the way?"
David suggested.
"I don't know, maybe we should stay and see what it is."  Bob
responded.  Before anyone else could respond, the cloud of dust grew
nearer and resolved into the running forms of many pokemon, sprinting
for all they were worth.
"I don't think they're going to stop for us!"  Lauren yelled over the
noise of the approaching pokemon stampede.
As everyone scrambled to get out of the way, the stampede smashed
through the place they were just sitting, reducing the table and
chairs to splinters.
Lauren dropped out of the tree she had climbed into.  She surveyed the
rubble.  "Hey, guys!  Where are you?"  She shouted, not seeing anyone
else.  She looked around for a moment, then noticed she was standing
in a shadow, even though she wasn't underneath anything.  "Huh?"  She
looked up, just in time to see David falling out of the sky.  Her
breath was knocked out of her as he landed.
"Where'd you come from?"  She asked, annoyed, after he had gotten off.
"Jack."  He responded.
"Huh?"
"Jack gave me a ride out of the stampede, but then he dropped me.  He
should be down soon."  David pointed upwards.  Lauren looked up, and
saw a speck in the sky, slowly getting larger.  As the speck got
closer, it resolved into Jack, flapping his wings and descending
slowly.
"Why did you do that?!?"  Lauren screamed at him, understandably
annoyed.
Jack hovered about ten feet up in the air.  "I didn't mean to!"  He
called down.  "It was an accident!"
"Yeah, I'll show you an accident!"  Lauren grabbed David, ignoring his
dismayed cry, and threw him at Jack.  Jack shot upwards, narrowly
avoiding David.  David landed with a cry of dismay in a tree several
feet away.  Lauren was looking for other things to throw at Jack, when
a groan distracted her.
"What was that?"
The groan came again, and Bob pulled himself out of a small depression
in the ground, leaving a Bob-shaped hole.  "Ugh."  He said
intelligently.  He shook his head.  Jack landed next to him, and
Lauren walked over.
"Are you ok?"  Jack asked, helping him up.
David disentangled himself from the tree and came over.  "What
happened to you?"  He asked Bob.
"I couldn't find a hiding place.  The stampede ran right over me."
Bob had mostly recovered by this time.
"I wonder what caused that stampede?"  David wondered.
"I think I might know.  I think I've heard of this before."  Bob said
ominously.
"What?"
"One of the worst phenomenon's of the world.  Where ever it occurs,
things like that stampede wreck havoc."
"Well, what is it?  Some evil kind of pokemon?  An earthquake?  Some
other natural disaster?"
Bob shook his head.  "No.  Worse."
"What then?!"
"Tourists."
"Huh?"  Now, words could be heard faintly coming from up ahead.
"Mom, Mom, a Rattatta!"
"Yes dear."
*Click*
"Oh, look, a Pidgey!"
"Yes dear."
*Click*
"Can I get one Mom?"
"No dear."
*Click*
"BUT I WANT A PIDGEY!!!!!!!!"
The source of the noises came into view.  A tall figure, waving around
a rectangular box and occasionally pressing a button on it, causing it
to release a bright flash of light.  There was a tiny figure babbling
constantly about everything it saw, and a medium sized figure wearing
a dress, which was occasionally being tugged on by the small figure.
As they came closer, they resolved into a man taking pictures of
everything, a woman walking next to him, and a small, whining child.
The group caught sight of Jack and company, and rushed over.
The man started taking pictures of everything, blinding them all.  He
kept up a running commentary, too.
"Oh, is that real purple hair?"  *Click*  "Could you move a little to
the right?"  *Click*  "Now, could you stand on your head and stick out
your tongue?  Just perfect!" *Click* "Wow, is that an authentic
rock?!"  *Click*
The woman stayed off in the background, but the small child walked up.
"Whereareyougoing?we'regoingtoabigcitywheretheyhavecoolshopsandthing.I
liketoplayPokemon.Doyouplay?Let'sbattle!"  (With spaces: Where are you
going?  We're going to a big city where they have cool shops and
things.  I like to play Pokemon.  Do you play?  Let's battle!)
Bob, overpowered by the bright flashes and stream of babble, ran off
into the surrounding woods, climbed a tree, pulled his hat all the way
over his head, and hid.  David latched on to one of the few things he
understood in the babble.
"Pokemon?  Ok, let's battle!  Squirtle, go!"
The child, upon hearing the acceptance of his challenge, pulled out a
flat, rectangular box from his pocket that looked sort of like a
pokedex, except it was thicker and had a screen on the top, instead of
a panel you opened. He flipped a switch on it.  He also pulled out a
small cable, connected it to the box, and looked around expectantly.
"Ok, let's battle!  Where's your Game-"  Was all he got out, before
being drenched by Squirtle's water gun.  The box sputtered, then gave
out several sparks, before exploding in a miniature fireball.
The boy stared at the charred casing of the machine for a moment, then
burst into tears.  "Mommy!"  He bawled, running to the woman, "They
broke my Game Boy!"  He started to cry into her dress.
"Don't you feel horrible?"  Lauren said to David.  "You destroyed a
little kid's toy."
"It was an accident."  David responded defensively.  "Anyway, he did
ask to battle."
The woman's face, which had been placid and uncaring, hardened.  "We
can't have people going around doing things like that, can we?"  She
said, taking out a large umbrella and waving it threateningly.
David's Squirtle, at the sight of this, told him "Squirt squirt
squrtle,"  and zapped itself back in it's pokeball.  (Squirt squirt
squirtle.  Roughly, "You're on your own.")
"Umm+ICY-  David?"  Jack said, tapping him on the shoulder.
David turned around.  "What?"
"I suggest we run."  Jack said, pointing at the angry mother charging
towards them.
"Good idea."  David said, already sprinting for the woods.  The other
two followed him.
Bob stepped out onto the path.  After it seemed the babbling might
have stopped, he decided to return.  He stepped out of the trees just
in time to see the other three members of his group running straight
towards him, with a woman waving an umbrella menacingly, a small
crying child, and a large man still taking pictures of everything.  He
turned around, and ran for his life.

Chapter 13

Two figures, enveloped entirely in darkness, stare at a brightly lit
screen.
"Yes, they are the ones told of by the prophecy."  One said to the
other.
"I see, but will the be able to pass the tests ahead of them and prove
themselves worthy?"  The other responded.
Suddenly, a light flicks on, revealing two children gazing intently at
a television.  A large, rather irate woman is standing in the door to
the room.  "Are you two still watching television?"  She asks
irritably.
"Yes, but-"
"I've had enough of you two sitting in front of the TV.  Go outside
and play!  It's a beautiful day, and the pet growlithe is getting
lonely."
"But Mom-"
"I don't want to hear any argument from you two.  Go outside and
play!"  The children, sulking, left the room.

(Authors note- This clip had absolutely nothing to do with the plot or
anything that relates to the story, except that is it also in the
pokemon world.  It was just a scene of two kids watching TV, which I
included.)

After four days off wandering in the forest, everyone was getting
annoyed.  (That's an understatement.)
"This is all your fault!"  Lauren yelled at David.  "If you hadn't
soaked that little kid, then we would be in Lavender Town by now!  And
if you hadn't run off along that path, then we would be in Celadon!
And I could be shopping right now!"
"Well if you hadn't stopped to yell at Jack, we could have hid from
those tourists!"  David yelled back.
"It's still your fault!"
"Is not!"
This continued on for quite a while.  Bob sighed, and turned his back
on the fighting two, waiting for the argument to conclude.
After a few minutes of loud arguments, Jack interrupted Lauren and
David.  "Wait.  What's that sound?"  He asked.  Everyone listened
closely.  A sound was just barely audible.  It sounded like people
yelling, coming steadily closer to the group.  This was probably
because it was in fact people yelling and coming closer to the group.
Three people, to be exact.  Well, two people and a pokemon.  But
that's close enough.  Soon, the three people dropped out of the sky,
and landed in a charred heap in front of the group.
"This is all your fault!"  One of them, a red-head, yelled at the
other, who had blue hair.  Both people's hair, however, was almost
black under the coat of ash on it.
"Is not."  The figure whined.
The third figure, much smaller then the other two, scratched them both
across the face.  "It's both of your faults!"  He yelled.
Jack, recognizing the trio from the large red R's on their shirts,
(The two of them that wore shirts, that is), sighed.  "Are you three
after our pokemon again?"  He asked tiredly.
Jessie jumped up.  "Yes!  And this time we will steal them all!  To
protect-"  She staggered, then fell over asleep.
James sighed.  "We're too tired and beat up to steal any pokemon right
now."  He said.
"Yeah!"  Meowth agreed.  "That was one vicious Magikarp we just
fought!"
Everyone  (except Team Rocket) fell over laughing.  "You were beaten
by a Magikarp?!"  Bob gasped out in between laughs.
"Hey, that splash attack is powerful!"  James said defensively.  "And
that Magikarp was really vicious!  We're always getting the hardest
jobs."  He moaned.  "Stealing Magikarps, taking the starter pokemon
from ten-year-olds, all those tough jobs."
Jack finally managed to contain his laughter.  "Well, let's get rid of
you anyway."  He threw out a pokeball.  "Gyrados, hydro pump!!!"
The serpent-like pokemon roared, then let loose a gigantic blast of
water, sending Team Rocket flying away.
Lauren turned back to David.  "Just because we were momentarily
distracted doesn't mean you're going to get away.  It's still your
fault we're lost!"
Bob, wincing, walked over to Jack.  "Let's get out of here."  He
proceeded to run away from Lauren and David.
Lauren looked away from her quarrel.  "Hey, where are you two going?"
She shouted at the retreating backs of Jack and Bob.  Receiving no
response, she ran off after them, leaving David no choice but to
follow.

After chasing Jack and Bob for several minutes, Lauren suddenly heard
cries off alarm from farther up in the forest, where Jack and Bob had
run off to.  She sped up, heading for the source of the yells, and
suddenly broke through the trees.  Unfortunately, she wasn't in much
of a position to notice this, because the ground right beyond the
trees was a very steep slope.  Unable to stop her rapid downward
slide, she skidded down in a large cloud of dust, until her motion was
arrested by a large dusty lump at the bottom.
"Owww+ICY-"  Whined the lump, slowly resolving itself into the dirt-
covered forms of Jack and Bob.
Lauren stood up and ineffectively tried to wipe off the dirt that had
gathered on her clothes.  "Not my fault.  If you hadn't run away, this
wouldn't have happened."
Jack was about to retort, when he looked past Lauren and grinned to
himself.  He groaned, acting like he still felt too bad to retort.
Lauren continued blaming him for a few seconds, until David, who Jack
had seen sliding down the slope, leapt nimbly over Jack and Bob, and
slammed straight into Lauren, bowling her over.  Jack chuckled.
A vein popped out on Lauren's forehead.  "Great!  Now we're not only
lost, I'm dirty!  Just great!  This is all your fault!"  She yelled to
the other three in general.
David tried to intercede.  "Um, from the top of that hill I saw
Lavender town.  It's just over the next hill!"
Unfortunately, Lauren was too caught up in a good rant to listen to
anyone else.  "And we have no idea where Lavender is, so we'll
probably be wandering in the woods for days more!"
David again tried to comment.  "But Lavender is right over that hill!"
He pointed.
Lauren continued on, oblivious to everyone else.  "And I haven't had a
decent shower for days, and I don't like trail food, and-"
David finally gave up trying to communicate anything to Lauren.  "Come
on, let's go."  He said to the others, climbing the hill in front of
them.  They followed.
After a few moments, Lauren finally broke out of her complaining daze
enough to notice the others leaving.  Her mouth, however, continued on
its own.  "And I'm being left behind by you three, and I probably
should be following, and-"  She finally realized what she was saying,
and shut her mouth.  She then ran off after the other three.

Lauren stepped out of the bathroom in the group's room at the
Pokecenter, still toweling her hair dry.
"Ahh."  She said in satisfaction.  "Finally clean."
The other three had been sitting around the room, waiting for Lauren
to finish.  Bob looked up from a magazine he had been reading.  "Can
we finally get going now?"  He asked.
"Go where?"  Lauren asked in response.
Bob pulled a map of Lavender Town out of his backpack.  "Well, it
looks like the main attraction here is the tower.  Ghost pokemon live
there."
Lauren walked over and looked at the map.  "Oh, look, there's a gym
here."  She said nervously.  "Why don't we go there instead?"
Bob looked at the place she was pointing.  "That gym specializes in
psychic pokemon, which are weak to ghost types.  If we want to battle
that gym leader, we should probably try to get some ghost types
first."
Lauren stamped her foot.  "No!  We are not going to the tower!"  No
one paid her any attention.  Jack and David had also clustered around
the map and were looking.
"Yeah, I think the tower is a good idea."  Jack commented.
"Ok, let's go."  David said.
Lauren stamped her foot again.  "I said we are not going to the
tower!!"  She yelled.  Meanwhile, the other three started getting
their belongings together and walking out the door.  She noticed their
retreating backs and sighed.  "I really should try a different tactic
with them."  She said to herself, before running after them.

Bob stepped into the tower, the other three behind him.  The entrance
room was gigantic, a cavernous room of enormous proportions.  A dusty
red carpet covered the floor, and a crystal chandelier could be dimly
seen at the top of the ceiling, far above.  A few doors dotted the
walls, but other then that, the room was empty.
"Wow.  This place is big."  David said, looking around

"Well that's definitely an understatement."  Jack responded.
Meanwhile, Bob was sniffing the air.  "I smell food."  He said, before
walking over to one of the doors in the wall and pulling it open.  He
walked inside, and gazed around.  The room he stepped into was long
and rectangular, with a long, rectangular table running down the
center.  This table was loaded with so much food that you could almost
hear it groaning under the weight.  One chair was placed at the head
of the table, with a place set in front of it.  The rest of the table
was entirely covered with food.  There was steak, shrimp, fish,
vegetables, pizza, burgers, drinks, and much more.  Bob's face lit up.
"I've found the jackpot!"  He said in delight.
The other three members of the group had followed him inside.  Jack
looked at the food hesitantly.  "I'm not sure if you should eat that."
He said to Bob.
"I'm sure it's fine to eat!"  Bob responded.  "If not, then why would
someone just leave it lying out here?"  Without waiting for a
response, he walked over to the chair, sat down, and began to shovel
the food into his mouth.
Jack sweatdropped.  "Well, at the rate he's going, there soon won't be
any food left."
Bob was still gobbling the food as fast as he could, when suddenly he
began to glow with an eerie purple light.  "Wha?!"  He said with his
mouth full, as the chair he was in started to slowly rise off the
floor.  As the chair rose higher, Bob began to struggle, but he was
unable to get off the chair.  Other objects around the room also
started to fly through the air, like some of the plates from the
table.  Bob's chair began soaring smoothly through the air, completely
ignoring his frantic efforts to get off.  He flailed at it, but it
continued on it a manner that suggested that it would not stop, even
if you offered it money, and perhaps a revarnishing.  Unexpectedly, in
did, in fact, jerk to a halt, but not in a manner that would make you
think this halt was planned.  This idea was further reinforced when
the chair started to jerk wildly, as if it were trying to escape some
force acting upon it.
"What's happening?"  Jack wondered aloud.
Slowly, a mist took form on one side of the chair and coalesced itself
into the dark shape of a Gengar, grunting with frustration as it
attempted to pull the chair, that, it appeared, it had just been
carrying through the air.  As it tugged, two other forms took shape
around it and started trying to help.  These were a dark sphere with a
mist hovering around it, and a disembodied head with two disembodied
hands floating beneath it.  Both of these took hold on the chair and
attempted to pull it away, along with the Gengar's help, from whatever
force was tugging on it from the other side.
Slowly, the air started to shimmer on the other side of the chair.
The shimmering became more and more pronounced, until finally there
was a shape made entirely of shimmering air on the other side of the
chair, with two appendages wrapped around two of the legs.  Two eyes
opened in the cloud, and a wide, grinning mouth.
"What the **** is that?!"  David yelled in surprise.
The shimmering air turned towards him, while still holding the chair
in one place against the combined tugging of the other three ghosts.
"Poltergeist."  It chuckled in amusement.
"I guess that's its name."  Jack said.  He pulled out his pokedex and
pointed it at the pokemon.  It dinged.  <No information on this
pokemon found.>
"Whoa!  A whole new pokemon!"  Jack said.  "I'm gonna catch it!"
Bob's voice drifted down from high above.  "Um guys, I don't want to
interrupt your conversation, but maybe you could help me get down from
here?"  He said weakly.  Looking up, you could see that the ghost
pokemon were still fighting over the chair.  Because they were
distracted, the glow holding Bob to the chair had vanished.  He was
leaning over the edge, but he didn't want to leap from high above the
floor, considering the large possibility of going splat when he
reached the bottom of the fall.
Jack quickly sent out Gyrados.  Bob slid down its back to the floor.
Jack then returned it.  Luckily, the ghosts had been too preoccupied
with each other to attack Gyrados.  Jack quickly returned it.
"Thanks."  Bob told him.
"Let's get out of here!"  David said, walking over to the door.  He
was reaching out to grab the door knob, when the Gengar noticed.
Leaving the other two ghosts to fight the Poltergeist, he flew over to
David, slammed the door shut, and almost paralyzed him with a lick
attack that was barely dodged.  David rolled out of the way, and
finally came to rest against the table.  Jack and Bob hurried over.
"Are you ok?"  Jack asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine.  Just a little shook up."  Jack was forced to dive to
the floor as the Gengar made a swooping attack at the humans.
"I don't think it's safe for us to stay in plain view."  Jack said
from the floor.  He and David crawled under the table, followed soon
by Bob.  There, they found Lauren, shivering.
"So this is where you've been."  David said.
"That's right, we haven't seen you since the ghosts appeared."  Jack
said in realization.
Lauren kept shivering.  (Or at least her teeth were chattering.)
"Listen, I don't like ghosts."
Bob was puzzled.  "You don't like ghosts?  But you have a Cubone!
That's a ghost pokemon!"
"Listen, it was a gift.  I've never been in Lavender Town before."
Lauren gave out a small scream as the Haunter went flying through the
table top to land on the floor a few feet away, before getting back up
to rejoin the fight above.  From the sounds of it, a full-fledged
battle was going on a few yards above their heads.  Bob cautiously
stuck his head out from under the table to watch.  After a moment,
David did too.
The battle was in full force.  The ghosts were using night shade and
confuse ray, which appeared to be doing a large amount of damage to
the Poltergeist, but it was retaliating with some sort of attack that
summoned up a wind to tear at the gas the ghosts were made of.  After
several minutes of these exchanges of attacks, the Poltergeist came
crashing to the ground, dazed and badly hurt, but still conscious.
The Gengar floated down, and began charging up for a hypnosis attack.
David, taking advantage of the pokemons weakened state, pulled a
pokeball out of his backpack and threw it at the Poltergeist.  It
shook for a few moments, then dinged and returned to David's hand.
"Yes!  I caught a Poltergeist!"  He shouted in joy, as quietly as
possible.  The Gengar looked up, its eyes glowing blue with the
hypnosis power it was holding.  It saw that the other pokemon was
gone, but was unable to stop itself from letting loose an immensely
powerful hypnosis attack, putting everyone to sleep instantly.

An immeasurable amount of time later, they woke up, still crouched
under the table.  There was no sign of the ghosts.  Lauren groaned.
"How long have we been asleep?"  She stretched, and then groaned again
as muscles stiff from staying in one place for a while protested.
Bob glanced at his watch, then did a double take.  "My watch says
we've been asleep for three days!"
"Three days!"  Lauren exclaimed.  "We've missed so much!  Come on,
let's get going!"  She yelled, jumping to her feet.  The others seemed
more reluctant to get up.  Finally, however, they did, and proceeded
to make their way out of the tower, watching nervously for any sign of
the ghosts.  As the approached the door, Jack was trying to comfort
Lauren.
"Relax,"  he said, starting to push open the door, "Nothing's going to
have changed that much in three days."  He then stopped and stared,
amazed, at the view revealed.
A house in front of the tower had been knocked into rubble by some
unknown force.  Most of the rest of the town seemed fine, though a few
houses showed the signs of some sort of battle.  There were char marks
on some, and others were waterlogged in places, to name a few of the
marks.  Every so often, roars would echo through the town, sounding
like no pokemon that any of the group had ever heard of.  The general
effect was of a town under siege.  Most startling of all, however, was
the view of the gym.  A gigantic Cloyster, maybe twenty feet tall, was
standing in front of the gym with its shell tightly closed.  Unlike
most Cloyster, however, this one had two cannons, like those of a
Blastoise, sticking out of its side, which it was using to fire jagged
spikes of ice at the gym.  The gym was protected by a thin sphere of
psychic energy, which seemed to be holding up against the blasts, but
there was no telling how much longer it would hold.  The entire group
stared, mouths hanging open, at the changed face of Lavender Town.