Hi! Shadow here!

Disclaimer: Shadow does not own pokemon. Shadow owns Destiny, Charlotte, Pika-chan, cards, chants, etc.

Timeline: Three days later

Pointless fact: Every time you breed an Eevee, you have a 1/8 chance of getting a female. I have bred 25 eevees and they are all male. The probability of this is only 0.035! I must be really unlucky…

Sorry for not updating sooner, but ff.net was down every time I tried!

Ranma – Hi! Hey! *Smacks Destiny* I need breaks too! Anyways, Championshipping is ok, yay! You want Teresa more than Tracey? Yes, Tracey is annoying. Thanks! No guess for pokemon yet? Keep thinking!

Pikacar/Marle – yep, I tormented Sage Chow quite a bit. Another vote for no Tracey! Yes for Championshipping. *Smiles* Light Espeon and dark Umbreon? But Umbreon’s already dark… thanks for voting though!

Kai – thank you!

Silver#2 – thank you very much! Don’t know my score yet…

Tmp – You want Tracey more than Teresa. I assumed so, since you’re the one who keeps telling me to kill her off… Gary will come back, but not until later. I’m not telling who blocked off Ash’s form, it has to wait! Yes, someone else will be using the Sakura cards though… not Ash… Ash is calm because he’s already been so freaked out that you can’t do much more to him. Go back to Episode 17 in CCA: Star’s Ascent to read about the Sakura cards. No, I don’t think Kero-chan and Yue will be here… they’re kind of gone or dead, or still sleeping.

Gomen = Sorry

SnowTiger – you like Teresa? Oh well, I’m glad someone does. Yes, she will act like Tomoyo now that she is a girl. Everyone likes eevelutions, so I’ll add another vote for Light Espeon and dark Umbreon! Either way is fine, ‘kay! Thank you! I think I did pretty good on the writing test. *Winces* Of course, that might be a bad thing.

Episode 43: The hunt for the vengeful ghosts!

This time, when they set out for Lavender Town, Ash was much more nervous than he had been before.

“What’s wrong?” Pika-chan queried. He looked terrified, almost!

“Pika-chan, last time I was there, I nearly drowned, remember?” Ash reminded her. “Besides, I lost to Candice too! That was terribly humiliating!”

Teresa looked shocked. “You actually lost?”

“Yes, but it was inevitable.” Pika-chan said. “He tried to use unchanged pokemon cards. We found out that night that he had to change pokemon cards into Ash tree cards before he could use them, because of his new magic type.”

“Oh.” Teresa said. She sighed. “Too bad I wasn’t there to videotape that. It would have been so cool!”

“Teresa...” Both Ash and Pika-chan had sweatdrops running down their heads. Pika-chan went all super deformed, as Ash watched in surprise.

“Are you going to fight the gym leader first this time?” Pika-chan asked, after she had recovered from her SD form.

“I’m not sure. There’s a really long line.” Ash said, recalling his experiences in the Lavender gym.

“In that case, do you want to check out Pokemon Tower?” Teresa asked.

“Maybe that would be a better idea. What do you think, Pika-chan?”

Pika-chan crossed her arms and thought as she floated up and down in midair. Finally, she seemed to come to a decision.

“Let’s check out Pokemon Tower first. It’s not safe to go inside at night.”

“Sounds good to me!” Teresa said. “And while we’re at it, which costume do you want?” She immediately began pulling costumes out of the little black mini backpack that she was wearing.

Ash gaped. * Must be subspace. * He thought. Both he and Pika-chan watched the growing pile of costumes with trepidation.

“I don’t know…” Ash finally said.

“Okay, than I’ll pick one!” Teresa said cheerfully as she nodded her head, pigtails bouncing up and down. “This one!”

Ash and Pika-chan both turned. Apparently Teresa’s style had undergone some improvement. She was holding up a black silk jumpsuit top and pants, with a silver symbol for psychic pokemon on the front. The belt was sky blue, with silken loops to hold nine poke balls on it. From the back sprouted a pair of bat wings, held in place with wire and silken ties. And with it came sky blue boots and silver gauntlets.

Ash went and changed behind a bush. When he came out, he was holding a poke ball.

“Since we’ve already been to Lavender, we can Teleport there, right?”

“Hai!” Pika-chan said, as her ears fluffed up.

“Well, let’s go!” Ash said, as he tossed out his poke ball. “Skymew, use Teleport!”

Skymew surrounded them all with blue-white light, before they all vanished – and appeared on the roof of the Pokemon Center.

“Oh well, at least we’re in Lavender Town.” Ash said.

“Yeah.” Pika-chan said. She shrugged. “So, shall we head for the Tower?”

“Just a second.” Ash said. He began rifling through his backpack. “Ah, here it is. Silph Scope.” Ash placed it over his eyes, so he could see the ghost pokémon in the tower clearly.

“Wow, you’re lucky. I just have an Infrared scope.” Teresa said as she pulled out her own. They walked towards the tower.

Soon, they managed to get inside, with Oddish’s help. Oddish had used poisonpowder to stun the guard stationed near the door.

“Look at all the pokemon graves.” Ash said in awe. “There must be hundreds of them!”

Pika-chan shivered. “I feel sort of cold, Ash.”

Teresa took advantage of this to give Pika-chan her own miniature black cape with bat wings. Pika-chan wrapped herself up in the warm woolen fabric and sat on Ash’s backpack, feeling better.

“Do you see anything yet?” Teresa asked. She wished she had better goggles, nothing was showing up on the infrared screen.

“Just outlines…” Ash said. “This is strange… this place ought to be crawling with ghost pokemon.”

“This silence is very unnatural.” Pika-chan said in a choked voice.

Ash spun around. “Pika-chan, are you okay? You sound sort of strangled-!”

And he saw the ghost of a Tangela clamped to Pika-chan’s neck.

“Pidgey, I choose you! Use your Whirlwind attack to blow that thing away from Pika-chan!” Ash shouted. Pidgey appeared and began flapping her tiny wings as fast as she could. The Tangela went flying.

Pika-chan took a few deep breaths and massaged her neck. “Owowowow! That left quite a mark!”

“Are you okay, Pika-chan?” Ash asked. Pidgey perched in his head and looked around, trying to spot any other ghosts.

“I think I’m all right.” Pika-chan said.

“Good.” Ash said. He would have said more, but than more of the ghosts started appearing and attacking.

“Yikes! Storm, Ponyta, Oddish, Butterfree, Sunny, Skymew, go!” Ash shouted. The six pokemon joined Pidgey as they beat down the attacking forces. However, even Teresa could see that they were tiring from the continuous assault. She also noticed that Skymew seemed to be weakening, though she was still beating down the ghosts with Psybeams and Psychics.

“Ash, what are we going to do?” She asked.

“I’m thinking!” Ash said, as he jumped out of the way of an attacking Gastly. “Thunder stars!” Six sharp golden stars created from crackling electricity streaked towards the ghosts.

“You’d better use your cards!” Pika-chan called, as she blasted the nearest ghost with a Flamethrower attack. “You don’t have enough chi or mana to keep your spells going for too long!”

“I know!” Ash said, as he threw his key into the air. “Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form before me! Your master under the seal of contract Ashura commands you, Release!”

Magic energy swirled around him as the staff formed.

“Vileplume! Ivysaur! Blastoise! Wigglytuff! Electrode! Dratini! Growlithe!” Ash called, as white energy streaked around all seven cards and turned them instantly into Ash cards. The pokemon he had summoned immediately streaked into the fray.

“No way…” Teresa said as she nearly dropped her video camera. “ He changed seven at once?!”

“Ash! Stop! You’ll run out of energy!” Pika-chan shouted.

Ash staggered as he leaned against his staff. His vision started to blur as he leaned forward, shaking.

The Growlithe card noticed and ran over to him. Ash collapsed to his knees.

< Are you all right? > It asked anxiously as it sniffed him.

“I think so…” Ash said, as he steadied himself. “Don’t worry about me. Help the others drive away the ghosts!”

< Very well… > Growlithe said as it bounded off. But it still cast a worried look in his direction before it started using Bite on the swarming ghost types. Two haunters and a Gengar went down in a hurry.

Pika-chan flew over. “Whatever possessed you to pull a stunt like that?!” She shouted in his ear.

Ash winced as she went into lecture mode. By the time Pika-chan was done, the pokemon cards and pokemon had already worked together to finish off all the ghost pokemon.

“Well!?” Pika-chan finally finished. She would have said more, but noticed that her Chosen was all swirly-eyed from energy loss and the lecture.

“Oh well, you were spared this time.” Pika-chan said as she forced a Hyper Potion down Ash’s throat. Ash spluttered as he awoke, but at least he was not drained anymore. For some added insurance, Pika-chan tossed him some Magic Berries.

Ash sighed. “Sorry, Pika-chan.”

“Yes, you should be sorry! Don’t do that again!”

“But how else was I supposed to defeat all of those ghost pokemon?”

“Well, you could have used Pidgeot! You already changed her! Or Arcanine!”

“Okay, okay! I won’t do it again…”

Pika-chan nodded and patted him on the head. “That’s right! Now that we’ve cleared out all the ghost pokemon, let’s explore!”

Teresa stepped out from behind a pillar. She was completely undamaged, not even a strand of hair out of place.

“Yeah!” She said, seconding Pika-chan’s idea.

Ash followed the two enthusiastic people up to the second floor.

On the second floor, there weren’t as many graves. In fact, the graves here were mostly unkempt with broken tombstones.

“I wonder why nobody ever bothered to clean this place up?”

“Maybe its because it was haunted?” Pika-chan asked.

Teresa shrugged and kept videotaping as they walked around. Soon, Ash discovered a Potion lying abandoned on the floor. He pocketed it. Pika-chan spotted an Antidote a few minutes later, so they took that too. But what unnerved all three was the deafening silence, unbroken even by their soft footfalls as they walked through the dusty corridors.

“Do you think there’s someone else here?” Pika-chan whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Ash whispered back, as they walked past an ominous statue of a Persian.

“I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“But other trainers have been here before without too many problems.” Teresa said. “Where else could these items have come from?”

“I think the question we should be asking is, ‘why are they here?’” Ash corrected her. “And frankly, that topic does not seem safe to dwell upon at the moment.

“Darkness… all around, no light…” Pika-chan muttered to herself. “Nothing can live under those conditions! Perhaps there were wild pokemon here who died from lack of food, and their spirits now roam the tower.”

“Eek!” Teresa said as something brushed against her leg. Looking down, she saw it was a thin, purple Rattata.

“Oh, phew. I thought it was a ghost.” She said in relief. “Here, you must be hungry.” Teresa gave the Rattata a cracker and it bounded off.

“Wait! Come back!” Ash said. He immediately bolted after the fleeing rodent pokemon.

The Rattata darted into a dark room. Ash followed. Pika-chan shot after him, Teresa following, still videotaping.

End Episode 43! What will Ash find? Review and find out! Flames will be used to forge Sword, and then I’ll use it to ruin all of Nelvana’s expensive dubbing equipment! *Smirks nastily*