Disclaimer: POKEMON IS NOT MINE GODDAMIT!!! thank you.

Ok, this is my fic for halloween. Why am I starting so early? So it won’t be December by the time I finish. I’ll get back to Time and Space Adventures soon. Till then, enjoy.....

****

It was a dark night. Not a dark stormy night, just a dark one. The night sky was covered by many clouds, each spreading their way across the stars and the moon, creating near to total darkness. In the forest, many of the diurnal pokemon were tucked away in their nests, sleeping soundly. The nocturnal pokemon stalked through the dark forest, in search of any prey to fill their stomachs. The silence of the black night was disturbed as an eerie howl cut through it. The long drawn out call did not have the usual sad tone to it that other howls did. This cry had a frightening, almost dangerous sound to it. Many of the sleeping pokemon woke, wide-eyed, cowering and trembling in their nests. Even the nocturnal pokemon stopped in their tracks, fear causing their fur and feathers to stand on end. All the pokemon of the forest knew that howl....and they knew to fear it.

****

The night was October 31st, All Hallows Eve. Better known as Halloween. Ash, Misty and Brock were cooling down from a Halloween party at the nearby pokemon center. The party had been a lot of fun for the trio, consisting of games, costumes, and of course, food. And wherever there was food, Ash was sure to gorge himself. The young trainer had managed to win nearly every game of bobbing for apples, having Pikachu steal many of his prizes for himself to eat. He also cleared out more than half of the refreshment table, much to the embarrassment of his companions. And finally, there was the candy. Nurse Joy and her Chanseys seemed to have an unlimited amount of it, and were handing it out to anyone who wanted some, always cheery. Ash made sure that as much of the candy as possible wound up in the bottomless pit that was his stomach. By the end of the party, Misty was shocked that he hadn’t popped by now. As the rest of the partygoers cleared out, Ash Misty and Brock stayed behind so that Brock could show off his homemade golbat costume off to Joy. Ash groaned. He didn’t feel like he had the patience for this. The next city wasn’t too far away, and that meant that his next badge wasn’t either. Though Misty disliked the idea of sleeping outside on Halloween, Ash had decided that that was what they were going to do. She knew it was pointless to argue the issue, because Ash was very determined about this and would probably go out there with or without her and Brock. And having him out there on his own was even more frightening to her than being out there herself. She glanced over at Ash, whose annoyed expression went well with the charizard costume he was wearing. She herself had gone as a mermaid, turning the bottom part into a dress so no one would see her feet at the bottom, and making the tail stick out of the back. But now it was getting annoying and she wanted to change.

“Hey Ash,” She called to him. He looked over at her. “Let’s go change in the bathroom and then drag moron out of here, ok?”

Ash nodded. “Good plan, Mist. Let’s go.” With that, he walked into the men’s room. Misty followed and headed to the woman’s room. Both emerged later in their normal attire. “Hey Brock!” Ash called to the flirting squinty man. “Come on, we’re going.” Brock paid no attention to his friend and continued talking, while poor Joy continued to smile and nod. Ash and Misty looked at each other, turned back to Brock, and simultaneously walked over to him and pulled him away, ignoring his cries of protest. Pikachu hopped up on Ash’s shoulder and Togepi dozed quietly in Misty’s backpack.

Ash and Misty walked away from the center, Brock being dragged, all waving goodbye.

“Goodbye Nurse Joy! Think of me! I’ll see you again somedaaay!!” Brock cried as he was dragged off. Nurse Joy waved to all of them, the wings on her tinkerbell costume bouncing up and down. Ash took one last look at the center and its decorations, including the cardboard sign with a cute little Sentret saying: “Remember kids, no candy from strangers and don’t stay out too long!” Then the trio turned around and headed toward the woods.

****

Standing at the edge of the Black Forest was a little frightening for Misty. She could see where it had gotten it’s name from. The trees were so dense that they blocked out almost any light that would otherwise have perpetrated the darkness. It was pitch black in there. They could also hear the growls and scurrying of wild nocturnal pokemon, and many things are a lot scarier when you can’t see them.

“A-Ash? Are you sure you want to go in there? It doesn’t look very safe to me...” Misty stated nervously.

“Aw, come on. What’s the matter Misty, you’re not scared are ya?” Ash teased.

“O-of course not! I’m just saying that one of us could get hurt in there or something.” She lied.

“Don’t worry about it.” He answered calmly. “Even if we do get lost, we can just wait until morning to go on. And don’t forget that we’ve all got flashlights. And even if there are ghost pokemon out there, I’ve got Noctowl with me, and she can see through their tricks.” Misty still didn’t look convinced. “Come on Misty, it’s important! I’ve got to get to the next gym as soon as possible!” Misty finally gave in. She should’ve known it would be no use.

“Okay....we’ll go.”

“OH NO YOU WON’T!” An old scraggly sounding voice shouted. A hideously ugly wrinkled face popped in front of the trio. All three screamed in fear, Misty clinging to Ash, Brock falling to the ground, and Pikachu making his own terrified “Chaaaaa!”

“Will you please calm down!” The ugly creature said angrily. Ash Misty and Brock regained their senses and looked down to see a short, ugly old woman standing before them. Ash bent down in front of her.

“Um....are you human?” He asked. The old woman grabbed one of his cheeks and pulled hard. “

“YES I’m human and you’d better mind your manners in front of your elders young man!” She screamed in his ear.

“Waaaa...” Ash said when she finally let go.

“I should’ve expected this...” Brock said. “Every time we’re about to enter a spooky forest or go on some other supernatural adventure, some ugly old woman always manages to show up.” The lady kicked him in the kneecap.

“Watch your mouth, sonny!” She snapped as Brock cried in pain.

“Excuse me ma’am, but who are you?” Misty asked politely. The lady looked at her.

“Ah, at least one of you seems to have manners. My name is not important, my dear. I am here to warn you to stay out of this forest tonight.” She said, finally revealing her objective. Ash stopped rubbing his sore cheek and looked up.

“What do you mean?” He snapped. “I’ve gotta go through here to get to the next gym so I can collect all of the Johto league badges!”

“Not tonight, you don’t.” The woman answered. “Those woods are very dangerous tonight children.....the dark pokemon are out.”’

“Dark pokemon?” Ash asked. “We’ve run into dark pokemon before, ma’am. They’re not as bad as people think they are.” The woman shook her head.

“But tonight is different, lad. On this night, the dark pokemon in that forest become mischievous. They play tricks and are capable of casting horrible curses on unfortunate travelers. It is too great of a risk to take by going in there.” Misty looked scared.

“Guys, maybe she’s right. Maybe we shouldn’t-”

“Misty, don’t tell me you believe old wives’ tales like that.” Ash protested. “It’s probably just some made-up story.”

“He’s right Misty.” Brock added. “The whole thing does sound pretty farfetched.”

The old woman shook her head once more. “Fine, ignore my warning if you must. But I tell you, there will be a price to pay if you dare venture in there!”

“Well Mist, are you coming or staying?” Ash asked. Misty already knew what his decision would be, she knew that if he went, so would she. She sighed in defeat.

“Alright, I’m coming.” Ash smiled.

“Great, let’s go.” And with that, the three humans and their pokemon entered the darkness of Black forest. The old woman’s voice cried out to them one last time.

“May the gods have mercy on you!”

****

Ash held his flashlight out in front of him to light the way, though its light only helped a little. He constantly checked over his shoulder to see if Misty and Brock were still behind him. The last thing he wanted was one of them getting lost. Ash was especially concerned about Misty, who seemed very scared to come in to the forest in the first place. He did feel a little guilty about dragging her in, but his ambition was too great for him to wait another day to leave. While he was thinking, a screech followed by a high-pitched laugh was heard through the treetops. A sneasel was sitting in one of the trees, laughing at the silly humans as it picked several apples with its claws. One by one it hurled the fruit at the travelers, laughing the whole time. Brock gritted his teeth and covered his head with his backpack. Misty clung to Ash’s arm, trembling. Ash knew that she would grab onto him like that only when she was really scared. He didn’t mind, but right now he had to do something.

“Pikachu, go!” He shouted. “Use your thunderbolt!”

“Pika!” Pikachu cried as he leapt into action. But before he could attack, the little mouse stopped his charge. He looked back to Ash. “Pikapi, pikaa pikachuu...”

“Wa...oh no, Pikachu’s right. He can’t attack the pokemon if he can’t see it!” Ash pointed his flashlight in all directions, but the laughing seemed to be coming from all directions. He pulled another poke ball from his belt. “Noctowl, I choose you! Use foresight to show us where that pokemon is!” Noctowl came from her poke ball and shot red beams from her eyes, finally revealing the location of the offending sneasel. The pokemon cringed when hit with the light. Without giving Pikachu a chance to attack, it hissed angrily at the trio and disappeared out of sight in a blur. Misty finally let go of Ash.

“What on earth was that?” She asked.

“I don’t know...I didn’t get a chance to analyze it.” Ash answered. “Brock, did it look familiar to you?” Brock shook his head.

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of those before. It must’ve been one of those newly discovered pokemon.” He said. “But it was almost definitely a dark type.”

Misty looked worried. “Ash, what if what that old lady said was true? What if the dark pokemon out here are going to do terrible things to us?” Ash snuffed.

“Don’t worry about it Misty. You saw how easily we scared it away. We’ll be just fine. Come on, let’s keep going.” Ash and Pikachu lead the way, Misty nervously following, and Brock bringing up the rear.

After walking a little while longer, Brock estimated that they were at least halfway through the forest. Ash finally agreed to let the group set up camp. Misty and Brock eagerly went along with his decision, and camp was set up in a matter of minutes. While Brock was sitting by the small campfire reading and Misty was tucking into her sleeping bag, making sure it was especially close to Ash’s, Ash was sitting on a log, looking at the surrounding darkness, wondering what was out there. Pikachu was sitting comfortably on his lap. Suddenly, the silence of the forest was broken by the sound of a twig snapping. Pikachu’s ears twitched and he perked his head up, sniffing the air.

“What’s the matter Pikachu?” Ash asked. Pikachu looked at him, a serious expression on his little face. He pointed out in the direction of the woods.

“Pikachu ka.”

“Something’s out there?” Ash translated. Pikachu nodded. “Maybe we should check it out. Come on Pikachu.” With that, Ash got up and started following Pikachu in the direction of the noise.

“Ash, what are you doing? It’s dangerous out there.” Misty said worriedly.

“I’ll be fine Misty.” Ash said, flicking on his flashlight. “I’m just gonna check out what made that noise.”

“Just...be careful.” The worry in her voice was still there. “It would be pretty pointless if you got lost, seeing that you’re the reason we came here in the first place.” She added. Ash half-smiled.

“Yeah, yeah...I’ll be careful.” And Ash and Pikachu went off to investigate.

****

“Hey Pikachu, I don’t see anything out here...actually I don’t see anything at all....are you sure there was something walking around?” Ash asked his pokemon.

“Pi.” Pikachu confirmed.

“Alright, but if we don’t find something soon, we’re gonna-” Just then Pikachu stopped dead in his tracks, little yellow hairs bristling. Ash also froze, noticing his pokemon’s sudden alert. He turned his flashlight in the direction that Pikachu was intently staring, but the beam of light suddenly flickered and died out. “Oh, shit.” Ash said, smacking the flashlight in a fruitless attempt to revive it. While still trying to fix the light, another faint light caught Ash’s attention. He looked over and saw that it was two lights...two eyes, glowing red in the dark. A deep-throated, menacing growl was coming from their direction. “Wha...what the-” At the sound of Ash’s voice the growl escalated into a snarl, vicious and cold. Ash put on his determined “I’m-ready-to-battle” face. “Pikachu, use a flash!” Pikachu obeyed and faintly light the area. It wasn’t as bright as a flash should normally be, but it was enough to reveal the owner of the glowing eyes. Ash gulped as he looked at the snarling, black devil-horned dog in front of him, whose eyes were still glowing an unnatural red. He pulled his pokedex out of his pocket and pointed it at the pokemon.

“Houndoom: The dark pokemon. The evolved form of Houndour. Its flamethrower and bite attacks are extremely painful. The mere howl of a Houndoom will send other pokemon running for their nests in fear. Though it can be a tame and caring pokemon, Houndoom in the wild can be extremely dangerous. Approach with caution.”

“Hm, another dark type.” Ash said. But I wonder why this one’s eyes are red...the one in the picture has brown eyes. He thought to himself. Maybe it’s using its leer attack... “Well dangerous or not, it’s still a pokemon, and I can still catch it! Pikachu! Use thundershock, now!” Pikachu acted on Ash’s orders immediately.

“Piiika...chuuuuuuuuu!” He cried, sending a strong bolt of electricity in the malevolent Houndoom’s direction. The dark pokemon bared its fangs, and in one swift movement, dodged the thundershock, leapt over Pikachu, and dove at Ash. Ash quickly shielded himself with his arms, and the Houndoom knocked him to the ground, digging its fangs deep into his arm. Ash cried out in pain as the bite sank deeper and deeper, drawing more and more blood. Pikachu attacked in an instant, sending a thunderbolt straight for the attacking pokemon. This time the electric attack hit its mark, and the Houndoom let out a painful howl, releasing Ash from its grip. Pikachu shocked the devil dog again, forcing it to back away. The little mouse then picked up Ash’s flashlight and charged his electricity through it, making the light ten times brighter than it was before. He shone the light directly at his enemy, singing his eyes and causing his dark energy great pain. The Houndoom let out another yelp when hit by the light, and dashed off into the darkness, far from Ash and Pikachu. Once he was sure the danger was gone, Pikachu rushed to Ash’s side.

“Pikapi! Pikapi, pi pikachu?”

“Yeah...I’m okay Pikachu....” Ash said weakly. “We’ve got to get back to the others-AAHH!” Ash cried out as the terrible bite on his arm started inflicting great pain. It was unbearable...he was starting to feel faint. “P-Pikachu...get...help...” And Ash blacked out.

“Pikapi!” Pikachu cried. What was he going to do? There was no way he was going to leave Pikapi out here by himself, unconscious. Just then he had an idea. Pikachu carefully plucked a poke ball off of Ash’s belt and opened it. Noctowl materialized in front of him. “Pika, Pikapi ka pikachu! Cha! Pipika, chu!” Noctowl understood.

“Hooooo!” She cried as she took off to find Misty and Brock. Pikachu knew that Noctowl was able to see fine in the darkness, and would safely lead Pikachupi and the Squinty one to where Pikapi was. Moments later, she returned with the other two humans following close behind.

“Ash? Ash, are you alright?” Misty called. Once she was close enough, Misty was able to see what had happened by the light of Ash’s flashlight, which was lying on the ground beside him. There he was, sprawled out, his arm over his chest, pouring out deep red blood and covering his body. “Oh my god! Ash! Ash say something! Oh god, no! What happened? Ash!” She ran to him and lifted his head. His chest was moving up and down slowly. She sighed briefly, he was still alive. Brock came running over too.

“Misty, this is bad! We’ve got to get him back to camp right away!”

“I know!” Misty yelled, tears coming down her face. Desperately, she tried lifting him up. Brock took off his vest and wrapped it tightly around Ash’s arm. He then lifted the boy onto his back and carried him back to camp, Misty holding the vest onto his arm the whole time.

Once camp was reached, Brock immediately set Ash down on his sleeping bag. He ran to his backpack to get his canteen out. Misty was holding Ash’s head in her lap, stroking his hair gently and pleading with him to wake up. Tears were falling from her face onto his. Brock came back with his canteen and quickly removed the vest from Ash’s arm. He poured the cold water from the canteen over his young friend’s arm, doing his best to clean the wound. He took out a washcloth and carefully started cleaning the blood and dirt off of the bite. Ash winced painfully as he felt his wound being touched, and Misty stroked his face to calm him. Slowly, she noticed that Ash was opening his eyes.

“Ash? Ash, can you hear me?” She asked.

“Yeah...” He answered groggily. “I can...Argh! That hurts!”

“I know it hurts Ash, but I’ve got to clean this wound on your arm or it’ll become infected.” Brock explained. Ash gritted his teeth and tried to bear the pain as he realized that his head was resting on Misty’s lap. Not only that, but her hand was resting on his cheek. He liked it, but why was she doing it? He looked up at her.

“Misty?”
“Um...well you needed something to rest on quickly and it was all I could think of.” She explained quickly.

“Oh.” He said, leaning his head against her hand and shutting his eyes, trying to ignore the pain.

“There, finished.” Brock said, finally removing the washcloth. He then proceeded to place a gauze on the bite, took bandage tape out of his backpack, and wrapped it tightly around Ash’s injured arm. “Think you can get up Ash?” Brock asked. Ash moaned slightly. He was comfortable where he was. Putting that aside, he tried hard to force himself back to his feet. With Misty’s help he was able to stand. “Now, walk to your sleeping bag and lie down. You need to rest.” Brock instructed. Ash did as he was told and got into his sleeping bag. “One more thing Ash.” Brock said. “Just what happened out there?”

“Wild pokemon...Houndoom...it had red, glowing eyes....I tried to battle it...and it bit me...hard.

“Houndoom?” Brock repeated.

“Yeah.” Ash tossed pulled out his pokedex and handed it to Brock. The rock trainer looked up Houndoom’s information as Ash had before.

“Ash, if you knew this thing was dangerous, why did you attack it?” Misty asked.

“It looked like it was going to attack me...” He answered. “Besides, I’ve fought dangerous pokemon before. If I’m going to be a master, I can’t be afraid of a pokemon, no matter how dangerous.”

“Well, don’t ever do anything like that again, understand?” She asked.

“You know I can’t promise you that....”

“Then I’ll make sure you don’t.” She said, lying on her own sleeping bag and scooting close to him. “Now go to sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said with a slight laugh. He shut his eyes, but only for a minute before wincing in pain again. Misty saw his pain. She reached over, put her hand on his bandaged arm, and gently rubbed it. She could tell by the look on his face that she was soothing his pain a little. He looked at her and smiled.

“Thank you...” Was all he said before finally drifting off. Misty stayed awake and remained beside him, doing all she could to care for him.......

****

The moon was invisible to the inhabitants of the Black Forest, but out in the night sky it was waning...tomorrow it would be full.....

To be continued.....

Ooohhh...scary....or not. Just wait. Hahahahaaa!