Chương 28

Sam should have been tired. He should have been downright exhausted from the Gym Trial and how late it was. Both Mankey and Cyndaquil should have been just as tired too, but everyone was wide awake and ready to meet the newest member of the team. Everyone but Redi, who could barely keep her eyes open and was already dressed for bed.

"Wasn't you... supposed to be a Gym Trial?" she asked, barely managing to form her sentence.

"How did... catch something?"

"My Gym Trial was different— harder —thanks to Morty," Sam said, holding his head high.

"I told him about wanting to catch a Gastly, and he went ahead and made that the objective of my trial!" Sam grinned, and Mankey added to the statement by grunting his name and flexing proudly. Cyndaquil shook her head, but she couldn't stop smiling, herself. Redi wasn't awake enough to notice that. She just let out a yawn and squeezed Teddiursa a bit tighter. He was held in her arms not unlike a teddy bear, and the little Pokémon was so passed out that he hung slack like one, too.

"Samuel Greyson. Your Pokémon is ready for pick-up!" He sat up on the waiting area's couch and turned to see the Pokémon Center nurse waiting for him behind the front counter. Outside, the night was at its peak, but the Pokémon Center was still bright and open for business. Pokémon could get injured at any time of the day, so it didn't make sense to limit hours.

The active nurse had been changed out, however, and while Sam wasn't familiar enough with the Pokémon here, he was pretty sure the Chansey had switched for the late night shift, too.

"I'll be right back," Sam said. Redi responded with a tired grunt. Standing up, he went up to the counter and didn't bother hiding his excited smile.

"I'm Samuel," he said, sliding over his trainer ID, which proudly stated his name. The nurse took it and hummed, briefly looking over its contents to ensure she had the right person.

"... Um, by the way, Gastly is freshly caught, so it didn't give you any trouble, did it?" Sam asked. The nurse glanced back at Sam and chuckled, passing back his trainer ID, an unassuming Pokéball, as well as a foil-trimmed piece of paper; the Cleanse Tag.

"That little guy? Oh, you don't need to worry about him," she said, amusement clear in her voice.

"All Chansey are trained to handle Ghost Types, and all Pokémon Centers come pre-haunted, too. If needed, we could have had our local Haunter step in. And I don't think that will ever be necessary if I read Gastly's personality right." It was good news that Gastly seemed personable enough, especially since Sam had caught the Pokémon without bothering to check his personality. Also, that small fact about Pokémon Centers being haunted was something Sam knew from reading he had done at home.

Stationing a Ghost Type in Pokémon Centers was a common practice to ensure no wild Ghost Types ever snuck in, as the presence of that Ghost Type meant the "territory" came pre-claimed. That, and it helped to prevent species like Hypno and others from messing with guests' dreams. Although, it was only most Pokémon Centers that had secret Ghost Types, so there were still occasional reports of intruders at smaller Pokémon Centers.

Sam pocketed his ID and the Cleanse Tag—Morty hadn't said anything about giving it back, so he went ahead and took the unspoken gift for what it was. He thanked the nurse for her help before rushing back to where everyone else was waiting. There, both Cyndaquil and Mankey immediately jumped off the couch, ready to see how everything would play out. As for Redi, she just slowly turned her head to face Sam and tried to blink away her sleep.

"I'm gonna go give my recruitment pitch to Gastly," Sam said.

"Wanna come?"

"Can't you do it in here?" Redi mumbled. He glanced at the nurse. Given that it was so late at night, only he and Redi were actually present in the main room. The nurse heard them, but unfortunately, she shook her head no.

"Gotta release him outside," Sam said. Redi groaned and pushed off the couch, causing Teddiursa to whine in her arms. Sam tried to assure her that she didn't have to be present, and that she could meet Gastly tomorrow morning, but Redi absolutely refused to wait. She might have been utterly exhausted, but she wanted to support her friend—tired or not.

Stepping through the side door that connected to the Pokémon Center's back battlefields, the cold of the night hit Sam, and Redi immediately pulled Teddiursa in to ward off any shivers. The shock of the air served to wake her up.

"At least I'm not as asleep now." She sounded a little unhappy about it, but Sam could tell she at least somewhat appreciated how it would help her focus. He proceeded to march over to stand in the nearest battlefield—he had his pick since no one else was outside. Under the light of the full moon, he made sure both Cyndaquil and Mankey were ready before tossing up the Pokéball.

"Come on out, Gastly!" Red light flashed as the Pokémon coalesced into being in the middle of the air. Purple gas coiled around Gastly's central sphere as eyes snapped open and a fanged mouth stretched into a wide grin.

"GaaaAAAaastlyyyyYYYyy!" The Ghost Type moaned his name with the cadence of a stereotypical ghost. He stuck his tongue out and rushed at Sam before stopping a foot away, obviously wanting him to jump. Sam blinked emotionlessly. He had seen worse before. Even though he hadn't been scared in the slightest, the Ghost Type proceeded to cackle. Gastly bounced in the air, mouth and eyes curved up in a smile. He circled around where Sam stood as if to see how he would react next.

"I caught you, Gastly, and now I want you to properly join my team!" Sam said, grinning and crossing his arms to take on a stance of pure confidence.

"Stick with me and I'll make you strong! And if you want to be scary, I know hundreds of spooky stories that we can take inspiration from!" The Ghost Type's eyes almost seemed to sparkle, but instead of agreeing, he moved back to distance himself from Sam, facing him with a challenging grin.

"I think Gastly wants you to fight him," Redi said. She sounded much more awake now that she had felt the cold night's air.

"... That makes sense, I guess. I did kind of surprise him by rushing at him, myself." Redi did a double take.

"Did you really?"

"I didn't say? I smacked Gastly with a Cleanse Tag before punching him with a Pokéball. Cyndaquil and Mankey were too busy in their own fights to help with his capture." Redi gaped at Sam and said nothing for several seconds before letting out a pained groan.

"Ugh! That's not fair! From now on, you're not allowed to do anything cool unless I'm around to see!" Sam smirked.

"No promises." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Glancing back to his team, he nodded to send Cyndaquil forward before tilting his chin up in an attempt to take on an intimidating pose.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah?" Redi replied.

"No, not you. I mean— Ugh. Let's just get this battle started." Gastly moved before Sam could give Cyndaquil any orders. Gastly's species was known for speed, and he didn't let Sam down. The Ghost Type was clearly untrained, as he merely traveled in a straight line. That would have opened him up to an easy counter via Ember, but Sam held his tongue to see what Gastly would do. Immediately upon getting close, Gastly lunged, but Cyndaquil easily dodged to the side.

However, she was more used to fighting grounded opponents, and he turned on a dime to run his tongue over the side of her head. She stopped moving and seemed to gasp.

"Cyndaquil! Are you okay?" Sam asked. Lick wasn't a strong attack by any means, but it did carry the potential to paralyze. However, Cyndaquil only froze out of disgust. A grimace overtook her face as she tried to wipe off the dripping saliva with a paw. Gastly just cackled.

"Want to get clean? Burn it off! Use Flame Wheel!" The heat of her back burned away the ethereal spit, and she jumped into the air and curled into a ball. Flames licked around her as she spun and hurtled towards Gastly. The Ghost Type panicked, eyes darting around for a direction to dodge. In a basic battlefield like this, there was nowhere to hide, so Gastly quickly backpedaled in the air.

It didn't seem intentional, but the attempt to dodge worked; since he was a Ghost Type, he phased through the floor and disappeared underground without the move striking him. The Flame Wheel hit the earth and spread out, Cyndaquil coming to a stop and looking around in surprise. Gastly didn't immediately surface, but Sam was excited.

"If he can avoid attacks by phasing into things like that..." The technique held a lot of potential. The field was utterly still as Cyndaquil went on guard to wait for her opponent, gaze rapidly flickering around to see wherever he emerged. After several tense seconds, Gastly poked out of the ground behind her, and Cyndaquil jumped and turned to ready herself to face him. She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. Gastly's gaze turned bright blue, and Cyndaquil landed before going utterly still.

She didn't look away or move to attack as Gastly reentered the air. His grin widened as he began to approach, and Cyndaquil continued to do nothing at all.

"Hypnosis," Sam identified. The move was great at putting an opponent to sleep or lowering their guard by making them too drowsy to act. Gastly crept closer and closer to Cyndaquil, easily getting close without a retaliation. Seeing where this was going, Sam picked up her Pokéball.

"Return!" he shouted. Gastly blinked at him in surprise.

"Mankey, go ahead and do your thing. Take him out with Assurance!" A screech. Gastly was caught off guard. From next to Sam, Mankey threw himself into the air, hurtling himself right to where Gastly floated. The Ghost Type tried to use Hypnosis again to get Mankey to stop, but the monkey was far too filled with anger to care about the effects of the move.

"I guess we can mark Vital Spirit as being in development," Sam mumbled. He hadn't bothered with that ability until now, but it seemed that all of their practice with Mankey's anger had meant this second ability was slowly coming in. The anger that fueled his attacks meant he couldn't be able to be forcibly put to sleep—at least, by an opponent around his own level since the ability was barely practiced. Within a second, Mankey's darkened palm struck Gastly in the face, and the Pokémon was sent into the floor.

The Dark Type energy of Assurance seemed to disrupt Gastly's spiritual form, as he wasn't able to flee by phasing into the floor once again. Already a relatively fragile Pokémon, that one strike almost took him out. Mankey raised a hand to finish Gastly off, but Sam shouted, and the primate paused and pulled back. Gastly rolled backwards before barely managing to return to the air. His eyes spun as if dazed, and he looked to Mankey as if slightly worried.

Mankey shrugged and waved Gastly off, basically saying the fight was over since he had effectively won.

"If I hadn't already caught you, I would have had Mankey finish you off so I could throw a Pokéball and add you to the team," Sam said, stepping onto the field to approach. Despite his loss, Gastly cackled, finding something about this situation funny. The grin on his face told Sam that he wasn't upset. Instead, the Pokémon looked thrilled to have been a part of a battle.

"So!" Sam said.

"Willing to stay on the team?" Gastly nodded with enthusiasm.

"Great! So you've met both Cyndaquil and Mankey. I'm Sam—Samuel—and over there is Redi and Teddiursa, who are friends but not members of the team. We should probably head to bed soon, but I wouldn't mind learning more about the moves you know, and then also..." Sam lowered his voice.

"Just wait until you find out about my secret weapon and all the exclusive information we can use to fuel your growth." Sam of course called his mother the next day, and of course Sableye managed to catch him off guard. He managed to get through the entire conversation thinking that Sableye wasn't there until the ghost popped out and jumpscared him right at the end of the call. His mother at least met Gastly and learned of Morty, though he didn't tell her about the existence of real ghosts.

Turning to Gastly, the Ghost Type looked jealous of Sableye's ability to scare Sam, and he went through several successive but failed attempts to do the same while they headed to the edge of town to train. The goal for today was to get to know Gastly and to learn exactly what the Pokémon could do. The basic Ghost Type traits were all there—an enjoyment of scaring people and the ability to phase in and out of solid objects—but other than that, he was a pretty basic Gastly overall.

All Gastly inherently had their sole ability mastered, as it was hard to not to have Levitate mastered when the species could literally float. As for his moves, Gastly had clearly never trained. He knew Lick and Hypnosis but nothing else. Yet, there was something about the look in his eyes when he watched Mankey practice his attacks and when he watched Cyndaquil train both Curse and her flames. From what Sam could tell, Gastly had never left the bounds of Burned Tower before.

They were alike in that way; both of them had the entire world to explore. Redi stayed at the Pokémon Center to challenge other trainers (and make money while doing so), so it was just Sam and his team for today's practice. They found a nice slope to practice on while Sam spoke to the newest member of his team.

"There are a few basic moves that should be pretty easy for your species to learn," Sam said.

"There's Confuse Ray, Mean Look, and Spite, which can all disable a foe." The New Pokédex listed both Mean Look and Confuse Ray as moves even the weakest of Gastly could learn, but contemporary texts listed Spite alongside them, too.

"I'm trying out a strategy based around weakening and debilitating our opponents," Sam continued.

"So while Lick and Hypnosis are great for that, these other moves are even better. Mean Look prevents a Pokémon from switching, allowing you to stop opponents from entering their Pokéball to rest. Confuse Ray confuses your foes and can cause them to hurt themselves instead of hurting you. Then there's Spite, which draws out a Pokémon's energy, exhausting them and making it harder to use the same move." Gastly already looked ready to start, but Sam kept going.

"Those are for later, though. We'll use learning those three moves as an early goal. Today, I just want to get a head start at building up your basics and working on your speed. We'll figure out the best way to use you in a fight." Gastly deflated—the ambient purple mist around him seemed to drop, somehow, and the dark sphere that made up his body shrunk ever so slightly. Gastly, as a species, were rather amorphous, and his body tended to shift along with his emotions.

"Don't worry," Sam said, laughing slightly at how ridiculous Gastly looked.

"I want to expand your moveset as soon as possible, I just want to get to know you more, first. And besides, we have time. Plus, I have the perfect attack that combines well with everything else." According to the New Pokédex, Hex wasn't even something that difficult for a Gastly to learn. Even better, it was a special attacking move, meaning it used Gastly's control over Ghost Type energy instead of his physical strength.

Right now, he only knew Lick, so Hex was effectively a mandatory attack for him to figure out. Still, they had time. It was only the second month of Sam's journey, and he had seven more to get the remaining seven badges. They spent that day training, and the more they trained, the more Sam realized just how much of a blessing meeting with Morty actually was.

Out of everything the Gym Leader had told Sam, it wasn't the knowledge of real ghosts he appreciated the most, but it was the rundown of strategies the man had given him while traveling through the festival. There was something about having a focused objective that made everything slot together that much more easily. Sam could more quickly identify which moves to work on and figure out what they needed to train.

If he wanted his Pokémon to disable opponents for easier wins, why not choose the moves that would allow that act? If he wanted to focus on wearing a foe down, why not focus on speed and stamina? With the sheer number of options the New Pokédex provided, for once, Sam actually felt like everything was coming together. His team worked together to train, going through paired and group activities while taking frequent breaks.

Together, four-person races between Sam and his Pokémon was a way to encourage everyone to train their speed. Weak Embers from Cyndaquil let Gastly practice dodging while also giving Cyndaquil a way to train her Fire Type mastery—knowing how to weaken an attack was a great way to develop her control. For Mankey, Gastly was a surprise, perfect partner for spars.

He didn't need to worry about taking damage from Normal and Fighting Type moves, so Gastly could practice evasion in melee while Mankey practiced his aim against flying foes. It was still only one day of practice, so overall improvements were limited. Sam still felt like he gained a good handle on what Gastly could do. The Ghost Type might not have learned any new moves, but he was already quickly catching up with the rest of Sam's team. Then after resting that night, Sam moved onto something else entirely.

While Gastly had only scratched the surface of his training, someone else needed his support.

"Redi, are you really sure you can handle this? You only have Teddiursa, and he only knows Fire Punch," Sam asked.

"It'll be fine!" Redi said as they walked towards the local Gym.

"Besides, you said I had a good handle on our strategy! We can do this!" Sam just sighed and quietly followed along.

"... Sure, but I don't think punching them in the face will be that effective against Ghost Types," he mumbled. Redi's trial was scheduled for today, and he wanted to show his support. He followed her to Ecruteak Gym, where she disappeared down a staircase that led to the building's basement after Sam gave her a thumbs-up for good luck. Other trainers sat in chairs in the Gym's lobby, waiting for their own challenges or out of hope a free slot would open up.

Sam pulled out the books Morty loaned him—he was already most of the way through, but he still had a ways to go. While he wasn't sure how long it would take her, like the trial at Olivine, the Gym Trial here was timed. At most, it would only take thirty minutes before Redi's challenge was up. He expected her to finish sooner rather than later. However, while he read through historical reports of ghosts, the clock continued to tick, and then fifteen minutes passed. After that, twenty. Then twenty-five.

Before he knew it, the full half-hour had passed him by. Minutes after that, the door to the basement finally opened up, and Redi walked out with a confused look on her face. Sam closed his book and stood up.

"Did you win?" he asked, and she tilted her head to the side, almost seeming to gaze right through him.

"We didn't lose," she said, an unsure tinge to her voice.

"Every fight, we won, but we only fought a single fight." Redi took a quick look around at the other trainers here. Most were keeping to themselves, but a few were trying and failing to hide how they were actively listening in.

"... Come on." Redi grabbed Sam's arm and led him outside. Sam noticed she didn't go to the front counter to collect a reward.

"The Gym Trial had us stand in a perfectly dark but empty room and told us to take out the three hiding ghosts. We found one, but..." She bit her lip.

"Whenever we saw the other two, they ran away before we could get close." A conflicted look passed over her face before she forced herself a grin. Taking on a nonchalant stance, she threw her hands behind her head and leaned back as if there was nothing wrong at all.

"So what I'm trying to say is that we lost! We didn't pass the Gym Trial," Redi said with false cheer.

"It wouldn't have mattered even if Teddiursa knew super-effective moves, anyway. With just him and me, it wasn't enough. We never stood a chance in the first place."