From: Ghostyhead (Ghostyhead@tomgreen.com) Subject: [PW!] Fearless Haunter Hunters Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000/07/23 *This story involves both my characters (Raine and her Marowak, Meche and Cooper, who'll get a WG of his own soon) and Tom Skyrunner, who belongs to Tom, Darth Psyduck (he's on holiday and left me in control of his character)* PW! - Fearless Haunter Hunters (Previously in this little twisted tale of terror, Raine's Haunter, Spaceghost, escaped and began blowing things up in Celadon, for fun. Tracking him to the Pokémon Centre, the pair (aided and abetted by the resident Nurse Joy and a Chansey with delusions of grandeur) managed to recapture the errant ghost, albeit not before he demolished the Centre and much of Celadon City's high street. In an effort to avoid arrest, Raine and Meche (along with Tom Skyrunner and Cooper, a *friend* of Raine's) are currently hiding out in the department store.) "So," began Raine, one eyebrow raised so high that her hairline was feeling threatened. "You're a.um." "Jedi," said Tom, absent-mindedly throwing a TM into the air and catching it with one hand while scratching his Psyduck's head with the other. "And you don't come from this universe." said Cooper, who had perched himself on the counter's edge and was regarding Tom with the kind of look he usually reserved for customers daring to ask for a refund (and his mother). "No," said Tom resignedly. "To be honest, I'm not quite sure what happened. One moment I was resting at home, and the next I had appeared in this world. Thankfully, Mr Psychic in. Saffron, yes, that was it, Saffron City found me." Cooper sweatdropped and grinned uneasily at Raine. Both knew exactly what had happened last year, when Spaceghost had found his way into Saffron's resident clairvoyant's house. For his part, Tom appeared not to have noticed the brief exchange of glances. ".and was kind enough to give me a companion," he finished, indicating his Psyduck. For its part, the duck was being fairly quiet and had gone almost unnoticed by Raine and Cooper. Meche, currently sulking by a colourful display of Poke dolls, had never much liked the vacant-looking water Pokémon and was sure this one was plotting something evil. "How long d'you think it'll take for the police to go away?" asked Cooper idly. Raine sighed again and shrugged. "Why are the authorities looking for you, by the way?" asked Tom. Raine winced at the prospect of explaining. (Suffice it to say that Raine explains at this point. To avoid making this post insanely long, I've summarised the back-story at the top, or you can read my first four PW!s if your news server still has them) ".And they would arrest you for the actions of your Pokémon?" asked Tom, surprised. "Yeah," muttered a rather depressed Raine. "There's this law against keeping dangerous Pokémon in built-up areas. Plus, I'm hardly on Officer Jenny's good side after the Ghost blew up her van last month." Raine glanced out of the department store's window. Outside, the brief peace following Spaceghost's short rampage had long since evaporated, and the street crawled with news reporters, police Growlithes sniffing for clues and small groups of Celadon's braver citizens. Here and there, an irate individual was ranting about the loss of their car, the side of their house or some other trivial matter. Raine sighed. She and Meche could stay here for a while, she thought. Despite her current state of unemployment, the manager usually only turned up later in the day, leaving them another couple of hours of peace before the real fireworks started. Looking up from her reverie, Raine tried to catch up with the conversation between Cooper and their new acquaintance. "So, these Pokémon are like pet animals?" asked the young Jedi. "It depends," answered Cooper, kicking his heels against the counter. "Some people just keep 'em in the house. Some use them in battles, and some are more like friends," he indicated Raine and Meche, "like exhibits A and B here." Feeling a little guilty about their situation, Raine patted Meche on the head. The Marowak smiled weakly and shrugged. "Although, on contemplation, there might be a fourth category here." said Cooper, a suggestive smirk forming on his face. Seeing exactly where this was going, both human and Pokémon subjected him to their most evil stares. Suddenly, Tom sprang to his feet and turned towards the door. Meche, sensing the same thing, ran back to the three humans and positioned herself in front of Raine protectively. "What is it, Meche?" asked Raine, noticing the worried look on the little Pokemon's face. "Maro. Maro wak maro." answered the Marowak. Despite not understanding the exact words, the basic meaning was conveyed with crystal clarity. "Oh shit." breathed Raine. Elsewhere in the building, a man named Eric was answering the call of nature. A fairly unremarkable employee, he worked in the foods department and was connected to the events taking place outside and on the upper floor only by the fact that Cooper regularly took the opportunity of stealing his packed lunch, which he brought to work every day and regularly left unguarded. At this point, though, Eric was settling himself on the toilet, taking advantage of the morning's strange lack of customers. From deep beneath him, the sound echoing strangely through old lead pipes, a cry echoed. "HaunthaunthaunthauntHAUNTER!" What everybody in the building heard, however, was a stifled scream from the unfortunate Eric and the ching-whoosh of the toilet exploding. "The little bastard." muttered Cooper, the small, angry purple truth dawning. "What was that?" asked Tom, still poised to fight. "I felt a sudden disturbance in the f. the floor. Yes, the floor." "That," said Raine, a dark look on her face, "unless I'm severely mistaken - and I honestly hope I am - was Spaceghost." Meche hit her head against the counter in frustration. "Wak." Cooper looked towards the door. He hadn't heard any explosions yet, which meant that the Haunter was probably still trying to get his bearings. As far as any of them knew, he had never been in the department store before. This, Cooper reasoned, gave them time to prepare. The door to the stairwell swung slowly open, emitting what Raine considered a below-par spooky creak. All the doors in her apartment had long since made the same noise, the legacy of Spaceghost's prolonged residence, apparently irreparable by even the most skilled (and expensive) carpenters. The three of them, much to Tom's bemusement and Raine's disapproval, were clutching weapons (in a manner of speaking) of Cooper's design. Basically, each consisted of a hapless Abra, plucked while asleep from the department store's pets section. Cooper, while bored at work (this perpetual state of mind had previously produced, amongst other wonders of modern science, the unofficial, Caterpie-powered Legendary Bird Detector (patent pending), which was 100% guaranteed to beep every tenth of a second when neither Zapdos, Moltres or Articuno were present - none of its unfortunate purchasers had ever found out if it stopped when the prized Pokémon were about, having either smashed the thing after a few minutes of its incessant bleeping or suffered the dubious force of the Caterpie's wrath, which inevitably broke free after an hour or so, given Cooper's 'low-cost' (and low-materials) construction). Raine didn't even want to think about the Pikachu shoebrush or the idea that Koffing could be used as impromptu spacehoppers, the testing of which had blown a chunk out of the perfumes floor, and left Cooper unable to walk in a straight line for about a month. This particular one-of-a-kind invention (three-of-a-kind now, as Raine had grudgingly consented to help Cooper make more), was the aforementioned sleeping Abra, with a Water Stone sellotaped to its head, both arms held in one hand and both legs in the other, so that its head could be aimed like the barrel of a gun. To his delight at the time, Cooper had discovered that by gently squeezing the Pokemon's legs together, it could be encouraged to fire out a small psybeam without waking (or, as it happened, needing to know the TM). While more than powerful enough to, for example, repeatedly knock the manager's hat off his head without directly implicating Cooper, the blast was hardly as formidable as that fired by a well-trained psychic Pokémon, and probably unlikely to worry the eponymous Spaceghost. Hence the Water Stone, which acted as a focus for the beam and made the 'guns' shoot something approaching a continuous stream, enough to seriously surprise an unsuspecting rogue ghost. And so, thus armed, the three ghosty hunters tiptoed carefully around the corner and began their progress down, towards the floor where Tom sensed the strongest evil presence. Despite Cooper's insistence that this was just the manager, the general consensus was that this would be where the ghost could be found. Hefting his weapon, Tom was struck by a random thought. Maybe it was residue from his recent inter-dimensional jaunt. Maybe it was proof that good ideas really are universal. Maybe it was just good timing, but as the three edged further into the gloomy body of the department store, Tom looked at the others and whispered, "Who ya gonna call."