“Finally, reunited at last,” I said cheerfully. It was getting dark in Oldale Town, and Banjo, Goku, Jasmine, Ricki and I were all sitting on the floor, feeling cramped on what little floor space we had while my former Gastly flew around excitedly.
“I gotta ask though, how and when did you become a Haunter?” He looked at me quizzically, and made a writing motion with his hands.
“Of course,” I smacked my head, “you can’t really speak English, can you? Hang in there, I’ll find some paper and a pencil.” I stood up, carefully stepped over Goku’s powerful legs and rummaged a drawer near my bed.
“Bingo.” In the third drawer, there was an old envelope and a pencil. I took the envelope apart carefully, and handed it and the pencil to Ledger, who grabbed the items in his unattached hands eagerly.
“Okay, let’s see...” Working with what little space he had, Ledger still managed to be quite artistic. He drew out a rough forest with an X in one spot near the side.
“So the X... That’s us?” He nodded, and drew a dotted line from the X around in a circle twice.
“Okay, so that’s you doing your laps...” The dotted line came to a stop, and Ledger drew a small figure on a Flying Pokémon.
“That must be Karen on her Honchkrow,” I said darkly.
“Haunt,” Ledger agreed, “Haunter!”
He then started scribbling on the page all over the two figures and the end of the line.
“You... had a battle or something?” “Haunt!”
After scribbling, Ledger drew a star on the paper, right next to the end of his dotted line.
“Oh! So you evolved while fighting her Honchkrow?” He nodded, and then drew an X over the Honchkrow.
“You knocked him out? Well done,” I said proudly. Even though he never really trained with Goku or Jasmine, he must of done some self training along with his jogs... or more accurately ‘hovers’ or ‘glides’, but I’ll just call it jogging for now. That’s why he evolved, and I didn’t get to see it. Oh well.
As Ledger started drawing a bipedal Pokémon next to Karen, I subconsciously noticed Banjo start snoring, displaying some excellent sleeping skills.
“So next you fought... um... Houndoom?” Ledger shook his head.
“Um... Dark types... Dark types... Umbreon?” He nodded and proceeded to draw an X over the Evolution star.
“Okay, so Umbreon managed to defeat you. Hard luck bud,” I sighed, “so let me guess; Either Karen tried to catch you, and found that you had a trainer so she took you to the Police, or somehow knew that you had a trainer and took you to the cops.”
“Haunt,” nodded Ledger, and held up his first finger.
“Ha, so she did try to catch you,” I chuckled, which woke Banjo up with a start.
He looked around in a confused state, as the rest of us laughed.
Suddenly, the door flew open, and standing there was an Ambipom.
Stranger things have happened, though this revelation caught us all off guard. In my startled rush to stand up, I tripped over poor Ricki.
“Whup, sorry Ricki,” I said apologetically, as the Luxio just glared at me.
Calm down Thomas, I picked myself up, It’s just a Pokémon that most likely belongs to a trainer somewhere in the building.
“Hey there buddy,” I knelt down until I was eye level with the grinning Pokémon, “Where’s your trainer?”
“Ambi,” the Ambipom pointed towards another room down the hall, “Bipom!”
“Sweet, I’ll take you back there buddy.” It just grinned at me some more as I walked behind it to its room.
Its trainer mustn’t be from around here, I thought, slowing down with gradual realisation, Ambipom or Aipom are usually only found in Sinnoh, or...
“Johto,” I whispered, stopping in my tracks. The Ambipom looked back at me expectantly. “Go on Ambipom, I won’t follow. Nice meeting you!”
I turned around to go, but the Pokémon proceeded to jump on my back and attempt to move my head back in the direction of its trainer’s door.
A trainer who is most likely from Team Rocket, I thought nervously. “Let go of me Ambipom. I can’t go in there!”
What was it doing in my room anyway? I tried to pull it off, but it was clinging on too tightly to my head. Maybe it was trying to lure me in there...
“Oof!” I finally lost my balance, crashed into the floor and hurt my elbows. Not a nice combination.
The annoying thing was now trying to pull me by the head into the room.
“Get off!” I said angrily, trying to free my head from his grip.
To my surprise, it did, and proceeded to float up into the air, lifted up by the arms of...
“Fancy see you here Tommy,” said Pace matter-of-factly, and grinned a smile to match his Ambipom.
“I... how... how are things, Pace?” I slowly picked myself up, sweating profoundly, “still working for Rocket? Assigned with... tracking me, perhaps?”
Pace laughed, and put his Ambipom down. Was he raring for a fistfight? He stepped towards me, and I prepared myself...
“Yes and no,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders, “Yes, I am here in Hoenn to find you, but no, I am not here to find you for Team Rocket.”
“So...”
“Proton and Giovanni managed to break a lot of us out of jail, and I was grateful. But when I saw that they only broke us out to hunt for you, I knew I couldn’t stay in Team Rocket any longer. I saw why you couldn’t either.”
I felt extremely relieved. But I still had questions...
“What are you doing here in Hoenn then? Did you come here to warn me?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Pace stroked his chin thoughtfully, “I went along with Giovanni’s plan, so I would be sent here to run away and find you. That’s why I’m in these clothes.” He held up his arms and spun around in the long red coat he was wearing. I laughed at his mock flamboyancy.
“So good to see you though Tommy,” he chuckled, grabbing my hand and shaking it. I shook it back, even though I didn’t really have a choice.
“Same to you, Pace,” I beamed, “but you’re not mad I threw you, Scotty and Jimmy in jail?”
“Me and Scotty don’t mind, we know it wasn’t personal,” said Pace darkly, “but not Jim. He’s convinced that you betrayed all of us. He’s here in Hoenn as well, trying to find you for Giovanni.”
“Damn,” I shook my head, “what about Scotty?”
“He had the same mindset as me, but we were forced to split up at Slateport,” said Pace, “so I escaped my group and travelled until I came across Verdunturf Town. I met a Unovian veteran from named John in the Rusturf Tunnel, who you saw with me downstairs, and he’s agreed to journey around Hoenn with me and help catch me some more Pokémon.”
“Ah yes, I actually met him,” I said nervously, “I was organizing my PC and he apparently had to grab something in a hurry.”
“Oh yeah, he was grabbing some Ultra Balls out for me,” laughed Pace, “I beat him in a game of Poker.”
“Nice one,” I grinned, “say, wanna head back to my room for a more thorough catch-up?”
“Sure thing,” he said, putting an arm around me and practically leading the way, with Ambipom trailing behind us.
“Hey gang,” I said, opening the door to my room, “look what I found!”
Ricki didn’t know him, while Banjo, Goku and Ledger all looked pleased to see another familiar face. Jasmine looked a bit suspicious though.
“It’s alright Jasmine, he’s on our side,” I said, patting her head. She looked a bit more relieved, and I introduced Pace to Ricki, while the rest said caught up with Ambipom.
“So you said you caught some new Pokémon with John,” I said, taking a seat on the bed, “who’d you get and where’d you get ‘em?”
“Well, I don’t think I’ll get them out in here,” said Pace, sitting down on the bed as well.
“That’s fine, you can show us later.”
“Alright, so shortly after I evolved Aipom on Route 116, I ran into a Pidove. John lent me some Pokéballs of his and I caught it. On the same Route I caught an Eevee and a Joltik. Apparently John had been looking for a Joltik since forever, so he traded me his Carnivine for her. A few days later, he lent me his good fishing rod on our way down Route... something or other, it was just past Rustboro City - I caught a Clauncher. And that’s all. A few ran away on our way down here, Pidove evolved into Tranquill and we’ve been here for almost a day now.”
“So you’ve got a team of four then?” Pace nodded proudly. “How have you been faring in battles?”
“Not too bad, I haven’t fought any trainers while I’ve been here,” he grinned, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I reckon I might be,” I returned the grin, “first thing tomorrow, let's battle!”
“I gotta ask though, how and when did you become a Haunter?” He looked at me quizzically, and made a writing motion with his hands.
“Of course,” I smacked my head, “you can’t really speak English, can you? Hang in there, I’ll find some paper and a pencil.” I stood up, carefully stepped over Goku’s powerful legs and rummaged a drawer near my bed.
“Bingo.” In the third drawer, there was an old envelope and a pencil. I took the envelope apart carefully, and handed it and the pencil to Ledger, who grabbed the items in his unattached hands eagerly.
“Okay, let’s see...” Working with what little space he had, Ledger still managed to be quite artistic. He drew out a rough forest with an X in one spot near the side.
“So the X... That’s us?” He nodded, and drew a dotted line from the X around in a circle twice.
“Okay, so that’s you doing your laps...” The dotted line came to a stop, and Ledger drew a small figure on a Flying Pokémon.
“That must be Karen on her Honchkrow,” I said darkly.
“Haunt,” Ledger agreed, “Haunter!”
He then started scribbling on the page all over the two figures and the end of the line.
“You... had a battle or something?” “Haunt!”
After scribbling, Ledger drew a star on the paper, right next to the end of his dotted line.
“Oh! So you evolved while fighting her Honchkrow?” He nodded, and then drew an X over the Honchkrow.
“You knocked him out? Well done,” I said proudly. Even though he never really trained with Goku or Jasmine, he must of done some self training along with his jogs... or more accurately ‘hovers’ or ‘glides’, but I’ll just call it jogging for now. That’s why he evolved, and I didn’t get to see it. Oh well.
As Ledger started drawing a bipedal Pokémon next to Karen, I subconsciously noticed Banjo start snoring, displaying some excellent sleeping skills.
“So next you fought... um... Houndoom?” Ledger shook his head.
“Um... Dark types... Dark types... Umbreon?” He nodded and proceeded to draw an X over the Evolution star.
“Okay, so Umbreon managed to defeat you. Hard luck bud,” I sighed, “so let me guess; Either Karen tried to catch you, and found that you had a trainer so she took you to the Police, or somehow knew that you had a trainer and took you to the cops.”
“Haunt,” nodded Ledger, and held up his first finger.
“Ha, so she did try to catch you,” I chuckled, which woke Banjo up with a start.
He looked around in a confused state, as the rest of us laughed.
Suddenly, the door flew open, and standing there was an Ambipom.
Stranger things have happened, though this revelation caught us all off guard. In my startled rush to stand up, I tripped over poor Ricki.
“Whup, sorry Ricki,” I said apologetically, as the Luxio just glared at me.
Calm down Thomas, I picked myself up, It’s just a Pokémon that most likely belongs to a trainer somewhere in the building.
“Hey there buddy,” I knelt down until I was eye level with the grinning Pokémon, “Where’s your trainer?”
“Ambi,” the Ambipom pointed towards another room down the hall, “Bipom!”
“Sweet, I’ll take you back there buddy.” It just grinned at me some more as I walked behind it to its room.
Its trainer mustn’t be from around here, I thought, slowing down with gradual realisation, Ambipom or Aipom are usually only found in Sinnoh, or...
“Johto,” I whispered, stopping in my tracks. The Ambipom looked back at me expectantly. “Go on Ambipom, I won’t follow. Nice meeting you!”
I turned around to go, but the Pokémon proceeded to jump on my back and attempt to move my head back in the direction of its trainer’s door.
A trainer who is most likely from Team Rocket, I thought nervously. “Let go of me Ambipom. I can’t go in there!”
What was it doing in my room anyway? I tried to pull it off, but it was clinging on too tightly to my head. Maybe it was trying to lure me in there...
“Oof!” I finally lost my balance, crashed into the floor and hurt my elbows. Not a nice combination.
The annoying thing was now trying to pull me by the head into the room.
“Get off!” I said angrily, trying to free my head from his grip.
To my surprise, it did, and proceeded to float up into the air, lifted up by the arms of...
“Fancy see you here Tommy,” said Pace matter-of-factly, and grinned a smile to match his Ambipom.
“I... how... how are things, Pace?” I slowly picked myself up, sweating profoundly, “still working for Rocket? Assigned with... tracking me, perhaps?”
Pace laughed, and put his Ambipom down. Was he raring for a fistfight? He stepped towards me, and I prepared myself...
“Yes and no,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders, “Yes, I am here in Hoenn to find you, but no, I am not here to find you for Team Rocket.”
“So...”
“Proton and Giovanni managed to break a lot of us out of jail, and I was grateful. But when I saw that they only broke us out to hunt for you, I knew I couldn’t stay in Team Rocket any longer. I saw why you couldn’t either.”
I felt extremely relieved. But I still had questions...
“What are you doing here in Hoenn then? Did you come here to warn me?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Pace stroked his chin thoughtfully, “I went along with Giovanni’s plan, so I would be sent here to run away and find you. That’s why I’m in these clothes.” He held up his arms and spun around in the long red coat he was wearing. I laughed at his mock flamboyancy.
“So good to see you though Tommy,” he chuckled, grabbing my hand and shaking it. I shook it back, even though I didn’t really have a choice.
“Same to you, Pace,” I beamed, “but you’re not mad I threw you, Scotty and Jimmy in jail?”
“Me and Scotty don’t mind, we know it wasn’t personal,” said Pace darkly, “but not Jim. He’s convinced that you betrayed all of us. He’s here in Hoenn as well, trying to find you for Giovanni.”
“Damn,” I shook my head, “what about Scotty?”
“He had the same mindset as me, but we were forced to split up at Slateport,” said Pace, “so I escaped my group and travelled until I came across Verdunturf Town. I met a Unovian veteran from named John in the Rusturf Tunnel, who you saw with me downstairs, and he’s agreed to journey around Hoenn with me and help catch me some more Pokémon.”
“Ah yes, I actually met him,” I said nervously, “I was organizing my PC and he apparently had to grab something in a hurry.”
“Oh yeah, he was grabbing some Ultra Balls out for me,” laughed Pace, “I beat him in a game of Poker.”
“Nice one,” I grinned, “say, wanna head back to my room for a more thorough catch-up?”
“Sure thing,” he said, putting an arm around me and practically leading the way, with Ambipom trailing behind us.
“Hey gang,” I said, opening the door to my room, “look what I found!”
Ricki didn’t know him, while Banjo, Goku and Ledger all looked pleased to see another familiar face. Jasmine looked a bit suspicious though.
“It’s alright Jasmine, he’s on our side,” I said, patting her head. She looked a bit more relieved, and I introduced Pace to Ricki, while the rest said caught up with Ambipom.
“So you said you caught some new Pokémon with John,” I said, taking a seat on the bed, “who’d you get and where’d you get ‘em?”
“Well, I don’t think I’ll get them out in here,” said Pace, sitting down on the bed as well.
“That’s fine, you can show us later.”
“Alright, so shortly after I evolved Aipom on Route 116, I ran into a Pidove. John lent me some Pokéballs of his and I caught it. On the same Route I caught an Eevee and a Joltik. Apparently John had been looking for a Joltik since forever, so he traded me his Carnivine for her. A few days later, he lent me his good fishing rod on our way down Route... something or other, it was just past Rustboro City - I caught a Clauncher. And that’s all. A few ran away on our way down here, Pidove evolved into Tranquill and we’ve been here for almost a day now.”
“So you’ve got a team of four then?” Pace nodded proudly. “How have you been faring in battles?”
“Not too bad, I haven’t fought any trainers while I’ve been here,” he grinned, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I reckon I might be,” I returned the grin, “first thing tomorrow, let's battle!”