Lentimas Town

I was always jealous of the kids who grew up in towns with Pokémon labs. All those professors who just handed out new Pokémon, practically gift wrapped. Then there was me, Hazel, 12 years old and stranded in Lentimas town, friendless and home schooled. I really wanted a Pokémon. We had plenty of local ones, numels, skorupies, trapinches and stuff, but I never really wanted one of those. It wasn't that I hated those Pokémon, but the small group of town bullies all had them, they'd battle and battle until they'd all fainted then they would swagger off to the Pokecenter and then battle again! I know it sounds stupid, but I didn't want to be like those kids, even in just Pokémon type. Again, It might have been jealousy, but I hated them. They didn't really care about their Pokémon, they just wanted the strongest one and made them work far too hard. Not to mention they'd attack me too. When I got too near their 'hang out' space. I'd get a bite or a poison sting in my direction and if I told my mother, they would just pass it off as an accident and explain that I really shouldn't be getting too close to Pokémon battle anyway.

One October afternoon, I was sitting outside my house just watching the clouds when the gang came around the corner, they were on their way to the Pokecenter again. They'd almost fully past me when one of them stopped. It was one of the older boys, Scott. He was looking at me, smirking. I got nervous, they didn't normally talk to me, unless they were calling me names or attacking me, I got ignored.

'Hey kid' he said leaning over my wall, still smirking.

'H-hi' I stammered back, I tried to work out what they wanted, 'Surely they wouldn't do anything in front of my house, would they?' I thought to myself. The rest of the group walked over still standing a little behind Scott, they were whispering and smiling, a slight ripple of laughter passing through them.

"You wanna hang out with us?" Scott asked

"Me? Why?" They'd never shown the slightest interest in being nice to me before, I was the youngest kid in town, the loser whom it was fun to exclude.

"We think you're pretty cool" He said, the giggles of the others picked up a little.

"Yeah?" I said, I didn't really believe him, but I still wanted to sound cool.

"Yeah! but if you want to hang out with us, you gotta prove you're tough"

"How?" I asked. Something began to churn inside me, a little light of hope flickered. Despite my distaste for these people, I really did want some friends.

"You gotta spend one hour in the strange house" he grinned, I gulped.

The strange house was just a short walk outside of the town. I could never go there because of all the tall grass and wild Pokémon besides it was definitely haunted, I'd never seen a ghost type Pokémon before, but my imagination had always made them terrifying.

"No way Scott, she won't do it, she'd be way too scared" a girl named Cindy called.

"Scared little Pidove!" another voice from the group mocked and they all laughed.

"Pidove! Pidove! Pidove!" They chanted in a sing song voice. Tears were stinging my eyes. I felt like an idiot for getting so upset, but I couldn't stop it, I wiped my hand over my eyes quickly hoping they wouldn't see the tears.

"I am NOT a Pidove!" I blurted out "I'll go!" as soon as I'd said it, I regretted it. I didn't even expect to say it and, from the looks the others had on their faces, they didn't either. I clapped my hand over my mouth, far too late to do me any good. Their smirks didn't take long to come back.

"Fine" Scott said calmly "We'll come get you tonight, 10pm" I gulped, of course they were going to make me do it at night, but there was no way I was backing out now.

Time has never passed so quickly as it did that night, at about 9 I told mum I was feeling sick and was going to bed, then I went upstairs. It was only a half lie, I really did feel sick, I wasn't good with nerves. I picked up my torch, I really wanted to take it, but there was no way they were going to let me have it if they knew about it. I needed to hide it from them. I found a small bag and shoved it in, but it looked weird with just the torch, so I shoved in a few random items, extra batteries, a jumper, couple pokeballs, bulking up my bag enough to look normal.

Finally ten o'clock came around and it was time. I crept out my window and along the garden wall without my parents seeing me. I hopped the fence and I was alone, no sign of any of them! Relief fluttered in my heart for a second. Maybe the whole thing was some dumb joke? They'd be laughing at me, dumb little kid who thought she could hang out with the 'cooler' kids. The bulling would hurt, but right now, I was just happy I wouldn't have to do it. I turned to climb back into my house when I heard them. The laughter, my heart sank, they'd shown up.

"Hey! She's here!" Cindy yelled.

"I can't believe she showed" another laughed, a large thick necked boy called Robbie. The group strode up to me.

"Time to go, kid" said Scott, who looked a little impressed despite his cool attitude. They were all really nice to me on our way there. I was surprised, maybe I'd been wrong about them? As we walked up to the old house they were telling me how they'd be just on the other side of the door, they'd talk me through it, it was just one hour after all, I'd be fine. I believed them. Robbie yanked open the heavy door to the house, it looked really dark inside, I gulped. I felt a hand on my back pushing me towards the dark entrance room, as I crossed the threshold I felt two more hands on my bag, pulling it away from me.

"NO!" I yelled as I turned and grabbed at it, but it was no use, they were stronger than me. I felt the material rip beneath my fingers and heard something clatter to the floor as I went flying backward into the darkness. The door slammed shut in front of me.

"SEE YOU TOMORROW!" One of them called as I heard their voices fade.

"YEAH, SWEET DREAMS!" They laughed as they walked away.

I could hear them brag about how clever they all thought they were. I was left alone in the darkness. The tears came quickly, first stunned and silent then giving away to heavy, ugly sounding sobs as I gasped for air. I didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like forever when I finally cried myself out and had the courage to move. I scooted to where the wall was, I pressed my back against it and blinked trying to get my eyes used to the darkness. It was no good, there was literally no light source, the combination of no streetlight and a cloudy night meant the windows didn't even let in a tiny amount of light. I eventually remembered that I'd heard something land on the floor and I scrabbled around hoping it had been my flashlight. 'oh please, oh please, oh please' I begged as my hands searched the ground for the object. My left hand brushed something and I picked it up. I despaired as my hands felt the smooth rounded shape, the stupid pokeball. Why had I even taken this? It was pointless. I curled up in a ball trying to wish myself out of the stupid creepy house and back into my house, back to earlier today when Scott had talked to me, I should have just let them call me a Pidove, I should have. A slight noise came from somewhere on the other side of the large room and my head snapped up. It must be ghost Pokémon.

My heart began to race. My back pressed hard against the wall behind me. That's when I saw it, a faint purple glow in one corner of the room. It floated a few feet into the air then suddenly swooped down and until it was about six feet away from me. I was terrified, I closed my eyes and buried my head in my knees again, I heard the strange little noise once more, only it was a lot closer this time. I peaked up above my knees and there it was, a ghost Pokémon. Only it wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, in fact, it was really cute. A tiny little candle-like Pokémon floating in front of me. It smiled at me and made its little cry. It flew low above my head in a circle and stopped in front of me again.

I held out my arms and it flew closer to me, I smiled and held it, having a light in the darkness made it a lot less scary. We stayed together the rest of the night, it began to float around and I followed it, not fearing the dark now I had my little Pokémon buddy with me, it took me in all the rooms of the house, I laughed, it was giving me a tour. The little candle finally stopped by an old bed in one of the rooms and settled down on the bedside table.

"You want me to sleep here?" I asked it. It made a little happy cry which I took to mean yes.

I laid down on the old bed which was a little dusty and smelly but a lot better than the hardwood floor downstairs. I smiled at my new friend as I closed my eyes "Good night, my little Nightlight" I said as I drifted off. The next morning, the sun had lit up the entire house, it seemed far less creepy now. The little ghost wasn't on the nightstand anymore, looking around the house I found he was downstairs, near where I had been last night. It was holding something, the pokeball! I had totally forgotten about it. I walked over to him he made a little cry and held the ball to me.

"You want me to catch you?" I asked. He made his cry as I took the ball from him. Almost immediately that red beam appeared and he was absorbed into the little red and white ball. I smiled and pressed the release button, letting him out again.

"I'm going to call you Nightlight" I said, he seemed happy about it. We spent the early hours of the morning just playing and I found out his attacks through a little good luck, guesswork and help from Nightlight. He had ember, astonish, fire spin and confuse ray.

"I didn't realise ghost Pokémon could learn fire type moves" I said to him as he made tiny flames dance about.

Eventually I heard the laughter again. It was the gang, I smiled at Nightlight, I'd almost forgotten I was here against my will. Nightlight floated past me and to the window. It made another cry, but this time it sounded angry. He floated back to me looking upset. I realised he must have seen what they did to me last night and felt sorry for me and from the looks of it, he was mad at the group for upsetting me so badly. "It's okay Nightlight" i said gently, "We've made friends, I'm not sad anymore" They banged on the door making stupid ghost noises. "Ooooh Hazel, have they got you Hazel ?" one of them jeered. I saw a flash of red in the corner of my eye and Nightlight was gone, he was back in his Pokeball. This upset me a little, he must be really sad if he couldn't even be out with me anymore. The door burst open and there they stood. They must have taken my upset expression over my Pokémon to be because they left me here.

"Ha ha, look at her she's so scared" the empty room filled with taunts. I blinked at them, it was weird, all the other times they'd made fun of me, it had hurt. This time however, it was like they were insulting someone else. I had Nightlight now, none of them had a ghost Pokemon, in fact, I don't think any of them had ever been inside the strange house themselves. I just strode out past them and made my way through the tall grass. They followed me, still hurling insults at my back.

"Where are you going idiot? You don't have a Pokémon, you can't go through tall grass on your own remember?"

"Ha ha little baby, so scared she needs to run home to Mummy!"

They continued following me, make baby crying noises. I ignored them, it seemed ridiculously easy now I had a friend I smiled and my right hand fell onto Nightlight's pokeball.

Mum yelled at me for going out without permission, she thought I'd gone out with the gang when they'd past our house early that morning, and was angry I hadn't asked. She softened once she'd seen Nightlight I guess it reminded her of her old trainer days. I was sent to my room and banned from TV and the computer for the rest of the day. At about lunch time she finally gave in to her nostalgia and gave me her old Pokedex to do some research on Nightlight. He was a Litwick, a Fire-Ghost type.

Nightlight and I would go off together and train a lot near the strange house. I never pushed him too hard though, and always made sure he was up for another battle before looking for more wild Pokémon. We were inseparable. My parents began to get a little worried about me, not making friends, spending too much time with my Pokémon, but they didn't get it, my Pokémon was my friend. My only friend.

Months passed and I found myself spending more and more time actually in the strange house, making friends with many of the other Litwicks and Banettes even a couple of Lampents. I never caught any, but they'd listen to me, even if I wouldn't ever be able to control them as well as Nightlight. I'd make treats and feed them, I'd pick berries and make sure they were all happy. I even cleaned up the Strange house a little, dusting, sweeping and straightening rugs. I wasn't strong enough to move the old, heavy furniture but the ghosts always seemed to like floating it around anyway, so there probably wasn't much point to it. Now and then, I'd even sleep over in the old bed, I wasn't scared of the dark anymore, but there was always about five Litwick surrounding me, so i could normally see pretty well.

We had relatives coming in from Nimbasa city for a couple weeks, so I explained to my ghosts and left plenty of food for them, I didn't know if they understood, but my mother wasn't going to let me disappear everyday so I didn't have a choice. The visit from my family was going fine, they all loved Nightlight. "I've never seen a more healthy looking Litwick" my Aunt said, I glowed with pride. It was all alright until the third night, my mother sent me out to the pokemart because she'd forgotten to buy something. While I was on my way back I ran into the gang again.

"Hey, she's back!" One of them called

"Where have you been hiding little Pidove?"

"Have you only just finished crying now?" They all laughed their stupid laugh. I clenched my hand tightly over Nightlights Pokeball but I had never battled another trainer before, and while we could take down wild Pokémon, I was worried about how Nightlight would be against trained ones. I ignored them an carried on walking, they didn't like that, it wasn't fun anymore that I ignored them, I guess they thought it was time to kick it up a notch.

"Listen when we're talking, little brat" said Robbie. He grabbed my shoulder and there was a flash of red light and Nightlight appeared from his ball. Without my command he used a move, a black and purple mist shrouded the gang and they all started screaming, then they turned and ran away from me. 'Nightshade,' I whispered to myself. I was stunned. I knew it was supposed to conjure up a scary mirage for your opponent, but I'd never really visualised what it would be like to use on humans. I felt a little uneasy, Nightlight had never done anything without my command before and I'd never thought he'd attack a human.

I looked at him and he happily floated back to me, I couldn't help but smile. He was my friend and he had defended me, that was all. I didn't need to worry about him, he just wanted to scare them off. It's not like he'd actually hurt anyone, so it was okay. No real harm done.

As soon as my family left I was back in the Strange house with all my friends, happy to see them again. They held no grudge that I was away for so long. Nightlight seemed to be telling his fellow ghosts something very important. He was getting very emotional over it, his little purple flame getting bigger and brighter as he spoke. I didn't pay too much attention to it, he had an excitable nature, I'd come to expect this sort of thing from him.

One night a few weeks later, when I had finished my rounds of keeping house and laying out food I went back home. We battled a numel and Litwick learned a new move, Inferno, replacing Memento which was a terrible move that made Litwick faint from using it, completely useless for a girl with just one pokemon. It had made me look into Liwicks moves that were worth learning though.

"Inferno, Hex, Nightshade and Will-O-Wisp, not a bad mix if you ask me." I said to Nightlight as I reviewed his moves "you're getting pretty strong !" He just chirped happily in agreement.

"TRAPINCH USE SAND TOMB" the voice came out of nowhere and sand filled the air, whirling around my little Litwick, trapping him.

"NIGHTLIGHT!" i yelled in panic, as the group of kids surrounded me.

"Not so tough now are you? little ghost freak!" I backed away, they'd come back for revenge, Nightlight's nightshade had pissed them off and now they were here to make me pay for it, I wanted to run, but there was no way I was leaving Nightlight alone with them.

"Numel use Take down!" this time the attack was aimed at me. I got hit hard, knocking me to the ground. I heard laughter again, but this time it made me angry. They were cowards. They couldn't take me when I had a Pokémon so they did this, even if I had Nightlight still wouldn't be a fair fight, all of them against me.

"Skorupi use pin missile" sharp spikes showered over me I cried out a little in pain. I looked at Nightlight to see if there was any way he would be able to help me, but he was stuck. but when he heard me in pain he let out a loud cry and started to glow, he was evolving ! My new Lampert floated there as the sandstorm ended.

"My turn" I growled "Nightlight, INFERNO!" I shouldn't have done it, tell Nightlight to attack people, but I was burning with anger, I hated them. The command had barley left my mouth when Nightlight let go of a massive fire blast. I watched the other kids run scared from my Nightlight's attack and I couldn't help but smile to myself. They deserved it. I could attack back now, all I'd done was level the playing field, not my fault they couldn't take it.

"Good work, Nightlight" I said as he re-joined me and I gave him some of the left over Pokémon treats i had in my pocket. Of course, my victory was short lived. The next day I got in trouble for bulling, all the other kids went and told their parents, crying about how I'd just attacked them out of nowhere. I tried to show my mother my bruise from where I'd been knocked over and the little jabs from the pins, but the fact the other kids had large burns on their legs and arms was worse apparently, even thought they'd deserved it.

I was grounded for two weeks and told that if I couldn't control Nightlight they'd have to think about taking him away. I seethed with anger, they were not taking him away from me. I hated them, I hated all of them, the bullies, their families, MY family! The only good thing about this stupid little village was the strange house. No one else here listened, no one else here understood, they were all too wrapped up in their little pathetic worlds.

On the fifth night of my grounding I saw Nightlight floating around outside along with another purple ghost Pokémon, I flipped open my mothers pokedex and it told me it was a gastly. I'd never seen one before, they were definitely not from this area. 'How on earth did he get here ?' I thought out loud. My Lampert tapped on my window and I opened it, he held of one of his arms and I took it. He pulled at my hand lightly, wanting me to come with him. I obliged, grabbing a pokeball on my way out, Gastly seemed like a good catch if I'd have to travel far to see one again. I followed the two ghosts through the streets and noticed they were taking me to each of the gang members houses. Gastly would go up to their window and inhale deeply, breathing in a weird fog-like substance. I looked it up on the pokedex, it was a move called dream-eater, which inflicted damage on sleeping foes. I smiled "sweet dreams" I whispered as I skipped along the road in my bare feet, ghosts floating around me. I was happy.

"Thank you Gastly" I said when we were finished with all the kids. Nightlight and I gave him a very light battle to weaken him up a little bit before I caught him. I let him out too and named him Vendetta. With that, I went back home. I kept sneaking out at night with my ghosts, I had to hide Vendetta during the day because I'd caught him when I was supposed to be grounded. It became routine to use dream-eater on all my bullies. I smiled when I saw them out my window and in the streets when I was allowed outside again. They were a lot more jumpy, all the arrogance was gone. I gave Vendetta an affectionate pat on the head and gave both my boys a treat, after all Nightlight was the one that had found him for me.

Life went on as normal, I practically lived in the spooky house, I trained my pokemon and eventually caught a Banette, which I called Wrath. Vendetta evolved into Haunter, then a Gengar and I even found a dusk stone to use on Lampert when i felt he was ready.

I terrorised my bullies dreams and I loved it, they never talked to me anymore, these days it seemed like everyone was avoiding me, even my own parents. I had been nicknamed Witch Hazel, I liked it even though it was a little dumb, I wasn't a witch, but the name did make me feel powerful. I was the one to be feared now.

Eventually Nightlight became a Chandelure, with moves Will-o-wisp, hex, shadow ball and inferno. He was perfect, he was beautiful. I loved Vendetta and Wrath, but they would never come close to my first Pokemon and what he meant to me. I loved ghost Pokemon, I loved the fact the rest of my tiny town was scared of them, they were mine and mine alone and Nightlight had given me that.

I was spending another night in my beloved Strange house which had become more of a home to me then my parents house. I was sitting cross legged near a town map, plotting my Pokémon journey, I was planning to travel to collect all the ghost type Pokémon, maybe even a dark type or two.

I was lost in thought about my travels, my Pokémon by my side, maybe we'd collect gym badges, maybe even take on the elite four. I shook my head, no, once I'd caught a few of each ghost type I was going to come back here and release them, breed them. I was going to swarm this house in every ghost type there was. I sighed happily and watched a few Litwick float around happily. None of them hid from me anymore.

I heard a noise coming from outside but I ignored it, no one came near this place, they all feared the ghosts, the fools. I heard another noise, a crackling sound that I knew well but couldn't place. The smell came next, SMOKE! I ran through the house looking for the source, looking through one of the upstairs windows i saw them, the gang, they had used their pokemon to start a fire in my strange house ! The rage boiled inside me again, fiercer then it had ever been. I didn't have a water Pokémon I couldn't put it out ! I turned the tap and stuck an old bucket underneath, the old rusty tap began to drizzle out water, I screamed in anger.

Nightlight responded first, he rammed the pipe so hard it burst, water came flooding out. I filled the bucket and poured water all over the flames. The rage was still burning white hot inside me, my ghosts were angry too, I felt the whole house pulse with their energy. My eyes narrowed and I knew what I had to do.

"Go get them, Wrath." I said darkly, he nodded and flew off, he used Shadow-strike to drag all those fools back towards the house, I heard their screams, their apologies. They didn't mean anything to me. They were going to pay. I was going to show them what happened when they messed with me, with my pokemon. I knew I could never leave this house again, ghosts could come to me like Vendetta did, but I needed to stay here, to protect my family.

The house swarmed with the angry spirits as the door slammed shut, trapping those idiots inside with me, with my ghosts. I shook my head as they continued to shriek, those fools really shouldn't be wasting their last breath like that. There was no escaping me and screaming for mercy was pointless. I smirked as I let my ghosts descend on them.