FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

And it's here, the next chapter! I know you all have been waiting this one and I hope to have met, and/or possibly exceeded, you expectations. Nothing much to say but that it's been a looong two weeks straight of nothing but storms over here. It's insane. Also, I've been doing some soul searching lately as to what I can improve on in my writing and to figure out how I should go about it. I'm thinking of maybe trying out poetry or making a bunch of short stories for fun. I don't know, but I'll let you get to reading, since that's the reason you're here. As always, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated around here.

**********8**********

Old wooden floors and peeling paint was all Aaron saw as he walked down the hallway, feeling a strange numbness all over his body for the umpteenth time today since he left Chris and Tora in the kitchen. It wasn't really at the level where it would affect his movements, but it was noticeable enough to tell him it's there. As of now, he could almost feel the dusty hardwood floor under his paws, whereas before he could feel everything from the tiny spaces between boards to the grooves of the wood. The wave of drowsiness he felt earlier was back again, much to his annoyance. Ever since the first wave hit him at the front door, he's been on the lookout for any more strange happenings as they progressed through the house. He didn't want to alarm anyone with his suspicions until he could gather more evidence, which is what he found when he went into the kitchen. Even then, there was something that concerned him even more than those things.

The major problem he discovered was the feeling of someone blocking his mind from properly scanning the house for other life forms, which could only mean one thing. There was either a psychic or ghost nearby who didn't want to be found. Since that seems to be the case, he needs to confront whoever it is and get him/her to stop what they're doing to him and the others, since it's very likely that they're going through the same thing he was. But first... "I really need to find a way out of this maze of hallways," he thought, coming to the conclusion that he was trapped in some sort of illusion.

As he rounded the next corner, the psychic saw a closed door at the end of the hallway, which stood out to him seeing as all the doors he's seen so far have been open. As he approached the door, he could see it had a combination lock on it, locking the chains it held, which were bolted on the frame, securely in place. To top it off, a sheet of paper with the words 'Keep Out' scribbled in crayon hung humorously in the middle of the door as if to reinforce the obvious. Clearly, this door was meant to stay closed and prevent anyone from entering, yet the sign lessoned the impression by a significant amount. "Now what could be behind this door?" His curiosity was steadily rising at, quite possibly, an alarming rate. His better judgement told him to simply walk away, but it was just too tempting to not have at least a little peek. "This curiosity of mine is surely going to backfire on me one day, but, I'm sure whatever it is couldn't be that bad."

With that reasoning in mind, he used his psychic powers to break the lock, thus causing the chains to fall harmlessly to the side. Even the sign fell to the floor for some unknown reason, though he wasn't going to question it. The door slowly opened with a loud creak of its old hinges, revealing not what the psychic had expected. There was nothing there but a shiny surface of darkness that he could see his reflection off of. Aaron raised a paw and touched the surface, finding that it rippled like water and yet had a similar texture to that of gelatin. He added some pressure to it and found that he could pass through it. "Well, there's no turning back now," he thought before he pressed on and passed through the surface with his eyes closed and a held breath.

The sudden sensation Aaron felt all over his body was suffocating, like he was miles underwater and everything was pushing down on him from all sides, even under him. Breathing suddenly became impossible for the psychic, the pressure being too much for his chest to expand to allow air into his lungs. Panic quickly set in as he opened his eyes and struggled to find some sort of surface he could walk on to go forward, but there was nothing under his paws. Aaron could feel his lungs burning in his chest, screaming at him to breathe, but there was no possible way he could let go of the air he already has unless he wants to die. Still, there seemed to be no end inside this sea of darkness and he couldn't hold on for much longer. In a last desperate struggle, the psychic paddled as hard as he could to get somewhere, anywhere from where he was, but his strength failed him. The espeon released the held in air, reflexively inhaling soon after and choking on the thick, water-like substance around him, every cough and wheeze bringing him that much closer to his demise.

"I can't...die like this," he thought. Even as he was thinking this, his consciousness was quickly fading. Dying in such a way brought him to tears, not that anyone would be able to see them. There was so much he's yet to accomplish in life, things he wanted done so he could someday look back on it and feel like he really lived. Most, if not all, of these milestones involved Tora in some way. To think he'd die before he'd even had a chance... "Not fair..." He felt something wrap around his waist and suddenly pull him upwards. Before he knew what had even happened, he felt grass underneath his body and warm sun on his back. Almost immediately, he puked all the watery substance he swallowed and breathed in, convulsing violently all over.

"Oh Arceus, are you alright?" a panicked feminine voice asked. If Aaron hadn't felt so weak, he would've snapped his eyes open and jumped to his feet, but his heart stopping would have to do for now.

"That's... impossible," he coughed, not believing what he had just heard, or more precisely, who he just heard.

"What's impossible, Aaron?" Again, that familiar voice caused his heart to skip a beat. It sounded so soft and concerned, just like every other time she found him hurt or otherwise.

Once he regained some control over his body, the weakened psychic slowly opened his eyes, praying that who he knows is there isn't really there. He saw the light-green legs and the bottom half of a giant red flower surrounding a smooth, long neck. "No... No... You're not here," he whispered, willing himself not to look up.

"What do you mean I'm not here? I'm right here in front of you. Let me see if you're really alright," she said. Aaron couldn't even think to summon the energy necessary to fight off the two vines that carefully wrapped around his body and lifted him up so that he was face-to-face with a loving smile he's missed for so long.

"Mom..." He could barely contain his tears as she nuzzled his face with hers. He transformed back into his mew form and hugged her larger face with his little arms. Memories of their time together brought a great joy inside him that he hasn't felt in a long time. Sunbathing after their morning bath, being sung to sleep sometimes, and getting little kisses from her, his mother; he remembers those times all too well. They were all special times where he bonded with her and got to know her inside and out. His tears fell freely from his face onto hers, not wanting to let go due to some childish reason that if he does, he'll lose her again.

"There's no need to cry Aaron," Flora, his mother, cooed. "You're safe now."

"You're mother's right," someone chimed in that made Aaron practically bawl his eyes out. Turning to his right, he saw another face that brought up more pleasant memories. "You had us scared for a moment there. It's a good thing we arrived when we did."

"Dad," the psychic cried, pulling away from his mother and latching onto the warm chest fur of his father. Aaron felt Dante's warm arms across his back and pull him into a deeper hug. The typhlosion's fur was just as warm and soft as he remembers it being. "I'm sorry for worrying you," he apologized.

"It's fine, Aaron. All that matters is that you're safe again," Dante replied. "Now wipe those tears away; you're a big boy." Aaron parted from the embrace and wiped his face clean of tears. He almost felt like a big baby, crying in front of them like that. "There's the strong son I raised, although you're still a little on the small side."

"Don't tease like that," Flora stated with a light smack on the fire weasel's shoulder with her vine. "He's fine just the way he is." Dante rubbed the spot his mate hit him.

"Heh, you're right, dear. Sorry about that."

"It's okay, dad," Aaron replied, sniffling a little. He looked between both his parents, seeing them look at him with pride and love. It made him so happy to be in their presence again. "There's so much I have to tell you guys."

"Of course you do. It's been a while since you've last visited us," Flora said.

"Yeah, it has..." he sighed happily, closing his eyes. Off to the side, completely out of sight, a green vine was slowly snaking its way toward the floating psychic, not making a single sound. The bulbous head had a thorn on the end that was lightly secreting some kind of clear liquid from it. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now, both of you."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"I wanted to apologize for being as weak as I was back then and for causing you so much trouble."

"It's really alright, Aaron. We love you no matter what. You were the best thing to have ever happened to us," Dante stated, although there was no doubt in Aaron's mind that it sounded a bit hesitant and forced.

"And I also wanted to say... thank you for letting me have this moment... but I think this has gone far enough." Both Dante and Flora looked at the psychic confusingly, wondering what he could possibly mean by that. "I enjoyed this time, I really did, but I have friends and a lover to get back to. Also, I must've really suppressed the memory of that day really deep because if you two knew anything about my parents... you'd know they've been dead for a long time now."

The vine that had been sneaking up on him suddenly lashed out at an astonishing speed, intent on putting its thorn to good use. Unfortunately for it, that speed meant nothing. Aaron snatched it out of the air with his little paw just under the tip before it could even touch him, surprising both his parents. He lifted his unused paw up, claws glowing with bright pink energy. "I'm sure won't be able to do this with my eyes open, so I'll keep them closed for now and try my best to ignore your cries." Before they could gather their wits as to what's happening, Aaron slashed at them and sent a crescent-shaped blade of psychic energy at the pair. All he heard were two short screams, followed by soft thuds on the grass.

After a few moments, the vine he was holding instantly disintegrated from his paw. It was then that he opened his eyes again and found two haunter lying on the slowly disappearing grass. "I'll forgive you for this when I have more time." The psychic concentrated for a moment, finding that he could no longer feel the restraints on his mind anymore. "Good," he thought, just before grabbing his tail and yanking it. The pain was more than enough for him to be jolted awake with a strong kick of his legs and a brief shout. He found himself on a blue cushion in the middle of a bedroom, the two haunter lying unconscious on the floor not too far away from him. Perhaps more important than that, he was still a mew. "Well... maybe it's not that big a deal yet. I can always transform back later. Right now I need to focus on helping the others." With that plan, Aaron sat up and used his mind to find everyone's location.

*****8*****

Tora rolled to the side as a chair smashed came sailing in her direction, smashing into pieces in the spot where she was just standing. Unfortunately, she failed to notice the patch of ice in front of her and took a nasty fall, landing face-first on the practically frozen floor. "Hahaha! Better watch where you're going," the nidoking roared in laughter. Cuz you're running out of places to hide. And you know what happens when I finally catch you." Tora growled and groaned as she picked herself up, glaring at the purple behemoth with a mix of fear, hate, and disgust as he stomped his way over to her.

The room was a complete mess. The scattered remains of chairs lay everywhere on the floor, most of it half-buried under built up ice. The long, wooden table was smashed in two halves and thrown into separate sides of the room. Broken glass littered the floor as well, limiting the amount of space she had to run around in even more. "How is this possible?!" she thought for what felt like the hundredth time. She's been doing everything in her power to keep her distance from her supposedly dead rapist. She didn't dare get close enough to use her Iron tail, due to its ineffectiveness and the fact that she'll within his range to grab her. None of her other attacks would prove effective against him as well, so she was forced to stay on the defensive.

The raichu was nearly drained of all her energy, having been constantly panting for the last few minutes and in pain from slipping on patches of ice. Not only was the physical pain getting to her, but the cold was too. The temperature had long since dropped to an uncomfortable level, enough to where she could see her breath in front of her face. The only way she's been able to keep warm enough was with all the running around she's been doing. The cold air was also doing a number on her lungs. With every inhale came the icy sting in her chest and throat that made breathing even more difficult and painful than it already was.

"Aaron told me he was dead, that he killed him himself. There's no way he would lie to me about something that serious, so why is that... monster here?" She saw the nidoking charging up for another Blizzard attack and ran off to dodge it. She didn't count on the nidoking following her movements with a twist of his head and launching the icy attack, catching her mid-stride and blowing her into the wall. The wind was knocked out of her upon impact and she lay crumbled on the floor with ice building up on her fur. Tora groaned in pain and tried to catch her breath, but found her strength already at their limits. Even worse, memories of the last time she ended up like this flashed through her mind. The pain, cold, and lack of energy made it seem like she was back inside what used to be the best hangout in the world to her.

Tears welt up in her eyes as the nidoking stomped his way over toward her. He stood in front of the weakened raichu, grinning maliciously as he did so. "Please... not this again," she whimpered. The nidoking laughed at her pleading.

"I'm almost tempted to let you lie there," he said. "But that wouldn't be fair now would it?" Tora whimpered again as he picked her up by the neck and pinned her against the wall. "If you had been a good girl and let me do what I wanted, then you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"I didn't want it..." she choked out.

"That sounds like a personal problem to me. If you have nothing more to say, then I say we get started on what we've missed out on. Tora's eyes widened at the last part, fearing the worst was about to happen. She lashed out with her tail to in a last desperate attempt to fend him off, but it was quickly grabbed and made useless. Just then, the lights overhead began flashing. "What the hell?" the nidoking said as he looked around. "Wait, this isn't her. Whoever this is, I'm not finished here!"

"I think you are," someone said, whose voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once. Tora almost didn't recognize who it was at first, but smiled once she realized who it was. The nidoking was engulfed in a light blue psychic energy and tossed aside like a ragdoll, leaving the raichu to fall on a pile of snow. "Tora, are you alright?"

"I'd be lying if I said I was," she replied weakly.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I need to tell you something really important and I don't have a lot of time to explain. Whatever is happening to you right now isn't real. You're trapped in a dream right now set up by a group of ghost pokémon. You need to take control of the situation and fight back." It took Tora a moment to process everything he said, but no matter how she looked at it, she felt the pain and knew it was tired.

"But... I'm so tired and I don't know how."

"Hey, you shut up!" the nidoking bellowed toward the ceiling, having gotten up from being tossed. "I don't know who you are, but you should get out of here before I come after you next!"

"I highly recommend that you not try that," Aaron growled threateningly. "Tora, remember that this is your mind and you have more power in it than he does. I'm sorry I can't stay to help you more, butAliceis in serious danger right now."

"I understand, Aaron. I think I can take things from here."

"Be careful."

The lights flickered overhead again, signaling his departure. Tora struggled as she stood up on her hind legs. She noticed that the nidoking seemed a little more hesitant to approach her now, but still looked determined to get her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, shuttering a little due to the pain in her chest. "It still feels cold," she thought. "It needs to be warmer." As she exhaled, she could feel slight warmth in the pit of her stomach, which eventually spread throughout her body.

"H-hey! What're you doing?!" nidoking exclaimed. Tora opened her eyes and suddenly found herself at a beach. It wasn't just any beach though; it was the beach Aaron took her to the day he confessed his feelings for her. It was just as crowded as she remembers it being. Not only that, but it was hot and really sunny as well. She was standing at the shore, the waves gently lapping at her feet. It was much better than that freezing room she was just in.

She looked around and spotted the nidoking in the middle of a crowd of people. He didn't look too pleased with the sudden change in location, but she couldn't care less. It was payback time and she felt her strength coming back to her ten fold. "Since this is all in my mind... I can do anything I want." She smiled deviously as the nidoking finally made eye contact with her. She suddenly sprinted at the behemoth with sparks flying from her cheeks. Although she knew it wasn't real, she could help but think that her opponent was the very same nidoking that violated her so many nights ago. She wanted revenge for what he did to her and taking it out on this imposter was just what she needed. Was it fair for her to take it out on him? Maybe not, but he had it coming after posing as her worst nightmare.

Nidoking was startled by her sudden charge, but quickly composed himself and launched a Blizzard attack on her. Tora countered and fired a massive Thunder. It was ten times bigger than anything she could possibly do in real life and it easily overpowered his attack. Her attack struck home and the nidoking roared out in pain. She followed up with a Quick-attack, moving faster than ever and hit her opponent square in the chest. The nidoking was sent flying at least twenty feet in the air, tumbling quite a distance away with sand flying about in the air. Tora smiled as she watched him lay in the sand, writhing in pain. "This is going to be so easy," she thought, feeling the massive power surging throughout her body just begging to be unleashed. Her foe soon got up and unleashed a mighty roar. He then opened his mouth and began charging a dark-purplish ball of energy. "I don't think so."

The powered-up raichu sprinted at the behemoth yet again, her tail glowing a bright silver color as the thought of ending this fight as soon as possible crossed her mind. The Shadow ball was launched at her with an insane amount of power behind it, but she was ready for it. She leapt at it head on in the air with a flip, the end of her tail growing five times its original size, and literally sliced it in half with her Iron tail, letting the two halves fly harmlessly off to the side behind her. She didn't give the nidoking a chance to recover from his shock before she jumped at him with the same attack and slammed the flat side of her lightning bolt shaped tail right between his eyes. This managed to stun him long enough for her to follow up with a powerful electrified punch to his face, which sent the purple behemoth staggering backwards for a moment before falling face-first on the sandy shore, unconscious.

It took Tora a moment to realize that her opponent wasn't getting back up. As she stared at the fallen foe, she felt a bit of joy swell in her chest, but most of all, there was some peace of mind. She'll no longer be haunted by the memory of the vicious animal that attacked her that day. Not even once had she hesitated in attacking once Aaron had told her all this was merely a dream. Even if it wasn't real, it was a real enough experience that she could look back on this as the moment she conquered her worst fear. "Maybe... I can go back there..." she thought, entertaining the idea of going back to her and Chris' favorite place. "I think I can go there without freaking out this time." She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about that. What she needs to do is wake up and find out where Chris is. If Aaron had to rush to help Alice with her dilemma, there's no telling what he's going through right now

*****8*****

Alice was running for her life, legs and chest feeling like they were on fire. Her breathing rate was at an all-time high. The young girl didn't dare look back at the monstrosity chasing after her. From what she could tell from an earlier glance, it was some kind of monster chimera. It had the head of a houndoom, three of them, an overly muscular body of entei, and a serviper for a tail. The entire body was covered in short, black fur. It looked to be as tall as she was, maybe a couple inches taller, and it looked ready to tear her to shreds with its large claws. She could hear its thunderous steps not too far behind her.

As she rounded the next corner in the hallway, Alice opened the first door she saw and closed it right behind her. It turned out that she ran straight inside a closet, full of forgotten old coats and jackets. She immediately pushed her way through them and sat in a corner as far from the door as she possibly could, which wasn't very far at all. She could feel her heart beating loudly in her ears as she tried to catch her breath, forcing herself to breathe in and out slowly to keep as quiet as possible. "This can't be happening,' she thought, right before she heard the foot steps of her pursuer stop just outside the door, its shadow visible from the space under the door. It stayed there for a minute. "Please don't find me! Please don't find me!" Alice repeated in her head.

After what felt like minutes, but really only a few seconds, the shadow went away. Alice listened intently to each fading step until she couldn't hear it anymore. Even then, she continued to sit there, trying to gather her thoughts. Everything went completely insane as soon as she tried to take a shower. A mosterous blob-turned-chimera came from the shower head and was chasing her; none of her pokéballs were working, and she was only clothed in her panties. She suddenly thought her situation similar to that of some b-rated movie. "The girl who gets naked is always the first one to get got in those movies, but this isn't a movie," she thought. This is real life, but... that thing can't be real. It should only exist in fiction; the kind with wizards and magic, or something along those lines."

Her biggest concern though was figuring out the reason behind her pokéballs malfunctioning. That had never happened before. She couldn't investigate anymore into it due to her lack of knowledge on how they worked. Of course, if she wanted to try to simply break it open she would require some light. She was reluctant to do that because it would alert the monster outside to her whereabouts. "Wait a second," she thought, mentally slapping herself for thinking of a quick-fix to that problem. She grabbed one of the coats off its hanger and laid it across the front of the door, making sure there was absolutely no light coming in.

"Alice, are you there," said a familiar voice inside her mind.

"Is that you Aaron," she whispered.

"Yes, it's me, and I'll be there in a second." She had never been so glad to hear a familiar voice in life. Just as the psychic had said, he appeared on the other side of the closet a mere moment later in his espeon form. "I sensed that you were in trouble, so I came to help you as soon as I could."

"Thank Arceas, you did. I have no idea what's going on anymore. I don't where I am, my pokéballs aren't working, and there's a freakin' chimera shower-monster chasing after me." Alice tried her best to keep her voice down, but the stress was obviously getting to her. "Do you know where everyone is? I've got to tell them about that thing that's out there."

"As far as I know, Tora is safe right now and has just woken up, and Chris is still relatively safe, at least for now it seems. You were the one who was in the most danger when I woke up."

"Woke up? Wait, why is everyone sleeping? I thought you all went to make dinner."

"That's what I thought, but it looks like a few ghost pokémon managed to sneak up and put all of us to sleep somehow. What we've experienced here so far has all been a dream."

"What do you mean a dream? How did th-"

"I wish I could tell you, but right now we need to work on getting you out of here. By the way, why are the lights off in here?"

"Oh, right, I was just doing that." She then blindly searched around until she found the light switch on the wall and turned it on. Aaron's eyes went wide upon seeing the mostly naked girl in front of him. He couldn't help his eyes roaming over her for a brief moment before turning his head away and trying really, really hard to count the stitches in the coat next to him.

"Y-You, uh... you're... why aren't you dressed?" he stuttered.Alice raised an eyebrow at the psychic as she used an arm to cover her chest.

"Well, I haven't had a chance to get dressed because that thing out there started chasing me," she said. "Why, you're not bothered are you?" She could see the slight blush in his cheeks and wondered if maybe his trainer never bathed with him.

"I was just raised to be a gentleman and to respect a woman's body, human or pokémon. Also... I wasn't expecting you to be in your underwear."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll get dressed then."

Alice opened her bag and pulled a pair of shorts and a shirt to put on. Once that was out of the way, Aaron convinced her to come out the closet with him and face the monster outside, explaining that they'll be fine since he'll keep her safe. With a shuttered sigh from Alice, they opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. There was no sign of the beast. "Are you ready?" Aaron asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Alice replied, grabbing onto the closet door. Using all the strength she could muster, she slammed the door. The loud bang echoed throughout the hall. At first things were quiet, but then a loud roar was heard. Both of them braced themselves, as the faint thuds became louder with each passing second. Within a minute, the beast came running around the corner, crashing into the wall as it was turning and headed their way.

Alice felt the need the run right then, but she remembered that Aaron was going to protect her. Aaron stood ready between Alice and the hulking beast, not in the least intimidated by it. He opened his mouth and began charging a ball of blue energy. The beast saw this and each of the three houndoom heads reared back and blasted giant streams of fire from their maws that covered the entire hallway. Alice watched as Aaron launched his hydro cannon, following it up with hydro pump. The two attacks plowed through and eradicated the flames, striking the beast with an insane amount of force; enough knock it off its feet and send it flying back to the end of the hall with a loud yelp.

"Woah," Alice said, simply amazed that he took the monster down in one, two if she wanted to be technical, attack. "That was... really cool. How'd you know how to use those attacks?"

"Well, if you see it enough times, you can picture it and do a good enough job at using it," the espeon answered, relaxed now that the threat was gone. "Besides that, it's not like I can use it in real life."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, after you wake up, I think it's best you get the others and round up all the ghost pokémon. While you're doing that, I'll be assisting Chris." With an affirmative nod, Alice felt Aaron leave her mind, leaving her find a way to wake herself up.

*****8*****

"Holy Crap!" Chris shouted as he rolled to the side to dodge another blast of electricity that blow a hole in the ground where he just was. He looked behind him yet again to see a floating misdreavus chasing after him, arks of electricity shooting off her ghostly body and between the tendrils of her hair.

"You're not going to last long if all you do is run away," the ghostly mistress laughed. This was not how Chris pictured how this battle would go down before he agreed to this. Since the beginning, he had no idea how he was supposed to fight the ghost pokémon. Considering that he was fighting for his freedom, and quite possibly his friends' too, he wasn't doing too well.

"If things keep up like this, I'll lose before I can get a chance to figure out what to do," he thought.

Another bolt of electricity soared over his head, making him duck and cover his head. "I purposefully missed that time, Chris. I might not be so merciful on the next shot though. You might want to consider actually fighting back now."

"But I still don't know how I'm supposed to fight back!"

"I already told you; all you have to do is use your head. It's as simple as that."

"I still don't get it!" The sparks around the ghost slowly died down to nonexistence as she sighed disappointedly at him.

"I could've sworn you were smarter than what I'm seeing now. I told you everything you needed to know to make this as fair a match as possible, but you're not even making it any fun." She pouted as she glared at him like a little kid, clearly not liking how this game was playing out.

Chris on the other hand was growing more frustrated with the situation and his lack of control over it. It wasn't like he was just running around trying to avoid getting hit, though that was part of it. He was trying to figure out how to fight back, but nothing is really coming to mind other than what the ghost said. "Tell you what; since I clearly overestimated you and am not satisfied with your performance," A sword materialized out of nowhere. It was a long, beautifully decorated claymore. "I'll hit you on the head with the flat side of this sword and claim my victory."

"Hold up," Chris said, eyes going wide with the sudden threat on his life. "Why would you hit me with that?"

"Because... if I cut you with it, you'd be dead and wouldn't be able to stay with me forever," she laughed as she used her powers to swing the sword around wildly, scaring Chris even more. "Now hold still. It'll get messy if I miss." Chris barely had enough time to duck when the ghost swung the large blade at his head. "I thought I told you to hold still." She swung again and he dodged it, unfortunately tripping in the process and falling flat on his face. Much to his surprise, although he knows he shouldn't be anymore, the misdreavus started laughing. "Oh my, this is like one of those slasher films I love so much!" Of course, he didn't think it was so funny being chased by a crazy ghost with a sword.

"This is ridiculously insane," he thought. "If this is all in my head, then how come I haven't been able to do anything, like run faster or something." While he was thinking this, the ghostly mistress was talking and giggling, probably about those films. He wasn't really listening to her. "Maybe I'm not concentrating hard enough. I was mostly freaking out." _ _

"... And she thought it was her boyfriend trying to pull her up from being dragged overboard, but it turns out that the killer was pulling her up with her boyfriends' severed arm! It was so sick and twisted I almost couldn't contain myself! The killer then starts crushing her throat while her dying boyfriend watches." She sighs happily as she pictures the events of her favorite movie. "Okay, time for reminiscing is over. It's time I claim your freedom."

"I don't think so," Chris stated as she raised her sword. She didn't have enough time to move out the way as Chris brought his hand up and shot her in the face with a stream of water... with barely more pressure than a water pistol. Both he and the misdreavus stared at each other; she being surprised by his action, and Chris in disappointment because his attack was so unbelievably weak. All he managed to do was get her face a little wet. "Crap," he shouted as he quickly crawled away and got back to his feet once he was at a safe distance. He mentally yelled at himself for failing at his only surprise attack and for not visualizing what his attack should've been clearer.

"I must say," Misdreavus says once she recovers from her shock and drops the claymore on the floor. "You really surprised me. If you had concentrated a little more, you would've done some actual damage to me. Let's see you try that again." Her hair rose up and a massive Shadow ball formed over her head, easily five times her body size. When she threw the giant ball at him, Chris held both his hands out and a baseball bat three times his size materialized in his hands. It wasn't heavy at all and he stood with his legs apart, and his shoulders squared, looking at the incoming attack with newfound determination. He took a mighty swing at the Shadow ball and sent it flying, right back toward the ghost who launched it.

Misdreavus laughed at what he did, seeing that she might have some fun with him after-all. She used her powers to quickly pick up the claymore again, embedding it with dark energy, and threw it at the incoming attack. A huge explosion shook the ground as soon as the great sword made contact with the deflected Shadow ball. Chris fell to his knees due to the aftershock, but was otherwise okay. When the smoke died down, he saw the misdreavus with that ever-present grin on her face. She was surrounded by multiple little blue flames. Off-handedly, he guessed at least twenty. He watched the flames grew in size until he could say without a doubt that they could be considered fireballs.

"Let's see how you handle this," misdreavus says, launching all fireballs at him. Chris pointed his bat at the incoming barrage and shot a massive torrent of water from the end of it. However, it proved to be useless because all the fireballs in its path flew out of the way. He tried again and was met the same result. Chris, seeing as he was wasting time, stopped attacking and tossed his bat aside. He thrust his hands up and summoned a massive dome of water around him. The fireballs instantly evaporate upon meeting his shield, steam rising with every impact. Chris pointed at the flying ghost and fired projectiles of his own; using his own shield to fire highly dense water balls at an incredibly fast pace.

The misdreavus effortlessly flew through the barrage with an amazing display of aerial acrobatics, purposefully getting close to the water balls only to evade them using over-the-top twists and turns that would put any flying pokémon to shame. Her eyes glowed a bright green color and the ground suddenly started shaking. Before he knew it, the ground gave way to little sprouts that quickly grew into large a giant beanstalk. Chris stumbled forward, falling to his knees and holding onto the giant leaf that was underneath him. He couldn't say he wasn't scared, the ground getting smaller and smaller with each passing second, but he didn't really have time to be scared at this point. At least, that's what he thought.

Below him, he could see the base of the beanstalk was set ablaze and the fire was making its way up at an alarming rate. "Crap," he thought, trying to think of a way out of this situation.

"Oh, Chri~s," sang the misdreavus above him. He looked up to see her setting the top on fire with blue fire. "It can get pretty cold in high places, so I thought to warm you up."

"Aww, come on!" She giggled at his distress and blew more blue flames on the beanstalk. Chris inwardly panicked as he shot a stream of water from his hand to douse the fire, but misdreavus used her psychic powers to stop his attack and redirect it back at him. He only had a moment to brace himself as he was hit full blast and knocked off the only piece of solid land.

He didn't have it in him to outwardly scream in fright, but he was doing plenty of it in his head as he fell backwards to ground. Only one idea came to mind in his panicked state, so he twisted his body to face the fast-approaching ground and thought as hard as he could. Almost instantly, a pair of giant wings, like that of a charizard, sprouted from his back and tore through his shirt with a loud ripping sound. He flapped his newly grown wings a few times and leveled off to the ground, laughing to himself as he glided for the first time. "This is so awesome!"

"Oh my," the misdreavus gasped, never having expected him to do that. As much as he wanted to continue flying around, feeling the wind in his face, he knew he had a game to win.

Chris turned right and flew up towards the ghostly mistress, a ball of yellowish-green energy forming in his hand pointing at her. Seeing her opponent flying at her ready to attack, the ghost flew away in a fit of giggles as she avoided his first blast. With that, the chase began. Chris followed her every move in the air; quick turns, loops, even the occasional dive-bombing. He constantly shot his own version of Solarbeam at her whenever he could, getting closer to hitting her with every shot. Eventually, she too returned fire; firing multiple Shadow balls while flying backwards. Chris banked left and right to avoid each one, sometimes countering it with his own attack. Explosions of missed attacks shook the walls surrounding them. If anyone were to be watching this, they could compare the scene to a couple planes in a dog fight.

"You're doing quite well for your first time in the air," the misdreavus commented.

"Oh yeah? I have a lot riding on this, so I'm pretty sure I couldn't do this again if I wanted to," Chris responded.

"I suppose you're right, but that doesn't mean I don't either. You're quite a catch, if I do say so myself, and I won't let you go without a fight." Chris suddenly found himself surrounded by little black spheres, each the size of a baseball. They grew in size so rapidly that he had to stop mid-flight or else he would've crashed into a wall. Before he knew it, he was trapped inside a black bubble with no means of seeing outside. He shot another Solarbeam to break his way out, but the sphere remained intact, not even a scratch on it.

Black electricity coursed all around him, starting from the top and bottom of his prison and meeting in the middle where a jolts from all sides shocked him. He shouted out in pain. The process continued for a little while, eventually numbing his right arm and leg. "I won't last long like this," he thought, already feeling his body become unresponsive to him. He fell to his knees, no longer able to continue flying anymore.

"If you give up now, then you won't have to suffer anymore," he hears the misdreavus say, right before he gets shocked again. "Of course, I could care less if you do or don't, as long as you don't die. That would be unfortunate for the both of us." Chris clenched his hands into fists when he heard her laugh again. There was no way he was going to give up and let everything end here, not to be some sort of plaything for some ghost.

Holding out his hand, a pair of shades materialized out of thin air in the palm of his hand. Once he put them on, he could see outside his dark prison. Better yet, he could see the misdreavus, floating right in front of him. Now that he had his vision back, it was time for him to end this fight once and for all. First things first though; he needed to take care of the electricity, so he materialized a lightning rod. The rod extended until both ends met with the wall, drawing in all the electricity. Attached to the rod were jumper cables that were hooked up to a car battery, which was now waiting for a full charge. With that out of the way, he could fully concentrate on his task.

Outside, the misdreavus was growing curious as to what was happening to her captive. She couldn't hear his screams of pain anymore and wondered if she might've accidentally killed him. All of a sudden, she heard a deep rumbling sound from coming from the black sphere. Within seconds, the black prison shattered and in its place stood a beast of legendary status. It has red armor plating covering the outside of its body and spikes running along both sides of its tail, body, and head. It was equipped with sharp claws on each hand and had four blades on the end of its large tail. The dark lines that ran between the armor plating were glowing brightly in many different colors. The much smaller ghost pokémon could only stare in complete shock as the legendary Groudon glared at her with menacing eyes and sharp teeth. Standing on top of the beast was Chris with a fully charged solarbeam ready to fire and two raichu who looked ready to attack as well.

"Misdreavus," Chris said sternly. "I think you and I both know that the game is over and you have no chance in beating me right now." The ghostly mistress didn't respond at first, still in a trance due to seeing something so stunning. When she finally snapped out of it, she analyzed her situation and came to the same conclusion he did.

"It seems you're right, Chris," she stated with the same playful smile. "You've trumped me and all my attempts to defeat you in an amazing display of both power and creativity. For that, I commend you, and for providing me the entertainment of the most spectacular battle I've not enjoyed in some time."

"So you're surrendering?" She nodded.

"Yes, I am. You are the victor here tonight."

A tired sigh of relief left Chris as he fell back on his butt, glad that this fight was finally over. The two raichu at his side poofed out of existence in a cloud of smoke while the giant groudon slowly melted into the floor. He felt aches all over his body now that the adrenaline was wearing off. He was regaining some feeling back in his previously numb limbs, probably not a good thing since that was where he felt the most pain. The misdreavus flew down to him. She seemed to be just as tired as he was now that he took a closer look at her. "You look a little beat up, if you don't mind me saying," Chris commented, chuckling slightly for the first time since this crazy night began.

"I could say the same to you," the ghostly mistress replied, laughing as well. "Your clothes are completely ruined. Be glad they're not really in this condition outside your mind."

"Yeah, about that that... how do we get out of here anyway?"

"Oh, that's quite easy. First, you must close your eyes like so..." She closed her eyes to demonstrate and Chris followed. Once she was sure his eyes were indeed closed, she opened her eyes, grinning mischievously as she slowly floated closer to his face.

"Okay, my eyes are closed, now wh- OW!" he yelled in pain as he was suddenly brought back to reality, holding his nose with both hands and finding himself sitting on top of a bed. A giggle brought his attention to an amused misdreavus. "Did... Did you just bite my nose?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, I did! Didn't you think it was fun as well?"

"She's got to be joking," he thought. "Not really; it kind of, you know... hurt!" His distress was only met with more giggles from the ghost. Sighing to himself, he looked around the room and saw that his stuff was lying by the door. He got up and went over to check to see if all his belongings were there and, more importantly, his pokémon. Relief swept over him, as his trainers' belt was the first thing he pulled out his bag. A thought came to him; he managed to defeat a pokémon in an intense battle without having to use any of his pokémon. A bit of pride swelled in his chest now that he thought about it, not to mention he felt really awesome about it.

"Everything is in there exactly as you left it, in case you were wondering," The misdreavus said as she flew to his side.

"Oh, thanks. That saves me the trouble of checking then," Chris replied a bit unsurely, wondering why she was so helpful all of a sudden.

"I must also tell you that I sense that your friends are alive and well, not one of them dead from their encounter. I could escort you downstairs so you don't get lost. It is a pretty big mansion."

"Sure, that's fine. Let me get my stuff." Chris slipped his backpack on and left the bedroom, following the energetic misdreavus to where his friends are, thankful that they were okay.

*****8*****

Down in the main lobby, all the ghost pokémon were all gathered in one place. The count was one gengar, two haunters, and three gastly. All six pokémon were being watched closely by Kishan, Fang, Alice, Tora, and Aaron. A brief interrogation told them that they meant no real harm in doing what they did, despite how outrageously dangerous the circumstances they created were. It was just as Aaron had explained earlier to Tora and Chris; that they were just being ghosts and wanted to give a good scare. Alice still didn't feel like forgiving them for their 'fun', especially the three gastly. She had Kishan use his water gun on all three of them for forcing her to run around in her underwear. Even worse, they told her that they just watched a scary movie where a woman was running around half naked while being chased by a serial killer. That earned them three more blasts of water. She really couldn't believe that her dream was actually some b-rated horror film made up by three ghost pokémon.

Tora's concerns lay elsewhere though, even if she was a little peeved at the gengar for what he did. She was worried about Chris. She didn't know what was happening to him. Even if Aaron did say he wasn't in any danger and that he would keep a close eye on him, she still wanted to know what was happening. She felt absolutely helpless because there was nothing she could do to help her best friend. A light peck on her cheek brought her out of her thoughts.

"Don't think about it so much," Aaron said, trying to calm her down. He sat down next to the somber raichu to comfort her as best he could. The only reason he didn't interfere with Chris' mind battle with the misdreavus is because he believed that Chris would win the match, since there was so much at stake. If Chris did lose, then... he'll just have to take matters into his own hands.

"But... I don't feel right just sitting here doing nothing," she sighed.

"If it makes you feel you better, he's actually doing just fine right now." Tora's expression perked up.

"Really? How do you know?"

A door opening on the upstairs landing drew all eyes to the pair coming through it. "Hey, guys!" Chris shouted as he looked down at them from the top of the stairs. "Glad to see you all are okay." Tora didn't even wait for him to get down the steps, running to met him halfway and tackling him into a hug. Chris laughed as he was forced back onto his butt by his overly concerned raichu.

"I was so worried about you," she mumbled in his chest.

"I was worried about you too," he replied, bringing a hand up to scratch her head. Alice and Aaron looked on from where they were, both of them glad that everything turned out alright for everyone.

The misdreavus flew straight down to the other ghost pokémon and chatted with them while Chris caught up with what Tora, Alice, and Aaron went through. Aaron wouldn't talk about his dream, saying it was personal and he didn't feel particularly proud of what he did in it. Tora only told him that her dream involved a certain nidoking and that she beat him to dust. Alice only mentioned that she was being chased by a monster, keeping the rest of the details between herself, her pokémon, and Aaron. Chris went into detail of what happened to him. From the time Tora left him in the kitchen, to when he was bitten on his nose, he told them everything he went through in his dream. Tora almost lost it when he mentioned that he was forced to bet his freedom in a single battle, but she let it go since he won. Alice was surprised that he put up such an impressive fight and won, seeing as he's never done anything like this before.

By the time he was done talking, there was a huge ruckus going on with the ghost pokémon. They seemed to be arguing over something with the misdreavus. Over what, neither Chris nor Aaron were really sure due to their shouting over each other. "Enough!" the misdreavus shouted, silencing the other ghosts as she had finally gotten fed up with the bickering. The three gastly were so startled that they hid behind the two haunter, who were equally startled by her sudden shouting. Once she was sure they would stay quiet, the misdreavus floated over to Chris with the same smile he'd, fortunately or not, grown accustomed too.

"Chris, I have something to ask of you. Let me be clear that you are not obligated to accept my request just because I asked," she says sweetly.

"Uh, sure, what is it?" he asked.

"I was wondering, since we had such a great time together and everything... would you mind if I accompanied you on your travels... as part of your team?"

"Wait; you want to be apart of my team?" he asked her, wondering if she knew what she was getting herself into. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Of course! I had so much fun with you tonight that I want to spend many more nights with you just like tonight! Not only that, but I want to see the world. There's so much that I want to see that can't just be read about in books or seen on a television. I know you can take me to those places without boring me to tears so... what do you say?"

Chris thought over her request, mostly thinking of how awesome it would be to have a ghost pokémon on his team. He's sort of wanted one for a while now, liking how versatile they were in battle and envisioning all sorts of pranks they like to pull on people. Granted, the experience here tonight was not something he thought was possible, or very fun, but after everything is said and done, he wouldn't mind taking the misdreavus with him. He looked to Tora to see what she thought on the matter. The raichu was giving him a look that told him she already knew what he was thinking and that she wasn't going to try to talk him into doing anything otherwise. Besides, she wasn't sure if she could talk him out of bringing the ghost with them anyway.

"As long as you know what you're getting into, misdreavus," he says as he pulls an empty pokéball from his belt. The misdreavus giggled at him when he enlarged the pokéball.

"Please, you can call me Nyx," she said, tapping her head against the activator button. She was then enveloped in a red light and sucked into the pokéball, not putting up the slightest struggle since the ball immediately clicked. Chris could barely contain the smile on his face as he stared at the ball containing his newly captured ghost pokémon.

**********8**********