A taster on Ghost types
Written by Morty - Johto ghost specialist and Gym leader
These tips might help out any burgeoning ghost enthusiast and people that are just curious about the, in my opinion, best type.
They certainly have an earned reputation for haunting long abandoned houses or staying in the shadows. But what isn’t well known is that they are as loyal and loving as any other pokemon.
TLDR 1 golden rule: Never assume they act maliciously because they rarely do.
These pokemon are extremely hard to analyze and comprehend. I would only advise you to join in on their fun. Don''t always indulge them, but never trap them.
And finally, if you feel something watching you when the temperature drops, fight, NEVER run. Never make hunting you the game because they will always win.
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The next day Roach sat on a bench in the middle of town, drinking a refreshing fruit juice. Marty had been called to help relay messages for another ranger group. He meanwhile, thought back on some stories Calir told him on the walk to town. Fiore was planned to become the world ranger HQ and the region''s situation sounded like a hornet''s nest. The region was apparently held in a delicate balance by the many different species of Alpha pokemon that lived here. Roach was warned that seeking these powerful pokemon out was a death sentence and a job only for specially trained rangers. He had agreed, having no plans of ever getting into a fist fight with bigger superpowered intelligent animals.
Being able to relax and think was strange to Roach. The last four years of his life were either running from the enemy, or barely holding them off. It wasn''t unwelcome to just be able to do nothing for a change. Now that he had passed on the message, he wanted to explore and enjoy a new life how he could.
What about your brothers?
What about your sisters?
You survived, YOU survived, ONLY you survived.
The MACH 30 is coming. You know it.
Roach forced those thoughts out of his mind and got up, having finally decided to get Yaga a proper health check.
Ringtown was basically one main street so it was only a short walk.
He entered the modern building, not noticing anyone but a pink haired woman in a white nurse uniform. The place looked almost identical to a hospital reception if it wasn’t strangely blended with a general store. Nurse Joy sat at the reception chair, who looked up from a magazine when he entered. “Hi honey, have you come to give your cute Gastly a checkup?”
He glanced around, noticing pokeballs on shelves along with spray-on potions and other useful items. “Yes, Thank you Joy, I haven’t registered him yet nor do I have an ID.”
She looked at him curiously. “Yes you do hun, our system says it was re-registered earlier this morning by Lieutenant Ranger Johnn Bushwell himself.”
Roach coughed in surprise. “Oh? Ok well sure.” Maybe my first impression was skewed. He might actually be competent. That''s good to know. Keeping it under wraps too? Must be scared of moles or the terrorist teams finding out.
Roach’s respect for the man significantly increased when he figured that out.
“This will be the first time Babayaga here has gotten a medical exam.” He mentioned, patting the ghost, who was then returned to the ball. Roach reluctantly handed it over to her.
Joy nodded in understanding, not mentioning how unusual it was that a man in his twenties had never done this before. Instead she marveled at the dangerous ball. “Wow, is this a custom apricorn ball? I have never seen anything like it.”
He stayed silent at that.
An unrecognised loneliness crept in while he waited for the nurse to finish doing her job. His hands slightly shook in worry about his pokemon. Roach had not realised how much he had relied on Yaga throughout their ‘adventure’ in the forest.
Damn I’m glad he was here with me. He has saved my ass so much already and without him I would never have survived that giraffe situation. Ghost type reputation or not he is the best I could have asked for.
Nurse Joy called him over after ten worried minutes. “Roach, here is your ranger-in-training ID card,” handing over a plain white laminated card. She looked a little distracted but gestured for him to follow. “Let us talk in private hon, there are some specifics we need to discuss.” He blinked in surprise at the mention of ID, but decided to go with whatever ‘Dan’ was cooking. Roach nodded and followed her through the double doors behind the reception desk.
She led him down a white tiled hallway and into a compact, tiled office. A very familiar healing machine sat in one corner, while the rest of the room was absolutely stuffed with screens. These displayed data of many different medical readouts. Pity he had no idea what the data meant.
Joy cut to the chase. “Roach, your pokemon is perfectly healthy, however something is very different with this Gastly.” She paused, a more serious expression settling on her face. “He is much larger than the average young gastly and his colouring is extremely rare. It was said to be very common back when Kanto and Johto were at war, but not the reason behind it. ”
He agreed with that assessment, his basketball was indeed a large Basketball.
Then straightened at the last bombshell.
Yaga has been with me since I arrived, right? How did he get that colour then? I thought he was just a rare shiny. Does it work differently to the games? And how did he just appear within the ball? I need to research and ask around about ghosts.
Joy continued her impromptu lecture, unaware of his inner thoughts. “Also Gastly are poison types as well as ghost, who consist of up to 95% poisonous gas. Yours has not a single toxic particle in his body. Which, according to our records, is unheard of in the Gengar line. What makes up the other 5% you might ask? We have no idea, no machine can record it or analyze It to an accurate degree. We just know that it is some esoteric spooky particle. And Yaga is fully comprised of it.”
After thanking the good nurse for her advice and buying a couple pokeballs with his new ID, which surprisingly had a bit of money loaded, Roach left the pokecenter to explore.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
When he had asked Marty about travel to other regions, he was informed that Fiore had a travel lockdown and that no one could leave due to information leaks. People had come to settle but were not nearly ready for inter-region trade. Poachers and terrorist teams would spell disaster for the current situation and could potentially kick off a massive conflict with the wild pokemon. Essentially people could arrive but not leave until the region was ready.
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Almost a week passed as Roach explored the small town and got to know some of the locals. Renault’s farewell came, to which he decided not to attend as he barely knew the man and felt awkward intruding. He did however get some tidbits about fiore from the locals. Apparently recently small fires had been spotted a ways into the forest surrounding the town. Only visible from obvious smoke trails. Also according to an old man with insomnia, loud snarling and sounds of combat could be heard in the dead of night. Roach wasn’t worried so much about these presumed pokemon intruding in town as they knew it was ranger territory. Rangers also frequently patrolled and helped de-escalate territory fights before they became disastrous.
He shivered at the thought of massive nocturnal hunters fighting, imagining what they would do to humans if caught alone and without proper preparations. Roach needed some time to build his pokemon team in preparation for confrontation with these pokemon, let alone the inevitable discovery of the MACH 30. If some had come through with him, it was reasonable to assume that more would have made it through. He pulled out his new ID card.
If ‘Dan’ is trying to recruit me, depending on the reason, might be a good idea. Becoming a ranger could be my way to understand pokemon and this world a whole lot better. Now that I really consider it, that''s probably his best option for investigating my claims without the wrong people knowing or potential world panic.
Roach knew that he needed a bigger pokemon team to confront what was coming. A whole lot bigger. He understood that the six team member limit in the games made sense, but here? No such limitation would apply to him. An army would be needed and powerful allies gathered. He had read some fan theories long ago about aura and how that made people more powerful trainers but had no idea if that was true here or not. He would just have to find out the hard way.
The ‘wait period’ was not a waste of time as Yaga had wanted to battle some pokemon to test his strength. The pair had discovered through practice that moves were not like the games at all. It was more about how Yaga harnessed the energy that all pokemon naturally emitted. Roach noted that moves were more an intent of something rather than a binary on or off switch. If he wanted Yaga to use hypnosis the ‘move’, instead of just activating, it would require the will of the pokemon and the energy it created to be able to achieve it. It was more of an instinct on how to move the pokemon''s energy in a certain way. This gave Roach a few interesting ideas and theories that he had written down in a newly bought notebook. He had also managed to find a few of the locals willing to battle, but most weren’t interested, only retired rangers or younger couples.
Roach approached an old timer who was lingering on the roadside, watching the world go by. The man instantly recognised the look in his eye and smiled. “Lad, the name’s Jones, I''ll give you a fight but take it easy on my old bones. My pokemon don''t normally like battles.”
“This will be Yaga’s first proper battle, Jones. I won''t ever underestimate you.” Roach didn’t buy his act for a second, the people that lived here had to be tough as nails.
Old man Jones’ smile turned from warm and welcoming, to one found on a shark. “Good lad, got a brain at least. Can''t have a baby ranger give up too easily.”
The pair moved to a small dirt area, about the size of a basketball court and sent out their pokemon. Roach saw an older lady from across the street notice what was happening and walked over, snapping at Jones. “Jones you old goat, stop bullying the youngins’.”
“Roach the lad here, just wanted a light battle, to get his skills up to scratch. Why don''t you referee for us then Juli?” He replied innocently.
“Fine but only if you don''t use Bolbose.”
“But Juli, she has been itchi–.” He was interrupted by a death glare.
“No, he looks very new to battling. Don''t be so cruel to the younger generation.” Her gaze softened when she looked at Roach. “You need the rules read out sweetheart?”
He nodded in reply, psyching himself up. “Yes please ma’am, it''s Yaga’s first battle.”
“Oh and so polite too. You better behave, Jones.” Shooting him a warning glare.
Juli listed out the standard rules of battling. “Roach has one pokemon so this will be a one on one fight. No held items and no switching allowed. Are you both ready?” They both nodded. “Good…. Begin!”
Jones threw out his ball faster than Roach could react and so his pokemon hit the field first. A Tyrunt hit the field in a flash of red light. To Roach’s widened eyes it looked almost like a small raptor but with a large toothy maw, bigger than the rest of its body. It chomped its jaws in anticipation when Yaga hit the field.
Jones frowned, then muttered. “Damn, this’ll be annoying, Tyrunt. Bite that Gastly, don''t let it relax.”
Not wanting his basketball to be caught in that little monster’s jaws, Roach shouted. “Yaga float above the chompers'' reach, then try to confuse it.”
The ghost moved to follow his directions, floating up out of reach of the small dinosaur. He watched as the maw on legs raced across the field and tensed its powerful leg muscles. It locked onto Yaga’s trajectory and lept, jaws opened wide. To Roach’s shock, dark energy coalesced around its jaws that came together in a loud snap, ripping out a chunk of Yaga’s form. The ghost grimaced in pain but a retaliatory grin split his face immediately after. A shadow of misty purple energy slammed into the falling Tyrunt, who looked around confused before not sticking the landing. It impacted the ground with its face, plowing a line into the court. Yaga took advantage of that moment, floating close to the Tyrunts face with glowing blue eyes and a sneer.
“Oh no, Tyrunt, don''t look into those eyes! You don’t need another nap you lazy dino.” Jones shouted.
However the raptor didn’t realise someone was speaking as it gazed into shiny blue eyes. Yaga let out a soft purr as the opposing pokemon started snoring.
“Yaga don''t let it rest easy, give it some.” Roach commanded.
Yaga began to frown in focus as darkness swirled around, thinking of getting some payback for that bite.
While this happened Jones shouted again. “Tyrunt, you have wanted a fight for ages. Now you fall asleep after only one bite, is this how it ends?”
This time it did hear him. Its small eyes snapped open, boiling with anger. Tyrunt tracked on to Yaga immediately and charged. The ghost released the darkness he was holding, right onto the jaw of the charging Tyrunt. They both collided before the coiled darkness exploded outwards like a grenade and shot the hardy little dino flying across the ground. Yaga didn’t come out unscathed either, having had another bite taken out of him. He looked a lot more transparent and had almost no gas floating around him. However he still hovered with a slight wince, while the Tyrunt lay motionless on the ground.
“Tyrunt is unable to battle further. The winner is Yaga and Roach!” Juli called out.
Roach immediately breathed out a held breath, that last moment had worried him and immediately returned Yaga to his pokeball. He held the ball up to his face. “Amazing job mate, you did great for your first battle.”
Both Juli and Jones approached Roach and congratulated him. “Good job lad, your ghost has surprising determination. Rare for them to be that focused.” They shook hands. “If you need more practice I’m sure my other lovely pokemon would gladly help.”
“Appreciate that you old sneak, I owe that pokemon a lot.” Roach replied. He grew thoughtful. “How did you get a Tyrunt? I thought they were long extinct.”
Juli had walked off after congratulating him but Jones got a look in his eye. “Well lad, things in Fiore might be a little more ancient than you might think.” He cracked a grin. “Who knows baby ranger. Maybe you go brave the wild yourself, plenty of interesting things to discover in an untouched region. Bring me a fossil and I might do you a favor.”
Roach matched his grin. “You old bastard, maybe you aren''t as senile as I thought.”
They both laughed, and Roach left, happy about Yaga''s first battle.
A good test, but we have a long way to go. I do eventually want to get a legendary on my side. Maybe registeel could manipulate the MACH 30? Even a porygon has potential if they exist yet. Surely it cant be that hard to catch one right?
The sun had set during their battle so he decided to call it a day. Roach went to Joy to get Yaga healed and then headed off to bed in one of the spare rooms in the pokecenter.
END OF CHAPTER 4