“Wow! This is the BIGGEST chonker!” Andrea exclaimed in awe, hugging the jumbo-sized Pumpkaboo. Sadly, she was not allowed to take him home. She could still guess his size, though.

“What do you think of this number, Pon?”

“Pon pon~!”

One last guess for one last Pumpkaboo. Win or lose, the young PokéManiac felt glad to have seen such a fine, girthy specimen. She could cross that off her bucket list now.

//guessing 780

☉

Led into a densely forested section of the mountain by their bestial guide, Andrea heard a vaguely familiar voice that had once been revealed to her in a dream. Together, they had escaped a living nightmare, only for that nightmare to follow them back home.

“Carter the Pokemart Guy?!” The young woman muttered in shock, bewildered by the hoard of stone effigies he sat upon. “What are you doing out here? Why are you collecting the Lousy Three’s statues?”

She was beginning to suspect that Carter the Pokemart Guy wasn’t actually Carter the Pokemart Guy.

howard slayte //GHOST STORY I

☉

Learning a bit more about Aqua as a person, the older woman nodded. “I see. I was raised around Pokémon too, so we’re kinda similar in that sense. I couldn’t tell you if I like Pokémon or humans more, to be honest.” She mused.

Still, the blue-haired teen had their doubts about whether they were truly fit for the job. “I dunno what you’re on about. Your Lapras and your Squirtle seem to like you just fine.” Andrea remarked, smiling widely as she watched the aquatic turtle do its thing.

“What if you built your aquarium inside a Secret Base?” The Minor Gym Leader proposed next. “The League can’t touch Secret Bases, ‘cause they’re… well, secret.”

Aqua Kennedy //non-traditional

☉

While Ogerpon continued to speak in her Ogerponian dialect, the Ursaluna responded with a series of growls far too distinct and structured to be anything else but its own language. They were communicating, yet Andrea was out of the loop, only able to grasp hints of what they were saying to each other.

“Are you interested in my clothes? This is my Sygna Suit! RAWR~!” The costumed trainer imitated a dragon’s fearsome roar with her not-so-fearsome voice. Upon seeing the bear burying the statue fragments under the mud, she nodded in approval. “Good thinking! That’ll make it harder to rebuild them!”

When offered a free ride, Andrea and Ogerpon gladly took it, climbing onto the back of their ursine friend. Josh Devlin would be so jealous if he ever found out that they’d ridden one of Hisui’s long-extinct species.

“So, where are we going exactly?” The human girl asked.

howard slayte //GHOST STORY I

☉

The eccentric cosplayer crouched on all fours so that she could get a better look at the apparatus strapped around the Braviary’s leg. She did not understand what half those readings meant (despite being something of a self-proclaimed scientist herself), but she could tell it was bad.

“Something very, very powerful? Like a legendary Pokémon?” She supposed it made sense. The Distortion World was rumored to be the home of Dialga and Palkia’s neglected sibling, yet nobody had seen them in years. “Hey, legendary Pokémon! We mean no harm! We just wanna be your friends!” Andrea hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Whoever was in charge of this domain was clearly not interested in their friendship. The world itself seemed to close in on the two trainers, trees and mountains bending inwards as if observed through a fisheye lens. “Uh oh…”

Yuina Higashi

☉

Not only did Andrea not object to being embraced, but she returned the hug tenfold, throwing her arms around the Champion-ranked trainer. “Thank you for having my back, Josh! I couldn’t have done this without you!”

She didn’t have much to say about his remark of reuniting with Chomper in the afterlife. That was something that should concern her when she got older and wrinklier. Who knows? Maybe by that time, she would’ve actually become a Pokémon herself.

“Sorry about Aslan and Resheph. I hope they find peace too…” The young woman said, feeling regretful that she couldn’t attend the Pyroar king’s funeral at the time. “And yeah, I’ll let you know…”

Another Hydreigon. The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind until that very moment. It was true that no-one could ever replace Chomper, but someone should still carry on his legacy.

Josh Devlin //GHOST STORY G

☉

Marshadows were tossed left and right, as Eris showed her true strength. No longer was she the little hound her former allies saw her as. She was now the hound that bit back. Andrea showed her own strength too, which was having strong Pokémon that hit hard.

“Meatloaf, use Hyper Beam! RAWR!!” The dragon-costumed woman roared.

[player]https://file.garden/ZdjOR5zmo3pLm51e/hoenn/HyperBeamLaser.mp3[/player]

A point-blank beam of destruction was shot out of the Mega Salamence’s maw, gaining the properties of the Flying type to hit the Marshadow super-effectively.

Meanwhile, Ogerpon moved swiftly in order to assist her friend, who was fencing the Iron Crown with dual-wielded Doublades. Red flames coalesced around the maskless Oni, almost as if channeling the power of the Hearthflame Mask anew.

“RAAAH!! PON!!”

Her Incinerating attack was complemented by a stentorian Torch Song from the Terastallized Fuecoco, who channeled the power of its evolved form. The Steel-type automaton stood virtually no chance.

Eris Halla //skirmishes

☉

Once again, Andrea took in her friend’s words, but found little solace in them. “I don’t know what else to do! What can I do? I’ll do anything!” She blurted out, still drawing a blank despite her familiarity with Chomper.

She knew the living Chomper, his likes and dislikes, what made him tick. He knew that Chomper very well. She was still unfamiliar with his ghostly self and what his unfinished business might have been. Unless…

GET OUT. LEAVE.

“You want me to leave?”

LEAVE. LEAVE.

The spectral Hydreigon snapped out of its confusion, and tore through Eriette’s decoy through sheer force of anger alone. As its three ravenous maws closed in on Josh and his shadowy steed, Andrea shielded them with her own body.

“NO!”

Chomper’s teeth sank into the woman’s arm, phasing through, yet hurting all the same. At that moment, a core memory awakened in both of them.

He had been but a wee Deino back then, so his bite used to hurt a lot less. She had been a lot smaller back then too, so she used to cry a lot more.

L E A V E…

Ectoplasmic tears leaked from the draconic apparition’s eyes, its distorted voice now sounding less like a booming decree and more like a plea.

“You never stopped protecting me… even now. Thank you…” The dragon maiden reached out her free hand to caress the Hydreigon’s cheek, caressing nothing instead. “I know that if I stay in Hoenn, I’m gonna get hurt more, I’m gonna lose more… But I can’t leave. I’m gonna stay and keep fighting for the sake of those I love. That’s the kind of life I wanna live. I’m not a little girl anymore.”

The miasma covering the Hydreigon’s body dispersed, replaced by a warm light. Its spectral form became more and more translucent, until slowly but surely, it vanished into the ether.

Andrea choked back tears. “Goodbye, Chomper! I’ll never forget you! Thank you for being my brother! I love you!”

With a wistful grin, Gigi snapped her purple digits, causing herself and her trainer to return to the right side of the world. The mist that used to cover the woods was no longer there.

Josh Devlin //GHOST STORY G

☉

Andrea was taken aback by what Aqua said, but understood the sentiment. Family and friends were not to be taken for granted. They were something to be cherished. Having lost someone very dear to her not too long ago, she knew that all too well…

“I will. Thank you.”

The next few minutes were spent observing the young environmentalist’s sandwich-making process and the way they interacted with their Pokémon. The Minor Gym Leader maintained a neutral expression throughout the whole thing, but she definitely kept mental notes for later.

“It sounds like something you were really passionate about.” Said the woman in response to their aquarium story. “Why not try to start over here? Hoenn has tons of Water Pokémon that could use a nice home like that.” She suggested.

Aqua Kennedy //non-traditional

☉

“It’s their statues…” The older woman began explaining, while gently rubbing her Fuecoco’s head. “They have the power to resurrect those three, somehow. At least that’s what Uxie thinks.”

Anger and bitterness briefly flash on her visage upon hearing the name of Ogerpon’s arch-nemesis. “I hope that damn peach stayed in Megalopolis and got eaten by the zombies!” She snarled, baring her fangs.

Andrea took a deep breath, regaining her composure. “It doesn’t matter… Pon and I will kill them again as many times as necessary.” She calmly stated.

Cassandra Kubrick //mission thread

☉

Yuina’s warning made restraining the rampaging paradox all the more urgent. “Chomper… I mean Mecha-Chomper, stop!” Andrea yelled, and surprisingly, the machine listened. Its LED display switched back to normal, and it stopped attacking.

However, that did not mean the danger had passed. Far from it. The feeling of unease intensified. The young woman felt chills all over her body. “I… don’t think we’re supposed to be here. It’s like the Ultra Sea all over again.” She muttered.

Indeed, it was faintly similar to the insanity-inducing fear exuded by Eternatus. Was this realm then part of another deity’s body? An even more powerful, more ancient deity?

Yuina Higashi

☉

“KYAH!” A horrified yelp escaped the girl’s lips as the ground began to stir. She had seen enough zombie flicks to know where this was likely going. She had even seen a couple of real-life zombies in Lesser Megalopolis.

Rather than a living dead, the one slumbering under the mud turned out to be a bear that Andrea had definitely seen before in the same prison where she had found Pon.

Speaking of, the green-clad Oni was overjoyed to see the former Bloodmoon Beast, running up to the ursine giant to give him a cordial greeting.

“Friend Doug! Long time no see! Friend Andrea is helping Pon find more statues to smash!”
“Pon pon! Poni po pon! Poni poni po poni pon!”

The PokéManiac couldn’t quite tell what the tiny ogress was yapping about, but she seemed quite fond of that Ursaluna. “Hi, nice to meet you! Are you and Pon friends? We’ve been trying to find Munkidori’s statues, but it looks like you already beat us to it. Nice job!”

howard slayte //GHOST STORY I

☉