After getting to Camphrier, Gengar gave us an abridged version on what he experienced in the swamp, while I got swamp gunk cleaned off of myself and my team. From what I understood, he got stuck in purgatory? And then he evolved shortly before Kaiju saved him from being eaten by lost dead people’s souls who had no faces because ghost stuff. It would’ve been hard for even me to believe if I hadn’t first-handedly seen the faceless things back there.

  I got the sense that Gengar wasn’t telling us everything, but I wouldn’t press for more if he didn’t feel like sharing. I also wouldn’t feel like talking a lot about getting lost in a place full of creepy, faceless monsters that wanted to eat my soul.

  Aside from getting some sleep, Winnie and I spent most of our time in Camphrier trying to deal with Sahara’s bad mood because she got mud on her. Winnie complained to me that he thought it was strange for a ground type to hate mud and dirt so much. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the dirt that she hated but the fact that the mud was a mix of dirt and water, and as a ground type, she didn’t like getting wet.

  We were eventually able to appease her by promising her that we’d find some sort of battle institute-esque place where she could have some fun. I would’ve said the Battle Chateau, but I wasn’t keen on sticking around for very long after we finished our current task at hand.

  We left for route 6 just before 2 AM, and wandered around the route for a while, waiting for it to get to 3 AM.

  In the meantime, the Gengar, Mismagius, and Winnie grilled me on what a I had planned. Gengar described it as preparing for a business proposal to the graveyard coven.

  “My plan, is to recruit the Sableye living in Reflection Cave, and getting some help from any fire type ghosts and members of the Aegislash line living in the graveyard coven to help dismantle the entire thing and then transport everything that isn’t eaten far away.” I’d been feeling less and less confident about the plan as we got closer to having to actually pull it off though, but it was the best I could do with what we currently knew.

  “All in one night?” Gengar asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “They’ll definitely notice if we try to do it in multiple nights.” Banette commented.

  “No shit.” Gengar replied.

  “Will we even be able to handle more than ten Sableye?” Mismagius asked.

  “Forget the Sableye,” Gengar said, “I don’t think the transportation plan is possible. Even if we use your bag, we’d have to cut everything we’re planning to move to be small enough to fit in the bag’s opening, which I doubt we’d have the time to do. And what about parts that we can’t cut into smaller pieces?”

  I sighed and rubbed my head as I tried to brainstorm something less ambitious, “I don’t know. I guess that’s all best case scenario. It would be more realistic for us to just take all the important parts of the ultimate weapon and destroy them.”

  Winnie then added his own thoughts, “but lysandre probably has the resources to rebuild damaged areas, so we’d just be delaying them.”

  “Maybe all we need to do is delay them until Interpol can deal with the issue.” Gengar suggested, “I do agree with you Az, it would be ideal to get rid of the entire thing, but with what we have, I think the delaying plan is more plausible.”

  “Yeah.” I groaned and pulled on my hair, “It would be SUPER helpful if we had a Pokemon like Hoopa with us.”

  Winnie tilted his head, “what’s a Hoopa?” he asked.

  “Uhhh, it’s a mythical Pokemon.” I answered, making an air circle with my pointer finger. “It’s got these hoops that it can use to create portals to teleport stuff around the world.”

  “That sounds cool, we could go to any region we want!” Banette exclaimed.

  Winnie nodded, “it definitely would be helpful to know a pokemon who can create portals.”

  That jolted something in my brain, and I perked up as an idea hit me. Winnie tilted his head again as he saw me smile, “what is it?”

  “Actually…” I tapped my chin as I let the idea form, “We do know a Pokemon that can create portals.” How in the world could I forget? “To the Distortion World.”

  “giratina?” Winnie asked.

  I smiled and nodded, “ye.”

  The illusion fox tilted his head, “but we’re not in Sinnoh, and we don’t have the orb thing that you used last time.”

  I sighed in defeat and slouched a bit, “Yeah. You have a point.”

  Then Lampent floated into the middle of our group, frantically waving his arms around as he shakily said, “Uhhh, guys?” He pointed to a fog that had begun to roll in. I checked my watch, it was two minutes till three AM.

  Looks like it’s almost time. I went over and patted the lamp ghost’s head to try to calm him down.

  Winnie crossed his arms and dramatically sighed, “Again with the fog. They need to get more creative with this stuff.”

  Banette shrugged, “Well, at least this one doesn’t have a bad vibe like the swamp fog.”

  Gengar turned to the doll ghost, “Were you expecting sunshines and rainbows?”

  “Honestly I’d prefer rainbows to fog any day.” Lampent muttered.

  Winnie tapped his nose, “Nah, nah, blizzards are the way to go, the extra chill makes it more menacing. That crazy hag Isolde at least got that part right.”

  “It’s not about the vibes,” Banette disagreed, “it’s about PRESENTATION!” A bunch of Will-O-Wisps crackled to life around her, “I’d make it rain glitter!”

  “The fog is supposed to deter intruders, so glitter won’t make the cut.” Gengar replied. “If you want to make it rain something, bones are a good deterrent.”

  Banette put her hands on her hips and leaned into Gengar’s face, “How would you pull that off without an illusion ability?”

  The shadow Pokemon shoved the doll ghost away and crossed his arms, huffing, “I’d figure it out.”

  The fog’s movement began to pick up speed as it thickened and swirled around us. Mismagius examined the fog before adding in her own opinion, “Well, fog is pretty all purpose and easy to create and manipulate. I can see why most would choose to go with it.”

  Then she grinned, “But if you really want to drive both people and Pokemon away, all you need to do is make them wet and cold with sleet. Hypothermia is a better deterrent than bones.”

  “What about ice type Pokemon?” Winnie asked, “or a trainer with fire type Pokemon who can keep them warm.”

  “Maybe a forest fire with a lot of smoke?” I suggested, “Or a violent thunderstorm. They would both work in scaring people and Pokemon away.”

  The conversation abruptly ended as the fog fully enveloped us and a gentle gust of wind opened up a path in the fog for us to follow. I exchanged a look with the others before leading the way down the path.

  It didn’t take us long to get to the gates of a graveyard. It was hard to see inside due to the thick layer of leafy vines blanketing the fence surrounding the place.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  A Chandelure hung on each side of the gates, and their flames brightened as we approached. A gaudy bright, Welcome! sign began flashing on the gate as we got within a few feet of it.

  “Welcome to Pumpkinland!” The two ghost-fire Pokemon chorused as the gates smoothly swung open. I politely nodded and thanked the ghosts as we entered.

  This is 1000% a much nicer welcome than what we’ve gotten before. The Isolde and the catacomb ghosts need to take notes.

  Pumpkinland consisted of a field of well manicured, lush green grass, beautifully arranged sections of flowers decorating the place, and pristine granite tombstones lining the place, each with unique and intricate carvings on them in a language I wasn’t familiar with.

  And of course since it was Pumpkinland, there were countless pumpkins of all colors and sizes decorating the place. Some were carved and has candlelight flickering from inside it, with a not too overpowering, pleasant, sweet cinnamon spice aroma drifting from the jack-o-lanterns.

  We all took a second to just take in the beauty of the place before continuing down the main path.

  “now i’m in the mood for pumpkin spice muffins.” Winnie commented as he sniffed the air.

  Spotting movement out of the corner of my eye, I looked to the side. There were a few Pumpkaboo spying on us from behind a particularly large tombstone. The group ducked out of sight, and a bunch of childish giggling erupted from behind the tombstone.

  Opposite of the Pumpkaboos, I spotted a few older ghost Pokemon, a group of Gourgeists and Bramblghasts staring at us too, so I waved at them, “Hello! Do you know where we can find Reine?”

  The plant ghosts looked at each other before one of the Gourgeists responded, “Keep following the main road, you’ll see her when you get to the end of it.”

  “Aight, thank you!” I nodded at them before proceeding. I could hear the Pumpkaboo following us, they were whispering loudly to each other, “Can that human understand us?” “What a strange human!” “What kind of Pokemon is the white one?” “Shhhh! You’re being too loud!” “Are you sure she can understand us?”

  Guess I’m a novelty for the kids to gawk at lol.

  It only took us a few minutes to get to the end of the road, but by that time, a parade of curious ghost Pokemon had formed behind us. I was particularly excited to see a shiny Dreepy and a few shiny Pumpkaboo among them.

  The path ended at a vast grassy field covered in pumpkins, flowers, and topiaries of all shapes and sizes decorating the place as if someone had just dumped a giant box of them onto the field and randomly spread them around.

  Near the entrance to the field was a simple, but elegant large round table, with a bunch of Polteageist and Sinistcha floating around. There was a single chair made of roots at the table, with a very small Gourgeist sitting on it. The ghost grass type had a ton of scarring on her right side, and was missing an her right arm.

  Banette let out a quiet, “Ooo, ouch.” When she saw the pumpkin ghost’s scarring, which resulted in a lick smack on the back of the head from Mismagius.

  The scarred Gourgeist seemed to see us when we saw her, a Sinistea whispered something to the pumpkin Pokemon as she gestured for us to come over. There was a rumble, and a bunch of roots slithered out from a few cracks in the ground to form extra chairs for us to sit on.

  “Welcome, my guests!” The Gourgeist said in a friendly lilting voice, “Come, sit!” She waved towards the extra seats.

  I bowed my head and thanked her as we sat down.

  There was a flurry of activity from the Sinistea and Polteageist attending the table as they placed more snacks and teacups in front of us.

  “Would you like some food? Or perhaps a drink?” Reine asked as a Polteageist went around filling out cups. I looked a bit dubiously at the purple liquid inside, it has a strange, iridescent, oily sheen to it. Justine did say something about the food only being digestible for ghost Pokemon, so I politely declined, “I’m good, thanks.”

  Winnie ended up taking one of the purple and orange muffins, it had a delicious pumpkin scent coming from it, and the other ghosts followed suit, taking a snack to munch on.

  “It’s been so long since we’ve had visitors, let alone a ghost specialist!” Reine said, she turned to one of the Polteageist, “I believe the last one was that bold paldean girl, no? I think it was about a decade ago!”

  The teapot ghost nodded and replied, “Yes, I think so.”

  “So, what type of sprout are you looking for?” The pumpkin ghost chuckled as she looked at the gaggle of young ghosts that had followed us here, “It seems many of them have taken an interest in your ability to understand us.”

  Ahh, shit. Okay, here goes.

  I awkwardly chuckled and replied, “Uhhh, sorry, but…uh, we’re not here for a different reason.”

  Reine tilted her head, “Oh?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, we were wondering if you’d be able to provide us with some information. I’ve heard that you’ve been around for a really long time, so, uh…”

  Winnie nudged my arm and whispered, “just get to the point.”

  I elbowed him back as I tried to continue my train of thought, “Uhhh…”

  Gengar rolled his eyes and spoke, “We want to know if you have any information that could help us destroy the ultimate weapon.”

  The candles on the table flickered, and the surrounding ghosts went dead silent. Reine’s smile faltered. And with that, we’ve ruined the mood. I cringed inwardly but was able to keep a poker face.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Pokemon from the ghost parade being herded away by a few Sinistea.

  Reine sighed deeply before speaking in a tired voice, “This is about the people in red, isn’t it?” The flip in attitude was a bit jarring.

  I nodded, “Uhh, yeah. Those people in red are part of an organization called Team Flare, it’s led by a guy called Lysandre. They’re planning on using the ultimate weapon to try to create a new world based on whatever ideals Lysandre thinks are good.”

  There was a long pause before Reine replied with a sarcastic smile, “And how, do you, a little girl and her ragtag team, expect to destroy a machine larger than the Anistar Sundial? Let alone deal with one of the most powerful men in Kalos? Why should I believe you?”

  That made Winnie bristle a bit, but he forced his fur to smooth back down and replied as patiently as he could.

  “well, for the first question,” Winnie held up a claw, “we were thinking more around the lines of destroying the most important parts of the machine. at the very least we can delay team flare from using it.”

  I continued for the illusion fox, “As for why you should believe us, we’re pretty interested in making sure Kalos isn’t taken over by a maniac with a weapon that can delete entire regions at the press of a button. I’m sure you can agree with that sentiment.”

  My watch pinged and lit up, which seemed to be a cue for Rotom to zip out of my pocket. The phone ghost showed me an article from a while ago about Red single handedly taking down a large portion of Team Rocket.

  Then the phone ghost showed Reine the article as I spoke, “This wouldn’t be the first time a kid has taken on an evil organization led by a powerful person.” I pointed at Rotom’s screen, “This kid was fifteen when he helped take down Team Rocket.”

  Rotom switched to an article about Brendan—a protagonist of the Sapphire and Ruby games—and his involvement with taking down Teams Aqua and Magma, “Brendan here was sixteen when he helped take down two organizations.”

  “For the record, I’m fifteen.”

  Reine gave me a side eye, then she looked between me and the other members of my group for a few seconds before she relented, “I will give you information, but I otherwise cannot help. I will not be sending my children into dangerous situations.”

  “Okay, that works for us.” I nonchalantly replied. I was lying, but I didn’t want to risk angering the pumpkin ghost. We’d have to make do with what we had.

  “At the bottom of the ultimate weapon, near the center, you’ll find a black and red crystalline core that radiates death energy.” Reine stated, “it’s connected to long cords called leylines, they’re golden like the horns of the goddess of life. If the core is the machine’s heart, the leylines are its veins.” The scarred gourgeist took a sip of her tea before continuing, “Don’t make any attempts to destroy the core or leylines unless you want to recreate the event that ended the war three thousand years ago.”

  My eyes widened a bit, and I tightened my lips. So we’re basically going to be handling the demon core?

  “Your best bet is to remove them and hide them somewhere.” Reine said, vaguely waving with her hand, “The materials required for them come from either space or a legendary Pokemon, and Azlan used most of them up when he was experimenting with his machines.”

  “Oh, so they won’t have enough material to recreate it.” I said. Then I furrowed my eyebrows a bit, Who’s Azlan? OH A-Z! Is that AZ’s real name? I guess she probably does know AZ personally.

  “Yes.” Reine nodded and sighed, putting her hand to her forehead, “That is all. I must leave now.” She sounded more tired than before.

  I silently nodded and got up from my chair, as did the rest of my party. The roots around the scarred Gourgeist’s chair shifted and began gently lowering her into a hole in the ground that had appeared out of nowhere.

  “A final word of advice,” Reine said as she turned her back to us, “keep leylines attached to the core.”

  “Got it.” I said, bowing deeply, “Thank you for the information Reine.” There was no reply and the hole in the ground closed up. There was a clatter of cutlery and plates as the Sinistea and Polteageist begin cleaning the table up.

  I exchanged a look with the others, and we silently agreed that it was time t leave. I thanked the Sinistea and the Polteageist for the food and drink, before speed walking out of there. The back of my head burned as I felt some less than friendly stares on the way out. To make them stop staring, Winnie just openly stared back at them to make it too awkward for them to keep looking at us.

  Yeah, we’re not going to be welcome back here anytime soon.

  The moment we stepped outside, the fog disappeared, and we were back in the middle of route 6. Checking my watch, it was past 4 AM.

  I let out some air that I didn’t know I was holding in, and Winnie remarked, “well that went poorly.”

  Gengar crossed his arms, “That went about as well as could be expected. Sounds like she’s got history with the ultimate weapon and ‘Azlan’.”

  Banette raised a hand and said in a a positive tone, “On the bright side, we got the info we needed.”

  “What will we do with the core and leylines if we are able to take them?” Mismagius asked, “We don’t even know how big they are.”

  Winnie shrugged and pointed at my bag, “Probably keep them in Az’s backpack.” I grimaced at that suggestion, I don’t like the idea of keeping what’s essentially an unstable nuclear bomb in my bag.

  Then a tiny, high-pitched voice spoke up, “You guys sure you don’t need help?”

  “What?” I looked around for the source of the unfamiliar voice. There was the clattering coins as a stream of gold coins flowed out of a bunch of different shadows and formed into a large pile of coins in front of us.

  There was a chorus of countless tiny voices, “We’re interested in helping.” The voices merged into one as the coin pile formed itself into a Gholdengo, “There are quite a few of us who share similar sentiments to you.”

  The shadows behind the coin ghost rippled as an Aegislash, Ceruledge, a couple of Honedge and Doubblade, and a couple of Chandelure, Lampent, Yamask, and Runerigus appeared.

  “why?” Winnie asked, twitching an ear, “didn’t reine say she wasn’t going to send help?”

  Gholdengo, put their hands on their hips and said with some sass, “Wow, it’s as if we don’t like living next to a region destroying weapon. Reine might not think we need to do anything about it, but we all know that we’d all have more peace of mind with that thing gone.”

  “Permanently.” Ceruledge added emphatically, and Gholdengo nodded.

  “And you’re not worried about getting in trouble?” I asked.

  Gholdengo shook their head, “Nope.” The coin ghost pointed at me, “Frankly we’re more worried about you messing this chance up, so we’re here to make sure things are successful.”

  “Uhh, great.” I gave them a thumbs up. Thanks for not believing in me I guess.

  Aegislash floated forwards and asked me, “What is your plan human?” One of the Yamask coughed and quickly muttered, “If she even has a plan.”

  “Uhh, well, first, we need to go to Reflection Cave, and recruit some Sableye.” I nervously replied. And we still need to find a place to put the ultimate weapon’s core and the leylines once we have them. I gave them another thumbs up, and then pointed down the road, “So, uh…let’s go!”

  Ceruledge gave Gholdengo a dubious side-eye, as if to say, ‘you really sure about these guys?’ Gholdengo side-eyed the blade Pokemon back and then shrugged.