Chapter 33 - 43-44

"Now where did I put it?" Hanna mumbled to herself as she searched through her messy workspace where she was sure she had put her pencil here somewhere. It's usually either at the right edge of the table or on one of the shelves, but her trusty mechanical pencil that she had been using for more than a decade and couldn't bear to part with just suddenly couldn't be found.

"Happy? Holly? You guys saw my pencil anywhere?" Hanna turned around to ask her two pokemon companions, who replied with a negative.

There was a sound of footsteps and her daughter's voice could be heard even before she could be seen.

"Mum? Are you in there?"

"Yes, Vel." Hanna replied as she stood up and opened the door to her office room on the farm. Her daughter walked in carrying an assortment of random items in her arms, piling up so high that it nearly covered her entire face. An absol walked by Velda's side, its footsteps not producing a single sound.

"You should have just let your pokemon carry some of those for you. You can barely see what's in front of you." Hanna told her daughter as she immediately helped to take some of the load off Velda's arms. Happy and Holly immediately helped as well.

"Those who have arms to help are a little too big to fit through the doors." Velda shrugged as she dumped the random assortment of items onto the table and Hanna immediately sifted through it.

"Aha!" Hanna exclaimed in delight when she found her shining blue mechanical pencil again. "There you are!"

"This is getting irritating." Velda stated with a slight frown on her face. "Everything just suddenly appeared in my room and nobody knows how it got there."

It is a weird phenomenon that only started about two days ago. Random things from the farm just suddenly went missing during the night and ended up appearing in Velda's bedroom the next morning. They had thought that it was just a prank from Dolly at first, but Dolly had vehemently denied all accusations. They thought nothing about it until the same thing happened again the next morning, and then it happened again today.

"It must be the work of a ghost, or ghosts." Velda noted as her hands dug through the pile. "No other pokemon can slip past Rena's senses so easily."

"Where's Rena, by the way? She's usually with you." Hanna asked in mild curiosity. Her daughter's espeon hardly ever left her daughter's side.

"Out hunting for ghosts." Velda said with an air quote motion of her fingers. "Fuzzy and Dolly are with her because they think it's fun. I honestly think that they won't have much progress on the issue because those two are more likely to create trouble than to be of help."

Kel made a soft snort at the words spoken by her trainer.

"It's strange. The only ghost who ever appeared on our farm was Macky and that was years ago." Hanna pondered on the issue for a little while before dismissing it. Ghosts cannot be bred and kept on farms for the simple fact that most of them have the ability to simply phase through walls. Those who can't simply snuck out using the shadows or through some other unique ability. Nothing short of a pokeball can properly contain them. Ghosts can only be caught in the wild or given to someone by another trainer, that's how most trainers got themselves a ghost.

So why is there a sudden surge of increase of ghost activities around their farm? Something like this is definitely not normal. The only lucky thing is that the ghosts that lurked around the farm and in their house thus far doesn't seem to exhibit any vicious or violent tendencies that they are notorious for displaying.

Nobody knows how many and what species of ghost had suddenly decided to take residence on their farm, but they can make an educated guess from the various weird happenings that they had experienced thus far. The culprit behind depositing a large number of random objects in Velda's room is probably a sableye, since all the objects have only one common characteristic: they are shiny. Sableyes love shiny objects.

The ghost responsible for waking them up in the middle of the night by giving a high pitch scream is probably a misdreavus. The feeling of them being watched from behind but always momentarily disappear when they turned around only to find nothing is probably a duskull or a dusclops. From past experience they have with raising Macky, the slight dip in temperature they felt on random occasions is probably a work from something of the gastly line.

There are many other weird happenings currently going on in the Vera Farm, but above mentioned are currently the ones giving them the most problems because they are happening right in their very house. The employees only occasionally experience a random unexplainable weird encounter or two when they come for work everyday, but that's about it.

At least they don't have to deal with random wailing noises coming from their living room in the middle of the night that disrupted their sleep schedule. This is getting downright annoying.

Griff walked into the room at this moment, Fang walking behind him in that usual playful manner of his.

"Any findings?" Hanna asked her husband, who merely responded with a sigh that told her everything.

"The only affected areas are the pokemon groups that are living closer to our house who are also missing some random items." He said as his gaze travelled to the table and the items piled on it. "And there they are."

"That can't be all, right?" Their daughter asked.

"On the bright side, the trees at the eastern end of the farm seems to be doing a lot better. I suspect that there might be a few ghosts from the phantump line who had somehow travelled here as well. There are definitely traces of sandygast or palossand in our aquatic enclosure near the beach but I don't see them anywhere. The only pokemon I see there is Chill. There may or may not be a few shuppets running about as well."

"So not only our house is haunted, now our entire farm is haunted." Hanna sighed as she rested a palm on her forehead. Dealing with ghosts is a tiring process due to how tricky and elusive they are.

"Fang tried to make them show themselves with Odor Sleuth, but the farm is too huge and the ghosts are moving too fast for Odor Sleuth to even be useful in forcing them to make an appearance." Griff said as Fang barked an agreement while wagging his tail excitedly despite his failed attempts at catching the elusive ghost types. "How did they even manage to appear on our farm in the first place? Don't ghosts have a tendency to appear only in fixed places on the map? Mt Pyre should be where they are appearing in Hoenn, not in Petalburg."

"Ghosts are theorised to be otherworldly creatures that somehow ripped a hole through spacetime to travel here if Professor Birch's theory is to be believed. Why they always ended up appearing in certain places in the world can be attributed to the already present ghostly energies these places have which Professor Birch theorised act like some sort of marker for them during their travels, but sometimes deviations do happen from time to time, like the time Macky suddenly just appeared-"

"You need to slow down, Vel. We're not catching a word you are saying." Hanna reminded her daughter, who is a walking encyclopedia on random knowledge and facts about pokemon. Her daughter can really keep going without stopping once she gets started, although that is a side of her that Hanna hadn't seen in quite a while recently.

"Should we ask Norman for help?" Griff scratched the back of his head. "Normal types and ghost types are opposites of each other, maybe Norman may have a clue on what to do."

"Let me try." Velda volunteered as she moved to walk out of the door. "If all goes well, then the only thing that we need to do is to build a habitat or enclosure for these ghosts to live in. Maybe we will really be the first farm in history to ever succeed in housing ghost types."

"That confident?" Griff sent a smile in his daughter's direction, who only replied with a shrug.

"Never know till you try, right?"

'So why are we all suddenly gathered here?'

'Ghost hunting! Woooooo!'

'Dolly, you do realise that you are a ghost too, right? Why are you so excited at hunting your own kind?' Joy asked innocently.

'But it's ghost hunting! Woooooo!'

'Ghost or no ghost, there's no need to fear! I am the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy! The strongest pachirisu in existence! I shall- oof! KEL~ WHY?!'

'Shut up, Fuzzy.'

There was a rumbling sound as the ground trembled slightly. Everyone turned their heads to see a massive wave of sand rolling their way with a tyranitar riding on it, its egoistic pride glowing even brighter than the sun shining overhead.

'And there he goes again, busy showing off.' Bigblue rolled his eyes at the sight.

'Three berries that Vel will scold him for covering everything in sand.'

'There's no need to bet. Vel will scold him for doing that.'

"Kratos! What did I say about covering the entire farm in sand?! Get rid of it right now!"

'But making my appearance by riding on sand is the entrance befitting that of a King! I need my-'

"Kratos."

'Fine, fine.' The tyranitar grumbled as he willed the sand to seep back into the ground, revealing the lush green grass once more. A flygon landed by their side, wings flapping in the beautiful sound that is known only to produce by its species.

'What did I miss out?'

'We are going ghost hunting! Wooooo!'

'Uh, Dolly? Does that mean we are hunting you?'

'Snap! Of course I'm excluded!'

'Oh, right.'

'Should I be worried that I feel that I'm smarter than them even when I'm the youngest?' Joy asked Rena as the cleffa turned to the espeon beside her.

'Be glad that you did not catch their idiocy. It's contagious.'

'If it's contagious, then where did it first originated from?'

'Probably Toothless.' Flamel snorted before looking up at the sky. 'And speaking of him…'

CRASH!

"TOOTHLESS! What did I say about trying that particular aerial maneuver on the farm?! Are you really trying to give me grey hairs?!"

'Ha hah! Vel's more angry at you than she is at me!' Kratos exclaimed in delight.

'I believe that this is not something to be celebrated about.' Hulk commented as the charizard on their team picked himself up from where he had crash landed near them. A cradily wobbled to their side from where it was hitching a ride on Toothless' back earlier.

'Never trying that with Toothless again.' Lily stated with certainty before giving her greeting. 'Hello everyone. Is it training time?'

'Battle? ARE WE BATTLING?! LET'S-'

'Chill, chill.' Flamel reprimanded the excitable lapras, who wilted upon hearing that.

'But I want to battle…'

A small horn poked out of the ground before Ness revealed herself, having traveled all the way here by digging through the land of the massive Vera farm.

'I see that I was too late to stop the idiots.' Ness said as she looked at the sight of their trainer giving Kratos and Toothless yet another tongue lashing. Said idiots are obviously unrepentant of their actions.

'Someone should go and stop Vel before she starts going on and on for who knows how long.'

'And who is going? You?'

'Are you crazy? Who dares to approach Vel when she gets into another one of her scolding sessions?'

'Hey Archer, you mind?'

'...'

'Archer? Helllooooooo. Archer?'

'...'

'Seriously, even Jarvis speaks more than you!'

'...'

'Nevermind.'

'I'll go!' Joy happily volunteered herself and with a hop, skip, and jump, the little cleffa bounced her way next to Vel's feet.

'Vel! Aren't we supposed to be conducting our ghost hunt?' Joy poked at Vel's leg to catch her attention. 'Let's go! Let's go!'

'Wait, what?! A ghost hunt?! Now that's a challenge worthy of a King!'

'HELL YEAH!'

"TOOTHLESS! STOP SPRAYING FIRE EVERYWHERE! LOOK! NOW THE TREE'S ON FIRE!"

A blast of water from Bigblue put the fire out immediately.

'You owe me one.'

'Toothless already owes you too many. One more won't make a difference.' Hulk deadpanned.

'Come on, Vel. Let's go ghost hunting already! The King will walk atop the corpses of the ghosts-'

'I take offence to that.' Dolly reminded Kratos.

'-and reassert my dominance-'

WHAM!

'We don't have all day to listen to your monologue.' Ness said irritatedly as Kratos and Toothless now lie on the ground groaning in pain. 'We have a ghost infestation problem to deal with.'

'Why did you hit me too?! What did I do?!'

'You set the tree on fire.'

"Alright, we wasted enough time. Let's just get started on this ghost problem."

'Finally.'

'Didn't Vel realise that most of the time wasted was on her scolding the two idiots?'

'Shhhh! Don't let her hear it!'

'Not like she can understand us, right?'

'Rena's right beside you!'

'Crap.'

The entire team is now standing at the back of the Vera house, which Vel is now looking at.

"If even Dolly and Rena cannot find the ghosts hiding in the house, and Fang's Odor Sleuth wasn't effective enough, then there's only one way left."

'In my defence, Dolly was being a hindrance more than a help.'

'Rena~ I was helping!'

'No, you weren't. Not when you decided to prank me instead of helping me.'

'It's all in good fun!'

Of course, their trainer was not privy to whatever they are talking about. Velda merely commanded Bigblue to use a certain move.

"Bigblue, cast Foresight on the entire house. Archer, Jarvis, Kel, Rena, Dolly, Fuzzy. Flush out any ghosts Bigblue revealed and get them here in the open. Please try not to damage anything while you are at it."

A beam of light was emitted from Bigblue's eyes like a high powered torch as the smaller members of the team went into action when Dolly brought them into the house with a Shadow Sneak. Bigblue's Foresight shone brightly on the house from the outside, revealing any ghost types that are lurking in there.

'They got them!'

Sure enough, the smaller members of the team emerged from the house moments later with Rena capturing and immobilising them in a psychic hold so strong that the ghosts have trouble breaking out of it. Kel is dragging out another two ghosts with her jaws since they have natural immunity against Rena's psychic abilities.

"Let's see. Two sableyes, three misdreavus, one duskull, one haunter, and a phantump." Velda listed the various ghosts that the team had caught thus far before speaking to them. "Hello there. Sorry for the rough treatment, but it would be impossible to be able to talk to you guys otherwise. If you guys promise to not run away the moment Rena and Kel releases their hold on you, I will tell them to let you guys go, alright?"

The captured ghosts looked puzzledly at each other.

'Woah, she's speaking to us?'

'I don't know. Maybe someone should slap us to see if we are dreaming?'

'I wonder if she likes the shiny things we gave her?'

'Answer Mistress' question.' Rena growled and tighten her hold a little.

'Alright, alright! Geez! Psychics and their insufferable attitude!'

'At least there's someone here who agrees with me.' Kratos nodded and earned himself a glare from Rena as a result.

'Ooooh! Hi there! Name's Dolly! Been a while since I've seen other ghosts other than me and Macky here. How did you guys get here?'

'Made the journey from the chaos. We have no idea why or how we landed ourselves here. You?'

'Travelling from the chaos? That was me a looooong time ago, but I was from Mt Pyre before going to Dewford before ending up here! Vel's nice. Even Macky say she has this comfortable aura thingy-'

'Oooh, so we weren't imagining things then?'

'It's like she's part of the chaos herself. I thought she was a walking dead.'

'Vel's not dead! She's alive! See?!'

Seeing as the captured ghosts are not up to any mischief for the time being since Dolly now has their full and undivided attention, Rena and Kel let them go. Archer returned back to Vel's side as per usual while the rest of the team just waited by the side and watched on curiously.

'Wait, you are telling me that unlike us, you came from elsewhere?' The duskull asked Dolly curiously. 'There were a whole lot of us who made the journey from the chaos together and we were expecting to be separated and land ourselves at different places in this world like what we were told by the elders, but we all just ended up here somehow.'

'How many of you are we talking about?'

'Way more than our fingers combined.' A sableye spoke up.

'That's… a lot.' Fuzzy said lamely as he perched himself on Bigblue's head.

'What did they mean by coming from the chaos?' Joy asked Rena curiously.

'All ghosts came from another dimension, or at least that is what Dolly and Macky claimed. Not all of them retain memories from their time there though. Dolly herself barely had anything to remember about the chaos while Macky seems to remember a whole lot.' Rena explained patiently as she helps her trainer to translate the ongoing conversations between Dolly and the ghosts through their telepathic link.

"That's weird. Since when did our farm become a hotspot for ghosts to spawn themselves here?" Vel muttered to herself as she crossed her arms. "Well, at least this is confirmation to Professor Birch's theory about the origin of ghosts, if he ever chose to take my words at face value."

'Are there any strong ones among those that made the trip with you?' Kratos interrupted brashly. 'Anyone who could give me a good fight?'

'Or for me to barbeque like a marshmallow.'

'Battle? ARE WE BATTLING-'

'Chill.'

'Awww mannnnnn. I thought they would be more fun than the bunch of talking sand I met the other day!'

'Talking sand?' Rena whipped her head around to face Chill. 'What are you talking about?'

'Oh! She must mean the sandygasts and the palossands!' A misdreavus said happily as she did loop de loops in the air with Dolly. 'They are fun! Wheeeee!'

'I washed them off into the sea and I never saw them again!'

'Uh…' The phantump is now looking at Chill with a look of trepidation.

'Wheee! They got washed off! Whooosh!' The trio of misdreavus doesn't seem the least bit bothered, however, as they continued to fly excitedly around Dolly. 'Whoosh!'

'Whooooosh!' Dolly responded in kind and they would have continued to fool around if it wasn't for Hulk reminding her.

'Dolly. The matter at hand.'

'Oh, right!' Dolly perked up before turning back to her ghost companions. 'So you guys have any ideas on where the rest of you might be?'

'The trevenants were saying that they are finding trees to live with.' Phantump spoke up. 'I prefer staying here because the sands keep invading the area where my tree is for some reason.'

Everyone turned to look at Kratos immediately, who is now pretending that he didn't hear anything. Unfortunately for him, Rena had translated everything for Vel to hear.

"Kratos."

'It's not me, I swear!' Kratos tried to defend himself from his now scowling trainer to no avail. 'It's Snap!'

'Me?' Snap cocked his head curiously to the side. 'Since when did I have the ability to control sand as freely as you do?'

"I will deal with you later." Velda said to Kratos as she rubbed her temples with her knuckles. "We need to first find a way to properly house the wild ghosts who just appeared here out of nowhere."

'We can bring you to go find them!' A misdreavus volunteered as it landed itself on Vel's head, making it seem like Vel is wearing a green wig. 'There are some really fun ones, like the other shuppets and banettes that got here! There's a gengar too!'

"A gengar?" Vel frowned a little as she picked the misdreavus off her head. The little ghost merely nuzzled itself against Vel. "Any other fully evolved ghost that I need to know about?"

'The banettes are alright, but there was a dusknoir too.' One of the sableyes walked closer to Vel under Archer's watchful glare. 'Dusknoir seems pretty disagreeable to anything and everything. Not a very pleasant fellow. There are a few more of our kind too walking about somewhere.'

"That dusknoir is definitely our first priority." Velda said as she patted the sableye on the head, who made a strange gurgling sound of content at the touch. "Come on, guys. We have a potentially dangerous dusknoir to catch."

'What about the talking sand? Are they dead?' Chill asked curiously as she waddled over to Vel. 'I mean, I wasn't really thinking when I just Hydro Pump them into the sea. They looked so strong too! I didn't mean to kill them! I just wanted to play!'

"We will check on them later." Vel assured Chill when Rena translated Chill's words for her. "For now, let's go find the dusknoir and the gengar. Dad didn't spot any of those when he was checking the farm, so hopefully they didn't cause any mischief that we didn't know about yet."

'Sun's too bright.' The duskull complained before unexpectedly diving into Vel's shadow. 'I'll be hitching a ride here.'

'Same goes for us.'

'Hey, what? Get your own shadow! Vel's shadow is mine! Mine!' Dolly screeched as she too dove into Vel's shadow together with the wild ghosts, much to everyone's bewilderment.

"Uh, you guys comfortable in there?" Velda asked her own shadow in an unsure manner as Kel tried to paw at it to get the wild ghost types out. There was no visible reaction.

'Mistress, do you feel any discomfort? Shall we drag them out?'

"No. It's fine, actually. I don't feel anything out of the ordinary. This is just… too bizarre." Velda shook her head as she climbed onto Flamel's back. "Let's just go and find- wah! Misdreavus!"

The misdreavus just hooted and laughed when it gave Vel a good scare by suddenly reappearing from Vel's shadow before disappearing into it again before Kel could catch it.

'Bigblue, how about another Foresight?' Rena asked, ready to drag the ghosts out if necessary.

'Vel doesn't seem to mind the wild ghosts though, and they seem to like her enough to not do anything that might hurt her. Besides, Dolly's in there. She is strong enough to keep them in line.'

'Can we just go and find those strong ghosts that they were talking about?' Kratos snapped. 'A King should not be kept waiting!'

'I don't understand why they are hiding from sunlight. How could anyone not enjoy the sun?' Lily hummed as she continued to sway in the sunlight.

'Not everyone is a walking plant like you.'

'Can we just get a move on?' Hulk cut the nonsense short as he pointed to Vel's and Flamel's departing figure. 'Flamel and Vel are just going to leave us behind at this rate!'

There's nothing here that is strong enough to be a worthy foe to him.

'Where did you come from? What did you want?!'

'Weak.' He scoffed. 'Now, perish.'

He had thought that he sensed a group of strong pokemon around this large tree. He was sorely disappointed to only find a bunch of grass types living in the area. The only strong being he had sensed thus far on this huge piece of land, wherever this may be, is the void canine that is a companion of one human that had walked past it earlier. Battle hungry he may be, he is not suicidal. It took everything he had to hide himself from the canine's sharp senses. A battle with the void canine is not something he can win yet.

The group of brelooms he was fighting futilely tried to put up resistance once more, only for him to scatter them with a Shadow Ball. Is there no worthy foe here that is not a companion to one of those blasted humans?

There was a beam of Dark Pulse that immediately forced him to back off. A banette hissed at him angrily as it fired a barrage of Shadow Balls that got him to be immediately on the defensive. Finally!

'Hey, don't be rude to those brelooms! They are nice!'

'I don't remember seeing you when I was making the trip here from the chaos.' He commented as he retaliated with a Shadow Punch, only for the banette to counter with a Protect before launching another barrage of Shadow Balls back at him. 'You are strong.'

'You are not half-bad yourself for someone who managed to evolve into a dusknoir even in the stagnated chaos.' The banette returned the praise as it fired a Thunderbolt. 'But that does not give you a reason to bully those nice brelooms!'

A wide array of different types of pokemon soon arrived while he was duking it out with the banette. Dusknoir growled in annoyance when he realised that they are all under the command of a human trainer.

To top it off, the human is but a youngling.

'Hey, let me have a go!' A gigantic creature that dusknoir is sure is from the void yelled out at the banette, who simply ignored him.

"Cool it, Kratos." The human scolded the creature and it reluctantly stepped back. "The last thing I need is for Whiskers' tree to be destroyed. This tree is important."

'Is that a dusknoir?'

'It is.' The human's shadow moved as a variety of ghosts emerged from it. A duskull responded to the little pink thing's question upon hearing it. 'This is supposedly my final evolutionary form.'

'I just hope you retain your manners when you evolve into this.'

'Trust me, it's just him that's so unpleasant. But you got to admit it's impressive that he somehow managed to reach this point all by himself in the chaos. Technically speaking, there was no need for him to come to this world if he managed to reach his final evolution. The only reason why we young ghosts chose to come here was because it was nearly impossible for us to evolve in the chaos.'

'What's it like in there?'

'Chaotic.'

'That's, uh, descriptive.' A huge hulking bipedal creature, also belonging to that blasted void commented on the outstanding answer.

'Take this!' The banette got his full attention once more when it suddenly reappeared from behind with a Phantom Force before shooting a gigantic Shadow Ball right at his head. Dusknoir tried retaliating with a Payback, only to find himself restricted from using this move due to banette's earlier use of Imprison.

Stupid human raised ghost. Dusknoir seethed at the back of his mind as he continued to duel with the banette. He had heard of these creatures called humans a long time ago by the elder ghosts who have reached the pinnacle of their strength and are able to traverse freely between the chaos and this world. The thought of them willingly submitting themselves to another being infuriates him.

Have they forgotten about their pride?! They are ghosts! They don't submit nor do they surrender! They take their foes down with them no matter the cost!

It seems like this banette needs a reminder on what it means to be a ghost type. If the human is the one holding it back, then he will kill her.

With a Shadow Sneak, dusknoir escaped from the banette and dashed towards the human who is riding the back of a fire type creature. Dusknoir opened his gaping mouth, eager to rid the banette of this bad influence.

'Oh dang, I let him give me the slip. Guys! He's heading for Vel!'

There was the sound of something fast and an ungodly amount of pain surging through his body. Dusknoir hissed as he found both his hands severed and dissipating into wisps of smoke. A red armoured creature buzzed angrily at him before launching itself towards him once more.

'Beat him up, Archer!'

'Kill him! KILL!'

'Show him not to mess with Vel!'

'WE ARE BATTLING!'

'Go go go!'

'Please. Like he has a chance of even touching Vel with us around.'

To dusknoir's surprise, this seemingly weak red armoured creature is a lot stronger than the banette. Each swing of its mighty pincers landed a cut on his ghostly body. Each blast of energy from it hurt him so badly that it stings.

This may be the strongest opponent he had ever faced.

Dusknoir quickly regenerated his missing hands before using a Fire Punch. The red creature simply blocked it with Protect before hammering him with an Iron Head that made his vision blur.

There was a dangerous sound of something slashing through the air and even before he could react, dusknoir found himself horizontally cleaved into two at his waist with a Night Slash. It's nothing that he couldn't regenerate from, but repeatedly doing so will leave him very exhausted.

Although at this point, he has no choice but to continuously regenerate his body if he doesn't want to die.

'This human's nice, you know.' One of the sableyes who came here with him and had been hiding in the human's shadow all this while spoke up. 'There's no need to go for her life. She even let us hide in her shadow to escape the sun.'

'Her shadow is really comfortable. You should try it!' A phantump commented excitedly.

'No kidding.'

'I don't need any help from humans!' Dusknoir bellowed as he forcefully regenerated his body once more. 'I am the strongest! And I will put down anyone who stands in my way, even at the cost of my life!'

The only response he got was a Bullet Punch from the red creature that sent him sprawling on the ground. The next thing he knew, a red coloured ball hit him on the head and sucked him in even before he could react.

Ghosts in the wild are vicious until you beat them black and blue, and even then they won't stop trying to get at you. You are very lucky, child.

Agatha's words at Mt Pyre rang loudly in my mind as I picked up the pokeball that now houses dusknoir. There was no other way for us to peacefully resolve this issue other than capturing it due to how violent and vindictive it was behaving.

'This ghost has a temperament that is even more insufferable than the brute.' Rena spoke to me as I pocketed dusknoir's pokeball. I will deal with it later. Right now, we have to continue hunting for the ghosts who are suddenly infesting my family's farm by some coincidental luck of appearing here while making their travels to this world from their birthplace. The place that is known to them as the chaos.

Wherever that place is.

"If worse comes to worst, we will let Kratos handle him." I patted Rena on the head before climbing onto Flamel's back once more. "We should find the gengar. If a single dusknoir tried to kill off the entire breloom population behind our backs and nearly succeeded, I don't want to know what the gengar is trying to do."

Archer walked back to my side and stood beside me in that usual cooler-than-thou manner of his. He had just done a splendid job of protecting me when he single handedly stopped the dusknoir in its tracks. My other pokemon would have done the same too, but Archer's reaction time was simply that fast.

Our team travelled around the farm scouring for any other random wild ghost types that somehow found their way into my family's farm. Most of them are just young ghosts who don't have much control or power over their ghostly abilities and are just creating harmless mischief for the fun of it. With Dolly around as my representative, she somehow managed to convince most of them to stop terrorising whatever pokemon population that caught their attention and take residence in my shadow instead.

Hence, right now I have dozens of wild ghosts of different species hiding in my shadow. Sableyes, duskulls, misdreavus, shuppets, gastlys, the occasional phantumps and pumpkaboos and their respective evolutionary lines. There are ghosts who are content with being left alone in their own corner which they claimed for themselves, like the few trevenants who now take residence in the eastern part of the farm that provides a forested habitat for pokemon on our farm who is known to live in forests in the wild. We left them alone since they are surprisingly friendly enough with me and they are not causing any mischief. All they ask for are trees for them to care for and live in. The sandygasts and palossands Rena told me that Chill had washed away by mistake had only just returned, although they are now staying far away from Chill despite her friendly advances. Like the trevenants, they are also content with simply being left alone and are not creating any troubles.

All that is left is the gengar that we had not been able to find yet. It's been an entire day and we saw no signs that indicated its presence. The ghosts who we met had informed me through Rena that they are sure that a gengar followed them here from the chaos.

Wonder where it went to?

Letting the massive horde of ghosts that we found continue to take residence in my shadow is not a long term solution, so I have Kratos and Bigblue build a massive tower made of rocks near the forest where the trevenants are living on our farm. Knowing the preferences of ghost types, I made sure to tell Kratos and Bigblue to construct the tower in such a way that the interior is dark, cool, and have plenty of places for them to hide and explore to their heart's content. The ghosts seemed happy with their new home and gladly took residence in it.

There are still a few who chose to remain in my shadow. I cannot say for sure what species and how many, but I know that they are in there. Dolly has been diving in and out of my shadows trying to chase them out since she is a little possessive of what used to be her own unique space, but she's adjusting to the change quickly enough. It also helps that these ghosts are actually friendly with me and allow me to actually have physical contact with them. The young misdreavus that was lurking in the house now likes to sit on the top of my head like some sort of wig.

My pokemon are concerned about having unidentified ghosts hiding in my shadows without prior consent, but these wild ghosts seemed genuinely friendly towards us so we ended up leaving them be. Besides, if even Dolly is having difficulty flushing them out of my shadow, there's really nothing much that we can do. This is what made ghosts so deadly. If they are dead set on stalking you, there's really nothing you can do about it other than employing the help of another ghost.

On the bright side, our farm is now probably the first pokemon breeding farm that actually has an enclosure for ghost types that made them choose to willingly stay there. That will give our farm some nice publicity and hopefully bring in some new customers.

"So all that is left is a gengar?"

"Uh huh." I replied to Mum's question as my parents and I ate dinner together. Vance is back at the Battle Frontier helping out with the rebuilding efforts. "We didn't manage to see any signs of it. I'm not sure whether it will appear in the house, so it's best to let our pokemon keep a lookout at night."

Fang barked an agreement before going back to devouring his meal.

Dinner ended soon enough and as usual, I brought the dishes to the sink to be washed. It was when I was washing the dishes that I heard weird noises from the kitchen cupboard where Macky's enormous stash of pecha berries is stored. The noise was soft and brief enough that I brushed it off as my imagination at first, but when I heard it a second time minutes later, I know that my ears are not deceiving me.

'Rena? I need you here.'

Rena ran into the kitchen with Kel and Fuzzy behind her the moment I called for her. Dolly reappeared beside us with Joy hitching a ride. My shadows are still moving, and I know that whatever wild ghosts that had chosen to remain in my shadow are also feeling agitated.

Slowly, Rena opened the cupboard where Macky's pecha berries are kept. Oh boy, if what I suspect is true, Macky will not be pleased at all in finding that his pecha berries had been stolen by another ghost.

The most exciting thing today would be playing hide-and-seek with the human and her band of pokemon. It took him by surprise that there is a pokemon among the human's pokemon team that can use Foresight, but it is nothing that he cannot evade by hiding himself underground.

And then there was the fight with the dusknoir prick too! That was exciting! The banette was good, really, but the pokemon which he now knows everyone calls Archer is really strong! Like super strong!

But what is the red and white ball thing that the little human threw at dusknoir? It just sucked dusknoir in like whoooooosh and dusknoir just disappeared! How?!

The little human is what everyone calls Vel if his ears heard correctly. She seems nice. At least she's friendly and has this weird but comfortable aura around her that just attracts ghosts like him to her. The dusknoir probably was too fixated on killing everything around him to notice it, but eh, he will notice it soon enough if he's still alive.

What made him not happy was the fact that everyone was eating something nice when the sun had set. It made him hungry too! He wants food too!

So he snuck into the room where he knows lots of food is kept. He had expended a lot of energy playing hide-and-seek with the human and her pokemon earlier and he's hungry dammit! How had they not noticed him for so long?! He gave them so many clues too!

Or maybe he's just that good? That must be it!

The best find would be the pink food of the gods he found in one of the cupboards. He thought nothing of it initially, but after the first bite, he instantly fell in love with it.

The sweet taste! The fluffy goodness! The spongy texture! Oh he can continue to eat this forever! This food, whatever this is, was definitely blessed by Arceus!

The pink food was so good that instead of him devouring it in one mouthful like what he usually does with his food, gengar gingerly ate each of the pink goodness bite by bite, savouring the heavenly taste that sent him into a state of bliss.

This is awesome!

Vel is still washing some round flat things with running water that is a poor imitation of a Water Gun he saw some of the water types can do who are living on the large piece of land outside. She must have very bad senses if she couldn't tell that he is just hiding less than five feet away from her. Her pokemon also really need to brush up on their tracking and sensing skills. Seriously, he's never far from them the entire day! How had none of them sensed him?!

Never mind. At least the small little bag of pink food is more than enough to make it up for him. What heavenly taste!

In the state of content bliss that he was in, he failed to pick up that several pokemon had entered the room where the human is washing whatever. Thus, he was in for a jaw dropping surprise when the cupboard simply opened. His paws were half outstretched, reaching out for another of those small pink things of heavenly goodness from where he sat himself in the dark cupboard when he was literally caught red-handed with a look of shock on his face.

Ooops

'Uh, hi?' He greeted sheepishly as his left paw slowly reached out to grab another of the pink thing before he slowly took a bite from it. Might as well eat as many as he can before he got chased out of here. 'It's kind of cosy here, huh?'

The little human gave him a very unimpressed look as she visually scanned him from head to toe. The psychic feline copied the look of its trainer. The void feline rolled her eyes at his thievery as the electric squeaky thing looked at him curiously.

'It's another Macky!'

'I'm a gengar, not a Macky.' Gengar corrected the sparky creature as he unashamedly reached out for the bag to grab another one of those heavenly food. Since he already got caught, might as well play it off.

'Macky is another gengar like you, and those pecha berries are his favourite foods.' A little pink thing that can actually talk nearly made him drop his food in surprise. Oh wait, it's small and pink like the food in his paws but the talking one looks totally different from the food he is eating. That thing is a pokemon, not food.

'Pecha berries?' Gengar mused as he looked at the food in his paws with a newfound realisation. 'So this is what this blessed food is called! The taste is heavenly!'

'This Macky is of a different colour though.' The ghost which everyone calls her by the name of Dolly spoke up as she floated next to him and chatted excitedly. 'Macky is more purple than him.'

'You racist?'

'What does racist mean?'

'I don't know. One of the elder ghosts taught me that word when I was still a part of the chaos.' Gengar shrugged at the question posed to him by the inedible pink thing. 'He told me to use that as my default response when anyone asked me about my different colouration.'

'You are more… darker? Greyer?'

'Duh. You colourblind?' Gengar huffed as he decided to just screw it and dumped the entire bag of the heavenly food into his mouth. Mmm. Tasty.

'Macky is not going to be happy about what you just did.' Dolly shook her head before brightening up again. 'But that was such a nice prank! I approve!'

'Prank? I was hiding near you guys the entire day and none of you found me! You guys suck as seekers! What kind of lousy hide-and-seek games have you guys been playing?!'

'I am the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy!' The squeaky ball of spark squeaked out. 'State ye name, o evil ghost! Fer the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy will smite you if ye- OOF!'

'Please ignore him. He's an idiot.' The void feline spoke smoothly as if she didn't just punted the noisy ball of white fur out of the window with her leg. How did she do it while remaining so graceful?

'You know what? You rock!' Gengar gave the void feline his best impression of a thumbs up like what he saw the other humans working on this land do sometimes when they complimented another person. 'That was so cool!'

'Finally. Someone with a similar artistic sense as me.'

'How is kicking the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy artistic?!' Fuzzy yelled out as he climbed back in through the window and shook off the leaves clinging onto his fur. He scampered back to the human and started to whine.

'Vel~ The other Macky is so not nice!'

'I told you I'm a gengar, you dumb shit.'

'See?!'

'Mind your language.' The psychic feline whipped her tail at him, causing gengar to flinch a little at the unexpected contact. 'There are children here!'

'Rena, why does he say dumb shit and not stupid faeces? Aren't they the same thing?'

'Joy. Please stop asking.'

'Hey, you got anymore of those nice sweet stuff?' Gengar floated in front of the nice human and waved his stubby arms to catch her attention. 'I'm addicted to that pink shit!'

'Why are you addicted to shit? Why is your shit even pink in colour?'

'Joy!'

'B-But I want to know!'

'No!'

'That guy even got Joy all confused.' Dolly commented as Vel and gengar are now effectively playing charades since Rena is too busy trying to steer Joy's thoughts away from asking more about shit. 'He's a true prankster through and through.'

"You mean you want more pecha berries? You cannot just eat everything in one mouthful, you know? It's not like I can keep buying you those forever. You will need to learn how to control yourself."

'Just give me more of those pink food of the gods and I will swear my allegiance, no, even my soul to you! I-I know! You can even have my first-born! How about that?!'

'He's serious?!' Fuzzy gasped. 'And what is that about giving Vel your first-born?! Don't make Vel sound so evil!'

"If you really want more pecha berries you would have to wait until tomorrow. Not only that, you cannot cause any trouble for anyone or any pokemon here. Are you agreeable with that?"

'Yes, yes, and YES! I already promise you my first-born! What more do you want?! I don't care where you get it from! Just give me more of those!'

"Are you disagreeing with me? How greedy can you get?"

'How is that a disagreement?! Alright, you got me. You can have my second-born too! N-Not satisfied?! What are you?! Giratina incarnate?! Fine! You can have all of my future children too! Happy now?!'

"Now you are agreeing with me? Alright. I'll get some of those pecha berries for you tomorrow, but eat in moderation. Okay?"

'I get it! I get it! I just want a lifetime supply of those!'

'He sold his descendants for pecha berries.' Fuzzy said in bewilderment, still not wrapping his head around the entire issue.

'Why did he say that he wanted to eat pink-'

'JOY! STOP ASKING!'

44

"You got yourself a shiny gengar."

"Why, jealous?"

"Not really." Vance replied as he and his baby sister watched the newest addition to Vel's team chasing after a terrified Fuzzy in circles. Fuzzy is squeaking something incoherent while the gengar is just constantly making a BLLEERRGGHH sound as it chases after Fuzzy with its jaws wide open. Given how unhinged Velda's gengar is, he's glad that he has Macky instead of that.

Should he feel a little sad for Fuzzy that no one comes to his aid?

"So, you naming it?" He asked his little sister. When he first got wind that his family's house and the entire farm was suffering from a ghost infestation problem, he had tried to drop everything as fast as he could at the Battle Frontier before coming back home ASAP, only to find that his baby sister had already resolved everything beautifully.

That's his sister for ya!

"I have no idea what to name him." Vel admitted as she watched their pokemon interact with each other. If what Vance interprets is right, Macky and the shiny gengar are now comparing their colour differences, giving Fuzzy a short break. There's really not much of a difference if he has to be honest. They are both still purple, only that Vel's gengar is a little lighter in colour with a light shade of grey as well.

Greyish purple? Is that even a colour?

"We used to only have one glutton for pecha berries. Now we have two." Velda sighed and Vance cannot help but laugh out loud. He can still remember the phone call he received early this morning from Velda, telling him to get a large number of pecha berries on his way home.

"Dad said you caught a dusknoir too. What are you going to do with it?"

"I have no clue." Velda groaned. "Taming a pokemon as vicious as the dusknoir will take too long. I really don't have the time to be doing so seeing that I will be setting sail soon to do interpol stuff. You want it?"

"Nah." Vance waved it off. "If you cannot tame it, trade it for other pokemon with someone else. You can get some really good offers with a fully evolved ghost."

"I'll consider it." Velda nodded as the two gengars are now trying to inflate themselves as much as physically possible. "But what to name this gengar? Hmm…"

"Macky v2.0"

"Bad name."

"Macky Jr."

"Vance. Please."

"Your gengar's name needs to be similar to Macky!" Vance insisted. "It's all about the sibling theme!"

Velda gave him a flat look.

"Vel!"

"Fine." She rolled her eyes before going back to thinking once more. After some time, she spoke up.

"Wacky."

"What?"

"Macky and Wacky. Sounds good?"

"It's… GENIUS!" Vance exclaimed, catching the attention of all their pokemon. "All you did was to invert the 'M' in Macky's name!"

"You catch on quick." Vel commented as she beckoned for the shiny gengar to come closer to her, which it did. "How about it? Do you like the name Wacky?"

"How about it? Do you like the name Wacky?"

Gengar blinked his eyes twice. Name? Velda's giving him a name?

'You accepting it?' Dolly nudged him, bringing him out of his thoughts. 'Vel gave a name to each and every one of us here. I mean, it's not compulsory that you have to take it, but we all do in the end.'

'You mean even the dusknoir will have one?'

'If that prick ever ends up as being part of the team, then yeah. He will.' Flamel answered patiently. 'Although he had already painted himself in a very bad light for what he tried to do to Vel.'

'Who cares? Never liked him anyway.' Gengar popped his eyes out before rolling it, giving the two humans a brief scare. Rena is now screaming at him about the 101 reasons why he shouldn't do that to Velda, but he really doesn't care all that much about that stuck up psychic.

Gengar floated up high, sucked in a breath, and yelled out loud for everyone to hear.

'You hear that, you little shits?! I'm the Demon Overlord Wacky! Quake on your feet and shiver in your skin, for I am the Demon Overlord Wacky! FEAR ME! WAHAHAHAHA!'

'He's another Fuzzy.' Flamel stated with a tired sigh. 'But a lot more chaotic.'

"I take it that he accepted the name." Vel said out loud as Wacky's evil laughter resounded across the empty clearing they were at. A zap from Vance's electivire brought Wacky back down to the ground.

'Ow! What's that for!'

'Just shut up.'

'Fight me!' Kratos roared as sands began to rise from all around them. 'The mighty King against the Demon Overlord! There's no greater battle in history than this!'

'BATTLE? WE ARE BATTLING?!'

'Come get me!' Toothless declared his challenge as he spread his wings and flew into the sky in a blaze of fire.

'You are no match for me, you foolish mortals!' Wacky declared loud and clear as he struck a pose with an open palm in front of him and his other arm stretched backwards and his feet spaced apart. 'I am the embodiment of chaos, the representation of evil! Shadows fear my presence and life fades with my every breath! I'm the ruler of the underworld, the Demon Overlord Wacky! WAHAHAHA!'

'I take back everything I said. I regret ever befriending him.' Kel spoke irritatedly. 'Permission to kill him?'

'Permission granted.' Rena replied with a scowl.

'Permission denied.' Flamel stopped Kel before she really went on with her threat. Surprisingly enough, Vance and Vel are not putting a stop to the battle currently going on between the team. Kratos, Toothless, Wacky, Chill, and even Snap are now fighting against each other in a five-way battle.

'How can you not invite the strongest pachirisu in existence to take part in such a glorious battle?!' Fuzzy squeaked out in horror as he sparked himself up before charging right in the middle of that mess. 'Grovel before my feet! Storms, heed my call! Lightning, answer my command! I'm the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy- OOF!'

'And he got taken out with a single hit.' Joy commented as they all watched Fuzzy's little body soared overhead before landing in a nearby pond in a huge splash.

'Hiyah! Wacky kick!'

There was a loud sound of something smacking into something else as Toothless was sent flying out from the chaotic battle. He barrel rolled in the air before righting himself once more.

'Not fair! We can't hit you at all!'

'Well, I'm a ghost and the Demon Overlord Wacky! What'd you expect, huh? Me sitting there and kissing you hello?'

"Wacky's surprisingly good." Vance commented as the brawl continues when Toothless rejoins the battle. "The speed in which he switches between his tangible and intangible form is even better than many other trained ghosts I had seen. You can work with him on that. I can see that becoming his favoured fighting style."

"Definitely." Vel replied and there's no hiding the glee in her voice. "Wacky is like a little phantom menace. This is good."

A massive burst of Dark Pulse from Kratos blew a huge crater on the ground.

'Where Wacky go?!'

'On your back!' Chill cried out as she tried to freeze both Kratos and Wacky, but Kratos interrupted her before she could pull off a massive Blizzard.

'I've decided! You make a good evil stead for this evil Demon Overlord! WAHAHA!' Wacky cackled as he rode on Kratos' back and no matter what the tyranitar did, Wacky just could not be shaken off.

'Ooh! A feisty one! I like feisty ones! I shall tame you, you vile creature of the void! And together, we shall conquer the WOOOOOORRLLDD!'

'I will not be conquered by the likes of you! Get off me!'

A raging gust of Heat Wave blew both Kratos and Wacky off their feet.

'I'm the winner!' Toothless roared out in victory, only for Snap to tackle him back down onto the ground.

'What an unsightly scene.' Rena scoffed as she snuggled closer to her trainer to protect her sanity while glaring at the barbarians in disdain.

'If Wacky's already this unhinged.' Lily asked nobody in particular as she raised a wall of rocks to prevent the impact of Snap's Hyper Beam implicating them when he fired it at Kratos, who had stupidly held Wacky in front of him as his shield only for the Hyper Beam to pass through Wacky harmlessly. 'How crazy do you think that dusknoir will be?'

'AHAHAHA! SUCKER! I'm a GHOST! Hyper Beams don't work on me! I ROCK! Oh wait, I'm a ghost! Not a rock! WHEEEE!'

'Wacky has issues.' Bigblue commented as Wacky inflated himself like a balloon before releasing that air from his mouth, resulting in him flying uncontrollably in circles in the air above them while still making that WHEEE sound. 'It's official, he's nuts.'

'I'M NOT A NUT! I'M THE DEMON OVERLORD WACKY! THE LORD OF SHADOWS!'

'See? He's nuts.'

'I think we made the wrong choice inviting him over.' Dolly tilted her head to a side, a little afraid of the power being thrown around by the powerhouses of their team. Even Vance's team had moved aside to let them do whatever they want.

'Hey! You guys want to see what I just learnt from the humans I spied on? The pose of dominance? The strongest pose in history? The pose fitting for an overlord like me?'

'Nobody cares, Wacky.'

Snap was swiftly punted out of the battle by the chaotic ghost for that remark.

'I WILL MAKE YOU FEAR ME! FEEL THY STRENGTH OF THE STRONGEST POSE IN HISTORY!' Wacky yelled out loud with his tongue shooting out in absurdly long length from his mouth and his stubby arms raised horizontally and parallel to the ground while floating in the air. The light of the sun is shining down on top of Wacky, giving him a contrasting holy glow for a demonic ghost like him.

'THE T POSE!'

'Alright, I'm ending this.' Hulk got up from where he was sitting on the ground and rotated his arms to loosen some of his muscles. 'This ridiculous farce had gone on long enough. Please don't stop me.'

'You tell them, Hulk.' Kel gave her full approval as Hulk picked up a huge boulder from the ground before throwing at the group of quintet idiots with a powerful Fling.

The attack connected, but it didn't work quite as expected.

'A NEW CONTENDER?!'

'BATTLE! LET'S ALL SAY HELLO AND BATTLE EACH OTHER!'

'I'M THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!'

'BACK OFF! I'M THE DEMON OVERLORD! FEEL MY DOMINANCE... T POSE!'

'FIGHT ME!'

'... I think we had just made things worse.'

When he was finally released from the stupid red and white ball, he found himself in a whole new different area.

"Alright, guys. We have no time for this. He's all yours. Do whatever you guys need to do to get him to listen. If it doesn't work, then we will find another way some other time when we are free again."

Dusknoir growled in rage as he called upon the power he has over the chaos to unleash upon the wretched group of pokemon under the command of the human. He took a pause when his sole eye spotted a familiar figure.

'Gengar? What are you doing there?'

'Hey, prick!' The gengar greeted back with a wave of his paw. 'Wassup!'

'You… joined the human too?' Dusknoir spoke in disbelief when he saw gengar among the company of that little human and her wretched team of pokemon.

'Yeah, your point being?' Gengar shrugged nonchalantly. 'She provides me with the food of the gods and in return all I have to do is to be part of her team. I mean, I did surrender my descendants to her, but meh, details. Whatever. It's still an absolute win if you ask me.'

'Do you have no pride?!' Dusknoir bellowed out as ghostly energies spilled out of him. 'We are ghosts! We are immortal beings! We don't need to rely on inferior creatures!'

'Is it just me, or does this scene look very familiar?' The banette questioned out loud.

'The Kratos beatdown.' A feline of the void answered. 'The only time when Fuzzy was tolerable.'

'And I'm here again to deliver the second beatdown! Grovel before my feet, you evil ghost! I'm the awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous Fuzzy- OW!'

'Shut up, Fuzzy.'

'KEL! Stop ruining my introductions!'

'So this was the classic Kratos beatdown that you guys kept talking about?'

'Yes, Hulk. Only that this time Kratos is now a mean and angry ghost.'

'Kratos used to be cute though.' A flaming lizard commented. 'Likes to do all those weird fancy dances that he thought were effective feints. Pfft.'

'I will eat you guys.'

'And there's the threatening act that scares absolutely no one.' A big and blue creature rolled his eyes as it said this. 'Try something different, won't you?'

'I wonder if dusknoir knows what Double Team is?' A small little pink thing asked the psychic feline beside it.

'Why don't you go and try battling the ghost, Joy? Take this as an opportunity to see how far you have come.'

'Battle? Joy's BATTLING? Go say hello to the dusknoir, Joy! Make sure that you are friendly!'

'You guys are bad influences on Joy.'

'Lighten up, Ness. The prick deserved it for what he tried to do to Vel.'

'On second thought, you are right, Toothless. Go Joy! Beat the rudeness out of that ghost!'

'Ness, you are supposed to be the rational one here!'

'Hulk, Toothless has a valid point for once. I need to show some support.'

'Just do your best, Joy. You have Rena's and my full support on this.'

'What Kel said! Go Joy go! Go Joy go!' A plant-like creature swayed itself excitedly from side to side as it cheered the pink fairy on.

'Dominate hiiiiim!'

'Wacky. Control yourself, please.'

'Yeah, don't just dominate that little piece of shit!' The gigantic rock-void lizard sucked in a breath before roaring out. 'HUMILIATE HIM!'

'Like how Fuzzy humiliated you?'

'Ooooh! Nice one, Wacky! Nice burn! Better than a Will-O-Wisp!' The banette high-fived gengar. 'Ghost pals for life!'

Dusknoir's rage which had been slowly building up finally exploded in a full-blown eruption.

'You even accepted a name given by those humans?! How far have you fallen, gengar?!'

'Lighten up, would you?' Gengar, no, Wacky, scoffed out loud. 'In any case, good luck. The little pecha berry packs quite a mean punch. Don't say that I didn't warn ya.'

'I'll murder you all!' Dusknoir bellowed in anger as he swung his massive fist at the small little pink pokemon who is now standing a few feet away from him.

'The punch is too wide and telegraphed. And it's foolish to broadcast your thoughts out loud!' Joy took on a reprimanding tone as the oddly agile ball of pink dodged his punch before sending an erratic arc of lightning his way. It barely tickled.

'That all you got?!'

'If you can't move, then that's really all I got for you.' Joy nodded politely.

Dusknoir suddenly fell onto the ground, body spasming uncontrollably. What? What's this?! A delayed effect?!

'That was a Thunder Wave. Are you okay? Was that a little too much for you to handle? Uhm, did I overdo it?'

'You…' Dusknoir desperately fought through the surprisingly strong paralysis and managed to send a massive Shadow Ball at the pink pokemon. 'DIE!'

'Now that's not very polite.' Joy shook her head in disapproval as she produced many illusory copies of herself to dodge that Shadow Ball. 'Although I will give you points for fighting through that paralysis. That was commendable.'

'What is that?' Dusknoir whispered to himself as copies of the damned pink ball now multiplied itself all around him. He growled once more before he roared at the annoying pink little fairy. 'Stop hiding and fight me!'

'I see that you have never heard what a Double Team is, similar to what I heard about Kratos when he first joined.' A Shadow Ball slammed into his back as that annoying voice resounded all around him. 'Allow me to educate you. Lesson number one in using Double Team. First, you need to relax yourself and your muscles so that you can enable yourself to move rapidly-'

'I don't have muscles! And shut up! You are annoying! You'll be the first that I will kill!' Dusknoir made a swipe at the copies around him only to come out with nothing. Seeing that, he whipped up an Ominous Wind that ripped everything around him apart, including the illusionary clones.

'Found you!' Dusknoir closed the gap with a Shadow Sneak, only to narrow his eye in confusion when that too was another copy.

'That was Substitute. For all your shouts and threats, you are not that smart, are you? That was such an obvious setup.'

Dusknoir growled as he launched a Shadow Punch from where the voice was coming from. He missed again.

'I apologise. It was rude of me to point out your flaws like that. How about we reintroduce ourselves? Hello! My name is Joy! What's yours?'

'Oi Joy! Stop tap dancing around that stupid ghost! Just defeat him in the most humiliating way possible!'

'But that's not very nice, Kratos.'

'Don't be dumb! Why play nice with him when he ain't playing nice?! No way he's gonna listen when you are being all polite like that!'

'You… have a point.'

'I AM A KING! I make many valid points! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TO OBEY!'

'Joy, just use the ULTIMATE MOVE! Do it like I taught you!'

'Dominatioooooooon! Wheeeeeee!'

'Erm…' Joy pondered as she continued to dodge each and every of his punches while doing so. How?! How is this little pink ball of annoyance doing it?!

'Turn him into a soccer ball!' The banette hollered out.

'Pretty sure you mean volleyball, Dolly.'

'It's the same. They are still balls!'

'Was that what you turned Kratos into?'

'Yes! We nearly hit twenty counts too on that first try! We can totally do it this time! JOY! Hit him up like we taught you!'

'Calculating speed and velocity needed for Joy to do an effective volleyball bounce with dusknoir… Joy, the Gravity and Flamethrower combo we discussed the other day would be optimal.'

'Jarvis! You speak!'

'Why, yes I do. Only Archer never speaks.'

'...'

'Point made.'

'Uh, okay Jarvis! Here I go!'

With a burst of speed and strength unbefitting of its size, the pink ball suddenly got under dusknoir before releasing the largest burst of flames from her mouth that blasted him into the air.

He can't even react to it! Not with the stupid paralysis still going on!

'Here I go!'

'Go for it, Joy!'

'HUMILIATE HIM!'

'Shut up, Kratos.'

'Look at her, all grown up!'

'See that Flamethrower? I taught her that!'

'We know, Toothless, we know.'

'Hey! I taught her that Thunder Wave and none of you say anything!'

'Nobody cares about you, Fuzzy.'

'Oooh! Look at the height! Let's just start counting! Ready?'

'One!'

'Two!'

'Three! Four! Five!-'

The entire duration where he was flung up and down twenty times with those wretched pokemon counting by the side was the most humiliating experience dusknoir ever went through. Every time dusknoir was forcefully pulled back down to the ground with a Gravity he would be sent blasting into the sky again with another burst of Flamethrower by the pink ball and he could. not. do. a. damn. thing. about it.

'EIGHTEEN! NINETEEN… TWENTY! WOOHOO! YOU DID IT, JOY!'

'Uhm, I did?' The pink ball turned back towards the noisy band of misfits for confirmation, leaving dusknoir twitching in agony on the ground.

'YES! YES! YES! NOW THAT'S HOW YOU HUMILIATE THAT LITTLE SHIT!'

'Kratos, you need to calm down.' The creature with many tentacles had to physically hold the rock lizard back in its excitement.

'I don't need to calm down! I just need to see him get humiliated and eat dirt!'

'So… basically what you went through? The full course?' A dragon asked curiously.

'SHUT UP!'

'A sore point, I see.' The fire horse noted.

'Finish that prick with the pose of dominance!' Wacky yelled at Joy. 'Remember what I taught you earlier?!'

'The T Pose?'

'Atta girl! That's it! Now finish that prick!'

'Use the super finishing move!' The annoying sparking ball of white fur yelled out. 'The ULTIMATE MOVE! Go Joy go!'

'Don't… underestimate me!'

With a guttural roar, dusknoir pushed himself up and conjured the biggest Shadow Ball he ever managed to produce. The size of it was so huge that it dwarfed even him.

The pink ball showed no fear on her face as she leapt upwards into the air, feet together while her arms were held parallel to the ground away from her body by her side. Her eyes pulsed with a blue psychic hue as the earth trembled and pieces of rock, earth, debris around them floated up into the air and congregated to form a golem made of rock and earth. The massive golem took on the shape of the white irritating rodent called Fuzzy, covered and pulsing in blue psychic energy.

"Fuzzy! What have you been teaching Joy?!" The human screamed at the rodent that is squeaking maniacally.

'The ULTIMATE MOVE, Vel! This is it! This is the day that I had been dreaming of! An awesome, handsome, dashing, stunning, fabulous living statue built in my image! I'm so proud of you, Joy! GO GET HIIIIM!'

'DOMINATIIIIIOOON! WHEEEEEE!'

'HUMILIATE HIM! DO IT!'

'This is ridiculous! Was this how the Kratos beatdown first panned out?'

'Not exactly, Hulk, but certain details did stay the same.'

'It's official. Kratos, Wacky, and Fuzzy definitely have been bad influences on Joy.'

Ignoring the noisy chattering in the background, dusknoir hurled his Shadow Ball at the enormous Fuzzy statue. The pink ball merely pulsed in an even greater amount of psychic energy as she made her counter.

'Thou shall not pass! Light Screen!'

A psychic pane appeared at a slanted angle, intercepting the Shadow Ball and deflecting it upwards into the sky, rendering his final attack useless. Before he could even blink, dusknoir found himself snared into place with a Grass Knot. The paralysis from the earlier Thunder Wave doesn't even allow it to move or phase through physical objects now that he had expended most of his strength in firing that Shadow Ball.

'Scream it out, Joy!' Fuzzy squeaked loudly in delight. 'SCREAM IT OUT AND ETCH THIS ULTIMATE MOVE INTO HIS MEMORY FOR ETERNITY! CARVE IT SO DEEPLY INTO HIS BEING THAT IT WILL MAKE HIM TREMBLE IN FEAR WHENEVER HE REMEMBERS ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT!'

'Like how we did with Kratos?' The fire horse stated dryly. 'The-'

'Blasphemy! I do not fear that stupid move!'

The Fuzzy statue rose with the earth as the pink ball pulled everything upwards with a powerful use of Psychic. The Fuzzy statue made its charge towards dusknoir like a speeding bullet while riding on the massive wave of rock and earth like a raging tsunami.

The pink ball of logic defying acts sucked in a breath as she screamed as one with the annoying lightning ball of white fur.

'SUPER…'

'...DUPER…'

'OMEGA FUZZY WUZZY PUNCH!'

The enormous rock statue collided into dusknoir with a force greater than anything dusknoir had ever experienced before. The wave of rocks fell apart and came tumbling down around him, leaving dusknoir speechless at the ridiculousness and the absurdity of it all.

What… just happened?

'YES! YES! YEEEEESS! HUMILIATION! YESSSSS!'

'Kratos, control yourself!'

'The Super Duper Omega Fuzzy Wuzzy Punch has been reborn! Yeeeeesss!'

'Shut up, Fuzzy. Before I make you.'

'Did I… kill him by mistake?'

'No, you didn't. I can still sense him. Good job, Joy.'

'Thanks, Rena!'

'That was a wonderful way of saying hello! We should all BATTLE! HELLO EVERYONE!'

'Chill! Chill!'

'That was EPIC!' Dusknoir heard Wacky yelling out. 'You ROCK! The T Pose was AWESOME! You totally displayed your dominance there! WHEEEEE!'

'Thanks!'

'Ignoring Fuzzy's bad influence, Joy had come a long way. Good job, Joy.'

'Thank you, Bigblue. Thanks for the kind guidance everyone has given me thus far! Thank you! Thank you everyone!'

Lying tiredly beneath the wreckage, dusknoir could imagine the admittedly polite little fairy bowing to every single one of those stupid pokemon one by one. But still…

What just happened?