FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

And I'm back! I apologize for the long wait, but I was suffering from writers block for like, a week (two weeks ago), and it took me another to wrap this chapter up (as of today, last week). I hope this makes up for the wait because this is longest chapter I've ever written thus far. As always, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated around here, so get to reading before I go off into an inner monologue and bore you with that.

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

Aaron slowly awoke from his sleep to the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore. He opened his eyes and drew his attention to the still sleeping mass he was holding in his arms. His beloved raichu was snuggled closely against his chest, lightly snoring with her paws gripping his fur. The psychic smiled, feeling content to just lay there and watch her dream. As carefully as he could, he rolled them both over so that he was lying on his back and she on his chest. Tora stirred a little, but did not wake up. Aaron cupped her cheek in his paw and gently caressed it. The chu sighed and nuzzled her face against it.

"I'm so lucky," he thought "I get to wake up every morning to the most beautiful pokémon in the world. She's just so perfect in every way imaginable, I feel like I'm in a dream whenever she's around me. I wonder if this is what dad felt every time he was around mom. They've been together for years, and by the time I came around, they were still in love. I hope we can have the same strength of love they had for each other

As he was thinking this, he moved from caressing her cheek, to rubbing her back. He started around her shoulder, ever so slowly going lower to the middle of her back. This was where he got the most response out of her. The chu let out something that sounded somewhere between a moan and a sigh. It was music to the psychic's ears. Aaron continued this for a couple minutes, enjoying the bit of pleasure he was giving her. Eventually, Tora stirred from her sleep with a big yawn, stretching her back into Aaron's paws. She opened her eyes to the sight of a typhlosion grinning at her.

"Good morning beautiful," Aaron said.

"Good morning to you to, handsome," Tora replied, smiling back at him. "Have you been up long?"

"Long enough. It looked like you slept peacefully."

"I really did. I felt so relaxed and warm all of a sudden. It was the best sleep I've had in a while."

"I'm glad you've slept so well." Aaron rubbed along her back again, coaxing another contented sigh from her.

"Is this what you were doing while I was sleeping?" She asked; liking the attention he was giving her. The chu completely relaxed her body against Aaron's. She had no idea how he knew which spots to scratch to make her virtually putty in hands. Aaron's smile broadened. "You like that do you? How about this then?" The psychic took one paw and scratched the top of her head. "Does that feel nice?" Tora nodded, a smile working its way to her face. "I think I deserve some kind of reward." Tora raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of reward did you have in mind?"

"Well... I don't mean for this to sound weird, but I would like a nice belly rub."

"A belly rub?" Tora laughed. "Why a belly rub of all things?"

"Because getting your belly rubbed is one of the most satisfying and sensual things you could ever receive from someone. You can't tell me that you've gotten one, can you?"

"No, but it's just a silly thing to ask for."

"It may be silly, but I find it very relaxing." Aaron glanced out the door of his shack, taking notice of how bright it's getting outside. "I think it's about time we get some breakfast. We don't want to be late in meeting Chris and Alice at the pokémon center before they start leaving the city." Tora immediately sat up, feeling panicked all off a sudden. She looked at her surroundings and just realized that they weren't in the pokémon center already.

"Wait, why aren't we there right now? I thought we were going back last night."

"Well, after you fell asleep, I couldn't bring myself to really take you back. So, I told Chris that we were going to spend the night here instead. We should be okay as long as we're back by nine."

"What time is it now?"

"My internal clock says it's around eight o'clock, so we have some time to kill." Tora let out a relieved sigh and relaxed.

"Oh, okay. So what do want to do about breakfast?"

"That," Aaron said as he slowly sat up, Tora sliding off his body. "is very simple. We'll just go out and look for some delicious vegetation to munch on. Either that; or I go into town and bring some breakfast back." Tora lightly punched him in his side.

"No; you're not stealing any more food." Aaron laughed at her and patted her head.

"I was joking, dear. Let's get a move on or else we won't have time to get anything to eat.

*****8*****

"Will you be checking out today?" Nurse Joy asked, holding out a tray of pokéballs toward a young man.

"Yeah, I'm leaving,"Chad replied as he collected his pokéballs and clipped them onto his belt. The last few days were spent merely information gathering. As much fun as that would sound to any kid, it was simply too tedious of a task to really have anyone do. Thankfully, he had his gardevior, Cosmo, to make things easier on him. Although she didn't like extracting information without others permission, she put aside her personal feelings so that her trainer wouldn't not only look suspicious to everyone, but blow up in frustration at things going too slowly for his liking. Together they traveled around the city, asking random people if they knew of a kid with a raichu that lived nearby. The first day out was unsuccessful, but their luck changed after stopping by a famous ice-cream parlor on the second day. The owner told them the general area that he lived in. Going on that, it only took them a couple hours to find the Welby household.

He was both disappointed and relieved to find out that Chris had left to take on the League Challenge. That would make his search incredibly easier since he could, more or less, predict where Chris will be headed and what route he'll take. The only bad thing about his encounter with Chris' parents is that he may have seemed a little too suspicious, thus resulting in them not giving him any information other than what he was doing. Cosmo had extracted the information herself at that point and they left with a word of thanks. It turned out that they had been informed by a neighbor that someone was looking their son the previous day and they were on alert. The only thing left to do was to wait for Miu to fully recover from her injuries. It was a surprisingly fast process considering how completely exhausted the dragon was.

"Are there any long-term injuries my dragonite suffered that I should be concerned with?" The Nurse shook her head.

"Not at all. The only thing I recommend is that she doesn't fly for more than a couple hours a day for a while to prevent another strain until she fully recovers. That's a very serious injury to any pokémon that flies," she said in a professional manner.

"I'll be sure to remember that. Thanks again."Chad turned and left the center, thinking of what to do next with Miu. He hasn't told her his plans yet, rather waiting until he got her out of range of anything breakable that he'll have to pay for in case she throws a fit again before he finishes telling her everything. He walked south to the outskirts of the city, more precisely, the place where he met Chris and, for lack of a better word, abandoned Lani. The open space was perfect for what he needed to tell her.

He unclipped Miu's ball and released her onto the open field. The mighty dragon materialized in front of him with an indifferent glance at her surroundings. She flexed her wings a few times to make sure that they felt fine before focusing onto him. Everything in her expression told him that she wasn't in the mood for any games. "Well," she said flatly. "Did you find out where my child is?"

"Before I tell you anything, I need you to promise me that you'll hear me and not try to kill me,"Chad said. The reaction he expected didn't occur. The powerful dragon smiled and started laughing at him. If there were a time where he would be utterly confused and nearly terrified, it would be this one. He could take the shouting, the threats on his life, and even a beating or two, but when she's actually laughing when she's clearly in a bad mood... that was something to be wary about... extremely wary.

"Oh Chad," she said still chuckling, "You're my trainer. I could never bring myself to actually kill you... consciously. That wouldn't be good for either of us. Tell you what; I won't kill you if you tell what I want to hear. If you don't tell me what I want to hear, I won't only not kill you, I'll just kill you dead and leave you in front of a hospital so the doctors will have to put up with your bullshit for a change. So, please, tell me what you have to say because I have this itch in my claws that only your blood can scratch right now." The situation was just as bad as he suspected, maybe a little worse, but at least he has her full attention.

"Okay, here's the situation right now. I found out where that kid, Chris, and his raichu lives. The bad part is that they won't be returning home for a while because he's taking on the League Challenge right now." Miu's eye twitched in irritation, but she kept her cheerful demeanor. "The good news is that we're able to figure out where he's going now and he's most likely leaving Cerulean City today. If he's going straight for badges, then he'll most likely head south to Auburn Town to get his next one. From here on out, it'll be a helluva lot easier to track him. That being said, we're going to take our time going about finding him until you're fully healed." Her expression changed from cheerful back to serious.

"I want to retrieve my daughter now. Just put me in the ball and fly on the charizard you came here on," the dragon said.

"Doing that won't get you flying normally again."

"I can fly just fine!"

"We'll see about that. In the meantime, I already have a plan set in motion to keep tabs on them. Besides, you agreed to do things my way one more time a few days ago, remember?"Chad unclipped a ball from his belt and released his charizard. The fire lizard nodded to Miu in greeting before turning his attention toChad, who started climbing on his back. "We're going to do some investigating as to where Skylar is, so I suggest you stop fighting with me and focus on recovering for now. Let's go." The charizard flapped his wings and took off into the air. Miu reluctantly followed them in the air with a growl of annoyance, silently hoping that he really knew what he was doing.

*****8*****

It was just after lunch that the idea of training was tossed out by Alice. She wanted some help getting April a power boost to her electric attacks, so she asked for Tora to be her partner. The raichu was more than happy to help out. Since they were going to be training, Chris thought it would be a good idea for everyone to get some in. All the pokémon were paired of with someone for some light sparring. Even Aaron participated in helping out by having Fang dodge multiple Shadow balls to improve his agility in the air. Lani was paired off with Jari. The pink dragon literally ran circles around him, dodging every strike of his club with ease without the use of Extreme speed. Despite the clear speed advantage, the cubone was showing improvement in following her movements, seeming to get closer to actually hitting her with each swing. Kaden and Kishan were paired off last. Their battle was more intense, somehow ending up being a test of strengths. The heracross was clearly physically stronger, but the wartortle had his element on his side.

"You have to store up more electricity," Tora said.

"But it hurts when I do it," April whined, not liking how the training was going so far. For the past fifteen minutes, she had been doing nothing but charging and firing electricity at a small boulder. Every time, she was told to charge for longer periods, which was fine at first, but then it began to hurt some.

"That's because you're not used to building up a lot of electricity to attack. Trust me; the more you keep at it, the more accustomed you'll be to doing it. Eventually, you'll be able to use more powerful attacks with ease. Now just keep charging until I tell you to fire." The flaafy nodded and started charging up her electricity. As the two electric pokémon were doing this, Chris was explaining to Alice just what was going on and what she needed to do as far as training April. The flaafy soon felt the little pangs of pain in her body building up again.

"Can I stop now?"

"Not yet. You're almost there." The fluff around her neck and head started cackling with electricity. Even the orb on her tail had started glowing a little. It wasn't until the orb flashed brightly did Tora give her the okay to go. April unleashed all that she had stored up into an attack that was bigger and stronger than anything she's ever done so far at the designated target. Alice watched in awe as her pokémon's attack found its mark and caused most of the large rock to explode, sending little chunks of debris everywhere. The flaafy fell back on her rear panting, completely spent. "That was really cool," Tora said with a smile, placing a paw on her shoulder.

"R... Really?" she asked panting.

"Yeah, you completely destroyed that rock!" April finally looked at what she had done and stared in awe, never thinking she had the power to do that to anything. Everyone else agreed along the same lines as Tora, the explosion having caught their attention, because they came over and praised the exhausted sheep for her amazing efforts. Jari came over and examined the rock carefully, going around and tapping it with his bone. Upon tapping a certain spot, the cubone gripped his weapon in both paws and struck it with a mighty swing. Several cracks rapidly formed all around the rock before it crumbled into large chunks on the ground.

"Next time, break all of it," he said. His comment didn't go over too well with Kishan though.

"What's your problem?" the wartortle asked irritably. "She just tried her best and that's all you have to say?"

"Yeah, got a problem with that?"

"You could at least say something nicer or tell her what a good job she did." Jari tilted his head in thought for moment.

"Nah, that's alright. I'll leave the mushy stuff to you guys. Let's go dragon! We're not done with our fight!" With that, the cubone walked off toward the spot where he was training with Lani. Kishan growled and was about to say something else, but April stopped him.

"It's okay, Kishan, really," she said. "He's just being honest with me."

"If that's what you wanna call it. It just seems like he's being a little rude to me, though." Out of everyone there, Kaden was the only one to really understand that Jari, in his own unusual way, actually praised her efforts and encouraged her to do better. It was a rare sight if he actually outright praised you. The heracross only knows this because he's been with Jari long enough to tell when he's showing tough love or just being rude.

The training went on for another hour before they called it quits for the day. As Chris and Alice finished packing up the last of their things, Alice noticed some dark clouds in the distance. "Huh, it looks like it's gonna rain tonight," she said pointing to where she was looking. Chris took noticed to the clouds as well.

"I hope it doesn't rain too hard then," he said. "I'm not sure how my tent will stand up to anything too intense."

"Me neither. Guess we should keep our fingers crossed." As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered how many fingers they crossed because in just a few hours of walking, the sky darkened considerably with the cover of dark grey clouds. Thunder echoed overhead, followed by flashes of lightning and slight drizzle of rain. Eventually though, the two were running with their backpacks over their heads in a futile attempt to keep dry from the pouring rain. Tora and Aaron were running beside them, not really bothered from getting wet as much as the two trainers. They group found some cover under a large tree that looked relatively dry underneath.

Once they were underneath the cover of the tree, Chris and Alice tossed their packs on the ground and gripped their knees as they try to catch their breath. Tora and Aaron shook the excess water off their fur and sat down. "So, what's the plan now?" Tora asked.

"I have no idea," Chris replied, straightening back up. He was pretty much soaked from the chest down. Taking one look atAlice, he could say the same thing about her. A chilly gust suddenly picked up and he visibly shivered. He looked around trying to find a more suitable location for them to rest. A flicker of light in the distance caught his attention. He squinted for a moment and saw that the light was an outdoor lamp. "Over there," he said pointing in the lights direction. "I think there's a house over there." Everyone turned to see where he pointing and saw the light too. With nothing else to go on, they all ran for the small light in the distance.

In just a couple minutes the group was standing in front of a large, old-looking mansion. There were two lamps that hung on either side of the double doors. Chris knocked on the door a couple times. "Hello? Is anyone in there?" he called out, hoping someone could hear him. There was no answer.Alicetried next, banging on the door with her fist.

"Hey! We're getting cold and wet out here!!! The least you could do is-" She didn't get to finish as the doors slowly opened with a loud creaking sound. It was almost completely dark inside. They were only able to see a few feet in thanks to the lightning flashing occasionally. Rather than standing around for an invitation, the group walked inside and quickly shut the doors. Upon doing so, the lights overhead flashed brightly overhead, resulting in temporarily blinding everyone. Chris tried to open his stinging eyes, but when he did, he felt a sense of drowsiness overtake him for a moment. It seemed that everyone else felt the same thing he did because they shook their heads to shake the feeling off.

Once he recovered, he spotted a light switch by the door and turned the light off then back on again, correcting the lights. Now that they could see properly, the group saw that they were in the middle of the main entrance. There were two sets of stairs on either side of the walls that came together to form a balcony of sorts to overlook the first floor. The floor they were on was lightly decorated with pictures of people on the walls and a couple busts mounted on stands. The place looked very old and seems to have been abandoned a long time ago. "Geez, I can't believe there's no-one here,"Alice complained squeezing a bit of water out her hair.

"I know. You'd think there'd be someone here with that light on outside," Chris added.

"Well, since we're the only ones here, I vote we get changed out of these wet clothes before we catch cold."

"I think I can help with that," Aaron said. Using his psychic powers, the espeon removed all the water and dirt from their clothes and packs and formed a ball of water as large as half of his body. He then opened the doors and tossed the ball outside. "Is that better?"

"Yeah, it is. Thanks," Chris said as he checked himself over,Alicedoing the same thing.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I still feel like I need a bath,"Alice said. "I'm gonna go look for a bathroom and see if the water is still working."

"Alright. We'll just explore a bit and find the kitchen. I'm getting kind of hungry. So I guess we'll see you in a bit then."Alice walked off toward the west wing of the mansion, which left Chris, Tora, and Aaron the east wing.

*****8*****

"This place gives me the creeps," Tora said. All she's seen so far were old paintings, peeling wallpaper, and enough dust and cobwebs to knit a sweater for a five-foot dust bunny. There was also a certain musty smell that came from a couple of the bedrooms they passed, no doubt coming from the old sheets on the beds.

"You're not scared are you?" Chris teased.

"Of course not. It's just that this place is really old and creaky; not to mention dusty beyond belief."

"Oh, is that all?" Aaron asked with a grin. "I thought you'd be thinking about the ghosts that are in here."

"Ghosts?"

"Yeah, ghosts like to hang out in places like this, especially if it's storming outside like it is now. It gives the place a sort of... Scary movie feel to it."

"Pfft, as if. There's no such thing as ghosts."

"Maybe not, but there are ghost pokémon," Chris pointed out as they turned down another hallway.

"That's right. They're just as bad as normal ghosts, maybe even worse."

"How can they be worse than normal ghosts?" Tora asked.

"Ghost pokémon love to play pranks on other people and pokémon. They especially like it when their pranks scare their victims. They can do all kinds of things to get a scare."

"Why do they go around scaring everybody? It can't be that much fun to do it all the time."

"They mostly do it for laughs; they're a little on the sadistic side, but sometimes they do it to feed by draining the life force of their victims. Sometimes they end up killing their victims. You could say that they're the reason the phrase 'scared to death' came to be." Tora immediately ceased walking, a sense of fear slowly overtaking her. Chris and Aaron stopped a few steps ahead, noticing that she had stopped. "What's wrong?"

"T-there aren't any ghost pokémon in here, right?" she asked shakily.

"What? No, there aren't any ghost pokémon in here," Aaron replied.

"How do you know?"

"I checked for any other signs of life when we split up. There's no one else here but us. You weren't scared by what I said, were you?" The raichu mentally sighed and composed herself.

"No; I was just making sure we don't get ambushed by any of them." As she walked off ahead of them, Chris and Aaron chuckled silently at her to themselves.

Soon enough, the trio managed to find the kitchen. It was a decent, somewhat modernized kitchen; wooden cabinets and counters with a wooden floor that wasn't wood. It was one of those wooden laminate floors. It was pretty spacious, enough to have an island in the middle with room to spare. Chris went to check out the stove, while Tora and Aaron checked the cabinets. It was a gas stove, which still looked in relatively good shape, so he turned one of the knobs to see if the gas was still on. The igniter clicked for a few seconds before a small blue flame erupted from the stove.

"We have gas," he said.

"There are some pots and stuff down here," Tora said as she closed a cabinet door. "But they're really dirty."

"Same goes for the silverware," Aaron added. Chris shrugged and set his backpack on the floor, opening it and getting his cookware out.

"I'll stick to using our stuff. There's no telling how long those have been here, but at least I'll be able to cook inside without starting a fire on the floor."

"I think we should clean up a little before any kind of cooking is considered," Tora stated. She was right. Everything was covered in a layer some kind of dust, rust, or mold. It certainly wasn't a place for cooking.

"We need cleaning supplies though, some really heavy-duty ones. I don't think there's any here."

"I saw some under the sink. They're really old though. Chris went and opened the cabinet under the sink, finding that all the cleaning supplies they needed were there. There were three scrub brushes, Cleaning sprays, liquid soap, three rags and a pair of runner gloves. As he pulled everything out, he noticed Aaron make a face, like he was thinking of something.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just a little strange is all," Aaron replied.

"What strange," Tora asked.

"This house... There's a lot of things that haven't been touched in some time."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Normally, nothing... I get that it's an abandoned house, but isn't strange that everything we've seen so far is still functioning? The gas, the electricity, and I'll assume the water is too. I would think this that a mansion like this wouldn't go unnoticed by a retailer or any of the service companies that provided the essentials of living in a house as big as this. None of these things should really be working right now." Both Chris and Tora looked between the psychic and each other, trying to think of a reasonable explanation for everything. After a few moments, Aaron shook himself free of his thoughts. "It's alright; I don't want you to hurt your heads over this. It's just a passing thought."

"If you say so..." Chris said unsurely.

Alice was walking down the hallway, minding all the stray strands of cobwebs that drifted in her way. She's been in almost every room so far on her side of the mansion, only spotting one bathroom. She passed it up because it didn't have a shower function to it, only a tub. Not only that, but it was pretty dirty and she didn't see anything to clean it with nearby, but at least she knows that the water is working. So she's now on a quest to either find cleaning materials or another, hopefully clean, bathroom. "This mansion is really big," she thought. "Or should I say, it has a lot of rooms. I've been in... five, six rooms in one hallway? And that's not including that nasty bathroom."

She reached another door and opened it, stepping into a rather large bedroom. There was a king-sized bed on the left wall, two nightstands on either side of it, an expensive looking wooden dresser, a desk, everything one would or could need in their bedroom. "Nice place. Now all I need is... aha!"Alice spotted an open door, which could only lead to one place. "Finally," she exclaimed, setting foot inside the decently clean bathroom. It had a white tile floor and white walls, a big mirror that was right above two sinks, and separate tub and shower. It was nearly the size of the bedroom with all the space she had to walk around in. "I was worried that I'd have to ask Kishan to hose me down."

She set her backpack down and turned the water on. She then unclipped the pokéballs on her belt and set them on the sink before stripping off all her clothes. On impulse, she checked herself out in the mirror, paying closer attention to her chest. Using both her hands, she cupped each breast and gave them a soft squeeze. "Hmm... I was they were a little bigger," she thought. _"Oh well; I've still got a few years to fill out, and by then, I'll be the hottest trainer around."_Alice wasn't the type to pay too much to her appearance, especially since she was on the road, but she checks herself out every now and then to see what she's working with. After all, there's no point in having the goods if you're not going to advertise them. With that last thought in mind, she grabbed the body wash in her bag and stepped into the shower.

*****8*****

Aaron seemed to drop the subject as they started the cleaning process of the kitchen. Much to Chris' and Tora's surprise, nearly all the gook and grime came off with a little water a couple swipes of their rags. The rest came up with a couple sprays of clean-up bleach and the rough side of their sponges. The sink and oven were scrubbed down enough so that they could see their reflections in the chrome. The entire cleaning process took an astonishing twenty minutes, way less time than they previously thought. Aaron didn't share in their excitement, only remaining skeptical of how easily the task was completed. With that out of the way, Chris could finally start cooking.

"I'm going to take another look around," Aaron said somewhat distantly. "I'll be back when dinner's ready." The psychic left without hearing a response from either Chris or Tora. The chu and the boy looked at each other for a moment, confused by the psychic's behavior.

"Tora, could you go with him? I'm not sure what's wrong, but maybe you could talk to him and find out what's bugging him," Chris said as he put a pot on the stove.

"Okay, I'll talk to him. He's starting to worry me to," Tora replied before going after Aaron. Once in the hallway, the raichu spotted a light purple tail disappearing around the corner to her right. "Aaron, wait up!" She ran down the short hallway as fast as she could to catch up to him. However, once she rounded the corner, she found that he was already turning down another hallway. "What? He couldn't be walking that fast..." Again, she tried to catch up to him, but she once again caught his tail leaving her sight. On her third try, she used her Quick attack, but was met with the same result. "This is ridiculous. Aaron! Aaron, I know you can hear me! I need to talk with you!"

Tora chased after him again and again, each time meeting with the same sight. She was growing more and more frustrated and tired with each turn, wondering why the psychic was completely ignoring her. She wasn't sure how many turns she made, but she finally had him when she saw his tail go into an open room. The chu bolted inside the room with the last of her energy. Where she ended up turned out to be a dinning room. It was a big room with a large chandelier hovering above a long cherry wood table. The chairs around it looked to be made of the same thing. There were a couple cabinets with fancy dinner ware on one side of the room, while the other side had a bar. Multicolored glass bottles lined the wall with possibly outdated liquor and wine. Tora didn't concern herself with any of these things however.

She glanced around the room for any sign of Aaron. "Aaron, I'm not playing around anymore! Get over here right now or else-" A loud bang went off behind her, causing her to scream in fright. She quickly turned around to see the door had closed. The chu could've sworn her heart stop for moment, but she could feel it thumping quickly in time with her rapid breathing. Tora went over to the door to open it, only to find that it was missing a knob and seemed to be sealed shut. "A-Aaron?" she called meekly. "If you're trying to scare me, it's not funny!" The chandelier lights began flickering and the air around her started getting cold. She shivered from the sudden temperature drop. "Why'd it get so cold all of a sudden?" As soon as she asked that, she heard a loud thump on the other side of the room. Another thump followed after it and she could tell that something big was coming her way. The chu went to the side of the table the sound was coming from since she couldn't see what it was because the table was blocking her view.

As soon as she did however, she wished she hadn't. If she didn't have fur, one could see the color from her face drain away. Her heart sunk to the bottom of her feet and her eyes grew wide in sheer terror. Every fiber of her being grew numb and refused to move. "N... N-No..." she managed to breathe out passed her paralyzed lips. In front of Tora was a sight she thought she'd never see again. The hulking behemoth slowly made its way toward her, its huge tail sliding across the wooden floor. Every heavy step struck more fear into the electric mouse as memories of that day resurfaced in mind. "You... You c-can't be here!"

"Yet here I stand," the beast replied with a dark chuckle. "It seems like you missed me quite a bit. How about a hug for old time's sake?" The Nidoking was fairly close to the raichu by now. Tora screamed at her body to move but it wouldn't listen to her, which was scaring her more almost as much as the nidoking in front of her. Just as the purple behemoth reached out to grab her, she managed to jump away from him and backed up against the door.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed, practically on the verge of hyperventilating. "This doesn't make any sense! He's dead; he shouldn't be here!" Nothing she could think of right now could help explain how any of this was even remotely possible, not that she was really concentrating on anything else but the terror in front of her. The nidoking almost looked hurt by her sudden retreat, but he still kept the sinister grin on his face.

"Aw, you don't want to hug? I thought we were good friends."

"Shut up, you perverted asshole! You shouldn't even be alive! Aaron killed you!" The nidoking laughed.

"Well, it looks like he didn't do a very good job at that. And since he's not here, I suggest we pick up where we left off.

Meanwhile, as Alice scrubbed her body down, she was thinking of just how convenient it was that they stumbled onto the mansion just as things were getting bad outside. She wasn't sure how she would handle getting rained on all night, not to mention the harsh winds and lightning. "Storms are not my thing," she thought out loud. She got under the spray of the water, closing her eyes as she wet her long black hair and felt the warm water cascade down her back. Once she was sure it was fully wet, the girl stepped from under the water and wiped the water from her eyes.

Alice opened her eyes to a startling sight. All over her arms were little globs of purplish black gunk. A closer inspection revealed that her entire body was coated with the stuff. "W-What the hell?" she exclaimed as she jumped out the shower. She grabbed the towel on the sink and used it to try to wiping off the nasty looking substance on her body. It took some work for her to get it off just her arms.

"Grooaaahhh!" something gurgled. Alice jumped at the sound and snapped her head up to see a disturbing sight. The same gunk that was on her body was coming out the shower head. The blob began taking on shape; its head looking like that of a houndoom with a set of large jaws and two rows of sharp teeth. The arms came right after. They were large and muscular, equipped with paws bearing very sharp claws.

Alice didn't bother to see the rest, opting to grab her belt and bag and getting out of there. She slammed the door shut and ran to the opposite side of the room where the bed was to put some distance between her and the monster. There she grabbed a pair of panties and slipped them on to at least have a little modesty when she called her pokémon out. She grabbed Kishan's ball and enlarged it. "I need your help Kishan!" she said as she tossed the ball in the air, only for it to bounce harmlessly on the floor with nothing happening. "What?!" Her shout was followed by a loud crash at the bathroom door, followed by a loud roar.Alice unclipped the other pokéballs and tried to release her other pokémon, but it was the same result every time.

All the while, she could feel the panic and fear rise as every loud bang weakened her only defense against the beast. To say that she was scared out of her mind would be an understatement at this point. She was outright terrified, a feeling she never thought she'd ever experience. None of her pokémon were coming out of their balls, no matter how much she called out to them or tinkered with the activator button. Another crash, louder than the others thus far, made her jump and scream. She looked over to see that half the door was gone and the monster was trying to squeeze through the hole it made. It was growling and barking at her with the intention, she was sure, to tear her apart. Alice quickly grabbed all her things, stuffed them in her bag, and ran for dear life out the room with no other thought other than to get away from there as fast as she could.

*****8*****

Chris was in the middle of cooking dinner. Since they stocked up on some food before they left Cerulean, he was making some chicken noodle soup from a can with chopped oran and sitrus berries on the side for their pokémon. He grabbed the small cutting board from the sink and set it on the counter before he grabbed a berry to cut it. As he was cutting, his mind wondered back to what Aaron had said. He couldn't get it off his mind. "This place is strange..." he repeated in his head. What was so strange about this place that it got Aaron so worked up? Sure, it was odd the utilities and gas were still on and maybe the kitchen was a little too easy to clean. He's scrubbed day-old dried food off the counter that required the rough side of a sponge to get off, yet he only needed a cloth to get up who-knows-how-long crusty mold with cleaning supplies that was stored under the sink. He stopped in the middle of cutting in short realization. "Huh, I may have proven his point," he said out loud.

Without thinking, he brought the knife down on his thumb, immediately jerking his hand away and dropping the knife as pain shot through his thumb. "God... Ffffudge m-monkey..." Chris used everything in his power not to swear as he clenched tightly on his thumb. He knew he broke the skin; the question was how deep he had cut. He checked his thumb expecting to see blood, only to find that he wasn't bleeding. In fact, there wasn't even a cut, only a dull ache.

"What the dude?" He said in disbelief as he looked his hand over. He knew for a fact that he cut himself enough to draw blood; it had hurt enough to confirm it. "That doesn't make-"

"Hey Chris!" shouted Tora from the kitchen entrance. Chris only glanced at her before quickly returning to his thumb.

"Hey, Tora," he replied distantly.

"Whatcha looking at?"

"My thumb... I thought I cut it."

"You cut your thumb?! Are you alright?!" He looked down at his raichu friend and saw the worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine... just weirded out. It's not bleeding, but I'm sure I smashed it enough to really break skin."

"Let me see." Chris knelt down on one knee and showed her his thumb. The raichu took his hand in his paws and examined the sore appendage. She turned it over a couple times and sniffed at it, seeming to take an abnormal interest doing this. "There's a little blood on it, see?" Sure enough, when she ran her paw over his thumb, it started bleeding.

"What the-"

"I'll take care of it for you," Tora said sweetly, almost sickeningly so as she gave a small lick to the iron smelling fluid.

"What are you doing?!" Chris exclaimed as he tried to pull his hand away. The raichu's grip proved stronger than he remembered it being because she held on and even put the thumb in her mouth. Chris felt her tongue swirl over his thumb, lightly suckling on it with the upmost care. The action sent an awkward, unpleasant feeling through him. She was sucking blood off his thumb! She's never done something like this before and the way she was doing it seemed so... suggestive. It felt so wrong. "Stop, Tora,' he said.

"Hmm

"I said stop!" This time when he yanked his hand away, he managed to free himself with a wet pop. "What's wrong with you?! You're acting really weird." Almost immediately, the raichu's ears fell and she had a sad look on her face.

"I was just trying to help," she said dismally. Chris, not being able to stand his best friend look so sad, felt bad for yelling at her.

"I'm sorry," he apologized with a pat on her head. "But you can't be doing weird stuff like that out of nowhere like that... or ever. This place is eerie enough without you adding more to it, got it?" The chu nodded, a smile returning to her face.

"Wanna see a magic trick?" she suddenly asked. "I've been working on it for a while and I want you to see it before I show Aaron so you can tell me if it's good or not."

"Uh, sure..." he replied unsurely at the oddity of her sudden request. "Since when did she have time to work on any magic?"

"You ready?" Chris nodded. He watched her put a paw over her right eye, slowly adding more pressure on it. A few moments later, she squeezed over it with unsheathed claws and ripped it out of her head with a small snap.

"Oh my god!!!" Chris shouted in horror and disbelief, eyes as wide as dinner plates. The raichu only sighed as she held her own eyeball up before him, optic nerve hanging and dripping with some of her blood. The hole left in its absence was trickling with her blood as well. All the while, she held a content smile on her face like she did the best trick in the world. "Tora, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Shh... the magic trick isn't over yet." Before he could even react, she had tackled him and knocked him onto his back with her sitting on top of him. "I have to take one of yours too so it can work. Just hold still for a second."

"No!" Chris slapped her paw away when she tried to grab at his eye. Even still, she kept trying to get at him, Chris doing everything he could to keep her away from him without hurting her. He was feeling strange while he was fending her off. His body felt numb all over, yet he could barely tell if he was moving on his own accord or if something else was. Even his blinking got slower; like his eyelids were suddenly a lot heavier than they should've been. He almost thought he was watching himself go on auto-pilot. His plan eventually failed soon enough, as she got too close in one attempt and he accidently punched her off of him. She cried out in surprise as she was sent rolling on the floor.

Chris was breathing heavily on the floor, recovering from her attack, all the while thinking that he never thought he had it in him to actually hit her, let alone punch her in the face. But she wasn't being herself and he was clearly defending himself. Not only that, but she actually ripped her own eye out and was happy about it. Those two thoughts were floating around in his head. "She attacked me... she actually attacked me," he thought. "And I hit her...She ripped her eye out... her freakin' eye!" He felt terrible for doing such a thing to her, but he was scared out of his mind that she was going to hurt him. He was having a hard time believing that this was the same raichu he saw just a few minutes ago. There was no way she would intentionally hurt him over something so ridicules. He came to the conclusion that this raichu couldn't be Tora, perhaps to help him deal with the situation he was in. The only thing left to do was find out who this imposter was.

Chris turned to look at 'Tora', who was just getting off the floor. Under her were the squished remains of what used to be her eye. When she saw this, her face turned from shock to furious, a growl rising in her throat. "What did you do?!" she yelled. "I was just trying to show you something and you messed it all up!" Chris slowly stood up and looked at her exactly as she sounded; crazy.

"You tried to rip my eye out! Who are you and what have you done with Tora?!" The raichu faced him, her one eye glaring at him and fur standing on end as electricity emitted from her cheeks. Chris backed up to the counter and reached for something to defend himself with. His fingertips touched the handle of the knife and he flinched away from it. Tora smirked.

"You wouldn't use that on your best friend would you?" she asked tauntingly. Even if she wasn't Tora, he knew he couldn't ever bring himself to use a knife on anyone. Since that was the case, he opted out for the cutting board instead. It had the shape of a wooden paddle, so he'd be able to fend her off without hurting her too bad should things get ugly. By the looks of it, it seems like it wasn't heading anywhere but ugly. "That's cute, Chris, but I don't get as to why you're trying to hit me. I thought I was your gir-"

"Shut up!" he shouted. "I don't know who you are, but you're not Tora, so you can stop pretending!" The raichu cracked an even bigger smile and started laughing, almost hysterically so. The action caught Chris off-guard and made him wonder just what was so funny.

"Oh Chris; I see you're not as easy to intimidate as the others seem to be," she said. "I find it incredible that you're as calm, well... as rational as you are under even the circumstances." Chris looked at her questionably.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You don't know? Come on, it should be obvious to you by now." A moment of silence passed between them, which made 'Tora' sigh disappointedly, but otherwise retain her smile. "I suppose not. Well, let me ask you; I'm sure you feel that your time here was more unusual than you would've normally preferred, am I right?" Chris nodded his head. "Didn't it strike you as odd that everything seemed to just go well for you? The convenience of having everything you need to clean the filthy kitchen, running water, and electricity just didn't trip the little alarms in your head that maybe something just wasn't right here. It didn't sit right with your little pink friend, though I must admit; I never thought I'd meet any of his kind in my lifetime. They're such an evasive race, always disguising themselves as another pokémon or person to avoid being captured by humans, but can't resist to sate their curiosity about them and mingle around them, or at least that's what I've heard. I'm amazed that you've become quite familiar with one."

"You're getting off subject," Chris said, feeling a little more relaxed but still keeping his guard up. 'Tora' took a moment to stare at Chris, realizing that she had gone off course.

"Indeed, you're right," she chuckled. "I just found it fascinating that you would know him is all. But to wrap up what I was saying earlier, there are reasons to the madness, but only one that really matters though. I mean; the absurdity of me taking out my own eye and smiling about it undoubtedly sent you through a few loops, more so than being attacked by your friend. Come on; it's not that hard to figure out. The only logical explanation is that nothing you've experienced here is real. It's all been an illusion, a dream!" She was practically dancing on the spot, giggling like mad with her tail waving about behind her. Chris was dumbstruck by what she said and nearly dropped the cutting board.

"What do you mean this is a dream? I haven't even fallen asleep," he exclaimed.

"Oh, but you have; or else none of this would've been possible. I'll have to show you so you can understand what I mean a little better." Much to Chris' surprise, she began floating in the air, a veil of shadow enveloping her entire body as she rose higher. A few moments later, it disappeared and floating before him was a smiling, giggling misdreavus. The red orbs around her neck were giving off a slight glow, as well as her large yellow and red eyes.

"I know what you're thinking," she said before Chris could get a chance. "Aaron was correct in saying that he didn't detect anyone, but remember; I had complete control over all his senses. I let simply let him think what I wanted him to think and let things play out from there. You see; we took the little bit of time we had to emerge from the shadows while you all were temporarily blinded and put you under our spell as soon as you opened your eyes again. From there, I took it upon myself to connect your minds together and ensure that you don't even recall losing consciousness in the first place. I even went the extra mile to keep your senses intact so you wouldn't suspect a thing, but it seems your friend grew suspicious due to me making things too easy for you. Oh well."

"Wait, then I wasn't with Tora or Aaron this entire time

"Don't misunderstand, Chris. You were with them, interacting and such. You were all together until you went your separate ways. Instead of keeping your minds linked together, I separated them and let my associates take over their dreams as soon as you left each others sight and went about your own objectives. I must admit though, it took a lot of energy on my part to do all this, which is why you didn't see the injury on your thumb when you 'cut' it and felt so numb and sleepy when you fended me off."

Chris gripped the cutting board in his hand harder, feeling a bit of irritation rise in him. He had heard enough. He needed to wake up from this dream and get to his friends before something happens to them. "If what Aaron said about ghosts is true, then there's a good chance they're in danger right now," he thought. He knew that pain or extreme fear usually woke him up, but his experience here taught him that he'll need a lot more than that to wake up this time around. "Let me and my friends go. I'm sure you got more than enough laughs at our expense."

The ghostly mistress spun around in the air "Now why would I do that?" she asked. "I'm having so much fun being with you. As for my associates, their sense fun might not be as pleasant as mine. Whether your friends live or die from their experience is not my concern."

"What?! You better let me out or I'll-"

"You'll what?" she asked as her began to glow a light blue color. Chris suddenly found himself being lifted off the ground. He flailed around trying to break free of her psychic hold, but quickly realized it was useless. The misdreavus pulled him close so that he was just a foot away from her. "Tell you what, since you have all this energy, why don't we play a game?" Chris, more than a little irritated by the ghost' lack of cooperation, wasn't in the mood to play any games, but he wasn't in any position to argue with her.

"What kind of game?" he reluctantly asked to which the ghost smiled at.

"A simple game really; all you have to do is best me in a battle of minds. If you win, I'll let you and your friends go. Sound fair?"

When she got an affirmative nod from him, her eyes started glowing again. Their surroundings suddenly began melting away. Every wall, appliance, and anything that has something to do anything lost its shape and slowly turned into a puddle of its former self and made room for absolute darkness. Chris looked around in the endless void of darkness, wondering what she had in store for him with this little game she had in mind. A white tile floor materialized underneath them, followed by four walls slowly erecting around it to form an enclosed space around them. A rough estimate told him that the room was probably big enough to fit his home, yard included, in it. So there was certainly a lot of space to move around in. A domed ceiling was put in place with a large mural of his ghostly captor on it.

"There we are," Misdreavus said, apparently done with the renovation. She gently lowered Chris down on the floor and released him from her hold. "This is where we shall do battle. As you can see, there's nothing in here that would give me an unfair advantage against you in here."

"I guess," Chris agreed. The ghost distanced herself away from him to give them enough space to start their supposed battle. "So, how am I supposed to... battle you? You're a pokémon and, by all rights, have every single advantage over me." The ghost pokémon laughed at his comment.

"In normal circumstances, you would be correct," she replied. "But right now, we each have all the cards in our heads. All you have to do is use your head."

"A lot of help that was," he thought before another thought struck him. "Wait! You never told me what would happen if you won."

"I was wondering when you'd ask me that. If I win this little game, then you must agree to stay within this manor forever." The pink-tipped tendrals that made up her 'hair' rose and waved about her head, electricity coursing through it and flying off in random directions. Even still, she kept that same playful smile while the sparks only grew stronger. Chris took a tenative step back, not even sure if it was possible to even put up a decent fight at this point. "Now come, Chris; show me what you're capable of."

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