Chapter 22: Two Against The Tower

The open area at the foot of the Lavender Tower was once again crowded as the sun set over the harbor turning the sky pink and purple as the ocean became almost blood red. All around the perimeter, small concession stands were set up to service the public's hunger for over-priced festival food as upon the small wooden stage a stocky blond woman with too many piercings operated an array of stereo equipment. Supplying the area with a variety music. The large crowd of people whom either stood talking, or dancing to the music were mostly locals, and couriers at first. To them it was more of a social gathering, and being that the festival ran every year, few of the attractions held their interest for more than a few days.

"I still can't get over how many of us there are this year," Miranda commented, shaking her head as the group of four joined the crowd.

"I guess the Festival's just becoming more popular," said Zack with a shrug, smiling as Anna took his hand in both of hers and gave him a gentle pull as a rather fast song started up.

"Guess so," Miranda replied, smiling in amusement as her friend exaggerated his peril at being dragged off to dance.

"Maybe it's a good sign," offered Misty, taking both Miranda's hands and leading her closer as well, "maybe this 'come home for a while syndrome' is contagious."

"Well, I can't say I don't appreciate the apparent support," the courier added thoughtfully, "But even without all these people, Lavender Town does seem a lot less depressing than it used to be."

"Good," said Misty mysteriously, "Then my work here is done!"

"Oh no it's not!" Miranda laughed, catching Misty about the waist as she turned suddenly and made to run away.

"Careful!" cried Misty, laughing as Miranda lost her footing and sent them both tumbling to the grassy ground.

"Too late," Miranda replied with a grin, rolling onto her back and smiling up at the first few stars in the rapidly darkening sky as the thick grass pressed back against her.

"Not going to chase me anymore?" inquired Misty, suddenly coming into view as she crawled across the courier's body and looked down at Miranda, supporting herself on her elbows.

"If you're going to run away from me, my love, then I have no right to chase you," replied the courier melodramatically as she slid off her glasses and breathed in the fresh mountain air, tainted only by the salty scent of the sea, "If there's something about me that makes you want to leave, then it's up to me to change that something. Not to force you to stay."

Misty sighed contentedly, brushing away Miranda's bangs affectionately. "So long as you don't want me to leave," she added sadly, "Cause you know, I can be very persistent."

"Good," said Miranda, sitting up before reaching out to touch Misty's chin, "because I'm just getting used to this being a happy place once again."

"Anywhere is happy so long as you're in it," her lover assured her as Miranda leaned down and their lips touched, "Even Cerulean felt like home to me because of you, dearest."

"Standing up to your sisters didn't hurt either," the courier added half teasingly, glancing over at the stage as the song changed to something slower.

"Hm. That's more like it," she said with a smile, glancing back at Misty and holding out her hand, "shall we?"

Misty smiled happily, and took the offered hand as they got to their feet before moving closer to the main group where they embraced, moving slowly to the music.

"Wanna know something strange?" said Misty half-rhetorically, suddenly resting her head upon Miranda's shoulder and closing her eyes to block out the rest of the world for a moment, "I've never actually slow danced with anyone before."

"You're kidding," Miranda replied, suddenly feeling both shocked and deeply honored.

"No, seriously," said Misty as Miranda gave her a reassuring squeeze, "I guess I just made some poor choices in my life, that's all."

"It's never to late to change that," assured Miranda, kissing her neck lightly, tasting her lover's warmth upon her lips before glancing up at the Tower. "Now that's odd," she commented as several windows on the second floor lit up with a brilliant white light before fading back to pitch black darkness.

"What is?" Misty inquired, looking up and glancing around.

"Oh, it's just the ghosts," Miranda replied dismissively, "They're always up to something, and Halloween just makes it worse."

Misty shuddered as she glanced at the Tower as well, just in time to see a second flash in one of the first floor windows. "What do you suppose they're up to?" she inquired rhetorically, not really wanting to know.

"Oh, probably no good," Miranda chuckled, "Oh, that reminds me. I really should let Wraith out again. He hates spending Halloween night all cooped up in his ball."

"Or your 'dex," chuckled Misty as her lover reached for the small metal orb on her belt.

"I'd buy a new one," the courier commented, holding the gray and black ball in two fingers and looking at it contemplatively, "but he'd probably take it over too. You know, I had to chase him out of Bob's computer while you were at the Gym, eh? Sometimes he's such a pain."

But as Miranda held the ghost-ball out in the palm of her hand, watching as it expanded from storage mode, her smile was happy and maternal. "Wraith, come forth," she said in a clear tone, shivering slightly as the ball's temperature dropped before snapping open and her haunter materialized in the air above it.

"Happy Halloween," greeted Misty, smiling at the dark shape of Wraith as he looked back at her with a wide grin and a baleful look.

"You're not going to scare her, dear," chuckled Miranda in a maternal tone, "She's getting used to you."

Wraith turned back to the courier and pouted for a moment before suddenly looking serious.

"What is it-?" Miranda began, but Wraith raised a finger to silence her.

For a moment, the air was still, as though a storm were brewing in the cloudless sky as Wraith turned to face the Tower. "Wra..." he whispered before abruptly turning to Miranda with a look a fear that startled his trainer.

"Haunter!" he exclaimed, flinging his hands into the air in exasperation, the sudden deeply felt terror clear in his tone as he balled one hand into a fist and hit the activation button on his pokeball.

"You can't be serious!" Miranda replied in a deadly serious tone, all colour draining from her face as Wraith vanished back into his ball and the device clicked shut.

"What'd he say?" inquired Misty, the fear she didn't feel for Wraith finding a foothold elsewhere as Miranda started shaking, staring up at the Tower as someone on the stage started yelling desperately into a megaphone.

"-your ghosts!" she heard the voice yell over the sudden whine of the speaker, "If you have ghosts, please return them now! This is NOT; I repeat NOT part of the festival! We have a situation here!"

"Laurna?" inquired Misty, yelling just to be heard as all around them people all started talking at once.

"But I don't understand," muttered Miranda, turning to face Misty as she pushed down her sudden panic, "This just can't happen!"

"What can't happen?" asked Misty, her tone sounding a little aggravated even as several dozen people let out fearful screams and started running from the festival grounds.

"That!" said Miranda, pointing at the sky just above the heads of the crowd as a swarm of ghost issued from the Tower.

"That's not normal, is it?" commented Misty rhetorically as Miranda drew her bokken, almost in unison with the half dozen other courier's in their immediate area.

"No," her lover replied in a now level tone as the swarm of ghosts dove down towards the humans, all the while shrieking like banshees, "This, this is bad. Very, very bad!"

As the tourists ran screaming and tripping over themselves for their lives, the couriers present drew their wooden swords and quickly fumbled for the small, sealed package they all carried as a precautionary measure.

"What is that?" Misty inquired as Miranda tore open the clear plastic rectangle with her teeth and quickly squeezed out the greenish, translucent ooze within onto the wooden blade of her sword.

"It's just ectoplasm," the courier assured her, quickly smearing the goo along the length of the sword with her hand until it glowed faintly in the near darkness, "Oh, and if you get the chance, could you call out your pokemon? We're going to need back up!"

Misty shrieked as Miranda suddenly leapt backwards, barely avoiding the blast of dark purple unlight that sapped the life from the grass where she'd been standing, turning the dull green to sickly yellow and finally dead dry brown as the watched with eyes that went wide with horror.

"I should have brought that sword you bought me!" she muttered, pulling out three orbs and tossing them into the air.

"Don't worry about it!" assured Miranda, spinning around as the haunter that had fired upon her sailed overhead, laughing manically as he targeted several fleeing tourists, "Just remember for next year! Oh, crap! The graveyard!"

"What's wrong with the graveyard?" began Misty, suddenly realizing that she didn't want to know.

"Them!" replied Miranda weakly, tossing out two poke balls of her own and indicating the peculiar movement of the ground around the less impressive looking tombstones where the town's deceased pokemon were buried, "Nezumi! Umi! Antipode!"

The bewildered looking rodent and dragon wasted little time questioning the command as the haunter herded the fleeing humans towards the cemetery. Instead, Nezumi hopped up on top of Umi's head as they both drew in deep breaths, only awaiting a target.

"The ghost!" Miranda ordered, swinging her sword in a wide arch as a gastly appeared out of nowhere and caught the sticky blade in the face, "We're surrounded by bad ghosts! Take down as many as you can!"

Umi's eyes blazed red, as one snarled menacingly at the laughing ghost and spit forth a burning ball of flame. At the same time, Nezumi braced himself against the dragon's head and fired an ice beam directly at the small, spinning sphere of burning flame.

The cracking blue beam met the volatile burning sphere a short distance away, instantly imprisoning it in a round clear ball of ice, that flew towards the unsuspecting haunter like a comet drawn towards a star.

The laughing ghost didn't see the small orb with its sparkling tail of ice crystals as it impacted with his ephemera, but he certainly felt it as the fire within exploded just as the comet pierced his body. The haunter could only scream as fiery shards of ice ripped their way out of him like shrapnel, tearing away a significant portion of his ghostly substance and forcing the haunter to fall to the ground in as a steaming mass of black ooze.

"Way to go guys!" called Miranda as a loud roar spit the air and even more people screamed as Leviathan loomed over them, snarling and salivating making the oncoming swarm of ghosts hesitate.

"You really have to show me how to teach them stuff like that," Misty commented as Shadow and Umberlee sent jets of water into the air, hitting several of the suddenly startled ghosts.

"It's easy," laughed Miranda, feeling much more confident, even as a several dark shapes tore their way out of the ground and crawled towards the light of the torches, "This, though? This could be a problem."

Misty's reply was suddenly stifled as she turned and saw the putrid shapes that were advancing slowly upon them. Several other people had their own opinions as well as the product of several hundred years of pokemon/human interaction shambling towards them, loosing bits and letting out awful noises as their vocal cords strained to function after such a long time buried within the earth's cold embrace for so long.

"M-Miri," Misty stammered after a moment of watching the hoard of undead pokemon advance on their position, "I- I thought you said there were no such thing as zombies!"

Miranda did a double-take, and swallowed hard. "Well, well they're not really zombies, right?" she replied nervously with a sudden shudder, "They're just being controlled like puppets. I'm just glad we seal humans in popper coffins. 'Cause this is bad enough!"

"Guys!" she ordered, snapping Nezumi and Umi out of the sudden shock that had overcome them, "Take care of the ghosts, we can handle these things!"

Nezumi shuddered as he glanced back at the skeletal raticate that was shuffling towards Miranda, snapping its bony jaws menacingly and nodded before blasting another ghost out of the air.

"Zombies," Miranda muttered as she and several other couriers formed a line against them, "As if!"

Misty blinked in surprise as the group held their swords at their sides before all moving as one. In unison, the couriers drew their still glistening weapons, taking half a step back before spinning them clockwise over their hands and holding their swords in both hands, pointing their weapons directly at the oncoming army.

"Let's send them back to their graves, people!" called out the voice of Joshua who hardly seemed old as he lead the charge into the hoard of undead, "Attack!"

"Yup," Misty commented as the air just over her head heated up, and her hair was singed slightly as Leviathan blasted a ghost that was drawing too near her, "I should have brought that sword."

But Misty's musing was interrupted by the sudden sound of gunfire, and the pained hissing of small pack of ghosts who ran obligingly into Umberlee's path. "Use Neptune's Might!" her trainer called out, turning towards the sound of gunfire even as the swirling jet of water fired off into the air.

"Oh! Hi, Misty!" called out Frank as he and Bow jogged to a halt, watching as the ghosts were reduced to puddles of dormant ephemera, "Seen Miri around?"

Misty glanced at the two smoking revolvers Frank was holding and couldn't help but point to them. "H-how?" she stammered as the cop looked up and fired a round into the air, causing a ghost to shriek and flee in another direction.

"Ah, it's a little somethin' Viv' cooked up for me," chuckled Frank as Bow let out a barking whine and glanced up at him for guidance, "Hollow points filled with ectoplasm. Oh! There she is!"

"Frank!" Misty exclaimed angrily, grabbing his arm as the cop ran off in the direction of the zombies, "What's going on?!"

Frank stopped, the amused grin upon his face fading as he turned and looked down at her grimly. "Stryphe," he replied in a serous tone, "That's what's happening."

"Stryphe?!" demanded Misty, "H-How's that even possible?"

"Don't know," he replied, glancing pensively at the Tower, "the ghosts went crazy right after Viper received a message from the Guardian about intruders. I'm afraid we're just gonna have to keep fighting and get our answers after we've cleaned up the mess."

"Hasn't anyone tried going in?" Misty asked, hating herself for even suggesting such a thing.

Frank shook his head. "Can't. The doors have been sealed from the inside. So unless you know of a way in, there ain't-"

"I do!" Misty interrupted, dashing off before Frank could stop her, "Tell Laurna I have plan!"

"Right," chuckled Frank casting about for more targets and being pleased to see that most of the ghosts had been pushed back towards the Tower, "Every time 'I' say that she panics..."

"You know what this really reminds me of?" inquired Joshua as the line of five couriers moved in unison, spinning their swords over their wrists and taking half a step backwards from the small legion of undead that was even now shambling towards them.

"That first caravan run you took where that snow storm blew in and you lost half the team to those snow monsters and you had to take over?" his wife Nancy inquired, wrinkling her nose at the combination of rotting flesh and damp earth.

"Or the time you were lost in the mining tunnels and found that lake with the carnivorous blind albino cave fish?" pondered Miranda as the cacophony of wretched voices reached her ears as the long dead pokemon's vocal cords strained to utter sounds that were but twisted mockeries of the noises they made in life.

"Ooh, ooh!! Or what about when you wrestled that gyarados under water while being keel-hauled, tore out its fangs and used them to climb back up onto the deck of the Dawn Sister 1 to save my grandfather and his crew from those pirates?!" laughed Zack, seemingly without taking a breath as his shifted from foot to foot, his adrenal gland working overtime.

"Um, it's not the liver story again is it?" inquired Anna sheepishly, having only heard one of the elder courier's tall tales.

"You still tell that story?" chuckled Nancy with a smile that made her husband blush just a little.

"Nope," replied Joshua, taking a deep breath as he adjusted his shoulders, making the old bones within them crack, "This ain't like nothin' I've ever seen before. It'll make me a nice new story to tell the kiddies about. Maybe even this time there'll be witnesses!"

"Gee, thanks for the reassurance!" laughed Zack, suddenly bounding off to meet a pack of four zombies and causing Miranda to scowl.

"Hey! Wait up, you idiot!" she called, chasing after him as he easily batted away a small fast-moving rattata with no tail, "you're out numbered remember?!"

"Ah, kids," chuckled Joshua as Anna's eyes widened.

"Is he brave, or just insane?" she inquired, glancing at Nancy for reassurance.

"Yes, dear," the woman chuckled smiling as Miranda glowered at Zack, even as they both swung their weapons, cleaving the rotting heads from a pair of bipeds.

"Bad kitty!" laughed Zack as the mangy furred decapitated electrabuzz staggered around, looking for its head and Miranda's alakazam tossed its twin spoons at her ineffectually as the two couriers between them, moving onwards towards the next pair.

"Must you always show off to the girls?" Miranda inquired, a smirk crossing her face as they both turned so that they were back to back.

"Oh yeah!" he friend laughed as they both moved in unison, taking two handed swings of their swords as the two couriers stepped between the next pair of poke-zombies, "Hey, it's Nezumi's grandparents!"

"Don't even joke about that," grumbled Miranda through gritted teeth as the ancient raticate stood up on its hind legs, menacing her with its broken incisors before her bokken rended a long gash along its midsection at the same time as Zack's wooden cutlass sliced through a second one.

"Oh, you're no fun," the psychic chuckled as they both leaped back the way they came before turning their backs on the two wounded rodents and spun their swords, "But as Joshua would say, remember the good ole' days?"

"The good ole' days?" Miranda inquired suspiciously as they both jabbed their swords backwards, impaling their opponents before gritting their teeth and yanking upwards.

"Yeah!" laughed Zack as they spun around again, raising their swords high before jabbing them down into what remained of the ghoulish raticates, effectively disabling them, "Back when zombies only had a D8 hit-points. I'm tellin' ya, this 3rd Ed D12 thing's a real pain... !"

"He's really something," commented Anna as she watched Zack and Miranda turn and give chase after the two decapitated poke-zombies, not noticing the huge serpent and flightless owl that was almost as tall as her that were looming ever closer.

"Pay attention, kid," came Joshua's seemingly neutral tone as the elder courier gritted his teeth and jabbed his immensely long sword through both the noctowl and the arbok, pinning the birds wings to its body, and yanking them both back before the snake's fangs could sink into Anna's shoulder, "This ain't no time for gawkin'!"

"Y-yes, sir!" the younger courier stammered, her blue eyes going wide as Joshua flung the two zombies off his sword before tossing something small and breakable on top of them. Anna then gasped in surprise as the object shattered, wreathing the coiling serpent and the panicking avian in intensely hot flames that lit up the area and sent a hail of smoldering feathers into the air.

"Oh, don't worry about him," called Nancy, the two wooden short swords she was wielding stabbing outwards in either direction to impale both the pidgeot on her right and the scaly, bipedal reptile known as a feraligator on her left, "He's just used to being the center of attention, that's all."

With surprising strength the woman then lifted herself up, all but dragging the two pokemon to their knees as she kicked out with both feet to shove the off pink shambling mound of a blissy that had been bearing down on her.

"A little help would be appreciated, though, dearest!" Nancy added, leaning away as the reptile's skinless jaws snapped at her, breaking several of its teeth in the process, "I'm a wee bit out numbered!"

"Oh, sorry!" chuckled her husband, casting a glance over his shoulder. "Hold them two till their embers," he told Anna, his glass eye gleaming dangerously in the flickering light, "and don't be worryin' yourself. They ain't real zombies. Their just Stryphe's puppets."

Anna nodded, kicking the arbok in the head as the black charred serpent slithered out of the flames, only to be sent back into the inferno. "Not a problem," she replied, turning in time to see several more zombies moving in to halt Joshua's passage.

"I really don't have time for this," the elder courier muttered as though being swarmed by poke-zombies were a regular occurrence, and jabbed the end of his sword into the ground.

As a completely skeletal jynx hobbled towards him, stepping on the long twisting strands of its white hair, and yanking it out in huge clumps, Joshua pulled his sword back, bending as far as he dared away from the shambling bog hag.

"You could at least pretend to be a threat," the courier grumbled, seeming disappointed as he let go of the weapon, causing the hilt to smash the creature in the face before rebounding back into Joshua's hand.

"We can't have everything, dearest," replied Nancy, yanking her sword free of the feraligator as the jynx's face collapsed in on itself and the creature staggered backwards, tripped over its own hair, and tumbled backwards into the pyre.

"No," her husband agreed with a grunt as he grabbed the reptiles tail and yanked it backwards so that it landed face first, shattering it's lower jaw against a rock, "But it'd be nice to be defending Lavender against a real threat."

"The most powerful evil ghost in history isn't enough for you, my love?" said Nancy skeptically as her now free sword swept across to decapitate the struggling pidgeot zombie on her left after cutting a line across the blissy who'd come lumbering towards her once again.

"Well, I suppose you're right," Joshua agreed with a bit of a huff as he swung the gator around and tossed it into he fire before yanking out his sword, "But I still think his minions could use an upgrade."

"Would you rather be fightin' human zombies?" inquired Anna, jabbing her long sword through the feraligator's head as it tried to crawl out the other side of the now huge bonfire.

"Naw, it's alright," the man replied, bringing his sword down hard, cleaving a raticate in half before swinging it back up to dispatch the ineffectual blissy, "besides. We give 'em actually coffins and stuff. Even if Stryphe were to control 'em, they couldn't get loose. It's better this way, though."

"True," agreed Nancy, yanking her other sword free as the gigantic avian flopped down, twitching but otherwise no longer a threat, "but at least this way no one's ancestors are coming to get them."

Joshua nodded grimly as Miranda and Zack rushed towards the pyre, holding a struggling persian between them. The still vicious feline impaled on their swords as it's claws rended a tear in Zack's jacket and it made horrible growling sounds that issued more from the hole in its neck than its mouth.

"Yeah, I'd hate for Miri to have to see her dad like this," the eldest courier shuddered, offhandedly swinging his sword to cut a zombie growlithe in half as Nancy put her arms around him from behind, cuddling against her husband as his voice quavered ever so slightly...

"You know what kinda erks me about this?" commented Zack, grimacing as they both flung the enormous feline into he flames before swinging their swords repeatedly to keep it from escaping.

"Do I really want to know," inquired Miranda, smiling just a little as she muttered under her breath, "This is for my poetry book you jerk!"

"The fact that none of these things has threatened to eat my brains yet!" replied Zack indignantly.

"Goodness! Not even your skin!" chuckled Miranda with a hint of sarcasm as she caught sight of something moving in the forest West of the graveyard.

"It's almost too bad Rick moved down to Maiden's Peak before he died," commented Joshua as he and Nancy banged the zombie bits from their blades and watched as a second wave ambled out of the woods, slogging and dripping their way towards them, obviously having drown in the bog Joshua knew existed somewhere within.

"Why's that?" inquired Anna, giving Zack a smile as they waited for the shambling armada of mostly mundane animals.

"Ah, because he had Pyros!" the elder courier replied reminiscently, "Now that'd be a challenge to take him down. Even without the breath-weapon."

"Pyros was an arcanine," explained Nancy to the confused looks the others sent her, "Officer Richard was the head Pokeforce officer her when Joshua was little. Apparently Pyros found the firestone by accident one day, and poof! A cute little puppy became a huge direwolf! Ah well, it apparently kept the rowdier townsfolk in order just by being there."

"Ya'all ready?" inquired Joshua as the second wave drew nearer, causing the group to form a line once more and nod in agreement before spinning their swords in unison, and standing ready to meet the onslaught...

Misty soon found herself running through a field of mostly shattered bones and still moving body part parts as she dashed towards Miranda. "Oooh I hate this!" she muttered through gritted teeth, holding her head up as she tried not to look down and hopped over the angrily rocking body of a limbless alakazam, "But I'm gonna hate this even more! Miri!"

Miranda swung her sword one final time, and put down what she was certain was Joy's great, great, great grandmother's blissy. "Hey," Miranda laughed, panting as spoke and wiped her forehead with her sleeve, "This was easier than we thought. I guess all those horror movies were wrong after all."

Behind her Joshua nodded grimly. "Yeah," he said in a tone that almost sounded disappointed, "but it's gonna be a heck of a mess ta clean up if we ever get 'em to stop squirmin' around like that."

"Thanks," said Misty sarcastically with a shudder, "I really needed to hear that. Anyway, I just saw Frank. He said there's someone in the Tower. He said Stryphe's making the ghosts behave like this!"

"That'd make sense," Joshua replied thoughtfully before shrugging and helping his wife clean the zombie bits from her sword.

"I know," Miranda muttered glumly, looking towards the Tower again and shaking her head, "Someone really needs to get in there and make sure Stryphe doesn't actually escape his ball."

Misty caught her breath and stared at Miranda with a sudden panic. "He- He can do this while still being INSIDE his pokeball?!" she exclaimed, "Are- Are you sure?!"

Miranda nodded before glancing at Joshua meaningfully. "If he was actually out of his ball," she explained in a tone that barely hid her dread, "We'd all be dead right now."

Misty swallowed hard and grabbed Miranda's arm. "Look, someone needs to get in there and stop them, but the doors have been sealed."

"There's always the roof," offered Joshua with a shrug.

"Anyone got a flier that can carry humans?" Misty inquired, finding herself surprisingly calm and half wondering when the panic would start.

"I have Hedwig," replied Nancy hesitantly, "but noctowls aren't large enough to carry anything as large as a person."

"Wait!" said Miranda, glancing around, "Where's Zack? He has Pesto!"

"Over here!" called the familiar voice as Zack and Anna jogged over, dodging several still clasping claws and snapping jaws, "What's up?"

"We need two things," explained Miranda, looking towards the battle at the foot of the Tower and smiling grimly as she saw the shapes of two gyarados's sending jets of searing flame into the air, accompanied by bolts of lightning and torrents of water, "Firstly, we need Pesto to fly someone to the top of the Tower. And secondly, we need a volunteer."

"I'll go," said Joshua, immediately, and without hesitation, causing his wife to gasp and clutch his arm.

"There's absolutely NO way your going in there!" she chastised, a look of deep worry crossing her aged face, "I've already lost too much of you as it is!"

"But-" the eldest courier began.

"No, she's right," interrupted Miranda, meeting Joshua's suddenly annoyed gaze without fear, "I think I'd stand a better chance in there."