The Ghost Specialist

The Stantler's eyes fluttered open. Without Haunter nearby to use Hypnosis, there was nothing to keep it asleep. It quickly forced itself awake and scrambled up to its hooves. Glancing around, it stared at the sky in a mixture of both excitement and fear. However, Clair had already left. No Dragon Types lingered nearby.

An exhale saw the tension leave its body, but Sam couldn’t tell if it was disappointed or relieved.

“Stantler!” Redi wasted no time when it came to stepping forward and calling out to the wild Pokémon. “The Dragonite is gone, but so is your herd! It's just you and me—and Sam—right now. I saw you were interested earlier, thus, I challenge you to a battle! If you lose, you’ll be caught! And if you win...”

She grinned and held out a Pokéball. As Ursaring and Porygon were still next to her, she didn't have anyone to release, but her unfinished declaration was still clear:

It didn’t matter if she stated what Stantler would get if it won. There wasn’t any other outcome than her victory.

As Redi locked eyes with the wild Pokémon, the Stantler snorted and trotted in place, loosening its muscles. Unbothered by its sudden isolation away from the herd, it stomped its front hooves and lowered its head to prepare a ramming attack with its horns.

Redi smiled.

Sam took in the Pokémon; it was a young Stantler, skinny but with a pudgy face. The brown of its fur was strong unlike the faded colors of that one, elder Stantler who had seen it sent back. He hadn’t been paying much attention to the herd when Dragonite appeared, so he hadn’t seen exactly why it stayed behind. Yet, he had a pretty good guess when he thought of how it had stared at the Dragon Type in awe.

“Porygon. I’ll need your assistance for this one,” Redi said.

Ursaring huffed in disappointment but still stepped back to allow the floating Normal Type to move forward. Moving ahead of Redi, Porygon crackled with sparks. Though there was no expression on Porygon’s face, Redi’s Pokémon was just as ready to begin the battle as the Stantler before it.

“Yeah, okay,” Sam spoke up, interrupting. “Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?”

Redi and the Stantler faltered.

“What do you mean, Sam? What's the problem?” Redi asked.

Sam ignored the tinge of annoyance in her voice and sent a pointed stare to the Stantler. He then made the purposeful gesture of bringing his gaze around to the empty space behind it.

Like Redi had said, the Stantler’s herd wasn't there.

“I get that a Pokémon might want to be captured. I get that a Pokémon would want to join a trainer’s team and become really strong. Heck, I even get the trainer’s perspective of going through with that capture, but not telling your family first when you have the chance? I almost did something similar to that once, and that could have been the worst mistake of my life.”

Sam shook his head.

“Stantler,” he continued, “your herd is your family, and I really gotta ask: are you going to leave them like this? That older Stantler seemed like it wanted to test Redi before letting anyone else risk themselves, like it was ready to sacrifice itself for the rest of its herd if she had bad intentions. That kind of sacrifice...”

Sam had trouble finding his next words.

“You’re not going to beat her. If you take part in this battle, you’re going to get caught. I’m just trying to say that you shouldn't jump into this,” he said. “You never know when a simple goodbye might turn into a permanent one. Don’t... don’t part so carelessly.”

He realized he was gripping his fists, and he forced his hands to relax. He brought his gaze back up from the ground to see both Redi and the Stantler staring right at him.

The wild Pokémon looked unmoved. The Stantler snorted as if to brush off Sam’s concerns. Redi, however, didn’t look away from Sam. That grin from before was gone.

“Porygon. Come back.”

Porygon returned to Redi’s side, much to Stantler’s annoyance.

“Kind of a morbid way to think about this. What, don’t let yourself get caught ‘cause your family might die while you’re away?” Redi said with a laugh.

“It just makes more sense to acknowledge that might happen. I mean, that Stantler looked old. I don’t... I don’t want anyone to have to go through that,” Sam mumbled.

Redi rubbed her head, and the Stantler rolled its eyes as it relaxed its stance. It was young, and while Sam would have thought its eagerness made it a good match for Redi, the way it ignored what he said stood at odds with what he understood about his friend. Redi might have been hung up about calling her parents, but with how often she brought them up, Sam knew she did love her family.

“I think we need to find your herd before we do anything long-lasting,” Sam said to the Stantler. “Do you know where the other Stantler might have gone?”

Annoyed, the Stantler turned around, but it did so to try to answer Sam’s question. Its eyes scanned the horizon, and Sam followed its gaze. Cliffs, rocky hills, and sections of flat land covered in cracks stretched out into the distance. A few Spearow flocked across the sky.

There wasn’t anything as obvious as an entire herd of Stantler within line of sight.

Eventually, the Stantler turned to face to its right, and it sent a side-eye to the group as if to say to head the way it was facing. However, Sam felt a Gastly nudge his foot. Tibia wasn’t agreeing with the Normal Type—he was expressing his doubts.

“Are you sure?” Sam asked pointedly.

The Stantler hesitated then turned to its left. After taking a moment, it tried to adjust directions. It looked around before hanging its head.

It didn’t know where they needed to go.

“Just... leave it to me,” Sam said, sighing. “It was my idea to meet back up with your herd. I’ll be the one to find them.”

He looked between the Stantler and Redi and felt shadows churn beneath his feet.

“And it’s fine, anyway,” he continued. “I’ve been putting it off for long enough, but there’s something I want to try out.”

Sam tried to ignore how Redi and the Stantler peered at him from behind the edge of the thin ravine he’d found. They were really a lot alike, but he was having his doubts that they were a good fit.

He had asked for privacy, but he couldn’t exactly fight against curiosity. Sending them away might just make them try harder to peek in. At least, knowing where they were meant knowing they weren’t anywhere closer. Sam was a growing expert when it came to the Ghost Type—Pokémon of that Type preferred privacy more often than not.

“Come out,” Sam said. “I know there are more of you in there than just Tibia, Fibula, and my Pokémon.”

Staring at and speaking to a shadow-covered wall probably made him look insane, but Sam didn’t care. He knew what he was doing, and though he had split off from the group, he wasn’t exactly alone. One section of the shadows before him was darker than the rest.

He waited, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. The temperature in the air seemed to fluctuate as if it didn’t understand how cold it was supposed to be. Eventually, red eyes reluctantly opened out before him, and Haunter pressed against the wall to push himself out. Behind him, Tibia and Fibula. The two Gastly brothers casually drifted out.

Nothing else moved, and Sam’s gaze hardened. The shadows wavered, and he opened his mouth to talk.

“I know there are more of you. You haven’t exactly gone out of your way to hide. I just haven’t been acknowledging you so I wouldn’t have to lie about the number of Pokémon with me if asked. I’m not really supposed to have more than six Pokémon traveling alongside me, but I suppose it’s fine if none of you are caught.”

He paused for a second.

“And, besides, Morty wasn’t subtle in his hints that there’s something more to it. Again, come out. We need to talk.”

Finally, more creatures left the shadow. Two more Gastly inched out, both of them avoiding Sam’s gaze. He nodded to them to acknowledge them before turning back to the wall.

Sheepishly, a third and final Gastly exited. That was the last one inside.

At least, Sam was pretty sure that was the last one inside.

“How many of you were a part of that storm on Route 31?” Sam asked.

Two of the wild Gastly bobbed in place, doing their species’s equivalent of raising a hand.

“And you?” Sam asked, turning to the other one.

It shrugged. Apparently, that Gastly had noticed the group and joined in somewhere along the way north.

“Alright. So you three are tagging along, and I guess more might have tagged along for a bit sometimes, too. Since there’s only three of you, should I just call you the first wave?”

All of the Ghost Types before Sam nodded, non-wild Pokémon included. Somehow, Misdreavus had found her way to hover behind Sam, taking his side. She seemed to be trying to distance herself from the current proceedings. She was trying to make it clear that she had nothing to do with the three tag-alongs.

“So, I don’t actually have anything against you. I actually think having a bunch of ghosts in my shadow is pretty cool, and hanging out with us is probably more fun than wandering about in the wild, yeah?”

They nodded.

“Cool! But I’m not too interested in letting that happen,” Sam said. “For free, I mean. If you want to stick around, I’m going to need to set some ground rules for your behavior.”

Immediately, sour expressions crossed the faces of the three Gastly. One of them visibly gagged at the idea of being subjected to rules. Sam, however, quickly spoke up, bringing up his hands as he rushed to ameliorate their concerns.

“Hold on, hold on!” he said. “No, it’s... It’s not like I’m going to demand you do anything. Don’t scare us and we won’t bother you, yeah? But more specifically, I was just going to ask for your help sometimes. Two of you remember Route 31. More Ghost Types are better than no Ghost Types. Sounds fun, right?”

Sam smiled at them, hoping he was convincing enough. The wild Gastly still looked a little concerned, but he had at least managed to keep their interest.

What he planned to do today wasn’t an original idea. From the packet provided the morning of the final Petrel encounter, Sam had learned Morty had sent Ghost Types all throughout Violet City, and with the numbers needed to cover such a large area, he had a feeling not every one of those Ghost Types were trained.

He wanted to have just as many Ghost Types under his command to achieve something similar.

“Gimme a moment.”

Sam held up a hand to ask for the Gastly to wait as he opened up a Pokéball. With a flash, Quilava appeared on the ground.

“I’m not going to order you around, but I am going to sometimes request your help,” Sam said to the watching Ghost Types. “Sometimes, I’ll need your assistance to keep things exciting. Beats me sitting around and doing nothing, right?”

The Gastly nodded curiously. Unlike his recruitment pitch from last time, they seemed to be waiting for more details.

Sam brought up a hand.

“Follow what she tells you, what she tells you, and what he tells you,” Sam said, pointing to Quilava, Misdreavus, and Haunter respectively. “I guess you can follow what Primeape tells you too, but he’s probably going to tell you to fight him and stay still so he can punch you in the face.”

One of the wild Gastly perked up at that.

“But we’ll do a test run before going into any specifics,” Sam said. “We’re trying to find that herd of Stantler, so let’s see if this idea is worth pursuing in the first place. Instead of me and Redi going out and wandering for a few days, you wanna help us find them? Instead of wasting that time on boring travel, let’s see if we can move onto the next step quickly.”

A trio of names rang out as the wild Gastly agreed in a mixture of both interest and cautiousness. Haunter spoke up at this moment to try to encourage them on.

If Sam had to describe it, Haunter was like the ringleader of their gang. With him tossing his support behind Sam, they suddenly seemed way more willing to go along with what he said.

“Wanna lead this search?” Sam asked Haunter.

Haunter nodded so fiercely he bounced. Sam laughed and gestured to the open entrance of the ravine.

“Head out whenever you want.”

Immediately, Haunter vanished into a shadow, and the three Gastly plunged down after him. Inconsistent shapes swept through the darkened sections of the ravine, rushing from hiding spot to hiding spot as Haunter led the charge.

Misdreavus and Quilava stayed behind, almost like a pair of home commanders. Tibia and Fibula stayed here as well, as they were still assigned to keep an eye out and protect Sam and Redi. Petrel might not have been a threat any longer, but Porygon was still a rare Pokémon. Those two would be staying around for quite some time, at least until the League judged Sam and Redi to be strong enough that their own teams provided ample protection.

As Sam watched the group of Ghost Types disappear, Quilava looked up at Sam and squeaked at him flatly. Misdreavus let out a high-pitched laugh in response.

He shook his head.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

Quilava sent him a doubting look. Misdreavus tried to hide the way she floated down, but Sam was pretty sure those two were beginning to hash out a bet.

With his potential plan having started, Sam left the ravine. Redi immediately backed off when she saw him coming, and the wild Stantler pulled far back. It was pretending to graze when he emerged, though there weren’t any living plants nearby for it to eat.

“So... What’s going on, exactly?” she asked.

“I’m sending out Ghost Types to search for us,” Sam said. “Haunter’s organizing the group.”

“Oh.” Redi blinked. “So some of those Gastly stuck around?”

“Yeah. I was just clearing up for them tagging along, and if this works out, they’ll pass along the message to any other Ghost Types that join,” Sam said. “It’s really cool. Any Ghost Types that hide in my shadow should now understand that if they want to secretly watch us, they’ll need to help out sometimes. It’s like my own personal army of ghosts!”

Though Sam felt giddy, Redi shivered.

The actual search itself didn’t need Sam’s help at all, and he trusted Haunter to guide the small group of wild Gastly. If any of them got into trouble, their presence would be familiar enough that Tibia and Fibula could detect their distress.

So, for now, without anything else to do but wait, Sam sat on a nearby boulder to rest.

The nearby Stantler stopped pretending to graze and looked up. It hadn’t been involved with their conversation and looked confused about what was going on.

Nothing happened right away, as the scouting Ghost Types needed time to find the herd they were looking for. Sam sat back and pulled out the New Pokédex. He reread the entry on Gastly for what felt like the thousandth time.

However, Redi was unable to sit still, and she started to train with Ursaring and Porygon. Both Pokémon had moves to develop, and she wasn’t one to slack.

Ursaring’s Swords Dance wasn’t anything special, though his fight with Petrel allowed him to get more practice in. Using the move, he swiped claws across one another, increasing their sharpness while stomping his feet in an almost rhythmic dance. Unfortunately, it took a while for a proper boost to take effect—one of the reasons they had to stall before jumping in against Petrel. This self-buffing move wasn’t exactly battle-ready, and he wasn’t at the point where he could maintain multiple uses of its effects.

As for Porygon, that Pokémon worked on Thunder Wave to give Redi’s team a highly-needed way to paralyze foes. Though Porygon’s artificial nature meant it excelled at manipulating energy and aiming at targets, it seemed unable to reduce the power of its attack to guarantee a status condition instead of dealing damage. Porygon was trying, however, and it went through systematic attempts at reducing the amount of energy provided. Misdreavus moved to its side to work on her own big list of attacking moves, as several of them weren’t dissimilar from Porygon’s rays and beams.

While the practice continued, Quilava laid across Sam’s feet, and Primeape stayed in his ball. Still confused, the Stantler looked around. As everyone had settled into a familiar training routine, it tried its best to not look envious, failing horribly to do so.

Trotting over to one empty space, the wild Pokémon started to practice on its own, and Sam subtly glanced up from his book to watch it. The Stantler pretended to charge and buck at the air around it, but it didn’t seem sure of what it was doing, and it wasn’t exactly using any attacks. It would run a few yards before swiping up with the horns on its head, and then it would turn around and lift up its body to stomp on the ground with its hooves. Sam supposed that movement could be called a Stomp, but it wasn’t very targeted and was more like a leg-based slam.

Notably, there was no use of Hypnosis or any other illusion-based move. Though those effects were one of the primary capabilities its species was known for, this Stantler must have been younger than Sam first thought, as it seemed utterly incapable of those attacks.

It never noticed Sam watching, and he caught every time it sent a glance to Redi. It tried to see if she was impressed with its movements, but she never looked its way. She was too focused on helping Ursaring and Porygon.

Sam supposed she’d already made up her mind. It might have seemed cruel, but she likely recognized the gap between their beliefs wasn’t anything easily fixed. That, and the Stantler was young. The best thing they could do for it was to return it to its family.

It took half an hour before any of the Gastly returned. A lone shape scurried into the shadows of the stones surrounding their impromptu campsite, and a single Gastly floated up out of the ground.

“Found them?” Sam asked.

The Stantler jumped. It hadn’t noticed the Ghost Type return.

To respond to Sam’s question, the wild Gastly opened its mouth to speak but hesitated. It glanced at the direction it came before speaking a single noise.

“...’astly.”

Quilava brought up her head. Misdreavus turned around to lock eyes with the Pokémon.

“Mis?”

“Gas.”

“Quil!”

All three of them looked at Sam, waiting for instructions on what to do.

“What's going on?” he asked, standing up and putting the New Pokédex away.

The Gastly repeated what it said and turned around to stare into the distance. It then sent purposeful glances to both the Stantler and Misdreavus.

“You...”

Clues snapped together. Sam could hardly resist covering his face.

“So, what I’m getting is that Haunter found the Stantler, but...” Sam groaned. “He’s trying to scare them, isn’t he?”

The Gastly happily nodded, telling Sam that he was exactly correct.