“Please put, your jeuuuulery in a secure location…before entering.” Winnie read off the sign outside Reflection cave. There was a crudely painted icon of a Sableye eating gems next to the text.
“Correct.” Gengar nodded, a bit of pride in his voice.
Banette pretended to wipe a tear from her eye and sniffled dramatically, “All thanks to my hard work.”
“Your hard work?” Gengar gave Banette a sideye, “We all chipped in to teach him how to read.”
“Yes, I just chipped in more than you guys.” Banette quickly replied.
Winnie rolled his eyes at Mismagius and I, and we left the two to bicker. Gholdengo had just returned from sending out a few of their coins to scout the area around the ultimate weapon.
I found it pretty fascinating that a Gholdengo could shapeshift and split itself up like that, but it kinda made sense considering 999 Ghimmighoul coins were needed to make one Gholdengo. Though now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure that this Gholdengo had more than 999 coins. Maybe their power goes up with the amount of coins they have?
Gholdengo said hi to the other waiting Pumpkinland ghosts, then reported to us, “We’ll have more info about the employee schedules, and the ultimate weapon soon.
I nodded and pointed with my thumb at the cave entrance, “Good, let’s get moving then.”
Everyone except for Winnie, Gholdengo, Mismagius, and I would not be going into the cave. Glados and Rotom had suggested that we keep the number of people going in at a minimum. According to notes on Sableye behavior in the Pokedex, the gem eaters were surprisingly shy and reclusive. So any large groups would scare them all off, and it would become impossible to find them.
So I brought Gholdengo, who could split up and search multiple areas at once, and Winnie whose illusions were always useful, and Mismagius cause I would need help talking with the gem Pokemon.
The four of us went past Gengar and Banette, who were now arguing about who was better at grammar, and entered the cave.
Reflection cave looked like a pretty normal stone cave at first, but soon, we began seeing crystals, mica, and other shiny minerals dotting the walls. Then the dots became clusters that got bigger and bigger, until there were glowing crystals larger than I was sprouting randomly from the walls, and partially blocking entire passages. Entire walls looked like distorted mirrors due to the strange smooth crystals covering them. It was pretty amazing.
There was a lot of evidence of Sableye living here, even though we hadn’t seen any so far. A lot of the crystals growing from the walls had teeth marks on them, they’d been kind of trimmed back in the same way you’d have goats or cows eat the grass on your lawn to keep it short.
“One of my buddies told me the reason crystals grow so wild here is because of the Carbink colony living deep in these caves.” Gholdengo stated as they chipped a fist sized piece of crystal off the wall.
“That makes sense.” I replied, “The crystals grow so abundantly here because of the energy the Heart Diamond gives off, right?”
There was a beep bop sound from Rotom as it activated the Pokedex, “Carbink, the Jewel Pokemon. These Pokemon live in colonies deep underground that are ruled by a queen. They create unique ecosystems that rely on the colony and its health.”
“Fascinating.” I said. So they’re like a keystone species? I wanna see an ecosystem chart of this place.
“what’s a heart diamond?” Winnie asked. Rotom buzzed and pulled up a picture of a massive brilliantly glowing turquoise diamond floating in a chamber of intricately patterned orange crystals. That was a picture of the Heart Diamond of the largest Carbink colony in Alola.
“It’s a giant crystal created by the queen of the Carbinks.” Mismagius answered as we looked at the picture on Rotom’s screen. Does the difference in color mean that the Diancie who made this has turquoise gems on her instead of pink?
The illusion fox’s mouth was agape for a moment before he remarked, “that’s beautiful.”
“I’ve seen one before, but it was pink and purple.” Gholdengo said proudly, “It’s even prettier in person.”
A low, raspy, racoon-like growling noise took our attention away from the subject of the heart diamond. There was a flash of purple as a Sableye disappeared around a corner.
“looks like we found a sableye.” Winnie commented. He grinned and flexed his claws, “should I catch it?”
Mismagius shook her head, “We need to make a good first impression."
I nodded in agreement, “Scaring the shit out of one probably isn’t going to make it wanna work with us. We should start with finding a group of them.”
There was a clatter as a bunch of coins dropped off of Gholdengo onto the ground, “I know where to start with that. All we have to do is find the best crystal cluster.” The coins began floating, they zoomed away down the tunnel and into branching tunnels.
Using Gholdengo’s divide and conquer search tactic, we eventually came to a part Reflection cave with the brightest glowing crystals we’d seen yet. Apparently these were ‘the best’ crystals, a brighter glow meant more energy, which in turn meant it was more nutritious it for a Sableye.
Even then we still only occasionally saw a few glimpses of Sableye. They were able to use the advantages of being a ghost type while also using their dark typing to help avoid detection.
We ended up following one Sableye into an area packed so tight with crystals, it wouldn’t be possible for us to go any further. It was pretty vexing, these little fuckers kept appearing and disappearing without using shadows like I was used to with ghost Pokemon.
I was able to figure it out when I saw a Sableye poke it’s head out of a crystal, see us, and then go nope and disappear back into that crystal. They were somehow using the gems as portals!
“Did you guys see that?” I almost shouted, vigorously pointing at the crystal that the Sableye just disappeared into.
Winnie tilted his head and looked where I was pointing, “what?”
“Did you see something?” Mismagius asked.
Without answering, I ran over to the portal crystal and put my hand on it. Immediately, some sort of invisible force grabbed hold of my hand and tried to yank me through the portal. Oh shit! BAD IDEA!
Winnie lunged forward and caught my other arm, trying to pull me back. The invisible force pulled back for a second, I let out a squeak as I felt my joints about to pop. Then whatever it was let go. Winnie and I flew back, landing on our asses.
Gholdengo and Mismagius quickly came over, and the witch ghost asked in worried voice, “Are you okay? What was that?”
I nodded as I jumped up and dusted off my pants, “Yeah I’m okay. Thanks for the save Winnie.”
“what was that?” Winnie growled, apprehensively looking at the portal crystal. He flicked his wrist and created a Shadow Ball, “should i blow it up?”
I frantically waved my hands, “Nononononono, bad idea, this might actually be a good thing.”
The coin ghost floated over to the crystal and quickly poked it, the surface rippled upon contact, “what, is this useful? I’ve never seen these before.”
I nodded, “yes, yeah, actually, I have an idea. Forget the Sableye, we won’t need them if this works.” There was an episode of the Pokemon anime where Ash and his friends went to Reflection cave and encountered some alternate versions of themselves because of some crystal related stuff. I only remembered this because I vaguely remembered that alternate Serena was a huge asshole in that one. I dropped my bag on the ground and began rummaging through it.
Winnie leaned over to see what I was looking for, “are you going to do something crazy again?”
“Mayyyyybe.” I replied as I brought out the Azure flute. Time to try out the power of magic songs. Pleaaase work. I’m gonna look fucking stupid if this doesn't work.
Playing Oracion didn’t seem to have an effect at first. We all stared at that one crystal after I was done, and Gholdengo asked, “Was that supposed to do something?”
I didn’t need to answer cause it actually did do something. There was a ripple in a few of the crystals around us. They began emitting a deep lavender glow before fading in and showing a bunch of galaxies. Countless purple stars and aurora borealis’s floated around, twinkling and shifting hypnotically.
Again, we just stared at the images around us for a second before part of a massive purple dragon’s head slid into view. I felt a humming, kind of like a deep sound being played on full blast out of concert speakers, but it wasn’t sound.
Winnie puffed up and stared wide eyed at the lavender dragon, while Goldengo made a surprised “eep!” and jumped behind a crystal. Mismagius floated a bit closer to Winnie and I as we all felt the fabric of reality twist.
Palkia’s red eyes squinted, Who are you?
Uuuuuuuhhhhhh…shit. “Oh, uh. Hello, uh Lord Palkia.” I awkwardly bowed to the legendary Pokemon. “I deeply apologize for disturbing you. We were trying to get ahold of Giratina.”
Please be chill, please be chill, please be chill, please be chill.
Palkia blinked and tilted its head. Giratina? Why him? He’s an asshole.
I tentatively shrugged, “Uhhh, we have reasons. He wasn’t too bad last time…” Winnie leaned over to me and whispered, “bro, he dumped us in a dark cave, with a massive angry hydreigon.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Well, okay that was a jerk move,” I said, “but he did save our asses back in the Icelands. So I think that balances him out to a solid: meh.”
Palkia’s eyes widened, Oh, wait, you guys are THOSE humans? Reality rumbled. Mismagius fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and Winnie and I had to grab each other for support so we didn’t fall down. The deity reared back its head and roared jovially, HA! You’re the little human that Dialga told me about. Yes, your little exploits were very entertaining.
I sucked in air as I felt a bunch of rock and crystal chunks drop onto me, shaken loose by whatever reality warping shit Palkia was doing.
Wait, has Dialga been watching us? What? “Uhh, yeah. Thanks, I guess.” I rubbed a now bruised spot on my head.
The space dragon scratched its neck and continued, Alright, I’ll send you guys over to that grump. But first, I’ll need something in exchange. The dragon rubbed its thumb and pointer claws together. I don’t do things for free. If the dragon had the facial muscles, it would be making a smug face.
I crossed my arms, put on a stern face—well, as stern as I could muster in front of the literal god of space—and replied, “Sure, as long as it’s not something outrageous
Psshhh. Palkia waved me off. Oh, please, I’m not an unreasonable deity. Then the dragon said with a straight face, Promise you’ll get me the Splash plate and we’ll be even.
I raised an eyebrow. Not unreasonable, you say?
Stolen novel; please report.
“That’s the definition of unreasonable.” I heard Gholdengo muttering to themself. Winnie seemed to hear that too and looked between Palkia and I with wide eyes. He leaned over to Mismagius and asked her what the splash plate was, but the witch ghost just shook her head.
I wasn’t worried about the unreasonable demand because I had about a third of the elemental plates on hand, plus duplicates. Being an item hoarder sure is paying off right now.
“What do you need a splash plate for?” I asked.
Humans like items that boost the combat power of their team. Palkia said, smugly examining its claws. I figured it would be a nice gift for my favorite human.
Wooow, imagine being sponsored by the god of space. I wonder who the lucky trainer is.
If you don’t have it–
“Bet.” I swung my bag around, reached in, pulled out the splash plate, and presented it to the deity. Palkia’s mouth opened in surprise at that. Wha–Ahem. You know what? I’m not going to question how you have that. Dialga said you were a weird human.
I gave Palkia a fake smile, replying with some barely restrained sarcasm, “Wow, what a compliment. Thanks.” Then I presented the item to Palkia. There was a strange warp in space, and I sharply pulled my hands away cause I didn’t want to see what would happen if my hands got caught in that. The Splash plate was now floating in front of the god of space.
Palkia examined the item and seemed satisfied with it. Then the dragon deity blinked, looked back up at me, and stared for a moment before asking, Do you happen to have a Draco Plate?
“I’m not giving you free stuff, now do the thing.” I said impatiently.
“yeah, you gotta fulfill your end of the deal.” Winnie chipped in, “we gave you a splash plate, that’s a very valuable item, okay?”
Space warped once more, forcing me to shake my head and blink to clear out the disorienting effects. Palkia sighed and eye rolled Okay, sheesh. The deity waved its hand, Well, good luck with…whatever you’re doing you little weirdos.
The image of Palkia’s space dimension quickly morphed into an image of the Distortion world, its oversaturated colors and floating islands were a weirdly comforting sight. Now that the coast was clear, Gholdengo came out from her hiding spot and slowly floated over to us with a weary expression, “Guys, was that the literal god of space?”
“Yeah.” I casually replied as I tentatively put a finger through the portal. It didn’t cause any damage to my finger this time.
“Yeah?” Gholdengo asked incredulously, “What do you mean yeah? You just met and made a trade with one of the creator gods!!!”
“Yeah. What about it?” I replied, trying to hide a grin, “It’s not our first time encountering a god.”
Winnie immediately caught on and grinned as well, “yeah, if you weren’t paying attention, we’ve met giratina before. twice.”
The coin ghost crossed their arms, “Two times shouldn’t be enough to be so nonchalant about this stuff.” They looked at Mismagius to try to figure out if we were fucking with them, but the witch ghost just nodded to confirm what we were saying.
Winnie shrugged, “i don’t care as long as we don’t have to fight the god we meet.”
“I bet Sahara would love to fight a god.” Mismagius dryly commented.
I shook my head, “I don’t think even she would…” Then I thought I bit more about it. “Actually, she might.”
“No way a member of your party would be willing to fight a god.” Gholdengo said. Winnie shrugged and patronizingly patted the coin ghost on the back, “if you knew her, you’d say she might too.”
What is this? A familiar gruff voice asked. Everyone turned their eyes back to the crystal. There was a massive golden head, and a red eye filling up most of the portal. Once again, Gholdengo scrambled back behind a crystal, this time dragging Mismagius with them as emotional support.
I stepped up to the crystal and bowed as formally as I could, “Greetings Lord Giratina!”
There was just silence as Giratina stared at us with a narrowed eye. Then the portal slowly began shrinking. “Wait!” I shouted with a bit of panic, “We’re planning to build you a shrine and just needed some help!”
The portal stopped shrinking. There was a long pause before the deity spoke. Who are you?
That question made me pause for a second for my brain to load, “…Uhh, I’m the human who got the Grieseious orb back to you? Ya know, the one who got dropped into the distortion realm by Lunala?”
Winnie stepped forward and waved, “yeah, i was with her both times.”
Oh. It’s…you. That…human. And the Zoroark called Winnie.
Did this mf forget my name?
With a bit of sass, I put a hand on my hip and replied, “Yes. It’s me.” I stared at the deity.
Giratina looked away and muttered something about how all humans looked the same. My eye twitched as I ignored the comment and continued speaking, “Yeah, we just need some help transporting the materials that we need to the distortion realm.”
A strange chill of energy ran through me as Giratina growled, I do not need more human junk in the Distortion Realm. The wall behind the crystal began warping and sprouting black, Combee-shaped crystals.
I raised my hands defensively, “Hey, we’re just trying to make something nice for you. You literally told me to be your ‘follower’ last time we met for saving us. I literally got called an apostle of yours by a pretty powerful ghost, I dunno if I’m at that level yet but, uh, ya know. You’ll get a cool shrine out of it. We just need a way to get the supplies to your realm.”
“one that’s made out of rare materials.” Winnie added. “you’ll have the coolest room decor compared to whatever palkia and dialga have.”
There was another long pause. Where do you need the portal?
Yay! “I need it tomorrow night, there’s a really big crystal thing nearby that we’ll–” I was cut off as a purple crystal the size of my fist appeared in front of me. It emitted a faint glow and was as cold as ice when I grabbed it before it fell to the ground.
Add ghost energy to it at your location to create a portal, to remove the portal, remove the energy you added. It can’t be active for more than six minutes. Then the image in the crystal disappeared like a TV being turned off.
I immediately pivoted to Gholdengo and asked, “Is there anyone in your team who knows how to build stuff or design buildings?”
The coin ghost stared at me for a second. Then replied, “yeah…”
I gave them a thumbs up, “Great, let’s go.”
We double timed it back to the entrance of Reflection cave and dragged everyone waiting there to a quiet area off of route 11. Winnie provided extra privacy for our meeting with an illusion.
“Okay, new plan guys!” I announced with raised hands, “We’re going to be transporting parts of the ultimate weapon, or maybe even the entire thing to the distortion world, where we’ll turn it into a shrine.” I looked around at the incredulous faces of the ghost gang and the Pumpkinland ghosts. “Any questions?”
Gengar raised his hand, “Hooow?” He asked slowly.
“she got a magic crystal from giratina that lets her open portals to the distortion world.” Winnie explain for me, “sounds crazy, but i saw it, next.”
A Runerigus raised its hand and asked, “Can you give us a list of materials we’ll have access to? And how big do you expect this shrine to be?”
“Do you have a specific style of building in mind?” Another Rungerigus added.
I pointed at the ground-ghost types, “good questions. Firstly, the materials will include everything in the ultimate weapon, so whatever metals it has, crystals, leylines, definitely the core, uhhh, we’ll be able to grab stuff from the distortion world too, so wood, stones, dirt, I dunno whatever we find there that we’re allowed to use. Second,” I put up two fingers, “How big it is will decide on how much of the ultimate weapon we can grab. And third, I was thinking something Johto styled, but if there’s a style you guys are more experienced in we’ll go with that instead.”
The second Runerigus nodded, “Gothic it is then.”
The two Rungerigus’s that spoke up were the ones that Gholdengo mentioned having experience in building stuff. They were part of Pumpkinland’s construction team, which I didn’t even know was a thing they had or needed.
I left the Pumpkinland ghosts, Gengar, Banette, Glados, and Rotom to the planning while I talked to Gholdengo’s scout coins. They reported that all the workers were gone by 11 PM, leaving only security guards and their Pokemon, and that Team Flare had only just started doing any sort of real research after spending so much time unearthing the machine. So it didn’t look like they had begun trying to modify or test the machine in any way.
We made multiple plans for how to take out the guards and their Pokemon with Hypnosis or Confuse Ray, etc. Winnie would also use an illusion to cover us, and I’d wear what basically amounted to a bargain ninja outfit cause why not?
Following some advice from Ceruledge, we made the plans as simple as possible, so that less could go wrong.
Once 11 PM rolled around, we got prepared and began the heist. I could hear the mission impossible music playing in my head as we rode Gholdengo’s flying coin boat (yeah bro can turn into a boat made of coins) over to the ultimate weapon, right outside Geosenge.
The boat hovered high up near the ultimate weapon under Winnie’s illusionary cloak while Gengar’s team and Glados deployed. It was kind of insane how big the ultimate weapon was even in it’s dormant state. The flower bulb shaped, greenish steel structure was comparable to Lumiose city’s Prism tower in terms of size, grandeur, and craftsmanship.
It would’ve made a super cool landmark if it hadn’t been discovered by Team Flare first. How did it go unnoticed for 3,000 years?
Step 1 was for the two teams to simultaneously make the security people/Pokemon go to sleepytime, make the security cameras begin looping so they wouldn’t record anything new.
Once Gengar and Glados reported back that everything was in place, Mismagius helped me activate the portal crystal. We had tested it earlier that day, the portal’s size and how long it stayed open depended on how much energy was being put into it. At least it was easy to aim where we wanted the portal to be from the floating coin boat.
This was the most risky part because Winnie wasn’t going to be able to use an illusion to completely hide what we were doing. For smaller scale stuff he had no trouble controlling who did and didn’t see stuff, but an illusion that large would have too many holes, and he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on smaller stuff. The least he could do was deafen any sounds the operation made and keep us invisible to others, so we just had to be quick with this.
A dim purple glow emitted from underneath the ultimate weapon. The rest of the ghosts joined in, adding energy to the crystal, which began to glow brighter and brighter. I grimaced as my hands began to feel super numb from the cold energy that the crystal was emitting. The purple glow down below got more intense.
There was a loud metallic groan from below, and the entire machine shifted, leaning a bit to one side.
“Almost there!” I shouted to everyone. The portal expanded even more, and I could begin to see the edges of the portal below the massive structure. The ultimate weapon began leaning a bit to one side as it jerkily fell down bit by bit.
The shine of thick, iridescent white cords attaching the ultimate weapon’s underside to the ground like roots of a plant began showing and went taught as they had to support the weight of the ultimate weapon.
“we need to cut the leylines!” (Winnie gestures to Ceruledge, who nods and leaps off of the coin boat, blades at the ready for slicing.)
Shouting from a bunch of people gained my attention, making me whip around and look down. Dozens of people in bright orange-red uniforms were pouring out of the very small security shack as if it was a clown car.
I looked at Glados for an explanation, but the AI Pokemon seemed puzzled and began glitching more than usual.
“They…must have a warp portal that we missed.” Gengar said in a strained voice as he struggled to keep adding energy to the crystal.
“ALARM…MUST. HAVE. TRIPPED. SYSTEM.” Glados’s head drooped in shame. I nudged the digital Pokemon with my elbow, “That’s fine, we can adapt. You think you can speed up the portal making?”
I glanced at the ultimate weapon as it sank even more and leaned to the other side. One by one, the cords holding it were snapping. Glados beeped affirmatively and used Conversion to switch to a ghost type.
I nervously kept an eye on the Team Flare grunts milling about below with confusion as multiple admins tried to yell orders and figure out what the hell was going on at the same time.
Suddenly, the ultimate weapon lost all support from the leylines, and silently fell straight through the portal, kind of like a massive building collapsing from the bottom. The ghosts stopped putting energy into the crystal as soon as the top of the machine disappeared through the portal, and there were a bunch of groans and sighs from exhausted ghosts.
The crowd of Team Flare people below went silent.
I heard a few clatters and thumps from the weaker ghosts dropping into the boat to rest after exerting themselves so much. Everyone else seemed a bit tired, but otherwise okay.
“Okay, one more portal for us to go through.” I focused again on a spot right in front of the boat, as Winnie, Glados, and Mismagius put energy into the crystal. Ceruledge leaped back onto the boat as we began to move.
A purple swirling portal opened in front of us, and we glided through into a familiar oversaturated world of floating islands, bubbles showing different worlds, and upside down things.
I dropped the crystal into the boat and began vigorously rubbing my hands together to get feeling back into them as the portal snapped shut. My fingers didn’t seem to have any sign of frostbite on them, thankfully, and feeling quickly began to return to them.
Steps 1, 2, and 3, open portal, yoink the ultimate weapon, and escape, were completed. Now it was time for step 3, build.
After the ultimate weapon entered the distortion realm, it ended up just floating there like one of the islands. Pretty convenient. The coin boat landed on the island nearest to it, and we quickly got to work.
Sahara and Kaiju helped us push the ultimate weapon into an upright position on the island. Then the building teams got to work cutting large sections of the weapon’s metal shell and the crystal interior, Sahara and Glados helped them with the heavy lifting.
I helped another team secure the machine to the island via the leylines and helped a few Honedge cut and arrange the cut crystals into the designs needed. Very quickly, I lost track of time as we worked, and took full advantage of the distortion world’s, ‘you don’t get tired or hungry’ effect.
The result was a lot better than I thought it would be maybe a bit too shiny and sparkly, but we had taken advantage of the weapon’s glowing core and used it to make the crystals it shined on reflect red and black. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but it looked beautiful, and the colors were very on brand for Giratina.
Ceruledge, the Runerigus’s, and Chandelures had done some stellar work with redoing the outer shell to make it look more building like. From a distance, the new shrine of Giratina looked a bit like a gothic, crystalized version of Prism tower, but with a roof and supports that looked like Giratina’s head and tendril-wing things. A metal plate right above the arching doors read in a fancy but ominous font that Rotom had found for us: Shrine of Giratina, Lord of the Distortion Realm.
We all sat down to rest and enjoy our work for a bit before the lord of distortion himself came around check out the work. Most of the ghosts ended up hiding in my shadow or just behind me, Winnie, or one of the co-leaders of the ghost gang as Giratina circled the upper portion of the tower.
I got up, dusting off the back of my pants, and yelled up to the massive dragon, “You like it!?”
It’s…passable.
“Glad you like it!” I yelled back.
‘Like’, is a strong word, human.
I shrugged, “Sure!” Then I raised the portal crystal, “How do I make a portal back to our world that’s not where we came in from!?”
Giratina glided down a bit and loomed over us as he answered. You think of the spot you want to go. I did not think it would be that hard for you to comprehend my instructions the first time human since you were successful with the portal.
I sighed and ignored that, “You want this back after I make the portal?”
The crystal twisted from a space warp and disappeared from my hand. I will send you back.
Then I blinked, and it was night. I could hear crickets chirping. We were on the side of a paved trail. There was a sign nearby pointing one way to Parfum Palace, the other to Camphrier. We were back on route 6.
“he can do that too?” Winnie whined, “why did we have to bother with a portal then?”
“Sounds like your ‘distortion lord’ is as difficult as Palkia.” Gholdengo commented as they gathered extra parts of themself back into a whole.
“Hm, yeah.” I looked around at the gathered ghosts and raised a fist, “Good job everyone, mission complete!” The ghosts quietly cheered before Aegislash began leading the pumpkinland ghosts back to where the gates of Pumpkinland were.
I waved to Gholdengo and Ceruledge as they were the last to leave, “Thanks for all the help. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.”
“No problem!” The coin ghost replied with a wink, “I’ve got the craziest story to tell everyone once we get back home.”
Ceruledge sighed, “and Reine will be giving us the scolding of a lifetime.” Gholdengo chuckled and added, “several lifetimes, actually.” The fire blade Pokemon gave his friend a side-eye, “that’s not helpful.”
Then we stood and watched as the Pumpkinland ghosts disappeared into the shadows before I turned to head back to Camphrier. I wanted to sleep.
“So,” Banette started, “is now a good time to tell you that Gholdengo stole all the Ghimmighoul in our party?”
Winnie whipped around with wide eyes, “WHAT?!” Without another word, he tried to book it after the Pumpkinland ghosts, but Banette and Gengar grabbed his arms and held him back. “i’m gonna catch that thief! who the hell steals from the people they’re working with!!!”
“Hey, hey, let’s not pick a fight with Pumpkinland.” Gengar said, trying to pacify the illusion fox, “Ghimmighoul are pretty easy to find.”
Banette enthusiastically nodded, “Yeah, I don’t want to get turned into fertilizer by that Gourgeist with the scars. The last thing we need is to find out how powerful she is compared to the crazy ice bitch.”
With a growl, Winnie relented and shook Gengar and Banette off of him. “i want cake.”
“Sure, we can get cake.” I sighed as I tried to remember how many Ghimmighoul we had, “It can’t be that many, right? Weren’t there only like, a few dozen at most?”
Mismagius leaned in close to me and whispered, “There were more than three hundred of them.”
My jaw dropped, “Wait wait wait wait wait, three hu–?” Mismagius shushed me, so I asked in a quieter voice, “When were there that many?”
“since the catacombs.” Winnie replied with a pout, we hit a jackpot there.
“You never saw more than a few dozen at a time because we thought it would be weird having that many of them following you out in broad daylight, so they went out in shifts.” Gengar explained, glancing at Winnie, who was still pouting.
I was kind of too tired to care, frankly I didn’t think it was worth confronting Gholdengo over, not that I thought we’d be able to get back into Pumpkinland.
“Az!” “Hey Winnie!” “Meow-stic!” I turned and saw Chloe, Zoe, and their Meowstics floating down the road. One of the twins waved.
I waved back, “Hi?”
“what are they doing here?” Winnie voiced my thoughts as the psychics landed in front of us and said with somewhat serious expressions, “Olympia” “told us” “to come” “pick you up.”
“Wha–?” I began to ask, but I was cut off by both of the Meowstics meowing loudly. One of the twins nodded, “You’ll get an explanation.” The other twin continued, “We just need to go, now.”
I sighed and gestured for Winnie and the others to follow. Urghhh, don’t tell me this is some big urgent thing that we’re going to have to deal with right away…
