Pokémon : The Journey of Travis Tedford

Chapter 20: The Haunted Tower

As we continued on our way to Saffron City, I noticed that the clouds in the sky were beginning to thicken. Thirty minutes later, it started raining hard. We kept looking around for a cave to seek shelter, but instead, we found a weird-looking tower that appeared a bit spooky from the outside. It had horns sticking out of it, which made it even creepier, but at that moment, we couldn't be too picky unless we wanted to get rained on, so we ran inside.

It was very dark inside the tower, and we were barely able to see a thing. "If I had known this would happen, I would have had the Professor send me Tepig so it could create a fire for us," I said.

"Oh? Well, lucky for you, I got that covered," said Efren as he reached into his pocket and threw out a Pokéball. The Pokémon that emerged from it was a Charizard.

"When did you get a Charizard?!" I asked in shock.

"Before I went to Sinnoh, I came across a wild Charmander and caught it. How do you think I got around in Sinnoh so easily? After it evolved, I started flying around on the back of Charizard," said Efren.

I then frowned. "Why didn't we just do that from the get-go? We could have been in Saffron City by now," I said, annoyed.

"Because I forgot!" said Efren, laughing and scratching the back of his head. Thanks to the flame on Charizard's tail, we had some light. We unrolled our sleeping bags and then went inside them for warmth since it was freezing cold in the tower. I knew we'd be a lot warmer if we huddled up together, but I was still upset with Efren and didn't want to feel like I'd completely forgiven him.

I reached into my pocket and threw out three of my Pokéballs. Bagon, Larvitar, and Teddiursa all emerged from them. "Let's huddle up together for warmth," I said. They all agreed and huddled up closely to me.

"That's a good idea," said Efren as he called out his Riolu. Riolu snuggled up on Efren's sleeping bag with him.

"I'm surprised your Riolu hasn't evolved yet," I said.

"I gave it an Everstone so that it can stay a Riolu forever!" said Efren while rubbing the top of Riolu's head.

I then turned to look at my Pokémon. "Do any of you not want to evolve?" I asked them. Larvitar, Bagon, and Teddiursa all looked at each other, then began to think and imagined themselves as fully evolved Pokémon. They all showed fire in their eyes and then shook their heads, confirming that they all did want to evolve.

We began to feel sleepy and decided to turn in for the night. Efren cuddled with Riolu in his sleeping bag while I cuddled with Teddiursa in my arms and Bagon and Larvitar right next to me. The tower then started making strange noises, and that's when Larvitar woke up. It heard sounds coming from the room down the hall. It got up, walked to Bagon, and shook it awake. Bagon was annoyed at being woken up and began to kick up a fuss until Larvitar placed its paw on its mouth to shush it, reminding Bagon that the rest of us were asleep. They crept down the hall and followed the sounds that were being made in the room close by.

When they arrived, both Pokémon peeked their heads into the room, and there they saw furniture floating around. Larvitar immediately got frightened and hid behind Bagon. Bagon wasn't scared, though. It looked around the room and then sensed something invisible in the right corner. It fired a Hydro Pump in that direction, and suddenly a Pokémon appeared and made itself visible. It was a Haunter. Bagon grew annoyed at Haunter's tricks and prepared to attack again, but Larvitar began tapping its shoulder repeatedly. Bagon grew annoyed and then turned to see what Larvitar wanted. It then saw multiple Gastly, Haunter, Shuppet, and Duskull floating around them. They all floated to the side as a Dusknoir and Gengar appeared.