The Lavender League (A Pokémon anime fanfic)

Chapter 5: Haunting in the House

     The day, for the first time in recent memory, was cloudy and humid. Warm-aired winds blew the grass round and round as the clouds seemed to grow grayer by the second. Pokémon, able to sense what was coming, fled to their homes, staying far away from trees. Our trainers, however, seemed unaware of how dull their world was at the moment, as they brightened each other's vision, joking and telling stories. Calem said that it was only about one more day till they arrived in Aviator Town, and they wanted to try and make it by tonight to try and challenge Donovan, the flying type Gym leader, the next day.

    "Ok, this is a really really good one!" Calem teased, reading from a book on weird Pokémon facts to the others as they walked. "Dunsparce is taller than a Charizard! By a couple of feet, in fact."

   "Wait, what?" Ash laughed. His own Charizard was of course of a smaller size, but shorter than a stupid Dunsparce!

    At least, it was his...

   "Wow! You'd picture him to be huge, wouldn't you? I mean, he's a Charizard!" Eva laughed along with the group. They were carefree and happy, at least until Eva noticed what looked to be an old house. Built in a Victorian style, the boards were run-down and a lifeless blue color, despite being in good shape. The black roof a couple of feet a head was missing just a few shingles, and the windows seemed to be covered with dust. The back of the house led to a large hole in the rock, most likely used for mining. Eva stared at it before grinning at her friends.

   "Dare you guys to go in it!" She saw they immediatly squirmed in protest.

   "Aw, come on! We have to continue our journey to reach Aviator Town!" Ash said, still amused, but a bit scared. "There is no reason to...." Before he could finish his sentence, the sky began to downpour. Drops drowned them in showers. It was only then that they noticed the now dark thunderclouds looming overhead, too wrapped up in their enjoyment to care.

  "...Ok, let's go in!" Ash said, feeling like he was getting more drenched by the second.

  "No way." Calem stood firm. "A scary house in the middle of a downpour. This is like a bad anime episode that constantly rips off a better episode from twenty years ago. I will not go in that dumb scary house!" At that moment, lightning flashed directly behind Calem, leaving a burnt spot on the dirt path. Staring at the mark where the bolt that almost hit him was, he rethought his choice.

  "Ok. Let's go in."

"It looks like they're going in to some old house to avoid the rain." Team Rocket, perched delicately upon a tree, spied the teens as the made their way up the creaky steps into the house. Undaunted by the pouring rain, they were just glad they had payed extra to waterproof their binoculars.

"Puny little twerps, having to go the man-made route to avoid a little rain," Jessie laughed.

"Yeah, trees are nature's umbrellas. We don't need random spooky houses." James grinned, repositioning himself on the tree.

"Little rain never hurt!" Meowth joined in, only for the tree to be struck by lightning. Falling to the ground in front of the tree slightly charred, the tree burst into flames, only to be put out by the water coming from the sky. The tumble of thunder could be heard in the distance.

"To the house?" James asked the group after a couple minutes of stunned silence.

"To the house!" Meowth yelled, getting up and running as fast as possible.

"Go go go!" Jessie screamed as they jumped into the house through the back door on the other side of the house (they couldn't be seen by the twerps, even if they had been struck by lightning in a tree. They had standards) and ran in to avoid the rain.