Loyalty

Loyalty 14

Loyalty

Chapter 14: Links

At the Viridian Rocket base infirmary, Laiki's cell phone rang and she picked it up curiously. She didn't know this number. "Hello? Are you a secret admirer? Of course, you must be!"

"I'm not," the voice on the other line sounded very much like an old lady.

"Oh... wrong number..." Laiki frowned in disappointment.

She was about to hang up, but the voice stopped her. "Don't be so hasty, I have a message for your friends, but it seems their phones are off. Does that mean they will be joining us? If not, then please extend my invitation." The voice was very ghostly.

"Listen lady, I don't know who you are, but cut the mystery act," Laiki felt a cold chill run down her spine. "I mean it! You have no idea who you're calling here!" How was it even possible to feel someone's presence so strongly over a simple phone call?

"I do know who I'm calling, Laiki," the elderly woman replied. "Ash will need help; send him friends who can keep secrets... do not come yourself." The call disconnected.

"Friends who can keep secrets..." Laiki repeated in puzzlement, then suddenly the answer came to her. "Agatha, you're Agatha!" The call had already ended. "I can keep a secret!" Laiki huffed. Comet and Pixel were already on their way, so that left Gary...

xoxox xox xoxox

The door to Agatha's mansion opened by itself with Gary and Laiki stepping in, though she was not invited. "So much for staying in the castle." Comet grinned from his place sitting on the couch next to Pixel, who was tinkering with an odd machine.

Gary stepped past the door and towards them. "Care to explain what's going on?"

"I'm not exactly fully informed," Comet admitted.

"And neither am I," Pixel added. She took off her headphones and set them down on the coffee table next to the machine of many dials and lights. "There are too many ghosts in here; I can't track a specific flow of energy with so much interference." She looked towards the stairs, then the doors on top of the inner balcony, then the doors on that room. "We might just have to-"

An interruption appeared in the form of a Haunter holding a scroll. The pokemon dropped the scroll in front of Gary with the young researcher catching it instinctually. Just as suddenly as he came, the Haunter was gone. Gary unrolled the scroll and read it. "As I said, there are no shortcuts; you will have to go through the maze... Do not be stubborn, but be persistent, for the energy you spend will help further his purpose." That was the end of the scroll. "This means Ash, doesn't it?"

"I don't know why Agatha can't be clearer about what she wants us to do," Laiki pouted. Never mind that she had not been asked to do anything.

"There was a similar message before," Pixel pointed out. "It told us to find Ash. I guess that means looking for him by actually looking, rather than tracking him down."

"We'd best be on our way," Comet started towards the stairs. "If we split up we should find him faster, but there's so much ghostly interference here, we'll be out of communication."

"We'll just have to deal with it," Gary decided. "I'm not sure what's going on, but it sounds like Ash needs our help."

Thus the four of them split up, after Gary insisted to Laiki that she should not follow him. Gary and Comet went through different hallways upstairs, while Pixel and Laiki went their separate ways downstairs. By the time Comet and Pixel had first arrived at the mansion, there was no one there to be seen, Misty had already wondered in deep into the haunted structure before they arrived.