The Ghost Specialist

If Sam wanted to win this tournament, he couldn’t ignore the current status of his team. Quilava had an injured leg, which prevented her from moving at her usual top speed. Also, Primeape had pushed himself far past the norm and was now utterly exhausted. He teetered in place whenever he was sent out. As for Haunter, he was... fine—a bit tired at most—but Sam had a feeling his future opponents would be expecting the Ghost Type. Haunter would definitely be able to fight, but people would likely have counters in mind.

And given that my next opponent is Edgar, of all people...

The effectiveness of Sam’s team had been cut. The other remaining trainers might have had injured Pokémon as well, but they also had the advantage of a larger team to draw from. Heavily injured Pokémon could rest while others fought on the field. Not to mention that it wouldn’t be difficult at all to keep one or two Pokémon untouched and at full health, able to sweep when sent out thanks to their fully rested energy.

Sam’s sole saving grace was that he’d only need to get through four Pokémon rather than six in the next round. Unfortunately, his odds were minimal at best.

Breathing in, Sam stared at Redi, aware of all of those facts as he spoke his mind. He knew what he had said, and he stood by his decision.

“Sam, what?” Redi asked in a bewildered voice. “Misdreavus isn’t here. It’s back in Ilex forest, where it attacked us. Are you saying it followed us?”

“She did,” Sam answered.

A moment of silence.

“...So you’re telling me that a wild Pokémon has been following us for weeks. Through Azalea. Through Union Cave. Through Route 32 and the Ruins of Alph and Route 36?”

“Yes.”

Redi frowned.

Sam breathed out and shifted in place, feeling the heft of his backpack behind him and the New Pokédex within.

“Misdreavus has been following us. The whole time, like you said. There’ve been a few points where I’ve felt watched, and then...” He paused. “She showed up when we were clothes shopping. Approached me when I was alone and when everyone was passed out in their Pokéballs. I thought she’d attack, but she didn’t. She pressed into my chest as if I were a friend before realizing how terrified I was and running away. ...She saw me off to the last battle, too.”

Redi stared at Sam, a disbelieving look in her eyes. He could see her suppress a shiver; Sam couldn’t deny how terrifying it was to find out they’d been followed by a Ghost Type all this time.

“When she approached me back at the clothing store, she was...” Sam lowered his voice. “I don’t know. She cried. I think... I think she’s lonely.”

Redi leaned against the wall, stabilizing herself. She took a moment to collect her thoughts before her eyes snapped to Sam with newfound focus.

“So your solution to this tournament is to catch Misdreavus. Add her to your team so you have another Pokémon to rely on?”

“Yeah. We know that she’s strong. Back in Ilex, she only ran away once we really started to fight her, but she could have definitely swept our teams back then. I don’t plan to use her on her own to win every fight. She’d just help give everyone else breathing room and lessen the pressure on their shoulders.”

He rubbed his head, a little uncomfortable. Sam also didn’t like the idea of Misdreavus still being on her own when he had the chance to do something about that.

“And like I said, she’s in the arena. If I can just find her and convince her to help—”

“Alright,” Redi said, clapping her hands. “What do we need to do?”

Sam couldn’t help but to smile at the determination that filled his friend’s voice. This tournament was stressful, but he was glad Redi was around. Even if he lost, he’d still have someone to talk to.

But he didn’t want to think about the possibility of losing right now. He took a moment to look quickly around. Unfortunately, while Sam could tell he wasn’t actively being watched, he knew Misdreavus wouldn’t want to appear with so many people nearby. A security guard stood in front of the competitor’s waiting room, and the occasional arena employee hustled by. It was too noisy and too crowded for a wild Ghost Type to be comfortable. That, and Sam doubted Misdreavus spent all her time following him. She was likely nearby in the arena, but they needed to find exactly where she was.

Silently trying to dredge up everything he could remember about Ghost Type behavior, Sam grabbed Redi’s hand and started to drag her away, intending to explain everything relevant where no one could listen in.

“Wha— What, wait! Hold on!”

He charged through the hall before reaching an unoccupied stairwell. He pulled Redi in and glanced around to make sure no one would hear there.

“Okay. The basic idea is that we’ll need to search, but I know a bunch of helpful advice about Ghost Types from—” Sam blinked. “Why is your face red?”

Redi pulled back, awkwardly coughing into her hand.

“Out of breath,” she said.

“But we only ran for a few seconds?”

“Just tell me what we’re doing!” she shouted, though she quickly quieted down when distant footsteps echoed in the hall.

Sam waited to make sure whoever was walking wasn’t coming their way before nodding once. His expression turned serious.

“Misdreavus is somewhere in this building. She’s likely going to try to watch my next battle. While we could definitely find her then, we can’t afford to wait that long. I need to convince her before it’s my turn, since I need her with me when I step onto the field. The best piece of advice I can give you is that Ghost Types tend to stick to dark areas. Specifically, look out for places where she can hide.”

Sam went on to describe the hiding spots that most frequently contained Ghost Types. That meant darkened corners, gaps beneath furniture, closets, empty rooms, spaces inside of walls, and, surprisingly, in the ceilings above people’s heads.

When Sam finished describing all those locations and what to look for, both of them went silent. They briefly glanced up, but nothing was there.

“Since I’ll be able to recognize what to look for more easily, I want you to take Haunter and search with him,” Sam said. “Quilava and Primeape are still being healed, but that’s a good thing. If I’m completely on my own, Misdreavus might be more motivated to approach me.”

Redi frowned, pausing.

“You’re giving me Haunter? Sam, you won’t have any Pokémon on you. What happens if it’s your turn to go up and we’re not anywhere nearby?”

He merely shrugged.

“Then it won’t matter. Edgar’s a skilled trainer, my disagreements with his mindset or not. Three Pokémon won’t cut it. I’ll lose whether or not Haunter is with me.”

But a fourth Pokémon, especially one as strong as Misdreavus, could make all the difference when it came to pulling off a win.

Redi pressed her lips into a thin line, but she didn’t refuse Sam’s offer. He reached into his pocket to bring out Haunter’s Pokéball. He held it out, but she didn’t immediately grab it.

“We don’t have much time,” he said.

Reluctantly, Redi picked up the Pokéball from Sam’s hand and held it in her own.

“...I know we need to start looking, but I do want to know,” Redi said quietly. “Do you really want to catch her like this? Without talking to your team and only so you can use her to win a tournament?”

“No. It’s— It’s not just that. It’s also because of...”

Sam went quiet. He remembered her expression back in both the forest and in the clothing store.

“It’s because of her face,” he whispered. “I know that sounds weird, but... She just seemed so sad. Lonely. Like she was following me for a reason. I think... I think she just wants a friend. I want to be that for her.”

Redi seemed to inspect Sam, taking in his entire expression. She must have liked what she saw, because she nodded once and smiled.

“Alright. Let’s do this. We’ll be back soon!”

“You go up, I’ll go down. And send Haunter out as soon as you can. He’s great at urban exploration.”

“Got it!”

Both of them rushed out of the stairwell. Redi started to run through the upper halls, a flash of light releasing Sam’s Pokémon at her side. Meanwhile, Sam disappeared downstairs to search the arena’s underground floors. Between them, there was only one goal: find Misdreavus. Once found, Sam hoped she’d be willing to join his team.

But truthfully, Sam’s goal had changed. He’d already earned himself at least one of the prize TMs. With Misdreavus so close nearby, the topic of his thoughts had changed. He wasn’t worried about the tournament, anymore.

Redi’s heart was already pounding in her chest, but she ignored that feeling as she raced through the arena’s spiderweb of hallways, checking every door she could. Sam was the expert with Ghost Types, not her. Haunter helped fill in the gaps for the things Redi didn’t know.

“Next door,” she said.

It was locked, so Redi wasn’t able to glance in. Haunter phased through to check on her behalf. She waited a few seconds, and he came back out. Unfortunately, just like the several times before, Haunter mournfully shook his head.

“Not in there either? Ugh,” Redi groaned.

Stairwells had been searched. Hallways had been run through. Open lockers had been checked, but Redi still hadn’t found Misdreavus.

She’d found many other things, though. Stuff like wild Pokémon, lost items, and even a couple who had thought they were better hidden than they actually were. Wild Pokémon were present in the criss-cross of service hallways that went through the walls and underneath the arena. She had seen species like Rattata, Spinarak, Sentret, and even a lone Zubat hanging from a room’s rafters, but none were the individual she was looking for.

Redi ended up stopping, putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She’d been running for what felt like hours, but how much time had really passed?

The muffled cheers coming from the center arena answered her question. The first of the two semifinal matches was ongoing. Sam’s battle was next. There was only the rest of this match and a short break to go.

“Come on. Can’t waste any time,” Redi said.

Haunter saluted her and easily kept up as she resumed her mad dash forward. The pressure of the situation weighed on her shoulders, making her feel like she was in some sort of panic. More and more stress settled in as she failed to find even the slightest hint of her target. She almost wanted to call out Misdreavus’s name, but she couldn’t. Some part inside of her said doing so would just scare the wild Pokémon away.

Sam’s the one who has all the clever strategies. I’m just the dumb girl who always brute-forces everything.

Her run started to slow as painful memories cropped up.

Sam had made a big deal saying that she was his first human friend. But with how all the other girls in Vermillion treated her, Sam was her first human friend, too.

They didn’t like what she liked. They didn’t like searching for Bug Types or pushing wheelbarrows or running with Pokémon or climbing on Machoke like a jungle gym. They were all more... studious. They cared about studying and schoolwork and preparing to become actual trainers. They went outside, yeah, but Redi was considered to be... abrasive.

Their words had stung. At a young age, Redi decided it’d be fine if her only friends were her family’s Pokémon.

She didn’t want to let Sam down. He was competing in this tournament for her, and that meant something, especially since she was the one who eliminated him back in Olivine. If she wasn’t able to find Misdreavus, he wouldn’t be able to win. He wouldn’t be able to beat Edgar, he wouldn’t place first, and he wouldn’t get the TM he was specifically trying to get for her.

And if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have evolved Ursaring or known about Ursaluna or met Porygon or...

Redi sighed, arched her back, and stretched while catching her breath.

Friends were meant to help each other, and Redi wanted to help Sam. She wanted to do something right in her life for once. She didn’t want to be little, annoying Meredith anymore.

Something about Redi’s pause seemed to stir Haunter. Sam’s Ghost Type floated down and put his hand on her shoulder.

“...Thanks, Haunter,” she said. “I’m fine. Just the nerves stirring up old memories. We have a few more rooms left on this side of the arena, and then we can move on to—”

Something glinted in the corner of Redi’s eye.

She turned, thinking she’d found a hint, but it wasn’t a Pokémon that had caught her attention. Instead, a lone security camera pointed directly at her, with her own reflection staring back within its dark lens.

“Huh,” Redi said. “This place has a lot of those around, doesn’t it? The arena probably has a room to keep an eye on all of them too, yeah?”

Haunter looked at her a little strangely, but he still nodded along. As Redi considered it, she felt herself begin to smile once more.

“I actually think I have a plan.”

Her pace picked up twice over as Redi’s charge evolved into a one-girl stampede. The occasional person in these hallways just about had to dive out of her way to avoid being trampled. Section by section, Redi searched, trying to find a specific, labeled room. Haunter followed, and she ran as fast as she could right up until—

“Hey!”

Redi skidded to a halt to see a man in a security uniform glaring daggers at her.

“These hallways are for staff and competitors only. You’re not supposed to be here, and it isn’t safe to run—”

“Do you know where the main security room is?”

The guard blinked.

“What?”

“I found a lost Pokéball,” Redi lied. “I thought it made the most sense to hand it over to a professional, y’know?”

The security guard suddenly looked very awkward. He tried to adjust his belt. However, he wasn’t in the best of shape, as the act itself only seemed to serve to make his stomach jiggle.

“Well, if you hand it here—

“I can’t!” Redi interrupted, taking on a faux, desperate voice. “It has a Pokémon in it! I have to see them off myself! Please! I’ve just been so worried!”

Pushing out her lower lip, Redi held up Haunter’s Pokéball. The Ghost Type himself had disappeared when the security guard made himself known, and now the man was scratching his head under his hat.

Redi threw everything into her act, playing up the role of a poor, oh-so-worried young girl the best she could.

Ugh. I can taste the bile in my throat.

But it worked. The security guard’s harsh glare dropped, and he let out a soft sigh.

“Our office isn’t too far away. Just two floors up and a turn to the left. But I’m here. If you’re so worried, I can take—”

“Thanks!” Redi shouted, holding back her snickers when she cut off the security guard yet again. “I’ll drop it off real quick before returning to the stands, ‘kay?”

“...’kay?” the man said, repeating the word in a near daze.

Redi took off, all but leaving the overweight security guard in the dust, as she followed his directions the best she could. Haunter re-emerged from a wall to help, and in almost no time at all, they came to a halt right outside a door labeled “SECURITY.”

Redi knocked on it. Shuffling came from inside.

The door opened up, and a different, gaunt-looking man in a uniform stared at her.

“...Yeah?” he said.

“I think this place might be haunted.”

“What?”

He suddenly stiffened as his eyes locked onto something behind Redi. His eyes glazed over thanks to Haunter’s Hypnosis piercing right into him. The guard slumped to the floor, sound asleep, letting Redi freely slip into the restricted space and lock the door behind her.

“Great job,” she whispered.

Haunter brought up a hand for a high-five, but Redi’s arm passed right through when she tried to respond.

He cackled, and she grumbled. Slowly, Redi hefted the man over to the rotating chair in the center, putting all of her strength into positioning him just right. She made sure to tip his hat over his eyes, so that way when he woke up, he’d think he’d simply taken a nap.

“And now, the benefits.”

Turning around, Redi was immediately met with a wide array of camera screens before her. Countless monitors showed views from all across the arena.

From this room, there was nowhere to hide. She could see everywhere and everything at once.

Man, Sam’s gonna be ticked off if he ever finds out we did this. ...Also, I might get arrested if this security guard remembers me.

Eh, whatever.

That was a problem for future Redi, and she did her best to search for any signs of Misdreavus, no longer needing to run around. Her eyes flicked from monitor to monitor to monitor to monitor to monitor...

Redi felt dizzy.

There were too many screens to search through with just one person. It didn’t help that after a few seconds, each one tended to flicker with static and change to a new picture.

“If only I had— Oh yeah. Right.”

Redi sent out Porygon.

“Porygon, I need your help. You remember Misdreavus, yeah? Well...”

To Redi’s surprise, she didn’t need to go into specifics like normal. Porygon, where they floated in the air, turned towards the screens and phased right in.

She wasn’t really sure how this worked. Porygon was a computer-made Pokémon, so that meant they could go into computers. But then were these monitors computers? Redi had thought they were a camera system. Then again, so many electronics were technically computers nowadays. She even remembered hearing something about how music-playing birthday cards were more advanced than the computers first used to send probes into space.

All of that summed into a singular truth: Porygon was able to enter these electronics and search through their displays on Redi’s behalf. When one monitor screen flickered, Redi smiled when she saw that part of it was now staying the same. A pixelated sprite of Porygon remained in the corner and began moving from one device to the next.

In the time it would have taken Redi to search only a handful of screens, Porygon ran through every single one. Pictures flashed in and out as the Pokémon changed what was being displayed to parse through the entire arena in seconds.

Then, like a view from the compound eyes of a Bug Type, every monitor flashed to now show the same image at once.

It was the view of a camera in the lowest level. No specific Pokémon appeared, but some kind of fuzzy mist drifted through the hallway. It lacked details, but it was clearly ghostly enough.

“There. On the lowest floor.” Redi turned to face Haunter. “Think you can tell Sam?”

Her words didn’t matter; Haunter was already gone. That just left Redi and Porygon, alone in this room, next to the security guard who was rapidly waking up.

Oh no.

Sam couldn’t hear the sounds of battle anymore. The arena had been quiet for a while. These later rounds had a longer period between matches to give Pokémon more time to rest, but he knew that it’d be his turn to fight at any moment. He could only imagine what the staff might do when they found a semifinalist like him wasn’t in the waiting room.

To say he was nervous would be an understatement. It was taking all of his effort to not freak out. He was starting to regret this harebrained idea and everything it involved.

But he also didn’t care about that. Frankly, he was more worried about Misdreavus.

Sam wasn’t sure how long he ran through the basement levels, glancing through storage rooms and old, unused locker rooms, and tunnels that felt like they led to nowhere. Eyes occasionally stared at him from shadows, but those never belonged to the wild Pokémon he was searching for.

He wasn’t sure how long it took, but his saving grace finally revealed itself. While Haunter didn’t make his main body visible, his hands popped out of the ceiling in front of Sam. They floated in the air and pointed, serving as arrows that told Sam where to go.

“Thanks, Haunter. And you too, Redi.”

He knew Redi wouldn’t be able to hear him, but he still wanted to say it.

Sam ran. It was the only thing he could do. Haunter’s hands stayed in front of Sam, guiding each and every turn. He moved from hallway to hallway, intersection to intersection, but it honestly didn’t take that long.

He turned one corner and suddenly felt as though all of the air had left his lungs. Something impossibly cold passed through his chest, causing him to collapse to the floor in a gasp.

A yelp came from behind him. He could barely turn his head around in time to shout, “Wait!”

There, Misdreavus stared, eyes wide in shock. Sam shook and picked himself off the floor, rubbing the spot on his chest she had just unintentionally passed through.

“...Hey,” he choked out. “I found you, Misdreavus.”

She’d been wandering these halls, idly waiting for the next battle. But now that she’d been discovered, the wild Ghost Type looked like she wanted nothing more than to run away. If anyone else had found her, she would have immediately vanished. Instead, she waited.

She waited to hear what Sam would say.

...Except, now that he actually was here, his words failed him. He wanted to convince Misdreavus to join his team, but he’d been so focused on trying to find her, he’d never actually thought of what he’d say to convince her.

Silently, Pokémon and human stared at one another. Misdreavus’s body passively waved in the air. It was ghostly; she looked like she was under the effects of some unseen breeze.

But neither of them talked. Misdreavus nervously floated back an inch. Sam gulped. If he messed up here...

“Wanna join me?” he said.

He winced at his own words.

“I mean, no, ugh. I’m just trying to say that I really need your help, but I also want you to be my friend?”

Misdreavus blinked at him.

“Quilava is injured. Primeape is exhausted. Haunter can still battle, but he won’t be enough to win any matches on his own. We have fights in the tournament that we need your help to win, but... Ugh.”

Sam let out a sigh and ran his hand down his face. He could already tell he was messing this up.

“No it’s... It’s not actually that,” he said, his words leaving his mouth before he gave them proper thought. “I know why I first got this idea; it’s true that I thought you could help us win. Except, I kind of don’t care about that anymore? I entered this tournament to get a TM for Redi. I’m in fourth place at a minimum; I will get at least one, which we can use to trade. And then when it comes to getting in first, who cares? This isn’t the Conference. It’d suck, but I can try to take on the Gym Trial if I want to beat Walker. I don’t need to win overall.”

He shook his head. Misdreavus looked confused.

“No. I... I just want you to join my team in general. Even if you don’t fight with us, that’s fine. You followed us all this way here. You left the Ilex Forest to chase after us. We might not have noticed you, but if you’ve been with us for so long, doesn’t that mean you’re part of our group already?” Sam chuckled. “That and... I’m selfish. It bothers me to see you so sad. I guess that in the end it’s, well, I just don’t want you to be on your own anymore.

“So come with me. Let’s be friends.”

Misdreavus didn’t react. This whole time, while Sam was speaking, it was like the wild Ghost Type had been utterly frozen in place. But when Sam spoke those last two sentences, Misdreavus turned around. She didn’t let Sam see her expression.

“Drea,” the wild Pokémon said.

Sam nodded as if he understood, but he really didn’t know what she meant.

“I can’t speak Pokémon.”

Annoyed, Misdreavus snapped around to glare at Sam. Now that he could see her, he could also see her eyes were watery and bright red.

“Drea. Drea!” she repeated.

Sam tried his best to decipher her body language. She seemed to want something. She seemed to...

“You want something in return?”

The wild Ghost Type eagerly nodded.

It took a few more gestures, but Sam figured her out. When he did, he couldn’t help but to smile.

“You want a hug,” he said.

A shout. Denial.

“More than that. A hug every day?”

A pause. It was slow and almost imperceptible. Misdreavus gave Sam the smallest of nods, as if she wasn’t even aware of what she was doing.

And Sam let out a laugh.

“Really? I can’t accept that. No, it’s too one-sided. How about... Two hugs? No, three! Wait, how about this—I’ll never turn down a hug as long as you ask, alright?”

Misdreavus continued to stare. She didn’t even blink. The Ghost Type failed to give an immediate response; it was like Sam had given her an offer in an alien language.

But he knew she understood. Mist formed at the corner of her eyes.

“So... Would that be enough? Are you willing to join my team? More than that—would you be willing to be my friend?”

This pause stretched for ages. The corners of Misdreavus’s mouth quivered. Her eyes flicked up and down’s Sam’s form as her face went through too many emotions at once.

But in the end, she reacted in the same way she’d acted twice before. Like she had done in both the Ilex Forest and the clothing store, she rushed right at Sam. However, this time around, with a better understanding of the situation, no one stopped her, and Sam hugged her back when she slammed into his chest.

“...It’s been a while, huh? Welcome to the team. I’m glad to have you.”

Misdreavus cried out her name, sobbing and soaking Sam’s shirt.

Sam wasn’t sure how long the moment lasted. Despite being a Ghost Type, Misdreavus was surprisingly warm. However, the hug didn’t last forever—he soon heard two sets of footsteps running down a nearby hall.

Caught off guard, Misdreavus froze and pulled back. She moved to hide behind Sam.

Rushing down the hallway was the same woman who had escorted him to the arena earlier. She still held a clipboard in one hand, and she panted. Behind her, a burly security guard followed with a frown on his face.

“You’re on three minutes ago,” she eventually managed to say through heavy breaths.

“I’ll be right there.”

Haunter floated down to rejoin Sam at his side. The Ghost Type waved to Misdreavus, who nervously nodded back in greetings.

Sam needed to head to the arena and reclaim his other two team members before the battle, but before he could go, there was one last, very important thing to do.

He reached into his pack.

“I don’t have any normal Pokéballs on me, but Redi gave me this,” Sam said. “Ready to properly join the team, Misdreavus? How about a Friend Ball for a friend?”