Joey looked at his three ghost pokemon. They were unusually active. "Death...lingers in the air." he said quietly to himself.

Nightmare grinned, as though confirming Joey's statment. Gruesome was attacking helpless Pokemon, and Empty was floating, silent and emotionless, as always.

"Others seem to be here...perhaps it is they who will die?" Joey asked his Pokemon.

Raine walked away from the guy she poked and walked up to another person who seemed to be talking to his Pokemon. "Hi...what's your name?" She asked eagerly.

Joey gave a silent stare. "One should give their own name before requesting the name of a stranger they might regret knowing..."

"...nonetheless, my name is Joseph, or Joey for short." His three ghost Pokemon came around him. "This is Nightmare, my Haunter. The Banette I call Gruesome, and the silent Shedinja is named Empty......"

Raine scratched her head. "Err...sorry. My name is Raine. Nice to meet you." She smiled at his Pokemon. "I'll show you mine." She took out a Luxury Ball, and released Mew. She barked and jumped around. "This is Mew. She was my first Pokemon." She took out a Great Ball and released an Umbreon. "This is Riki." He sneered and turned away. He wasn't used to people. Raine took out her last ball, a Nest Ball, and released a Vaporeon. "This is Corby." The Pokemon smiled sweetly and wagged her tail. Raine nodded. "I wouldn't regret knowing anybody." She smiled.

"...Why are you here, Raine?" Joey asked. "This area...it is filled with dread. Misdreavous roam the area, screeching their haunting melodies every now and then. A happy one such as yourself has no reason to dampen your spirits."

Nightmare was inching towards Raine's Flareon, Mew. It was preparing to use Hypnosis then eat its dreams. Joey knew he had to act fast.

"Nightmare! Return!" he ordered as he returned his Haunter into its Repeat Ball.

"I am...sorry." Joey stated. "My Haunter...it likes to...attack Pokemon like that. He often eats not only their dreams...but their souls as well"

Jim turned around to see who had poked him. "Whoa! Hey!" Jim then spun around looking for the person who poked him. He overheard two people talking nearby, and realized that the girl had the same voice as the person who poked him. He ran over to them and said "Yo! You say somethin' to me?" pointing at Raine.

Raine noticed the young man running towards her and waved. "Hi! Yes I did. I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Raine." Mew looked stunned, but meowed in pleasure. Riki smiled at Nightmare. He looked as if he was thinking,
Finally, someone like me.
Raine looked back at Joey. "I'm here because Riki had to come. He whined and sneered until I took him here."

After chasing the absols for some distance, David spotted a cluster of trainers nearby. He saw a flareon on the ground and a few ghost types floating about.

"I'll worry about them later. If I need to." David said calmly as he ordered Charcolt to continue persuing the absol.

***

A few minutes later, he was in the town and saw the most peculiar thing. The absols were their too and they were barking to get people's attention. However, the people and pokemon didn't respond at all. They didn't turn their heads to the sounds of the barking and they appeared to stare right through the absol as if they weren't there at all.

"What the heck is going on?" David asked rhetorically.

A crowd of trainers jumped back as a Larvitar started jumping in happines. "Come back." said Gene as Larva dissappeared in a ray of red light. "Hay what's been happenning? There's been some Absol running and...!" Gene noticed the look people were giving him and realised that he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh, I'm Gene and this is Scythe, Pidger and Larva."With that Gene sent out his three pokemon. Larva started dancing in happiness again and walked over to meet a group of nearby Eevee evolutions. Scythe stared at the ghost pokemon blankly and Pidger flew to a nearby tree where he had noticed some prey.

((Xali!!!))
Ella laughed. "I'm Ella." she said, "And you were fully zoned out there. I wasn't particularly sneaky."
((Another freshie? *huggles* I thought I was the only college student insane enough to be on here!!!))

((:mrgreen:))
Riki noticed Larva walking towards him and turned away. Corby and Mew, on the other hand, were happy to meet another Pokemon and played around with it. Raine smiled. "Hi Gene. I'm Raine." She stuck her tounge out at Riki. "That's...Riki. And that's Corby, and that's Mew." She nodded.

((Nope, definitely not the only freshman college student. Classes start today, in about 1/2 an hour, for me. Ugh, 8 AM classes stink.))

"Oh. Okay, I guess. Um... well, I sometimes kinda hear voices out here; it's so lonely that I guess I even talk to myself, so I guess I thought that's what I was doing when you started talking to me. I'm Ricky, by the way. What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I talk to myself or my pokemon a lot." Ella admitted, "It gets lonely, traveling with only them for company."Ella smiled at him. "Nice to meet you Ricky. I'm looking for pokemon." she said, "I'm a trainer, from Hoenn, and I'm trying to diversify my pokedex. Plus the fact that I like to travel." she grinned. "What about you?"
((ugh, classes started a couple weeks ago for me. But, my only class today is at 2:05, so... I'm happy!))

((Well, that's good. What school are you going to... something in South Texas, right?))

"Yeah, I guess I do too. Nice to meet you, too. I'm actually not out here looking for pokemon, at least to catch. I pretty much like the ones I've got now, I'm just trying to train them enough to be able to challenge the Elite Four. I've been... Wow, look at that!"
Ricky pointed into the distance, in the direction of Johto, at what looked like a cloud, pure black in color, rising from the horizon.
"Do you have any idea what that is? I've never seen anything like it."

Jim stuck his hand out for Raine to shake it. "Name's Jim." Jim looked at Joey. "Hey, uhh...what's your name?"

((You get used to the 8 AM classes. I've had at least one 8 AM every semester. Oh, by the way, when is the armaggedon event supposed to happen?))

David called back Charcolt and approached one of the townsfolk.

"Excuse me, sir, but I need some clarification. Is that gray pokemon over there an absol?" David said as he pointed in the direction of one of the large, barking absols that no one seemed to be able to see.

"What are you talking about?" The man replied. "There are no pokemon over there. It must be your imagination."

"Oh, sorry about bothering you then." David replied.

((Ugh! I've got a 9:05 M/W/F. It sucks. And I'm at Lamar University, btw.))
"I could probably do the elite four." Ella said nonchalantly, "But right now, I'm more interested in traveling, catching pokemon, and fighting gym leaders in different places. After the Elite Four... there's not as much to do."
At seeing the cloud, Ella bit her lip. "Neither have I." she said, "But I've got a bad feeling about all of this. My Garde-Gardevior, I mean, was freaking out earlier. She's usually so calm. It's kind of got me on edge."

((kryten2x4b; I'm assuming I'm the Ghost trainer ))

"My name is Joey. I believe that answers your question." replied Joey to Jim.

Joey then looked at the man with the Pokemon that got too close, and raised his eyebrows, a thing he hadn't done in years. "Pokemon control problems?" he said in a monotone voice that would make anyone depressed.

Empty's vacant eye sockets began eminating a red light. "It seems you've startled my Shedinja; don't let it happen again...Empty has ways of retaliating that are most unpleasant..."

Kasey, who was sitting on the ledge, thinking about what he had just saw, decided to get up, and climb even higher. Breloom, curious as ever, jumped up, and follwed him up.

Zowie, who seemed agitated at being up so high, looked over the edge cautiously, and barked at something: a dark, swirling mass of cluds, not too far off, which seemed to have small jolts of red energy passing through it. Swabbie saw this, as she was flying overhead, and dove towards the ground, looking for a group of trainers that she had seen while up high. When it got to them, it gave it's typical battle cry, and gestured towards the storm.

"Hi Riki this is Larva, Scythe and...! Where's Pidger?" Gene noticed that Pidger had seen a Charizard flying through the sky and was looking inquisitivly at it. Gene ran over to Pidger. "I wonder what the Absol are running to?" He turned around and realised Larva was still playing and Scythe was staring blankly at the Ghost Pokemon still so Gene decided to stay for a while longer.

"Nice to meet you Joey." Jim smiled and turned to see who Joey was talking to. "Havin' fun with your pokemon?" he asked looking at the trainer whom Joey thought had pokemon control problems.

David was walking around the city, still curious as to why no one else seemed to be able to interact with the absol in any way but him.

This just doesn't add up. Am I going crazy? No, all of my pokemon saw it too. All four of us wouldn't be going insane at the same time.

He then turned and saw another large, four-legged pokemon, one he had never seen before.

"What the hell is that?" He shouted, drawing a lot of attention from all people and pokemon, inculeding the absol.

Once they saw the other four-legged, blue and metalic pokemon, the absol rushed up to it and circled it. They gritted their teeth and David could tell that they were using sword dance, agility, and double team to increase their powers.

Several people were looking curiously at David as he sent out Shot, whom also saw the beast. She grit her teeth as well and roared at it. The blue pokemon looked at its foes in an uncaring manner, as if they all were nothing to it.

The absols, David, and Shot ingaged the pokemon that only they could see.

"Shot, use extremespeed and hit that thing fast!"

Despite the crowd of abosls, Shot was able to make a B-line right to the mysterious creature. Its efforts were in vain, however, as it managed to dodge Shot's attack.

"What the heck?" David yelled as the absols took their turn fighting the mysterious beast.

Many people were looking at David, wandering what he was doing, while he was gritting his teeth as he saw the absols being flung back one by one as if they were rag dolls. David sent out Charcolt and Yurtle, ordering them to use the seismic bomb.

Obeying David's request, Charcolt picked up Yurtle and flew him high up to set up a seismic toss. While being spun, Yurtle was toughening up using iron defense, making his shell as hard as possible. When iron defense was maxed out, Charcolt zoomed straight at the ground right where the mysterious blue and metalic pokemon was standing.