"Huh, the fire's out. Did it fail?" Alex Carter asked Ash, looking at the darkness below.
Suddenly, a Haunter appeared behind Ash, causing Pikachu to scream in fright.
"Pika Pika!" At the same time, Pikachu pointed backward with his small hand.
"What's wrong, Pikachu?" Ash and Alex both turned their heads to look back.
A Haunter was making funny faces behind them.
However, Alex's system didn't react until he wanted to know the Haunter's combat power, at which point the system's voice rang out.
"Haunter, combat power 950."
"Why didn't you tell me when it appeared? You scared me," Alex grumbled at the system.
"Apologies. The system's Pokémon identification function only works when you actively wish to know. I can't do anything about what you can't see." Since Alex's battle with Team Rocket last time, the system's voice was not as cold as before but still remained distant.
"Alright, alright. I just realized how useless you are," Alex cursed silently, feeling speechless.
"Ash, this is a Ghost Pokémon, a Haunter," Alex explained to Ash.
"Okay, in that case, Charmander, go!" Ash commanded, preparing Charmander for an attack. Suddenly, the Haunter vanished.
In the blink of an eye, the Haunter reappeared behind Ash and started to tease him.
Alex merely watched and didn't speak. The Haunter obviously knew he had more powerful Pokémon and wasn't planning to provoke him. He couldn't interfere too much, or it would hinder Ash's growth in strength.
He saw the Haunter place its paw on Ash's shoulder.
Ash didn't even turn his head and said, "Charmander, stop messing around. Didn't I tell you to go find that Ghost-type Pokémon?"
"Oh, stop it," Ash said, waving his hand to swat away the Haunter's paw.
He looked down and saw a large purple paw, which startled him, and he quickly backed away a few steps.
"Charmander, quickly prepare to attack!" Ash hastily commanded.
But a Flamethrower missed the Haunter; it dodged with a flash of its body.
Suddenly, a chubby Gengar appeared from the ground.
"Oh? There's a Gengar here too," Alex watched with interest.
However, after learning from the system that this Gengar only had a combat power of 1600, Alex gradually became disappointed; it was clearly not as strong as his own Gengar after evolving.
He saw the Haunter take a large paper fan and hit Ash hard on the head, then hit Charmander too.
Ash pulled out his Pokédex for identification: "Haunter, its body is made of Koffing gas; everything else is a mystery. Gengar, everything is a mystery."
No wonder they are Ghost-type Pokémon; there's hardly any research data even in the Pokédex. It seems his idea of catching a Gastly back then was absolutely correct.
Alex couldn't help but chuckle to himself at this thought.
At this moment, he suddenly saw Gengar and Haunter opposite standing together, grinning and messing around. The Gengar took the paper fan and slapped the Haunter on the head. The Haunter exaggeratedly widened its eyes, sticking out its large tongue, and then Gengar laughed very exaggeratedly.
Alex watched, feeling that it looked somewhat familiar, a bit like... a Mr. Bean-style mime, or a comedy routine.
Honestly, the more he looked, the more it resembled it. Could it be that they wanted to be comedians?
But Ash, that straight-laced guy, obviously wouldn't understand this kind of deadpan humor.
His face darkened, and he started saying unpleasant things: "Are you two trying to be funny? Because it's not funny at all."
He saw Haunter and Gengar look terrified, the two Pokémon almost hugging each other.
Alex's face was full of black lines at this moment. "This Ash, really. No wonder he doesn't have a girlfriend; he's too much of a 'straight man.' It's obvious these two are performing a comedy, and you just come out and say it's not funny at all. It would be a miracle if they followed you."
Sure enough, he saw Haunter and Gengar. First, their expressions changed, then they had black lines all over their heads, and finally, the two Pokémon lay on the ground, with snow—he didn't know where it came from—drifting down and burying them.
"Ash, your lack of laughter hit them hard," Alex whispered to Ash.
"Ah, is that so?" Ash said, suddenly realizing as he looked at the two dejected Pokémon in front of him.
Alex was so frustrated he wanted to beat Ash up. He had seen straight men, but never one this straight. What was he even thinking?
Suddenly, the two Pokémon's bodies began to disappear into the floor. Ash panicked at this moment and quickly ran to stop them.
But how could he stop two Ghost-type Pokémon? So he ran head-first into the floor.
Then the lamp above his head fell down, hitting Ash and Pikachu.
Pikachu, stimulated, used Thunderbolt, lighting up all the bulbs on the lamp.
At this moment, Gengar, Haunter, and Gastly all appeared, and the three Pokémon looked very happy, even applauding.
After the lights went out, Ash and Pikachu did not wake up. Gengar poked them with a finger, but there was no reaction.
At this point, Gengar and Gastly had worried expressions, but Haunter stepped forward and clapped its two large paws on their heads, then pulled backward, actually pulling Ash's and Pikachu's souls out of their bodies, floating into the air.
Alex was startled, but it was too late to stop them.
At this moment, Ash woke up and, seeing his body below, frantically asked what was happening.
Haunter, however, smiled and said, "You two are our companions too! Our souls have left our bodies; what should we do?"
Saying that, Haunter pulled Ash's soul and flew upwards.
"Wow, what a beautiful view," Ash exclaimed, looking at the night sky.
At this moment, Alex's soul also flew out. This was because Alex saw Ash's and Pikachu's souls fly out, so he released his own Haunter and had it take his soul along.
"What the heck, Ash?" Alex said with a frown.
As soon as Alex came out, he saw Ash's soul floating down, picking up Misty, and floating into the air.
Misty was scared out of her wits and screamed, "Help! There's a ghost! A ghost is playing tricks!"
Then he suddenly dropped her, landing on Brock, and the two fell to the ground.
Afterward, Ash's and Alex's souls flew freely, followed by Gengar and the other two, having a grand time.
Then Haunter took Ash and Alex to the amusement park inside the tall tower, wanting them to play together.
"So that's it. You just wanted someone to play with you. Because it's been so boring staying in this tower all the time, right?" Alex said with a smile.
"But I can't stay here and play with you all the time because I still have many opponents to challenge and the dream of becoming the world's number one Pokémon Trainer. So I must leave here," Ash said firmly.
"Sorry, everyone."
After he finished speaking, Gengar and the others started crying.
Then they sent Ash's soul back to his body, and Alex also returned to normal.
After that, when dawn broke, Ash and the others came out.
"Where are the Ghost Pokémon?" Misty asked.
"I've given up on catching them," Ash said with a smile.
"Ash, wait a minute!" Alex caught up from behind, and behind him followed that playful Haunter.
"He said he had a lot of fun playing with you, so he wants to come with you," Alex said, pointing to the Haunter making funny faces behind him.
×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×-×
Read Extra Chapter Visit My Patreon
I have only 1 tier
19$ Tier – Access to 40 advance chapters
patreon.com/Lempil
patreon.com/Lempil