[PRP] The Ghost Guys

[Shawn Darrow]

A 16-year-old grunt trudged down the unfamiliar hallway of the Ambergris outpost sulkily as he took his nightly route patrolling the halls as a hall monitor. Base or no, he still had a job to do. In front of him, a cheerful pumpkin-colored Chandelure led the way. But hidden in the dancing shadows thrown by the lantern light, a small entourage of pokemon paraded in a line behind the boy. A brightly glowing yellow Gastly cast its own eerie glow, followed by a two-winged, gray Crobat. The red-eyed Haunter that usually followed Shadow around brought up the rear, along with the picture-snapping Shuppet he was doing his best to keep in check.

"I know I don't let you guys out a lot, and I'm sorry," he told the pokemon as they walked, "But do you have to be so...creepy, following me on my rounds? You can go wherever you want, as long as you don't cause any mischief."

Eris the Shuppet shrieked with glee and headed off, but the Haunter caught her by the camera strap about her neck and pulled her back into formation. Shadow almost laughed; the Shuppet didn't even belong to him and she usually wandered the base doing as she pleased anyway. Eris probably would have had a blast exploring the outpost that had become their temporary new home for the time being.

But the stray Haunter had being keeping a strict reign on Shadow's pokemon, even if he himself wasn't sure how to, and it unnerved the boy to know that the being was doing a better job making his fellow pokemon behave than he, their trainer, was. It was beginning to creep him out.

Was that why they were all in a line? The Haunter was making them? "I appreciate the help, but you don't have to babysit them all," Shadow told the red-eyed pokemon. In response, the Haunter held up the giggling Shuppet as she stuck her tongue out at her captor before smirking at Shadow and snapping another picture.

He shut his eyes, startled by the blinding light in the dark hall. "Ack - Eris, watch it. People are sleeping," he warned, blinking away the spots that formed before his recovering sight. Sighing, he said to the Haunter, "Alright, you win. We stick together."  

[insidiousEnigma]

It was late. The time of night where most people would be sleeping somewhat peacefully in their beds or where ever it was that they decided to rest for the evening. The point was it was dark, it was quiet, and no one was around to bother him.

Which was exactly how he preferred it.

"Shuppet...Shup-pet." Jabari groused, though it seemed that he did little else around his purple haired trainer. "I don't know Jabari, where do you normally find food?" That didn't appear to be what the ghost pokemon wanted to hear judging from the hard nudge to the back he received in return. "Ow...stop it. If you're hungry go find something to eat. I know you don't need my help." Zacharie muttered, casting a glance over to his right shoulder where Virus was dozing quietly. Well...it least it looked like the Porygon was dozing. He still wasn't entirely sure if it actually needed rest or not. "Gaaaaaaaaaastly~" The teen rolled his eyes as Essex weaved through the walls with glee. The Gastly also seemed to prefer it when things were quiet and there weren't an abundance of people milling about.

"I know I said you guys could come with me while I checked on some of my mixtures, but if you are going to mess around you may as well go back and stay in the room." He was, of course, referring to the room that all the trainees (and a few grunts/Agents) shared. His two ghost pokemon protested loudly, startling Virus awake with a loud, "PORYYYYYYYYYY!" The trainee winced and quickly brought a hand up to muffle the noise. "Quiet Virus!" He hissed, glancing around as if someone were going to come out of the darkness to yell at him. "It's fine, shhhh." The little electronic pokemon settled back down with a soft chirp but now seemed to be more or less awake. "We have to be quiet. If we wake anyone up they'll just send us back to the room to die of boredom."  

[Shawn Darrow]

Less distracted by the commotion behind him, the Chandelure at the head of Shadow's line heard the noise ahead and decided to investigate. Taking the initiative, the jolly ghost grinned as he turned himself invisible. Well, almost invisible - the eerie yellow fire of his lanterns continued to cast a lively light upon the walls as he flew toward the source of the voices.

Tatl, the only other light source and the second pokemon in line, frowned in discontent. Just where did he think he was going without telling anyone else? Just as her name implied, the Gastly flew back to Shadow to inform him of Jack's abandonment. Keese, meanwhile, slowed the line, unsure

"Huh? What's up, Tatl?" the boy asked quietly, glancing over at her as Haunter released his grip on Eris. "Wait, why's it so dark? Where's Jack?" The angry little Gastly continued to complain loudly as the Rocket grunt turned on his flashlight to see where he was going. Just beyond, he caught sight of Jack's yellow ghost fire disappearing around a corner.

"Wait! Jack, where're you going?!" Shadow whispered loudly, though of course the Chandelure couldn't hear him. Or maybe he just chose not to; Shadow wasn't sure. Groaning, the teenager hurriedly pursued his pokemon with as light a running tread as he could manage.

Haunter, somewhat torn between going after the boy and keeping an eye on the other ghosts, ended up herding them along with Keese up the narrow corridor after their trainer. Eris eagerly went ahead - a little too eagerly for Haunter's liking, but he was in no position to stop her. They had to keep close because none of them were yet familiar with the halls and it would have been easy to get separated and lost.

Around the second corner, Shadow slipped out of his pokemon's view once more, but the sound of a dull impact and the thud of a body hitting the floor signaled a small collision. Nearly squeaking in excitement, Eris was the first on the scene, her camera flashing for a candid shot as she snapped a photo of Shadow on the floor after having slammed into some purple-haired teen. Jack reappeared somewhere off to the side, snickering quietly at the accident as Keese, Tatl, and Haunter halted behind him.