Gengar and Mew

	Pink fur. A pink bubble. A pink streak. A mewling sound. A sound that could wake the dead.
	And it did.
	Gastly opened it’s eyes slowly, adjusting to the light that had turned on in the abandoned side room of Pokemon Tower in Lavender City. It had chosen that room to haunt and be alone, in the dark. Now it was all disturbed and the boots hitting the stairs coming up the floor just made the gas ball crankier.
	He lazily floated above an old, chipped gravestone and peered over it, just in time to see the black clad group rushing towards the pink thing. Now this particularly Gastly could remember the uniform worn by these people. He had been around when the tower had more visitors and they had taken the old man to the highest point in the tower and disturbed the spirit of Marowak. He remembered that they had made him grumpy.
	He looked to the pink thing, floating and looking desperately to the door that had been blocked by the red “R” people. It let out a pitiful mewl and reinforced it’s bubble.
	Gastly used a weak haze attack to cover himself as he slithered low to the ground aiming his confuse ray to disorient some of the Rockets. The pink cat looked from within it’s bubble and saw the ghost pokemon buying it some time. Taking the opportunity, Mew flew out the door where Gastly had confused more than a few of the grunts, who were now spinning in the fog. It let out a loud mew in appreciation as it fled the scene.
	Pleased with himself for helping a damsel in distress and at least confusing some of the Rockets who had disturbed his home more than once, Gastly was emboldened and moved to the others, who were now trying to follow Mew down the stairs.
	“Can you believe it? Confused by a weak Gastly! Wait until I tell the boss,” smirked one of the bigger grunts reaching to his belt and releasing his Golbat. “Get a taste of a real confuse ray! Go Golbat!”.
	Living in the tower didn’t give the ghost much battle experience so of course the ray hit him in his core. Since he was too confused to focus on keeping himself airborne he fell to the floor.
	The grunts laughed and one threw a pokeball at him, encapsulating him when he had no strength or sense to break the ball. “Jesus this thing couldn’t even fight back, maybe it’s better if we didn’t tell Giovanni about this, really embarrassing,” the Leader chortled, “Hey kid, you’re new right?”.
	“Y-yeah, I mean yes sir!” the smallest of the group fidgeted when replying to his superior.
	“Take it, probably as wimpy as you, bwahahaha!”
	The pokeball was thrown to the runt grunt and so Gastly was a Rocket pokemon.


2 Years Later…


	Haunter sat in his pokeball, conjuring shadow balls and banishing them, practicing his ghost powers. Two years a Rocket pokemon and he had only evolved once. He was labeled a disappointment as was his owner. Both didn’t grow as fast as the rest of the organization and had been stuck with capture duty for the last year. He was only good to weaken pokemon for them to be caught and given to new recruits.
	HIs life had been empty as a caught pokemon. Sometimes he regretted stepping in for the Mew but knew it was the right thing to do. He sighed and purple ectoplasm seeped from his mouth. He was drooling in utter boredom.
	He missed his tower. It was the only thing he had ever known as a Gastly. He had just opened his eyes one day and he was in the tower, no prior memory, but it didn’t matter to him. He knew in his un-corporeal that it was home. He missed roaming the tombstones and scaring off anyone who dared come to his room, which was set off to the side of the fourth floor, originally meant as a family grave room but had been abandoned when the lineage had died out. With his constant haunting the room had been marked as a do not disturb area and the other pokemon had been bullied into never coming in unless it was an emergency.
	He would dare to think he even missed that Mew, not that he was sure that’s what kind of Pokemon she was, he did however think it was female, he had heard it in it’s cry. He thought of Mew often, both angry at her for being the cause for his capture but also glad she had gotten away, this was not a life he wished on the worst pokemon.
	He put his palms together and concentrated on an electric current he sensed in the air and focused it into his hands. One thing he could say about his trainer was that he had tried to make him stronger by letting him devour tms. Haunter just didn’t know how to evolve to be honest, not like he had any strong feelings towards his owner and cause. He would rather just be able to float away from it all. Maybe if he got strong enough…
	Feeling himself ripped out of concentration he was thrown into the light of the open world as his trainer called upon him.
	There she was. Pink fur. Pink Bubble. Pink streak. And a meow that could raise the dead.
	“Alright Haunter if we bring the fur ball in, we’ll be rolling in cash and praise from the Boss! Use your Shadow Ball!” Haunter looked at his owner out of the corner of his eye and saw the rest of the capture duty grunts and their various pokemon. All were glued to the Mew backed up into the corner of the cliffside, not able to escape because of all the bats in the air ready to strike if it made a move.
	It was a standstill as Mew looked at the twenty odd pokemon ready to attack it and the grunts afraid to lose it and unaware of it’s abilities. Haunter raised one of it’s dismembered claws and let out a low “Haunt…” trying to get the Mew’s attention. It worked as she looked into his huge eyes and met his telepathic connection. The bright side of learning psychic…
	“Help me get my pokeball from the small human and I’ll help you get out of here…”  he thought to the Mew as time stood still around them.
	“How can I trust you? You work for the Rocket people!” was the angry thought shot back at him.
	“I’ve already helped you before…” Haunter countered projecting images into the mythical pokemon’s mind from their encounter at Pokemon Tower.
	As time snapped back into motion Haunter heard only one word in his head. “Deal.”
	Cloaking itself in it’s bubble, Mew rushed forward as Haunter side swiped out of the way so she could reach her real target, his owner. Knocking Haunter’s poke ball out of his owner’s hand had set in motion a chain reaction. The bats up above swopped in and the ground pokemon, who included Ratatta, Raticate, Ekans, and some lower level Grimers, charged forward, ready to prove themselves to their masters. Floating to the back of the crowd of his peers grappling for a chance at Mew, Haunter used a weak psychic to temporarily suspend some of the pokemon, mostly the bats, to halt them and sent a weak electricity jolt through others to paralyze them.
	The now forgotten pokeball had bounced off the ground as Mew went to tackle it’s foes with it’s bubble and landed in the hands of one of the other grunts trying to shake her Zubat out of paralysis.
	Haunter felt a surge through his body and was swallowed by a white light. He could feel his evolution coursing through his consciousness. Legs! He now had legs! He already had decided once he felt those stubs grow that this was the single greatest thing that had happened to him.
	Breaking from his light cocoon, Gengar flexed his legs and now attached hands and arms. He felt amazing! Legs!
	And he knew exactly what he was going to do with his newfound power. Zoning in on his poke ball he shot a weak bolt at his “new” trainer’s hand to make her throw it up into the air with a yelp. Focusing his new energy he shot a huge thunderbolt to the ball short circuiting it and frying it’s insides. Finally he was free!
	He searched the field for Mew, who had been being beaten down by his former cohorts as he had evolved off to the side. Sinking to the ground becoming a shadow of the attacking group he snuck towards Mew.
	Gengar had the element of surprise and he was using it. He stretched his body out and flung himself up stretching his mouth into the ugliest smile and widening his red eyes in a terrifying mean face to scare the pokemon as he left their shadows and flew in front of Mew. Grabbing her tail he pulled her through the petrified pokemon and turned to take one last look at the grunt who had kept him for two years sticking his tongue out and lifting his newly acquired middle claw telling him how he really felt.
	The speed he had reached hadn’t been conceivable to him before but now he was off! Mew was not happy to be dragged by it’s tail but was overcome with joy to be fleeing. The weird looking duo took off into the woods above the cliff, landing in a large tree after Gengar had lost control of his new body, hitting the tree with a crash.
	Mew snapped at the hand still around it’s tail but sighed in approval once Gengar let go and looked a little sheepish for being so rough. She peered down from the branches and made sure they weren’t being followed and settled down into the crook of the tree trunk once satisfied, leaning against Gengar out of exhaustion.
	He fidgeted and kicked his new feet while looking away from the cat on him. Okay maybe the legs weren’t the single greatest thing that had happened to him…