Part Eighteen- Not a Ghoul of a Chance

"Good night everyone!" Coco shouted, she was laying in her sleeping bag that was on the platform next to the train. Ivan, Ivan’s parents, Squall, Bayline, and Peppermint were going to sleep near the platform as well.

"Night!" They all shouted. The lights flickered off.

12:00 A.M.

"Wwwwooooo!" A howling noise sounded, Coco bolted up, Peppermint, who was on her chest landed on her legs.

"Pika!" Ouch!

"Shush Pepper!" Coco whispered. Peppermint growled, the same noise came again. Peppermint quickly went into the sleeping bag.

"Pika chu…" What is that… Peppermint’s short question was soon answered as the voice came back. This time, everyone woke up.

"Woo! Get out! Or disaster will hit with no mercy! The hidden remains wish to be secret for their own reasons!" the voice chanted in a warning tone. Coco’s eyes widened, Peppermint started shivering uncontrollably. Making the whole sleeping bag shake. Bayline was hidden under her covers, Squall clenched his teeth, Ivan was looking everywhere for the owner of the voice, and his parents were recording the voice.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Coco asked through a shaky voice. The place was dark and eerie, no sound except the group’s breathing.

"Leave! I warn you now! Go! Or ruin and havoc will hit!" the ghostly voice warned. Coco inhaled deeply.

"What do you mean about the hidden remains? You mean the one’s Mr. and Mrs. Zailor found?" Coco asked, exhaling.

"Yes indeed! But leave, and speak not a word of the ancient stones of bones and secrets! For destruction will soon be among us all and this world will never hear the word ‘Peace’ again," the voice chanted on. Coco got enough courage to stand up, leaving Peppermint under the covers.

"Come on out! I’m not scared, but I bet you are!" Coco shouted, her voice echoed down the subway. Squall got out of his covers as well, Ivan followed then Bayline (Nervously). Peppermint soon jumped onto her master’s right shoulder and sparked.

"All right, you’re not coming out of hiding! Then Peppermint! Thundershock towards there!" Coco commanded, Peppermint leaped off her shoulder and sent a spark of electricity towards the area she pointed too, it lit up the subway, that’s when flames burst out of nowhere!

"Ahhh!" Bayline screamed.

"Who has a Water pokemon?" Sandra asked. Putting the recorder away. Squall unsnapped one of his poke’balls.

"Granite! Help us put out the fire by throwing dirt at the flames!" Squall shouted, releasing a sandshrew.

"Great idea Squall!" Coco complimented. He blushed a bit, but looked back at the fire which Granite already threw much dirt on it, it hasn’t abated one bit.

"What the?" Ivan gasped. The fire grew and grew, but wasn’t getting any warmer. Coco stepped forward a bit towards the flames. Squall shouted "You’ll get burned Coco! What are you-" She stuck her hand in it, she didn’t even pull it back.

"It’s not even warm!" she shouted. "Peppermint! Thundershock the ceiling!" Peppermint did what she was told.

"Ghhhhaasssttt!" Ugggghhhh! A black ball with purple gas around it floated to the ground, weakened from the electric attack. Coco got out Dexter.

"Ghastly, the Ghost Type, Gas pokemon," it beeped, "No further data," Coco sweat-dropped. But quickly grabbed an empty poke’ball.

"You’re mine Ghastly!" she shouted. The poke’ball sucked in the ghost and wiggled.

Ding! The ball dinged, it stopped wiggling. Coco went over to it and picked it up.

"My fourth pokemon! All right!" Coco announced. Ivan and Bayline clapped politely as she released it. The ghost didn’t look as energetic as the ones they all heard about.

"Are you always like this or is it because Peppermint attacked you?" Coco asked. It was right next to her, its eyes closed and its mouth shut. Only the gas was moving.

"Ghastly ghastly…" You must find my friend… it said, eyeing Coco.

"Your friends?" Coco asked. Bayline and Squall sweat-dropped as the Zailor family eyed them as if they thought Coco lost her marbles, they quickly rushed them to the light switch and into the Control Room to get the rock of bones.

"Ghastly," Yes, my friend is a pokemon you call growlithe, the ghost said sadly.

"Don’t worry Moonshine," Coco said, the ghost eyed her with curiosity, "That’s what I’m going to call you unless you already have a name. But anyway, we’ll find your puppy friend," Moonshine grinned.

"Ghastly!" Really! Thanks! Moonshine thanked.

"No problem Moon!" Coco said back as the ghastly licked her. "Ugh!" she muttered, Moonshine laughed. She hurried and released Firestorm and Minoru. Peppermint was next to Firestorm.

"All right you three, this is Moonshine, she’s our new team member," Coco announced as Squall, Bayline, and the other three approached.

"Awe, so Moonshine is you’re new ghastly huh? I’m impressed, she’s already your friend," Rick complimented. The three forgetting her Poke’Tongue language incident.

"Thank you, but we need to find her friend. It’s a growlithe and it seems to be lost." Coco explained.

"Sure, all right, let’s release all our pokemon and introduce them and then start the search!" Bayline suggested. As Squall, Bayline, and Ivan released their pokemon. Meanwhile, Coco asked Moonshine why she made that entire racket.

"Ghastly?" What are you talking about? She asked, I never talked to any human until now, Coco sighed and looked around and quickly told the others what she said.

"So, Moonshine wasn’t the one speaking?" Squall asked.

"Duh! The voice was speaking English! She’s speaking her native tongue!" Bayline corrected. Squall glared at her.

"Anyway, say hello to the gang Moonshine," Coco said as Moonshine stared at the different pokemon.

They all cried their greeting.

"Now! Let’s get started!" Bayline shouted till a smoky explosion appeared in front of them.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make that double!" the two all-too-familiar voices shouted.

"Oh no! Team Rocket!" Coco, Bayline, and Squall shouted at the same time.

"Who’s Team Rocket?" Ivan asked.

"They’re an organization that steals and trains pokemon for evil plans to become true for them!" Sandra explained. Meanwhile, the motto continued.

"To rid the world from happy endings!"

"To kill the weak and caring!" A small, robot oval plopped onto the tracks of the subway. Two metal claws out obviously for digging and grabbing.

"To stretch our reach to the blackened skies!" Claudia shouted.

"To hide ourselves and get what we want by lies!" Syji shouted.

"Claudia!"

"Syji!"

"Team Rocket sneaking in and out all day and night!"

"Give up to us now or we’ll leave you unharmed all right!" They jumped on top of their digging submarine. It had a large ‘R’ on it.

"What are you doing here?" Bayline asked.

"Obvious! We’re here for those pokemon and for the fossils!" Claudia answered.

"Which we thank you for finding them!" Syji agreed.

"What do you mean by ‘Fossils’!" Coco asked, acting like she didn’t know what they were. Everyone else caught on to what she was doing.

"Yeah! You mean there’s a bunch of fossils here?" Bayline asked without grinning. Syji and Claudia anime-fell.

"Don’t you dare give us that garbage shrimp!" Claudia shouted. They were both leaning over the edge of the railing around them and on top of the machine.

"Whatever…Moonshine! Er…What attacks do you know?" Coco asked the ghost, everyone fell, including Team Rocket. Moonshine sweat-dropped.

"Ghastly," I know Hypnosis and Lick, basically that’s it, Moonshine said. Coco then looked back at the two TR members.

"Fine then! Moon! Use Hypnosis!" Coco shouted.

"Use Razor Leaf Fruity!" Squall commanded.

"Use Metronome Blossom!" Bayline ordered.

"Now use Stun Spore Rosie!" Ivan yelled. The four pokemons’ attacks hit directly on Team Rocket. When the smoke and dust started to fade, an explosion lit the room. Everything came tumbling down. Then the ground began to crack, showing it was a thin layer of dirt strong enough to hold a train and its creators, not much more then for a digging submarine. The ground finally went to pieces, everyone fell through it.

~ Dark Underground ~

"What the?" Coco muttered, Moonshine hovered above her. She jumped.

"You scared me Moon," she told her. She looked worried.

"Ghastly," Everyone is fine, but are just unconscious, Moonshine said. Coco sat up, looking around. She found Bayline, Squall, Ivan, Sandra, Rick, Claudia, Syji, and the other pokemon all around her.

"Find Peppermint, Moon," she said quickly, knowing she didn’t see any yellow fur-balls around.

"Gas," She’s right er…under you, he he, Moonshine said, Coco sweat-dropped as she felt something move under her, she leaped up. Then looked back down, Peppermint’s head was right above the dirt ground. Coco quickly pulled her out and brushed off the loose dirt as everyone started waking up.

"Coco! Are you all right?" Squall asked as he sat up and saw her. She nodded. They all started to get up, they also returned their pokemon as they began opening their eyes. Coco did as well.

"I’ll leave Moonshine out, since she’s the only one around here who knows about this place," Coco said as they looked at the ghastly when their eyes finally adjusted to the dark.

"We’ve gotta get out of here, we don’t know how many more earthquake tremors that explosion might trigger," Rick explained. Sandra nodded. Ivan pulled out a small flashlight out from his pocket and switched it to on. Another small tremor shook under them

"We better hurry!" Bayline muttered. "This place is going to collapse soon…"

"We are well aware of that Baby!" Squall scolded her, she growled. Claudia and Syji kept as distant from the group as possible, but still follow them from where they are now.

"All right you two that’s enough," Coco said, then she turned to Moonshine, "Which way is the closest to get out of here Moon?" Moonshine thought for a moment then she grinned and floated deeper into the subways tracks as several other tremors came, getting slightly stronger.

"Where exactly are you leading us to Moonshine?" Sandra asked. Ivan was mostly pointing the flashlight at the ground to watch out for new holes that came during the explosion. Claudia and Syji were anxiously talking about their own transportation device to travel around in. Bayline was pouting, obviously aware that she couldn’t shout louder then anyone or something bad might happen. Peppermint clung to Coco’s shoulder.

"Gas!" There’s supposed to be a small tunnel around here! But I can’t find it! Moonshine explained. Coco translated.

"That’s not good, are there any other ways of getting out?" Rick asked the ghost. Moonshine disappeared for a moment in thin air, but soon reappeared, shaking her head sadly.

"Ghastly ghastly," There’s absolutely no other way, I checked every bit of this place and found no holes larger then a caterpie, Moonshine explained. Yet again, it was translated.

"All right, there’s only one other solution. We dig our way out of here," Ivan suggested. Claudia and Syji gasped.

"Are you crazy? Your place is fifty feet down!" Claudia said. They all looked at the two.

"It wouldn’t be a problem if you hadn’t caused so much havoc Team Rocket!" Squall argued. They stuck out their tongues at Squall.

"Havoc is our middle name Baboon," they sang to him.

"I also have to disagree, we need to find Mooshine’s friend, a growlithe," Coco jumped in, "Moonshine told me before Claudia and Syji wrecked everything again."

"Hey! That wrecking job is very hard to do!" Claudia growled. Everyone went silent for a minute, then shrugged.

"Yes, but we can’t stay down here forever. One life is better then several," Sandra explained sadly. Coco growled. The Blue Orb in her pocket glowed, a small flicker shone through the fiber, but nobody was calm enough to notice it. But Coco did, and she immediately remembered it was Team Rocket that stole Arcticuno, she would deal with them later.

"We’ll split up, I’ll go by myself and-" Coco began, but Squall jumped in.

"Don’t even think you’re going alone, I’ll go with you, I have a Ground type, so if we need to get out and we’re at a dead end, we’ll use Granite," Squall explained. Bayline added something quickly too.

"You’re not thinking on leaving me behind are you?" she asked with a wink. Coco smiled.

"I wouldn’t dream of it Bay," Coco said, Squall growled. Then Coco turned to the others.

"You guys use all your pokemon all right, that includes your pokemon too," Coco told them. Claudia growled. Syji sighed, hoping Claudia wouldn’t lose it.

"All right, see you guys soon!" Coco said as Peppermint hung on to her shoulder.

"Good luck!" Ivan said back as the three vanished. They heard the sound of digging further down.

"All right Moonshine, what’s this growlithe’s name?" Coco asked.

"Ghastly," Torch, she answered.

When they were further down. A faint barking was heard.

To be continued