The Misdreavus Menace

Chapter Nine — Know Your Foe

The next day, in Pallet Town, Professor Oak was in the process of cooking some food to take over to Delia Ketchum. It was the second day since Ash's disappearance, and, needless to say, both Ash's mother and Misty were taking it very hard. Sparkle was also in a bad way. Delia had offered Misty to stay with her. The three of them had refused food since that night, and all of them had to be coaxed into drinking some water and getting some rest. If it was not for some support from Professor Oak's, Gary's and Tim's, who knows how they would have managed.

As Oak was stirring the pot, mulling over how he could convince Delia and Misty to eat, his thoughts were interrupted by a call on the phone. He turned the stove down to minimum heat and walked into the adjacent living room to take the call.

Brock's face appeared on the monitor. "Hi Professor," he greeted.

"Hello, Brock. Nice to hear from you," greeted Oak in reply. "How's the new baby?"

"Clint's doing well. He's started on solid food, and loving it. How are you?"

"Hmmm... I'm not too bad," replied the Professor, "but there's been an incident."

"What's wrong? Is everyone all right?"

Samuel Oak lowered his eyes for a moment and contemplated how to present the recent events. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," he said gravely. "Ash and Pikachu have disappeared."

"What?" Brock looked shocked.

"Yes, and his mother—and Misty too—they're taking it very hard."

"How can you be sure?" asked Brock, still unsure how to take the news. "How long've they been missing? I thought you had a dinner for him two nights ago."

"It's not quite like that," explained Oak. "You're simply not going to believe it, but all of us were there when it happened—Gary too."

"Happened?"

"It was two nights ago, at the dinner."

"Yeah, I'm sorry we couldn't make it. Now I wish..."

"You weren't to know, Brock. Now this is the unbelievable thing. A group of Clefairy appeared out of what looked like some kind of spaceship. They somehow convinced some of my Pokémon to enter it. Pikachu intervened to put a stop to it, but they knocked it out and dragged it on board."

Brocked remained speechless. He was not sure how to get himself to accept such a crazy-sounding story coming from a person whose word he had never had cause to doubt. Oak continued.

"Ash ran on board to try and rescue Pikachu--you know what he's like--but it took off with both of them inside and simply vanished in thin air."

"You're...you're...kidding me, right?" was all Brock could say. He had known Ash for so many years now. Even though he had not spent as much time with him since he had gotten married, Ash was still as dear to him as if he were one of his brothers or sisters.

"I wish I was kidding, Brock," replied Oak as he saw Brock's stunned face on the screen. "I know it sounds unbelievable—I can scarcely believe it myself. And Ash is all his mother has left. I don't know how she's going to cope."

Brock's appearance suddenly changed to one of courage and determination. "There's still hope, Professor. If the Clefairy took him away, I'm sure they can bring him back."

"Yes. All we can do for now is wait and hope."

"And I thought we had problems here," said Brock. Oak could see that Brock felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulderes.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Well, Professor, I rang 'cause Matthew and a friend of his were attacked by some weird ghost creatures."

"Your brother? How hurt were they?"

"They weren't physically hurt at all. But they were found unconscious, and unable to talk when they came to. It turned out to be some powerful kind of hypnosis."

"Ghosts, you say?" Professor Oak sounded intrigued. "Were they ghost Pokémon?"

"We're not really sure what they were. That's why I've rung you. We only have a rough description from the two boys."

"So they can talk again? How are they now?"

"The good news," answered Brock, "is that they're recovering. Trouble is, we'd like to have some idea of what attacked them and why."

The Professor asked a few questions and Brock gave him what details he could. Finally, Oak replied, "Hmmm... I think I know what these mystery Pokémon are. However, it's very odd... I don't believe they're normally found around these parts. Excuse me while I transfer you to the lab."

Oak pressed a few buttons to transfer the call. As he was about to walk to his laboratory, he remembered the stove, went to give the food a stir and turned it off.

Two minutes later, he was in his lab talking to Brock again. He turned to a computer behind him. Brock could only see the back of his head and hear the clatter of keys. A few moments later, a picture appeared on the computer screen. Oak tilted it towards the camera.

"There you are," he said to Brock, "Does that fit the boys' description?"

Brock looked at it carefully. "Yeah, I think so. Is there any information?"

Professor Oak pressed a key, and the latest Pokédex voice could be heard.

"Misdreavus, sometimes known as the Screech Pokémon. This ghost Pokémon has only been found in the deepest caverns of Mount Silver. It is therefore rarely seen and very little is known about it."

"Mt Silver! That's a pretty dangerous place," said Brock.

"Yes, as you may know, it's off-limits to the public. Only a handful of top Pokémon trainers are permitted even to go near it. As you can imagine, very few people would have been able to catch one, so we don't get the opportunity to study them."

"So you don't have any more information?" asked Brock.

"Hold on," replied the Professor. "I'll hook into the Pokémon League database to see if anything's been recorded."

He spent a few moments at the keyboard again. Another synthesized voice could soon be heard.

"Misdreavus known attack types include ghost and psychic. Attacks that have been used in official Pokémon League battles include Confuse Ray and Psybeam. Little else in known about this Pokémon."

"Hey Professor, what about the unofficial databases?"

"Well, you'd be surprised what nonsense turns up on some of those," replied Oak, "but there's one I usually find reliable."

After another few seconds, another copy of the same picture of Misdreavus appeared on Professor Oak's monitor. This database had no sound synthesis, so Professor Oak read out the details himself.

"It says here that only two known trainers have them in their possession. One of them is Ecruteak Gym Leader Morty, the other someone called Jerry—I've never heard of him. It says that as well as the officially recorded attacks, they're capable of a strange attack often called Pain Split. They possibly possess hypnotic powers, including Mean Look, but this is only rumour. Hmm... Then it lists battle strategies, attack them with psychic and other special abilities, avoid normal type attacks, and so on."

"From what you've told me, it sounds like it's our culprit."

"Yes, but the most curious thing about what you've told me, Brock, is that they were in Diglett's Cave. That's miles away from Mt Silver—hold on, Gary's calling me. Sounds urgent. I better go."

"OK, thanks for your help, Professor. I hope there's some good news about Ash and Pikachu soon."

"I hope so too," said the Professor as he closed the connection.