"Bob & The Frighteningly Large Marshmallow..." The streets of Lavender town became crowded as they rode through the town square and turned South, away from the omnipresent Tower. The old Victorian style homes that the town's populace had dwelled in for the last five hundred years had been decorated for the upcoming event. Carved Jack'o lanterns sat on their wide verandah's, small bits of ragged white cloth had been done up to resemble ghostly figures and hung from the branches of the twisting leafless trees, and everywhere, strings of orange and black Christmas tree lights stood ready to repel the coming darkness of the night. It somehow seemed strange that the quiet cobblestone streets were filled with curious tourists, wandering about expecting to see a ghost on every corner, but quickly realizing that Lavender was indeed, just another town. But every year, for the last twenty or so, Lavender Town hosted what some called "The Halloween Party To End All Halloween Parties." It would take place near the foot of the Lavender Tower. A five-story structure that had stood for the last five centuries, and was known as the single most haunted place in the entire world. It cast its long dark shadow over Lavender like a monstrous sundial, an omnipresent reminder of the town's grim past. The main celebrations, however, were to take place in a special field just north of Lavender Town's graveyard. Every year the town's inhabitants brought in papier- m?ch? tombstones, and installed small hidden speakers to emit any eerie noises that the Tower ghosts didn't feel like supplying, as well as no shortage of fog machines to give it just the right feel. They then brought in the usual carnival trappings like rides and stage performances, not to mention the impossible to win carnival games, over priced food, and poorly made souvenirs. In Lavender Town, Halloween wasn't just a day; it was a celebration that spanned an entire week. Local residents observed a plethora of odd traditions during that time, including setting an extra place at the dinner table and putting out small baskets of food to appease the restless dead. Some either very brave, or very stupid individuals even left the bedroom windows open wide at night, in hopes that hungry ghosts would visit them and steal their nightmares. So it wasn't unusual for the occasional duped tourist staying at the "Tiltin' Hilton Hotel" to wake up in the morning to find himself in need of immediate medical attention, for not all wild ghosts bothered to simply steal and devour the dreams of their victims at their leisure. Many actually preferred drinking them straight from the source. At the South end of town, the Lilcamp Trading Company, amusingly enough, was located at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, at the far end of the dead-end street, a short distance from the jagged cliffs that overlooked the Eastern Ocean. It was made up of several buildings, seemingly fused together at different points in time by the many generations who'd lived within. The main building, which was the first to be built, was a modestly sized two- story house, done in the typical Lavender style. The bricks that made up its walls carved from the same odd purple-hued stone that was mined from the mountains and were all but covered in twisting vines in places. The front porch, that also served the house's Eastern side, was covered by a slanted roof and protected by a railing that looked as though the person who'd carved it was trying to make some kind of artistic statement. And in keeping with the season, small ceramic pumpkins sat in every window, soon to surely glow with the arrival of night along with the large real one beside the front door. The other attached buildings consisted of a large, squarely built warehouse/garage made from painted white stone that connected directly with the Lilcamp's place of residence. Near the roof, a large wooden banner that read simply "The Lilcamp Trading Company" in large purple letters on a white background, had far too much of the paint starting to peel. In of itself, the warehouse was rather boring, except for the small, single story building that was located directly in front of, and connected to it. The small trading post/general store was like all the others like it, located in nearly every major city on the continent. A small, unimposing shop, made to look rustic with a wide wooden veranda, and walls that made from splitting logs in half that made one wonder how behind in the time the little shop was. It was only the large panes of glass in the windows, filled with products, and signs advertising sales, not to mention the electric lights that lit it up at night that assured one that the Lilcamp Trading Post's were not run by large hairy men clad in animal skins who spoke in grunts. At the farthest end of the short string of buildings was what appeared to be a hastily constructed, single story establishment with a glowing neon sign advertising its presence as 'The Courier Club'. Even this early in the day, there were nearly a dozen mountain-bikes in varying stages of disrepair and cleanliness parked outside, and the laughing tones of their riders echoed through the two open windows on either side of the door in a gentle cacophony that beckoned further patrons. "So this is where you live," commented Misty rhetorically as they coasted down the gentle incline of Mockingbird Lane, "What else can I say? Wow." Miranda nodded, giving a short wave to the driver of the old, rusting pickup that exited the warehouse and drove past them on the opposite side of the cobblestoned street. "It's not much, but it's home," she sighed, leading Misty up the driveway that wound around to the side of the house that faced the ocean before taking the three steps up to the wooden front porch, equipped with an aging front-porch swing, "I just hope someone's actually home." Misty couldn't help chuckle as Miranda tried the door, found it locked, and had to resort to ringing the doorbell. She even cringed slightly for half a second, almost expecting the bell to be a scream or something, but it turned out to be a simple chime. "Forgot your key?" she teased as the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from within. "Just being polite," said Miranda with a shrug before glancing at Misty with a bit of a worried look, "That and delaying the inevitable." Misty sighed, and took Miranda's hand firmly as the main door was unlocked and pulled open by a tall man who grinned happily as he spotted Miranda. "You're here!" exclaimed Bob as though it were a miracle. "'Fraid so," his step-daughter commented with a small smile as Bob pushed open the screen door, "I haven't missed a Halloween yet, have I?" "You'd better not!" laughed Bob, stepping out onto the porch without his shoes on, "I think Vivian'd track you down herself and drag out here. Hey, you're Misty, right?" Misty was surprised to find herself blushing as Bob grabbed her hand and shook it enthusiastically. "It's great to finally meet you," the man admitted before adding, "Well, for 'real' I mean. Vid-phones don't count." "So, um... Is Mom around?" Miranda inquired, her tone careful. "Ah, naw, sorry," replied Bob with a sad shake of his head, suddenly shivering against the cold wind off the ocean and quickly doing up the top button on his dress-shirt, "But you can come in anyway. I've got some tea on, and I can show you the new transposition-array we had installed. It's collapsible! And besides, now we don't have to use your Aunt's." "That must have cost an arm and a leg," Miranda commented, half wondering what the problem with using Professor Laurna's array was, seeing as it so seldom got used by Lav'Brats, "But actually, I was thinking of dropping in on Joy and getting my menagerie their yearly checkup." "Oh, well that's okay, then," said Bob, his voice full of disappointment, his expression looking glum, "Well, your Mom should be back from the Council meeting in about an hour or so, and I was thinking of having Frank and Laurna over for dinner. I ran over to the market this morning and managed to grab a few things before the tourists did." "Frank's here?!" exclaimed Miranda, her subdued demeanor completely vanishing as she now stared wide eyed at her stepfather, her glasses slipping down her nose, "He actually came back to Lavender? Please tell me he made up with Aunt Laurna." Bob chuckled to himself for a moment, a sound that seemed capable bringing a smile to the face of a stone statue. "Miranda, you really have to call home to just to talk more often," he chided amicably as he stole a second glance at Misty, "You keep missing all the good family gossip." Miranda found herself unable to keep from chuckling. "Alright," she said, "We'll certainly be there. But when Mom gets back, tell her we're at the Club. I want to see who's in town this year. Besides, I owe Zack a favor." It was Misty's turn to blush as she recalled the arrangement Miranda had made with her fellow courier. Having him use his abra to teleport her old bed out of her room at the Cerulean City Gym, and teleport a new on in, in its place. Misty had never bothered to inquire how much it cost Miranda, but she was certain that their first night upon it had more than paid the courier back for the expense. "Oh, alright then," said Bob, looking disappointed, "I'll give Viv a call right now. Just don't you two go running off or anything!" "I can't," laughed Miranda as Bob stepped back into the house, "I'd never hear the end of it from Wraith!" Her stepfather cringed a little at the thought of the ghost, but managed to smile happily as he waved goodbye. "He's not from here, is he?" commented Misty as they brought their bikes up onto the porch and walked back down the street. "Oh? How can you tell?" Miranda inquired, having never really thought about it much before. She knew Bob was native to Maiden's Peak, a tourist town not far to the South where her Father had taken the family many times when she was a child, but it had never occurred to her that Bob was "different". Misty chuckled. "You don't see it, do you?" she asked rhetorically as they crossed the street hand-in-hand and took the next left. "I've noticed a few things about you Lav'Brats," she explained slyly, "For one, you don't cringe whenever someone mentions the word 'ghost'. And for another, all the native Lavender Towner's seem to have the most peculiar eyes." "Peculiar?" inquired Miranda curiously, stopping as they stepped up onto the sidewalk, "How so?" Misty smiled loving, her free hand taking a moment to caress the side of her lover's face. "At first," she said, "I thought it was just a family trait. You have the most intensely expressive, beautiful gray eyes I've ever seen. And the time's I've been there when you've spoken to your Mom on the phone, I noticed that she has these very peculiar magenta coloured eyes." "Actually," corrected Miranda with a sly smile, leading Misty back down the street, "Mom's from Neon Town. But I see what you mean. Zack's eyes have this peculiar habit of reflecting light when it's dark. I guess it's something in the air." "And I've never seen a Lav'Brat who could tan," continued Misty, her tone suddenly curious, "Maybe it IS something in the air." "Negative Chi," Miranda replied as the Lavender Town pokemon center loomed into view, "That's what my Aunt says. Apparently the Tower was built on two really big negatively charged ley-lines. And since the energy is negative, it attracts ghosts. Apparently this place was barely habitable before the Tower was built." "Professor Laurna must certainly know a lot about ghost-types," commented misty, suppressing an involuntary shudder. "She'd better," laughed Miranda pausing before a set of impressive marble steps, "She's the only person in three hundred years to survive a night in the Tower. When it comes to ghosts, if Aunt Laurna doesn't know about it, it's a lie." "She, she spent a night in there," stammered Misty, glancing over her shoulder to where the Tower was a far off, hazy image over the rooftops of smaller buildings. Miranda nodded as she lead the way up the steps of the Lavender Town Pokemon Center, past the twin statues of hungry-looking murkrows that guarded the staircase so ominously. "Yeah, but I haven't gotten the whole story yet," she explained, "Laurna says it's a secret. Just like most of the stuff that happened before I was born. Neither her or my mom like to talk about that part of their lives and mom won't let me have the key to my father's diary, even though she reads it herself from time to time." "That's too bad-" came Misty's sympathetic reply before the large wooden double doors swung open of their own accord in response to their presence, causing Misty to nearly jump out of her skin. "Um, Miri," she said weakly, going paler than a Lav'Brat for a moment, "Can we please stop talking about ghosts for a while?" "Yes, dear," Miranda chuckled, raising their joined hands and giving her lover a reassuring kiss on the knuckles, "Besides, there are scarier things in Lavender then that." "Such as?" inquired Misty carefully, knowing there was more to Miranda's comment than there appeared to be. But the courier's reply was abruptly halted by the presence of a of cloaked figure who seemed to meld out of the shadows as they stepped over the threshold. "Ah, Ms. Lilcamp!" exclaimed the Nurse Joy of Lavender Town, throwing the hood off her long black, velvet cloak, "So sorry, I thought you were another tourist." Miranda chuckled at the thought, catching the irony in the woman's statement. "No, ma'am. But my friend here sort of is..." she motioned to Misty with her free hand, suddenly letting her words trail off as she suddenly remembered something very important. "Well then," said Joy in a peculiar tone that seemed both sinister and friendly at the same time as something stirred the hem of her billowing cloak, and set the ankh she wore over her uniform swinging, "Come on in and we'll have a nice long chat as I see how your pokemon are doing. Any of them evolve yet?" "Um, err, yeah..." replied Miranda, her stormy gray eyes going wide as she remembered exactly what was concealed within the folds of Joy's cloak, "But um, do you think we could just drop them off? We really need to get over to the Courier Club. Like, now." "Um, Miri," Misty inquired, suddenly finding the courier sidestepping in front of her, blocking her view of the slightly eccentric looking parazoological- veterinarian, "Is there something wrong?" "Kinda..." Miranda replied, smiling nervously as she felt her stomach gurgle unpleasantly in response to the movements of Joy's cloak. "Yes, Ms. Lilcamp," inquired Joy with utmost curiosity, her head titled slightly to one side as something beneath the velvet cloak rose up ominously, giving her a slightly hunchbacked appearance, "Is there something wrong?" Miranda glanced around the room helplessly for a moment as Misty started becoming frustrated with Miranda's now continual sidestepping and frantic arm flailing to block her view. "Yesss!" she hissed in a low, nearly panicked voice, "It's with W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y!" "Wednesday?" inquired Nurse Joy in a puzzled tone as the creature she was concealing extended a long, black and purple striped, hair leg from beneath the folds of her cloak and placed it daintily upon its mistress's stomach, "What's wrong with Wednesday?" By this point, Miranda knew that it was far too late. In response to her name being used, the three feet wide, nearly twenty-pound arachnid known as an ariados uncoiled herself. Soon, all eight of Wednesday's long, creepy legs had unfurled, as the chitinous, hairy hemovore prepared to greet her guests. "Oh!" apologized Nurse Joy, suddenly cluing in far too late to recall Miranda's reaction to arachnids, let alone Misty's reaction to bug-types in general, "I'm so sorry," she said hurriedly, trying to coax the ariados back to sleep as the other pokemon the physician owned came waddling into the room. "Blissy?" inquired the tall, vaguely egg shaped figure, its extremely short coat of dark pink fur looking mildly charred for some reason. "Oh no!" came Joy's suddenly panicked exclamation as the pokemon's beady black eyes caught a glimpse of Misty and Miranda before quickly determining that Miranda needed help, "Morticia, nooo! Don't do it!" "Do? Do what-?" inquired Misty and Miranda in unison as Nurse Joy ran towards them at full tilt, her arms spread wide as her blissy merrily waved her stubby arms back and worth muttering happily to herself. "RUN!" the woman ordered, her cloak flaring out behind her and causing Wednesday to flutter her vestigial wings in irritation as Morticia chanted' "Blissy, blissy, blissy...", "Get out! NOW!!! The two barely had time to protest as Joy caught them with both arms and half- dragged, half-tackled them back through the still open doors, and down the marble steps where she threw them and herself down on to the ground and covered her head. "What's wrong-?!" Miranda managed to say, a heartbeat before a thunderous explosion erupted from within the Center, shaking the ground violently and sending a huge cloud of gray smoke into the air. "Well, that answers that," muttered Misty ruefully as Joy to her feet before dusting herself off. "Sorry about that," the woman said by way of explanation, her tone a touch on the bitter side, "But that courier... Mr. Evans. He came through here the other day and taught Wednesday what he claimed was the 'metronome' technique." "Aren't the effects of that technique completely random?" inquired Misty thoughtfully. Joy sighed heavily and nodded. "Normally," she explained, holding her cloak closed as the pokemon underneath tried desperately to reveal herself, "but I think something went wrong. Every time Morticia uses it, she um... Well she explodes." Miranda blinked loudly. "Isn't that painful?" she inquired, feeling concerned for the strange pokemon whose species were now raised specifically to assist para-vets. "Goodness no!" laughed Joy, reaching out and swatting a peculiar lump in her cloak, "It just knocks her unconscious and destroys pretty much everything in the room. That's all." "Um... Yeah," the courier replied, looking a little confused, and feeling her stomach turn every time the large arachnid threatened to make an appearance, "Um, look. We gotta go, uh, we've got to meet Zack at the Courier Club." "Well then tell Mr. Jones that I want to see him as soon as possible," the woman said in a mildly annoyed tone, glancing back at her clinic in dismay, "Someone needs to clean up this mess!" "Definitely," Miranda said quickly, even now helping Misty to her feet before rushing off, "Well, see you later! Bye!" "What's wrong?" laughed Misty, glancing back to wave good-bye and hoping to catch a glimpse at whatever "Wednesday" was. Miranda took a deep, revitalizing breath as the two practically ran back up the street. "A marshmallow," she said simply, trying not to laugh. "A marshmallow?" her lover's tone was suddenly suspicious. "That's what my parents called spinaraks and ariadoses when I was a child," she explained, instantly feeling Misty's hand tighten around her own in revulsion. "You mean, she...?" the trainer let the thought trail off as Miranda nodded glumly. "Sorry," she apologized, "I forgot about Joy's Wednesday. They are creepy things, and she keeps getting bigger every year! I think Joy feeds her too much." "That's okay, dear," assured Misty with a sudden shiver, "At least that way we know she's eating lots of bugs." Miranda nodded, feeling her stomach still making dangerously unpleasant motions in reaction to the presence of the huge arachnid. "Yeah," she agreed slowly, clutching her abdomen and swallowing hard, "But what do you say we call a truce? I won't mention ghosts, if you don't mention arachnids!" Misty gave the courier a concerned look, and moved closer to hold her as they walked. "You going to be alright?" she asked. "I just need something to drink," her lover explained queasily, "I just don't like those things!" "Gee, I didn't know you were arachnophobic, dear." "I'm not," replied Miranda with a shake of her head, causing her to need to pause for a moment to make sure that the last ration bar she ate was remained in its proper place, "It's just that they make me feel sick. Even the little tiny, mundane ones do that to me." Misty couldn't help but chuckle. "Another thing we have in common," she teased, resting her head on Miranda's shoulder as they continued to walk. "Hey," chuckled Miranda weakly, "I'm not 'afraid' of them. I'm just repulsed." "I still think it's cute," she responded, causing Miranda to blush, and keep relatively quiet the rest of the way to the Courier Club...
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