Thankfully Sabrina was found, she was safe and alive, although, she had changed according to those who had last seen her. It seemed like she had grown ears but they were a matching shade of black that they would look like her hair was being unruly, which was recently cut short with the exception of some bangs that rested on her shoulder. As for clothes, she had quite the interesting get up, a pair of beige knee length boots with brown kneepads attached, a matching skirt and a brown cowl shirt and arm warmers.

The most interesting part the outfit was that she could not remove it and her prized Alakazm, the one she had since her childhood, was missing. Galvin was the first of the three heroes to come to the realization that Rune’s attempt to create one being from man and pokemon was a success once more.

In the end Sabrina was thankful to our heroes and rewarded them with a lavish hotel room in one of the most expensive hotels in Saffron City. Steel was given her own room, which she was peeved about, while the boys were given their own. Almost immediately Steel marched across the hall to the room of her friends and knocked on the door, which looked and sounded more like punching.

On the other side the boys glanced at each other nervously. Steel was always as her scariest when she was mad and oh boy was she mad. After a match of rock-paper-scissors Galvin was forced to open the door.

“Hey Ste-”

“What did she tell you?” Steel cut him off

Right from the get go she wanted answers. Geez. With a heavy sigh he pulled her into the room and closed the door.

“Well?”

“She told me… when I mentioned your name,”

“Why were you mentioning my name to scum like that?”

“Ugh, you know when we went to Celadon City, and I was in the hospital?”

“…Yeah?” she huffed

“I lied, I didn’t fall down some stairs. I went into the Rune base they hid under the casino.” Steel gasped, appalled by her wiser friend’s actions.

“You did what?! Oh my Arceus! Galvin!”

“Look, the psycho that tried to kill you on the S.S. Anne saw Scyther and your name slipped into the conversation and she said ‘tell Steel, Hilda is waiting’. It seemed unimportant so I didn’t see anything.” A look of horror suddenly crossed Steel and color seemed to drain from her.

“…Steel?”

“H-hilda? Did you really just say Hilda?”

“Yeah…” the two boys glanced between each other and a sudden realization his Brass.

“No, Steel, you don’t think…?”

“…I do…”

“What the hell are you two talking about?”

“Galvin, the right hand person to my parents was a woman named Hilda. When I would go to the Rune base I would see her often, she knew me, that’s why… that’s why she wanted you to tell me her name! A warning. I’m the heir to Rune too… what if she’s out to get me…?”

“Calm down Steel!” Galvin placed his hands firmly on the shoulders of his female friend. “She isn’t going to hurt you, not if we are around. Last time she took you by surprise, I’m sure of that you are quite formidable in not only pokemon battled but physical battles too; if you get a psychic or dark type you’ll have even more ammo against her and your Eevee could fix that bill.”

“Are you sure about that…?”

“Yes… I am.” Despite this Steel could not help but worry, to fight a human Pokemon, one fused with the monster of Cerulean City, sounded incredibly dangerous…

Brass walked into the gym with a gulp. It was quickly concluded, thanks to the mob of screaming priests and chandlers outside, the gym was weird and the insides just made that even more so obvious. It was pitch black with an occasional eerie purple glow in the air and a pulsating blue and red square on the floor.

The boy poked at the ground with his foot before walking forward with a moments of hesitation. He approached the pulsating square and gave it a poke. Suddenly, Brass was screaming and thrown around as the dark world around him blurred. The spinning stopped and he was standing still before the Gym leader.

Sabrina was not amused with his screaming. She crinkled her nose and approached the boy.

“Oh, you. One of the boys from Silph Co.”

“Uh, yes, hello Sabrina. I’ve come for a badge!”

“Of course you have,” she grinned wryly. “this will be an interesting match…” a light suddenly shinned down on the two. Sabrina began to levitate above the ground and two spoons appeared at her side. Brass gulped and shuffled for the pokeball of his Lanna. The lonely pokemon took a defensive position almost immediately on sight of Sabrina, trying to understand what was going on with her.

“Your move.”

“Okay, Lanna, use bone rush!” the young ground type nodded, heading her master’s words she began running and jumped to smash the bone against the shoulder of the target. Sabrina simply blocked the attack with her spoons but this would not stop the young pokemon. She continued to swing, bashing against the knee and forearms of Sabrina. Once she tired down she returned to Brass’s side.

“Lanna, Focus Energy!” the Cubone gripped the bone tight in front of its face, and squeezed its eyes shut in concentration. A faint glow surrounded it for a moment, then it swung its bone, eyes burning with determination. “Now Bone Rush, again!” Lanna nodded, and leapt forward again, raising her club high, and smashing it down hard. There was a dull smack, and Lanna stumbled backwards, a large chip in her club. She eyed it with disdain. Sabrina smirked, and twitched a hand. Lanna’s arm shot straight up, gripping the bone club tight. Sabrina brought her own arm down, and Lanna’s club smashed straight against her skull.

Lanna stumbled sideways, shaking her head a little. “This isn’t working. Okay,” he snapped his fingers. “Thrash!” Lanna leapt forward, swinging its club around with abandon. Each swipe was dodged by Sabrina with ease, and as the Cubone stumbled out of its daze, a spoon shot straight into the back of its skull helmet, and Lanna fell to the ground, a small crack on the backside. Brass sighed and called the baby pokemon back.

“That was worth a shot,” he gripped another pokeball and tossed it out. “Flamin’ Billy! Let’s go!” Charmeleon roared and got into a battle stance, the flame on its tail flaring out. Before Sabrina could do anything, Charmeleon released a Smokescreen and an Ember in quick succession. Sabrina managed to stop the fire attack before it could hurt her. Charmeleon leapt at her back and delivered a Slash attack. Sabrina spun away from it, balancing herself in mid-air.

“Your Charmeleon’s good. I’m surprised how well he adjusted to… me, I suppose, but,” she squeezed her eyes tight, and Charmeleon’s claws raked against its chest. She twitched a finger, and Charmeleon gave its self another scratch from its belly to the base of its neck. It gave a grunt of pain. “Is he good enough to deal with this kind of fighting?” Charmeleon growled, and leapt at Sabrina, claws glowing a faint gray. A spoon shot out and pushed Charmeleon backwards.

“Charmeleon, Flame Burst!” Brass called, and Charmeleon nodded, shooting a thick blast of fire. Sabrina blocked the attack, but two small embers split off and hit the spoons next to her, dropping them both to the floor. Charmeleon dashed forward and tackled straight into Sabrina, sending them tumbling to the ground. Sabrina pushed Charmeleon off with her powers, and lunged for her spoons, sending one crashing into Charmeleon’s stomach, making it lose its wind. Sabrina threw her other one, and it smashed straight into his forehead, sending it to the floor.

Sabrina lifted and arm, and Charmeleon flew up and crashed into a wall. It fell to the ground, giving a defeated groan. Brass sagged, head drooping. “Billy, return. Clefastar, go!” Brass’ next pokeball revealed Clefairy, dancing around on its feet. It waggled a finger at Sabrina. “Metronome!” The finger took on a bright white glow, and then stopped. Clefairy giggled, and then bounced towards Sabrina. It leapt and Sabrina swung at it with a spoon. It made contact, and Clefairy disappeared, and then reappeared behind Sabrina, delivering a punch to the back of her head.

Clefairy bounced up to her again, and used Doubleslap, planting two strong smacks to each cheek. Then, it slapped Sabrina once again, this time under the chin, and almost making like a punch. Then, Clefairy’s finger glowed, and it jumped into the air, giving Sabrina a good kick to the stomach. Brass watched in surprise. Sabrina collapsed to the ground, tired and defeated. “I think that means I won.” Brass scratched his cheek.

“Uh, Brass of Pallet Town is he winner…?” The referee was completely stupefied. He wasn’t expecting that. Sabrina was like a pokemon now. She was massively powerful but she got slapped into submission? Sabrina motioned the referee to come over.

“Present the boy with his badge.” The man nodded and set off for the back room. Sabrina turned back to Brass with a hand extended. “Let me see your Cubone, Lanna was it?” Brasss looked unsure for a moment as he handed over the pokeball. Sabrina let out the lonely pokemon and scooped it into her arms as she squirmed and flailed.

“Calm down little one,” the woman placed an index and middle finger against the forehead of the baby pokemon. In a matter of seconds Sabrina saw all of what she needed to see and placed the pokemon back down on her stubby feet. “I see, just as I though…”

“Uh…” the boy curiously glanced between pokemon and gym leader “What do you mean?”

“On the day Rune took me hostage I was called to look into the ghost situation in Lavender Town, I suspected for some time the raging ghost I heard about in gossip and rumors was the mother Marowak that was murdered. The Cubone in your possessions is the child, the only one alive that is.” Sabrina then sighed and tapped her chin, spinning away from Brass. “You will need to calm the ghost in my place.”

“W-what?! Why me?”

“Your love for Lanna, I believe, would be able to calm the ghost, for it would show that not all humans are terrible and the child is in good care. And I don’t want to leave my gym like this anyway.” Well. That did make sense… seeing its child would probably calm the ghost down and Brass did love Lanna along with all his other pokemon and Sabrina walking in the public the way she was now could cause an uproar…

Brass sighed. Galvin and Steel were not going to like this news…

As Brass expected his two friends were unhappy with the news that they had to return to Lavender Town. The last encounter with it did not end so well, as it tried to kill them both but they were both curious to Brass’s plan to calm the spirit and put it to rest.

The town was just as cold and lifeless as it was before, thankfully due to the late hours no one was glaring at them this time around. The group quietly entered the tower, which turned out to be open at all hours to pay respects, and rushed up the stairway outlined in flickering candle light. Despite the towers being open all day there were little to no priests or chandlers around at this hour, so other than the wild pokemon, the group had no problem reaching the sixth floor.

Go back…

Brass let Lanna out of his pokeball and lifted her into his arm. This course of action made his friends blink.

“Why did you let Lanna out?”

“You’ll see,” Brass yawned, waddling around the floor. “Now you said you saw it by the stairs, right?”

Get out…

“Uh, yeah…”

“Okay.” Brass took in a gulp of air and approached the stairs. “Spirit! I have a visitor for you.” He placed Lanna on the ground, the little pokemon scampered behind Brass’s leg for protection. He smiled, squatting down to pet her on her skull. “There, there, I’ll be right here. Now, go talk to the spirit…” with a moment’s hesitation the pokemon stepped forward before it a figure began to shape, a black shadowy mass with glaring white eyes and then into a Marowak.

The two monsters stared at each other as they conversed in the tongue of their species. Lanna would point to Brass every once in a while and the mother would snarl and grunt at the child. The conversation of sounds went on for some time to the point where Brass had to take a seat on the ground bur Lanna took him by surprise when she jumped onto his stomach and curled up on it.

Brass looked up to the mother pokemon cautiously. She was staring back. No grunts were exchanged between them, even after Clefa Star and Flaimin’ Billy burst from their pokeballs to curl around their master and friend to defend him if it came to that.

But it did not.

The ghost simply dissipated till nothing more and whispered a thank you. The air of the building suddenly seemed to be lighter and the fog lifted a bit. No sounds or howling was heard. The spirit of the murdered Marowak was finally put to rest.