Ash's ghostly tale

chapter 8

later that night after bill had persuaded ash to stay for supper the two were sitting down in the main living room relaxing while they watched ash's smaller Pokémon interacting with the eevee, houndour and nidoran were happily playing with the eevee as the younger ones tried to catch a few of the gastly that had come out to play. kitsune was sitting with the older Pokémon as they watched the little ones play around with the mischievous ghosts.

meowth was sitting beside ash on one of the couches as he spoke with bill, the researcher had been shocked when he saw the sheer amount of ghost Pokémon that were following ash around but it was nothing compared to the awe and curiosity that shone in bill's eyes when he first heard meowth speak.

for the last few hours the two had been talking as bill asked meowth about anything he could think of, ash left them to it knowing that bill wouldn't harm the scratch cat Pokémon while ash went looking thru his pokedex again.

"what are you looking for ash?" bill asked having finally run out of questions to ask meowth at the moment.

"nothing really, I'm trying to create a specialty move" bill nodded in understanding as he relaxed back on his chair.

"I see, its a good sign that your already looking into something like that not many trainers put in the time it takes to prefect a specialty move when there are already so many to choose from, most don't realise that the importance of pushing themselves to the limit but those that do usually go far in our world" ash sighed as he set his pokedex back in his pocket.

"I know I just wish it wasn't so hard to come up with one, I thought the training would be the hardest part of making one but all I've got so far are a few half formed ideas about what I want the move to do without any idea how I'm actually going to pull them off" bill hummed in response as ash's eevee jumped onto the couch to cuddle with him having sensed his souring mood.

"well I'm not really a battler so I can't really help you out with any of that but my advice is to call someone you know who has a lot of battling experience and ask them for advice, hopefully they have managed to make one of their own moves and can help talk you thru the process" ash sat up so fast he nearly shot out of his seat as bill's advice sparked a thought he should have done days ago.

"your right and I know just the person to call, I'll see you tomorrow bill!" ash called out as he ran from the room with his Pokémon on his heels and bill's soft chuckles following him out.

heading to bill's guest room ash was quick to pull up the phone app on his pokedex before finding Agatha's number in his pokedex, ash didn't call the older woman often since he knew she was very busy with her duties as a member of the elite four and he didn't want to interrupt her if she was in the middle of something important.

before ash could second guess his decision to call her agatha answered her phone.

"this is agatha of the elite four, whose calling?" the old woman's voice came over the speakers in her usual bored tone.

"hey mrs. agatha, it's ash" 

"ah ash, I see your finally calling me" ash sputtered a bit at the reprimanding tone in her voice.

"relax child I know how exciting it is to go on a journey for the first time, can't blame you for forgetting to call this old woman from time to time especially since it's so early on" agatha teased.

"it wasn't that, it's just that I know how busy you are working with the league and I didn't want to bother you with something that wasn't important" ash said trying to explain himself but was cut off sharply by agatha.

"what did I tell you before child? if you ever needed any advice you should call me but I hope you'll keep in better contact from now on, I want to know how your doing even if it seems silly to you" ash felt a warm feeling wash over him as he realised how much agatha cared for him.

"thanks agatha" the old woman hummed sounding keen to keep going and leaving the sappy moment behind her.

"so, tell me all that has been going on so far" 

more than happy to share what had been happening so far with his old mentor ash started at the beginning where he thanked her for sending him houndour before sharing how he had met each of his team members and even meeting Giovanni. ash ended his story with his current problem of trying to come up with specialty moves for his Pokémon.

"hmm, creating you own techniques is something that every master has struggled with in their time, most trainers model their first move after nature, the natural forces of this world can be some of the most awe inspiring and devastating that we will ever know. in order to master a type of Pokémon you have to understand where the energy of their type comes from, this is one of the reasons that there are so few ghost and dark type masters in the world. while dragon masters must contend with their Pokémons stubborn attitudes we must delve deep into what dark and ghost type energy really means, we must contemplate where these energies come from"  

with Agatha's advice hanging over his head ash fell into a restless sleep.

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the next morning as they made their way down the road ash stopped for a moment as a sudden thought hit him when he looked down at the newest member of his team.

"I haven't scanned you yet" the confused look on eevee's face lasted for a few moments as ash knelt down in front of her and pulled out his pokedex.

"eevee, the evolution Pokémon, thanks to it's unstable genetic makeup this Pokémon conceals many different possible evolutions. this Pokémon knows the moves tackle, tail whip, and sand attack" 

"hey ash are you going to give her a nick name" meowth asked getting an excited yip from eevee as she looked up at him expectantly.

"you really want one huh? alright but it should at least match what you want to evolve into no point in calling a vaporeon flora" sitting down beside the road with the others sitting around him as eevee claimed the spot on his lap ash opened the section of his pokedex dedicated to all the information professor oak had on the different Pokémon in the world. looking up eevee's evolutions was easy but having the little normal type actually pick one was a different story, after nearly an hour of switching back and forth between three of them eevee finally made up her mind.

"an umbreon huh? nice choice now for a name" if ash thought she had been picky about an evolution then a name was even harder to decide on, finally after nearly an twenty minutes they finally found one she would accept.

"alright then nyx, lets get going we have a long way to vermillion city and a lot of training before we get there"