When The Sun Sets (Moon X Gladion)

Ghost Story

"Yo, Moon! Can you hear me?"

"As long as you keep yelling, she won't want to hear you."

"You're not exactly helping either, Gladion."

"I'm more focused on the thing that brought us here at the moment..."

"As long as it stays up there, we're coo-Oh! She's waking up!"

Moon heard the shuffling of footsteps, followed by the the soft touch of someone's hand gripping her shoulder. Her eyes fluttering open, a pounding headache revealed itself and she felt stiff, though she couldn't tell if that was from that psybeam or the result of whatever Haunter had done to them all. Above all else, the only thoughts on her mind pertained to the nightmare she had escaped from only moments beforehand. Every breath rattling, her grey eyes focused on concerned faces of Gladion and Hau, both of whom loomed over her. Gladion's arm was extended towards her, and she quickly realized that the grip on her shoulder was his.

For a slight moment, she debated whether or not she should tell them about what she saw. After all, it was far from any twisted situation that her mind could possibly imagine. No, whatever that was, it was most certainly real. And, all things considered, there was a good chance that it would happen again. Against her better judgement, however, she immediately directed their attention away from her disheveled form.

Swallowing her panic, she uprighted herself. "Where are we? Where's Green?"

"That Haunter brought us out to the middle of the woods," Hau replied before referring to the roaring fire and log seats in front of them. "Some sort of campfire, I think." He then pointed to the log across where, behind the dancing curtain of orange flames, Green lay. He was snoring softly, his messy brown hair draped over his eyes and his hands folded across his stomach. "Green's over there."

"Is he alright?" Moon asked, her worried fingers grappling hand-fulls of the grass beneath her.

Gladion, still repressing his distaste for Green, almost scoffed. "He's fine. He was just hit with hypnosis– like the rest of us." Then, shuffling through his red satchel, he pulled out an Awakening. Very awkwardly, he tossed it to Hau, who caught it with the style and grace of a baseball player. (Believe it or not, if there was anything Hau was good at, it was sports. Granted, he never played on any teams back in Alola, but that never stopped him from having a go.) "Here. This should wake him."

Bending down besides Green, Hau spritzed the concoction onto the side of Green's face, careful not to let it seep into his hair or eyes.

Immediately afterwards, Green stirred. "Wh... what's the emergency?" He yawned groggily, out-stretching his arms into a crooked "w" formation.

"Well, we've all been kidnapped by Dale's Haunter and now we have no idea where we are," Hau explained, his eyebrows burrowing as he studied the side of the the Awakening bottle. What was this stuff made out of, caffeine?

Green cocked his head to the right. "Haunter?"

"You know, Ghastly's evolution? The purple blob up there?" Hau pointed at the barren branches above them where Haunter let out a slight chuckle. "It used hypnosis on all of us and then dragged us out here?"

Green glanced skeptically at the rest of them. "Haunter never put me to sleep, my Hypno did." His eyes traveled towards the entrancing depths of the fire before him. "Hypno helps me fall asleep every night."

Just then, Dale approached from the darkness, carrying a stack of firewood, an axe strapped to his back. Hau jumped at the man's sudden appearance, scurrying into and tripping over one of the empty wooden seats. As his back hit the cold, hard ground, Haunter snickered.