Suzaku's tilted his head back, his mouth gaping open in a wide yawn. He lifted his hand to block the sight because it was common etiquette.

"And there goes another trainer." Ginger shook her head, tutting. "You'd think they'd learn by now to take along a Pokemon that can help them see in that darkness."

The Blaziken overheard Ginger talking to the Misdreavus, rubbing an eye wearily. "I'll go," he insisted, standing before the Absol could object and jogging after Michael.

"Oh, sure! You volunteer to go after Thunder Boy, but you left your own trainer to become specter silage. That makes perfect sense."

Sidney was perturbed about Michael going into the woods on his own too. There were wild ghosts in there. The Sableye had clarified that. "Should we follow?" she asked Cassius.

"I think we'd better" replied Cassius, turning back towards the woods. "Misdreavus, will you be okay here on your own if I take Godfather along?"

The small ghost nodded, and for a moment her friendly eyes glazed over, as if she were in a trance. "They shall know my suffering should they advance" she said in a very creepy voice, quite different from her normal one.

((I wonder how this is going to work since Sneaky_Sneasel has poofed for the time being. Should we just post and wait until they return? >O; ))

The Absol raised an eyebrow at Maiden's sudden personality shift. Was she secretly schizophrenic? Ginger didn't think so. She just dismissed it as one of Maiden's ghost quirks.

"Come on, Gin. We're gonna go find Michael."

"Absol abs aaabsoool? (Do we haaave toooo?)" she said, using her best annoying kindergardener voice.

"It's not a suggestion, Ginger."

"Absol, absol. Abs! (Coming, coming. Shesh!)"

((They can go after him, and then just take awhile to find him ))

Cassius peered into the woods, facing away from Sidney so he could secretly look around in the darkness, an action that usually gave his eyes a reddish sort of tint. "We'd better hurry to catch up- I can't see him from here, and it could be hard to find him in the dark like this."

"Alright. Let's go," said the Absol. "I'm tired and I don't want to spend all night searching for Mister Thunder Head." She went ahead of the others. Here we go again, she thought.

"Suzaku's out there too. I hope he'll be alright."

Pandora sped off ahead of the group, keeping an eye out for any signs of the local undead population. It he could find a few and convince them of who they were dealing with, they might be willing to help, or at least lay off the haunting while the group passed through. Cassius followed several feet behind, looking about with night vision only slightly better than a normal human.

((Wow. Page twenty already? This calls for a celebration! -tosses confetti- ^^))

Ginger led the group with her chin high in the air, making sure to let a little light reflect off her blade in case anymore dimwitted ghosts decided to pop up. By the way she was strutting around you would have thought she was fearless--but Ginger never wanted to hide under a large boulder more than she did right now.

Sidney stayed close to Cassius, but she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A moving light. "Cass," she started to say, but she found herself intrigued by the tiny spectacle, and the trainer began to wander off in that direction.

For a few seconds she followed the light, but something unexpected happened. It went out. Sidney blinked, very confused. But then she realized that it was very very dark...and she was very very lost. "Ginger?" she whimpered, her voice quiet and trembling. "Cassius?"

((Sorry, but you always post right after I leave >.<!))

"Lighthouse!.....Lighthouse!....Where are you?! Man, at this rate, I'll never find him. I just hope he's alright."

Mike kept wandering around the woods, shouting Lighthouse's name every moment or so. Of course, it didn't take too long for Mike to realize that he was lost as his Ampharos.

"Yes?" replied Cassius, turning to see why Sidney had stopped so abruptly. He blinked several times- nope, not just a trick of the light. Trainers disappearing one by one; it would make a wonderful story if he didn

Mike faintly heard the shouting from his distance, but still recognized it as Cassius. Hearing this, he rushed off in the direction he heard Cassius shout.

"I haven't found Lighthouse yet, but at least I'm not completely lost anymore."

((o.k. sorry!))

((I think he probably meant that you could make a new story in a new thread- you need to make your own thread for your own roleplay, though.))

((Yeah that is t I meantrry for the confusion >.<!))

"Sidney?" Ginger did her best to see through the darkness. "SIDNEY?! Dammit, where did she go?! Damn ghosts must've gotten her! I tried to warn her! We've gotta find her!" The Absol was spinning around in circles, unsure of which direction to take, and then she collapsed. "SIIIDNEEEY!" she cried.

----------

Meanwhile, the young trainer drifted aimlessly through the woods, feeling around to prevent herself from running face first into any trees. She stopped, tired of wandering around confused and trying to think of a way out. She was considering having Abina or Gonzo fly above the trees and find her group when she heard Cassius' distinct voice.

"Oh, thank goodness!" She ran towards the sound, which was shortly followed by Ginger's shouts.

Mike was running towards where he heard Cassius' voice. "Just keep going...keep going until you find...", SPLAT! His voice was cut off hitting a decent sized tree, causing him to lose consiciuosness.

Something in the darkness hesitated, then started to approach the group cautiously. The large dusclops paused at the edge of the path, looking at Cassius. "You're, ah, taller than the last time I saw you" said the large ghost, snickering a little.

"Very funny, just knock it off while these trainers and I get through, would you?" replied Cassius in pokemon-speak, blinking a few times to remove the red glow from his eyes.

"Oh if we must" replied the dusclops. "When did you get to be such a spoilsport?"

"It's for a good cause, trust me" replied Cassius, sighing.

Sidney continued to run in the same direction she heard the voice, but an abrupt sound to her right made her lose her focus...like something large hitting a tree. "Great. Now which way do I go?" Every direction looked the same--pitch black. She took a few steps back, her back coming in contact with something alive and warm.

""Aiiieeeeeyaaa!" she screamed, reaching back and grabbing whatever it was by the arm. She then used leverage to flip the creature over her shoulder, bringing them down hard onto the forest floor.

"Blaziken, blaze blaziken?! (Sidney, is that you?!)" The fire Pokemon rushed to his trainer's side, providing just enough light to see Sidney's alleged attacker.

"You killed him! Alright, Sidney!" the Absol cheered, voicing her wishful thinking. "All I did was Slash his hand. Good job!" She wandered over to the fallen gym leader, standing over his body triumphantly.

"Gah! Cassius?!" Sidney gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"Haunt haunt haunter haunt haunter haunter haunt haunter? (where's that immunity to fighting attacks when you need it?)" muttered Cassius, getting up very slowly, wondering if anything was broken. The Dusclops burst out laughing.

"Oh man, that must me some 'good cause' there, Cass" said the large ghost, "but I guess I can see why you're standing up for this human- she threatened to break an arm?" he seemed to find this little play on a haunter's lack of arms even more hilarious, and continued to laugh.

"Well someone's sure going to get something broken soon if that someone doesn't stop laughing" snapped Cassius, switching to human-speak. "Pandora, could you please go find one of the potions in my bag?"

"Are you hurt badly? You look okay," Sidney told Cassius. "Who's this?" she asked, noticing the Dusclops for the first time. "Doesn't look like Rook. A friend of yours?"

"I know you're all worried about the gym leader," Suzaku interrupted, the Absol coughly loudly, "but I found the other trainer. He's unconcious under a tree just a few yards away. I think he ran into it."

((Edit: I won't be online the rest of the night. Forgot to let you know.))

"I'm okay- the ground's pretty soft after the rain earlier" said Cassius, trying to hide his pain. Thankfully, he did retain some of the constitution of a pokemon, and was in reasonably good shape aside from several large bruises. "Ah, Suzaku says that Mike ran into a tree, we'd better go take him back to camp." He added.

"What, you're not going to introduce me to miss machop here?" asked the ghost, acting shocked. Cassius sighed, and wondered whether or not he should ignore the Dusclops.

"This is Herodotus, an old friend of mine" admitted Cassius. The ghost bowed melodramatically, stifling a laugh. "Haunt haunt haunter (And this is Sidney)"

((Guess what? I mght actually get some time the same time you and Flannery are on, OMG!!11!1onetwoelventynine!))

Lighthouse, after awaking, found himself inside a small cave, surrounded by various Ghost Pokemon.

"Well, well, well, look what the Meowth dragged in.", a large Gengar, slightly smaller than Godfather, said.

"Wha...Where am I?", Lighhouse asked.

"Ghost Cave, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is your going to be our sacrifice."

"Say wha-", Lighthouse tried to speak, but before he could finish, the various Haunter, Shuppet, and other Ghost Pokemon had used Hypnosis, causing Lighthouse to fall asleep...

"It's a pleasure, Herodotus," Sidney said with a bow, before silently speaking to Cassius. "Is this the guy responsible for getting us separated?" she asked him in a hushed voice.

"I think your pride was bruised more than your body," Ginger told the gym leader. "I almost felt sorry for you for a second. I came this close." She brought her claws together to demonstrate just how close she actually came, which looked like they were pinched.

"We still have to find the Ampharos," Suzaku reminded them. "I can carry his trainer while we search." He spun around to face the Dusclops, crossing his arms in a very macho manner. "Did you happen to see a yellow Pokemon come through here?"

"Kinda stupid looking? Obsessed with greens?" the Absol added with a callous smirk.

"Oh, y'mean the big ampharos that was wandering around earlier was yours?" Said Herodotus, looking a little nervous. "Eh, bad news about him…"

"What sort of bad news?" asked Cassius, eyes narrowing.

"Well, ah, you remember that little gastly that hung around the tower way back when?" replied the dusclops nervously. "Well, uh, he kinda grew a little. And evolved. Twice. Anyways, he's started his own little gang, but they're kinda, ah, well, y'know how those older ghosts used to think pokemon sacrifices would keep the humans out?"

Cassius' eyes widened. "Where's his lair?" he demanded, leaning in threateningly.

"Well, ah, I could show you I guess… Cass, he's really strong now, maybe even stronger than you, and he doesn't have this human helping complex you've developed."

((Ack, how dare you make fun of my Ampharos! ))

Lighthouse, once again having to wake up from unconsiousness, only to find out he was tied to large stalagmite with some rope.

"Hm...I was hoping you wouldn't wake up in time for the ceremony, but I guess it can't be helped.", the large Gengar said, pacing back and forth.

"What kind of sick freaks are you?", Lighthouse said with a tone of extreme anger.

The Gengar just pulled down one of his eyelids and stuck out his tongue, anime style. Of course, Lighthouse didn't take this sitting down, releasing a powerful Thunderbolt, giving the Gengar quite a shock.

Gengar, a black smokey Gengar, wasn't too happy about this, but just shook it off. "He'll be dealt with soon enough.", he thought evilly.

"There's only one way out of this spooky situation", he said to himself. With that, his tail shone brightly, enough to see several miles away, hoping has Flash was long and bright enough for his trainer and friends to see.

Ginger grinned. "Finally! A chance to kick ghost butt!" She laughed out loud. "We'll just see how tough this ghost guy is. I'm not afriad to take him on. I'm a dark type after all."

Sidney just listened, wandering what they were saying. She felt so out of the loop...and all because she didn't understand Pokemon speak.

Suzaku left the others to retrieve the unconscious trainer, who was still exactly where the Pokemon had found him earlier. He grabbed him by the collar, pulling him up, and slinging his limp body over his shoulder. "I got him," he said once he rejoined the group. "Now...take us to the Ampharos."