Morty, Mortality, and Fate

"Up first and then down sounds like a good idea. I want to know what is crawling around down there" Omega says looking with interest at the hole "But I agree we should see the top first."

He stares in awe at the flashlight "Thats amazing. They don't need to see in the dark because they can just make it not dark. It does make us stand out though, so I still wish I could see." Maybe he should go to the store and take stuff. He needed more of the Pokeballs after all. He would have to remember to do that later.

"Thank you..." Thel breathes softly, as she winds in. "I will do what I can..." It's a different feeling, skin than scales. But the closeness, her smell, all of it just kindles a fire in him, a different kind than he would have had as a Salandit. This one is stoked by a firm but gentle guidance, something that he could never have imagined, but is the best thing in the world to him right now.

The rest of the world falling away from around him, he follows Em's lead, just letting her guide him, entwining closer, brushing past barriers, and even helping her to remove them entirely if she moves to.

Omega was quiet. He didn't know what Thel and Em were doing, but he knew he didn't care. He was just getting ready to suggest moving back down the stairs when he felt an arm reach around him. His calm and cool persona was gone. It must be a ghost. He nearly jumped out of his skin and leapt behind the melted bell before realizing it was just Muku.

He quickly brushed himself off and began inspecting the bell "I thought I saw something over here. I guess not" Nailed it

Thankfully the Bell Tower's patrons have since left for the day, Em and Thel huddling bare beneath the starlight. Theirs is a different sort of exploration, intimacy in the twilight hours. They would go undisturbed for some time, perhaps even dozing off to the middle of the night when a soft chime awakens them. Ecruteak lays silent below, both towers still standing. A massive bird resting before then, its plumeage in red, orange, and gold, watches the first tower where another creature rests in blue, black, and white.

---

Kursz watches Em and Thel quietly till they become still on the other tower. They were too big for birds. They would be okay. Getting down from this high place would be nice. As would Muku holding him like that again. A faint, distant chime struck, low and mournful, and faint lavender lights began to wander the streets of Ecruteak towards the burned tower. The ragged edges of the torn boards and crisped decorum pulsing with a ruddy light, as fanned coals would along the tower. The town was coming alive with the departed.

Muku turns to look at the sudden display or weird lights and glowing with an angry frown. Now this was just silly! “All these lights shouldn’t be here. Muku thinks that someone is trying to trick Muku into thinking that Ghosts exist, but Ghosts don’t exist so those people are being dumb. Even a Pidgey wouldn’t be that stupid, and Pidgey are pretty stupid.”

Grrr. Stupid Pidgeys...

Without waiting for affirmation, she makes her way back down the stairs to discover the REAL source to all of this sillyness.

Kursz, not one to be trapped on a roof after dark alone with ghosts afoot, scurries after his two friends. On descending the ladder back into the burned tower, Omega, Muku, and Kursz find the walls alight, the temperature unnaturally high for a building that was not on fire moments before. The floors appeared whole, but orange-red light burned and rippled along every surface save narrow pathways that led to the next ladder down.

Blobs of smoke and wisps of purplish light darted through the flames, sometimes carrying motes of it along after them. The crackle of burning timbers fills the air.

---

Thel and Em watch as the two massive birds engage in combat, having to hold low against the Bell tower. The Pokemon trade blows, humans scurrying for cover below, three entering the base of the tower where the God In Silver had perched. Swaths of Ecruteak lay destroyed below. Eventually, the bird in gold and red cast out the other, which fled South. In its rage, it called a pillar of fire onto the roost of the enemy. Bright and tall, it lit the night sky with such intensity that it might have been day.

Three canid figures crawl from the ruins, as Thel wakes in Em's arms, bared to the night air. A small, white candle with yellowed eyes, a purple flame atop it, watches the pair quietly.

Though impressed by the level of deceit that these tricksters were willing to go to prove a point, Muku was not amused. Ok sure. They must have involved some barky-barky burn burns or those weird fox things that also inexplicably shot fire out of their mouth, but to set fire to an already burnt down building was a lot extra effort, and frankly Muku wasn't happy about the level of mortal danger that they were putting them.

"Muku thinks we should probably leave. Whoever is doing this is very rude, and Muku doesn't want to meet them." She says, wiping the sweat from her brow. But where was the exit? Where was the exit?! Her scowl deepens. Ugh! No good! Bad! Very bad! If they stayed up here, the smoke would get to them. Smoke was as bad as fire. There was that ladder and... Well, if that was the only potential respite from the heat, Muku was willing to take some chances.

She ducks her head low and rushes forward towards the strange human climbing device as she swings herself around and grips hard on either edge of metal structure. Instinct kicks in, and she rides attempts to ride the metal all the way to the bottom of this hole!

"It was post-cognition. Mom told me about it before, dreams, thoughts, and memories of events that already happened." She blinks a few times, before letting out a fearful wail that carries across Ecruteak in the night, and bolts behind the bell where it sits. "GHOST!"

"Litwick." The candle introduces itself, a chill present in the summer air that should not be there, its purple flame glowing dully but surprisingly full for how cold Thel finds himself.

---

The trio of trainers rush down the next ladder to the ground floor. Following the pathways laid out by the fire, the floor gives way to empty space, dropping Muku, Kursz, and Omega two meters to the bare stone on the lowest level. The floating puffs of purplish light sink into the soil throughout the lowest level, before several shapes tear their way free, disturbing the soil as they rise. Three skull-faced, gray bodied Pokemon with a singular red eye each, and two floating balls of gas with fangs sliding up through the floor in a ring, converging.

Muku lands with a halting step, then stares at the enemies around them. They surrounded, but what they did not know is what Muku knew; that these so called ‘ghosts’ were Pokémon and Pokémon could faint. No. Wrong answer. Pokémon were going to faint. She pops out her Wooper companion and gives the Ghosts a good hard stare.

“Muku is more ready than you are. Are you sure you want to tango with Muku?” She asks menacingly.