That's the Spirit! - Chapter 9

[Melemele Island]

Danny was well aware that he didn’t have a normal life. His parents were scientists in a field they might as well have made up, and they spent every waking moment working on something that, now that it was working, might upend the science world as a whole for all the different avenues of exploration it would open up. Assuming Mom and Dad thought of any of that and didn’t hyperfocus on the ghost part.

He wasn’t stupid. Once upon a time Danny had bought into the enthusiasm the Doctors Fenton had for their work. It was only as he got older and none of that work went anywhere that he realized how weird everything that surrounded them was. Most kids didn’t have to eat their hot dogs fast to keep them from reanimating. Most kids didn’t receive a custom hazmat suit for every birthday to keep up with their growth. Most kids, when they told their parents that there was something under the bed, didn’t flip the entire bed frame out the window and then blast a forgotten teddy bear to smithereens.

And that was before the Portal actually worked and he fell into a different dimension, and then a third dimension for good measure. Now he was learning what was technically an alien culture, engaging in their customs, making friends with superpowered animals, and learning how to use powers of his own.

And all of that, somehow, didn’t feel as weird as that fact that he was currently in the woods tracking a refrigerator by scent.

“Hey Professor, is your refrigerator running?” he mumbled to himself. “Man, I wish I had a phone, that would be hilarious. Zorua, where to next?”

The little fox sniffed the ground, hunting for the smell of food. He turned a tight circle, then pointed with his body. Danny followed after.

Rowlet flew down to join them with an annoyed expression.

“No good?”

“Let.”

“Probably somewhere under the treeline. Not in a clearing or anything.” Danny sighed, returning Rowlet. “Take a rest, then.”

At least he could look at it as an opportunity to explore the island. Danny was never one for the outdoors, but a tropical island was a lot more pleasant to walk around than perpetually gloomy Amity Park. It was always overcast there.

Danny stepped in a puddle and yelped as he tripped; it was way deeper than it looked. He managed to catch himself before his face hit the ground, but then he felt a tug on his shoe.

“Agh! Get off!”

“Dew dew! Pi!” A weird-looking Bug with a water drop around its head clambered out of the puddle, spitting water at Danny’s face. “Der! Dewpider!”

“Ugh.” Danny spat to get the water out of his mouth. “Look, I’m sorry, but--”

Dewpider soaked his head again.

“Ss ss ss ss.” Zorua looked back to see what the hold up was and snickered loudly at Danny’s misfortune.

“Shut up, you. Can you give me a--blrgh--hand?” Danny asked, putting a hand up to block another Water Gun.

“Zor.” Zorua trotted over to where Dewpider was glaring at Danny and turned in a circle once, sitting down. The spider shifted its glare to him for a moment before turning back to Danny. It took a deep breath to spew another Water Gun--and that was when Zorua used Sucker Punch, knocking Dewpider several yards away.

Danny got up, wiping water off his legs and face. “Thanks.” He frowned as Dewpider jibbered angrily at them before retreating into its puddle and watching them from under the water. Danny went to pet the little fox in thanks, and then surprised him by flicking water into his face instead.

“Ru!”

“Yeah, you’re rueing it alright. Does Sucker Punch really need the other guy to attack first?”

Zorua shrugged, then sniffed the air and resumed tracking.

So they went, changing directions seemingly randomly, Danny making note of the Pokémon he saw; some angry-looking birds with red wings watched them as they passed under their nest. They found a small pond where a yellow duck stared out across the water, holding its head. Zorua even found a tree with a bunch of berries piled at the bottom.

Danny was inspecting the berries, looking for something that he recognized from his camping research while Zorua snagged a couple to eat, when a voice called out to him.

“Heeyyyy! Danny, what’s up?”

“Hau?” Danny stood and turned to greet the younger kid. “What are you doing out here?”

“Catching Pokémon!” Hau declared. “Pichu and Rowlet are great, but I’m gonna need more than just them if I want to finally beat Gramps.”

Danny frowned, then snapped his fingers. “Right, Hala. Almost forgot. You need to beat him?”

“Yeah, for the Grand Trial,” Hau explained. “I beat the Normal trial weeks ago, but I think Gramps is, uh, not holding back as much as he usually would. Probably to keep people from saying he’s giving me special treatment.”

Danny frowned. “Man, that sucks.”

“Nah.” Hau waved it off. “Just means that once I do beat him, the rest of the challenge will be a piece of cake!”

Danny grabbed a blue berry from the pile and stuck it into his pocket, making a note to get a bag next time he was in Hau’oli. “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

“Heck yeah I do!” Hau walked over, gently pushed Zorua away from the berry pile, and scattered them all over the place with a kick.

“Whoa!” Danny said, avoiding a pineapple-adjacent berry before it could strike him. That wasn’t what he was yelling about, though; under the berries, now revealed, was a large purple crab with blue claws facing away from them.

“...Crab?” The Pokémon slowly turned around, munching on a pink berry. It gave them the stink eye--actually no, Danny realized, it wasn’t squinting at them, it had a black eye.

“Aw yeah!” Hau cheered. “Found it on the third try! Crabrawler, I challenge you!” he finished, pointing in the crab’s face.

Crabrawler finished its snack calmly, then turned with a smirk and put up its claws in a boxer’s stance.

“After you, then,” Danny said. He and Zorua backed off while Hau let out his Rowlet.

The battle didn’t last all that long, thankfully. Crabrawler didn’t seem to have any ranged moves, allowing Rowlet to stay out of reach and pelt it with Leafages until it gave in, tapping out. Hau threw a Pokéball, which twitched twice before clicking.

“Nice one,” Danny said.

“Heck yeah it was.” Hau tossed his new Pokémon’s ball from hand to hand. “So, what brings you out here?”

“Kukui’s fridge is running and he asked me to go catch it.” Ha, classic.

Hau blinked rapidly. Then, in a serious voice, he said, “Danny, I think you got pranked.”

“Ha! No, I saw it happen. It was a Rotom, and--hic--ugh.” Danny waved his hand in front of his mouth. “Sorry about that.”

“Man, are you cold?” Hau asked.

“What?” Danny looked up at the sun in the sky, then back down. “No? It’s like 90 degrees out, isn’t it?”

“I thought so too, but you just breathed out mist like it was below freezing.”

“I did? Wait.” That sounded familiar.

Zorua barked, and ran off. Danny moved, following after.

Danny gasped, noticing this time as a chill went up his spine and came out his mouth. “I think he found it!”

“Found what? The fridge?” Hau and his Rowlet looked at each other before deciding to run alongside them.

Zorua led them on, and the mist coming from Danny’s mouth increased in frequency as he went, until they reached a place where the canopy was dense and the forest floor was more roots than dirt.

Danny pushed a branch aside, and glowered as he took in the scene. 

Rotom was there, still wearing the refrigerator. It glowed faintly in the forest gloom, the purple not as bright as its base form. But then it opened up, and the fridge light made up for the dim aura and then some.

The fridge was almost empty, and the reason for that was clearly the horde of Rattata surrounding it, munching away. They’d torn into cardboard boxes, chewed through tupperware, and were currently eating the leftover pizza from the night before.

Danny scowled. That had been really good pizza, too, and the Professor said it tasted even better reheated!

Hau pulled up alongside him. “Oh, snap. It really is running.”

“Hey!” Danny shouted angrily, stepping out of cover. “That’s not your food!” 

He immediately realized his mistake when two dozen sets of eyes turned to stare at him.

“Rototo!”

“Rattata!”

“Uh.” Danny waved his hands in front of his face. “You’re dreaming,” he said, doing an echo-y voice. “I’m not real and don’t exist…”

He successfully faded from visibility, and the rats’ eyes collectively widened. Two of them looked at what they were eating and pushed it away. Danny let out a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, Hau was directly behind him and still visible. “...Yo!”

Rotom slammed its doors open and blew a weak Blizzard across the area, sending all the Rattata shivering. Hau wasn’t doing much better.

He sent out his Pokémon, which was all the cue the Rattata needed to attack.

Danny meanwhile stalked over to the Rotom. “C’mere you little jerk…”

He must have whispered too loud, because Rotom swiveled to facing him, still blowing out snow and frost. Danny gritted his teeth and charged through the attack, trading invisible for intangible.

“Roto… to?” The fridge looked confused, but redoubled its efforts by opening the freezer door.

Danny hadn’t actually been bothered by the fridge, but the additional cold was starting to get to him. “Zorua, get’im!”

Zorua used Sucker Punch, and Rotom rocked back. But Zorua’s attack had put him inside the fridge chamber, letting Rotom shut him inside. A muffled fox howl sounded out from inside and Rotom smirked, Discharging.

Danny leapt forward and pulled the doors back open. It let the Blizzard back out, but he powered through and pulled Zorua back, frozen solid.

Rotom punched him in the gut with the fridge’s bottom drawer, pushing Danny back and into the Rattata swarm.

Hau shouted. “Pichu, Thundershock! Crabrawler, Rock Smash!”

The little mouse yelled its name, taking three of the rats out at once, only to collapse from shocking itself.

“No!”

Crabrawler, despite still being hurt from earlier, was faring better. Its attacks were devastating the rats. And they could tell, too, since less than half of them got taken out before they pivoted from attacking to retreating. Some of them tried to grab the food they’d been eating first, and Danny… really wanted that pizza.

He grabbed the box at the same time as two of the Rattata bit down on it, and got into a brief tug-of-war. “Let go! It’s mine!”

The rats growled, and a third joined in to tug on it.

“Roto-to, zzzt!”

Rotom didn’t seem to like being ignored, and let itself become subject to gravity. The fridge hit the ground with enough force to shake the trees and upset Danny’s balance on the root-covered ground. He fell backwards, taking the pizza box and the Rattata with him. They went flying, and Danny fell against the frozen Zorua, breaking the ice covering him and losing his grip.

The pizza box went flying, one Rattata still attached. It noticed its victory in holding onto the box, and cheered.

Then Rotom used Discharge again, zapping absolutely everything and everyone on the field. The pizza, and all the rest of the food still left, was charred.

Zorua yipped in pain, and Danny gasped as the lightning arced over him. His vision flashed green, and the Discharge stopped.

“R-Roto?” The fridge rocked back and forth, confused.

Glowing green vapor poured off Danny’s hand from where he’d shot the energy blast. He looked at his hand, then back at Rotom and grinned.

Rotom looked nervous. It opened its doors to Blizzard again, and Danny fired his ecto blast inside. The lightbulb inside flickered, and Rotom made a buzzing sound like a tuning radio.

Danny wasn’t able to understand it, but Zorua tilted his head at Rotom exclamation.

“That hurt! I’m not Ghost-type right now, why did that hurt?!”

Danny fired again, and the energy burned hotter this time. It melted the built-up frost in the fridge’s compartments, only for Rotom’s attempt at Blizzard to refreeze the water instantly, creating a smooth, reflective ice sheet.

“Alright, you sad excuse for a crank call, eat this!” He fired one more blast, bigger than the others.

Hau, who’d wrapped up his side of things a few turned ago, watched with awe as Danny’s eyes almost seemed to turn green from the light of the attack. The light was reflected by the ice sheet inside the fridge.

And the ice shimmered.

Only Danny was in a position to see the red eyes the instant before the attack hit the impromptu mirror. The eyes widened in surprise during that split-second, and then--

“RoTOM?!”

The attack hit, and between one blink and the next there was only a normal fridge in the middle of the woods, no red coloring or misplaced eyes in sight.

Danny stood there, as frozen as if he’d been hit by that Ice attack, dread bubbling in his chest. He’d just blasted… Giratina. He knew just enough to know that that was a really bad move. That could be trouble.

Hau’s cheering brought him out of it. “Dude, that was so cool!” He mimed finger guns. “You were all, ‘Pew pew,’ and ‘Who needs Pokémon to battle?’ Wow! You’re like a superhero!”

Danny relaxed, breathing out a sigh of relief. His breath fogged, but this time it really was just because it was cold now, though the scattered snow was already melting. “I don’t think I’m a hero, Hau.”

“Maybe not yet, but you’ve got powers!”

“You’ve seen them already,” Danny pointed out, amused.

“Yeah, and it’s even cooler the second time,” the kid insisted. “Man… how do I get powers?”

Danny ignored that question and turned to Zorua. “You okay, buddy?”

“Zor…”

Danny took the berry from his pocket and handed it over. Zorua took a bite and looked better right away. “Sorry about that. I’ve got to do better with these battles, huh?”

The knocked-out Rattata started stirring, standing up shakily and reacting with dismay at the ruined food. One of them still clinging to a burned pizza box, glared daggers at Danny before running off with a huff. They all dispersed, shooting dirty looks but not making any more trouble.

Danny rubbed his neck. “Man. The Professor’s not gonna like that.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Hau said, spraying a Potion on his Pokémon. “The Professor’s chill. Not as chill as us right now, though, haha!” Hau laughed at his own joke. “That was a good one, by the way! Eat this, to a refrigerator! Nice.”

Danny blinked, then laughed. “Oh, I didn’t even notice that one. Heh.”

He turned to the fridge. “Where’d Rotom go?” He opened the fridge’s compartments, finding nothing. “If it was still inside, the fridge would still be altered, right?”

“Maybe,” Hau said, folding his arms behind his head. “Personally I’m wondering how we get it back to the lab.”

“...Oh.” Danny took a step back, looking up at the fridge. He gave it an experimental shove. It didn’t budge.

“You don’t have super strength?” Hau asked.

“Apparently not.” He hummed. “Hey, Zorua, do you remember what Hala’s Machamp looked like?”

“Zor?!”

--------------------------

Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as that. Zorua’s illusion gave him more leverage but the muscles weren’t real.

Eventually, Hau, Danny, and all six of their Pokémon managed to get it back to Kukui’s beach. Crabrawler, continuing to prove his mettle, ended up doing most of the work, carrying the fridge from underneath while the others either steered or helped balance.

The giant hole in the wall was boarded up already, with a palm tree hastily turned into a support column. It still had some roots attached.

Kukui was outside on the phone, facing the repair work. “...going to need a professional touch. Yeah, I know. I can cover it. No, I don’t want--actually, yeah, I’ll shell out for the reinforcement this time. How soon? …Great, thanks.” Kukui closed the flip phone and sighed.

“Hey, Professor.”

Kukui spun, brightening. “Danny! You got it! And Hau, what a surprise!”

“Crab… B-brlll…” Crabrawler bit out, strained.

“Oh, here, let me…” Kukui let out Incineroar and Empoleon, who quickly moved to take the fridge from the crab, who immediately collapsed with a groan.

“Thanks, new buddy,” Hau said, bending down to rub his back. “Man, not bad for a first day, hey? We’ll go for malasadas tomorrow to give you a proper thanks.”

“Crab.”

Danny leaned over to look past the rest of the group. “Uh, is it going to fit through the door?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter,” Kukui said, directing his partners to set it on the porch. “The outlet it was plugged into got wrecked with the rest of the wall.” He frowned. “What about Rotom?”

“It got away,” Danny said regretfully. “Not sure what happened, actually. One second it was there, then it was just a normal fridge.”

“I didn’t see it either,” Hau agreed.

“Oh well.” Kukui shook his head. “Good riddance, honestly. You should have seen the mess it made at the post office when I picked it up. If I didn’t know any better I’d think Clemont sent it over just to get it out of his hair.” He looked troubled for a moment, then pushed the feeling away. “Probably for the best. I’m sure it’ll be happier in the wild.”

Kukui’s shoulders relaxed and he gave the two of them a wide grin. “But hey, good job, you two, seriously! Hau, want to stay for dinner? We’ve got to make use of the food before it spoils, after all!”

Danny coughed while Hau bit his lip and looked away. “Yeah, about that…”

---------------------------

[The Black Keep]

Giratina reared back, shaking the Outsider energy off themself. The attack had stung, and surprised them greatly. What had they been interrupting, exactly? There had been a battle happening, but why was there a mirror?

“Roto…” “Ugh, what happened?”

Giratina looked down at the dazed Rotom on the floor. It had fallen through the mirror when the attack hit it. How strange.

The Wyrm and their attendants leaned over the small Ghost, hoping for answers. Rotom came to, saw a shiny Dusknoir, a strong-looking Mismagius, and what the hell is that the Lord of the Mirror?!

Rotom shot up in a panic, darted in three different directions, then shot out the nearest window before any of them can react.

Dusknoir sighed, running a hand down his face. “That’s probably not good.”

“Should we go after it, sir?” Mismagius asked.

…NO--THERE IS NOWHERE FOR IT TO GO--IT WILL RETURN WHEN IT CALMS DOWN

Dusknoir looked doubtful. “The Outside is very large and we’ve not seen many landmarks. What if it gets lost?”

WE WILL FIND IT EVENTUALLY

“If you say so,” Mismagius said uncertainly.

Giratina gave her their attention.  HOW IS THE INTRUDER BEING ACCOMMODATED?

She brightened considerably. “We put him in a fishtank, mahaha! He was so indignant, it’s hilarious.

Giratina rumbled acknowledgement.  CONTINUE STUDIES--I MUST RETURN TO THE DISTORTION FOR A TIME--I HAVE DUTIES I MUST ATTEND TO

Giratina flew up, and then down, phasing through the floor into the tunnel below.

Dusknoir stared down after them. “I wonder why we even built these hallways if everyone’s just going to phase through the walls and floors.”

“It’s for the guests. And intruders, I guess,” Mismagius mused. “Have you noticed that none of the ghosts have tried to pass through the walls? I think making the bricks out of stone from the Reverse World gave them certain properties--”

“You’re set on calling them ghosts, then?” Dusknoir asked.

“They feel like ghosts. Their attacks during the battle certainly felt ghostly.”

“I suppose.” Dusknoir looked at the array of mirrors. The main one, his Lord’s preferred viewscreen, had a layer of frost on it. Then he looked at the Portal. The camera arm was still sticking out of it, currently inactive. Dusknoir reached for the swirling green energy, then thought better of it. “I hope to find out who’s watching us soon.”