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No spoilers will be in these spoiler sections. They're usually filled with pictures and/or explanations of events happens. So feel free to read them without being spoiled.


Prologue

In a world where every shadow hides a wicked smile, where every snicker is followed by a frighten shriek, there needs to be a hero. Someone strong, true, brave, and courageous. Someone who isn't afraid to confront the mass mobs of ghost and dark types. Someone who fights along side justice, seeking equality for all Pokemon. Someone who Pokemon can call, "My hero."

Sadly, this world has no one of the sort.

Pokemon roam the world weary of the shadows cast on them during the day, and locked away in their homes when the first star peeks from the sky. The dark and ghost types rule the land, cackles and howls heard by all no matter how heavy they sleep. Homes are raided, Pokemon are reported missing, buildings are vandalized. All for the purpose of their entertainment.

No heroes exist in this world, only cowards and thieves, pranksters and villains, no one has the strength to over power these bands of evil.

No one. At least, not alone.

My name is Shaman, and like many others I have left my home in hopes of conquering this evil force that plagues the land. I have reached out to rangers, who viciously rejected me. I pleaded to fairies, who defeated me instantly. I cried to the heavens, raining upon me.

I am a Pumpkaboo. A ghost deep down. My nature is to strike fear and terrorize those around me without question. This I did well, very well, causing Pokemon to cry just by looking at me wrong. It felt great, until one day I saw her.

She was beautiful, small, a frail Pokemon. Her petals were wilting around her, she was trapped by a gang of Poochyena in an alley, the moonlight blocked by a summoned haze. Something that day stirred inside of me, a feeling of guilt, a feeling of remorse. I couldn't allow an innocent Pokemon to be ripped apart by these beast.

My power was weak, my attempts to fight them pathetic, my round body bounced around like a play thing. They laughed at me, called me names, ridiculed me as I tried to fight back. But the girl, she escaped. I never got her name, never even saw her face, I can only recall flower petals and a sweet scent in the air. A scent I'd never forget.

It was then I knew I didn't want to terrorize and harm Pokemkon, I wanted to help get them justice. But with my ghostly nature whenever I tried to join a group to accept me I am quickly turned away as a spy or as a threat. My future looked grim, too shamed to go home, and too hated to call any other place home.

Until I got lucky that one early morning...


"Ugh, I'm so tired." I sighed to no one, floating across the sandy shore of a silent beach. Krabbys quickly scurried away from my path, Wingulls flew further above me, leaving me to wallow in my own self pity without a friend or a companion to care. My stubby feet kicked the air as I traveled forward to the unknown following the sand, seeing the homes of Pokemon to my right. Some stared at me from their windows, the ones who mastered in fight keeping furthest away from me, as if I were a horrible sickness. No one loved the monsters in the dark, no one hugged the haunting creatures of the night, and no one spoke to a floating spirit on the beach.

"Someone out there has to understand," my voice drifted off on the salty shore, the crashing waves pulling my words under the ocean, "I cannot just sit back and watch these Pokemon cower in fear their whole lives. Have they grown used to this behavior?" Looking to the ocean, I squinted far off in the distance, seeing litter drifting and tangled onto a Goldeen.

"Ugh! Off! Off! Get it off!" Her pleads for aid struck me with energy. My chance, my only chance, to prove to at least one Pokemon that I only wanted to help. Quickly I pushed myself forward, rushing, my speed creating a path in the ocean, stirring the Pokemon underneath.

"Here I come to save you!" I called out, seeing her eyes grow wide as she splashed in the waves.

"Aaa! Help! A ghost! Please! Help me! Someone!"

"I'm here to help you!" I called out, coming to an abrupt stop before her, seeing a piece of paper stuck to her back. "Please stay still, Miss!"

"Help! He wants to eat my soul! Please! I don't want to die!" Suddenly the ocean began to bubble around me. I stared down at the dark depth below, meeting a pair of glaring eyes. My body was grasped by a long tentacle. I gasped for air as the Pokemon came further out of the water, holding me in place.

"Out a bit early, aren't you?" Tentacruel grumbled at me, quickly peeling the paper off Goldeen. She swam away without so much as a thank you, leaving me in the Pokemon's grasp with his eyes glaring deep into me. "Stealing souls this morning?"

"N-No, Sir!" I squeaked, feeling my body tremble, "I-I was just trying to help."

"Help?" He asked, unwrapping his tentacle off me, taking bits of my fur along with it. "Your kind don't help. They steal, cheat, terrorize, it is their way."

"But, I'm different!" I pleaded as he turned his back to me, sulking back in the water, "Please! I can help!"

"... Help by throwing this in the trash," Tentacruel demanded, tossing the sheet of moist paper on my face, "and stay there with it where you belong." With that, the large sea dwelling Pokemon vanished into the dark abyss, leaving me drenched and half covered by this soggy piece of paper. Telepathically, I pulled the paper off my face and headed back for the beach, noticing the smudged print on the page.

"Huh?" Most of the art had washed off, but I recognized a smeared Pumpkaboo with a type of uniform on, something dark colored. Printed font was beside this creature, missing various words.

To conquer this world with...

To unite all pumpkins... the nation!

To denounce the ghost... and spread... love

To extend ..... stars above!

Team Pumpkaboo loving at the speed of light

So join us now or face our might!

"Team Pumpkaboo?" I questioned, "Speaking of love and denouncing ghosts... This could be what I need!" My face lit up as I jumped towards the sky in excitement, my body spinning and body warm with an inner light. "Where is this team I wonder..." The flyer was soggy and most of it washed away, but a bold font still in tact read off "Pumpkaboo Island" with a green smudge under it.

I felt the wind come from my left, I saw the waves pushing various trash and gems to my right. "Maybe it came from this way." I whispered, flying against the wind, high above the water to prevent getting grabbed again. The sun was warm on my body, my hopes so high that no Pokemon could come close to touching it.

A team, a team of Pokemon like me, Pumpkaboos who wanted to vanquish the world of crime and fear. Maybe I would be allowed to join. Maybe I would rise high in the ranks and lead these Pumpkaboos to victory.

Maybe, just maybe, I'd finally be a hero.

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Title: Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1: Application

The journey led deep into the night as I flew overhead; my previous vigor and strength having long faded with the setting sun. My eyes struggled to keep open, my body bobbing up and down on the wind, having grown out of my nocturnal state of mind. The flyer was kept close to me, but as I began to drift to sleep my concentration began to fade. Before long when my eyes opened the paper had vanished somewhere along the way and I was alone.

Dark clouds shrouded the moon, my body providing light from the Pokemon below, knowing many were keeping their distance from me. Looking down I could see the mischievous acts of Frillish, teasing and tossing around Pokemon like toys, their haunted past enough to scare even me. Traveling against the wind, I felt my eyes shut for only a brief moment in my mind, suddenly feeling a hard dusty surface slam against my face...


"Ow... Ugh..." I groaned, my face buried in the surface, tasting crunchy dirt and tangy grass. Lifting up my body felt like ten pounds were added to me, I could see trees with eyes gazing down at me. Souls, circular and yellow, drifting through the air grew closer and closer. My parents always told me of how the guided souls to the after life, I had never welcomed such a task, it gave me a fear deep down.

"Stay... Back..." I whispered as the lights grew closer, my eyes too tired to remain in focus, my body lifted up without a hand to touch me. The world around me grew black as my exhaustion caught up to me. I knew then that my journey was over, that the Ghost World was going to swallow me up and punish me for neglecting my ghostly duties. My life, all be it pointless, was coming to an end.

I could see her petals. Ah yes, they were red, that much I could see. A smile, small, but her eyes and body I couldn't make out, as if she were hidden behind a dark curtain. My mouth curled up in a smile as I stared at her in the distance, I called out to her but made no sound, I never knew her name. Then the shadow crept up behind me. I didn't have a chance to turn around. Their paws scratched as my soft exterior, bouncing me in the sky filled with darkness. Poochyenas, ravenous, began to dig their teeth into me, tearing at my fur and face, snarling and howling in victory at my suffering.

"You're no hero!" They taunted me, my small body easily splitting apart.

"You're a coward!"

"A fool!"

"No hero!"

"No hero!"

"No hero!" They chanted, my body oozing my yellow light, I could see her petals in the distance. She chanted as well. No hero... No hero.... No hero...

"No hero..."

"Is he awake?"

"Shh, don't wake him. I'm still doing some tests."

"Well hurry up will you?" My eyes flinched hearing various voices, such a rare sound when they aren't screaming bloody murder at me. When I opened my eyes I found myself blinded by a bright white light, three shadows above me, bobbing up and down.

"Who are you?" I mumbled, turning my head to avoid the light.

"Ah, he's alive." A feminine voice let out a sigh of relief, "I was worried he was dead! Where are you from, friend?" Friend, a strange foreign word to me that I did not understand. My eyes stared to my right, seeing various cords attached to me by white sticky patches, hooked up to a machine with strange sharp lines going up and down across a screen. The floor appeared a reflective tile, my body held up by an examination icy table, showing a feminine Pumpkaboo hovering at my side, her mouth opened with worry. "Hey? Can you hear me?"

"Oh... uh, yea..." I say up a bit, feeling a slight tug from the wires, seeing the female before me more clearly. She held a red jagged stripe on her orange belly, making me jump thinking a sharp teeth mouth resided there, but her kind eyes calmed me down rather quick. "Who are you?"

"Oh! I'm Lovely," she giggled a bit at her own play on words, "I was on patrol when I saw you. I was so worried." I noticed the other two Pumpkaboos watching me, one had a clipboard floating before him with a pen scribbling wildly as he observed me, a pair of glasses leaning on his face. He spoke no words but seemed to be mouthing out something, perhaps speaking to himself.

He wore something that I'd never seen on a Pumpkaboo, a white lab coat hung in his body with no sleeves, a striped tie of brown and yellow stuck out to me as well. The other gave me an unconcerned glare, he rested a pair of pointed sunglasses on the bob on his head, reading of an ashy smell. He held bruises on his Pumkaboo body, perhaps a battle had gone wrong, but I didn't have the courage to ask. "What's your name?" Lovely asked, a welcoming smile on her face.

"I'm Shaman... I'm looking for Team Pumpkaboo, have you seen them?"

"Oh!" I jumped a bit, feeling the white pads on my body tug from my movement, the wires staying attached. "I knew it!" The male Pumpkaboo in his lab coat and tie swiftly flew over to the left to a type of control panel. A large screen showed an image of what appeared to be an island seen from high in the sky, clouds drifting over, sun shining bright. He handled a keyboard with lights and panels bringing up an image of the ocean, littered with papers, all seeming to look like drenched versions of the one I had. "I knew it! I knew it! That plan was full proof and I knew it!"

"That's the Professor," Lovely whispered to me as the strange Pumpkaboo went on a speech of success and intuition, "he's a bit... uh, out there, but he knows what he's doing... usually." This Professor stared at this stream of litter with such pride, it was almost frightening seeing a Pumpkaboo so excited over trash.

"I knew this would help! Queen said to promote the team and I promoted!"

"Yea, yea, yea," the Pumpkaboo with sunglasses on his head scoffed and floated over to the screen, "you threw a bunch of paper in the ocean. I'm sure we will get tons of Wailords wanting to join us now." Carefully Lovely peeled away the white round stickers off me, some taking bits of my fur with them.

The room held many devices and cords, wires and lamps, clean smells and bubbling beakers, all making no sense to a Pumpkaboo like me. But the Professor, even as he spoke and debated with this other Pumpkaboo, flew from one part of the room to the other. Sometimes stirring beakers, other times typing away at keyboards hooked up to computer screen, many times without even looking.

"We have one new member now!" He proclaimed, "And, thanks to me, the Queen will be happy and praise me!"

"Oh boy," the other Pumpkaboo sarcastically praised, "I'm sure she'll be so happy you recruited a piece of driftwood."

"Hey, be nice." Lovely insisted, "You know Queen doesn't like that kind of rude talk."

"Well she's not here, is she?" The Pumpkaboo huffed, floating his way over to me, glaring down at me with a burning passion in his eyes. That, or the flame inside of him was burning brighter than mine usually did. "Heh, he looks squishy. I give him a week before he runs off like a little scary Skitty."

"Ugh, Don!" Lovely called out, but this Pumpkaboo she called Don was already flying his way out the room and out of a pair of sliding doors. "What a jerk, ignore him, he's just made he lost a fight with a Lampent last night. He's not usually that blunt."

"Oh." I mumbled, more concerned with the Professor floating around me and taking notes like I was some sort of experiment. Then again, I was still sitting on the examination table.

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Picture time!

Shaman's awakening

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Sadly I am going to have to put this Fanfiction on hold. Due to creative juices flowing I am unable to commit to this story right now. I will come back to it I believe after my mind has settled. I will be working on a new Fanfiction that requires my attention, it's a dedication to a friend of mine who has passed away.

He loved my writing and we promised we'd be authors together. I am writing him something, something I know he'd love. His name was Mike, he was a lot like me, maybe too much. I miss him. I'll have to put this on hold until I finish my tribute to him.

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