The Ghastly lent to Anthony is a very well-behaved and shy one. However, because of the two social Pokemons that made the shy Ghastly open up, it's now more outgoing.
"MiiIIIiillTank..."
Right now, Ghastly hid itself by possessing Miltank, making it walk sluggishly while its eyes became that of a bloodshot red hue; a black, gas-like cloud is also suffusing its pores and circulating through its body. This is one of the tricks of Ghost types that needs super concentration and was never seen before in an official and unofficial battle, even from Ghost-type geniuses in the history of Pokemon Battles and Contests combined, which made Anthony sigh in disappointment.
Anthony looked around the Pokemon Center while trying hard to ignore the murmurs and sideways glances of the trainers and Nurse Joy directed towards him. Well, he also had to ignore the incessant tapping of Zubat's wings on his forehead.
"Zuuu! Zuuu!"
Anthony's Zubat shouted atop his head, tapping its right wing into his forehead while it pointed its left wing towards itself. Obviously, it wanted to be possessed by Ghastly too, which is something strange to ever wish for and is also obviously rejected by Anthony, ignoring Zubat even when they finally reached the toilet.
"Get out of Miltank, Ghastly."
Anthony commanded, which the Pokemon obeyed without any qualms, making Anthony even more impressed.
_For a wild Pokemon, even more for an averagely volatile Ghost-type Pokemon, Ghastly seems to be so tame._
As Anthony observed the male's Comfort Room, he talked with Ghastly, who seemed to be excited to prank other people. This trait is the only traceable characteristic of a Ghost-type to Anthony's temporary Ghastly.
"Do you have a trainer, Ghastly?"
Anthony blurted out, making Ghastly stop looking eerily at the boys and men coming and going to the comfort room and look at Anthony before shaking its whole body. It then restarted its creepy ogling of the users of the male comfort room.
_Wow, so this is how Pokemon natures really affects Pokemons' behaviors in real life, it kind of makes me feel like I'm racist, but if I don't have prejudice against Pokemons that can make me die in my sleep, then that's like saying that a bear in a circus may not maul me to death because it's in a circus and not in the wild... anyway, this makes me wonder how does an introverted-natured Zubat would act... though I'm not sure if there's an introverted nature at all..._
While Anthony was thinking about Ghastly's not-so-in-line behavior to his assumptions, he replied to the Pokemon.
"I see... well, let's think of a plan before pranking people. Do you have anyone that you wanted to prey on when you're observing the guys going inside, Ghastly?"
At this moment, Anthony is in a row of metal benches in the corridor going to the second floor, which is beside the male comfort room, as they talked silently in order not to be suspected by the boys, girls, men, and women that're coming and going for their business. Anthony, of course made sure that Ghastly is still able to see people clearly so that it can prey upon people that it took a liking on, Anthony is not worried about heart conditions or anything of the sort as all Pokemon trainers have to undergo an ilegebility medical exam, meaning if a kid became a trainer, it means that no major and terminal illness would endanger their life if agitated by heightened cortisol, or in Ghost-type terms, when 'harvesting' 'negative energy'.
"GhaaAaAAastly~!"
The tone of Ghastly seems to be just happy to prank someone; even its eyes started to gleam with an eerie light, making Anthony nod.
_It's not that choosy, huh?_
As Anthony confirmed that Ghastly was thrilled just to be able to prank and scare someone, he nodded and then immediately whispered his plan whilst looking around to see if someone was purposely eavesdropping.
"I think you already heard the plan, but to reiterate, we would choose a random cubicle to make stories from. This day would be the test day, after we confirmed the cubicle that we would use for people to make horror stories from and subsequently go back for as long as we can until we can confirm that stories about it will be made through online blogs of some trainers or trainer-journalists who want to get the scoops, we would let Ghastly harvest its hard-earned negative energies, okay?"
The Pokemons, all of which had serious looks on their faces, nodded, and Anthony did too.
"Let's go."
As Anthony said, he went and pulled out the Pokeball of Zubat, tapping the button in the middle of the red and white colors to enlarge it before coaxing Zubat to go back. This was so that Anthony could reduce the size of his visible team, as a bigger team would attract more attention, which would cause them to get locked on by trainers, and who knows, Anthony might get some 'gifts' from Ghastly's more petty victims who don't know how to properly train Ghost-types once he became a trainer.
In this regard, he also looked at Miltank and gave it a command.
"Stay here. If you were asked by a human or a Pokemon what you are doing alone, point towards the toilet and indicate that your trainer doesn't want you to enter with him, okay?"
Miltank, who had already matured like its senior and close friend Zubat, was able to understand why its master intended to leave it outside; it nodded silently and even hopped a little in the metal seat. Anthony patted its head and made sure to make a mental note to emphasize the improved maturity of Miltank in its lab report alongside the lab tests it would undergo in the last month of their internship before going inside the comfort room whilst Ghastly turned invisible and flopped on top of his head.
Inside, there's a janitor who has just finished cleaning a mop at the faucet underneath the sink of the comfort room.
"Bu~! Ne~! A~! Ry~!"
Anthony lightly nodded to the middle-aged janitor, which the man reciprocated before trailing his eyes back to the mop; subsequently, Anthony did so too, which made him see a brown-colored Bunny Pokémon kicking the mop hard and repeatedly. Not only that, but Buneary is also skip-jumping while happily doing what it was told, and when Anthony looked back at the face of the janitor, Anthony saw his lightly smiling face.
_I should wait until they finished 'cleaning' the mop._
Obviously, Anthony doesn't want to inconvenience people who were just doing their job, as that may jeopardize his internship and Prof. Oak's reputation, so he decided to do his bladder business inside a random stall that has no one in it while also making sure that the stall next to it has someone inside. Then, after confirming that the janitor had already finished cleaning the mop and had already gone out of the comfort room, Anthony let Ghastly out.
Upon seeing the excited face of Ghastly, Anthony's neutral-looking face smirked a little.
"Let's go."
____________
The Pokemon Center, inns, and boarding houses of Pallet Town always have the trend of having lots of customers and tenants during the Pokemon League challenge season and having little to moderate customers when the season ends. This is because, while some trainers still go to Pallet to personally put their Pokemons in the care of the Kanto Pokemon Lab or go around the shores of Pallet to get some training from the Kingler who rules all wild Pokemons in it, that or also catch a child of the said Kingler, these trainers often uses their Flying types to go around different cities in a hurry, after all, they also need to get some money and jobs to fund their training as not every Pokemon trainers are popular enough to get advertisement offers.
Due to similar reasons, not all Pokemon trainers can monetize the vlogs or blogs of their adventures, and not every trainer is as expert as gym leaders to break down their fight scene-by-scene and paywall them. Thus, not everyone can just settle on one place every time the season ends, and most trainers need jobs away from Pokémon training in order to continue their dream.
Benson Wall is one such kid, and while only on the third season of his training, he already went back to his house in Pallet to discuss with his parents if he can really reach somewhere in his supposed childhood dream.
_Mom and dad said that I should just give it a go for this season, after all, I already went and got a part time job, not to mention I already fully evolved 3 out of my 6 Pokemons... but I don't know how long can I financially hold, I'm not strong enough to be hired by Interpol to be an independent agent, not smart enough to be an associate field researcher and not good enough to win the first 3 place prices of private-hosted Pokemon tournaments... this is my dream, I can't just borrow money from my parents..._
Benson sighed, timing it with the eventual emptying of his bladder that he decided to release when he was trying to catch a breather from all of the things that have been bugging him. Yes, in the end, his instincts made him go back to the place where he remembers all of his great dreams: the Pokémon Center, and instead of going back home or going to a secluded corner, he decided to pee inside it.
_... Huh?_
As Benson Wall zipped up his pants and was about to get out of the stall, he suddenly squinted his eyes as he saw the toilet stall suddenly stretch out; no, it's more accurate to say that the distance between him and the toilet seat was suddenly pulled out to over a hundred meters! Benson's heart started to beat fast whilst his breathing became more pronounced, making his chest visibly go up and down.
"Hey mister..."
And if all of this wasn't enough, Benson suddenly felt two taps coming from his shoulders.
"Ekk!"
Benson's blood was drained from his face, causing him to turn pale as he snapped his whole body in front of the door whilst retreating two steps, and as his eyes trembled, absorbing the figure of a young boy who strikingly looked similar to himself, he felt like it was a good decision to empty his bladder.
"Who... wh... who are you...?"
Benson gritted his teeth but was still able to use his mouth to ask his 'doppelganger' for his identity. The boy in front of him looks like a shorter version of his current self: brown skin, shoulder-length hair brought by not wanting to waste money on a haircut; however, the boy looks silent- too silent, in fact, that even with the 'stall's' supposed noise-bouncing property, the breathing of the boy is unable to be heard.
Actually, even the supposed faint heaving of the boy's chest is nowhere to be seen! Noticing another anomaly, Benson's heart pounded heavier, now seemingly wanting a way out of his chest. Again, he retreated, but before he knew it, the stretched-out distance between him and the cubicle seemed to once again not exist, making his right foot hit the bottom of the urinal.
Benson's knees started to buckle, for never in his not-so-rich experience as a trainer had he ever experienced these circumstances. However, as if to declare that 'he' pays no heed to the emotions of the person in front of 'him', the 'boy' in front of Benson opened his mouth.
"I... mister... can you hold something for me? I... I have places to go... put your hands up, mister..."
Benson didn't want to listen and even thought of tackling the kid; however, as if animated by minds of their own, his hands suddenly raised without his command and formed the shape of a bowl. The boy then also raised his hand, but instead of making a bowl made a 'c' with his index and middle fingers as well as his thumb before slowly putting it in the sides of his eyes, and to emphasize that he wants Benson to look, the boy locked eyes with him whilst the 'c' landed on his left sclera and slowly burried itself into the gap between his skull and eyesocket.
With horror and eyes wide, Benson watched as the boy's second finger joint in his middle finger went inside his eye that can't help but bleed as the boy pulled it out of its socket alongside the blood vessels and nerves that connect it to the hands and to the brain.
The boy then put it to the bowl-shaped hands of Benson, whose fuses finally snapped.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Benson didn't think of anything anymore and just tackled the boy while throwing the eyes away somewhere; however, he went through the boy and then slammed the door hard, breaking it and snapping the stall open, making him slide into the urinals and slam his forehead to it, making blood drip out.
Benson, however, cared not for his bleeding head and continued his dash away from the toilet.
"AHHHHHHH!"