#para 08

The floor plan of the Pokemon Tower was starting to get pretty familiar to Madison at this point; she’d made several trips back, Silph Scope in hand, determined to prove herself to be the most successful of any of her classmates. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to measure that success, but it didn’t matter -- she’d even started to find the creepy old tower charming in her efforts.

She was still a little on edge, though. Madison liked to act like she was all confident and sure of herself, but the truth was that it was still a little spooky, so when the lights went off unexpectedly, as if wind had blown all the candles in the place out, Madison jumped, landing back on the floor with her heart racing.

The only light in sight seemed to be coming from a corner, and Madison wondered if it was just an awesomely persistent candle or something else. She’d never know if she didn’t just get over her fears and follow the soft glow, though, so she skipped off and around the corner, finding herself face to face with an adorable little Jack-o-lantern Pokemon.

“Oh! I don’t even need my Pokedex for this, I know what you are. Hi, Pumpkaboo!” Madison said brightly, immensely relieved that it wasn’t something much scarier that she was facing off against in the dark.

The first Pokeball she reached for was Crush’s; she rarely kept him in it anyway, so getting him back out for a battle was just a natural reaction. As soon as he burst out in a flash of light, he tried to run to Madison for a hug, but she shook her head.

“No, buddy, have to catch this little guy first and make him a part of our team! Then we can have hug time, after we make sure he doesn’t get away.” Pointing, Madison called out “water gun!”

It was a good move; it had the Pumpkaboo reeling in just one hit. It hadn’t seemed very interested in Madison’s presence at all, and it had paid for its inattention with her quick attack. Madison tossed a Pokeball at it, watching it shake once, twice, and then shudder to a half.

Now the problem was the darkness, though. Madison frowned as she tried to waddle forward to pick the ball back up, slipping on the water puddle she’d left and landing flat on her butt. “Ouch,” she murmured, crawling towards the ball and opening the Pumpkaboo back up quickly.

“I’m your new trainer now, little guy. And I kind of forgot that the dark’s no good, so can you lead me back towards the door?”