"Gastly, calm down, I'll go with you, but it's one am, is it really a good idea to move around at night, not only that but nothing will be open for at least five hours, do haunters hibernate during the daytime?"

Gastly hesitates, "...Maybe they do... "

With an inquisitive look, Jared seriously asks, "You are my partner Gastly, so tell me now if you are keeping anything else from me, maybe something important... such as how you ran into that other gastly."

Gastly glowers, "...It was just bad luck, and unless a gastly is intentionally scanning for another gastly, they won't run into each other, and even if they do, they might think they are part of the group... however, my mass is too large, it isn't like those hungry ghosts, he ran the moment he spotted me so I had no choice but to kill him."

Pondering his words, Jared speaks after a moment, "This brings up another point, why do people think gastlys are immortal if you can easily kill one?"

"We aren't immortal, but even with a speck of shadow, and only our instincts remaining, we can eventually reform by searching out negative energy, but other Gastlys can absorb those specks and add it to their own mass until there is nothing left, and that includes haunters."

Looking Gastly up and down, Jared nods," I guess that explains why you are looking bigger than ever... just hide here, for now, and in the morning we will figure something out."

.

Going back to sleep, Jared is abruptly woken up when Gastly possesses him.

Feeling the deep chill, Jared whispers with confusion, "Gastly what are you doing?"

Gastlys voice booms in his mind with a frantic tone, "They are scanning the city now human, they are looking for the dead gastly! I feel it, I am suppressing myself as much as I can, but it will be undone if I try to move too much! In less than five minutes they will pass by and find us, you need to take me away from them now!"

Without a word more, Jared jumps off his bed then grabs some clothes he had laying around before quickly putting them on. Once his shoes were on too, he grabbed the key and was out the door, not even stopping to grab his phone.

"Gastly, which way should I go?"

"To the outskirts, get away from the center of the city!"

Jared begins running further into the poor district, passing more homes in disrepair.

Gastly would frantically yell every so often when he senses a group of Gastlsy scanning close, so Jared would run in the opposite direction frantically, despite his gasping breaths, and the deep chill of Gastly stiffening his body.

.

After two hours of running, the only lights were the moon and the stars, along with a few rural homes.

Now in an open field of sand and rocks with no houses in sight, Jared trips in the dark then cries out, but Gastly shouts frantically, "Jared this place isn't safe, two of them are coming here!!!"

Getting back to his feet, and heaving for breath, Jared tries to limp away, but Gastly sighs in his mind while slowly removing himself from his host, "Rest Jared, I only sense the two, I think I can win"

Gasping for breath, Jared barks, "Be careful"

Unable to see what's going on, Jared just lays prone trying his best to regain his breath and, massage his injured ankle to speed up recovery.

Covered in sweat, he sits in silence.

The darkness, the sound of insects, and the hooting of a Hoothoot made Jared a bit jumpy, and Gastly being gone had removed a crutch of emotional support, a crutch that he didn't realize he was using until it was no longer there.

.

Seeing Gastlys slightly glowing eyes in the darkness, Jared asks worriedly, "You were gone a while, what happened?"

"They ran in opposite directions the moment I showed myself, I killed one, but the other got away, get on, we are running for it."

Using the tendrils of shadow, Gastly straps Jared to his mass, and begins floating away as fast as he can.

"Say, Gastly, you are looking even bigger again, are you going to evolve soon?"

Gastly clenches him tighter, "I don't know human, but evolving will not save us now, a new haunter will still stand no chance against those old ghosts."

.

Traveling in silence a few meters above the ground, Jared speaks up after a bit of deliberation, "Ah, Gastly, I have an idea, how about looping around and coming back towards the city, they won't expect us to fly closer to it."

"This is risky human..."

Jared continues to convince him, "But, If we fly too far, I won't be able to get back to the city with this ankle during daybreak, and you won't be able to take me back while the sun is high..."

Hearing Jareds reasoning, Gastly muses for a moment, then speaks reluctantly, "I'll take us along the periphery, but I'm not going back in."

Three hours pass, the two were now on the opposite side of the city, and as luck would have it, no Gastlys were scanning nearby, perhaps rallied by the haunter to the location they were last seen.

Daybreak soon forces Gastly to the ground.

Feeling Gastlys familiar chill, Jared chuckles from the ground, "I hope you can tell me the way back because I don't have my phone's GPS... but knowing you, hehe, maybe I'd just get more lost!"

Gastly cracks a toothy grin, "It's daybreak, we should be safe, at least from the gastlys. I dropped us near something you can use as a crutch, use it to get back."

With the sun up, Jared was able to quickly figure out the way he came, and after three hours he found his way home, only getting lost twice. He would have gotten back sooner, but it was slow going with his hurt ankle.

Opening the door of his decrepit home, a tired Jared finds Kai still sleeping on the old mattress. Jared said he would buy a new one for him, but Kai refused, stating it would be a waste of money. "You can really sleep... I envy you..."

As if sensing Jared's gaze, Kai starts to stir, and he finds a sweat-soaked Jared with bags under his eyes. He was sitting on the only chair with a pale smile.

"Ah, Kai, you're awake..."

Kai rubs a bit of sand out of his eye, "What happened?"

Turning his gaze left and right, Jared closes his eyes for a moment.

He then opens them to speak as if reluctant, "I've run into a dangerous situation and I need to lea...-" -Kai cuts him off, "I'll go with you"

Jared shakes his head, "Kai, you can, but... this is a dangerous situation, I could have been killed last night"

Kai regains some of his lost confidence, "I can be killed on the streets at any time, I'm not afraid"

Handing Kai the house key, and patting his back, Jared replies seriously, "Alright, but stay here, I have to go out for a few errands, make yourself some breakfast, I'll come back and get you soon"

Shaking his head, Kai pushes the key back, "I'll go with you!"

In a chiding tone, Jared replies, "Really Kai, I won't leave you behind, so trust me okay?"

Seeing Kai not budging, Jared scratches his head again, "Alright, let's eat first, and during that time I'll make a call."

After a half-hour, the two were out the door, their destination, the Pokebank.

Jared had ordered a pokeball using his phone, and he intended to get it!

While the freezing cold of gastlys possession was a temporary solution, it was also something he could do without.

Hobbling down the street, they only arrive at the poke bank an hour later.

As usual, the two machokes were keeping guard, but never taking any action.

It was ten AM, so the traffic was light. The two were in and out after only twenty minutes.

Holding the small metal ball in his hands under a shady tree, Jared feels an indescribable emotion that leads his thoughts, (I can't believe I have a pokeball... a real one, I always fantasized about having one as a kid, but to actually hold one...)

Interrupting Jareds thoughts is the feeling of a deep chill disappearing from his body.

Watching Gastly materialize before him, Jared just stares for a moment, but Gastly screams in his mind, " HURRY UP AND DO IT HUMAN, THE SUN BURNS!"

Jared taps the front of the ball, making it enlarge in his hand, then with a happy smile, he domes Gastly on the head with it.

The engorged ball opens up, and it swallows Gastly with a deep red light!

The ball lightly shook in his hands for a moment, but then stopped after only five seconds with an audible click.

Grasping it tightly, Jared laughs out loud, "Today I feel like I'm finally a pokemon trainer!"