The Ghostly Teacup

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Raihan couldn’t believe his ears. He stared at Daniel, who stood in the Ghost type gym stadium with a smug air. “What do you mean you’re Allister’s cousin?” the Dragon tamer demanded.

Beside Raihan, Piers was frowning deeply, while the gym staff looked like he wanted to disappear.

Daniel, on the other hand, just put his stupid hands on his hips and laughed. “What, am I not allowed to be related to your colleague?”

“Sure you can be, but what business do you have with him?” Piers asked. His eyes were narrowed and his voice held a warning.

Daniel shoved a hand through his dark hair. He glanced around at their spooky surroundings. Then he grinned at the gym staff still standing there with his mouth open. “So, we have to ride in ghost teacups to reach my coz, yeah?”

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Daniel, but this isn’t funny,” Raihan barked, using his height as an advantage to loom over him.

Daniel seemed totally unfazed. “I’m not playing at anything. I’m just following the gym challenge rules.”

“Like you’ve been following the rules at Glimwood Tangle?” quipped Piers.

Allister’s cousin let out a derisive noise. “What rules are there in the forest? Besides, I haven’t done anything. You two, on the other hand, have been razing that poor forest and its wild pokemon to the ground.”

“That wasn’t what happened,” Raihan protested.

Daniel waved a dismissive hand at him. “Don’t worry. I know you had good intentions, so I forgive you.” He puffed up his chest, stretching it like a drum skin. If he were a pokemon, he would be using Belly Drum right now, or Swagger.

The man headed off to board a teacup.

“Hey wait!” Raihan called out.

But it was too late. The impulsive jerk had already kicked off and was spinning in his teacup. If this wasn’t a serious situation, Raihan would have laughed.

A slap on the shoulder shook Raihan out of his fury for a moment. Piers was by his side, his proximity soothing to the Dragon tamer. The Spikemuth rockstar said, “Rai, come on. We’ll share a cup together and chase the arsehole down.”

The gym staff waved his arms around, looking frantic. “Um, I’m happy to just ask Allister to come meet you.”

But the Dark type gym leader shook his head, his monochromatic locks slicing through the ghostly breeze of the gym. “It’s fine. We got it.” Piers took Raihan’s hand and dragged him towards the nearest teacup.

While Raihan liked having an excuse to hold Piers’ hand, he also hissed in his friend’s ear, “Seriously? We don’t have to go through this nonsense with Daniel!”

“Why the protest? Are you afraid of the ghostly teacup game?” Piers teased.

The Dragon gym leader scowled at him. “It almost sounds like you want to play the teacup game.”

A smile hitched up the Dark type gym leader’s lips. “And what if I do?”

By this time, they had gotten into a cup and latched on their seatbelts. Piers shut the door. Raihan gulped.

It was hilarious to see the Great Dragon Gym Leader get freaked out by the ghost teacups.

Since Raihan was frozen in place, Piers reached out to take the joystick in the middle of the vehicle. It was an exhilarating ride, to see all the ghostly hands and other things strewn about their environment. Of course Piers got a little dizzy spinning around in the cup, but he had a good sense of direction.

Their teacup bounced around and hit the bumpers. Piers navigated the joystick so they could land on the ghost hands to propel them if necessary.

He admitted that someone who easily got lost, like their friend Leon, would have a lot of trouble driving inside a spinning vehicle.

After some time of bouncing and twirling around, they finally landed on the first stable stage.

When Piers took the time to recover his breath, he realized that Raihan looked sick, as if he was about to throw up. Piers’ chest tightened at the sight, and he placed a hand on his friend’s arm. “Raihan, are you okay?”

The Dragon Gym leader didn’t respond; he just shook his head and stared out of their vehicle.

Regret and sympathy rose up in Piers, and he reached out to squeeze the other man’s hand. “Hey, I’m sorry I made ya go through this. Maybe we shoulda asked Allister to come pick us up.” Maybe Piers had been an arsehole earlier.

But to the Spikemuth singer’s amazement, Raihan heaved a deep breath, and turned to him with a grin. “It’s rough going through this teacup ride, but I’m glad I’m with you. I’d trust you more than anyone else.”

A strange feeling roiled through Piers’ heart. “Well, I suppose you wouldn’t trust Leon with this,” the Dark type gym leader tried to joke.

Raihan’s grin dimmed to a small smile. “Yeah.”

Piers looked away, unable to stand the question in Raihan’s gaze. The rockstar cleared his throat. “Are you ready to rumble again?”

The Dragon tamer laughed. “If you promise to hold my hand throughout this all, I won’t mind anything.”

“Brave words.” Piers smirked but decided not to add any snide remarks. It was enough to put his friend through this ordeal. There was no need to be mean to Raihan.

Instead, he squeezed his friend’s hand again, conveying all the warmth and comfort that he couldn’t express in words. Raihan squeezed back and rubbed his thumb over Piers’ fingers, which made the Dark type gym leader think certain embarrassing thoughts.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Piers whispered. With a deep breath, he started rotating the joystick with his free hand. But as the cup rolled towards the end of the stage, his friend put a hand over Piers’ on the joystick as well. The Spikemuth Gym leader laughed. “What? Do you want to take the steering wheel from me?”

His friend grinned again. “No, I have faith that you know how to play this ghost teacup game. But it would ground me to feel your hand. Both hands.”

A warmth came over Piers’ cheeks. He ducked his head even as he continued to push their teacup along the stage. “That’s so weird. Why isn’t one hand enough for you?”

Raihan just laughed and Piers was too abashed to make any further comment. A second later, their cup rolled off the stage and dove into the next section of Allister’s teacup ghost maze. While they plunged down this pinball-like maze, Piers heard a commotion from down below.

“Let go of me, you stupid ghost!” That was Daniel’s voice.

As their teacup tumbled down, bouncing against the different bumpers and ghost hands, Piers gradually saw what Daniel was screaming about.

Two Haunters were grasping Daniel’s shoulders, while the man protested and kicked in vain. Daniel’s teacup sat on a ledge below him, so it looked like the ghost Pokémon had grabbed him from his vehicle.

Piers’ stomach seized up. Were there rogue ghost Pokémon in Allister’s gym? Or did the Haunters have a beef against Daniel in particular? Piers’ fear heightened as their teacup fell closer and closer to the spectral Pokémon.

When Piers and Raihan were mere centimeters away from the Haunters and Daniel, the unthinkable happened.

A giant Gengar appeared right in front of the gym leaders. It opened its black mouth, and swallowed them whole.

Raihan screamed as he clutched Piers’ hands like they were going to die. Piers was so shocked by the turn of events that he couldn’t even speak.

It was all black and cold inside the Gengar’s stomach. Piers was about to send out his Dark type Pokémon to help them escape, when the Gengar abruptly spat them out.

Now both Gym leaders yelled when they were tossed down into the next segment of Allister’s gym challenge. The walls here looked darker and more unsettling than the previous one.

While Raihan held his hands in a death grip, Piers moved the joystick as much as he could. To his relief, the teacup still responded to his direction. He continued to move the joystick as if all this was a part of the normal game. Maybe it was, and that Allister had simply made the game more “exciting” than before.

“Rai-Rai, are you still with me?” Piers asked, gazing with worry at his friend’s face.

The Dragon Gym leader shivered but loosened his grip slightly. “It really is tough. I’m glad I’m not alone. Holy Arceus, I’m going to have words with Allister for putting in that giant Gengar. And what the hell happened with Daniel?”

Piers was tempted to say that he didn’t care what happened to Daniel, but he put aside his pettiness for now. “Why don’t we worry about about us first? When we finally find our Stow-on-Side Gym leader, we’ll ask him to free Daniel, if the guy hasn’t escaped yet.” He added, “Doesn’t Daniel have any Pokémon to protect him? Aside from that Corviknight?”

“You think Corviknight is completely defenseless against ghost Pokémon?” Raihan asked, bewildered.

A smile curved up Piers’ lips. If Raihan was able to joke again, that meant his friend was feeling better. If they weren’t still stuck in this ghostly teacup, Piers would have hugged him.

The Dark type Gym leader wasn’t the touchy-feely type, but they were in such a tense, dangerous situation together, that he felt the compulsion to show Raihan he cared.

At length, the teacup spun and tumbled until it landed on the stable surface of the next stage. The two Gym leaders blinked at each other. Raihan had a queasy smile on his face. Piers said, “Do you want to rest for a bit?”

Raihan breathed in and closed his eyes. “Keep going, but this time I’m shutting my eyes for the sake of my sanity.” But then his eyes fluttered open again. “Say, why didn’t we encounter any gym trainers along the way? I thought they would appear on every stage.”

“I thought Allister’s gym trainers wouldn’t battle his fellow Gym leaders,” Piers replied. But he furrowed his brows. How would the gym trainers know that Piers and Raihan were coming through, rather than ordinary gym challengers? Perhaps the gym staff had texted or called his colleagues to clear the way.

An uneasy feeling churned in Piers’ gut.

The Dark type gym leader peeked at the next part of the ghostly pinball. The walls were even darker than the previous section, with wisps of mist obscuring the maze. Disturbing sounds came up from below, as if someone was singing a Perish Song.

Raihan whispered, “Do you want to stop, babe? We can always call Allister directly, and he can come get us.”

Piers didn’t protest at being called ‘babe’, as that wasn’t important right now…and it wasn’t unpleasant. Regardless, he didn’t like the thought of giving up. This was a Ghost type gym, for Arceus’ sake. Piers was a Dark type gym leader. He wasn’t going to let a few spooky theatrics get to him.

“Nope,” the Spikemuth punk declared. “We’re gonna keep goin’ down!” With that, he pushed the joystick, until their teacup fell into the third and final stretch of the ghostly pinball.

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