Disclaimer: Oh, I did miss all these disclaimers about imaginary pokemon friends and computers and mangoes... Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I do not own pokemon in any way, shape, or form; however, if I one day take over the world and/or become an incredibly talented bio-engineer, then genetically engineering the first real pokemon will be first on my list of things to do.

Towering Retribution

Part One: Old Acquaintances

Rock music suddenly filled the otherwise quiet room, making Jenna jump slightly. It took her a second to realize that her phone was ringing; she didn't get too many calls, so her confusion was at least somewhat justified. In another second Jenna had dropped her piece of pizza she'd been eating, grabbed a napkin, and wiped the grease off of her hands. Her rush was more out of curiosity than courtesy; she gave very few people her number, and most of them didn't call just to say hello. Of course, she doubted that this particular call would world-changing, but at the very least, it might disrupt the current monotony of her life.

"Hello?" she asked, remembering belatedly that she should have checked the caller I.D. before answering.

"Is that you, Jenna? It's been so long since I've talked to you that I hardly recognize your voice. Anyway, this is Evan. Do you remember me?"

It took Jenna a few moments to place him, but then the name and the voice clicked. The recognition caused her to shiver briefly, as if it had been two days since she had last seen Evan, rather than the true two years.

"Yeah, I remember," Jenna replied. "I haven't seen you since that whole fiasco at the Old Chateau. Not to be rude, but why call now?"

There was a brief pause. "Well, to be perfectly honest, I need to talk with you about something. Preferably face to face. You wouldn't happen to be anywhere in the area of Eterna, would you?"

Definitely intrigued by the conversation, Jenna answered, "Yeah. I'm in Jubilife right now. Half a day's flying on Flame – you know, my charizard. I'm pretty sure you met her. Anyway, point is, I can leave in the morning and be there in the afternoon. That sound good?"

"That's great," Evan said, sounding relieved. "Just meet me at my house, then we can go somewhere for lunch: my treat."

"Um, all right then. Guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yep, see you then." Then Evan hung up, leaving Jenna alone in her pokemon center room to wonder about the conversation. What in the world was going on? Why in the world was Evan calling her now, after two years of no communication whatsoever? Were things not finished at the Old Chateau – had some other ghosts come to haunt it, perhaps?

Though she wasn't planning on saying no to any change of pace, she didn't like the idea of going to the Old Chateau again. Jenna still had nightmares concerning her possession by one of the spirits there; regularly, she would dream that the malevolent ghost of the butler was still following her, just waiting to possess her once again. The ghost had caused chaos during the first possession, and Jenna had no desire to relive the experience.

Whatever the case, Jenna knew she would have to wait until tomorrow to hear what Evan needed to say. So she went to sleep, doing her best to ignore the racing of her mind.

:::::::::::::

When Evan opened his door the following afternoon, he recognized the appearance of Jenna just about as much as he had recognized her voice over the phone. The sixteen-year-old girl had changed much from the young, almost arrogant fourteen-year-old he remembered. Her brown hair, once very long and free flowing, was now shoulder-length and tied back in a ponytail. She'd gained several inches in height, too, so that she was now very nearly eye-to-eye with Evan. Jenna had also grown up in other ways, he couldn't help but notice; undoubtedly, she seemed very different from the child he remembered.

From Jenna's perspective, Evan had changed little. He still had the same brown eyes and hair; he hadn't grown at all since their last encounter; and age-wise, he looked almost exactly the same as he had two years ago. He was not at all unattractive, though she hadn't made this observation the last time they had met; even so, he was probably several years older, and Jenna didn't remember liking his attitude during the Old Chateau incident. Of course, her bias against him was perhaps strengthened by the fact that he had been right to believe in ghosts, while Jenna herself had been stupid enough to get herself possessed.

"There's a new restaurant on this side of town that I thought we might try," Evan said, skipping greetings entirely. "It's nothing fancy, but I've heard they've got some great burgers."

"I've been living on bad fast food and pokemon center breakfast buffets for a while now - some good burgers sound great." Jenna said, truthfully. She was starting to realize just how nice something unexpected like this meeting was. She'd been training almost nonstop for almost the past month, unable to think of anything else better to do. As it turns out, once you've saved the world from Palkia and beaten the champion of Sinnoh, there's really not much else that your life can climax to.

They chatted for a while on their walk to the restaurant, but it wasn't until they were seated and waiting for their meal that Jenna finally let curiosity overtake her. "So… Why did you need to see me so badly?"

Evan sighed. "Well, it's not too complicated, though perhaps somewhat silly. I've been hired to help with what I suspect to be a big paranormal investigation into the new radio tower in Lavender town, over in Kanto. They asked me after hearing about what we were able to accomplish with the Old Chateau, and I think this case will be just as big as that one was."

"That doesn't seem too silly. But why contact me? I'm sure you're perfectly competent at handling ghosts," Jenna said.

"That's the silly part, I suppose," Evan said, not meeting Jenna's eyes. "You see... The morning I was called up to investigate this case, but before I actually knew anything at all about it, I had a strong feeling that I needed to talk to you about something. To be completely honest, I hadn't really thought about you much in particular over the last year or so; at least, no more than I thought about the entire situation at the Old Chateau. Then, when I did finally get the call, I thought of asking you to come along almost immediately.

"Being involved with the supernatural, I learned long ago to trust my instincts. They're normally right. I have a feeling that either you'll help out with this case, or it will be important in the long run that you come along for it."

Jenna looked at him incredulously for a few moments, then laughed a little bit. "Well, it's an interesting idea," she replied, "though I doubt I could help at all."

"Don't be so sure," Evan said, a gleam in his eye. "Though it was a slightly different situation last time, I think that you can sense ghosts' emotions better than most, and even communicate with them. And it's always helpful to have a channeler around when dealing with ghosts."

Jenna seemed surprised; she'd never once pictured herself a channeler. "Back up a moment. I thought you were a channeler. Why would you need another one?"

Evan shrugged. "To be honest, I'm more of a psychic than a channeler."

"What's the difference?"

"Psychics can exorcize ghosts and communicate with psychic type pokemon, to some extent. But I'm hopeless at training ghost-types, and can't talk with a ghost to save my life," Evan explained.

Jenna let the implications hit her. "Even so, if that means I have to let another ghost posses me to communicate, then I'm out. I still feel haunted by that psychopath butler."

"Haunted?" Evan asked, his brows knitting together.

"It's just an expression," Jenna said, trying to brush off his obvious concern. "I've just kept on having nightmares about it; that's all."

Evan scowled even more. "I wish I'd known about that earlier. That could potentially be a problem." Then, loosening up, he said, "Still, you don't need to worry about that now. It shouldn't be an immediate issue. So, what about the radio tower case? Are you in? And I promise, I won't make you channel any ghosts if you don't want to."

This time, it was Jenna's turn to sigh. "I've been so bored lately that I'd even face Mr. Psycho Butler again for some action. Plus, I've never been out of Sinnoh before. I'm in."

Evan smiled. "I'm glad. We'll take the train in the morning, and leave for Kanto by ship, all expenses paid by Lavender Radio Corporation. And from there, to the building known once as Pokemon Tower."

I suddenly got an urge to write a sequel to Spirits of the Past, inspired in part by the discovery that Pokemon Tower was, for some reason, made into a radio tower. This is BLASPHEMY! How dare the game designers do such a thing! Pokemon Tower was one of the best places in the Kanto region! And no, I had never played the Johto generation until HG/SS came out, so this is rather recent news to me.

Anyway, though I've recently been attempting to avoid fanfics in favor of original stories, I've found that I really need to get pumped about writing something again. Creative ruts make me depressed, which makes me sad (of course), which in turn makes me further dislike creative ruts. So I thought I'd give fanfics another shot as a way to get my mood back up. If this anti-rut plan works, then in addition to this being a sequel, it might also be a prequel to a full-length pokemon fanfic. And when I talk full-length, I mean full length (refer to Books 1 and 2 of my fanfic A Possibility of Evil).

Also... go to poketto[dot]proboards[dot]com, if you want a small (but good) pokemon forum. It's really nice, though I must admit I haven't felt the motivation to get on recently.

EDIT: Did some edits to speech tags. Thanks to Farla for the suggestion! I'm sure it's still far from perfect (I generally have an awkward time with that particular part of writing), but it's hopefully at least a little better. Also, note that Evan is OLDER than Jenna, not younger; I didn't catch my typo until just now. Any other comments and critiques are very much appreciated!