The ghost types, however, weren't wild ones. They were common, in this part of the Nita region, but, judging from the fact that they all bore collars, or other tags of some description, they already had a trainer.
The biggest pokemon in the group was a chandelure, which bore a green collar around its neck. Accompanying the haunted chandelier was a trevenant, which had been given frilly pink sleeves to wear on its arms, a banette with a crown of Rappaccini flowers, a flower native to the Nita region, a houndoom with a pink collar, a drifblim, and even a yamask, whose mask resembled the face of a little girl.
Professor Arbola perked up at the cries of her pokemon, and she dashed past Rose and Kathleen to greet the yamask, bringing it close.
"These," she announced, "Are my darling Alicia's dolls."
You're a special kind of nuts, aren't you? Rose remarked inwardly. But then again, Professor Nekane Arbola's story would probably drive anyone into an aggrieved frenzy, had they lived it.
Professor Arbola's husband had died shortly after Alicia was born. And then, for five years, she had had no-one to turn to except for her daughter, who she came to believe was the only person in the world who loved her. And then fate cruelly took little Alicia away as well, leaving Professor Arbola all alone in the world.
Rose became incredibly unsettled, happening to notice that there seemed to be a common theme, with most of Alicia's pokemon... And that was, children. Banettes were dolls that sought the children who threw them away. Trevenant evolved from phantump, a pokemon who was rumoured to be the spirit of a child who died while lost in the forest.
Swallowing her unease, she finally spoke. "So, what's the deal? Do you wanna battle?"
The grief-stricken, mad professor gripped the yamask tightly. "No, of course not! I will not let you dirty my sweet Alicia's dolls!"