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Being closest to Electra when she was drawn back into her Pokeball, Odd reached out and caught the falling lantern with ease. "Got it!" He called to the other Snagems, resisting the lantern's influence as much as he was capable.

"Does it matter what I did? All that matters if what you saw and what you shall do with that knowledge." The hybrid explained to Trish, stuffing the Pearl away into one of her robe's long sleeves. "Now come, your friends await us both." And just like that, Trish's surroundings would change in the blink of an eye, but this time it was absolutely real.

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"Hey! What gives!? Why can't I influence you!?" A voice shouted from the lantern in Odd's hands. "It's that trinket you got. You know what? It's kind of ugly. Why don't you get rid of it? I know a guy who would pay top dollar for it! And if that's what you channel with then dude, feel this lantern. So much more powerful thank your gaudy accessory. And durable. So what do you say? All I ask is you let me have some fun once in awhile." The 'lantern' went on.

"His name is Jack." The Mismagius hybrid from before spoke to the Snagems as she suddenly appeared before them. Trish was with her. "Jack of the Lantern. I'm sure you heard stories about him." She continued.

"Where did this woman come from?" Sub whispered to whoever was nearest him.

"Hey! Shut up ya old bat! No one wants to be bored to death. Then again, looks like you already were. Ha! What is this? Your revenge against the youthful living? Lame." The lantern, or Jack, sneered.

"Jack's lantern was brought to the Lost Tower by a traveling priest who had sought an end to Jack's chaos. Where ever the lantern goes Jack spreads discord. For some time Jack was exiled to the Lost Tower, no one else picked up his lantern again as the priest had spread rumors about it along with the local population already afraid of the ominous tower. However, Jack was clever and managed to influence those who paid respects to the graves in the tower and succeeded in starting a tradition in the nearby town concerning his lantern. For generations Jack was able to return to his chaotic ways for just one night, thanks to the people of Solaceon Town. And it was enough for Jack, one night to harass an entire town." The hybrid explained to the Snagems.

"So what you're saying as long as the lantern remains in the Lost Tower, no matter what kind of bad luck it brings, the people of Solaceon will continue to take it out of the tower and spread it around. Thus, Jack gets an entire town of bodies to possesses and numerous targets to wreck havoc upon." Sub asked the hybrid.

"That is correct." She replied.

"Why didn't you do anything about this sooner?" He insisted to know. The hybrid however did not answer, just turned her gaze upon the lantern. Sub had a feeling he wouldn't get an answer anyways.

"Darts. Care to take a quick trip to the Distortion World? Just to visit. I hope you don't leave anything behind though on your trip." He said with a smile.

"I don't like this. Come on Channeler dude. Let's go have some fun!" Jack said with a nervous laugh.

"Heck if I know," Aden spoke up, having already backed off once Odd got the lantern and Electra was recalled,"But if the lantern's causing issues like that, why not just break the thing?"

"Because it'd be ill advised. If Jack's spirit is tied to the lantern, severing the tie could very well mean he'd be allowed to roam freely and cause as much chaos and torment as he pleases," Sol explained, gleaning as many details as he could from the Mismagius hybrid's explanation. "Though, I agree in that something could have been done sooner, I'd wager."

Amaranth didn't dare say a word, trying to keep herself calm from the occasional gruesome image that continued to plague her. She wondered similar things, but the idea of a trip to the Distortion World sounded even less pleasant than the images in her head.

"Sub, isn't there enough crazy stuff in that place? We already have the jacketed ghost guy going back and forth, is Jack really better off there to haunt Darts whenever he decided to poke in there?" The more Cera spoke, though, the more she saw that it could have its merits. One problem would be solved, and Darts owed the team anyway. A moment later, she shook her head. "...on second thought, nevermind, let's go with it."

"We're messing with forces well beyond our scope here Sub, but I don't see a lot of other options." The jacketed hybrid replies, looking around at the surrounding group of Snagems for opinions. "Unless someone's got a better option, this seems like a good temporary patch for now until we find something to do with this lantern."

'Was this woman serious?!' Trish demanded to know, inwardly. Of course it mattered what she did. Had that all been a trick? Hypnosis? Premonitions? What sorcery had allowed her to see those visions of what she could only assume had been the future?

And then she had been whisked away and off to where her friends had found the lantern she'd heard of earlier and Odd was holding it. What was this about sending it to where? The Distortion World? "Isn't the Distortion World like the same as The World Beyond the Mirror?" She asked, referencing an ancient legend she'd heard in Laverre City.

Odd stood frozen in place for a few minutes once he'd grabbed the lantern, trying to keep it under his control. ~You can't influence me because my ability to control my own soul outweighs your ability to influences others'.~ The channeler replied. "My Artifact can't be replaced. It's a bond between myself and my Pokemon. A physical manifestation of the power we share, not as human and Pokemon but as friends and allies. Compared to that, your lantern is a piece of junk." He said aloud as he walked towards Darts, slowly. As he drew near, he stopped and looked at the woman who had appeared before them.

"Let me borrow this." He said before reaching out and pulling a piece of paper from her shirt. It was long a thin but remarkably durable. Wrapping it around the lantern, it seemed to stick to the very space around the object. "I remember seeing this in Amaya's school." He explained as he took a marker from his backpack and began writing intricate symbols around the paper.

"This is a sort of super-charged Cleanse Tag. It should keep Jack in and anyone else away from this lantern but I'd still like to see it somewhere that's not easily accessed. Like the bottom of the Hallowed Tower." He stated, considering dropping the thing to the bottom of the supposedly bottomless "well" that was the Hallowed Tower.

"He does make a good point there.... We could open a museum of legendary artefacts. It could help solve our problem with funding......" Odd agreed, thinking for a moment. "But I still like the idea of throwing this thing down that old well." That thought did truly intrigue him. An eternity of solitude in the current dimension seemed more a fitting punishment to him than banishment to an empty dimension where Jack couldn't even stand a tiny chance of so much as coming almost close enough to another living thing to influence it. That possibility of getting almost close enough should serve as plenty of torment.

"Museum it is. Until then, Odd, I want you to keep that lantern close and the tag on it. If you think he is trying to worm your way into your mind for one second you find Darts and he will toss it into the Distortion World without a second thought, got it?" He told the Ghost Channeler.

"Maaan...I know I suggested it but this sucks. Now I'm going to be damned to seeing a bunch of people point at me and take pictures. Lame." Jack moaned from his lantern.

"As for our mysterious lady fri- where did she go?" Sub had planned on talking to this lady more about how she knew all of this but when he went to she was already gone. "Ugh...whatever. Mission accomplished. Let's head home."

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

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