Okay! New Plan!

(POV: Tom Cedar)

Kevin! What did you find up there? What's going on--?

Three survivors?! That's great...but how do you intend on getting them down the stairs and out to safety when the stairs have pretty much been blown apart and there's a significant-sized hole in the middle of the floor with jagged debris two stories beneath you?

Network? Who is Network--?

Oh! Ooooooh, I get it! "Network" as in an electrical network, and "network" as in work with a net...because it's like a little spider...and it can make webs...which are like nets.

You're clever.

That looks pretty handy.  When I reach a PC, I should get my own Joltik out so that I can see what kind of other stuff the little fella can do.

Alright, the web is solid on this end! Throw the apprentices over and we'll help them up and out!

Good! Nice and steady now...

Okay, they're in the clear.  Now, Kevin...what did you see up there?

"You tell me?" I don't know what you saw, Kevin! You were the one up there! Did you see anything?!

You saw nothing?! We still have absolutely no idea what kind of ghost is up there and what kind of--

Well, wait...maybe our Pokemon saw something.  Who knows? Maybe they can see things that we can't--

...we still have a Silph Scope, don't we?

Okay! New plan! Now that we know what we're kind of up against, let's get these guys back into town and get them medical attention.  Afterwards, we can finally let the authorities know what exactly has been happening here...at least we can tell them as much as we know, which is more than they've been going on thus far.  If we have to go back in here and clear this mess out ourselves, I say we use our time to heal up our Pokemon and form teams best suited to deal with a ghost infestation...because let's face it: there's probably as many ghosts in there as there were Houndour, and there's probably something controlling them, too.  I'll see what I can do about fixing the Silph Scope, and that way, we can see for ourselves what we're up against.  Who knows, I might even be able to synch up my Pokedex to the Silph Scope so that we can instantly identify the ghosts if they're actually Pokemon.

Let's just try to get all this done before night falls.  I was very hesitant about going in there the first time, and I'm even more hesitant to go in there again...but going into a haunted and fire-damaged house is far beyond even my sensibilities.

Also, let's try not to start shit on the bike path, okay? It's our best way back into town and I don't need to get into a fistfight.

...not that anyone in this group has displayed a penchant for punchy violence or anything like that.