Peaked Interest

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Finally the duo had emerged from the tunnels that formed the Black Spiral Staircase again, the sunlight shining on them once more. Or rather it would have, would they not be standing on the Dark Void Peak now, the sky completely black for no discernible reason.
At least there weren't any feral Pokémon to be expected anymore, as William wasn't sure for how long Sova would be able to hold on. He certainly didn't look all that well. And still the Ghost type had no idea what it may be that was causing this in the Normal type.
But now that they were here maybe he would quickly realize that nothing of interest was to be found here and finally get on the way back home again. This had been quite the boring and disconcerting intermission thus far.

Sova should have expected to go through the "enemy". After all, it appeared to be ghostly, so of course it would have ghost typing. Worse yet, he only had normal type moves....if he wanted to actually defend himself, he would have to attack without his moves. Knowing he'd almost certainly lose that fight, he decided it would be better to just run again.

Using his new Quick Attack, he darted away, but was again stopped by the hallucinated leafeon who was beginning to be quite a bad influence. If you run, you'll always be weak.... With those words, the hallucination began approaching him again. This prompted him to back away for a moment before he remembered the specter that he was certain was attacking him.

Fight....win....or you'll be weak for ever! The discolored leafeon hallucination yelled. Again, Sova found himself turning to face his presumed foe. He darted forward to the William with a Quick Attack, still afraid, but more afraid of the demanding hallucination behind him. He leaped into the air and stopped the Quick Attack, knowing it would be no good.

With the propulsion from the Quick Attack, he planned to essentially be a living cannonball and throw himself at the "enemy". At least since he wasn't using any moves, he wouldn't go through the specter....hopefully. He hadn't actually ever had a chance to test that.

Unsurprisingly the Eevee was running away. Again.
But due to lack of feasible alternatives there wasn't much the Gengar could do but give chase.
Well, actually there were a lot of things he could do, but most would probably not better their situation. And so he just went on trying to outspeed the Normal type before Sova would Quick Attack himself off of the mountain.
But then once more the brown ball of fur turned around, charging right at him. Didn't he notice something like this wouldn't work the first time he tried? But to his surprise the Gengar soon found his face making contact with the fluffy Pokémon. While the attack didn't do much in terms of damage, it certainly was a surprising move, having caught the Poison type off guard. At least the Eevee was quite close to the ghastly Pokémon now, somaybe he capture would be easier.

Sova made direct contact with the gengar whom he was still perceiving as a menacing hallucination, though his attack didn't seem to do much. He fell to the ground and immediately Quick Attacked away to gain some ground. He then thought of an idea, even in his drugged state.

He began glowing lightly and summoned the familiar stars of Swift around him, sending them at William. He knew they wouldn't make contact, but they would at least obstruct the gengar's vision for a moment. The eevee stopped the Swift and used Quick Attack to run up right behind it, hopefully at least somewhat concealing himself.

He darted right up to the gengar, hoping to run through again and get behind, in the ghost's blind spot.

While the Gengar could effortlessly see in total darkness, the sudden increase in luminescence caused by the Eevee's Swift attack was something he wasn't used to. And after the unexpected brightness subsided, the Eevee was nowhere to be found. He still had to be here somewhere.
Hoping to increase his vision, the Ghost type levitated up into the air, overseeing the mountain.
And indeed once more William could prove that it was quite difficult to hide from a flying enemy on a barren, mountainous landscape. Especially if that mountain was almost completely black and you weren't. Hopefully changing his angle of attack would make it more difficult for the Eevee to dodge his attempts to grab him yet again.

As the ghost floated into the air, Sova found himself once again wanting to run away. He couldn't think of any way to win the fight when none of his moves would actually work. Just as he turned to run yet again, he was met with the hallucinated darkened leafeon, right in front of him.

Running away again? Coward.

Out of being intimidated by his own hallucination, he turned to fight again. But the specter had floated into the air and would be much harder to hit. So, he decided the best course of action would be to wait for the enemy to come to him. After all, he hadn't noticed any ranged attacks from the ghost so it was safe to assume it had to come close to attack.

Well, this would be a long game of chase if there wouldn't be any changes.
And so the Ghost type came down from the skies again, hoping to be able to grab the Eevee this time.
Hopefully Sova would tire out before William did.
But the Normal type was a quick one, so maybe more nuanced tactics would be required.
Preparing several Shadow Balls, the Gengar hoped to be able to use them to stop the Eevee in his tracks and force it to change his route of escape, hopefully making him easier to catch. Obviously the Normal type would be immune to the Ghost type attack, but as he obviously was hallucinating he might just be unaware of the attacks' true nature. Hopefully.

Sova did indeed see the Shadow Balls as something different. Streaks of shadow flying towards him. He couldn't tell at all that they were Shadow Balls, in fact he didn't know what they were. He turned to run, but the hallucinated leafeon appeared again, glaring at him. He turned back around and darted right into the flurry of shadowy projectiles with Quick Attack, attempting to dodge them. He had faith that he could avoid them all with his drastically increased speed. He almost right, but sadly, one struck him. Or that's what he expected, but to his surprise, it simply passed through him.

He instantly realized the attack must have been Ghost type. After a moment, he continued his Quick Attack, straight forward. Again he jumped up and cut off the Quick Attack. This time, however, he opened his mouth, aiming to bite onto the ghost. He didn't know the move Bite, but at least using his teeth instead of his fur for an attack would probably do more.

And...the Eevee had been hit by one of the Shadow Balls. Since it didn't have any effect, the Normal type must have guessed by now that they were incapable of actually harming him, which meant that they had lost their potential of scaring the Eevee into more desirable directions. But William had a few more tricks up his sleeve. For now he decided on the "Fight fire with Fire" strategy, launching a Confuse Ray at the Eevee instead. Maybe the Confusion would help clear the hallucinations or maybe it would just help render the Eevee unable to walk. The Gengar had no idea what exactly was going to happen, but he just had to try it seemed. Then, suddenly, the Gengar found the Eevee flying straight at him once more, apparently attempting to attack again. While he could easily have dodged this assault doe to his superior aerial maneuverability, the Gengar instead opted for standing still and trying to catch the Eevee with his hands.

Sova's plan seemed to be going along perfectly for a moment, then the Confuse Ray hit him. In just a moment, he went from leaping towards the ghost for an attack to falling helplessly into the gengar. He knew then that he had certainly lost, but at least he fought. At least he didn't run away. But what was going to happen to him now? From his perspective, he was being attacked by an enemy and had certainly lost.

He couldn't even see his hallucinations clearly with the Confuse Ray effecting him. He couldn't think straight at all, couldn't even hear the hallucinated voice in his head. At least there was one up side in that his mind couldn't focus enough to hallucinate.

Finally something had worked. Easily William managed to pick the Eevee out of the air, sighing at all the extra effort that had to be put into this mission just because Sova had to travel further up the mountain. But maybe now this overly long journey would finally be over. As quickly as he could without loosening his grip on the Normal type the Gengar levitated straight down the mountain, hoping to escape the hallucinogens that had somehow managed to put Sova into this sorry state.
How long would it take for them to wear off? Would there be any lasting damages?
Hopefully not, but with their long stay up here he might very well have fallen victim to an overdose of whatever this substance was...

Sova simply went limp. He wasn't dead or even passed out, but he didn't feel that struggling would help at all. Especially since he wasn't being attacked any more, just carried. The confusion didn't stick around too long, wearing off quickly. As the confusion faded, his hallucinated world did not return. Instead, his eyes showed him what was really there, though he still felt hazy. He was being carried by William. He thought about asking what happened, as he was dazed and very confused, but was cut off before he could by a headache. "Owww...." Was all he could manage to mutter.

Finally the Eevee was regaining consciousness. William had already begun fearing for the Normal type's safety. But there still was the chance of further complications...
"Good morning. Quick test: "What is my name?"", the Gengar asked, hoping to test the Eevee's mental capacities. Since not even the umbral Pokémon had ever heard of the mountaintop's hallucinogenic qualities he doubted that there would be an easy way to treat this affliction in town, but he would just have to try. Now hopefully the Eevee would not fall into a panic and start struggling, as something like that would probably not end up well. And obviously the Gengar didn't want to have to chase the hallucinating Normal type around the mountain yet again.

Sova understood William's question fine, but still in his hallucinated state, his mind decided to attach a different voice to the words....of course, it was the same voice that had been haunting him the entire night. His mother's voice. So, for a moment, he thought it was his mother speaking to him. "Esprit...." He mumbled. He was silent for a moment before realizing who actually said it. "I-I mean William!" He frantically tried to take back his mistake. Hopefully his answer would be enough to assure the gengar he was alright now.

Hearing the Eevee call him by a wrong name, the Gengar was shocked, levitating in place stunned for a second before finally breathing a heavy sigh of relief as the Normal type managed to correct his mistake. So if there was any lasting damage it couldn't be too serious. Probably.
In any case, he'd better bring the Pokémon to a hospital. Or a similar institution at least.
Despite all the things the Ghost type had experienced he actually didn't have that much medical knowledge? Why not actually? Maybe he'd go study medicine after this mission was over. It would definitely be useful on further travels...

Sova realized he was still being carried and, coupled with the odd question, figured out that William had decided he was in too bad of a condition to continue on his own. He had to show he was alright somehow. But what could he do to prove that? After all, he wasn't really in a good condition, though it wasn't so bad that he didn't think he could walk on his own. "You can put me down now...." He said hesitantly, worried he would get "No" for an answer. Being forcibly carried when he could walk fine did not seem appealing.