The garbage bag and the monster in the basement

"Welp, I am pooped beyond belief" i said, after i finished tidying up the lobby

I was getting tired, more tired than usual shockingly, while Maddi is still as energetic and hard working as she always was, maybe its because i randomly woke up in a cold sweat at 4 in the morning, or maybe it was due to the all noise outside last night, what ever it was i was ready to instantly hit the sack the moment i step into our home.

"Is someone ready to admit that they have insomnia?" Maddi snarkingly commenting on my drowsy appearance.

"Ha, very funny..." i joked back at her

"You know, there are certain berries that can relieve drowsiness... If i have the time i can go out pick some up for you."

"That would be wonderful." i yawned at her

The lobby was filled with all sorts of Pokemon of all shapes and sizes, some are here to post on the job boards, while some go out and fufill said jobs, some are heading to mess hall to get their faces stuffed with grub, love the food but the guy who makes it... not so much, Maddi seems to get along with him though. Some guy ended up in the clinic because he got bitten for accidentally touching someone ass, & the bathrooms are currently undergoing matinence because somebody thought that it'd be funny to clog all the toilets with loaded diapers, fucking degenerates. So yeah, the lobby was pretty hectic today, but thankfully our shift was almost over. But then...

"Wait... is that..." Maddi suddenly begins panicking, "Oh no, no no no no noooooooooo! Maxi, You gotta hide me!"

A yellow bird type pokemon with Pom Poms on her hands approched us, seemingly recognizing Maddi from out of the crowd.

"Joy? Joy is that really you?"

"Oohhhh... H-hey... you..." Maddi nervously replied back

"Oh. My. Gawd. It really is you!"

"Maddi, who the hell is this?" I said, wanting to get some answers

"Oooh, Maddi, i didn't you found a boyfriend already! He seems kinda like a slob but... Oh, where are my manners, the name's Odette, nice to meet ya!" She pulls out her hand, but then immedately pulls it back, probably because of my appearance

"Um..." Maddi perked up a little "Odette was one of my closest friends growing up, we were both part of the high school cheer squad..."

"Yep! There was Me, You, Winnie, and a couple of others who i forgot the names of, we were such close friends, remember when you used to play in my feathers?"

Maddi was starting to blush, were... were this two an item at some point?

"So anyhoo, what've you been up to these past few years?"

"Ok first off, I'm not her boyfriend, and secondly we've been working at the guild for several days now." I explained to this ditzy airhead

"Ooooh, what kind of work?"

"Isn't obvious? We-" Maddi suddenly stops me.

"We're... uh... explorers... right, Maxi?" she notions to me to play along.

"Uh... yeah, that's right... we're explorers."

"Wooooooow, it totes didn't expect that, and what a coincidence too, i actually have a job that i wanted to post on the board."

"Uh... wow haha, that sure is a funny coincidence..." i said, trying to get the fuck out of this situation

"Heyyy, since you explorer types usually do jobs like this maybe i should let you guys take care of it!"

We both froze in place, it was at the moment we knew... we fucked up.

"Come by my house tomorrow afternoon and i'll tell you more! I can't wait!" She said as she skipped out of the lobby and into the square

"Maddi, you mind telling me what the FUCK you were doing..." i said, trying not to lose my cool

"I had to, you don't understand... we haven't seen each other in years! If you said that we were janitors she would've been dissapointed in me."

I sighed "Ok look, i know in a situation like that, the best course of action would've been to tell the truth, but on the other hand... i can kinda understand why you'd lie, i can tell you didn't wanna be in the situation in the first place, so... i guess i can play along..."

"Really?"

"For now anyway... the moment the job is done, we are telling her the truth, OK?"

"All right... I'm sorry..." she apologized to me

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over this, everbody can make mistakes, but we can also learn from them." I assured her. "Now come on, I think i'm about to pass ooooooou-"

I immedeately fell face first onto the floor.

Maddi sighs, "I'll call a taxi."

The next day, we ended up at Odette's house there was something sinister going on in her basement and she's to afraid to go in there. She thinks it might be a ghost, & the moment Maddi heard the word "Ghost" she hid in my pocket, she REALLY isn't into the occult. We both had a laugh about, Odette made some tea to calm her down.

"Oh, and by the way, what's your team name?" Odette asked

I hesitated at first but then i answered with

"Hmmm... The-uh, we're-the-uh... Cleaners... yeah... The Cleaners..."

What? I couldn't think of anything else!

After Maddi calmed down, we headed down into the basement. Unsurprisingly, it was dark...

"Yo, can i get a lantern, or a flashlight, or a glow stick, or something?"

Odette tosses me a lantern.

"Uh... the batteries are dead."

"I'll take care of it." Maddi hopped on top of the lantern and induces a jolt of electricity to charge it.

We looked around, tried to find anything that looks even the slightest bit suspicious, i was starting to get a headache and wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. We didn't find anything for a while until we found a weird looking rock...

"Hey, is this it?"

The rock was definitively giving off a weird vibe. As we headed back upstairs the rock suddenly began to move, Maddi hid back in my pocket again. I instantly dropped the rock and slowly backed away from it. Odette rushed down to check in on what's happening. The rock suddenly began to crack open and a shadowy form grew from it, that wasn't an ordinary rock... it was a god damn Odd Keystone!

"Why the hell didn't you tell us that you had a Spiritomb in your basement?"

"How was i supposed to know? I haven't been in my basement for years!" she replied

I looked at her, absolutely dumbfounded. It's official this girl was an absolute moron. When it the Spiritomb was fully formed it then suddenly began to form a... hand? Then it began to speak...

"You... you... YOU MUST EAT MY SHIT" it said

Uh... what? It's voice sounded like a mishmash of various sources but a kingly esque is the most prevalent, feels familliar in a way.

"Lost spirit why are you hiding in this dumbass's basem-"

"SHUT UP!" the Spiritomb cuts me off it then points directly to me and Maddi

"YOU MUST EAT MY SHIT"

Then it pointed to Odette

"YOU MUST EAT MY SHIT"

"THE WORLD MUST EAT MY SHIT"

"Hey asshole, why the fuck are trying to push your fetish on us?" I angrly told this freak

"YOU DARE NOT EAT MY SHIT? YOU MUST DIE" The moment they said DIE a bolt of lightning came down from seemingly out nowhere, ok, we really need to get the fuck out here.

As we headed for the entrance to the basement, the scat obessed ghost suddenly made a pose and i swear to god, shot a laser beam out from his eyes.

"Jesus fucking christ!" We all got out of the way as quickly as we could, I had to quickly think of something.

I ran over to a random box and started digging hoping to find SOMETHING that could get us out of this situation, Meanwhile Odette was trying to distract the ghost with her cheering skills, unsurprisingly this didn't work. Eventually i found a broken lamp, that should be strong enough to knock it out.

"Hey Maddi, you think you can try and paralyze him for me?"

"You're asking me to paralyze a goddamn ghost?! You know there's a high chance that it won't work!"

"Seriously, What happened to that brave Joltik who took a chance on a talking garbage bag? That ghost over there is just like you and me, which means that it can be hurt, you gotta be brave."

"Ok... i'll try!"

I then threw Maddi at the Odd Keystone that was the source of it's body, It was about to punch Odette. Maddi then proceeded to shock the absolute fuck out of him, i then threw the lamp at it's body, which knocks it out, returning it to the Odd Keystone, i grabbed it ran back upstairs and threw it out the door and into a nearby dumpster. At the point i was about ready to pass out.

After the battle, we told Odette the truth, at first she was dissapointed, but then she cheered up after seeing what a good job we did she was surprised we weren't explorers. So everything ended up wrapping nicely, Me, Maddi, and Odette ended up going out for drinks that night. But as we we're leaving to get hammered, i swear i heard someone say that they wanted everyone to eat their shit... It was probably nothing.