OK well I've finished Chapter 15!
I guess I'll post this up since I think it might take me another long wait to finish up Chapter 16 so I might as well post this chapter up.
This chapter has Ash and Misty on their travels again after the tragedy in Cerebrall Village. Just as quick reminder.
There are no new pokemon in this chapter (unfortunately...), but I DO guarantee that the next chapter will feature at LEAST one.
Chaos Emperor and MistyLover make appearance in this chapter as Kevin and Aziz, respectively. Also, you'll see a character in this chapter that speaks in a weird dialect: it's my best attempt at a Cockney accent in case if you were wondering.
Here it is!
Chapter 15-Puppet Theater (Chaotic Beginnings)
The starry night was now upon them. Everything was tranquil in the surrounding forest as Ash and Misty continued walking side by side together, not having stopped from their travels from Cerebrall Village. Pikachu had fallen asleep and was resting in Ash’s backpack as Misty continued to lean heavily on Ash, her leg failing her to be able to move on its own due to her injuries. Though Misty didn’t exactly mind…
She yawned loudly breaking the silence and the stillness of the night. Ash could see that she was very tired as she was practically falling asleep on his shoulder and felt tired as well. He searched the pockets in his jacket and quickly pulled out the map after he had managed to convince Misty to finally let go of it a few hours ago. He quickly skimmed over the map as they stopped in the middle of the dirt road so he could see better under the moonlight. As his eyes passed over their location then to Venox Village, he saw that they were only a mile away from reaching the town. He then decided it was best to set up camp now so they could start the new day tomorrow anew and rejuvenated. Ash led Misty into the forest until the trees surrounded them. He stopped in a clearing in the forest a few feet from the road. He decided it was a good site for them with few rocks on the ground and a wide open space enough for them both to sleep comfortably.
Ash helped Misty into her sleeping bag and she smiled gratefully at him as he pulled the blankets over her chest. He smiled back and she ruffled his hair playfully.
“Oh Ash, you’re such a good boy!” she said playfully. He blushed and turned around quickly, hiding his face as he climbed into his sleeping bag. Once again, they were encased in silence as they gazed up at the beautiful night sky. The stars were scattered in multitude across the sky and shone brightly at the people on Earth. It was one of the most beautiful sights Ash and Misty had ever seen; a night sky unadulterated by light pollution, shining in true brilliance. Slowly, the brilliance of the sky was beginning to fade away from each of their eyes as their eyelids began to close slowly until they finally succumbed to the weight of sleep.
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The sun had risen and the day had begun. Misty quickly awoke when she began to hear noises faintly in the distance. Ash, being the heavy sleeper he was, was still sleeping, snoring loudly as he clung onto his pillow so she quietly got out of her sleeping bag to check out what was happening.
She walked out of the forest only to find herself facing a crowd of people, all looking over each others shoulder, wondering what was happening ahead of them on the road. Even Misty arched her neck in order to see what the hold-up was, but the crowd of people ran on for a long distance. It seemed that something had happened at the entrance to Venox Village…
“What’s going on?” Misty jumped at the sound of the voice. She turned and saw Ash rubbing his eyes sleepily as he yawned loudly.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” She hit him on the arm and he rubbed his arm sorely.
“Ow! What was that for?!” She simply shook her head and stood on the tips of her toes to try and get a better look farther down the road. Soon enough, Ash’s interest was piqued and he began to join her in her search. They both gave up though and they walked back to the campsite, wondering about the crowd. Ash sat down on his sleeping bag and pulled out a can of food while Misty was busy combing her hair.
“Ash you’re going to eat right now?! Can’t this wait until
after we check what’s happening?” Misty said irritatingly as she pulled down hard on her hair with her brush, straightening her messy hair.
“You should know by now Misty! A hungry man
never waits!” Ash declared triumphantly as he chewed his instant food loudly. Misty simply rolled her eyes as she continued combing her hair. Pikachu awoke from beneath the sleeping bag Ash was sitting on and walked to the side of his trainer.
“Hey buddy! How are you doing?” Ash said happily as he tickled his pokemon underneath the chin much to Pikachu’s delight. After a few minutes of preparing themselves, they left the campsite and joined the crowd of people on the road, slowly pushing their way ahead.
“Ash, make sure you don’t get lost in this crowd…Ash? Ash!” She turned around and saw that he was being sucked back into the crowd by two
very large women who were blocking his way. He stuck his hand out between the two women and Misty grabbed it and began to pull him through them. After a brief struggle, he flew out between the two of them and crashed into Misty. They were so close to each other that each of them could feel each other’s breath on their face.
“Let’s keep moving shall we?” Misty said awkwardly, her eyes wide open upon seeing how close she was to Ash. She threw Ash off of her and got up, pushing through the crowd again trying to put that whole awkward situation behind her, leaving a confused Ash behind.
They finally reached the front of the crowd, exasperated, only to be stopped by a police officer facing them directly.
“Hold it right there; you’re not allowed to go any fur-Hey wait a minute, I remember you two!” They both looked up at the police officer speaking to them. Sure enough, it was Captain Mike from the previous town with his signature sunglasses on. Behind him was a police car blockade to a heavily forested “tunnel” in which the trees leaned closely to each other while leaving a wide gap between them, creating a tunnel effect. He looked down sternly at them and they both began to feel extremely nervous.
“What are you two doing around these parts anyway?” Captain Mike asked sternly, seemingly forgetting the fact that they were fugitives for their participation in the protest. “Can’t you see that the road is closed?”
“Well we can obviously see that for ourselves, we’re just wondering
why it’s closed,” Misty retorted in a way that seemed to touch a nerve in Mike.
“Figures; still putting your nose in business where it doesn’t belong,” Mike responded as he furrowed his eyebrow. Ash’s eyes widened and he looked at Misty with surprise as she did the same.
“Yeah that’s right, I still remember you two from Cerebrall Village…” Before he continued, one of the police officers cut him off as he began to shout something towards his direction,
“Yo Shade, this situation is getting a bit out of control! We got to start clearing people out of here pronto!” Mike nodded in response and then focused his attention on the two young adults in front of him.
“My advice to you two is stay out of trouble. I definitely don’t want to see you ever again under bad terms,” he said firmly. Ash nodded, but the curiosity was still biting away at him.
“So Shade, why can’t we enter the next town?” Ash asked innocently.
“First of all, it’s Captain Mike to
you and second of all, you are
quite the persistent type aren’t you?” Ash laughed embarrassedly as he scratched the back of his head. He managed to crack a smile on Mike’s face though so maybe he wasn’t as bad as they thought him out to be…
“Well since I see you’re
so curious, I’ll tell you. Remember that company way back in Cerebrall, the one that your friend managed to destroy?” They both nodded slowly, the memory of the whole disaster fresh in their minds. “Well after that company collapsed, we began to do a background investigation on them and their other companies around this region, including the one in Venox. It turns out that they’ve been illegally dumping chemicals into the trademark swamp of that village.” So the rumor about the company was true…
“Well after we discovered that little fact, we instantly shut down the operation and promptly removed the company from Venox. Now all we have to do is start pumping the chemicals out of the swamp, which might take a while.” At these last words, Ash’s expression instantly turned into a disappointed one; he really wanted to get that Gym badge… Mike, seeing Ash’s expression, began to respond,
“Aw don’t worry, it won’t take long. Plus, from what we hear, a famous traveling theater has stopped by in the town nearby here.” Misty looked up at him curiously and was now listening attentively. “I wish I could see them; from what I hear, their pretty good. Sadly, I’ve got to keep watch here…” Misty smiled and thanked Mike for the helpful knowledge. He nodded back and watched them leave as Misty grabbed Ash around the arm and began to pull him out of the crowd, and onto the road that detoured away from Venox Village.
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“Tell me again why are we going to this town?” Ash asked as they walked quickly down the road.
“Oh come on Ash don’t be such a killjoy! Besides, haven’t you always wanted to go see a play?” Misty asked happily with a wide smile on her face.
“Yeah right, that’s the
last place I’d ever consider going to…” Ash said dryly, rolling his eyes. Misty frowned at his comment and began to respond,
“You see Ash, that’s why you’ve
never had a girlfriend! You’re just not adventurous enough! Girls like it when a guy is willing to explore the world and try different things.” Misty declared matter-of-factly.
“So what do you call this that we’re doing now?” Ash retorted sarcastically.
“That’s not what I meant!” she snapped back impatiently. Ash waited her response with a smug smirk on his face until Misty finally said,
“Never mind, you’d never understand what I’m trying to say…”
“Aha! That’s EXACTLY what I though you’d say! You really
don’t have an answer do you?!” Ash blurted out.
“Of course I do!” Misty snapped back. “I just meant to say you’re still the immature brat I knew ten years ago,” she teased with a small grin on her face knowing this was going to touch a nerve on Ash as she walked ahead of him. He stood quiet, but he was still pretty miffed about it as they continued walking down the heavily forested road, not willing to consent to the fact that Misty had won this time around.
“Well at least I
had a girlfriend…unlike
some people…” he muttered under his breath, perhaps a bit
too loudly because sure enough, Misty instantly turned around, wide-eyed in shock.
“Since when did
you ever have a girlfriend?!” Misty yelled with bewilderment as well as hidden jealously wondering who was this lucky girl. Ash instantly regretted for saying that aloud. Perhaps it wasn’t the best of times to mention to Misty his old Pallet Town ‘friend;’ actually now that he thought of it, perhaps there was
no real good time to tell Misty about his brief fling… He glanced sideways at Misty and could see that she was still waiting for an answer.
“Oh come on Misty, you didn’t
seriously believe me did you?” Misty still looked skeptically at Ash until he added, “Remember, this is
me we’re talking about here.” Misty nodded in agreement as she mumbled,
“Yeah you’ve got a good point there…”What soon followed was one of the most awkward silences either of them had ever experienced in their lives, each of them fidgeting nervously as they threw glances at each other. In his mind, Ash was extremely relieved to get away with that, though he wasn’t sure if Misty believed him
entirely…
“Hellllooooo, Earth to Ash!” Ash was snapped out of his daydream and looked at Misty with a surprised look as she waved her hand in front of his face.
“What’s the matter?” he replied completely clueless as Misty rolled her eyes.
“We’re here.” She pointed towards a wooden sign that indicated with an arrow the name of the small town before them: “Syl Village, Treat your City Ills in the Syl Vill.”
“Hmm, catchy slogan,” Ash stated, clearly impressed. They observed the village from where they stood at the entrance. Calling it a small village would’ve been an overstatement. Out of the whole clearing that was before them, there were only four huts and not even a Pokemon Center or a living being around.
“This is it?” Ash said in disbelief. He didn’t think it even needed to be called a village; it seemed to him more like a campsite. Ash was extremely unimpressed with the village as well as disappointed since they wasted a lot of time just getting here, time that he could’ve used to train with his new pokemon.
“Come on Misty let’s go,” Ash said with disappointment apparent in his voice.
“What, you want to leave now?!” Misty replied with shock.
“Well yeah! I mean, what are we going to do out here, pick grass? There’s nothing in this village…” Ash motioned at the deserted clearing in front of them.
“Well we could at
least look around!” Misty yelled back, not being able to believe that Ash wanted to leave so soon. He opened his mouth to respond, but something interrupted him before he could even utter a sound.
“Hey! You two! Over here!” They both quickly looked in the direction of the voice calling out to them. A tall brown haired boy appeared from behind the line of trees at the end of the village and was running towards them with an Umbreon following closely behind him as he waved his hand in the hair, baring a wide smile that exposed his perfect white teeth.
Ash looked on in confusion as to who this guy was even though he looked
awfully familiar. To his surprise though, Misty’s hand shot up into the air and she shouted a greeting back as she waved her hand quickly. She smiled brightly, which only caused Ash’s suspicions to rise.
“You know this guy, Misty?” Ash whispered in her ear as the brown haired boy continued to run towards them.
“Yeah, why,
you don’t?” Misty blurted out, a hint of surprise in her voice as her smile shone out on her face. He shook his head still completely confused about the identity of this boy. “It wasn’t that long ago Ash, are you
positive that you don’t remember?” Misty asked again, still in shock. Now Ash was getting frustrated with himself and her and was about to demand her to tell him who this guy was when the boy in question walked up to them.
“Whoo, long time no see, huh?” the boy replied charismatically as he wiped a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. His Umbreon caught up with him and began to gaze curiously at the group of travelers in front of him, focusing on the Pikachu resting on the dark haired teenager.
“Tell me about it,” Misty replied, her smile still not fading away as she gazed at this man with a great amount of interest. They remained like this for an extended amount of time and Ash still felt out in the cold so he knew he just had to do something.
“WHO ARE YOU?!?!” The brown haired teen looked back at Ash with surprise and confusion mixed into one as he stared back at Ash who had cupped his hands over his mouth.
“I’m the guy you met in Tamara’s Gym, remember?” Ash began to sink back into his memory and began to reminisce on the time they spent in Tamara’s Gym.
“Gym battle, gym battle, Tamara almost gets hit in the head with a chair, Misty almost gets eaten by a bunch of Thermai…” His eyes then widened in revelation.
“You’re that guy that was waiting with us outside, the one that told me I was dense for not knowing Tamara was the Gym leader!” Ash yelled in proclamation as if he had solved a great mystery.
“Yep, and you still are for taking so long trying to figure out who I was too!” the boy replied smugly. Misty burst into a fit of giggling as well as Pikachu who massaged his eyebrows trying to avoid acknowledgment of his trainer. Ash’s face burned in humiliation again. He was bested once more by this complete stranger, in front of Misty no less.
“The name is Aziz, nice to meet you.” He extended his hand towards Ash and, though he still harbored ill feelings to him for making him feel stupid, he still wasn’t the type of person to be rude so he shook his hand reluctantly. “And it’s
especially nice to meet you!” He turned towards Misty quickly and smiled brightly as he took her hand and grasped it in his as she turned a faint pink.
Ash looked on at them confused and he began to feel a sensation inside of him that seemed to grip him and squeeze an unknown place in his body; it felt as if it was just above the stomach yet below his chest. Whatever this feeling was, it made his resentment towards Aziz even stronger. Pikachu looked at his trainer and could see Ash was starting to get mad so he decided to step in.
Pikachu shouted his name and jumped on top of Aziz’s Umbreon, quickly diverting Aziz’s attention away from Misty as he looked in surprise at his pokemon being ridden by a yellow rodent. He stepped in to try to separate the two, but once he finally did and looked back, Misty was back at Ash’s side, talking to him again, though she was looking at him from the side of her eye.
“So what are you guys doing later on today?” Aziz asked, rejoining them once more.
“Well we were going to check out the theater that’s supposedly here-” Misty began.
“But we don’t see it anywhere,” Ash continued, as he searched around the practically empty lot.
“You’re not going to find it around here,” Aziz remarked sarcastically. Ash immediately turned to Misty and shoved his finger in her face.
“See I told you it wasn’t around here!” he shouted. Misty, not willing to back down, turned to Aziz and asked nicely,
“But if the theater isn’t around here, then where is it?” A smile crept across Aziz’s face and he replied simply,
“On the other side of this village.” Ash looked around quickly, but all he saw were the same four huts and the surrounding trees.
“What other side?! This
is the whole village isn’t it?” Ash said feeling as confused as possible.
“Not quite,” Aziz replied slyly and he turned around and beckoned them to follow him with a wave of his hand. Ash looked at Misty and she shrugged and began to follow after him with Ash closely behind.
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They finally reached the corner of the clearing and with awed looks on their faces, Ash and Misty understood what Aziz meant by ‘the rest of the village.’
A small town hidden behind a wall of trees stood before them and with every second, every detail of the town seemed to unravel before Ash and Misty as the sun’s rising rays fell upon the darkened town. Everything about the town was a wide open space with groups of people wandering about exploring every facet of the town and its various huts. Close to the center, an old building stood prominent over all of the other houses in the town, its age clearly defined by its fading colors and cracks in the side. At its base, four old wooden wheels held up the building while two large metal stakes on each side of the large building held it in place in case if anything happened. The building in general resembled that of an old Mexican church with faded brown paint, a square design, and red roof tiling with curved shingles. Hung over the arched entrance was a huge sign that read ‘The House of Chaos.’
Overall the town gave an air to that of a passing festival with groups of people wandering about, the grass beneath their feet slowly giving way with the dirt showing itself, and trash littered throughout the dusty ground of the town. Various volunteers who sacrificed their time in order to pick up after the uncaring visitors to their town were seen scattered about with long sticks that held a pointed end in order to pick up the trash on the ground so they could place them in their plastic bag. One of said volunteers stopped in front of them and went to picking up a piece of paper when a strong wind suddenly began to pick up, carrying the piece of paper he was going to pick up somewhere far away. The group of teens all shielded their faces with their arms as the dust from the ground began to scatter into the air along with the thrown away pieces of paper. Suddenly, a voice shot out into the air that was heard over the strong gust of wind,
“Hey! My HAT!” Ash instinctively looked up and saw an expensive looking velvet hat floating above his head within his reach. With a quick movement, he grabbed it and held the soft hat in his hand and as he was observing it, someone snatched it out of his hand.
“Aw thanks, you don’t know how much this hat means to me!” Ash looked up once he identified the voice as the one from before. A young man dressed in a black cloak stood before him as he checked the hat meticulously. He wore a golden masquerade mask that covered just his blue eyes as his straight brown hair covered his forehead. He placed the black velvet hat on his head which completed his black uniform: from his black gloves all the way down to his shiny black boots. His costume gave off an air of royalty as his black cape blew in the wind giving Ash the impression that maybe this guy had a lot of money.
“This hat cost me a fortune since it’s one of a kind,” the stranger began to explain. “Plus it’s kind of my trademark; people identify me with this hat.” He winked back at them only adding to the curiosity of the group as they tried to figure who this mysterious man could be.
“Hey Kevin, we’re on in five,” a voice interrupted in a dry tone declared from behind the mysterious man who they presumed to be Kevin as he turned around to the man who addressed him.
“How many times have I told you to call me by my stage name, it’s ‘Chaos Emperor’ dammit! Sheesh, can’t you ever get it through your head?!” Kevin replied in a very annoyed tone at the skinny man who stood before him. Compared to Kevin who was average in height, this man seemed to tower over him. The expression on his face was a very unique one, an indifferent scowl that enhanced the thin features of his face. He had a thin black goatee, thin eyebrows that outlined his thin dark brown eyes with straight black hair that just reached the shoulders of his red velvet jacket and by the way he dressed himself, it was apparent that he was in the same social status as Kevin.
“Whatever, we’re all waiting on you so
try your best to be as prompt as you can. I’d
really hate for you to be late again,” he added with a sneer as he turned on the heel of his black leather shoes and walked towards the big building that loomed over all the other houses, glancing back one more time.
“Jeez, what a creep!” Misty muttered as she covered her arms, trying to hold back the goose bumps that formed on them. Ash looked carefully at the man as he walked back to the building. There was just something
strange about this guy that made Ash extremely suspicious. With the whole group encased in silence as Aziz was lost in thought pondering where he could have heard that name before, the obscenity that Kevin muttered under his breath was clearly heard by all of them which quickly drew everyone’s attention.
“Well I gotta go; it was great meeting you…” he paused, waiting for an answer.
“Ash; and this is my friend Misty,” he added signaling to Misty who smiled back warmly.
“Aziz,” the brown haired boy responded with a simple wave of his hand.
“I’m Kevin, the Chaos Emperor, otherwise the man in charge of the ‘House of Chaos.’”
“I knew it!” Aziz blurted out. “I
knew you’re name sounded familiar! You’re also the one that founded the ‘Chaos Incarnate’ group, right?” he asked with unabated excitement.
“Yep that’s ri-”
“What the heck is the ‘Chaos Incarnate’ group?” Ash asked suddenly.
“It’s a group of high profile actors that go around touring the whole Muntein region, putting on plays for each town that they stop in! Everyone in my hometown are such huge fans, it’s an honor to meet you!” Kevin smiled and nodded, humbled at the compliment from Aziz.
“Right, well anyway Ash, I figure since I owe you such a huge favor for rescuing my hat, I might as well repay you with the only thing I’ve got on hand. I know this isn’t much, but it’s what I’ve got on me.” He reached into his black jacket and pulled out two long pieces of paper and handed them towards Ash.
“What is this?” Ash asked as he stretched his hand out to accept the gift from Kevin.
“Two front row tickets to my play!” Kevin responded with a wide smile. Misty’s face lit up in excitement and was about to congratulate Ash when he bluntly said,
“I don’t want to see some
boring play.” Misty stopped in her tracks and she yelled in shock,
“WHAT?” Kevin was just as equally shocked, if not, a bit offended for Ash’s attitude.
“Fine then, have it your way.” He was about to put the tickets back in his jacket when Misty leaped forward.
“NO!” She grasped the two tickets in her hand until she realized what she was doing. She looked up embarrassedly at Kevin who had raised his eyebrow and she laughed uneasily as she let go of the tickets.
“Sorry about that, Ash doesn’t know what he’s saying; we’ve been traveling a lot and we haven’t stopped for a rest yet so we’re all a bit tired,” she said with an airy laugh.
“About ten minutes into that boring play outta cure that,” Ash said dryly before yelling out in pain as Misty crushed his foot with her heel.
“So do you think I can still get those tickets?” Misty asked sweetly, pleading with her eyes at Kevin who couldn’t help, but smile.
“Alright, alright, here take ‘em, they’re yours.” He handed the tickets over to Misty who ecstatically received them as she began to thank him profusely. Kevin nodded his head, bid his farewell, and turned around and ran back to the building, leaving the group to themselves once again as the crowds on the street began to disappear slowly, apparently flooding the theaters.
With a quick swipe of her arm, the two tickets in Misty’s hand came crashing down on Ash’s head and he quickly grabbed his head.
“Ow! What the heck was that for?!” he exclaimed gripping onto his head as it throbbed in pain as a fresh bump began to form on the spot where she smacked him.
“That’s for being such an idiot!” she fumed. “You promised before we even started this journey that you weren’t going to be stuck in ‘training mode’ the whole time we spent here!”
“I know that and I’m not! But if I don’t want to see a dumb play and I think I’m old enough to decide if I don’t want to!” he yelled back, the bump now
very apparent as it poked through his cap. Aziz and Pikachu gazed on in silence, awestruck as the two of them kept going at it for several minutes, neither of them willing to give in.
“Oh stop being such a baby, it’s just a small bump!” Misty said rolling her eyes as she shook her head after hearing Ash complain about the blow he had received.
“Small?!
Small?! You call this
small?!?!” He lifted his cap and exposed his bump which had now grown to half the size of his head. Misty quickly turned away from the sight and shuddered at the grotesque sight, but she wasn’t just about to quit that easily.
“So tell me then, what are you going to do if you’re not going to go watch the play?” Misty asked with annoyance.
“Train my pokemon,” Ash stated simply.
A vein throbbed in Misty’s forehead as she clenched her fists, trying with all her might not to give Ash a second bump over the one he already had. She walked up to him calmly and began to explain in a restrained voice what was going to happen,
“This is what
I’m going to do Ash. I’m going to the play, with or without you, and I’m going to enjoy it! What
you have to decide now is whether or not you’ll come with me or not.”
“What makes you think I’m going to change my mind?” Ash replied coolly, maybe a
bit too fresh. She bit her lip and drew a quick breath of air.
“Fine. Fine! I’ll meet up with you once the play is done.” And with that she turned around and walked away from him quickly without uttering another word or looking back as she wiped her eyes with her arm. Aziz quickly followed after her as Pikachu came bounding back towards Ash, leaping onto his trainer’s shoulder. He looked at her walk away, mad at her for taking it that way and mad at him self for acting the way he did.
“Well no use worrying over the past now…” he replied with a heavy sigh. “Come on buddy, let’s go find a good training spot...” Pikachu shook his head in disapproval, but he knew that they’d have these fights since the beginning of the journey; it’s not like this was the first time they’ve fought like this.
He was
positive that once the play was finished, they’d make up and everything would be back to normal…
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Ash kicked the dusty ground in frustration as he walked aimlessly around the city, supposedly looking for a good location to train. Pikachu let out a worried sigh and asked Ash why he was so depressed as he sat on his trainer’s shoulder.
“I’m not sad, I’m just worried about…my training,” he said, almost letting something slip out before quickly correcting himself though Pikachu knew better than that. He quickly changed the subject and observed his current surroundings. They were now on the outskirts of the village, a wide open space with only an old abandoned building standing before them so Ash decided to do there training there since he needed to clear his mind.
“Go Virgel, you too, Shogra!” They both came out of their balls and Pikachu hopped off of Ash’s shoulder to join them. “Alright here’s the deal! We got another Gym match coming up and from the last Gym match, I can tell we need the training!” Virgel embarrassedly scratched the back of his head as well as Pikachu for each of their lack of performance while Shogra stood silent. “So this is the deal; until the moon reaches the top of the sky we don’t stop, alright?” he said pointing towards the newly risen full moon that was looming over the horizon. Each of his pokemon nodded in agreement and Ash yelled enthusiastically,
“Alright then so let’s start! Oh…but first I think we should move a bit farther away from that building; it looks pretty old and I don’t to go around to destroying it!” he said with a laugh. The group of them started to move away from the building and Ash took one last look at the building as they moved closer to forest. He was about to look away when he turned around quickly, something catching the side of his eye.
A small black figure stood atop the building with yet another smaller figure right next to him, each of them only visible through the light of the moon. Ash stood still looking on in great curiosity as to what they could be doing up there. A bright flash of yellow light erupted from them and for a brief second, Ash saw the taller black figure; a thin cloaked man with a wide hat on, dark glasses, and a black scarf that covered his lower face hid his identity until he quickly disappeared into the building. He turned around and addressed his pokemon,
“Did you guys see that?” Pikachu turned around and looked at Ash curiously; Virgel responded with the same confused look and Shogra was indifferent. He scoffed in annoyance and began to debate in his head whether or not he should follow after him.
“What would a guy dressed in all black have to do with an abandoned building? Is it really any of my business?” He went over each detail until he finally made up his mind and ran towards the front of the building, his group of pokemon taking after him.
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As soon as he turned the corner, he saw the cloaked man running while he grasped something in his hand, the smaller figure nowhere to be seen.
“HEY! YOU STOP!” Ash screamed after the man as he took after him, but the man neither stopped nor turned around; he simply jumped into the forest and disappeared amidst the shrubbery. Ash stopped in his tracks and he cursed himself for being too slow.
”What could he have been doing in that old building? Better go take a look…” Ash thought as he turned around, facing the old wooden doors of the building. As he walked towards the building Pikachu yelled at the top of his voice, telling Ash to stay outside of the building. He turned around with a smile,
“Don’t worry buddy, I’ll be alright! Just wait for me out here, OK?” He gave his Pikachu a thumb’s up and opened the doors with a loud creak. Pikachu slapped his forehead for Ash’s stupidity; he had a deep feeling in his gut that something bad was going to happen.
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Everything was dark and unbelievably quiet as Ash walked cautiously into the building. From what he could see, it seemed as if he was in a large room with weird kinds of displays in glass cases all around him. From far away, he could see from where the cloaked figure broke in as the moon’s light shined down on the room beneath it. He began walking faster towards the light, his heart racing faster with every step he took.
“WHOA!” He slammed against an old suit of armor and it rocked back and forth as Ash stumbled to catch it until his hands finally got a hold of the armor. “Whew, that was a close one!” he sighed in relief with the old rusty statue safely stationary on its display. He continued walking towards the light shining down from the ceiling; it seemed as if he was following a red carpet on the ground from what he could see as he walked closer to the room. Upon entering the room, Ash heard an odd sparkling sound and looked around as to see where the noise was coming from, but he couldn’t find the source.
He finally reached the light; it was shining down on a broken glass case that rested at the top of a short flight of stairs. Upon looking closer at the display case, he saw that it had been broken into from the side of the case with a large hole glaringly apparent on the side. On the inside of the case was a small stand that was no longer carrying anything and as he looked closer at it, a small card was located on the stand.
“With many thanks to the citizens of Syl Village, we present them one of the finest emeralds mined from the Mineral region!”
–The Staff at the Syl Museum
“MUESEUM?!” Ash yelled out loud.
“FREEZE THIEF!” A voice bellowed out from behind Ash, causing him to jump. His eyes widened in fear,
this was not good…
“HANDS IN THE AIR! YOU’RE UNDER ARREST FOR THE ROBBERY OF THE SYL MUSEUM!”
