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Adaptation (Advanceshipping Focus)

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Adaptation: Rated PG-15

Adaptation

The news doesn’t surprise me anymore. Honestly. All you see everywhere is new disasters, every day, everywhere. It’s almost overwhelming to see the tests that humanity faces every day. But somehow, we get through it all. We overcome it. The obstacles put in our way are just temporary, nothing permanent. And even when they do harm us, we grow. We change. We face the threat, and we adapt to it. I am Ash Ketchum, and this is how I adapted.

__________________________________________________________

Chapter 1: Delia’s Wedding


As I crawled over the hot, hard rocks of the desert, I noticed that there was a complete lack of wildlife. Nothing at all. We seemed to be alone. I looked back at Brock, and his expression told the same story as mine. The small, yellow rodent Pokemon known as Pikachu was hopped up on my shoulder, sweating profusely. This was the only time since receiving him that I had considered putting him back in his Pokeball. His sweat had the sleeve of my black t-shirt drenched and smelling horribly. I couldn’t wait until we reached our destination.

Brock and I had met back up after I completed my quest in the Unova region. We’d been traveling for a good week now, mostly by tram and boat. This was one of the rare instances where we had to walk to get somewhere.

“Shouldn’t this desert have run out about a mile ago?” Asked Brock, now questioning our map’s accuracy. It was obviously not recent, with the date at the bottom saying “1985”, but we figured it would be accurate enough to at least get where we were going.

“Must’ve had a lot of desertification in twenty-seven years,” I muttered under my breath. Talking was wasting energy, which was what we needed most right now. “I knew we shouldn’t have bought it from the shopkeeper. He was… odd.” It was true, he was incredibly strange. He seemed very happy to get the map out of his own hands, even giving us a seventy-five percent discount. Buisness must’ve hit a low point if he was having sales that low.

“Look, let’s just hope we have enough time to change into the wedding clothes.” Brock said. Today was the day that my mother was getting married. She had met a man named Darren on a shopping trip while in Johto. They had been dating for almost a year, and Darren had proposed about six months ago. The wedding took a while to plan, especially since the wedding of Mom’s dreams wasn’t really financially feasable for our family. Darren mustered up the money, coming from a rich family, and paid for it all, much to Mom’s delight.

I’ve never liked Darren. He is sarcastic and cruel, especially to me for whatever reason. Mom hates that we don’t get along, but Darren is well-liked by her friends and the residents of Pallet Town, so I guess one opinion wasn’t really enough to sway her. It wasn’t the fact that she was marrying him that got to me; I was happy as could be for her, especially since she’s never been married or even in a real relationship. It was the fact that Darren was going to be my legal father that I hated. I couldn’t stand the man, let alone call him “Dad.” As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a father. He left my mother when he found it she was pregnant. I don’t ever want a father. It’s just fine with me and Mom only.

It’s not like I ever really see my mother anyway, what with me being gone all of the time. In the five years that I’ve been training and battling with Pokemon now, very little of that time has been spent with my mother, and that’s probably my deepest regret. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to her while I was gone.

“Ash, look, there’s the town!” Brock interrupted my thoughts, obviously exhausted. We made one last dash towards the city, while checking on the map for the church that Mom and Darren would be getting married at. Luckily, the church must’ve been constructed before the map was made, as we found it fairly quickly.

As I walked up to the rather small church, one thing was apparent; it hadn’t been re-painted in years. Chips of brown stuck around the white paint, notifying to me that the church was built out of wood. Interesting that it had survived so long, as Celadon City, where the wedding was taking place, was prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. The city had a grassy theme to it, probably because of Erika, the local gym leader.

Erika was a strong trainer, one I respected more than most. She was a kind woman with a good heart, but a fierce mean streak during battles. Others have compared me to her at times, though I don’t prefer grass Pokemon. They require a lot more care than other Pokemon, which is something a lot of people (like myself) simply don’t have time for. Of course, being a gym leader, Erika probably has more time for those kind of things.

As I entered the church, I noticed that two tuxedos were thrown out onto a pew. I quickly realized that those were Brock and I’s. Mom had prepared Brock with a dark black tux and brown tie. My tuxedo was the same color, only with a red tie. Personally, I thought they looked like a politician’s daily wear and was very reluctant to put mine on. Brock seemed to like his, however, and rushed to the bathroom and threw it on immediately.

“Got to look nice,” He told me. “You know, just in case Darren has any hot girl relatives, you know?” Typical of Brock. I laughed a bit, wondering whether or not it was a joke or if he was being completely serious. I assumed the worst, and went with the last option.

Mom hadn’t invited my more recent traveling companions (mostly because she had never met them). Besides, they stayed in Unova, rather than come along with me to where ever I would go next. It didn’t really bother me; they had their own dreams and ambitions, just like I did, but I found it sort of odd that Iris would miss my mother’s wedding, invited or not. She was always into that kind of thing. I really don’t know why. Weddings are some of the most boring things on earth.

After putting on my outfit, the wedding was about to start. After leaving the bathroom, I noticed that there were far more people here than I had originally thought there would be. A lot of Pallet Town citizens were there, to support Mom, and a few older friends of mine were there too. Mom had a tendency to become friends with my friends, so it didn’t surprise me. I noticed that Dawn was sitting in the front row, squealing in delight. She waved at me, and I sheepishly waved back. I figured she would’ve came and adjusted my suit, her being the perfectionist she was. I walked away, and decided to take a seat in the second row next to Brock.

Brock looked incredibly disappointed for whatever reason. “There’s no hot girls!” He cried.

“Hot girls don’t come to weddings, Brock. You have to go to a baby shower if you want hot girls.” I should’ve known. I’d seen the pictures of my mother’s baby shower, and some of the women there looked less than… modest, to say the least. Dad wasn’t there, though. It would’ve meant more to me had no one showed up other than my father for the shower. All I ever wanted growing up was a father. I remember, every Christmas I would ask Santa (whom I still believed in at the time) for a Dad. Anyone would do. I guess I was always just missing that father figure in my life. I’ve wisened up since, and now that I don’t want a father, it seems that I’m going to get one.

I noticed a brunette girl walk out of the women’s bathroom of the church. She had her hair grown down and was wearing an emerald-green dress. I noticed her brown eyes and saw that it was May. May had been gone for three years, doing contests in Johto. I’d heard that she’d finally won the grand festival. I guess she’s the princess of two regions, now. I wasn’t exactly ecstatic to see May; shocked more or less. I had thought about meeting up with her sometime, but that never really got anywhere. As far as I’m concerned, she’s one of the better friends I’ve had over the years.

She sat down in the pew next to me, uttering a slight “Hi.” It was obvious that she was in a bad mood. If there was one thing I had learned from Brock, it was that you had to be very, very careful when talking to a woman in a bad mood. I chose my words carefully.

“Where have you been?”

As I realized my mistake in words, I prepared the side of my face for a slap. Luckily, it never came.

“Johto. Where else would I have been?” May asked. The question obviously puzzled her a bit. I decided to go along with it a bit, just to ease a bit of the tension.

“Well, you could’ve been anywhere, couldn’t you? For all I know, you could’ve been hiding out in a jungle somewhere on an island.” She looked at me like I was on drugs.

“Are you alright, Ash?”

“More or less.” It was the truth. I was happy for my mother, but I disliked Darren. I genuinely didn’t know what to do.

“What do you mean by that?”

I pondered for a minute, questioning myself on whether I should tell her my opinions on the groom-to-be. Luckily, Brock interrupted our incredibly awkward conversation.

“So, when does this thing start?” Brock asked me. May grabbed the bulletin next to her, opening it up and carefully inspecting its contents. “The bulletin that I got when I came says that it starts at about eight.” It was currently seven o’clock.

“Oh, hi May!” Brock said, excitedly. “I didn’t even notice you over there.” May cracked a smile for the first time since I’d seen her.

“Hi, Brock,” She sad, with a twinge of happiness in her voice. “So, have you done anything new since I left?”

“Well, I did become a Pokemon Doctor.” Brock’s eyes lit up at the mere mention of the words. It was obvious that the proffesion he had gotten into was his passion.

“That’s great! I haven’t done much of anything since winning the Grand Festival. Mostly just preparing for next year’s Festival.”

“Why don’t you take some time off from preparing?” I said. “Maybe rest a while. I mean, I know I wouldn’t be in such a hurry if I won the Grand Festival to get started again. Battling and contests are great, but sometimes you just need a break.”

May looked shocked at what I said. “Ash Ketchum, taking a break? I guess hell has frozen over since I left you guys, huh?” Pikachu must’ve taken notice of May, as he sprung forward and jumped on her lap.

“Pikapiiiii?” He rested his small yellow head on May’s lap, his red cheeks buzzing. May picked him up and cradled him in her arms, almost like a mother carrying a baby. Pikachu seemed to enjoy it, as he rested his body in her arms.

“He must really like May.” I whispered to Brock. Brock raised his eyebrows a bit. “You know, Pokemon can occasionally take on the feelings of their trainers.” He cracked a smile at his joke, while I scowled at him, because it wasn’t like that. I hadn’t really ever seen May romantically, and I doubted that it was going to change. We were just good friends, and we didn’t even really seem like that today.

I walked out of the pew and went to the kitchen area of the church, were food was being distributed while the guests waited. I saw Darren sitting in a chair, beaming. It seemed as though it was the happiest day of his life. Darren had a small beard on his face, combined with a slight mustache at on his upper lip that connected to the beard. He had tattoes running down his right arm, but he had those covered up today. His suit looked very expensive- probably enough to feed a family for a good week- and was flashy. He had on a dark green tie with red stripes running down the middle. His suit looked as though one would wear it on a Christmas church service, and not to a wedding. He was chatting with some of his friends who were drinking champagne from a dixie cup. Darren wasn’t drinking, however.

Darren had been to rehab because of a drug issue he had. He was addicted to a lot of illegal substances, but the rehab appears to have cleaned him up. I haven’t seen him touch so much as a beer or a cigarette since I met him. That was one of his few admirable traits. I figured that this was what attracted my mother to him in the first place. He was a broken man, and women love a man that they can fix.

As he got up from the table and dismissed his friends, most of which I had never seen before, he walked up to me, and spoke to me.

“Look, I know you’re probably not comfortable with Delia and I getting married.” Not comfortable? Was this guy an idiot? Of course I wasn’t comfortable. I was angry.

“No, not really,” I said to him. I was just being honest. I really didn’t care if it hurt his feelings or not. “But if it makes Mom happy, then I guess I’ll just have to go with it.”

“She hasn’t been happy in a long time, you know,” Darren said. He was right. Mom was almost always sad these days. At least, until she met Darren, she was. “She told me about your dad. I’m sorry. I’m not going to do that. I would never hurt Delia.” With that, he walked away. This was the first time I felt any amount of respect for Darren at all. Brock and May walked up behind me, Brock clutching my shoulder.

“You know,” Brock muttered. “I think you might have to give this guy another chance.” May looked puzzled.

“You don’t like Darren?” She questioned. The expression on her face was one of confusion. She had never met Darren before, so I guess she would figure that he was a great guy.



“Not really, no. He’s sarcastic and occasionally cruel, and a reformed druggie. I just don’t trust him.” Pikachu, who had now sprung back up onto my shoulder, nodded in agreement.

“I seriously think this might be Delia’s last chance at a relationship, Ash. You should let her have it.” Classic Brock. Clueless about love when it came to himself, but great at giving advice about it to others. Brock had made his point and he walked off. May stayed behind to grab some ramen noodles off of a table.

“I really don’t see anything wrong with him.” She said to me.

“Try living with him for a month like I have.” I had finished my journey in Unova earlier than expected, and decided to come home to be with my Mom for a while. Darren was a surprise, and not like a good surprise birthday party. It was more like walking into your bathroom, about to take a shower, when suddenly, a chainsaw killer pops out of the closet as you reach for a towel and cuts your limbs off. A lot like that.

“I’m not going to try arguing with you, Ash,” May said with a somewhat disappointed face. “Because we all know how that will end. I’m just saying, maybe this Darren guy isn’t so bad after all. Who knows, you might actually like each other after a while.”

“I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, May, but I really don’t think I’ll ever like the fact that Darren will be married to my Mom.”

“Suit yourself.” With that, in typical May fashion, she put down the bowl of ramen and walked away.

Her response didn’t surprise me; May had always been like that. In fact, almost every woman I’d ever met had been like that. I’ve always figured it was some sort of feminine motto; “If you don’t get your way, go away.” There was something a bit more saddening when May did it. Maybe it was the look of disappointment on her face. I hate disappointing people, especially since my earliest memory is that of disappointment. When your father leaves before you’re even born, you always feel like a disappointment. I did, and I probably always will.

“Excuse me!” Shouted a voice from the sanctuary. I turned to see an old man, presumably the pastor of the church, ringing a bell and holding a microphone. “The ceremonies are about to start, and everyone should return to their seats immediately.”

As a group of people who had been eating in the kitchen lazily lulled their way back to the sanctuary to sit down and get the wedding over with, I started hearing noises outside. “Murderers, lawless, police!” At first I paid them no attention. “Murderers, lawless, police!” I turned around and stared out of the churches stained windows, seeing nothing. And then it became so loud that everyone in the room turned their heads.

“MURDERERS! LAWLESS! POLICE!” At the sound of the voices, Darren ran to the door and opened it, revealing a horrifying scene outside. Darren had paid for a police escort to the wedding, presumably to make my mother feel more like a “queen” than she already did, getting married to a man of such high status. The police in Celadon were well known for being ruthless and not afraid to pull the trigger if need be. A huge crowd of people surrounded the policemen outside, as they had only arrived about thirty minutes ago and decided to stay around for some food.

One man held up a mannequin dressed up like a Celadon policemen, famous dark blue uniform, golden badge, everything. It was hanging from a noose that was tied to a giant piece of wood. It was disturbing, to say the least. When the police tried to enforce the law on these protestors, all hell broke loose.
 
Last edited:

ChloboShoka

Writer
Poor Ash. His step father to be dosen't seem to be so pleasant, but I'd like to see more of his character in later chapters.
 

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Chapter Two: A Ruined Day

The guests inside the church came out to see what all of the fuss outside was about, not noticing that Darren was frantically trying to shoo them away from the door. Eventually, they caught on and backed away. While I retreated back behind the pews, I noticed that all of the protestors had on a uniform. The uniforms were all the same, with a blue armband on the side. It showed an X with a vertical and horizontal line going through it. It almost looked as though it was a cult symbol.

The sounds were deafening, as you could hear was Pokeballs flying through the air and the sound of nightsticks cracking skulls. I was almost afraid to look outside. I noticed that May and Brock were beside me.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Brock asked me. I shrugged my shoulders to indicate that I didn’t, while we heard the chants growing louder. Sirens filled the air as we heard the crackles of fire outside. For the first time, I noticed my mother, in a corner, sobbing in Darren’s arms. He was trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. I knew that it wouldn’t. Darren was lying. I could see it. He knew things weren’t going to be alright, but he did it anyway.

After taking my eyes off of the couple, I noticed that the sounds had stopped. There was complete silence. I finally mustered up the courage to look outside, and I would remember what I saw for the rest of my life. Buildings were on fire, forests were ablaze, policemen dead in the streets. My eyes widened in shock until May pulled me back.

“Do you have any idea what will happen if they see you?!” She whispered angrily. “You could get us all killed!” I noticed Dawn, who was laying in the pew behind us, hidden from sight. She had a very worried expression on her face and was breathing hard. She looked as though she was going to hyperventilate. Brock grabbed her shoulder, trying to comfort her a bit. I noticed that she and May were the only women in the room that weren’t crying at least a little. May grabbed my hand and held on hard, and I noticed that her other hand was around Brock’s wrist.

“What are you doing?” I asked her. Her eyes widened a bit.

“Nothing.” She quickly pulled her hands away from both Brock and I’s arms, cowering into a ball on the floor. Once I looked outside again, I noticed that the riot was over. It must’ve been even bigger than we expected. Firetrucks sped down the streets, sirens blazing. Water was being dumped on the buildings. Then the thought hit me.

What about the people inside the buildings?

I knew that the death toll must’ve been huge, and what was even more painful was the fact that we couldn’t do anything about it. I looked over to my right and I noticed Pikachu sitting on the ground, tears pouring down his small face. I grabbed him and held him tightly to my chest, while May rubbed his head, trying to do anything to calm him. His red checks had turned a dark shade of pink, indicating that he was sad and depressed.

The riot must’ve been much larger than just at the church; the entire city of Celadon was burning. All of the wedding guests appeared to be okay- the people outside? Not so much. These protestors took it a step too far. You can’t just set an entire city on fire and kill numerous innocents, many of which include police officers, and expect to get away with it. I wasn’t stupid, though; I sure as hell wasn’t going after these people, not now at least. It was far too dangerous. I only had Pikachu with me, and as far as I know, none of the wedding guests had anything on them either. Not that I expected that any of them would come with me in the first place.

Brock finally got up from the pew and stood up.

“It’s fine. They’re gone.” He said reassuringly to the wedding guests. One by one, they slowly rose up, looking in every direction to see if any threats were nearby. I couldn’t blame them. This was obviously a traumatic experience for them. I’m sure that they wouldn’t be very keen on skipping out the door and continuing the ceremony right now as if nothing had ever happened.

“We’re going to have to push the ceremony back a while,” Darren said. “And it most certainly won’t be taking place here.” The pastor looked as though he was going to slap Darren, and he had every right too. Darren had just insulted his church. But, being the Godly man he was, the pastor turned the other cheek (quite literally) and looked away from Darren as he led my new “father” led my mother outside the door.

When we looked out, there was steam. Steam everywhere. The firefighters seemed to have taken care of most of the buildings. I looked to my left, trying to see the Pokemon gym that Erika was in charge of. Instead, I saw a pile of burnt wood and metal, with a woman in a familiar green kimono on her knees and sobbing in front of it.

“Dead, dead! They’re all dead!” She screamed to the sky as one of the girls from her gym rubbed her back comfortingly. I could see May staring a hole through Erika, holding back tears.. I suddenly realized what had really happened; all of Erika’s pokemon, and likely a few gym trainers, were dead. Erika left her pokemon in the gym, where she and her trainers had constructed a plant habitat, successfully mimicking that of a grassy habitat. The gym was absolutely enormous; far bigger than any other gym in any region, other than Norman’s, from Hoenn, who also had a habitat in his gym. He cared for creatures such as the Slaking evolutionary line, so his gym needed all of the space it could get.

“May? You know Erika?” I questioned. May, at least during the period of time I had traveled with her, had never seen this woman in her life. By this time, most of the wedding guests had left, getting into their cars (what few were left) and driving away, trying to burn the images of the day out of their mind.

“Of course I know her, Ash,” That shocked me a bit. “I’ve been taking the gym challenge as well as doing contests.” That last part shocked me even more. May Maple? Doing gym battles? May always had hated gym battles. She preferred to use her Pokemon in contests, where their beauty could be shown instead of their fighting capabilities.

“Since when do you do gym battles?” Brock asked. May looked at him, almost annoyed. “I’ve been trying to get more variety into my life.” She replied. Variety? Why would she need any variety? She was one of, if not the best, coordinators ever. She had conquered both Hoenn and Johto, winning Grand Festivals in both. Why on Earth would she want variety? If I won two league championships (I have a stunning number of zero), I sure as hell wouldn’t want any variety. If anything, I’d be competing in more.

My mother, Darren, May, Brock, Dawn and I were the only ones still around, so we decided to just go find a hotel and rest for the night. Preferably one out of town, since most of the hotels in Celadon had been burned down. But when I turned my head, I saw a building that was scorched to the core. Nothing would’ve made it stick out form the other buildings, except for the fact that this building had an enormous flag hanging down from the ceiling; the same emblem that was on the blue armband of the rioters was on the flag. One by one, I turned my head and saw the flags draping down. There was obviously something more to this than what we had originally thought.

I decided not to look any longer, afraid of what I might see. Eventually, we reached a bus stop that was evacuating the survivors out of the area. Once we got on, we noticed that it was almost completely empty. There were about eight people on the bus, most of them hurt. There was one girl who seemed to be about Brock’s age, who he quickly took a seat next to. May, Dawn and I sat behind the two, while my mother and Darren rode on the opposite side of the bus, hugging and kissing. Absolutely disgusting. With any other man, and I do mean any, it would’ve been fine. But this was Darren she was kissing, and it shook me to my core. I decided to look away from the “happy couple” and turn my attention to Brock and his new friend.

“So, why were you in town?” I heard Brock say. When I turned my head and looked at the girl, I noticed that her eyes were an odd mixture of grey, green, and blue, almost hazel looking. Her hair was a deep red, and her skin was pale. She looked almost Celtic. She had on a red t-shirt that had a number fourteen on the front, and a pair of cut-off blue jean shorts. Her face wore a sad expression. No wonder. She didn’t look to be very old. Like I stated before, she looked about Brock’s age (nineteen). Brock was able to handle the situation so well because he practically had to raise his siblings in his gym. Brock’s siblings were moved to adoptive care after word got around town about a fourteen year old (like I said, I’ve known Brock for a while now) raising a couple of kids on his own. Child protective services put them up for adoption, and now they’re both being raised by a very rich family somewhere in Hoenn. Brock never sees them, and it breaks his heart to be apart from them. He loved his brothers more than anything. The only time I’ve ever seen Brock cry is when his brothers are brought up. We don’t talk about his brothers under any circumstances.

For a nineteen year old girl, just getting out on her own, it must’ve felt like her entire world was crashing down (or in this case, burning down) in front of her eyes. Most nineteen-year-olds aren’t as mature as Brock is, so it must’ve destroyed her.

“I have… had a house here in Celadon. I worked at Erika’s gym. Today was my day off.” She said.

“Pretty lucky day off…” Brock muttered. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name. I’m Brock.”

“Brock? As in the former gym leader?” Brock nodded yes, but obviously felt a twinge of pain at the word “former”. He was relieved from his position because of his siblings. That’s why he started traveling with me when I first started training. He was always good to have around. Great mentor, Brock is. “My name is Scarlett. Scarlett Auburn.” Interesting name. Dawn cracked a small smile.

“That’s a beautiful name.” Dawn said. She was obviously trying to get off of the subject of the riot, and I don’t blame her. We couldn’t change anything that had happened, and it was obviously bothering us all in different ways. Why discuss it?

“It was my Grandmother’s. She gave it to me.” Scarlett said. Her eyes started to water a bit at the mention of her Grandmother’s name. “My grandmother died two years ago.”

May and Dawn sunk their heads, while Brock squeezed his eyes shut. I just stared, almost looking through Scarlett. I could feel her pain, and I really wished their was something I could do to cheer her up. I wished their was something I could’ve done to have cheered all of us up in that moment. Have you ever felt helpless? Scared? Almost alone? That’s how I felt in that moment. It was the same way I felt six years ago when my mother told me that my father hadn’t died, but said that he left us. She had been lying to me to spare me from being hurt all of my life. Sometimes, people deserve something better than the truth, you know. The truth hurts, and some people don’t deserve to hurt anymore than they already have.

“So, Scarlett,” Brock said. He seemed to really like her name. “Where are you going after this?”

“I’m not going anywhere. I don’t have anywhere to go. My parents have been dead, my house was burned down, and the only Pokemon I’ve ever had was my Chimchar. Luckily, we were out of the house when the riots happened, but other than that, this day couldn’t possibly be worse.”

“Really? What if your mother was marrying a psycho-douche? Maybe it would be a bit worse then”. I thought to myself. I glanced over my shoulder at Darren and my mother. They were both asleep, holding each other. The very sight of it disgusted me.

“You know, you can always just stay with us for a while,” Brock told her. “I think we’ve got plenty of room for one more.” At these words, Scarlett wrapped her skinny arms around Brock, hugging him tightly while saying “thank you” repeatedly into his ear. The look on his face said it all; this was one of the best moments of his life. A smile wrapped around his face and he was grinning from ear to ear, and his cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink. Pikachu and I started laughing crazily. Dawn and May giggled a bit. Scarlett shot us a sharp look, thinking the laughing had been at her. I motioned to her that this wasn’t so. She seemed to lighten up a bit after that.

After the bus parked, I had to shake my mother repeatedly just to wake her up. The sickening cologne that Darren had on almost choked me. It smelled almost like dead roses to me. I’ve hated roses ever since I met Darren. Much like him, they looked harmless on the outside, but if you looked a bit deeper, you could see the thorns poking out, almost itching for blood.

“Ash, what do you want?” She groaned. Thankfully, she didn’t wake Darren. Maybe if we were fast enough, she’d be too sleepy to remember to wake him up and we’d leave him on the bus.

“The bus has stopped,” I whispered, very carefully trying not to wake Darren. “It’s time to go.”

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and started slapping Darren’s back. “Alright, honey, let’s go.” Damn. I was genuinely hoping that Darren would be left on the bus.

“What?” He said. His eyes had deep bags under them due to the stress of the day. He checked the watch on his wrist. “Why are we waking up at eight, Delia?”

“I already told you. The bus stopped, Darren.” She said as she got up from her seat.

Darren lazily got up from his seat and left the bus with the rest of us. Oddly enough, he didn’t question Scarlett’s presence when we left. He must’ve been too tired. May and Dawn were chatting while we walked along the roads of Viridian City, where the bus had stopped. The town had an eerie feel to it. All of the natives dressed in odd clothing, nothing like the rest of Kanto. The most popular type of Pokemon here was the ghost type, oddly enough. These people had a weird culture. This is supposedly what their ancestors did as well, and no other city in Kanto shows respect to ancestors or the dead like Viridian City does.

As we passed by the famed Pokemon Academy, Scarlett muttered a few words under her breath. “That’s my old school,” She said. “I used to study there.” May seemed interested.

“What’s it like, at a Pokemon Academy?” May asked. As far as I had known, none of us, other than Darren and my Mother, had ever attended a Pokemon school, much less an academy.

“It’s awful.” Darren cut Scarlett off. “The food smells, the teachers are awful, and the students are complete assholes.”

“Much like yourself.”
I thought.

“I’m going to have to agree with Darren, here.” Delia said. “My experiences at the Pokemon Academy were none too pleasant.”

I hated to see my mother agreeing with Darren, especially on a topic such as this. How could a school that teaches you Pokemon battling be bad? I mean, I could understand the students part, since a lot of kids are complete assholes, like Darren said. But the teachers were there to help you learn. Why would they be awful? Maybe Darren was just one of those kids that hated the teachers and tried to ruin their lives during the years he had with them. It wouldn’t surprise me, seeing as how he’s essentially doing the same thing to me, now.

“I don’t know what Academy you guys went too.” Scarlett said. “My experiences were great.” Scarlett had a small twitch in her eye; she obviously had taken a disliking towards Darren and my mother.

“You know, Scarlett,” I said. “Not every academy is the same. Maybe it was just different back then.” I couldn’t understand the words that were coming out of my mouth. I was practically giving reinforcement to what Darren had said; I hated everything the man said. When he said he loved my Mother, it almost made me want to plunge a very long sword through one ear and out the other. So why would I agree with anything he said?

Once we found a decent hotel (there weren’t many in Viridian City) and got checked in, we decided to pick the rooms. It was decided that I would be rooming with Brock; May, Dawn, and Scarlett would be rooming together; and Darren and Delia would have a room to themselves. I particularly hated that last part. I mean, who would’ve known if something that (at least in my mind) shouldn’t have been going was going on that night? Of course, it probably already had, since they had already been dating since I met them. The very thought disgusted me, and I decided to take my mind off of Darren and Delia.

After I showered and Brock went in to take his turn, I decided to turn on the hotel’s television. Once I did, the late night news had popped up. Three in the morning, the clock on the television said. I didn’t know that news was broadcast this late.

“Breaking News!” The headline read. I decided to pay a bit more attention to it this time, deciding that this could be important. “Celadon City burned to the ground by a mass group of rioters! Stay tuned for more information…”

Once Brock had gotten done with his shower and put his clothes on, the news came back. “Celadon hit by massive riots,” The headline read. “Death toll estimated somewhere from 5,000-8,000”. Eight thousand. I shook my head. Eight thousand lives had been lost because of one groups hatred for the Celadon police. However, the news wasn’t finished yet.

“This just in,” The anchorwoman said. Her eyes started to water a bit as she said the next statement. “Pallet Town has been struck by the same group of rioters that burned Celadon. Explosives were planted in all major buildings of the city. The death toll, while not exact, has been estimated to be even higher than that of Celadon City.”
 

Skiyomi

Only Mostly Dead
Hey there, I'm just here to remind you that you need to add a rating for this in the first post. It's a requirement for all fics in this section.

Thanks.
 

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3: One Big Joke

Have you ever felt everything that you’ve ever done, you’ve ever worked for, everything you’ve ever loved, all crashing down around you? If you have, that’s exactly how I felt. All of my Pokemon left back at Oak’s lab? Likely all dead. All of my childhood friends that never left Pallet Town? Likely all dead. Hell, proffesor Oak is probably dead too. I didn’t know. All I knew was that everything was gone. In an instant. It was almost like someone had set fire to a match and burned a sheet of paper, in a matter of seconds. That’s how fast it went.

As everything in my brain went one hundred miles per hour, Brock walked downstairs to tell the girls, Delia, and Darren. I decided to take this as an opportunity to get some alone time. I opened the hotel’s screen door, and I took a seat on the bench outside. For a second, I considered jumping; I mean, I really had nothing to live for. Every last thing that I had ever loved, other than my mother, was dead. All of it. Pikachu took a seat on the bench and laid his yellow head on my lap, sobbing hard. They were his friends as well; this must’ve been especially hard on him.

After about ten minutes of just staring into space, I heard the door crack and footsteps. May walked outside, wearing the same outfit she had worn in Hoenn. The only difference was the color scheme; her bandanna, shirt, and shoes were a dark shade of navy blue.

“They were my friends too, you know,” She said in a soft, quiet voice. She remained standing by the door, not moving a muscle. “All of those Pokemon you lost today? We all loved them.”

I could no longer remain emotionless. I started sobbing, tears pouring down my face. They were all gone, every last one of them. Nothing was left.

“Why shouldn’t I just go, May?” I asked. “Why shouldn’t I just die? Everything I’ve ever loved has died. It’s all gone.” I meant every word. At this, Pikachu scooted over to give May some room. She sat down next to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

“Because you have so much more to live for,” I noticed that she was crying as well now. “You have your mother, Ash. You have Brock, you have Dawn, Misty, you have me, Ash. All of us want you here.”

I didn’t care. My pokemon had been my best friends for the past five years of my life. I lifted up my Unova gym badge case from my pocket. I took one hard look at it, and I threw it over the balcony into the lake below.

“I’m done.” I said. “I can’t take it anymore. All of this loss, I just can’t take it anymore.” I got up, but May did something she had never done before. She pulled me backwards and wrapped me in a hug. I don’t remember much more from that moment; just both of us crying ourselves to sleep on that bench. That’s one of the fondest memories I have; I probably would’ve killed myself right then and there if May hadn’t done that. I would’ve jumped off of that balcony. I wouldn’t be here today. For that, I’m forever grateful to her.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When I got up the next day, I realized that May had left. I stood up and put my arms on the balcony, looking out into the distance, hoping that the previous day had just been a horrible, awful nightmare that I would eventually wake up from. But the fact was, it was real. It had happened, and I couldn’t change the past. I could, however, change the future. I was going to stop this group. I didn’t care if no one wanted to go with me; I would make them pay for what they had done. Everything had been taken away from me in a matter of minutes. Almost all of my pokemon, dead. All of my friend’s lives, ruined. Proffesor Oak, dead. It hurt more than anyone could ever imagine, and I haven’t forgiven them to this day. I don’t think I ever will.

After I walked back in and put on some clothes (a red jacket like the one I had in Hoenn, a maroon and white hat, and some blue jeans) I decided to turn on the television. Brock was still asleep in his sleeping bag on the floor. Once I turned the television on, something surprising came up on the news.

“Leader of Rebel Group that Attacked Celadon and Pallet Town Speaks Out”. I turned the volume up and shook Brock.

“They’re talking about the attacks,” I said. He immediately woke up off of the floor and stood up, paying close attention to the television set. “The leader of the group is speaking.”

“Did they catch him?” Brock asked. He was still groggy from his nap. He rubbed his eyes lazily so that he could pay better attention to the television.

“No. It says he made a video and released it on the internet.” I payed closer and closer attention until the video was finally shown.

“So, I take it you’ve heard about Celadon and Pallet,” The maker of the video said, as though he was speaking to some one. He had slicked back brown hair and a clean-shaven face, wearing the group’s traditional uniform with a flak jacket and a pistol hanging off of the side of his arm, right next to the armband. “Well, it’s honestly nothing personal. It’s a social experiment, more or less. Now, before you all snap and turn off your televisions, I just want you to know; you brought this upon yourselves. If the Celadon police had not attacked and killed eight of my men, further proving that they are lawless, murderous hypocrites, none of this would’ve taken place. Celadon wouldn’t be burned down. Pallet would not have exploded.”

Those last words struck a massive chord with me. I had to hold myself back from throwing something through the television. This man had stolen everything from me. I hated him more than I had hated anyone in my entire life, and I could hardly stand watching it.

“Now, since you killed eight of my men, I’m going to kill eight of Kanto’s most important citizens. Not the gym leader’s, now, that would be far too obvious. And, like every good mystery, I’m going to leave you some clues. Now, here’s your first one; if the police department in Viridian City can’t figure out who it is, I’m going to kill someone. The thing is, you don’t know who. Now, here, we have two idiots who tried to go against us, Team Universal. Maybe you people will pay better attention next time.”

He flipped the camera to two thin men tied to two different chairs. They both had obviously been starved, and were wearing fake Celadon police uniforms in tribute to the dead police.

“Now, tell me why you’re wearing those outlandish outfits?” He asked the men.

The first men raised his head, which was covered in scratches and dried blood. He’d obviously been tortured. “Because… it’s a symbol of our hope.” He struggled to get each word out. “Those policemen that died?”

“What about those hypocritical bastards?” The leader of Team Universal said.

“They weren’t afraid of you, and this costume means we don’t have to be afraid either.”

“Wrong answer.” He pulled out a knife and proceeded to cut the men’s backs. He dropped them out of the chairs and showed them, screaming in agony, to the camera. The first man had the letter “T” cut into his back, while the other had a “U” carved into his. You could see part of his vertebrae going through one section of the U.

“You should be afraid of me, Kanto. Very afraid. And, that’s exactly what’s going to happen to those people I’m going to kill. One tonight, one tommorow night, one the next night… Every time the police departments of each city doesn’t give up and give control to us, people will die. More than one, actually, just to make it interesting. Good night, for now, Kanto. See you soon.”

Brock and I just sat down in shock. This man had already killed thousands of people, just to make a point. He was going to destroy these cities just because he hated a people-group so much. He wanted complete genocide of Kanto, and it just made no sense. He was specifically targeting police departments. Maybe he had enemies. Dangerous enemies, such as the police. Maybe he was just looking for attention; if he was, he certainly had gotten it.

After leaving the hotel room, deeply disturbed by what we had just seen. In what way had we brought this upon ourselves? It wasn’t our fault that our police had to kill a few criminals every year, I mean, that happens everywhere, not just here in Kanto. Why wasn’t he doing this to anyone else in any other regions? Why us? What have our police ever done to him besides protect him while he goes out and causes anarchy?

“I don’t think we can trust anything the guy says.” Brock said. I agreed. How were we supposed to know if he was lying? Maybe he was going to kill someone. Maybe he wasn’t. It was still no reason to let our guard down.

“Why would we in the first place? He’s murdered thousands of innocents. I mean, can you really trust anyone that believes in mass genocide?”

As we went down to the hotel kitchen for breakfast, we noticed that May, Dawn, and Scarlett were already downstairs. Darren and my mother must’ve slept in late. Their mistake, as most of the food was already gone by the time we got there. I grabbed a slice of pizza and some iced tea and went to sit down with Brock and the girls.

“So, did you guys see what was on the news today?” Dawn muttered while her mouth was filled with ice cream.

“Of course we saw it,” Brock said. “It was sort of hard to miss it.”

“I just want to know what this guy means by ‘social experiment’,” May said. “I mean, if he’s just trying to teach us something, wouldn’t it be better to do it without genocide?” May was right. There were much better ways to teach people things than by murdering their family and friends. That was obvious. But to him, I would assume that would be boring. Maybe this was all just a big game. One huge joke.

“So, did you guys just turn the news off when you were done, or did you pay attention to the memorial after it?” Dawn asked.

“What memorial?” Brock asked. I didn’t know either, so I was curious.

“The one for the dead police officers. If you look, it’s on the TV over there.” May answered. She pointed at the television screen. I noticed that most of what was left of Celadon and Pallet Town attended the memorial, trying to honor their dead police officers and citizens that were killed by this cult.

“There’s some guy in a black jacket.” I noticed. Not appropriate funeral attire. But as I soon realized, he had a blue armband on, and that could only mean one thing; he was part of team universal. He, along with some other people in the crowd, ripped off their jackets to reveal the traditional Team Universal uniform, a blue and gold flak jacket with black tights and dress shoes. They started, one by one, pulling rifles off of their backs; it was sort of hard to believe that a jacket could conceal a rifle, but I guess they could. I realized that the rifles were foldable, thus explaining why they were so easily hidden.

The men started shooting at random, as chaos broke out. Men, women, and children ran in every direction, while some police officers and unlucky citizens fell. Of course, the police officers had pulled out their pistols, but were no match for the superior fire-power of the assault rifles that they were up against.

I don’t remember much from that moment, other than people in the hotel dropping to their knees and sobbing. Brock, Dawn, May and I couldn’t show any emotion as the citizens were slaughtered on-screen for all of Kanto to see. One man from the crowd yelled out “My son! My son is in that crowd!” as tears streamed down his face, almost like a river. He dropped to his kness and started wailing. “God, please, don’t take my son! Don’t take my son, God!”

I noticed that everyone ran from the hotel lobby, and I realized that we should do the same. But there was one thing; Darren and my mother were still upstairs. May volunteered to go wake them, and Brock, Dawn and I waited outside the hotel grounds. There were televisions outside in a glass casing, so that we could keep up with the news. Suddenly, the same man that came on the television earlier in the morning re-appeared again. It was the leader of Team Universal.

“I told you, didn’t I?” He said, as people outside watched, horrified. “I told you that people will die if the police departments do not give us control, did I not? Once again, you’ve brought this on yourselves. Now, what I mentioned earlier about a social experiment; this was just part one. Like all good experiments, this one has a hypothesis. Do you want to hear it? Of course you do.”

“The hypothesis was that you would not listen until I got your attention. The hypothesis has proved correct, and now like a good scientist, I will move onto the next step of the scientific method; I will test the hypothesis, so be ready, Kanto.”

Test the hypothesis? What would he mean by that? Before we could even get to thinking, Darren and Delia came down the stairs with May. We had no car or means of transportation, but Scarlett had a decent idea.

“Why don’t we go to the bike store down the road?” She asked. “My Dad used to own it before he died; they’ll probably give us a discount just because of that.”

Checking our sums, Brock decided that we had enough money to purchase a few bikes. Darren, now wearing athletic shorts and a t-shirt, was a bit offended that a grown man and his “wife” would have to ride children’s means of transportation.

“I guess you just get to walk to the docks, then.” Brock said. We had decided that we would be leaving Kanto as soon as possible, the quicker the better. It was a bit far away, as the docks were in Cerulean City, and that was a good distance from Celadon.

After arriving in the bike shop, paying, and leaving with our new transportation, we swiftly rode away, trying anything possible to escape the upcoming threat. Little did we know, it was just going to escalate before we got to the docks.
____________________

Three chapters in and the shippy stuff finally starts. Yay. Anyway, I decided to introduce the main antagonist in this chapter. I'd also like to apologize for this chapter being shorter than the other two, as it was a bit rushed. Sorry.
 

(P.O.K.E.M.O.N)

AshXSerena = Canon
I have only read up to chapter one, since i have to go now :(

But this is my first ever fic i have read, and you have set a very high standard :D i loved absolutely every bit of it!!

I'll read the rest when i get back :)
 

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Congrats. You've made a villian team that I absolutly despise. This seems like a story where everything is going to get alot worse before it will get better.

Much, much worse actually.

@(P.O.K.E.M.O.N.)

Thanks for the compliment. Nice to see that people are enjoying this. Expect the next chapter sometime this week.
 

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Chapter 4: Genesis

Once we had reached the docks, we noticed that many, many people had the same idea as us. There were a good thousand people waiting at the docks, which had already seen massive crowds, but none were ever this big. Once we had waited a good ten minutes, a familiar voice came on a megaphone and the crowd instantly silenced.

“Hey!” Shouted a girl with orange hair, a blue shirt with black pants and blue flip-flops to match her shirt. She spoke with a ferocity that could only belong to one person; Misty. “Can everyone please shut the hell up?! We’re trying our best to get everyone on the boats, and that’s pretty difficult with all of you out here, shouting and screaming. If you could all stand in a line, it would greatly benefit us!”

She must’ve noticed us, as she stepped off of the dock and fought through the massive waves of humanity to get to us. Darren was the first one to notice, caling her “the ginger girl”, and saying that she was headed our way.

“So, you guys are getting out as well?” She asked us.

“Of course we are,” Brock replied. “We can’t stay here anymore. It’s too dangerous.” Scarlett nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, we’re definitely not planning on staying much longer. It’s like dancing in a minefield.” Scarlett said. She inched a bit closer to Brock, which he obviously enjoyed.

“I know what you mean. I’d leave too if the government hadn’t called on all of the gym leaders to stay and help protect the citizens that have decided to stay.”

“I guess you’ve stopped doing gym battles for the time being?” May asked Misty, curiously.

“Of course,’ Misty said, a bit snobbishly. “We can’t just stay around in the gyms and wait for challengers while something like this is going on. You can’t trust anyone these days.” I nodded. It was sad, but true. Misty suddenly looked in my direction, sadly. “I’m sorry about them, Ash.” I knew instantly what she was talking about. She was talking about the Pokemon I had lost back at Oak’s lab. Rumor had it that Oak had been away at the time, luckily. His Pokemon, however, weren’t so lucky.

“Anyway, I brought you this.” Misty placed a luxury ball in my hands. I studied it inch-by-inch. It was a gorgeous ball, so the specimen inside must’ve been even more gorgeous. “It has a baby Corphish inside of it. His name is Genesis. Take good care of him.” With that, she walked away.

Genesis. A fitting name. To Misty, it may have been just another water-type, but to me, this Corphish symbolized something more. Inspecting the ball, I found out that it was female. All female Pokemon had a small mark at the bottom of the ball. Going with it, I decided that she would be my Genesis, this Corphish. My new beginning.

May grabbed my shoulder and turned me around, lightly taking the ball out of my hand and pressing the button in the center. Once the beam of energy revealed the small, red lobster-Pokemon, we realized that it was a bit smaller than most Corphish. Dawn immediately had an opinion on it, of course.

“It’s sort of cute.” She said, with a smile on her face.

“It’s beautiful,” May said. “Everything about it. The name… everything.” Corphish immediately jumped in my arms and started looking at Pikachu. Pikachu cracked a small smile, which seemed to horrify the poor creature. It started sobbing, much like a newborn baby. I cradled it in my arms, trying everything within my power to get the poor thing to stop crying, but to no avail. It wouldn’t stop sobbing, and even when it slowed down, it opened its eyes and sobbed some more at the sight of Pikachu, whose ears were now drooping low in disappointment. I rubbed his head a bit, trying to tell him that it wasn’t his fault.

“Just give her here,” May said. “I’ll fix this.” She gently took Genesis from my hands, stroking her hard shell gently. Almost immediately, the Corphish stopped crying, and instead starting shouting with joy. It flashed a look in Scarlett’s direction, and sprayed her right in the face with a bubblebeam attack. Her red hair was soaked and her clothes weren’t in good shape either. Her clothes started hugging tightly to her body (much to Brock’s delight) because of the attack, and she was forced to grab a towel from her backpack and wrap it around her. Brock offered one of his towels for her hair, which she gladly accepted.

“I hope the boat has some plug-ins for a hair dryer,” She said. “Thanks, Genesis. I hate you already.” Genesis seemed to take offense towards her words, and started shouting the closest things to curses that a Pokemon could.

“Coooooooor!” She shouted. “Coooorpphhhhhhish!” She sobbed a bit, and Scarlett apologized profusely.

“Look, I’m sorry, please! Just shut up!” With that, Genesis was fine. I quickly returned her to her ball (much to May and Dawn’s dismay) and packed it deep inside my maroon and white backpack.

“The ships are about to come into port,” Brock said. “We need to hurry.” There was only one problem, though. The ships weren’t moving. They had stopped, and, in the blink of an eye, they were sinking. People were running through the boats to get out, but to no avail. Shore was still miles away, and these ships were humongous. Jumping from the top deck would mean death, but some people did it anyway. It’s amazing what some people will do when they’re afraid.

Once all of the boats had sunk and the few survivors drifted ashore, something on Brock’s pokegear popped up while all of us were still in shock.

“Well, well, well,” The voice said. Once again, it was the leader of Team Universal. “Wondering why those boats sank? It’s because we cut the power. There’s a region-wide blackout coming, so I’d get the candles ready if I were you, Kanto. This is part two of my experiment. I want to see how people react under pressure, Kanto. So far, you haven’t reacted well, it seems. Now, I’ve already got some results recorded from this experiment. Want to hear them? Of course you do.”

“First, I’ve come to the conclusion that your ‘moral code’ is just a bad joke, broken at the first sign of adversity. The fact is, Kanto, humans are bastards. We say that we would gladly sacrifice ourselves to keep a stranger alive, but, as seen today, that’s obviously not true. I’ve come to the conclusion that, at the first sign of trouble, you ‘civilized people’ will kill each other, roast each other over a fire, and eat each other. You see, Kanto, I’m not a terrorist, I’m a messiah. I’m a prophet. I am your savior.”

With that, the transmission ended. His words enraged me more than ever. Saviors don’t commit genocide. Prophets don’t strike you with disaster. A messiah would never do this. He was insane. This man was a monster, a terrorist, everything wrong with the world. He had just killed hundreds of people and he felt no remorse about it whatsoever. All for an experiment.

“Where do we go now?” Dawn asked worriedly.

“I don’t know,” Darren said. “I don’t know anymore. I can’t handle this. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t see anymore people die, damn it!” I noticed that he was sobbing and in my mother’s arms. I closed my eyes, trying to burn the image out of my mind. Darren was supposed to be a leader. Someone we could cry to for help in our darkest hour. He had promised that he would take care of us. But when what we thought was our darkest hour came, he was sobbing in my mother’s arms. He was no man of honor, no courageous warrior, no savior in the darkest times. He was a coward.

Darren and Delia decided that they were going to go back to what was left of Pallet, and I was glad for it. They were going to help clean up the town and help the survivors (my mother’s idea, of course). After some heartfelt goodbyes, they left on the train station that Cerulean had recently put in. After they had gone, we stayed back, planning our next move.

“We can’t stay here,” Scarlett said. “Universal might want to come back and finish off the city.” Nevertheless, we decided to stay in Cerulean City, as Brock and Dawn felt that Misty and the police force were perfectly capable of taking care of the city.

Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we quickly realized how beautiful the building was. There were aquariums everywhere, filled with water-type Pokemon. Creatures such as Sharpedo, Starmie, and Crawdaunt, the evolved form of my Corphish, swam around, staring at people that passed. The hotel had an aquatic theme. Even the carpet was cerulean blue, the color for which the city was named after.

“This is the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever seen!” Dawn said excitedly.

“If this is what the lobby is like, I wonder how cool the pool is…” May wondered aloud. I however, could not get my mind off of the catastrophe earlier in the day. It was decided that Brock, May, and myself would share a room so that Dawn and Scarlett could each have a room of their own. After unpacking our things, I decided to stay behind and think while everyone else went to the pool. After about twenty minutes, May came running back, saying she had forgotten something. She had on a white t-shirt and blue shorts and decided to take a seat next to me on the couch.

“What do we do?” I asked her. “How do we get through it this time?”

“The same way that we’ve gotten through everything else, Ash,” She said. “Together. You, me, Brock, Dawn, Scarlett, we’re a team. We can get through this alive. The night is darkest just before the dawn.”

“But the question is, how dark will it get before the sun rises?” I asked her.

“I don’t know,” May said, sadly. “I don’t know anymore.”
________________________________________________________________

I decided to clear my mind and head down to the pool with everyone else. I stripped down into my blue swimming trunks and jumped in, almost landing on Brock’s head. He joked that I was going to give him a concussion. Maybe a concussion was exactly what we all needed, just to be able to forget everything that’s happened. Scarlett had on a red and white striped bikini that Brock really liked, and May and Dawn had on almost matching outfits. May was still wearing her white shirt and blue shorts, and the only difference with Dawn’s attire was the fact that her shorts were pink. They both had their hair tied up, and if I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve assumed they were sisters.

For some reason, I carried my bag with me to the pool. I guess it was just habit, but it would prove to be invaluable later. Pikachu decided to sit out in a lawn chair away from the pool, as he couldn’t swim, but didn’t want to stay in the hotel alone. A strange man wearing blue swimming trunks with black marks on them was walking around the pool, examining ever last inch. He had a cell phone in his hand and he was talking to someone, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Another man on a phone came outside, wearing the same trunks as the other man. He had a beard that was obviously not cared for, and a tattoo on his arm. “Rise, resistenza. Alzati, il corrotto.” I had no idea what that meant, and I’m sure no one else did either.

Suddenly, he took his shirt off, revealing a bomb strapped to his chest, and a “U” tattooed on his chest. Brock pulled us all away from the sudden blast, as all of the water blew out of the pool, replaced by blood. Then everything went black.
_________________________________

Luckily, we had all survived. Pikachu was slightly hurt, but it was just a few cuts and bruises. The others had not been so lucky. There were a few survivors, but the water in the pool had been clouded and fogged by a crimson river of blood. Suddenly, a man came walking out of the smoke of the blast. He had slicked-back brown hair and a clean-shaven face, and he was wearing a blue flak jacket, but he had no pistol this time.

It was the leader of Team Universal.

“This isn’t happening,” I thought to myself. “This is just a bad dream.” But it was all too real. My eyes widened in horror of this monster, this man that claimed to be our messiah, and as I looked around, I realized that everyone else did as well. Scarlett’s eyes clouded with tears, Dawn was hyperventilating again, Brock had a face cold as stone, and May had all the color drained from her face. My feet started to move without me realizing it. Soon enough I had walked out of the pool of blood and stepped up to his face, trembling.

“What a shame,” He said to me. “Survivors.” That enraged me, and Pikachu came running over to help me out. Soon enough, all of the survivors came out of the pool, swimming past limbs and blood to get to his position. Soon enough, we had him surrounded. Everyone had at least one Pokeball in their hands (except for Brock, May, Dawn, and Scarlett, who had left their Pokemon in the hotel) and one by one, they slowly pressed the buttons on the center, revealing their monsters to the man.

“Ten on one?” He said. “Now, that just isn’t fair. Why don’t we even the odds a bit!” He pulled out a purple and red Pokeball from his flak jacket. A master ball. He pressed the button in the center and a beam of dark energy shot out, slowly forming a black, white, and red Pokemon. It had dark purple eyes, a scar over its eye, and it was levitating off of the ground.

He had a Darkrai.

It didn’t even need to attack, as its ability made everyone fall to the ground in pain, me included. The pain in my head was sharper and more fierce than anything I had ever experienced, and every time I opened my eyes, I saw horrifying images.

I saw people being slaughtered, bullets flying through the air, striking all of them down. I saw the buildings that were set on fire in Celadon, I saw the Team Universal symbol hanging from the torched buildings. Worst of all, I saw Pallet Town. I saw each and every one of my Pokemon, blasted to bits. I tried to close my eyes, but I couldn’t. It wouldn’t stop. I screamed out in agony, looking for somewhere to go, to escape the nightmares. I saw my family and friends burned at the stake, like witches. I saw him, the leader of Team Universal, speaking in front of a crowd, rallying supporters. I saw him inside Kanto’s government building, finally getting what he wanted. And then, I saw what he truly had planned for Kanto.

“Burn it to the ground.” The vision of him said. I saw every city in Kanto, burned. I saw everyone I had ever known, dead. It shook me to my core, and as the nightmares slowly faded, I screamed in pain and agony. “Stop!” I yelled. “Make it stop!”

Suddenly, I shut my eyes. The nightmares were over. I opened my eyes reluctantly, realizing that he was gone. We had all awoken and we were all sobbing. May was hugging Dawn and Scarlett, and Brock lay face down on the ground, pounding his fists, just trying to make it stop. They were gone, but they couldn’t be erased. Once we had all recovered from the nightmares, we realized that a whole day had passed. The sun had risen over the horizon, and the horrible day had come and gone.

May had said that the night was darkest just before the dawn, and I realized now that we weren’t even half way near the darkest hour of the night yet. This was just the beginning. This man had to be stopped, and I was determined more than ever to be the one who did it.

________________________________

Before anyone asks, "Rise, resistenza. Alzati il corrotto." means "Rise, resistance. Rise over the corrupt."
 

Breeder Drew

Well-Known Member
Chapter 5: Burnt Pancakes

We left the hotel that night. We knew that it was too dangerous to stay. We didn’t have time to say goodbye to Misty. We just went. The previous night had been the most traumatizing of each of our lives, and we tried to burn it out as much as we could, but it would never go away, no matter how hard we tried. I still had reoccurring visions from the day before, and they dug into my mind like a knife thirsting for blood. It hurt so very badly. I remember feeling nothing but pain and agony for that period of time and just waiting for it to be over.

When I went to bed, I had dreams about him. They horrified me, especially since they seemed so real. People have said that once a Darkrai forces one dream upon you, it can force as many as it wants later on. That obviously turned out to be true. One night was worse than usual. I remember waking up in a cold sweat, screaming. The dream horrified me and shook me to my very core.

“Do you want to know why I do what I do?” The leader of Universal said to me. We were in a dark, dimly lit room. I was handcuffed to a chair, unable to move. I noticed scars all over my arms and face. “I’ll tell you. You see, my parents passed away when I was three. I lived with my drunk of an uncle and ***** of an aunt. They completely ruined any sense off innocence I ever had. They beat me, threatened me with knives, cut me, and occasionally burned me. You didn’t think that such a… a monster could be terrified of someone, do you? I was terrified of them, boy. So, one night, I had enough. I killed them! I was free! That’s when I learned the one lesson that I’ll never forget, Mr. Ketchup, or whatever the hell your name is. Violence is the answer. You may not believe it now, but it really is. Now, I see the good side. I’m always happy. And, the real reason why I do this? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The world burned me, so I’m going to burn the world to Hell. You see, no matter what these ‘good citizens’ of our society today tell you, the fact remains that people respect a man with a gun more than they respect a hippie with a banner shouting protests for peace. Consider yourself educated.”

His motives were finally clear, but they were that of a madman. No sane man would go to such low levels to get revenge. May was awake as well, with Brock on the other side of the floor snoring.

“Did you have nightmares too?” She asked me, concerned.

“Yeah,” I said. “Worse than usual.”

“Me too. He was in the dream,” She whispered, almost afraid to even recognize him as a human being. “He talked about how his parents had died, his aunt and uncle had abused him… How he was going to send the world to Hell.”

“Sounds like we had the same dream.” I said to her, clutching my chest. My heart rate was up and my breathing had accelerated. I laid down to try and calm myself and stabilize my body, but to no avail.

“You know, at least it shows that he’s human. Or that he was once. He was just a kid, like us, until his life was ruined. To be honest, I almost felt… sorry for him.”

“I can’t afford to feel sorry for him.” I muttered.

“I know it’s wrong, Ash, but he was just like us at one point. He may have become a complete monster now, but he was a person at one point. At least, until he snapped.”

“May,” I said to her, finally sitting back up. “I don’t know if we can do this anymore. I don’t know how much more we can take.”: May looked sadly at me.

“Look at yourself,” She said to me, tears in her eyes. “You’ve never given up before, Ash, and all it’s doing is proving him right. He’s bringing out the worst in us! We can’t allow that to happen or we’ll end up just like him!”

“We’re nothing like him!” I said, almost shouting. “I’m sorry for raising my voice, but we’re not mass murderers or racists like he is.”

“I know, Ash, but people can change.”

After about three minutes of complete silence, I decided to end the awkwardness for a little while, at least.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” May asked, looking over in my direction. Her sapphire eyes gleamed, almost with disappointment that I was letting him do this to me. Letting him break me, destroy who I was.

“That this whole thing had to happen while you were here in Kanto,” I said to her. “I’m sorry that you’ve had to see all of this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you left. I won’t be mad if you do.”

May looked hurt. “I’m not going to leave you, Ash. Not again.” Again? I didn’t know what that meant, but after that things calmed down. We eventually went to sleep, hoping that the day ahead would be better than those behind it.

~~~

Once I woke up, I experienced a feeling that I had not felt in days. Peace. The sun had broken through the dark clouds of night and glowed radiantly, almost like a reminder to keep going. The clock next to my sleeping bag said six in the morning, and since Brock and May were still asleep, I decided to try my hand at making something for breakfast from the kitchen cupboard. The hotel had laid out freshly produced pancake batter that wasn’t set to expire for a few months, some chocolate milk in the refrigerator, a package of eggs, and three sets of bacon. They must’ve been expecting us to stay a while. Any logical person would’ve spared most of the food, but since I hadn’t had a good meal in days, I threw it all out onto the table and decided to start cooking.

Brock was the usual cook, and I quickly discovered why. It was more complicated than setting food inside an oven or putting a pop-tart into a toaster for ten seconds, it seemed. I had no idea what I was doing, but I decided to try anyway. Needless to say, I failed miserably. The eggs burned, the bacon was far more crispy than the package said it was supposed to be, and the pancakes had too much butter on them. There was only one thing to do; call room service, get some more, and wake Brock.

As I grabbed the phone, I realized something; I had no idea what I was doing. At the time, I had no idea what room service was. I thought that since you had paid to get to stay in the hotel, room service was free and would give you anything you wanted. How very, very wrong I was.

“Hello? Room service?” I asked as I dialed the number on the card next to the phone.

“Hello, this is Cerulean Isle Hotel’s Room Service. What do you need?”

A slick smile spread across my face. I could have anything I wanted, for free! I could tell them to take their clothes off and jump in a pool of chocolate milk and they would have to do it!

“Can I get some pancakes, eggs, chocolate milk and bacon?” I asked.

“Sure. Need anything else?” The woman on the other line answered.

“Can I get some chocolate up here? A lot of chocolate? Three packs?” I said. The grin was spreading farther and farther. Soon, I was smiling from ear to ear.

“We’ll see what we can do. Will that be all?”

I decided to not be selfish and get May and Brock something as well. May loved ramen noodles, so I’d get her some of those. Brock enjoyed women, but I’m sure this place didn’t run a whole prostitution ring (I was also a bit young to be ordering women over the phone at the time), so I decided to settle with a massage for him.

“Can I get some ramen noodles? And a massage?” I asked.

“Uh… Sure! We’ll have to go next door to the Johto-Themed restaurant to get the ramen, but we can handle the massage. Can you please tell us your room number?”

I checked outside the door, and said “306” into the phone, and she said that the goods would be up soon. Hopefully, all at the same time. I realized when I hung the phone up that my conversation with the hotel employee had woken up May and Brock.

“What are you doing on the phone?” Brock asked groggily. I smiled a bit.

“I just called room service.”

“Oh, God,” Brock said, putting his hands on his face. “What all did you order?”

“Nothing much,” I said. “Just some bacon, eggs, chocolate milk, pancake batter, chocolate, a massage, and some ramen.”

“What?!” He asked, shouting a bit. His reaction took me aback, as I had no idea what he was getting so offended by. “Do you KNOW how much that is going to COST?!” He asked me.

“It’s not free?” I asked. May just stared at me like I was an idiot, and Brock looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

“You know what? This will all be fine,” Brock said. “Once room service comes up, I’ll tell them that it was just a big misunderstanding. It will all be okay!”

Brock was then left speechless when the massage girl walked into the room. She had all the other delicacies on a red tray that she was carrying. She was bleach-blond with long legs, a large chest, and soft skin.

“Excuse me,” She said. “Someone in this room called for room service?”

“That would be me,” I said. She pulled in a massage table from the hallway. “The massage is for my friend over there. He’s the one drooling.” I mouthed a quick “you’re welcome” to Brock, who seemed to have all but forgotten about calling off the order. May and I chuckled as the woman placed Brock on the table and gave him the massage. He was sweating buckets; he’d obviously never had this much close contact with a woman before.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I went to go get it. Once I opened the door, I saw Scarlett and Dawn.

“What in the hell is going on in here?” Scarlett asked. Her eyes twitched as she saw the woman massage Brock, while Dawn commented on how thankful she was that I hadn’t actually called up an “adult massage” and how thankful that Brock still had a shirt and some pants on. The hotel employee seemed quite grateful of that fact as well.

“Do you know how much this is going to cost?” Dawn asked me.

“A lot?” I guessed.

“Yeah,” Scarlett said to me, her head shaking as her red hair flowed over her shoulder. “A lot.”

~~~

After we had payed the hefty sum that the hotel required, we decided to hit the showers and go to bed for the night. We decided to check the television, and luckily, there was no news of bombings for the day, no killings… had the police caught him? Maybe it was over. Maybe we had finally woken up from this almost week-long nightmare, but the fact was, we hadn’t. The news flashed on, catching Brock, May and I’s immediate attention.

“Fuchsia City’s Gym Leader, Janine, has been found dead with the letters “T” and “U” carved into her back. No word yet from her Elite Four Member father, Koga. Autopsy shows signs of poison inside her bloodstream. Signs of a struggle near the site of her death found.”

~~~

The reason why this got done so fast is because I had most of it written before I published Chapter Four here on the site. This one is slightly happier, except for the beginning and end, of course. Not everything can be all sunshine and rainbows, you know.

I'd also like to point out that this chapter was exactly 2,000 words. :p So, that's a plus for me.
 

sailormikumoon

Active Member
Oh my, this story is very interesting! A great plot and dark story. It's so well written in the eyes of Ash. I just love this story. Then again, I've always liked dark stories. I can't wait till the next installment! Keep it up! Sorry it's not a very good review, I just wanted to share my feeling on this story.
 
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