The Book of Ash
Chapter One: A World of Chaos
It was a beautiful day in Kalos, and Lumiose City in particular was bright and sunny. Many people were meandering around in the streets and talking gaily to each other, enjoying the day with friends and family. There were the regular shoppers, who visited the street fair and would browse the Farmer's Market, others who would shop around and look for the newest fashion trends, and those that were lazily and easily spending their day at regular stores and hanging about. There was also those who were enjoying taking pictures of people or of the world around them, capturing the beauty of all around and of the happiness that was spread around by those having a good day or just in general.
In a particular place, a laboratory –the laboratory for the Kalos region –a professor and his two main assistants were discussing their work heavily, and maintaining a steady flow of talk and an exchange of information between the three of them. One a male and the other two females. All three were in lab coats, where the distinguishing figure of each of them was the five o'clock shadow on the man, the open-rimmed glasses of the oldest female, and the short haircut of the younger.
Augustine Sycamore was a man of various interests, but nothing like Mega Evolution had ever captured his interest before. Along with his own Garchomp, he was glad to have a female trainer from Pallet Town of the Kanto region, Ash Ketchum, and for her to be so willing to help him out in regards to his research.
It didn't help that she was so pretty too.
"Professor Sycamore, I do hope that silly grin on your face has something to do with our research," Sophie, one of his beloved assistants, pushed up her glasses as she stared at him disapprovingly.
He held up his hands. "Oui, I am. I swear it!"
He swore that woman was like a Fearow, hawk-eyed and never missing a detail. At least Cosette was kind enough to ignore him when he was in one of his moods like this.
"Have we gotten a call from Ash yet? She should have been in Geosenge by now?" he switched their attentions, and his assistants looked at each other.
"Not yet, sir," Cosette answered him.
He frowned. "That is…unusual. She tends to make sure to contact us every day, even if to report a little something of her Charizard."
"Perhaps she'll call later?" Sophie hesitantly suggested.
"Hm…" he furrowed his eyebrows and rubbed his chin in thought. He saw something glint outside the window.
Blinking, he walked a little closer to the window, peering outside to see if he could find out what it was. His eyes widened and he rushed back to the women quickly and in alarm.
"Get down!" he yelled out.
The blast from outside, from wherever it came from, launched him and the women back and shattered the glass from all the windows of the building inward. His ears were ringing, his body was sore, and everything was a blur as he tried to focus and see what was happening around him.
"Sophie! Cosette! Where are you? What has happened?" he cried out, worrying about the women he'd been with just moments ago.
"Professor Sycamore! Professor, please! Over here!" he heard Cosette screaming, and he stumbled over to where he heard her voice. It was hard because his vision was still not clear, and he wasn't sure what was wrong with him or what happened in the first place.
"Cosette? Cosette, where are you?" he reached out and tried to feel around, given how he could just barely make out shapes with his eyes.
"Here, Professor! Over here!" he felt a dainty hand grab onto his, and then he was pulled over to a spot, where he was sat down onto the floor.
He reached out and touched a still body, stilling himself. No…no, it couldn't. It couldn't!
"Cosette, who is this? Cosette, who is this?!" he screamed out and Cosette started sobbing. "Sophie, Sophie no," his breath hitched and he bent down and gathered his beloved assistant and friend into his arms, cradling her as he grabbed onto Cosette and rocked them both. She clutched back onto him, as well as Sophie's body, and blubbered incoherently.
"No, no, no, no," he kept muttering.
What in the world was happening? And please, please let Ash be alright as well.
He didn't want to lose anyone else this day.
And outside his laboratory, chaos reigned as many others suffered losses, some physical and some emotional. Buildings were either fully taken down or had been damaged in some way. Many people lay on the streets, dead or crying. Others wandered around in a daze.
Where there was debris, there was blood. Where there were corpses, there were others to mourn them. And where there was fire, there were tears to try to smother them out.
There was pain and there was numbness. There was loud sobs and quiet cries. There was silence, but there was also deafening silence that said more than words ever could.
Nothing had been spared in this attack, and no one had been left untainted by what had just happened. Confusion filtered into the air as well, because no one understood what had happened or why. It had seemingly come from out of nowhere, and no one had seen this coming or had fair warning that it would. It was unfair what had happened, more than, and there were just so many that had suffered –that was suffering right then.
And all around, time was suspended as no electricity sparked and no one could call or communicate to anyone, and no one could find out what had happened.
When Augustine regained his sight fully, he numbly pulled away from his assistants (one dead, one cold), and dazedly made his way to a phone. He tried to call the police station, hoping they would have answers for him, but the phone was silent and there was no dial tone. He looked at it blankly. It seemed dead. He then moved towards a computer, but it wouldn't work either. Nothing would turn on, he realized. He started to hyperventilate as the situation fully hit him.
Checking all the electronics, there really was absolutely nothing that was working. He could only think of one thing that could cause a phenomena like this –if the attack that had just happened had been the result of some kind of nuclear attack, then the resulting wave could only be an electromagnetic pulse that had just wiped out everything electronical around him.
The question was…how far and wide had it affected everything in the Kalos region?
"Pika? Pika Pikachu!"
In Geosenge Town, of what had been Geosenge Town, was instead a large crater covering the entirety of the area. And where a secret lab used to be, there was instead a ruin of a place that had barely lasted out the blast that had destroyed the town. In the middle of that lab, a slender girl lay unmoving until she twitched slightly, and begun to wake up slowly. An electrical mouse faithfully hovered near her, sparking electricity in his worry over her.
Ash Ketchum and her Pikachu had been in Geosenge Town on a research assignment from Professor Sycamore, when they'd gotten caught up in too much that had happened in that town (like always) and in what they shouldn't have even been stuck in. But trouble had always followed them around; this wasn't anything they knew they should have expected.
Ash coughed, feeling dazed after being knocked out. A soft paw lightly hit her face in concern, and she blinked her eyes to focus on the world around her. A small, yellow mousy face peered at her from above.
"Pikachu? What's…what's happening? Where are we?"
Along with her entire body aching, there was a searing pain on her side and she sobbed out a cry as she tried to move and felt whatever it was practically screaming out that pain at her. She blinked several times, blinking back tears as well, and focused on her surroundings while trying to figure out where she was and what happened.
She was in…a lab. Or what remained of it. The events that happened in Geosenge Town rushed back to her, and she sniffled as she realized what had happened and saw the evidence around her.
"Pikachu?"
Her friend moved to be in her line of sight again, and she smiled slightly and reached out for him.
"Oh Arceus, thank goodness you're alright," she muttered as he clambered closer and snuggled up to her.
She tried again to move, but each try resulted in a jolt of pain. When she looked down, she winced at seeing the piece of metal stabbed into her.
"Ah, well…Damn. Looks like I'm not going anywhere," she forced out, while smiling weakly at her partner. She breathed heavily and tried to not think about the pain, though it was definitely hard not to. She bit her lip and gripped the metal decisively.
As far as she was concerned, she knew that it was better to keep the impaled object inside of her than to tear it out. It would lead to a faster death if she didn't keep it in. But look around her! There was nowhere to go and no one to help. Aside from the damaged ruins of the lab she was in, the walls had been obliterated for her to see the town had become an absolute crater. Whatever had been protecting the lab could only do so much for it, while the town had had no protection at all and had ended up as nothing in the end.
She couldn't move anywhere or move at all. She was done. This was it.
Ash would rather die quickly, than to just sit there and wait for help that wouldn't arrive in time.
Giving a small, watery smile to her best friend, she pulled Pikachu close and kissed his head.
"I want you to find a good trainer, one that will love you as much as I did. More so," she murmured painfully.
"Pika!" he protested, but she shook her head against him.
"I'm dying, Pikachu," Ash breathed out slowly. "I'm sorry."
Pikachu muttered a whole bunch of things, but Ash said nothing more. Instead, she just quietly held onto him and then yanked out the piece of metal. She cried out in pain while blood spurted out. Dizzy and feeling excruciating pain all over, Ash just lay back and held onto Pikachu again. He, just as quietly (if crying for his trainer), held onto her.
If this was dying, then it was sort of peaceful…
Ash closed her eyes and waited, passing out peacefully.
Blue light encompassed the area.
Kalos. A region known for its beauty and elegance.
At 0800 that day, time stopped as the region was plunged into a state of destruction and terror, while Geosenge Town was wiped off the map. Five thousand people died from the nuclear blast, more dying in the aftermath of the EMP wave and the dangerous surroundings.
And as people mourned, others were angry. And along with those that were angry were people who were willing to take advantage of the destruction. Chaos was further ignited, riots had begun to start, and throughout the region there was rage and despair, greed and selfishness, and hate and love that spread.
If nothing else, at least there were still people who cared and was willing to keep themselves from falling into that pit of darkness that had begun to encompass the whole of the Kalos region after all that had happened that day.
In the midst of it all, a girl lay dying in the ruins of a lab, a Pikachu clung onto his owner, a professor sat helplessly on his floor, and the rest of the world lay oblivious…
In fact…they would stay oblivious to the far out, outlander region of Kalos for a long time.
Started 11/27/15 – Completed 11/27/15
A/n: Wow. That was depressing XD Anyway, I hope people actually get interested in this and review. This will definitely connect with "The Book of Eve" and "The Book of Mal" at one point, as well as the other books since they interconnect in some way. And again, please, please review! They definitely mean a lot to us.