The Figure
Chapter 1
The day was young and the sun shone bright. Ash awoke on the floor of his hotel room, having fallen out of bed again, as usual. Somehow, his sheets managed to stay on the bed, so he was lying there in just his boxers, surprised that he didn't catch a cold. Stretching, Ash dragged himself up, grabbed his shower bag and headed towards to bathroom down the corridor. Still groggy, Ash bumped into a boy of the same age, "urgh," Ash forced as a type of apology. "Where I come from, people say sorry," the boy snorted, but Ash just completely ignored him.
Brock and Misty waited for Ash, "we've been waiting for Ash for about an hour now, I just want my breakfast." Misty groaned, Brock giving a look back showing he agreed. "This is the first time we've been in a hotel and he's already ruining it." Ash, back in his room, had dozed off again, half dressed. Pikachu poking at his face, impatiently trying to wake him, but the little Pokémon already knew there was only one thing to wake him, so Pikachu let out a small electric shock, but still enough to knock Ash of his bed once again. Looking at the bedside clock and realising the time, Ash finished getting dressed and ran down to a now furious Misty and Brock. "Please explain why you took so long, me and Brock have been waiting here for over an hour, it's nearly eleven o'clock." Misty interrogated. "Sorry guys," Ash tried to get off the hook with a cheeky smile he knows usually wins Misty over, "After my shower I was still tired and kinda nodded off, Pikachu woke me up though, didn't you Pikachu." Still annoyed with Ash and unaffected by his usually omnipotent smile, Misty replied with a grunt, signalling Ash to just shut up and sit down. After a long and hardy breakfast, everyone went to their rooms to collect their belongings even though they were still staying another night and met outside. Ash was eager to get out of Saffron City and find his next battle, but Brock and Misty wanted to explore the city and more importantly, shop. After a long and frankly fruitful conversation, they neutrally agreed to separate for the day and meeting at a restaurant later in the day, so Ash could at least join in with Misty and Brock to spend some of their hard earned cash from the previous week. Ash headed out of the city and was in open fields within a matter of minutes. After about an hour Ash was starting to get bored, having come across a grand total of zero trainers. "I'm about to give up Pikachu," Ash sighed to his Pokémon, Pikachu agreed with a nod. And just as they were about to call it quits, the boy Ash bumped into appeared. "You never did apologize," the Youngster taunted, "wanna see some skill, I'm guessing you're a trainer." Ash grinned to himself, "how about I apologize if you can beat me," Ash returned. 'Great', Ash thought to himself, 'I've been waiting for ages.'
The Youngster's recalled his Pidgey after it took Pikachu's thunder shock, knocking it clean of its feet. "Persian, GO!" the Youngster yelled, throwing the old, battered Pokéball high into the air, unleashing the cat like Pokémon after a bright red flash. Ash, still looking as confident as ever, sent his Pikachu straight for the Persian. "Pikachu, use thunder shock," Pikachu's red cheeks started to spark and after a matter of seconds, thousands of volts shot towards the Persian, coursing throughout its body, knocking it out.
After a friendly hand shake and congratulations, the Youngster left on his way. "Hey Pikachu, did you see where Misty and Brock went?" The little yellow mouse pointed towards a small hostel near Saffron City, where Ash and his friends were saying the night. Typically, Ash ran off towards the hostel, still hyped from his match with the youngster.
It started to get dark and Ash stopped in front of the looming forest for a quick breather. "You ready to go in Pikachu?" Ash questioned, in return Pikachu nodded and enthusiastically shouted its own name. "No point waiting then." Pikachu jumped on to Ash's shoulder and they both ran into the dark forest. Five minutes into the forest, Ash's jog had slowed to a slow, precautious walk. "I'm kinda regretting this now Pikachu," Ash nervously laughed, trying to reassure the terrified Pikachu. Ash's and Pikachu jumped at a rustling behind them, almost knocking Pikachu of Ash's shoulder. Both Ash and Pikachu stood froze. The rustling revealed a looming dark figure; none of the figures features were visible, but both of them knew it was staring directly at them. As Ash slowly gained control over his body again, he started to back away slowly from the figure, not wanting to take an eye of it. In return, the looming figure matched Ash's steps, except towards him. Ash was whimpering under his breath, thinking this was going to be his last moments on earth. The dark figure came closer and closer, he reached out towards Ash with a long, dark, bony arm.
Unlike Ash, Pikachu wasn't fazed by the looming figure and used a newly learnt move, Thunder. It shot through the figure, making it disperse, the black smoke fading away. Ash still stood froze, Pikachu tugging at the bottom of his jeans, trying to get his attention. What seemed to be eons had passed, Ash slowly came back at the sound of shouting from afar, louder and louder it got, slowly changing from a jumbled mess into actual English. "Ash!" the voice echoed through the now pitch black forest, "where are you?" Ash recognized the voice. He tried calling back to Brock, but his body wouldn't comply, still paralyzed from the shock. Light started to shine through the close and looming foliage, create demonic shadows all around Ash. Rustling. Ash's mind suddenly shot back to his encounter with the black figure, this was too much for Ash and he fell to the ground with a crash.
