Behind the Hero
This is my first ever fanfiction so please review it once it's all done. All comments and constructive criticism are welcome. Praise is good to!J I would also like to mention Pokemon Master by Ace Sanchez. It's my favorite pokemon fanfic and I strongly recommend it.
Oh, and some of the characters belong to the pokemon company people thingy…yeah, just don't sue me it's only a story! All other characters are property of me, so if for some odd reason you happen to like my story and want to use my characters for your own, please e-mail me and ask @ sarawattie@hotmail.com Thanks.
Chapter 1: Time never Forgets
Saffron Central, Special Care Hospital, pediatric wing:
Iron wheels rolled across a newly waxed floor. They squeaked under their load. A large metal cart with a heavy machine atop it, pushed by a middle-aged woman. She wore glasses and a long white lab coat. A doctor. She stopped the cart beside the doors of an elevator. Only a moment later, the doors slid open and a jumble of other doctors surrounding a stretcher hurried out. She could hear the yells and screams of a young child, but took little notice of it. Perhaps she didn't care. Perhaps she didn't want to. Whatever the reason, care or not, the horrific sounds were soon behind her as she proceeded upwards in the elevator. It slowed to a stop and a sudden look of pain and deep thought overcame her face as she stepped out. A wide corridor loomed directly in front of her. Signs hanging from the entrance read 'Recovery and Isolation rooms'. She proceeded on once again. The walls were painted a light purple and lit by bright ceiling lights and large windows. She had passed down this corridor many times before, but still; it had an apprehensive mood about it. She tried not to look into any of the rooms lining it. They were filled with deathly sick children. A sight she hated to look at, and could never bring herself to get use to. As she now approached the end of the hall a voice cot her attention.
"No…stop"
A boy stepped up to her side and pulled at her coat. She kneeled down to his height and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong sweaty?" She said softly.
The boy's eyes narrowed a little as he said, "You're, her doctor, aren't you?"
She glanced quickly at a room near the end of the corridor, then looked back at the boy "Whose doctor? She asked.
The boy just stared at her for a while. "You know who I'm talking about. Everybody in this wing dose." He crocked.
She closed her eyes. For a brief moment, it seemed as if she had lost hold on her world, letting the dominant forces, which she had tried to suppress, be freed. She nodded yes. When she opened her eyes again, the boy was starring at the machine, a horror struck look on his face. "Please, please don't. She hates that. It can't possibly be helping her." He begged.
She tried to look as reassuring and gentle as possible, but her expression barley changed. "I'm Sorry, your just to little to understand." She said, helping him back to his room. "There's nothing else we can do, and you need to rest."
"But…but the way she screams….. it's so awful, and, and when you bring her back…….. maybe, that's when it's time to just, just let go." His voice seemed desperate now, and his eyes were teary but the doctor was no longer listening. She smiled weakly before leaving his room.
Once back in the hall, cart in hand, she found herself a few rooms down from the boy's. The unusually big metal doors and red framework caused it to stand out. As she entered, she noticed that she was shaking.
* * * * *
6 Years later:
Icy currents, drifting astray from the southwestern point of Lake Octet, intertwined their way through the massive hilltops of Mt. Moon. Combined with the gray skies of the oncoming winter, the rocky terrain was cloaked in a dismal gloom. Eerie beams of dim sunlight, just barley managed to make their way through thin patches in the clouds on awkward angels. As the mountain winds passed across the sky, the thin patches moved and shifted causing bizarre double shadows that seem to dance and disappear at will. Then, a glow, as bright and wondrous as a sapphire caching the raise of the sun, peered over the top of Lunar Peak, the highest point of Mt. Moon. It's brilliance, quickly spreading, cast it's self across the mountains surface. Only moments later a spectacular rainbow of every color imaginable shot straight towards the peak from every direction. It appeared to be made of what could only be described as pure energy. Though, breath taking as it was, the aurora like display lasted only seconds before vanishing into nothingness, and rendering the mountain as dull and obscure weathered, as it was only moments before.
* * * * *
4 Years later:
A boy, in about his late teens puzzled as he glance at the darkened room before him. Spinning back around, the door he had just entered through slammed shut in a downward motion. With the added darkness, it was almost impossible to make out the doorways, once obvious silhouette.
"Hey!" He screamed, pounding his fists against the now solid looking wall, where the door should have been. "Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on here? Give me back my pokemon!"
Sighing, he turned back towards the emptiness of the room. Looking at it now as if for the first time he realized how strange it was. It was large, and the edges and corners were rounded off. A dull light glowed in the center, but it was unclear as to its source. He walked over to the light finding that the ground there was slightly elevated.
After looking around a bit, the boy seemed to just give in and sat down against one of the walls. All he had been able to accomplish was a lost sense of direction, no longer knowing which side of the room he had entered from.
* * * * *
It had started like any other morning. He had woken up in his apartment to find his best friend and life long companion asleep beside him. It was a small yellow pokemon with a long zigzagging tale that resembled a bolt of lightning. Dark fur tipped its ears and there was a red circle on each of its cheeks. All and all, it resembled a large mouse. A Pikachu. The boy smiled and opened the blinds to a huge window. His apartment had a really nice view. It was up high on a hill and over looked the small but growing Lavender Town. The Rising Sun filled the room with the warmth of the morning.
"Chaaaaaa" The Pikachu yawned as it stretched and woke up.
"Morning buddy" The boy said walking into the Kitchen.
He pulled a box of Corn flakes out of the cupboard and began to poor some into a bowl. Pikachu jumped up beside him on the counter.
"Help your self" He said, heading back to the other room.
The Pikachu scrunched up its nose. "Pika….chuuuuu!" It yelled sending a shock at the boy.
"Owe." He said coolly, smiling at his pokemon friend. "Just joking Pikachu. What will it be then, hum, Heinz 57, or maybe, Heinz 57, or, what about…"
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. Suddenly Pikachu's ears went back and it's tale stuck straight up.
"Pika" it growled, shooting a look at the boy.
He knew the look and locked the door. "Who is it?"
"Ashura Satoshi Ketchum?" A voice questioned from inside the apartment hall.
"Yah, who wants to know?" Ash asked back.
The voice didn't reply. Instead, soundlessly and as if by magic the lock unlocked and the door opened. Pikachu climbed up onto Ash's shoulder protectively as two people entered the room. They were warring the strangest get ups. Two shads of gray material, one a clothe like under-piece the other a metal almost armor like guard, on the knees, thighs, shins, upper and lower arms, chest area and boots made out of what looked to be the same material. As well as finger-less rubber gloves and an eye visor and what looked to be an ear and mouth communication piece attached to it. One appeared to be a girl, with long brown hair pulled back in a pony tale. The other, a tall, built guy with short light hair. Above all this however, what stood out the most was that they each carried what looked like an anti-aircraft gun.
"We will explain everything later, but we need you to come with us. It's very important." The girl said in firm tone.
Ash took a step back. It seemed that was all they needed. It was clear they were not going to wait for anything. The girl pulled out a small square device with a button on top of it. She pointed it at him and before he even had a chance to say another word, he was frozen to the spot and completely mute. Pikachu as well. She then walked behind him and he blacked out.
When he came to, he was laying on his back in a huge room with a low ceiling and lots of other people. Some still unconscious, others just waking up like himself. He instinctively looked around for Pikachu, but couldn't find him. Trying to get up he discovered how bad his head hurt and he could not. Pain jumped through his body every time he moved. Everything felt slowed down. His movements, his thoughts. What was going on? And where was Pikachu? He looked around the room but couldn't focus on anything enough to put much together. The only thing close enough for him to really concentrate on was the person to the left of him. A girl, about his age, still asleep. She had really light almost silver shoulder length hair. She was flushed but her cheeks were rosy. At the time, the look on her face was confusing to Ash. She looked so peaceful, like most do when their asleep. However at the same time, her expression was unmistakably troubled. A soft feeling ran through him as he studied her features. It was sort of familiar and may have lead to a much deeper thought if his train of thinking was not disturbed at this time by someone entering the room through a door that opened from the bottom up. It was a man dressed in the same unusual gray outfit he had encountered before. He was carrying a guy over his shoulder who looked to be a few years older then Ash. He lay him down on the ground softly and picked up a girl a few feet away, carrying her out the way he came in. Frustrated, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.
He must have fallen asleep, for when he opened his eyes again, he found that he was much more alert and it appeared that the room had cleared out somewhat. Before he could look around and maybe put some questions in his mind together, he realized he was being picked up. He tried to struggle but found himself overpowered. Unlike the other guy he had seen slung over a shoulder, he was not. Instead, he was held in the arms of who ever was carrying him facing the ceiling. He watched as the lights in the ceiling past by his view one by one. Their glow reminded him of that girl in the room he had just come from. For some reason, a memory, that he didn't remember getting, keep flashing through his mind. In it, she had opened her eyes, to reveal what almost looked like liquid and seemed to shine, even glow.
Now, what happened next, was so unclear to him that all he could remember from it, was a series of strange things. Firstly, he could remember distinctly, an awful smell. Followed by may different colored lights, cold and hot sensations, a few moments of pain and tingling and then, lastly, electricity. Then as if it had been a dream, he was thinking clear, he was back to full strength and being forces down a hall and through a doorway.
* * * * *
Ash sighed. Thinking it all through hadn't helped. If anything, he was more puzzled now then he was before. He stood up. Echoing his motion, just a few feet away, a rectangular chunk of the wall slid upward, letting light flow in. In the door appeared two more of the weird guard like people. They were holding a boy that looked to be Ash's age by the arms, and half dragging him into the room, dropped him and left. The boy's reaction to this was much like Ash's.
"It's no use" Ash said dryly.
The boy, who was now cursing and threatening the wall, turned around to face him. "Who are you? And where the fuck are my pokemon? I swear, if you people don't give them back right now you'll be so damn ……".
"Cool it for a sec will you! They got my Pikachu to." Ash said sitting back down.
The boy was silent for a while and then sat down beside him. "So? You got any idea what's going on here?"
"No" Ash said flatly.
This was followed by a strangely uneasy silence for to strangers. Ash was the one to break it. "Do you think you could take one of those guards if we jumped them?"
"Yeah. But that's one thing. Those ….. guns, are another."
Ash cocked and eyebrow at that last bit "Well, if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it"
He paused for a while, then moved over to the far side of were the doorway stood. "Okay, we jump them together when it opens."
Ash got up and stood a little in front of him marking clearly were the door was. "Considering it opens that is."
"Right."
A grin almost crossed Ash's face. Almost. "You remind me of someone I used to know."
"Yeah." He said grimly. "Strange you should say that. I've been thinking that you look familiar to. What's your name?"
"Ashura, though nobody's called me that for a long time." Ash replied. "You?"
"……………..Ash?"
The boy stared at him, a look of lost faith drawn across his face. That look made Ash's stomach roll. He had learned, that for him, familiarity was not the good thing it once was. It no longer held the warmth of love and friendship, but instead the harsh tones of his past. He could of kicked himself for being so careless about the uses of him name. It hadn't been used in a long while for a reason.
"Yup, that's what I said. Why? Have you never herd the name before or something?" Ash said quickly, realizing immediately how stupid that sounded.
It was a while before the boy spoke. "Ketchum? Is that really you?"
"Yah, do I know you?" Ash said, certain now that he did.
Suddenly, the boy lunged forward and landed a punch right in Ash's face. Then pined him up against the wall. "You jerk!" He yelled. "Fuck." He let go his grip and Ash slid to the ground. Then he turned away and started pacing.
Ash, a little winded, look up and studied the boy features. He had been right about that familiar feeling being trouble. He was about his height, with longish brown hair. And that face. He did know that face. His lips betrayed his thoughts as they spoke the boy's name even before he realized it belonged to him.
"Richie" Ash said softly getting up. "Nice to see you again." He knew it would be pointless to pretend that he couldn't find it in him to remember one of his old best friends.
Richie stopped pacing and looked at him. "Is it Ash? I'd say the same, but it's just nice enough to know that your…."
Before he could finish the door opened and both Ash and Richie charged at it. When they saw who it was that they tried to stop but couldn't and both smashed into an Officer Jenny. She pushed them both off her and stood back up.
"What's the meaning of this!" she demanded.
"Well I'd like to ask you the same!" Richie, voice almost at a yell, demanded back at her.
She mumbled something about listening to Joy next time then told them to get back in the room and she'd explain. They both hesitated for a moment, but when she entered first, decided to take the chance.
"Okay" she began slowly. "Richie, I need you to clam down, all right."
Richie's eyes widened and he looked like he was about to have a panic attack, but managed to cool off. He glanced at Ash, then looked back at Officer Jenny. It was as if he was doing battle with his thoughts. Officer Jenny cot this, and Ash found himself locked in her inquisitive stare as well.
"Good then." She said slowly, looking up at the ceiling as if she had forgotten what it was she was doing. "The others should be here any second now and then I'll get started."
As she said that, the sound of struggle could be herd from out side the room. "Why I'll have you know you big slab of garbage, that if you didn't have that stupid Halloween costume on, I'd……..OWWW! You pervert!" A girls voice boomed as a heap of people entered the room marched by a few of those guard like guy.
One guy, and two girls, were forcefully directed over to were Officer Jenny stood while another girl was carried into the room via three guard people. They dropped her down beside Richie.
"Strowbs!" Officer Jenny scolded one of the guards. "When I said to get the job done by any means possible, I didn't mean for you to go making these people feel more like abducties then they already do at will!"
"But…" Strowbs began.
"No buts about it! I picked you for leader of this squad because I thought you to be a caring person that believed in what he was doing. Someone who could do the stuff nobody wants to do just because it needs to be done and it's right!"
"But…"
"You are a part of our most…." Her lectures was put to a stop when the girl, who Strowbs had escorted in, kicked his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground with a thud.
She then leaped on top of him and began elbowing him in the face. Officer Jenny, a little shocked by this, ripped the girl off him.
"Listen" Jenny grunted while trying to keep a lock on the struggling girl. "I'll have a word with you later. Just get out of here for now."
With that, the guards all left, Strowbs shooting the girl a your crazy look as he went.
"Okay, will you please stop shoving and let me explain!" Officer Jenny pleaded.
"No! Let me go! You have no right! None of you! You can't do this! You can't take my Pokemon away from me!" The girl scream pulling herself away.
She turned to look at everyone. Holding herself she took a few steps backwards, mid-stomach length sea-green hair a mess on her face.
"I know you don't understand, but you will get your pokemon back. You must just let me explain" Officer Jenny coaxed.
She took yet another step back. It wasn't till Richie walked up to her slowly, and speaking something softly so only she could hear it, that she aloud herself to be guided over toward Officer Jenny.
"I'm sorry for your inconvenience" Officer Jenny said to her. " I can just imagine what this is like. Please let me explain."
She did not answer, but did not protest either. Instead she was compelled to stare at Ash. As was the other boy who had entered just before her.
With a sinking feeling Ash look directly at Officer Jenny awaiting this much promised explanation. Pretending that their gazes weren't penetrating him like a bullet. To his relief, Officer Jenny started speaking and all attention was turned to her.