The Curse of the Spiritomb
Chapter 1: New Game
"This is gonna be a tough climb, Ray. You think you're up to it?"
Raymond looked over at his best friend. "Hell, yes."
Cross tapped the rim of his favorite cowboy hat. "Let's get to it then!"
The two best friends chuckled to themselves as they began to climb the mile high Mt. Jefferson. Cross was a 25 year old aspiring artist. He was a tall fellow, about six foot four, but rather underweight, weighing in at only about 130 pounds. He had very dark brown hair and eyes, both so dark they almost looked black. He always wore his trusty cowboy hat. It was a gift to him from his late grandfather and was very dear to him. Cross had been hiking these New Hampshire trails since he was only four years old, and this particular trail, which snaked up the side of the presidential Mt. Jefferson, was his all time favorite.
Raymond however, was almost the polar opposite. He was a 26 year old young man fresh out of medical school, standing only at about five foot three. He had sandy blond hair and ice blue, intelligent looking eyes. Despite his size, however, he was incredibly strong and fit. He could best Cross in an arm-wrestle in seconds.
"You couldn't ask for a better day to hike this trail than today." Cross said, looking at the partly cloudy skies. "I know it sounds bad, but I'm so glad I could get away from my family today."
Cross had been in a bind the past few years. After going with Raymond to college, he came home only to find out that his younger sister had dropped out of high school and was in a fix with money. To make matters worse, his parents were in a car accident not two months after he returned. His father was killed instantly. His mother, though, survived, but was paralyzed from the waist down. Cross was the only one in the family, therefore, that could really hold down a job… But his job as a GameStop manager gave them barely enough money to feed themselves. In fact, this was the first day in months that he had to himself, so he decided to invite his best friend to go hiking with him.
The trail went on for several miles. Cross was exhilarated the whole time, humming tunes to himself, wishing he had brought his harmonica. Ray, on the other hand, was getting tired.
"Just how long IS this trail, Cross?" he asked.
"Hmm… 'Bout twenty miles if I remember correctly."
"TWENTY MILES?!" Raymond said, shocked. "You failed to tell me that when you invited me! My legs are killing me!"
"Oh, don't be such a Raiden!" Cross said. A Raiden was what he called a whiner. It was a reference to the video game series "Metal Gear Solid." Cross was an avid gamer, having played most of the games that his store sold.
The reference went over Raymond's head, though. "A what?" he said. Ray almost never played video games, save for "Halo."
"Nevermind." Cross said. "C'mon we're almost a quarter of the way there."
Ray groaned.
***
As the pair moved closer and closer to the top of the mountain, the mostly sunny skies began to turn grey, and the wind started to grow stronger. When rain started drizzling upon them Ray insisted upon turning back, but at that point they were close enough to the top it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It took hours, but the pair finally reached the summit, looking over the hills and valleys of the presidential mountains.
Cross looked over at his friend. "Now look at this, Ray, and tell me you aren't glad you came."
Ray nodded. "I have to tell you, man. This is a spectacular-"
KRAKA-BOOM!!!
Cross's good mood suddenly dropped. "Shit! Is that thunder?!"
Lightning flashed, striking the top of a mountain only a few miles away.
Raymond looked over at Cross. "Yes. Yes it is."
"Damn! We need to find some shelter!" Cross started moving quickly down the mountain.
"Where are you going?!" Shouted Raymond.
Cross looked up at his friend. "I found a small cave in the side of the mountain a few years back! We can wait out the storm there! C'mon!"
Cross and Ray dashed a few hundred feet down the mountain, pummeled by the rain that was now coming down in sheets. They soon came to a small cavern composed of piled up boulders. They quickly crawled into the cave and took shelter from the tempest.
Ray sat down. "Well that sucked!"
Cross looked down. "I should probably apologize. I shouldn't have started you off with Jefferson. We probably should've done something easier like Mt. Catherine or Mt. Hedgehog."
"It's cool, Cross." Said Ray. "You couldn't have known this would happen."
"Mmm…" Cross murmured as he leaned against the wall of the cave.
"What?" Ray Asked.
"Nothing, I just said- Nyah!!!" There was a rumbling and crashing noise.
"Cross?!" Ray yelped, turning around. Where Cross once stood there was now a gaping hole in the cave wall. "Cross, are you okay?!"
Cross came up from behind a rock covered in grit.
"I'm fine." He said, coughing. "A rock just gave way."
Raymond looked past Cross. "Hey, there's a tunnel leading into the mountain!"
Cross turned around, perplexed. "That's odd. Regular caves are rare in these mountains, but fully fledged tunnels are all but unheard of."
Raymond cocked his head. "Well, we can't exactly go anywhere. How 'bout we see where it goes?" He started down the tunnel. Cross shrugged and followed.
As the pair moved down the long, winding tunnel, the walls changed from rough, gray granite to a smooth, luminescent, green ore. The walls glowed in the darkness and stalactites were replaced with hanging crystals. To top it all off, a tone sounding similar to a tuning fork was perpetually ringing in the background. Cross was enthralled by this turn of events. Ray on the other hand was questioning whether or not to go on.
"Cross," he said. "This is getting freaky. Perhaps we should turn back?"
"Nah." Replied Cross in the lead once again. "It's not like anything bad could happen."
The tunnel went on for about another five hundred feet but then stopped at a dead end.
"Well, shoot." Said Cross. "That sure was anticlimactic."
"What do you suppose that is?" Asked Ray, pointing at the wall in front of him.
Cross looked where Raymond was pointing and saw a strange brown tablet embedded into the wall. "Dunno…" he said, puzzled. "It looks… kinda familiar…"
He walked over to the tablet and started trying to chisel it out of the wall with a rock.
"Cross," said Ray anxiously, "Maybe we should just leave it alone."
"Ah, don't be a wuss, Ray." Cross said, struggling. "I've almost got it ou-"
The tablet suddenly lurched from the wall, landing at Cross's feet with a loud SLAM! Suddenly a huge gust of wind came roaring into the tunnel from the hole that the tablet had left, almost causing Cross to lose his hat.
Ray pointed at the fallen tablet, shouting over the wind. "Jesus Christ! What the hell is that?!"
Cross looked down at the tablet, still holding onto his hat. He watched, mesmerized as an odd purple and green miasma emerged from the tablet. The cloud slowly formed a face. One that looked to belong to some mad demon.
Cross looked at it in awe. "Is that a-"
The face opened its mouth, and released a noise. The noise resembled a thousand shrieking voices crying out from the depths of Hell. The sound was deafening, but through the maddening noise, Cross could make out one word.
"SPIRITOMB!!"
The two friends covered their ears, screaming. Cross watched as a rusty nail materialized from out of nowhere and shot into the creature, stabbing it. And suddenly Cross felt an intense pain shoot throughout his entire body. The pain was unbearable. It felt as if his entire body was being ripped apart by flaming arrows while his insides were being frozen by liquid nitrogen. And from the screams behind him, it must've been happening to Ray as well. Cross screamed for the pain to end…
And all at once, everything went black.
***
A few hours later Cross's eyes flickered open. He looked around but the scenery was unfamiliar. He seemed to be inside a hollow tree. He tried to sit up, but when he did so a surge of pain went through his back. He fell back to the ground groaning.
"Oh, so you're awake?" Said a female voice.
Cross closed his eyes. "Mm-hmm…" he murmured.
"That's certainly a relief." Said the voice. "You fell a pretty long way."
Cross turned his head toward the voice, but didn't open his eyes. "Fell?" he croaked.
"Mm-hmm!" the voice affirmed. "Right out of the sky. It's a wonder you're alive."
Cross coughed. "Is Ray okay?" He asked.
"Ray?" The voice inquired. "Oh, is that your friend's name?"
Cross nodded slowly.
"He's fine. He's still unconscious, though. He was tough to drag in here, let me tell you."
Cross raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He asked. "He isn't all that heavy."
The voice chuckled. "Well for a little Pikachu like me, he was pretty heavy."
Cross opened his eyes. "Pikachu?!" he said, shocked. He sat up, ignoring the pain and turned to finally take a look at his rescuer. Sure enough, standing right in front of him was a small yellow Pikachu.
Naturally, Cross was stunned. "You're a-… You're a-…" Cross swallowed. "Who are you?"
The Pikachu smiled and gave a little bow. "My name's Nina. I found you outside my tree here. Rhett said you fell out of the sky."
"Rhett?" Asked Cross, completely stunned.
"He's a Weedle." Nina said. "He lives higher up in the branches. Would you like some water?"
Cross nodded, dumbfounded by this turn of events. Nina went and dipped a walnut shell into a pool of water and bought it over to him. He took one looked at it and gasped.
"What is it?" Nina asked.
The face in the water's reflection wasn't the reflection he was used to. There in the water looking back at him was a small, reptilian fire Pokémon with a flaming tail, with the only trace of his former self being the dark brown eyes looking back at him.
Cross had become a Charmander.
"What is it?" Nina repeated, sounding a bit worried.
"N-nothing." Cross said. "Just a bit of a shock from the fall, I guess." He said taking the water in his new orange, fine-scaled hands. He slowly sipped the water, while his mind tried to process this turn of events. Where was he? How did he get here? Was he dreaming? Why was he a Charmander now? And where was Ray?
Ray!
He turned to Nina. "You said my friend was here?" he asked.
Nina nodded and pointed behind him. "He's right over there on that bed of leaves."
Cross turned around and was shocked to see a big purple Gengar lying on its side. Cross was struck speechless for a moment, but he quickly shook it off.
"Well, at least he's alright." He said turning back to Nina. "… Sort of…" He thought.
"What's your name?" asked Nina.
"Cross." He said
"Cross?" She said, giggling. "That's a funny name. Where are you from, Cross?"
"Uh… New Hampshire." He replied.
Nina cocked her head. "Never heard of Noo Hampshur before." She said. "Is it far from here?"
Cross looked to the side. "You could say that." He looked back at Nina. "Where are we now?" He asked the Pikachu.
"This is the Viridian Forest!" Nina said with a bit of pride. "It's nice but there are a lot of trainers around here."
"Trainers?" Cross said with interest.
Nina nodded. "Humans that like to come here and kidnap our friends with these weird balls. They're a nasty bunch. Luckily most of them aren't smart enough to catch any of us."
"Hmm…" Cross pondered.
"I'm surprised you haven't heard of them before." She said. "Are there not many where you come from?"
"Not exactly." Cross replied, finally figuring out what was going on.
"I've been sucked into a Pokémon game!" He thought. "But how? None of this makes any sense!"
"Uuuurrrghhh…" Came a voice from behind them. They turned to see the Ray-Gengar kicking and flailing in his sleep.
"It looks like he's having a nightmare." Nina said.
Cross nodded. "After our close encounter with a Spiritomb, I don't doubt it."
"A Spiritomb?!" Nina said, shocked. "I've heard those things can be deadly! You are lucky to be alive."
"Yeah…" Cross said.
Ray's ice blue eyes suddenly snapped open. "KYAAAAHH!!!" He screamed, jumping up. Sweat was pouring down his new purple face. He looked around and saw Nina and Cross looking at him. Not recognizing either of them. He screamed again. "Jesus Christ! More of them!" He then ran out through a hole in the side of the tree, screaming.
Nina looked at Cross. "What's wrong with him?" She asked, worried.
Cross quickly fabricated an answer. "He must be having an episode after the whole Spiritomb thing." He looked at Nina. "Thanks for all your help, but I should probably go calm him down." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" Nina said "Don't you want this?" She said holding up a cowboy hat.
"Hey, my hat!" Cross said taking it from her. "Thanks!"
"You're welcome." Said Nina.
"GYAAAAAAHHH!!!" They heard from outside the tree.
"I've gotta go settle him down before he hurts someone." Said Cross. "Thanks for everything, Nina!" he yelled, dashing out of the tree.
"Watch out for Trainers!" Nina called after him. "They usually start coming out this time of day!" Nina sat down.
"What an odd little Charmander." She said to herself.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Hey, everybody! This is a totally new fanfiction idea I had about two months back, and I felt it was high time to share it with everybody. This story is sort of an homage to my first ever character that I could really call my own (sorta): A Charmander named Cross who wore a Cowboy hat and could talk to humans. For this story, I've taken out the talk-to-humans part, though. I've also added in several new characters to make the story a bit more dynamic. Anyways, enjoy this new story-o-mine. The next few chapters should be getting up soon! :)