Dusk
by Chustang
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Strength, Speed, Stealth, and Vision. The four potent elements of destruction. Languid and innocent as their harnessers and maintainers were isolated, although their extreme power was often displayed in an ominous, almost forbidding test of skill. Usually Pokemon battles were the dominant cause of the Shadow World's resurrection of power as, by coincidence, two or more of the prophesied children were united to fight.
An perhaps that was why a select few of kids who were linked a semi-tight circle of friendships, current or past, felt a certain power gleaming within themselves whenever they were reunited. And maybe that was why they were the four true masters of Pokemon.
And maybe, just maybe, it was why the strongest of all the potently destined human beings witnessed the unfurling of an ancient, malevolent prophecy that was soon to be his.
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Saffron fur bristling and gleaming with a healthy and resilient shine, a sleek, energetic Pikachu stood second base, ecstatic sable eyes locked intently on home. Perched on first, Pidgeot flung its sleek head back in a flare of ebullient energy, its incredibly long magenta and yellow cape feathers gliding in the air like a whip then settled back on its bristling, majestic beige feathers, and clawed furrows in the dirt. Vulpix snickered lightly as the playful string of taunting echoed slightly within its chestnut hued, cupped ears, standing on third, and energetically drew twisting designs in the air with its reddish-brown, identical tails that curled cutely into themselves at their silky, furred tips, forming coils.
Taking up the position of catcher, Bulbasaur balanced on its ivy green, stocky legs and slid its foliage green vines into the sultry fury of summer, brandishing them and preparing them for the hard jolt of a baseball to be flung into their grasp. Its ruby eyes were gleaming in elation and it barked a friendly "Buuullbaa! Bulba!" at its master who answered the rough, frog like bark with a strong scratch behind its stumpy, triangular ears. The emerald, slightly dew-flecked grass lapped at its green body in the icy, soothing breeze languidly whipping through it, and the wind brushed against the Pokemon's forest green bulb planted firmly on its back, teasing it open to absorb the golden particles of sunlight.
Ash swung the bat in a practice swing, waiting for Geodude to pitch, his red and white hat spun around on his head of unruly, wild sable hair. Misty and Brock sat on the grass and waited patiently for their turn at bat. The sunlight glinted off the silver metal of the bat as it was swiped through the thick, sultry heat of summer enveloping the whole of Indigo Island.
Its rocky gray skin gleaming dully, Geodude flung the ball in to its other hand to warm up. Grinning, it wound up then pitched with the speed of a demon. The orb of white leather blasted across the grass in a blur of white swiftness. A fastball. Despite the Rock Pokemon's lack of experience, its pitch was perfectly preformed. It had perfected its throw by constantly refining its Rock Throw, and the hard work was clearly paying off.
The trio had stumbled across a baseball field in a small town and decided to play a game to relax from the stress of traveling through the steep mountains they had just conquered. And with Pokemon, the game seemed more enjoyable, watching the ignorant Psyduck sit dumbly in the emerald green depths of right field. But the aura of simple hearted fun and recreation was not destined to last.
A swirl of black, ominously looming cloud suddenly emerged from the darkening horizon instantly, as the baseball amazingly halted in mid air. An echo of fear and surprise was dominated by a legendary blast of thunder as it attained a black glow then quickly disoriented itself. Looking on in awe, Pokemon and humans alike, the orb began to define itself and shift ominously. A sudden knife of lightning crashed into the darkly glowing ball, erupting the darkness in a brief flash of blinding white. And as the mist of lethal electricity melted away, a deadly creature emerged.
Threatening midnight blue eyes that devilishly gleamed with a tint of blood lust; A lethal, dangerous muzzle of white fangs; A jet-black body bristling with thick, majestic fur; The ominous aura of a demon.
The sable wolf gnashed at the air, its dark blue eyes attaining a flare of red, and lashed its head toward the flinching, terrified humans, its jet black fur bristling in cold excitement. Its tail snaked with liquid grace of a cobra, a potent growl rippling out from its throat, sifting through the bared, lethal white teeth.
Ash was jolted with a shock of terror that had just shattered the trance the transformation of the wolf had inflicted, the bat sliding through his fingers and into the grass lashing violently in the stormy wind. As the metal heavily collided with the ground, the usually metallic echo was absent as it hit. The only audible noise was that of the rabid, bloodthirsty growl emitting from the wolf.
Panic thrashing and whirling in his mind in a painful grasp, Ash bolted, quickly reacting by lashing out his Poke Balls and recoiling each of his Pokemon. Misty and Brock instantly mimicked his retreat, frantically returning their Pokemon and sprinting for their lives. Black eyes immersed in fear and the draining, shell-shocking adrenaline rush violently pumping through its vein, amplifying is madly beating heart so that each beat was like a drum, Pikachu ran. Dodging an ungodly fast snap of the wolf, the frantically shrieking Thunder mouse ran after.
The wolf smiled secretly at their resistance, abandoning its harsh, wild composure, and glided its sleek, deathly black head to the dark, stormy sky and teased the clouds with a forbidding howl. It flickered sadly, and then jolted up to a tone of death and thrill, crying a foreboding beckon of death to the racing humans. A black glow enveloped its midnight blue eyes ominously, highlighting its eyes from the rippling, majestic forest of ebony fur with a faint glow of silver.
Ash and Misty paused at the howl, Ash protectively clutching Pikachu to his heaving chest; Misty gasping for breath and her azure eyes shrieking in terror. Brock was nearly to safety, a small, rundown house, as they stopped and anxiously yelled for them to hurry. But his cry was slain by a startling crack of thunder.
The wolf snapped its killing jaws in unearthly unison with the blast of cruel sound that violently burned their senses, a bolt of psychic energy lashing out at an impossible speed toward the two ten year olds. Ash and Misty locked gazes, unable to react in time to do anything else, their disheartening gazes whispering a goodbye. And as the bolt of prophetic power curved above them, arching down in a thunderbolt of destiny, they grasped each other's hand.
Blackness. And a pair of midnight blue eyes laughing.
Chapter 1
"Prophecy"
A thick, storm gray coat of clouds enveloped the sky in a death grip of Vision's potent power. Silver lightning fissured the sky with a flash of blinding light. Beneath the dark shadow of the storm, swiftly gliding across the black grass as if on a demon's wings, a sleek, sable canine raced toward a looming, ice crusted orb hovering a foot over the lashing grass. As the dog ran a stab of impending danger flared with a venomous sting in its chest, slowing its gait to a cautious, tentative walk as a stab of burning pain confirmed the warning.
A roar suddenly shattered the tense aura thickly immersing the mountain edged, dark meadow as a flash of light rained down on the jolted animal, along with a violently stinging cascade of rainbow sparks that illuminated the grassy clearing in a flash of multi-colors. A yelp of surprise escaped from the wolf's jaws as it lurched wildly backwards, from the jolt the thunderbolt had potently whipped through its mind.
An icy wind whirled up in a minute whirlwind, a silent challenge, and lingered before erupting in a fiery blaze. And within the spiral of lethal embers, a screech emitted from the fire tornado, manipulating the flames into the vague shape of a dragon. The flames were constantly flickering, burning, and licking the air with dangerous vitality, a rivalry burning in those flame adorned, venomous red eyes. The dragon anxiously gnashed the air and snaked its tail in anticipation of a long awaited battle. It flicked its head and reared up, screeching and flailing in a challenge.
As it slunk down, the flames that had once enveloped it dying instantly, its body glowed with prophetic power no mortal Pokemon could outstrip. But as its evil scarlet eyes adjusted to the dusky meadow, they discovered an empty, black-tinted sea of grass. Warily scanning the meadow in swift glances, snorting a trail of smoke from its nostrils, it causally spit a minute tongue of black energy that, almost as if by magic, lighted its immediate surrounding. The Evil energy escaped from the lethal, fanged jaws of the muscular dragon, then formed into a black flame that hung like a 3d image before the Daemon, highlighted with a chain of golden sparks.
The flame flickered, casting light five feet from the wary creature as it slowly turned, intently searching with dangerously glaring eyes. The wolf was gone.
Hissing in frustration, it whirled around, rabidly screeching and screaming into the dark. Its sleek, serpent like, dark green body was glowing with an ominous tint of bloodthirsty fury. Its flame-enveloped wings swiped the air, dusting the sky with embers that fluttered into the clouds.
As the raging dragon continued to roar and slash at the darkness in frustration, its angry challenges that had before fallen futile now were answered.
A slinking, fluid shadow circled in a demonically fast whirl of black and glinting suggestions of dark, forbidding blue. The wolf agilely snapped at the dragon, lethal fangs bore, and blurred past him in a legendary Agility attack, grazing its teeth on its cheek as a dangerously close warning strike. Recoiling into the shadows as swiftly as it had emerged, the canine Daemon growled, the waving, deep snarl echoing in the darkness, and flashed a pair of gleaming, midnight blue eyes in an arrogant challenge.
Recovering from the grazing blow, the dragon gnashed angrily in rage, then roared and reared back on its hind legs, blazing in an aura of Evil, Psychic, Fire, and Thunder energy. Brandishing its glinting black claws and slashing them out, a fireball formed between the killing claws. It was an black orb, stringed with minute Thunderbolts, adorned with brilliant red flames, and sparking with lavender, tiny sparks.
Arrogantly grinning, the dragon Daemon fingered the sphere with venomous hate; stroking it with long, scythe like claws. Then prepared to launch the fireball at its rival.
The wolf emerged from the darkness, swiftly shifting from its shadow form, and faced the dragon's ensuing assault with the icy calm of a killer. Narrowing its navy blue eyes and curling back its shadowy gray lips in a snarl, the completely black canine snapped, forming a spear of misty, glittering white energy. The two fierce rivals tensed, then attacked.
In the black shadow of the storm, the icy wind playfully nipping and beckoning at its glistening ice blue fur, an equine, ice blue figure was highlighted against the darkening sky, edged with an electric, stunning blizzard blue. Shards of transparent, glowing ice composed the majestic mane and tail that glided through the air like jagged silk. The horse Daemon snorted, a haze of white emitting from its nostrils, then pawed the grass with its gray hoof. It wanted to run, and the wind guided it back from where it came. But no, it had to reach the meeting place, especially before those two idiots started bickering again.
Denying the internal instinct to sprint with the wind, the Rapidash like Daemon reared in a blur of tints of light blue, then streaked at the speed of light across the grass in the same direction the wolf had taken, the grass violently flying into the air as it sped by. The minute snowstorms on its heels icily burned as it flicked its mane of blue snowflakes, and charged faster than any eye could track across the dark, lapping sea of grass. The grass hissed in the wind it created.
Violently whinnying in a shrill voice like an unruly, vicious stallion that sliced blackness of the prophesied night, it charged on in the shadow of the storm, destined for the Dusk plateau.
A sudden eruption of fire raining down lighted the infinitely dark, stormy meadow of Destiny, a tiny ember in the blur of speed. The flicker of lethal Fire blinked out suddenly, but was ensued by a whirl of bloodthirsty screeches and dangerous screams of fury. A snarl and glow of dark energy challenged the producer of the shrieks of anger, and was finally linked with a legendary glow of white Vision and multi-colored Strength.
Those stupid boys were fighting, again. Screaming in a rage of frustration and fed-up anger, the horse blasted a mist of frost into the air, the majestic ice shards flashing into a crackling, sparking mane of lightning. She had to stop them before they went and destroyed each other in thickheaded pride.
Straining its body, the Speed Daemon whirled its legs in a blaze of ungodly swiftness, almost instantly skidding to a fierce stop before the two snarling rivals. Furious, brilliant electric yellow eyes the horse flicked its Thunder mane that bolted a lethal lance of lightning, violently shattering the venomous snarls of the Daemons. The startling, screeching scream of the lightning was the first event to register in their minds besides the fight, causing the animals to pause slightly, absently releasing their attacks.
Gritting her teeth in frustration at their stupidity, the Ice Rapidash snarled in a shrill nasal tone and aimed a shimmering knife of lightning at the two attacks. Tensing her skittish body for a thunderous blast of assaulting sound, the horses reared swiftly back on agile heels and retreated a good five meters to assure her safety. And she was not retreated for a little firecracker explosion; she knew that a fusion of Lightning Assault, Spirit Spear, and Prophecy would fissure the sky in half.
The most powerful Daemons gazed confusedly at each other, trying to realize just happened. But as the deadly thunderbolt nicked the blur of color and brushed lethally against each other, the electricity averting the Vision and Strength attacks fused with them, and the sky seemed to burst in a furious, unimaginable eruption of sound. It was like standing inside a volcano as it is erupting, having a jet plane blast past your ears, and listening to a boombox and headset on max all at once.
The fatal sparks of Thunder fused potently with the Fire, triggering a deadly hell of flames that would of shamed an atomic bomb, assaulting the wolf, whirling down like some demonic inferno slashing with toxic fangs of poisonous fumes and hellish flames. Its midnight blue eyes glinting the explosions brilliant illumination that bathed everything in blood red light, the panicking wolf darted out of the killer's way in an instant, the flames licking at its heels as it began to frantically run for its life.
Although its sleek, swift body, the wolf was instantly consumed by exhaustion that burned at its stomach and slashed at its heart, causing the vital organ to drum in a thundering flurry of furious beats that was not engulfed by the prophetic roar of the explosion, sprinting as fast as its legs would admit without collapsing as the blast of flames pursed coldly. As a spiraling tongue of Fire sliced down at its heels, the wolf Daemon apprehensively analyzed the situation swiftly developing around it in a lethal inferno, then realized the danger of using an attack. Another assault of potency would instantaneously destroy him and cause the entire area to erupt in fatal, toxic flames, annihilating the prophecy that all four Daemons were essential to.
The bristling sable fur that thickly furred the sleek canine glinted the blood red light emanating from the fire and trapped the sultry, charring heat, causing it to overheat and stumble for the icy air beyond the inferno ominously, mortally shrouding it in its own demise. Collapsing into the grass down a brilliant, luminous orange in the firelight, the panting, harshly wheezing Daemon temporarily lay prone in the inferno of flames, midnight blue eyes retaining their striking, resilient gleam of perseverance as it hastily resorted to its final, critical technique of escape from death lurking in the embers malevolently dancing before it in a flickering, devilish dance of death.
Laboriously wheezing and sucking in ragged breaths that were cruelly choked by the toxic fumes from the blast and the ash of the fires now raging across the plain, the animal drunkenly but futilely clawed at the ground, attempting to rise, and was confirmed by its results that its failure to rise clearly inflicted. Despite its weakness, it had to transform to escape the flames. But that would be defying the physics of Pokemon; surpassing the maximum of attacks restricted to a pocket monster by morphing for a sixteenth time since it was rested. Flames roared violently and spit venomously burning ash and embers into its eyes as it flinched but remained on it heaving side, looming like fiery serpents over the injured body of their prey.
Misty thoughts raced through its mind as the wolf laid, at the mercy of the devils lurking in the glittering bonfire closing in around it, in a potential deathbed, and drew a deep, sultry breath of broiling air flecked with poisonous fumes that cruelly whirled the fiery world into a spiraling smear of red and dimly sliced the demonic roaring of the flames with an anguished lament that discouraged even the most icy hearts; a poignant whimper in the fury of the storm. Another toxic breath of fumes finally enveloped the fiery world in ominous blackness and the venomous laughing of the fire seemed to inch closer despite the Daemon's excruciating yet fragile endeavors to keep the inferno at bay. It could barely breath and maintain the barrier at the same time, temporarily blinded by the cinders and fatal heat, let alone transform.
So, as its fading strength finally melted away in a fatal flare of charring heat, the wolf lay still as the flames approached.
Blackness was the only savior for a dejected yet infuriated soul as it weakly sealed its brilliant, glittering eyes as it inhaled a deep, encouraging breath that subdued the furious sparks of its impatient heart. The wisp of crisp, icy air caressed its throat in a breeze of blissful cold, and gently stroked its chest and cooled the tense hotness that had kindled there in its furious rage that had been eternally planted on that one day. That horrible, loathsome day that they had denied the legendary strength of a Daemon; the day they had made the most dangerous mistake of their lives.
Flashing open its forbidding sparkling eyes glinted the Fire Opal's gleaming colors as it ominously glowed with its anger, the fiendish creature trotted warily in the glittering blackness of the Shadow Mountain mists, waiting. Its devilishly gleaming eyes were a fiery mixture of ruby and saffron sparks flecked over a brilliant mist of green, like a fire consuming a forest. And in a way, it was the fire. A blazing fire of the deadliest emotion that could thrive in a creature was flourishing wildly like a wildfire, gleaming in the Fire Opal stringed around its neck: Vengeance
Author notes
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Well, what did you think??? This is my first Dark fic and I have to thank 1) Whoever wrote the book The Golden Compass for giving my the idea for Daemons in the first place. And I did NOT steal the idea of daemons; they are a thing in the dictionary and are public; and 2) Ace and Alicia Ashby for inspiring me to write a Dark fanfic. I know I'm probably not half as good as you are but I'm trying.
As for the ending section, I just got an idea as I was just about to write about the Strength and Speed Daemons and decided to add a mysterious new character ^_^ Take a guess at what it is… I really won't describe what it is fully until the sequel, but you will get a glimpse of it at the very end of this fic.
Oh and one more thing. I wonder if anyone can guess what Ash and co. have to do with the Daemons… for any of you who have read The Golden Compass, you'll probably know
Please send comments, flames, suggestions, slices of cake and cookies to chustang@fcmail.com