Chapter One: The butterfly effect
Ash Ketchum is a regular six-year-old, living in a quiet little place called Pallet Town with his parents. He loves pokemon, in all shapes and forms, and is friendly to a fault, as well as overly stubborn. He is the picture of youthful innocence, without a care in the world, and no experience in tragedy, aside from the time when he lost his electrode soccer ball.
Unfortunately, that is about to change.
With his parents on either side, Ash Ketchum is walking down the road towards town, on the return trip from Route 1, where they walk most evenings. Unbeknownst to him, Ash's life is about to be forever changed.
"Speeeeeeeeear-row!" came a screeching cry from behind them.
As they all turned around, they were greeted by a terrifying sight – a huge flock of maddened Spearow, flying straight towards them. For a second, the three stood there, shocked, then the tallest figure, Ash's father, picked up his son, grabbed his wife's hand and screamed 'Run!' to her.
They took off, heading for the safety of home, but the flock as gaining on them. The woman was lagging behind, mere metres ahead of the birds, when she tripped on something red and rectangular and fell, instantly swarmed by their pursuers.
The man paused in horror for a half second, before meeting eyes with her through the flock and knowing what she wanted, what he needed to do. He ran faster, the child grasped tightly in his arms, desperately hoping for his son to survive. But it did not seem that any of them would, for flying is faster than running, and the birds eventually caught up to him, viciously pecking and clawing at his body. He stumbled, falling to his knees, then tried to get up, but to no avail. As the birds ravaged him, he covered his son with himself and prayed for a miracle.
Professor Oak was out in the woods that evening, searching for something he had lost, a pokedex that was meant to be given to this year's trainers, which he had dropped while out in the field that day.
He was disturbed from his search by the faint sound of a man shouting what sounded like 'Run'. He recognised the voice as belonging to Ash Ketchum's father, a man he had not met much, but seemed to be a good person. He then realized that he had sounded panicked, and someone yelling 'run' in a panicked tone was not a good thing. He pulled out two pokeball containing two pokemon which he always had on him out in the field, Arcanine and Pidgeot, then ran off in the direction of the shout.
What he saw before him was one of the worst scenarios he had inadvertently been thinking about as he ran. A woman, brutally scratched and bleeding, lay crumpled on the ground. He released his pokemon and ran over to her, rolling her over onto her back. As he checked for her pulse and didn't find one, he easily recognised her as Delia Ketchum, son of the young boy whom he planned on giving a pokedex to someday, Ash Ketchum. He stood up, his expression sombre, then looked around, remembering he had heard Mr. Ketchum's voice, meaning he was also around somewhere.
A glance to the left revealed another person lying on the road, with a small figure at his side.
Oh no, the professor thought, please let that not be Ash at his side, the child is too young to go through something like this, let alone witness it.
As he got closer, he saw that it was, indeed, Ash, kneeling beside his father, who seemed to be talking to his son. The man glanced up and saw him, smiled briefly, and seemed to be starting to say something before choking and letting his head fall.
The old man knew he was dead without checking for a pulse, instead touching Ash's shoulder gently, hoping to maybe console him.
The boy turned to face him, and what he saw caught his words in his throat.
Ash's face was unharmed, he must have been shielded by the man, but his eyes… his eyes were completely blank, devoid of emotion. Despite being young, the boy knew that his parents were dead.
"Ash. I'm so sorry…' he said, his words barely seeming to register with the boy, who stared blankly at him before collapsing.
He reacted quickly, picking the boy up and placing him on Arcanine's back, then telling him to run to his house. He told Pidgeot to bring the adult's bodies back, then ran off in the same direction as the fire dog.
Well, that was pretty morbid, an effect which was probably ruined by my terrible writing style. Anyway, this is the first chapter of my first fanfic. I know it's a fairly common style, but I wanted to write a 'different Ash' story, and this is the way I thought to do it.
Please review with constructive criticism, I want to get know what I did wrong and can do better so that this story can improve. I hope you enjoyed it, and expect a second chapter out, although not necessarily soon, as this is a minor side-activity I decided to do, but I will get a chapter out every week or two. See you next time!