Chapter 1: Disrupted Robbery
It started in the city of Seribella, a quiet, serene town where the gang was visiting. It all started on some food shortage…
"Uh oh," Clemont muttered, checking his bag.
Everyone turned to him.
"What's wrong, Clemont?" Ash asked his friend.
"Does anyone have any pokemoney? Because I'm low on money! And since I'm low on supplies, I'll need to buy more! If any of you have any money, I'll pay you back later!"
Ash flipped his pockets inside-out, and only a small ball of cotton was produced. Serena's skirt pockets only had perfume bottles.
Bonnie, who clearly had no money, asked in desperation, "This won't take long, will it?"
Clemont smiled and said, "Only a few minutes."
The moment they looked at the bank's line, Clemont's eyes went whiter than milk and steam poured out of Bonnie's ears… literally.
The line went through the whole room, and even though every single clerk was there today, the line was moving slower than a Slugma.
Clemont tapped a tall lady's shoulder and asked, "Why is the bank so crowded today?"
The lady turned to him and regarded him with heracross-like eyes. She told him in a gravelly voice, "How do you not know? The Immortals are coming here to perform in a few days, and the tickets cost a fortune! That's why so many people are here before the tickets are sold out, see?"
"Oh dear," Clemont grumbled.
Serena wafted away the putrid smoke from Bonnie and said desperately, "It can't get any worse, can it?"
Pikachu heavily disagreed, as due to his mousy nose, the scent was a thousand times as bad as Ash's old socks he never cleaned… and those hadn't been washed in a month PLUS was dropped in a puddle in mud.
He coughed and muttered, "Pika pika…"
Apparently though, Fate had a different idea of 'getting worse.'
Ash temporarily heard a gunshot, and his ears started ringing.
At the entrance were five burly men with their faces covered in black ski masks. A pokeball hung in their gun holsters, one each, and all of them was holding some kind of firearm.
The one clearly in charge based off his attitude, and probably the one sending the warning shot, shouted, "Everyone get down and put your hands over your heads! You will all give us every single pokedollar you have, or you'll live to regret it! And don't bother sending off any alarms, or else."
Ash did as he was told, and Pikachu leaped off his shoulder to kind of do so. Everyone kneeled over, looked down, and placed their palms on their heads, while Pikachu simply looked down, squatted, and flattened his ears with his paws.
When one of the robbers, about forty due to the long, greying beard peeking out from his mask, reached Ash, he snarled, "Pay up."
Ash gave no reply.
"PAY UP!"
When Ash still did nothing, he found himself being pulled up from the scruff of his collar.
He started flailing his arms and legs, shouting, "LET ME GO!"
The guy who picked him up kicked Pikachu before the pokemon could do anything and called out, "All of you look at this! I'm about to show you what happens to those who don't apply!"
He grabbed the gun by the barrel and swung the butt across Ash's face, and Ash cried out as blood burst out from his cheek. The pain made him blind for a second, and the world spun and disorientated. He heard his friends cry out only to be silenced by pistol shots.
The guy dropped Ash and kicked him the chest, rolling him over to where he was. He couldn't really see, but he was aware of Pikachu, Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie leaning over him.
"Ash, are you alright?" Serena asked worriedly.
"Oh, so the chick wants a go!" the guy who beat Ash laughed. "Well, pretty lady, your prayers are answered."
The ka-chank of a shotgun pump echoed through the silent lobby.
"They are now," the owner whispered.
Clearly a guy about fifteen, the guy wore a black hooded sweatshirt with no design, black pilot goggles, a bandana over his mouth, biker gloves, jean pants, and running shoes. Black messy hair covered part of his goggles, and the only flesh visible on him was pale white. He held two handheld shotguns and one was pointed at the brute's head. Six pokeballs bulged from underneath his jacket on his belt. He stood with his front foot on a skateboard, which was on its back legs.
The other four thugs aimed their pistols at him. They actually looked quite terrified and were hesitant.
"L… listen, man!" one of them shouted. "I… if you even try it, we will burst your head t… to smithereens!"
The guy cocked his head to the side.
Then one of the robbers disappeared in a flash of grey.
"I… if you do that again…"
The guy swiveled his skateboard.
A thug fell on his face with a pulsing, sickening violet wound on his back.
He flipped his other shotgun.
The last thug besides the speaker was grabbed from behind by something… large.
The creature held up the thug high with one claw. It was a Drapion.
Another pokemon picked up the wounded robber. Toxicroak croaked at the guy in charge.
Finally, a bisharp came down, the captured thug unconscious and held like a sleeping bag.
The thug in charge dropped his pistol and put his hands in the air.
The guy nodded and elbowed his own captive in the head. The man crumpled, and the rescuer kicked him over with the others.
"Nicely done, guys," he congratulated. He turned to the clerks and asked, "Well? You gonna sound that alarm?"
As everyone calmed down, the guy came up to Ash, who still lay on the ground.
"You okay?" he asked.
Ash blinked. The guy might as well have been Death as a hero or something.
"Yeah…" he muttered.
"Pika!" Pikachu cried with joy, rubbing his cheek against his trainer's. "Kaaaaaaaa…"
The guy touched Ash's cheek, and was greeted by a wince.
"Well, that may hurt for now," the guy told them. "Give me a second…"
He produced a rather large band-aid and put some ointment on it. He stuck it on Ash's cheek and put his fists on his hips triumphantly.
"There," he said.
The bisharp, drapion, and toxicroak came up to him.
"It done?" he asked.
"Croak," the toxicroak replied.
He patted the toxicroak and drapion on the heads, and gave a hi-five to bisharp.
"Stay sharp," he said to Ash, pointing to bisharp's arm blades. He laughed and put the three in their pokeballs, got on his skateboard, and rolled off.
Sometime later, on their way to the Pokemart, Serena noticed Ash poke at his cheek. Pikachu also noticed that and gave a small shiver.
"What is it?" Serena asked.
Ash turned to Clemont and Bonnie and told them, "Can you two go on without us?"
Clemont noticed the slight fear in Ash's voice and went on, getting the gist. Bonnie wiggled her eyebrows at Serena before going with her brother.
"Okay, you must swear you will never tell this to anyone," Ash told Serena.
"I swear," Serena promised.
Ash sighed and explained, "I've never told this to anyone before. So, you remember how I told you that I've traveled through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, in Unova, something happened…"
Ash fell silent, and Serena asked, "Is it… personal?"
"Yeah. Could you follow me for a second?"
Ash went to a shady tree, and sat down under it. He looked at the ground, his hat covering his face. Pikachu scampered onto the tree, not anxious to hear whatever this was. Serena sat next to him, wanting to help in any way she could.
"Okay, so here's what…" he said. "So, me and my friends, Cilan and Iris, and Pikachu, obviously, and just having a picnic somewhere. And we let Pikachu and Iris's pokemon, Axew, go wander off, and they come back with this evil axew. And… it could… talk."
"So?" Serena stopped herself there. "Sorry, that came out kind of harshly. I mean, Team Rocket's Meowth can talk."
"But this one… he had some kind of jagged scar over his eye, and he had fangs… not normal. Even less normal, a bunch of floating, messed up white hands followed him…"
Ash shuddered.
"But thing is, he brought up Lavender Tower from Kanto all the way to Unova and…"
Several teardrops fell from his face.
"I-I'm sorry, Serena. I can't do this!"
He tried to run off, and Serena shouted, "Wait!"
As she caught his arm, black electricity flowed from Ash to her.
And she fell.
She awoke, and saw blackness.
Serena could see herself, but everything was just pitch black.
"That's you…"
Serena spun her head around, looking for where the dark voice came from.
She brought out braxien's pokeball, and threw it.
All that came out was braxien's disembodied head on her stick.
Serena screamed and ran.
The landscape started taking shape: a circular platform made of white stone high in the air.
No, on top of a tower that reached the sky.
"Do you see him?"
Serena tried to find the source of the voice, but it echoed everywhere.
"LOOK FOR HIM."
Serena looked around on the tower roof, and saw someone… familiar.
Ash Ketchum before she had seen him in Kalos. In his different outfit, he looked slightly shorter.
However, what mattered was that he was bruised and battered.
Pikachu tried to stand up. He was right in front of Ash and was clearly in the middle of a battle.
Ash was fighting…
"Oh my Arceus," Serena thought.
A white corpse with rotten flesh and thin skin. Its eyes were sunken but pure red.
Behind it…
"You see me?"
An axew, hands behind its back grinning so evilly for a small creature it was filthy. Like Ash said, it had razor-sharp teeth and a very jagged scar over its right eye like a sword cut.
What Ash hadn't mentioned, however, was the purple-black fire surrounding it and the maniacal look in its eyes that was blinding.
Serena was truly terrified now. This thing was haunting her from Ash's memories…
"W… what are you?!" she cried.
She felt something behind her. She turned.
She saw it.
The fraxure stared at her with the same smile and eyes. Its scar was the same and the sharp teeth had no difference.
"My name…" he laughed, "is TERRIFANG."
He raised a hand to her face, and black light transferred from his hand to her brain.
Impossibly dark thoughts filled Serena's vision, and she started screaming, crying, and hugging herself. She fell to her knees, not stopping with her horrible sobs of terror.
"I am FEAR."
Serena saw her body breaking over rocks.
"I am PAIN."
Clemont was surrounded by ghosts, and his glasses glowed purple.
"I am MISERY."
Dozens of messed up white hands tore Bonnie limb-by-limb.
"I am REVENGE!"
Terrifang himself slowly twisted Ash's body around, which started to contort and disorientate until it slowly shredded. Serena could hear his horrible screams as bad as her own as the process continued.