Pokemon: 2024

Mr. Pokemon's Will

Italics indicate thoughts

It was eight at night when Ash Ketchum arrived in Cherrygrove City in the Johto Region. It was that day again. The day he lost Pikachu. Professor Oak had called him, told him about an old friend of his that had passed away, and asked Ash to accompany him to the man's house to pay respects. Oak thought it would get his mind off of Pikachu. It wouldn't, but Ash was willing to try anything. He walked down the path out of Cherrygrove in only a plain white T-shirt and jeans. He didn't need a bag, or Pokeballs. He wasn't on a journey. Not anymore.

A half hour passed before Ash found himself standing in front of an old, dilapidated looking cabin. A broken sign lay sadly on the path in front of it. It said Mr. Pokemon's House in old faded letters. It had to be decades old. Ash turned and walked up the walkway to the cabin. Oak, who had seen him through the window, opened the door to greet him.

"Ash! It's been too long! How are you?"

Ash grimaced. "You know how I am Professor. You know what day it is."

Oak struggled not to slap his hand to his face in frustration. Of course I do. You never shut-up about it…

Then, he gestured towards the inside of the house.

"Come in, Come in!"

Ash shuffled awkwardly inside. A nervous looking man sat on a tattered and worn-out sofa. Ash recognized him as Professor Elm, a student of Oak's he had met when he started his Johto region journey. Elm wore an uncharacteristic terrified look on his face.

"You know we shouldn't be here Oak. They'll be along any minute now. For his research."

Oak smiled. "They won't get even a page. We'll see to that." He winked at Elm but it didn't seem to satisfy his fear.

Ash listened to this conversation as he stood waiting in the doorway. Against his desire to keep thinking about Pikachu, his curiosity was peeked.

"Who's they?"

Oak shared a concerned look with Elm before he replied. "It's really nothing Ash, just the local police force. They just want to make sure he died naturally."

Ash glared at him. "You're lying Professor."

Oak faked an appalled expression. "Ash! I would never lie to you!"

Ash brushed his greasy black hair back with one hand. "It's the Rocket Consortium…isn't it?"

Oak only knew one way to respond. Truthfully. "Ash. Do you have any Pokemon on you?"

Ash shook his head. "It'd be an insult to Pikachu's memory if I carried any other Pokemon by my side without him."

Oak frowned. Then I guess it's up to me.

Ash grinned to himself. Maybe I should have mentioned that while I'm not a trainer anymore, the world's still dangerous. He moved a hand to his leg, where, under his jeans, a Glock 17 Gen 2 was taped to his lower thigh. And I'm always packing heat.

He pulled out a dusty old Pokeball from his lab coat and clicked the button on the capsule to release his Pokemon. A red light erupted from the ball and took the form of the Pokemon Oak always took with him when in danger of a confrontation with the Consortium. Dragonite.

Oak stepped forward to give Dragonite a pat on the shoulder in greeting before he spoke.

"Elm is correct. While it is important to honor our old friend, it is also important that we prevent the Consortium from getting anything helpful from his death to aid in their shameless destructions."

He turned to Ash and Elm. "Mr. Pokemon's will stated that his sole request was that we destroy everything he owned. Including his research." He gestured to the locked filing cabinets in the corner.

Elm gasped. "But that research is invaluable! Think of the possible breakthroughs we can make by applying it!"

Oak sternly shook his head. "But then it would still be out there for the Consortium to pursue. It could cause great devastation in their hands. Mr. Pokemon knew that. "

Elm was infuriated, but he understood what they had to do. He nodded at Oak.

Oak then had a thought, and against his better judgment, he spoke. "Well, it couldn't hurt to take a peek for a few minutes or too…you know, just to get a better idea on how we can make the great advancements Mr. Pokemon would want us to…" He sheepishly grinned.

Elm leapt up in the air. "I know his lock combo!"

Oak practically ran over to the filing cabinets. "Then what are we waiting for?"

While the two Professors greedily rifled through the thousands of research documents, Ash had sat in the armchair adjacent to the sofa Elm had been sitting on. The armchair was the only thing in the house to still be in amazing condition. It looked brand new. However the cushion he was sitting on was extremely lumpy, which was probably why Elm chose to sit on the sofa instead. Ash finally grew impatient and got off the chair in order to see if he could find what was making the cushion so uncomfortable. He removed the cushion from the chair and discovered a zipper stretching across one side of it. He unzipped it and reached into the now open cushion to see if he could find the problem.

Ash scrunched up his face in frustration. "Nothing…nothing…noth—"

His hand had hit something leathery. It felt like a…book? He grabbed it and pulled it out, then turned around to see if the others had noticed. They were now intensely eyeing down the two research documents they had found most interesting. Ash sat down on the armchair after replacing the cushion and was pleased to find it much more comfortably. Then he looked at his find. It was a small journal, bound in leather, with a lock, but like mostly everything in the house, it was busted. The cover read Danger and Power. A diagnosis on the most wondrous and mystifying aspects of the world as personally experienced. FOR PERSONAL RECORDS ONLY. DO NOT OPEN! DESTROY UPON DISCOVERY. Ash was amazed. Finally. SOMETHING cool. Then he disobeyed Mr. Pokemon's instructions.

The journal was amazing. An altar which could transport one through dimensions if they possessed a Natu. A gate to Pokelantis. Binding spells to control legendaries (they were only mentioned, as Mr. Pokemon amusingly write: "THAT SHIT IS DANGEROUS". ) Then Ash found the last few pages. Dialga's Golden Loop. Ash began to read the caption below a picture pasted on the page of what appeared to be a golden rope.

This artifact of staggering and incredible power is the Golden Loop of Dialga (The Pokemon said to have created time itself.) Ancient tribes in the Sinnoh region are believed to have been initially split in two factions. One that worshipped that which manipulated space and one that praised that which controlled time. This second tribe once instated a prodigal and idealistic shaman that wished to feel that which Dialga felt when it time traveled. He wanted to time travel years ago to when a rogue faction of the rival tribe burned down an entire village of his tribe's. Hundreds had lost their lives. Including his wife and infant son. He sought to prevent their deaths as well as destroy the other tribe in retaliation. After many decades of research and experimenting with forbidden magics, the shaman's attempts fell short. Until he encountered the creature Dialga itself at a ripe old age when visiting a cave devoted to Dialga with an underground lake where the tribe would pray when they believed that had not long to live. Dialga had been in a battle of epic proportions with Palkia during that time that would only end when one perished. Dialga sought to gain an ally in a fight that it could not win alone and found him in the shaman who had spent his entire life devoted to researching and worshipping the Pokemon. He granted him his wish and had its servant, an Aridados, craft the shaman a majestic rope from its silk that represented time itself, which Dialga then bathed in its own time altering powers. When one end of the rope touched another, a time loop would be initiated and the holder would be whisked back to whichever day he thought about when he used the rope. In Dialga's honor, the shaman used his entire vast fortune to create a gold coating to soak the rope in to make it take on the appearance of woven gold(in tribal tradition, if an object was golden, it meant that the object was viewed as the greatest possession life could bestow on the owner). Many doubt the Golden Loop had worked, but records curiously show that the shamans wife and son actually did survive the village burning and died natural deaths. In fact there seems to have been no destruction of the village at all due to the fact that all records and evidence besides written accounts also show that the opposing tribe that worshipped Palkia and burned the village never existed at all. and died natural deaths while the shaman himself seems to have disappeared, according to tribal lore, at the same time a new Dialga was recorded to have appeared around the same time the Dialga was defeated in battle against the Palkia and passed. This new Dialga took the old's place and is rumored to be the exact one that exists today. As for the Golden Loop, it is said to still exist today at the bottom of the underground lake in the cave where the shaman used it. Ancient historical records found in Celestic town actually seem to agree with the legend and say it may certainly be true, but is inconsequential since none will actually be able to find the cave without an ancient map crafted by the shaman so that others too would be able to right terrible wrongs using the loop. Though, personally, it appears as if the loop can also be used to cause true evil, which is why, after years of hunting with the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia, I have found the map and keep it in this very book in order to use as an "escape button" if any evil ever becomes too much to impede.

Ash's heart skipped a beat and flipped past the last couple pages until he came to the back of the book. In a pocket sewn into the last page was an old, yellowed, and worn out folded up piece of paper. Ash slipped it out and unfolded the paper once in order to check the contents. This is the map, Ash thought in awe. He then turned to look toward the Professors. They had been packing up the files while he wasn't paying attention! Ash quickly jumped up and crammed the map back into the book. Then he stuffed them both in his back pocket literally seconds before the Professors finished and Oak turned around to talk to Ash.

"You've been quiet. You had a good nap in that armchair?"

Ash struggled to not sound panicky. "Uh…yeah. It's comfy. So, we gonna destroy this place?"

Oak grimly nodded. "It is time. Elm!"

Professor Elm quickly shoved the piece of research he had been copying down in his notepad back into the file cabinet and ran up to the Professor's side.

Oak led the two out of the cabin where his Dragonite was flying over their heads in the dark night sky.

Oak turned to the sky.

"Dragonite! …Now."

Dragonite swooped down to the cabin as the three men ran out of its way. Then it opened its mouth and in mere seconds, the entire house was a pile of debris and ashes, thanks to its dragon breath attack.

Ash somberly looked on as the house burned.

"You going to miss that armchair Ash?"

Ash looked at Oak and smiled, while at the same time he felt guilty.

"Yeah…I'll miss that armchair…"

Oak turned to Elm, and Elm knew immediately what to do.

"Alakazam! Go! Use teleport and send us all back where we came from!"

When Ash next opened his eyes he was lying in a grungy looking bed at the Pallet Town Motels in a grungy looking room. He rolled over onto his stomach to go to sleep, then he had a thought.

That was unbelievable. So…did it happen? Or was it all a dream?

Ash reached behind him to grasp at his back pocket and see what was inside.

Then, he pulled out a small, leather bound book…

Meanwhile, nearby Cherrygrove city, a black van pulls up by the pile of debris that used to be Mr. Pokemon's house. A shadowy figure fumed upon seeing that he would not find what he was looking for there. He pulled out a cell phone and speed dialed "1". In a few seconds a woman answered the phone.

"The place has been destroyed boss. Nothing."

The woman groaned over the phone. "Our sources told us that he had the map. If there is any remnants of anything telling us that it's still out there, you need to find it. Or I'll get someone who can."

The shadowy figure shuddered at that thought, hung up the phone and climbed out of the van to rifle through the rubbish that used to be Mr. Pokemon's house.

Thousands of miles away, at the Old Team Rocket HQ, the woman he had been speaking with threw her phone against the wall of her office. She brushed a hand through her long red hair all the way down to the spiral at the end in frustration.

"Barton!"

A shifty looking man in a black suit shuffled into the office to stand in front of her desk.

"Yes…miss?"

"I'm tired of playing games with that idiot. Send an alert call to all forces in the field and tell them to redouble their efforts in finding a purple haired man with a Meowth." She paused. "Actually, it might be a Persian now, just to shake us off."

Barton slyly grinned. "James, miss?"

The red haired woman glared at him. "Yes. James."

Barton's grin became wider, if possible. "Right away miss." He began to shuffle back out.

"And Barton?"

Barton turned back to her.

"Yes?"

"When they do…kill him."

"Yes Miss Jessie…"

So that's the second chapter of Pokemon: 2024. Please review with how you think the story could be improved and what you think is good. I'm also open to suggestions if you want to do that. Thanks!