Black Blood
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Chapter 1
At Home
Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Pokémon or anything created by anyone else.
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"We're finally at the last city, Pallet Town, Sir."
"Yes, then our work here will be complete."
"Anything else you want, Sir?"
"Yes, be careful something about this town feels different than the rest. I don't want any screw ups."
"At once, Sir."
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Pikachu's Point of View
"Chu," I swore under my breath, rubbing my sore bottom. This was the fifth time in the past month I woke up like this: on the cold floor with an aching bottom. I was really considering a new place to sleep. Ash was sitting up still breathing hard from his nightmare.
He had been having nightmares for the last two months. I don't think the nightmares would be so bad if he could just remember what they were about. He told me he didn't even remember bits and pieces.
I had nightmares too, if you could call them that. I would wake up with a shortness of breath and no memory why that was, but it was nowhere near as bad as Ash's awakenings. He would literally jerk awake in a cold sweat panting for breath with a terrified look in his eyes. His jerking awake would usually end up with me on the floor, like now. I thought that if he wasn't panting so hard when he woke up that he would still be screaming right now.
I had asked Ash's other Pokémon if they had any nightmares recently, but oddly they all said they didn't. They all seemed so happy when they saw us back from Unova. They were a little disappointed to hear that Ash had lost the Unova League, but they quickly perked up although because their Ash was back home.
I looked at Ash who was staring out the window. I wondered what was going through his head right now.
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Ash's Point of View
The last four months had been long, very long. Usually I would have already left by now for another region, but I hadn't. Oak kept insisting I go to the Kalos region, but I turned him down every time. Something felt wrong or off about everything, and I wanted to figure out what seemed wrong before I left to go to some other region.
I had explained my reasoning to the others and even to my Pokémon, but they didn't sense anything different. They just thought I was being paranoid. Except Pikachu; he agreed with me that something definitely seemed wrong.
So the last few months we had fallen into a routine. My Mom would wake us up and we would go down stairs to devour the breakfast she made for us. Then me and Pikachu would hang out awhile usually watching TV, playing board games, talking, or just relaxing. After that we would eat lunch, again made by my mom. Then we head over to Oak's to train with my Pokémon for five or so hours. Finally we would head home before eating dinner and going to sleep.
Most of the time I could just ignore the whole weird feeling in the back of my head, the sense of offness, but it was hard, it was like bug bites the more I thought about it the itchier it was. If I thought about it too much it would be all I could think about. Then I would start having a really bad migraine.
I was jerked out of my thinking when Pikachu jumped off the floor and landed on my lap. I looked down at him and saw the concerned look on his face. "I'm ok Pikachu it was just another little nightmare," I tried to say without a quiver in my voice, but failed miserably.
"Pika Pikachu," he said. Just by the tone of his voice I could tell he was basically saying, "You're a terrible liar."
"Yeah… well… uhh… You're not any better of a liar then I am," I finally retorted trying to change the subject.
"Pi." Was all he said in return.
"Are you trying to say that you're a better liar than I am?" I asked starting to feel a smirk form on my face to which he nodded his head. "Well then, when we go to Oak's I'll bring a couple packs of cards and we'll play BS with whoever else wants to play. Then we will see who the best liar really is."
"Pika," He agreed with a small smirk on his face.
"Ok. Go down stairs and see if Mom's up yet and more importantly if she has made breakfast yet." I told him starting to get ready.
After showering and brushing my teeth I looked into the mirror. I saw a somewhat short ten-year-old boy with unruly hair wearing blue jeans, a purple shirt under a black vest, a yellow lightning bolt designed baseball hat, and finally purple fingerless gloves. Something in the back of my head found this for some reason terribly wrong.
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Ash's Point of View
By the time I got down stairs I could see that my Mom was indeed up and making huge fluffy waffles. I loved my mom's cooking. It was one of the pluses about staying at home longer than I usually did. She just loved to cook all the time. I had told her time and time again that she should be a professional chef, but she just blushed and said that she wasn't that good of a cook. I eventually gave up trying to convince her because she didn't want to hear it.
I glanced into the dining room to see Pikachu on the table already halfway through his second apple. "Easy on the apples or I'll have to put you on a diet again," I teased. I had wondered what Professor Oak had been feeding my Pikachu before I met him. He had weighed twenty-one pounds when Oak gave him to me. That was eight pounds more than the average Pikachu weighed according to the Pokédex. Man was Pikachu mad at me when I told him he had to go on a diet.
"Pika pi pi chu," He threatened cheeks sparking angrily.
"I was just kidding," I insisted quickly stepping back into the kitchen before Pikachu could shock me.
I was then smacked in the face with the delicious cinnamony smell of extra cinnamon waffles. I didn't know why I hadn't smelled them earlier but I could surely smell them now.
I watched my mom stack a fourth golden, perfectly round, and heavenly waffle onto my plate. "Here you go, son," She said handing me the tower of waffles.
"Thanks, Mom."
"You're Welcome, and make sure you clean the syrup off the table if you spill any. Mr. Mime wasn't too happy last time he discovered drying syrup on the table. Oh and don't forget to wash your hands."
"Ok, Mom, I will," I said placing the plate onto the table next to Pikachu. I then went into the bathroom and proceeded to wash my hands. When I returned I looked around the table, but found the syrup to be missing. You couldn't have waffles without syrup! "Hey, Mom?"
"Yes, dear." She called from the kitchen.
"Have you seen the syrup?"
"It should be on the table."
I physically got up and walked around the whole table moving things to the side to see if I missed it, but I came up empty handed. "Where on Earth is the syrup?" I wondered aloud as I sat back down, disappointed about not finding it.
Pikachu snickered. I looked at him snickering with his hands trying, but failing, to hold back his laughter. "You hid the syrup somewhere didn't you?" This caused him to fall on his side full out laughing now. "Tell me where you put it, Pikachu."
"Pika pika," he finally said with his arms in an 'I don't know' gesture after standing back up.
"Do we have to do this the hard way?"
"Chu," He said defiantly crossing his arms and looking away.
"Fine, you asked for it," I said suddenly tickling him all over. He struggled as he tried to escape but I made sure not to let him go, I tickled him for five seconds before asking, "Do you give up?"
"Pi," He laughed out shaking his head, tears in his eyes and breathing hard as I continued the torment.
"You asked for it." I ticked him again but for ten seconds this time. "How about now?"
He kept laughing but managed to choke out "Pi," As he again shook his head, I then tickled him for twenty whole seconds and I was about to ask him if he gave up when my Mom walked into the room to see what all the commotion was.
"Ash," She yelled, "You're getting Pikachu's fur all over the clean table." Startled I let go of Pikachu. Pikachu then took that moment to quickly escape my grasp and run out of the dining room.
I looked down at the table to see all the yellow hair on it. "Heh heh… I'll clean it up Mom, but it was Pikachu's fault, he hid the syrup."
"Ok," she sighed grabbing another bottle of maple syrup from the cabinet.
I quickly cleaned off the table making sure no hairs got onto my waffles. I then threw all the hair in the trash and washed my hands again before sitting back down. I drowned my waffles in syrup and handed the bottle to my Mom. I watched her carefully pour a little syrup into each hole of her single waffle.
"Why do you always do that?" I asked taking a huge bite of my soggy waffles.
"Do what?"
"Carefully pour syrup into each individual hole of your waffle."
"I don't know. I always do."
I finished the rest of my waffles in silence. I tried to think of new ways to train my Pokémon, but I just kept coming up with things I already had tried. When I was finished with my waffles I put my plate in the sink.
I was on my way out of the dining room when my Mom said, "I almost forgot," I walked back over to her. "Professor Oak called earlier when you were asleep. He said he needed to see you before noon for something," She finished.
I looked at the clock it read 11:41. "Oh crap," I thought. I was going to have to run like the day I got Pikachu.
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