Chapter 2: Lingering Darkness.
Summary: panic breaks out forcing Ash to defend Nuvema Town, as a secret is revealed Ash makes choice that will change the his involvement in the upcoming conflict.
Ash followed Hilda into the lab owned by the regional professor, he looked around happy to see that the facility was still extremely busy as always, seeing the starting pokemon running around the legs of the lab assistants as they continued to research the pokemon of the world, Ash turned his eyes to the back of the main foyer spotting a woman with light brown hair tied up, wearing a green dress, a white blouse and lab coat, "alright you guys can have your break," the woman informed her assistants.
"Hi Professor Juniper, it's been a while," Ash called the leader of the research team.
"Ash, I see you are revisiting some of the regions you have been to before," Professor Juniper pointed out with great joy, "have you heard the news?" Juniper asked the younger trainer.
"Yeah, something is going horribly wrong in this region," Ash answered back with a hint of sadness.
"Well apart from that, your friend Iris is the new champion of this region," Juniper informed Ash with the news about his old traveling compainion.
"That's awesome," Ash replied with joy.
"Well it seems like nothing much has changed about you," another female voice echoed through the main foyer of the lab, Ash turned around to see a woman with a darker tone of skin, long violet hair, wearing a pink dress and a cream coloured blouse with pink cuffs, "Juniper summoned me here a few days ago, who knew you would be showing up to visit," Iris walked up to her friend.
"So you became champion of this region," Ash applauded his former traveling companion.
"Yeah, amazing how much has changed over the last few years," Iris pointed out with great pride, "but reminiscing isn't the reason why I am here, in fact, you should know a bit about what is happening around the world," Iris explained to Ash about her reasoning for being in Nuvema Town, she watched Hilda choosing her first pokemon for her journey, "mind if we go somewhere quiet?" Iris requested quietly.
"Why?" Ash enquired, but no response was give straight away, he followed his friend to another location, "Iris, the moment you saw Hilda, you grew more serious," Ash grew frustrated with the champion of the region.
Upon reaching the balcony Iris turned to Ash with a serious expression, "listen, there is something you need to know about that woman, we have recently discovered that she is the reason why there is a severe food shortage in this town, I came here to investigate," Iris informed Ash about her mission in the small town.
"Investigate further into certain events right Iris?" Ash asked his friend calmly.
Iris nodded, staring out into the distance, seeing the wilted crops, "all of the champions have their concerns, so it is only right for me to look around, the Elite Four are also helping, but the biggest problem rests in the fact that people have also gone missing," Iris explained to Ash about the deepening mystery in her region, "I have done some research and sadly things are set to get worse," Iris stated with a frown, not realising that Hilda was listening in on the conversation between the two friends.
"How bad is it going to get?" Ash asked quietly.
"three thousand years ago, the world was ravaged by four entities, all four were named War, Pestilence, Famine and Death, those four and their leader were all beaten by the king of Pokelantis," Iris explained to Ash, pulling out a book based on the history of Pokelantis, "after the king won the battle he grew arrogant and demanded that everyone sees him as a deity," Iris explained more of the history.
"And he was sealed away by Ho-oh," Ash finished catching the champion off guard, "I know that he was, because I was taken over by that very same king," Ash confessed with displeasure at the experience.
"The Four Horsemen are also immortal, but as for the current Famine, well she is mortal," Iris stated with a frown, hearing the footsteps of the woman she was referring to, "we don't have anything against you, we are trying to come up with an idea on how we can help you," Iris tried to reason with the brunette.
'So that means I hold an evil spirit within me, a spirit that can bring ruin to this world,' the brunette pressed her back against the wall and slid down.
"What happened to the original Famine?" Ash asked the champion, his fists clenched tightly as he grew determined.
"The king of Pokelantis pulled the soul out of its original body, after that, the body of the original famine turned to dust, meaning the spirit of Famine was forced to haunt the world for eternity," Iris explained the past of the spirit to Ash, "luckily it is still dormant but it is still exerting it's power," Iris informed Ash while pointing towards dead fields of crops and berry trees.
"There is something else isn't there?" Ash questioned the Unova champion.
Iris nodded and looked over at the brunette, "the spirit is linked to the life of Hilda, so if Famine is taken out of Hilda's body either by accident or forcibly, she will die," Iris solemnly told the two, Hilda stepped back in fear, her eyes widened as she shook her head, in dismay, "that is something we all need to prevent, maybe we can find a way to reverse the influence of Famine," Iris concluded with certainty, glancing over at Hilda who was showing a huge amount of fear.
"Reverse it how? And not only that the king of Pokelantis is sealed away, and the only person that knows his location is the Pyramid King," Ash showed signs of growing frustration, he looked up to see a dark wave flying towards the town, wincing his eyes he spotted a flock of flying pokemon heading towards the town, 'odd, wild pokemon don't act like this,' Ash thought to himself, as the pokemon got closer, the trio felt the ground shaking below them.
The cries of the flying pokemon sounded like a train, Ash looked into the eyes of the pokemon seeing them glowing red, "what is it Ash?" Iris asked her friend, the trio witness the pokemon forming a powerful twister destroying a small house.
"They're in a trance, someone caused these pokemon to attack this town," Ash growled in anger.
"Team Rocket?" Iris questioned Ash.
"No, there is no way Team Rocket would pull this crap," Ash replied quickly, Ash watched the flying types forming another vortex causing the people to panic even more, 'no something is amiss here,' Ash started to gather his thoughts, he looked back to see Hilda with her hand over her mouth, visibly shaking up, 'the town's people will blame her for this,' Ash showed even more remorse for the brunette. The experienced trainer turned towards the flock of pokemon and rushed towards the balcony, with Pikachu on his shoulder and a pokeball in hand.
"Dragonite, let's go," Iris called for her powerful yellow pokemon with a powerful set of wings, "you stay put Ash and I will deal with this," Iris instructed the starting trainer, she jumped on her pokemon while Hilda watched the purple haired girl flying off to combat the flock of pokemon, "Dragonite, use Flamethrower," Iris barked out her command.
Dragonite unleashed a powerful stream of flames at the marauding pokemon, knocking them out in one hit, meanwhile a blast of electricity was seen emerging from the area Ash was, but before they could hit the pokemon on the ground, a multitude of brown pokemon with steal claws emerged from the earth absorbing the electric attacks.
"Excadrills," Ash hissed in frustration, "Pikachu stand back, this is time for another of my pokemon," Ash told his pokemon, grabbing one of his pokeballs, "Greninja, I choose you," Ash called for his next pokemon.
Hilda watched her two friends battling the vast number of pokemon, she grabbed her pokeball and swung her right arm back, 'not now,' a voice echoed in her mind.
"What was that?" Hilda lowered her arm, the brunette looked around, with her body frozen in place she tried her best to move again, 'what do you want?' Hilda asked subconsciously.
'Self-preservation, I cannot be revived if you go out there recklessly like those fools are,' the voice continued to taunt the young woman, laughing at the weakness of the brunette, the spirit started to grow quieter, 'not before I can bring ruin to this world,' the spirit started to laugh hysterically.
Hilda waited for another word, but it grew silent in her mind, she looked around again to discover that no one was around. The brunette watched a pokemon she had never seen before throw a barrage of water shurikens at the ground type pokemon.
Ash watched the group of Excadrills falling to the ground, but as he started to grow more at ease the flying pokemon led by a powerful eagle like pokemon appeared with flock of Unfeazant, "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt," Ash ordered his pokemon. He watched his partner leaping into the air with the assistance of Greninja, the electric mouse discharged a powerful bolt of electricity in every direction hitting all the flying pokemon, "Greninja, I need you to use Water Shuriken again," Ash commanded his pokemon to unleash another attack.
The ninja pokemon started thrown a vast number of shurikens at the ground based pokemon, pushing them back, Ash's two pokemon landed infront of Ash who was smirking at the challenge that rested before him,
The man in the trench coat approached the trainers and the champion, laughing at them as the pokemon flew back into the wild again, "I see that we might have a challenge on our hands, it is just too bad our boss doesn't want the spirit of Famine to leave that frail body of yours Hilda, you should consider yourself fortunate," Death as he pulled out a slip from his pocket, "by the way, do you know this young man?" he asked Hilda, throwing the picture in her direction.
Hilda caught the photo and flipped it around, in horror she immediately recognised the man in the photo, "my…..my brother," Hilda started to shed tears.
"Oh so that is your brother," Death started to laugh manically, lowering his hood the man grinned at the group, "how about we make a deal, for your brother's safety, you come to join us Hilda, if not then you will never see your brother alive again," Death offered the brunette.
"Don't you dare force her to do anything," the raven haired trainer growled at the powerful man, standing in front of Hilda and preventing Death from getting any closer.
"How precious, you barely even know her and yet you intend to keep her safe," Death chuckled at the trainer, he started to turn around and grinned at the trainer, "there is nothing that can defeat us, the only entity that can get even close is the King of Pokelantis," Death informed the trainer as he walked away from the group, he turned his vision to Hilda once again, "now we will give you some time to think about it, none of us want you to rush your decision," Death left the trio before a response was given.
"Hilbert went missing a year ago, now I know why," Hilda started crying over her missing brother.
Ash walked passed the young woman, a serious expression on his face, he refused to look back not wanting to see Hilda cry, 'I cannot believe I am going to have to resort to this,' Ash petted his pokemon, sharing a stare of concern with his partner. He walked over to the phone and pressed in a few numbers.
Ash waited for the person to appear on the screen. As the seconds passed the person finally responded to the call, a man with brown hair, dressed in mostly green showed up, "ah Ash, it has been a while," the man greeted the trainer.
"Brandon, it's good to see you again as well," Ash replied quietly, he looked back to discover Iris helping Hilda back into the main foyer, "there is an emergency in Unova, there is something that I need to do," Ash told the pyramid king without divulging too much information.
"It must be linked to the events of the disasters around the world," Brandon quickly deduced, to which Ash nodded in agreement, "I see, maybe I should come to wherever you are now," Brandon suggest forcing Ash to agree yet again.
Ash sighed but quickly pictured the response from the older man, "I need to talk to the king of Pokelantis," Ash informed the pyramid king.
"Noooo!" Brandon quickly replied, furious at the young man for proposing such an idea, "do you even remember what happened the last time you and that spirit, he possessed you and forced you to battle, taking you as hostage," Brandon explained to Ash, preparing to hang up the phone he was fast to notice the serious expression on the young man's face.
"I know what happened, but there might not be much of a choice Brandon," Ash snapped back at the Frontier Brain, "I am not doing this out of carelessness or arrogance, I am doing something that is needed," Ash tried to reason with the pyramid king, "I just need to learn more from him about the past and plus he might be the key to defeating these powerful enemies and saving two people at the same time," Ash explained his reasoning.
"I still cannot allow for it, but if this is connect in some way then I am left with no choice but to allow for it, but one condition," Brandon showed the Kanto trainer one of his pokeballs, "you will have to battle me," Frontier Brain Brandon declared his challenge to Ash.
"Wait Ash!" Iris called to her friend, but was ignored by him.
"Fine, it will be a three on three battle," Ash declared his interest in battling Brandon.
Brandon smiled at the young man and turned, "I knew you wouldn't turn down my challenge, so I will tell you the three pokemon I will be using," Brandon started but was interrupted by the man he was challenging for the battle.
"Regirock, Registeel and Regice, those three are the ones I want to face," Ash expressed his interest in battling Brandon's legendary pokemon.
Brandon noticed how eager the opponent was, "very well, so I will let you also choose the location," Brandon informed the Kanto native.
"I select the Dreamyard, just to the east of Striaton City," Ash selected his location with confident tone.
"The Unova region, very well," Brandon acknowledged the new destination, "you there get the Battle Pyramid ready for the journey, our destination East of Striaton City in the Unova region," Brandon informed his colleagues quickly, "I will see you in one week," Brandon ended the call allowing Ash to turn to Iris who wasn't happy with the arrangement.
Iris placed her hands on her hips and shook her head, "what the hell do you think you're doing?" Iris questioned the man, she pointed at the brunette who was staring at him with her mouth agape, "there is already a pre-set meeting with the regional champions and the Elite Fours," Iris explained to Ash about her own arrangement.
"I have my own agendas Iris, one of them is to challenge you to a battle," Ash informed the Unova Champion, Ash shot a quick glance at Hilda who was growing more nervous, "plus, I need to know more about what is going on and how I can help Hilda out," Ash returned his focus to Iris who shrugged her shoulders, showing disappointment in Ash's decision.
Iris turned away from Ash and started walking away, "how are you going to help her? You cannot do everything," Iris stated with a frown, she headed out of the lab to assess the damage done by the attack on the town.
"I will not abandon someone who needs assistance," Ash whispered, he stood up and started to walk to the entrance, "come on Hilda, we are heading out to Striaton City, I will do what I can as your friend," he assured the brunette, slowly making his way to the door.
Hilda watched the more experienced trainer exiting the lab, 'just what is he after? And why is he interested in helping me?' Hilda asked herself, tilting her head in confusion, she grabbed her pokeball and stared at it, thinking about her new journey, "Snivy, you, Ash and Pikachu are my first friends, sadly, I have no idea what it's like having friends," Hilda confessed to her pokemon, clutching her pokeball, she stared at the back of the trainer and smiled softly, "I wonder what his other friends are like," Hilda expressed her thoughts out loud.
Ash waited at the exit of the town, scanning the area with a concerned expression, "you know Pikachu, there is still more missing, why is there just four of them?" Ash started questioning himself about his new foe. Ash peered to the left, his hand on his chin, his thoughts turned to what Death had told him, "then there is her," Ash peered to the young woman walking up the hill towards her new pathway in life.
"I thought you would have left me," Hilda glanced away, feeling a little uneasy with her first friend, "to be honest Ash, I have no idea what having friends is like," the brunette confessed her lack of experience to the seasoned trainer.
Ash chuckled before approaching the brunette, placing his right on her shoulder he stared her in the eyes, "just be yourself," Ash whispered quietly, Ash turned away and started walking a head, the brown haired girl watched him in shock at the comments her friend brought out, "you don't have much experience, here I thought you would have been the most popular girl in school," Ash admitted to the girl with a smirk.
"If only, I was home schooled," Hilda admitted angrily, she walked ahead of Ash, but soon slowed down, to not only think of the past, but also what the future had in store for her, "this is foreign to me, I have no idea how I should act, he tells me to be myself, but I don't even know who I really am," Hilda started talking to herself about her lack of experience. Hilda glanced back to see Ash and Pikachu, seeing them getting excited about visiting her home region.
"It has been a while since we were last here," Ash stated with great excitement.
Hilda stared at her pokeball, containing her first pokemon, 'can Snivy and I be friends like Ash and Pikachu?' she asked herself, looking back to see the young man petting his pokemon on his head, "how did you and Pikachu become like brothers?" the brunette asked Ash, curious as to the extent of their friendship.
Ash and Pikachu looked at each other and started to laugh, "well let's just say the friendship between Pikachu and me, had a shocking start," Ash smiled broadly.
Hilda now confused by the comment of the trainer, "you mean it was a tragic start?" she asked, ignoring the smiles of the two partners.
"Nope, nothing like that, in fact Pikachu hated me, in fact let's just say I was the victim of a few Thundershocks," Ash explained the rest of their first meeting with Hilda, "we were chased by a flock of Spearow and we stole another girls bike," Ash explained the day they met, "I was a complete novice," Ash continued to joke about his inexperience as a trainer at the time.
"You travelled through so many regions," Hilda commented, thinking more about the lack of experience she had, "the more I hear you talking, the more envious I feel," Hilda admitted, thinking about the travels of her brother, "I need to save my brother, but I have no idea where he is," Hilda grew upset with the situation, remembering the conversation with Death.
"Yes, I know, I guess we need to figure out a lot of things, so how about we figure this mess out together," Ash suggested as he approached the brunette, he glanced at the road leading to Accumala Town, "we can figure this out, while I help you train your pokemon," Ash gave Hilda his offer to help her become a trainer.
"Are you sure? You want to visit your friends," Hilda reminded Ash, she witnessed Ash chuckling at her question, "what's so funny?" angrily asking the young man.
"One of my friends is the gym leader and the other friend is also the champion of this region, so there is not much of a problem there," Ash answered the question of the inexperienced trainer, "now we need to help you out, I think the first thing we need to teach you how to catch a pokemon," Ash informed the Nuvema Town starting trainer.
"I watched my brother, but I still had no clue," Hilda replied, but remained uncertain how to emulate her brother as a trainer, "to be honest, I really looked up to my brother, I wanted to be a trainer just like him."
Ash peered to the left and shook his head, "you need to be yourself," Ash quickly told the woman, he looked around in hopes of finding a pokemon for the brunette to capture, spotting a small dog like pokemon, brown in colour and with a cute face, "ahh one of those would be nice, a Lillipup," the raven haired trainer pointed to the small pokemon.
"Okay, so I have to battle that pokemon?" Hilda enquired, she glanced over to Ash who nodded at her. She walked over to the pokemon with her pokeball in hand, gulping nervously, she called out a small green pokemon, "Snivy go."
Ash pulled out his pokedex and scanned the pokemon, "let's see what attacks this pokemon knows," Ash enquired, 'not bad, Leaf Tornado, Slam, Coil and Leaf Blade, Hilda's Snivy is pretty strong,' Ash continued to scan the pokedex towards the small dog like pokemon, 'alright Take Down, Crunch, Shadow Ball and Frustration, that's not too bad,' Ash thought to himself as he put his pokedex back into his pocket.
"Ummm, what should I do?" Hilda asked the experienced trainer.
"Remain calm, alright your Snivy knows Leaf Tornado, Slam, Coil and Leaf Blade, but watch out this Lillipup is pretty strong," Ash instructed the brunette, he looked at the angry wild pokemon, "use Coil to defend yourself, also use Snivy's superior speed to evade any attacks to come your way," he continued to explain the situation to Hilda.
"Alright," Hilda responded quickly as a small black fox like pokemon appeared from the wild.
"Alright, I think the best way you can learn here, is if I battle alongside me, I will try to capture that Zorua," Ash pointed to the other small pokemon, he nodded at his partner pokemon, "alright buddy, just hold back a little," Ash instructed his pokemon calmly, the small electric mouse leapt off his trainer's right shoulder and onto the battlefield, with sparks flying from his red cheeks.
"Okay, Snivy, use Leaf Tornado," Hilda instructed her pokemon to attack the normal type pokemon.
"Pikachu, attack with Thunderbolt," Ash called for his attack. The small electric type discharged a powerful blast of electricity, aimed at the dark type pokemon, while Hilda's starter pokemon spun around with a whirlwind of leaves heading to the puppy pokemon.
The two trainers watched as the two attacks dissipated, almost knocking out the two pokemon, "what now?" Hilda asked the raven haired trainer.
Ash smirked at the dark type pokemon, his eyes gleamed for a second, knowing it was the time to make one final attack on the fox like pokemon, "Pikachu, use Quick Attack," he quickly instructed his pokemon, not wanting to let the wild Zorua get the chance it needed to recover from the last attack, Ash peered over while his Pikachu rushed at the dark type, "attack before Lillipup recovers," Ash instructed the brunette.
"Leaf Blade now," Hilda ordered quickly, the brunette's grass type leapt into the air and started spinning around with its tail glowing green, slashing down on the puppy pokemon while Pikachu crashed into Zorua with incredible force.
"Now take a pokeball and aim it at the pokemon," Ash grabbed his red and white device, Hilda soon followed the instruction, "now throw it at the pokemon you intend to capture," Ash ordered, throwing his pokeball at the injured Zorua, hitting the intended target the dark type was enveloped in a bright red light, before being pulled into the device.
Hilda soon followed up with her pokeball, Lillipup was caught by the same red beam, the normal type entered the device causing Hilda to jump with joy, "I did it," Hilda celebrated.
Ash shook his head as his ball started to wobble, "not yet, you have to wait for the device to stop moving, not only that there has to be a certain signal to say you caught the pokemon, now be ready in case Lillipup leaps out of the device," Ash informed the brunette, warning her not to get to sure of herself.
Hilda's blue eyes fixated on the pokeball as it continued to shake from one side to another, growing anxious with the length of time, she started crossing her fingers in hope, her Snivy standing at the ready if Lillipup broke free from the device, 'come on,' Hilda pleaded silently, waiting for what seemed like forever.
Eventually the two pokeballs stopped moving signifying the capture of the two wild pokemon, "we did it!" the two celebrated happily, they approached the two pokeball and picked them up.
Pikachu and Snivy nodded at one another, proud of their work.
Hilda looked at her newly acquired pokemon, but also felt a little unsure of herself, 'my hope is that being a trainer will allow me to discover what I really want to do,' Hilda admitted to herself, staring at the newly captured pokemon, she ignored the calls of Ash who was petting his partner pokemon on the head again, 'he is only here to revisit Unova, but I need to discover for myself what I want to do, it is likely that he has achieved everything he wanted to achieve,' her thoughts continued to rush through her mind.
Ash walked ahead through the tree lined path, "come on Hilda Accumala Town is still a few hours walk from now," Ash called the brunette.
Hilda stared at the ground, hesitating to start going forward, "you know Snivy, Ash and Pikachu are my first friends, but still I have no idea how to be a friend," Hilda confessed to her pokemon, she looked up at the trainer and stared at him curiously, "he seems like a really cool person," Hilda whispered to herself, following him towards the town with Snivy walking next to her.
With Ash deciding it would be best to retake the spirit of the king of Pokelantis, he will soon face a trial to gain his power.
Next time chapter 3: descending darkness