5

Chapter 3

A Red Night Sky

It had been two weeks since Sasha's run in with Mr. Sasaki and she and her mother had begun to butt heads. Sasha had been stealing away whenever she could to go to her secret pond. She had broken off some branches from some of the trees surrounding the pond and built a covering where the tree that had fallen over had initially revealed the pond to her, in order to keep it hidden.

Sasha's mother had begun to notice her absence and was not happy about it as she had expected Sasha to be helping her out in the garden more since she was away from all that Pokémon training and junk.

Sasha's father had been making some interesting discoveries during his research and had been gone for a couple of days with a research team. It had been the sixth night without Sasha's father there to run interference or lay down the law, as he would always listen to both sides then make a decision to end the fighting, and neither Sasha nor her mother had gone to bed the previous night on good speaking terms. Sasha woke up expecting to hear the sound of her mother's voice telling her to get down stairs and be ready to help in the garden, but as she lay there, only the sounds of the wind rustling through the leaves in the trees outside could be heard through her cracked open window.

"Hmm, that's weird." She thought to herself.

She climbed out of bed and looked out her window.

Her mother was already in the garden working, a radio sitting on flat patch of ground next to her playing music.

Sasha sighed and turned away, half angry at herself and half angry at her mother. Sasha walked over to her closet and began the process of selecting something to wear. With the wind coming in through the window feeling a bit chilly and the sun seemed to be hanging around behind a thick layer of clouds she decided she would wear her favorite sleeveless hoodie her father had bought for her. It was jet black with two drawstrings that had grey fuzz balls on the end of the drawstrings. She picked out a bright green bikini to wear underneath everything and then chose a pair of skinny blue jeans. Sasha looked at herself in the mirror and was happy to see her green eyes were sparkling. She walked over to her night stand and opened the box that contained her golden Poké Ball. She clasped the chain around her neck and slid the ball down inside her shirt.

She decided she was just going to spend the day away from the house. Give herself and her mother some time alone after last night's fight. She had hidden away some Pokémon magazines she had discovered in some boxes that had not been unpacked yet and decided to bring them with her today. She packed a couple bottles of water and some sandwiches into the backpack Mr. Sasaki had bought for her and cracked open the front door. Her mother had her back turned, but Sasha was afraid if she took the time to grab her bike her mom would see her. She quickly made her way around the edge of the house and started to make her way towards Lavender Town with the house blocking her mother's view if she happened to turn around.

Sasha arrived at the fallen tree and hopped over it. She moved her makeshift covering aside and battled her way through the branches. She stepped out into her secret clearing and took a deep breath. The air was clear and the only sound that could be heard was the wind whistling through the trees.

Back behind a wall of trees, a pair of eyes watched the young girl as she walked towards the pond.

"This must be the one I am supposed to watch," the eyes watched the girl place the backpack on the ground and shed her sweatshirt and jeans, "Do not worry master, I will not take my eyes off the young human."

Sasha slipped into the cool water and discovered it was not very deep. It only went up to her stomach at the deepest point. After rubbing the cool water on her skin she waded over to a shallow point near her back pack. She sat down and pulled a magazine out of her back pack and started leafing through it. She found a special research section that said it highlighted a separate Pokémon for every issue. This issue focused on Gastly, a ghost pokamon.

Gastly has no true form, due to its body being 95% poisonous gas. However, it consistently appears as a black, spherical Pokémon surrounded by a purple haze. It has a wide, pink mouth with two visible fangs. Though its eyes seem to extend past its round body, visible eyelids surround them. The toxic gas surrounding the main body can induce fainting and suffocation. Current research suggests that Gastly has a playful personality, often frightening and playing pranks on people for fun. However, it has shown a willingness to preserve or pass on the memories of departed humans. It has further been shown changing form and creating illusions, and it is capable of phasing through solid objects and forming tangible hands out of its gasses. Gastly is often seen in old, dilapidated buildings, but can also be found in caves. Caution is advised when attempting to catch or study Gastly as its behavior can be unpredictable. A trainer who is able to capture Gastly should still be wary of its playful personality.

Keep an eye out for our next issue as it will be focused on Dratini! We will look into how such a small, cute Pokémon can evolve into the monstrous Pokémon Dragonite!

"Wow, Gastly sounds pretty cool." Sasha thought out loud.

She flipped through the next few pages that were filled with pictures of Gastly. Some were pictures taken through cracks in old buildings where Gastly could be seen floating around and others showed Gastly floating through a city at night.

Sasha looked through the rest of the magazine, but didn't find anything of interest. She laid back on the grass, enjoying the beautiful, albeit mostly cloudy, weather.

The sunlight burst through a small break in the clouds and reflected off the water droplets on Sasha's body.

The pair of eyes continued to watch through the trees, determined to follow its masters bidding.

The sunlight was slowly fading as the sun began dipping to the west by the time Sasha's mother was finished with her garden.

"Ah, the flowers are going to produce some amazing scents this year. May be my best harvest yet." She mused with pride.

It had been a very long and fragile process, but her garden had been transplanted from a Celadon City greenhouse to out here during the move. She had been extremely worried the move would have badly damaged her precious scent flowers but the vast majority had arrived without so much as a petal missing.

Just then a shadow blotted out the ground around her for a quick second. The sound of something large cutting through the air drew Sasha's mother attention toward the sky.

She looked up, but there was nothing there. She looked around for a little while longer then shrugged her shoulders and went back into the house.

The sound of a vehicle pulling up to the house drew her attention.

Her husband stepped out of his research truck and made his way into the house.

She knew he was going to be exhausted, so she quickly placed all her tools back into the shed, she noticed Sasha's bike still the shed, which made her a little happier.

Inside, Sasha's father sat down at the dinner table and pulled out a tablet containing all the data from the last few days. He scrolled through some data than put it back into his bag and locked it into his safe hidden in the back of a cupboard.

Sasha's mother walked in and started making dinner.

"Honey?" Sasha's father asked, "Where's Sasha? I expected her to be helping you in the garden?"

Sasha's mother shrugged, "I don't know. I haven't seen her all day. I never saw her come outside so she is probably up in her room still."

Sasha's father sighed and got up to check on his daughter. Once upstairs he knocked on the Sasha's bedroom door.

No response.

He tried again, same result.

"Sasha? Sasha are you in there?"

When he received no answer again, he turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Her room was empty.

Confused, Sasha's father went back downstairs and into the kitchen.

Then an extremely loud whooshing sound came from outside and the house shook when something or something's landed heavily outside.

Sasha's father and mother looked at each other and walked over to the kitchen window.

Something large blotted out the sun. Its outline could be seen. The creature stood at over 6 feet tall and had wings spread out on each side of it. Then an orange glow appeared in the middle of its head lighting up the creature.

Sasha's father gasped, "It's a Charizard…"

Then they saw where the orange glow was coming from, the Pokémon mouth.

"Get down!" Sasha's father screamed.

Then flames shot straight through the window.

The heat blistered the couple's skin as they crawled out of the kitchen. They made it to the living room just in time to see another jet of flame burst the living room window. Then a portion of the ceiling in the living room gave way and flames could be seen snapping and cracking its way in the bedroom upstairs.

The couple held onto each other as they scrambled their way to the front door.

Sasha's father threw open the door to an amazing sight.

Three more Charizard stood in the front lawn. They looked like normal Charizard with orange colored skin and cream colored stomachs, except instead of their eyes being blue, the entire eye was now bright red.

The three Charizard looked at the couple trembling in the doorway. It reared back its head and let loose a devastating Roar.

The couple fell to the ground in fear as the other two Charizard reared back their heads and unleashed a Fire Blast.

The couple looked into each other's eyes and whispered together, "We love you, Sasha."

The flames reached the couple and enveloped them.

Sasha was lying down in the grass on a towel when she was jerked awake when the ground shook beneath her.

"Wha, What?" she asked out loud groggily.

She looked around but there no one there.

"What was that?" she thought to herself.

She stood up and quickly rolled up her towel and tossed it and the magazines she was had been reading into her back pack.

She quickly threw on her sweatshirt and jeans and decided she better head back home, she was certain there would be another fight with her mother, especially since she had been gone all day. She once again fought her way through the jumble of branches and stepped out next to the road. Sasha turned towards home when she saw a red glow above the tree line in the direction of her house.

"What the…" Sasha didn't finish as a terrible thought came to her mind.

"FIRE!"

With adrenaline surging through her veins she took off running towards home.

Sasha got past the tree line that blocked the view of her house and her heart sank.

The house was completely engulfed.

"Mom! Mom!" Sasha screamed as she ran toward the house.

As she got closer she could see flames rising off something in the front entryway.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Sasha wailed as she ran closer.

She fell to her knees trying to beat the flames out with her hands.

The pain was unbearable, but Sasha did not stop.

Suddenly large hands grabbed her underneath her arms and she was dragged away, kicking and screaming from the flames.

Then a loud groan came from the house and then the house collapsed.

The big hands laid Sasha down on the ground.

Tears streamed down Sasha's face as her heart felt like it was about to break into a million pieces.

Suddenly, a purple haze obscured her view of the house. A pair a whit eyes appeared in front of Sasha's face.

Suddenly, a beautiful high pitched song resonated in her brain and then blackness overwhelmed her.