Pokémon Fanfiction: Sacrifice Eternal
Fanfiction by Sung-Min Kwon. © 2005
The following story is in no way affiliated to Nintendo, GameFreak, Creatures Inc., or 4Kids Productions. This is solely a work of the aforementioned individual and his runaway imagination.
Prologue, Chapter 2: Celebration
It was a perfectly normal day.
In the dining room of the Ketchums' residence in Pallet Town, a group of people were happily gathered around a circular table.
A brown-haired girl clad in a red handkerchief cap, red shirt, and navy shorts was searching inside her small knapsack for something. After some rummaging, she pulled out a picture with a triumphant smile on her face. She held it up for everyone to see.
A boy with straight black hair held up by a red headband and wearing a green T-shirt took the picture and examined it closely. Suddenly, he burst into laughter, uninterrupted until his headband came undone and covered his mouth.
A girl wearing suspenders above a yellow tank top started laughing at the previous boy. It really was a funny sight, for he found that the headband covered his nose and his mouth, impairing his ability to breathe. He undid the headband hastily, and handed the picture to the girl with orange hair tied to one side. She laughed even harder, pointing at the picture and making futile efforts to cover her mouth. She was laughing so hard that her blue eyes were starting to water.
A boy with brown hair and a blue cap looked at the picture, and started laughing as well. With probably a bit of theatrics involved, he fell out of his chair, and continued laughing, beating the ground with his fists and feet. His whole body was quaking with laughter, and tears were coming out of his eyes already.
A black-haired boy wearing a red-and-white cap and blue apparel came out from the restroom. As soon as the four at the table saw him, they pointed fingers at him and started laughing harder than before. The boy first wore a countenance of confusion, then one of panic as he realized what they were laughing at. In a lightning-quick movement, he ran to the table, and snatched the picture out of the orange-haired girl's hands. His expression changed to one of horror as his worst fears were confirmed. As he stood there, dumbfounded, the brown-haired girl took the picture out of his hands and showed it to everyone again. Another round of laughter rang throughout the dining room.
Another boy with spiky black hair and brown-gray clothing came out of the kitchen. He donned an apron and a chef's hat, and was carrying a platter of what seemed to be a giant fried chicken drenched in rich teriyaki sauce with pineapple pieces and cherries circling the outer edge. On the other side of the platter, a red lobster was boiled and peeled, its rich fragrance mixing with the scent of exquisite spices. In his other hand, there was a tray of many kinds of side dishes. The dishes included steaming mashed potatoes with gravy on top, pasta salad with pink shrimp and mussel, orange slices of raw salmon topped with lemon juice and horseradish, and creamy Boston clam chowder. Most people could only dream of even seeing food like that in the finest restaurants, much less eat it.
Everyone's eyes turned and they started drooling, looking at the delicious meal that they were going to soon dig into, except for that of the boy with the red-and-white cap. He was looking at the chef's eyes like a puppy would, although those horizontal lines on the latter's face could barely be called eyes. The chef smiled, and opened his mouth to speak.
"Sorry, Ash. But that picture was just too good to keep to myself." Although his words sounded like an apology, the huge grin on his face belied his true emotions. The others started laughing yet again, and the boy's face turned beet red, even redder than the color of the lobster on the platter.
The boy thought he could hear the lobster pointing at him with his claw and snickering, although he knew well that it was dead and boiled. His face turned a darker shade of red, if that was even possible.
Ash lay in his bed that night, thinking about what had happened.
His friends had come from afar to celebrate his 15th birthday.
Brock had asked his father to take care of the Pewter City Gym for a few days, and arrived two days ago. Since then, he had been helping Mrs. Ketchum out with cooking. Ash suspected that Brock was also acting on his crush on her. But could he be blamed? It was a fact that both Mrs. Ketchum and Brock were talented cooks. It was also true that his mother was very attractive, and most people would not know that she was Ash's mother without being told. At first sight, she could be mistaken for somebody as young as Misty's oldest sister Daisy.
Speaking of her sisters, Misty had presumably asked them to come back from their unceasing world tour and watch over the Cerulean City Gym for her. However, they, as always, would probably ignore it, still not wanting to treat the "runt" as a Waterflower sister.
Anyhow, Misty came yesterday, and had made herself at home already. She played with Pikachu a lot, giving Ash a long-deserved break from the unending jolts that he had received.
When Ash was training Pikachu in the northern plains separating Pallet Town and Viridian City, he accidentally crossed paths with Richie yesterday. At first, Ash thought that he was hallucinating and seeing a double of himself, but realized it was his greatest rival and friend soon enough. As the two boys shook hands, the two Pikachu likewise held paws and danced together.
May had come today and apologized for being late, saying that she had to fill in for her father at the Petalburg City Gym until he got back yesterday from a trip to the Indigo League. She didn't bring Max along, because he would be attending school from this year.
Ash was actually somewhat glad, because the little kid could annoy everyone out of their shoes with his extensive knowledge on Pokémon, rivaling even that of Professor Oak. Things would be considerably quieter around here.
Tracey was always around in Pallet Town. Professor Oak, knowing that today was Ash's birthday, had let Tracey off work go for the celebration. The aged professor also came soon enough, probably to flirt with Mrs. Ketchum again. However, as in the case with Brock, the professor could not be blamed.
It had actually been quite a while since Ash saw Tracey, with the former being out for training almost everyday, and the latter always in some deep, inaccessible corner of Professor Oak's laboratory. The two greeted each other with genuine sincerity.
Everyone was present, and the party was ready to start.
The initial celebration consisted of many activities, beginning with the event previously mentioned. After that, Ash's mom carted in a huge multi-layer birthday cake that could barely go through the kitchen door, and brought it in front of everyone. Because the cake was so big, it took a long time to light the candles.
After making his wish while the others were singing the birthday song in unison, Ash blew out all of the fifteen candles amidst loud whoops and cheers. However, something totally unexpected happened; he accidentally blowing some icing on Misty's face in the process.
Her expression changed from blankness to shock to anger to playfulness, as she grabbed a piece of the cake and threw it at Ash. But it missed and hit Tracey's face. Meanwhile, Ash threw another piece of the cake, missing the intended target and smacking Professor Oak's lab coat.
Before long, everyone was taking the cake apart and having a food fight, making a mess in the kitchen. Pikachu had to shock everyone to get everyone to stop, and that didn't occur before two-thirds of the colossal cake was scattered throughout the room. Making no efforts to clean up, everyone started laughing again after looking at each other's cream-caked faces, some of which were barely recognizable as human.
The next activity consisted of an "adulthood speech" by Ash, who was forced to do it impromptu. Dripping with cake and mouth full of it, he delivered a short but memorable speech, propounding the virtues of his newfound "responsibility" and seemed to occasionally hint for an increase in his allowance.
He concluded the speech by starting another round of cake throwing. The second food fight did not end for a while, with everyone reusing masses of cake for what seemed like hours. Finally, as exhaustion overtook the food fighters, they parted ways.
Everyone, except for Ash and his mother, would sleep in Professor Oak's laboratory for the night and leave in the morning. Of course, the group would undoubtedly do something else fun before scattering.
After arriving home, Ash took a long shower to rid himself of the cake, which seemed to be everywhere. He found some in his hair, some in his ear, and some even in his underwear.
Smiling, he imagined what Mrs. Ketchum would preach to him about the importance of clean underwear.
Ash lay in his bed that night, thinking about what had happened.
Yesterday, Misty had told him that for some people, their 15th birthday marks a special change in their lives.
He wanted to see if it was true. He woke up early in the morning, and anxiously waited for 6:48 AM, the exact time of his delivery one-and-a-half decades ago. With fifteen seconds left, his heart started beating noticeably faster.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
With ten seconds left, he took a gulp.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
With five seconds left, he involuntarily closed his eyes, not knowing what he was bracing for.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
He covered his ears.
Tick.
6:48 AM.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Ash cautiously opened his eyes. He seemed to be in the exact same place that he had been. He didn't seem to have grown any additional appendages. He didn't seem to be deranged of mind or anything like that.
In short, Ash didn't seem to be any different from how he had been. He let out a sigh of relief, because he liked his life just the way it was right now.
He wished he could live like this forever; he wanted to live with all of his friends nearby, even Gary. He wanted to live with his Pokémon nearby. He wanted nothing to change, although a voice in the back of his mind kept telling him that everything has to change.
Perhaps he wasn't one of those people whose lives drastically changed on their 15th birthday. He wished he wasn't, anyway. He decided to sleep on those thoughts until his mother would wake him up at eight o'clock. He drifted off into a sleep considerably deeper than the one he had during the night.
Ash smiled as he looked back on the events of this crazy day. Yes, it was a very crazy day, but it was also the best birthday party he had. This was really the first party in which his close friends had troubled themselves to show up. He was grateful to everyone for coming, and especially thankful to Brock and Mrs. Ketchum for preparing such wonderful food. Heck, he was even thankful that Gary had showed up just to give him a friendly loser sign.
He was wondering of what good luck would befall him the next morning, and was imagining of all the fun things he could do around here. Ahh, everyone here could go fishing on the south shores, exploring in the northern plains, or play with his Pokémon at Professor Oak's laboratory. He wished that every day would be his birthday, his house always being full of people that he either knew or met for the first time.
Well... on second thought, maybe having 365 birthdays a year would get boring after a while; he just contented his desires at one birthday per month. He was already making plans for next year's birthday party, when his train of thought ran off-track because of a noise.
He heard a loud crash, the unmistakable sound of breaking glass. He looked at the window to see small glass particles showering the windowsill like snow. Then he heard a clunk outside his window.
Even though the moon was almost completely behind clouds today, Ash could see a shadow creeping toward the broken window.
Coming Up Next on Pokémon Fanfiction: Sacrifice Eternal
He knew he wasn't dreaming this; someone would have to be downright crazy to dream like this. His fears became reality as he saw a shadowy figure jump through the open window...
The eyes of the figure made Ash's blood stop. Those red slits for eyes... he was sure that the figure was not human...
Farla (Ch.1) – I appreciate your comment. There are some things that I don't understand, though. I can see why some don't want to be left looking at only vague evidence, and I reviewed the rules and saw that my first post may arouse a bit of controversy. However, I do not understand why the posting of a "teaser" has anything to do with cluttering up the category. And technically speaking, the first post was the first chapter, probably one of the most important chapters there will be. But you may see it in other ways. As I said, I thank you for your constructive criticism, although I do wish that you would have made your message clearer. NEW REVIEWER
The Name (Ch.1) – Hey, SH. That impatient side of you got the better of you this time, eh? I have some advice for you - learn to wait for once. I just posted this chapter, which should get you satisfied for now. This will be similar to the story I attempted to write eighteen months ago, you know, the one that you reviewed for favorably. Things will move a little slower this time, though, so you better get used to it. Anyway, thanks for the, uh... criticism anyway. Cya l8er... NEW REVIEWER
Hey, what's up? Welcome back to Sacrifice Eternal. The beginning of this story may confuse you, almost as much as it confused me when I first wrote it! And I apologize for presenting another cliffhanger. But it will be resolved in the next chapter, which will include some violence. Thanks for reading, and please remember to REVIEW after reading! As said before, all reviews are welcome, including constructive criticism.
-ENDLESS ROAD-