Finally! The next chapter. I know I promised some action last time, but I realized it would be to long so I had to cut the chapter in half. The next chapter will have action. Anyway, Enjoy!
Dead Eyes
As Ash stared at the screen, he realized that the Professor looked at least several years younger. His hair was a dusty brown with streaks of gray, instead of the silver crown Ash had last seen him wearing. The lines on his face were softer, too. It gave him a refreshing and less-stern look. And his nose was perfectly strait, not crooked from where it had been broken. If his nose hadn't been broken yet, this recording had to be at least ten years old.
"Hello, Gary." The young-Oak said, smiling. Wait, Gary? If this recording was ten years old, Gary had just been born. Why had Oak been recording secret messages for his newborn grandson all those years ago? And why had he suddenly decided to give Ash this message that had been intended for Gary?
"Chances are you will never receive this message. But if you are hearing this, then I assume that… circumstances have not gone my way. It's too dangerous to explain everything to you on one recording, so I can't tell you why you're supposed to do this. You just need to trust me and do exactly what this message says." Here Oak paused for a breath. "Go to Viridian City and find your father, Kenny. Since he's the Noble he shouldn't be too hard to locate."
What? Gary's father was a Noble? Though towns like Palet were too small to have one, Ash had heard of Nobles. They governed the eight major cities in Kanto. Noble's protected their town and enforced the laws passed by the Indigo League. They were very prestigious people, and Ash had never dreamed that Gary's father had been one. But whatever he had been, it didn't matter now since Gary's dad was dead. He must have still been alive when Oak created this recording.
"Tell him about this message and give him this Pokedex and the Pokeball I gave you. You need to deliver that to him, no matter what. Then do exactly what your dad tells you to. Be careful, and I love you." The screen went dark.
That was it? Ash thought incredulously. How in hell does Oak want me to deliver something to a dead guy? And why the hell did he make me get this damn useless message? And what Pokeball is he talking about? Pikachu's? But then the screen flickered back to life once more. It was the young-Oak again, but now he was holding a blood-stained cloth up to his nose. This must have been when he broke it. Ash thought.
"Gary, I'm so sorry. They found out, I don't know how but they found out about Kenny." The Professors voice sounded strange, muffled by his bleeding nose and stretched thin with stress. "Your father's dead. He's been killed." Wait, what? Gary's dad was… murdered? Who was 'they' and what had they discovered about Gary's dad that led them to kill him? Ash had no idea. "There's only one left, only one you can trust. The Noble from Pewter; Flint. You need to find him and ask him about the Noble's badges." Ash had never heard of a Noble's badge before. The Professor continued. "Ask him to explain the badges to you. They're the keys. They unlock the hidden data on the Pokedex." Ash remembered Oak telling him about secret information in the Pokedex back in the laboratory. "You need to unlock this information. It will be dangerous, though, so I have hidden a weapon for you. It is in the far right corner of the old barn, behind those haystacks. Find it and take it, and God willing you will never have to use it. But take it anyway. Remember, Find Flint and ask him about the Noble's badges. Trust me." The screen went dark.
That was it? This was the message that was supposed to explain why the hell Oak was acting so damn weird? "Here are a billion more questions and another place you have to go to get 'answers.'" Ash's headache had returned. Ash sighed and looked up. Pikachu was playing with some straw, squealing with joy.
Whatever. Ash wasn't angry anymore; he was done with the matter. He didn't want answers. Didn't want to find out whatever happened to Gary's dad or what a Noble's badge was. He was going to become a professional Pokemon fighter like he had always dreamed, not go chasing after some old man's cock-and-bull story. The Pikachu had stopped playing with the straw, looking intently at the door with his ears twitching.
"C'mon Pikachu." Ash said, turning toward the broken door. One step. Two steps. Voices. Ash paused, his foot hovering over the ground on what would have been his third step. Voices? Way out here in the middle of nowhere? Was somebody lost? Pikachu growled, static coming from his cheeks. Ash was about to ask who was there when he caught part of their conversation.
"Think we can dump to body here?" A male voice said. Body?
"Why not? Don't look like the place's been touched in years." Another voice.
"More like decades." Said the first voice. The men laughed.
Ash took a step back. Then another. He eyed the haystack in the corner. Ash didn't know what they were talking about- he could have misunderstood them. Yet he knew he hadn't. He glanced at the door again. Then he turned around, scooped up Pikachu, and ran toward the haystack.
The bales were stacked three long and high and two wide. It was about a foot from the back wall, more than enough room for Ash to squeeze in. He set Pikachu down in front of him and scooted further into the corner. His foot hit something hard. He looked down. A small silvery-white object was at his feet. Its longer end was about half a foot, and then curved into a handle of three inches, and was an inch wide. A Shi Reza. Ash knelt down and wrapped his hands around the cool metal, just in case. Then he heard the footsteps crunch on the dead hay, heard a thump as something was dropped to the floor. Ash stood up just enough for his eyes to peer over the topmost bale, hardly daring to breath.
His heart missed a beat.
There. On the floor. His blue shirt stained a deep scarlet like his hair.
Gary. His dead eyes stared right at Ash.
Sorry it took so long to get out such a short chapter, but y'know when life is all "Here's a billion things to do, best get to it!" you kinda set free writing aside for a bit. I've also been thinking about some new stories:
1. A cross-over of Deathnote and Psycho Pass (L, Light, and Shogo... This should be interesting)
2. A Ranger's Apprentice story about Crowly's apprentice
Do you say yay or nay to these story ideas? I'll probably write them even if you don't want me too ('cause it will mean longer pauses between chapters for this story) but I still value your opinion! Please leave reviews for The True Story of Pokemon, too, or puppies will die!
Almost forgot about my song-of-the-week! Since I did forget last week's, I'll give you two. 1. Dead Wrong by The Fray 2. Welcome to the Jungle by 2CELLOS (Remember: 2CELLOS, not guns n' roses, 2CELLOS is way more awesome.)