Chapter 7

A/N: Once again I apologise for the long time between updates.

The house was quiet, everybody silently going about cleaning up in the aftermath of the near tragedy. Misty was sitting on a chair in the corner of the kitchen, holding as still as possible whilst Brock gently washed the rock salt grains out of the shallow cuts they had made in her cheek. May and Dawn stood back as Ash happily took apart the irreparable table. Whenever he detatched a part small enough to carry, one of the girls would carry it out to the back yard and added it to the pile that would later be burned.

'Alright, you're done', Brock said, standing up.

'Thanks Brock', Misty smiled.

'You're welcome'.

'How are we getting to Cianwood?' Ash asked. He weilded the hammer he was using with a bit too much enthusiasm for Dawn's comfort and she backed up slightly to avoid the off chance that he would accidently hit her with it.

'There's a boat that goes from Vermillion City to Olivine City isn't there?' May said.

'I think so', Brock replied. 'Then we just have to find someone to give us a lift over to Cianwood'.

Dawn had retrieved her tablet from her room and was tapping away on it. 'There's a boat that leaves on the 16th', she informed the others. 'That should give us plenty of time to get there and stop whatever the demons are planning'.

'Should do', Misty agreed.

'Are all of us going?'

'I don't see why not', May shrugged.

'Okay'. Dawn tapped on the screen a few more times. 'I've booked us places on board for the 16th'.

'Thanks Dawn', Brock said.

'No problem'.

'What's the date today?' Ash asked.

'The 12th', Dawn answered.

'That gives us four days to prepare. Well, more like three I guess. But that's still got to be plenty of time'.

'Gary, do you think that you could try and find out what hell's planning again?' Misty requested.

'On it', Gary replied, disappearing instantly. He was determined to be helpful and find at least one part of the plan out. He felt terrible about being unable to help May when she was being attacked by Burn victim and hoped that by this he could redeem himself at least a little.

The humans finished cleaning up the kitchen and set fire to the pile of debris. Ash pulled out a bag of marshmallows and some sticks.

'Smores anyone?'

'Ooh, me!' May squealed excitedly.

Ash speared a marshmallow and handed it to her, got one each for himself and Pikachu and then passed the bag and sticks to Dawn.

They settled on the floor around the fire and as the night wore on and the fire began to get lower, Dawn very subtly moved closer and closer to Ash until she was as close as she could get, their knees just brushing. Ash, for his part, didn't appear to find her behaviour odd, or even notice at all for that matter. She wasn't entirely sure if she was disappointed or relieved. After all, if he had noticed, he might have gotten uncomfortable. She considered putting a hand on his leg but decided that it would be too forward and chickened out.

Once the table was nothing but a pile ash, May yawned widely. 'Well guys, it's been a long night and I'm ready for bed. Good night'.

'I'm heading up too', Misty said.

Everybody else decided that they may as well turn in for the night, went inside and went their separate ways.

'Okay, how are we getting to Cianwood City?' May murmured to herself as she stepped off the boat from Kanto.

The port was, as usual, incredibly busy. The place was bustling with people arriving and departing, dock workers and pokemon. Pikachu hopped onto Ash's shoulder as they joined May, to avoid being stepped on by a Feraligtr that was carrying crates to a ship bound for Hoenn.

'Let's see if we can find someone that will take us over', Brock said., coming to stand on May's other side.

The group began threading their way through the crowd. A man carrying a surf board barged into Dawn and would have knocked her down if Misty hadn't grabbed hold of the back of her top to keep her upright.

'Hey, watch where you're going', she snapped at the man.

He initaly seemed taken aback by the fierce red head's outburst, but quickly recovered.

'Excuse me', he snapped back. 'It was an accident'.

'Then you should apologise. You almost knocked my friend over'.

'You know, you have a big mouth for a little girl. You should be careful, it might get you into trouble one day'.

Misty's eyebrow twitched. 'Little girl?'

Ash, Brock and May turned at the sound of an arguement erupting behind them.

'Oh man, Misty's picking a fight again', Ash groaned.

The three of them and Pikachu took in the scene before them. Misty and the surfer were standing a few feet apart, shouting at each other. Although she barely came up to the man's shoulder, Misty was refusing to be intimidated. The surfer was beginning to turn red in the face, his surf board lying forgotten at his feet. His friend was standing off to the side, looking amused at the sight of his friend arguing with the much shorter girl. Poor Dawn was standing awkwardly behind Misty, doing her best not to look like she was with her.

'Do you think that she's going to mallet him?' Ash murmured to May and Brock.

'Most likely', Brock whispered back.

Their assumptions were proven to be correct when a minute later, Misty had whipped out her mallet and clobbered the surfer on the head a few times with it. Satisfied, she went over to Ash and the others, dragging a mortified Dawn behind her.

'Hey Mist, where do you keep that mallet?' Ash asked curiosley.

Misty gave him a slightly unerving grin. 'You'll never get to find out', she smirked playfully.

'No, but I'll bet that he'd like to try', Brock said under his breath. Ash heard his comment and turned bright red. Muttering something unintelligible, he strode off quickly into the crowds. 'Ash wait, you're going to get lost', Brock called after him, clearly enjoying himself, following him.

He and the others found Ash talking to a mostly toothless old man.

'Hey guys', Ash said when they came within earshot. 'This old guy said that he would take us over to Cianwood if we pay him'.

'Thank you sir', Dawn said sweetly to the old man.

'You're welcome young lady', he replied.

The five of them stepped onto the old man's boat. The thing was covered in rust and it was impossible to tell what colour it had once been. They even spotted a couple of holes, although they were thankfully above water level. It looked to Ash as though it might sink the moment they tried to move off but they didn't have a better option with their time limit. It took a few tries before the ancient engine started up and they cast off with a jolt.

As they drew closer to Cianwood city, Ash noticed Pikachu tense up and glanced over at him to see that his ears were pinned back against his head.

'You okay Pikachu?' he asked.

Pikachu made a low, grumbling/growling sound in the back of his throat that set Ash on edge; something bad must be waiting for them up ahead for Pikachu to make that sort of noise. He reached up to rub the mouse behind the ear, although he gave no acknowledgment that he felt Ash's touch.

A few minutes later, they docked at the edge of the beach and the five of them disembarked, the old man promising to wait for them.

'Where is everyone?' Dawn wondered aloud.

The group hadn't seen a single person or pokemon since arriving and it was beginning to freak them out. An oppresive feeling hung over the town. Pikachu began trembling on Ash's shoulder, so he took him into his arms instead, holding him close in order to comfort both of them.

'Hello, anybody here?' Misty suddenly shouted, causing all of them to jump.

'Don't do that!' Ash hissed at her.

'Sorry', Misty shrugged, although she didn't sound very sorry.

'Let's try the pokemon centre. There has to be somebody there', Brock suggested.

The automatic doors of the building weren't working, so he and Ash, who handed Pikachu to May, heaved them open and led the way inside.

Instantly, they regretted it.

The inside of the pokemon centre was a massacre. Something or someone had really gone to town on the poor people who had been using the centre.

Blood seemed to be everywhere; splattered on the walls, splashed across the front desk and pooling on the floor. Even the potted plants were covered in the stuff.

The bodies of what was left of trainers lay on the floor. One boy had had his stomach ripped open, his intestines led from him and had been pulled across the floor, forming a disgusting pink, slimy trail. What appeared to be his liver sat next to him and one kidney hung half way out of his stomach.

A girl near the front desk had her lower jaw missing. Next to her was a lump of bloody meat that had been so badly mangled it no longer resembled a human, whilst yet another girl's arms and legs had been pulled off. They lay a few feet away from her, sinews still attatched.

Perhaps even worse than those things, were the remains of the pokemon who had presumably tried to protect their trainers. Most of them had been completly torn apart, their body parts scattered around the lobby. Ash took a step back and stepped on something that rolled under his foot, almost causing him to lose his balance. He didn't know whether to scream or throw up when he looked down and saw that it was an eye that he had stood on. Somehow, he managed to refrain from doing either.

Before either he or Brock could tell them not to, the girls came in. May squealed and clamped a hand over Pikachu's eyes, turning his face into her so that he didn't see the gore and squeezing her own eyes shut, although it was too late for her. Misty took one look and dashed to the nearest bin, violently vomiting into whilst Dawn looked as if she was about to pass out, all colour draining from her face. Ash really hoped that she didn't faint; he seriously doubted that he would be able to catch her right now.

Seemingly trying very hard lose the contents of his own stomach, Brock forced himself towards the desk. Peering over it, he almost failed. Nurse Joy and a Chansey lay next to each other. Chunks had been torn out of Joy, as if Hannibal Lector had come in and carved her up for Sunday lunch. The top of Chansey's head was missing and Brock could see part of its brain leaking out.

'Brock, you okay?' Ash asked.

Brock suddenly realised that he had been staring, frozen at the gruesome sight for a few minutes. 'Y-yeah I'm okay. Stay there, I'm going to look for any survivors in the back'.

'I'll come with you'.

'No', Brock said quickly, wanting to spare Ash from seeing any more. 'No, you just stay there. I'll be back in a minute'.

Brock soon found out that the butchery hadn't been limited to the lobby. Whoever had done this had tracked down people as they tried to flee, killing them in the bloodiest ways possible and leaving a mess of entrails and blood that he was unlucky enough to accidentally step in more than once. He found no survivors and he went back to the others with a heavy heart. He hated not being able to save people and the fact that he just hadn't gotten here in time to save all of these lives somehow made it worse.

'Let's go, there's no one here', he told his friends in a level voice.

Once Misty had emerged from the bin, the group were more than happy to leave the pokemon centre.

'What do we do now?' May asked as they stood outside the doors.

'I don't know', Brock replied despondently.

'We could check the rest of the town. You never know, we could find somebody who's still alive', Ash suggested, although neither he nor anybody else truly believed it.

'We could do', Brock agreed half - heartedly.

'Can you guys hear that?' Dawn asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.

'What?' Misty asked. She still looked slightly green.

'I think that I can hear... Children playing'.

'Great, that's not creepy at all', Ash groaned.

'Still, we should go and check it out', May said. 'Right?'

'Right', Brock agreed.

Dawn led the way this time as she was the only one who had heard it. They followed her past the pokemon centre and Chuck's gym. It was when they were walking down a residential street that the rest of them began to hear the noises too. Ash couldn't supress a shiver at the sound of children's laughter and the chant of school ground rhymes in this ghost town.

When they turned the corner, it was Ash's turn to be sick, throwing up into a rose bush in somebody's front lawn. The group were opposite a playground full of kids. Kids that were cheerfully butchering each other whilst singing nursery rhymes and laughing.

Whilst watching kids happily slice into their friends with kitchen knives or bashing their heads in with rocks was plenty horrifying enough, the truly disturbing sight had to be the children playing skipping rope.

The "rope" that was being spun by two little girls no older than seven was actually razor thin wire. As Ash and the others watched, another girl, this one younger by about a year or two, stood in between the older girls. The two on the end began to circle the wire in a clockwise direction, singing a nursery rhyme, making the scene all the more disturbing. Guessing what was about to happen, but rooted to the spot by horror, the trainers could only watch as the wire neared the younger girl. Instead of jumping, she simply stood there. She showed no sign of pain as the wire cut through her legs, cutting them off at the knees. She grinned manically as she slumped to the ground. She noticed the sickened trainers standing across the road and her eyes turned completly black, matching those of the two still spinning the wire. The younger girl, or rather the demon possesing her, kept eye contact with Ash and the others as the wire passed through her body again and again, slowly reducing her to a pile of mush.

With silent agreement, the trainers turned away from the sickening scene and headed for the boat, sure now that no one in Cianwood would still be alive.

'I hate demons', May said in an unsteady voice.

'What the hell?' Ash demanded angrily. Nothing was supposed to happen here until the 18th'.

'That ghost must have lied', Dawn said quietly. 'He tried to kill May, I bet that he thought it was hilarious to give us the wrong date and get to watch this'.

'I think that you're right', Misty said.

Brock sighed heavily. 'Come on guys. Let's get out of here before the cops show up'.

The phone call that Brock recieved on the short trip back to Olivine city did nothing to lighten the group's mood when he informed them that a Rougarou had torn through a small village in Hoenn, leaving no one alive.

'They're really stepping things up aren't they?' Ash asked rhetorically, meaning the demons.

'What's a Rougarou doing helping demons anyway?' May wondered aloud.

Brock shrugged. 'I don't know. Maybe one of them had something on it to force it to co-operate or it's quite possible that the Rougarou just wanted to kill. Once they turn completely they aren't human any more'.

'Hmm', Ash folded his arms and stared broodingly out over the water.

'Guys, I just found something out', Gary announced, appearing next to Misty. 'A pack of vampires drained everyone in an office building in Sinnoh. He frowned when he noticed the mood amongst the group. 'What's up with you guys?'

They told him about the blood shed that they'd encountered in Cianwood and the Rougarou attack in Hoenn. Gary stood in silence, a look of anger on his face. 'That son of a bitch lied to us', he growled. 'I'll bet that the barbaqued bastard thought that it was funny telling us the wrong date. He probably loved watching all of those people getting killed'. As his anger increased, the temperature began to drop.

'Calm down Gary', Dawn told him. 'Getting worked up won't help anything now'.

He glanced down at her. 'I guess that you're right', he admitted.

The group fell back into gloomy silence.

Sorry that this chapter was so short and a long time coming everyone, but thanks for sticking with the story. Now tjat christmas is coming and I have more free time, I plan on updating sooner.