Ketchum Chronicles

And a Ninja Frog Too, Apparently

???

It had been a long time, too long. A few years ago, I said goodbye to the greatest friend a pokémon could ask for.
"What'll it be, Greninja?"
"I think he was right. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence!"
"That when you and I power up, it isn't an accident,"
"Thanks, you'll always become stronger to help someone else,"
"Don't worry, we'll always be connected,"
"This is how it has to be,"
It had been too long. You probably know who I am.
My name is Greninja.
Specifically, Ash-Greninja, whom with we saved the region. Afterwards, after discovering my ability to detect the evil roots, dubbed "red roots" by Squishy, I was given the choice to help clean up the mess Lysandre had made. I looked to my trainer. He had a fiery glow to his eyes, and gave me a nod. I accepted. I would stay in Kalos as my trainer moved on to another region. And then after one last hug, he was gone. Along with his friends, and I set out to do my duty.
I threw myself into my work. I tracked down many still remaining deposits of the negative energy, and one by one, they disappeared from the region. But there were so many across central Kalos that it took weeks, turning into months turning into a year to get it done. But I had more. I tracked down every remaining Team Flare member and brought then to the authorities, and leave them knocked out at their front door. Unfortunately a few escaped my grasp, most notably the pot-bellied man who was the brains. That might be a concern for later.
After my work was done, I lived with Squishy and Z2 in the forest making friends with the local wildlife and helping those in need. I got a bit of a reputation around the area I patrolled as a mysterious entity who helped those in need of it, one who was fast enough to avoid being seen. It was humorous seeing people fail to see my true form, and seeing newspaper pictures with glimpses of me.
But then, about a year after he left me, I found him again. I sensed it. But, it was different. I sense my trainer, but he didn't feel the same. And then, I saw smoke on the horizon. I looked to Squishy, and he scolded me for bot going straightaway, as I should have when I met my trainer again. And so, I leapt into a burning wood.
It was difficult to see, and going inside at all was very dangerous and difficult. I had to endure, for Ash. Bring in a burning forest, facing extreme heat and hazardous smoke, it was all a mystery, and I lost track of time. I helped with who I passed by, picking those who were too slow to escape or couldn't walk. I saved a tree's worth of Kakuna from being consumed and a few Spearow away from the merciless fire.
Sky was covered in a blanket of pitch, and fiery glows lit the sky, and the smoke particles were the real discomfort. Imagine burning a pile of rubbish; you'll get suffocated from the fumes, and then came a blinding and suffocating haze.
Besides that, I also had to pay attention to where I was stepping because you could get trapped in holes left by the pokémon. I jumped, leaped and dashed towards my trainer. My friend. My partner.
As the fire approaches, things started to become surreal. Squishy had taught me lots of things over patrolling the region's wilderness. Because of the way the smoke filters sunlight, it can feel as if you're on a different planet. It can be eerie. The wall of flames can reach 6 to 45 meters tall depending on what's burning and move faster than a Pikachu. When the fire's moving, it can sound like a freight train.
I also find yourself at the mercy of the weather. One small breeze and suddenly the fire is moving, eating everything in its path. Because of the heat, fires can twist the weather. You have to know where the wind normally blows compared with how much the wind is blowing that day.
A fire acts like a living organism. The same way a plant spreads its seeds, a fire creates wind to spread its embers. A fire causes hot air and smoke to rise rapidly, pulling in air along the ground to replace it. This creates a wind that will push the fire along which creates a self-perpetuating cycle of fire that is impossible to stop. This wind helps the fire race through forests and neighborhoods, launching embers at everything that could burn. To make everything worse, as the air temperature increases, the relative humidity drops, which dries out the vegetation and makes it catch fire more easily.
Soon, I had reached the center of the blaze. I saw a strange place in the middle. As I approached I created half-formed water shurikens so surround the object to put out fires around it. Soon I could identify it. It was a door. It was made of dark metal, and after opening it, I discovered a large hallway, probably a secret base.
No time for exploring now I thought.
I moved upwards and something interesting. Barrels. I smelled them. Kerosene. Dangerous stuff. I once saw a gang try to burn Prof. Sycamore's lab with the stuff. It burns very fast. Then I saw marks. Soot. And the smell. Kerosene. Someone must have intentionally poured it around to burn their base, but it got out of hand.
But then I suddenly felt a sharp, burning pain on my side. I haven't felt like that since... he came. He must be here. He's somewhere around here. I scanned the area. Then I saw him. Ash, on the floor in agony. And... was that blood? Impossible... but that would...
But then I saw another one, this one with a cape of pitch, and a mask with warrior marks. He was engaged in combat with another one of my master's partners, the electric mouse. He was skillfully parrying his opponent's knife strikes with iron tail, but he was tiring, while his opponent was not. The electric mouse was and still is a good friend of mine, whom had helped me out of many troubles in my life, I cannot leave him.
I descended from my vantage point and struck the assassin from behind. He winced in pain from the cut, but regained his footing a moment later. The electric mouse saw me again and his face morphed from desperation to joy. He was about to re-engage with the masked man but I told him no, you rest and take care Kirlia, I'll deal with this masked man.
I summoned a blade of water and ran to my opponent. I was a bit taller, but he had proper metal weapons. He got two metal weapons out, one, a triangle shaped piece of black iron tipped in another metal, possibly silver about a foot long, and the other, a smaller knife made of similar material but with a larger guard, the part your hand stops in the handle to prevent going closer to the blade, both handles wrapped in bandages.
I prepared my kunai.
I made the first move.
I came in for the neck. He caught it with his own dagger and stopped it. He brought my arm down and started going for my chest. My other arm stopped it, but his other arm came in. I was  having a hard time combatting this vile man, because he had a more offensive on his left side. Indeed, he seemed to be left handed. I rolled back, I couldn't face him up front. Him
Being left handed makes it more difficult in fair combat. So then leaped overhead behind him, and swung. I never wanted to harm people, even people like these, so I specifically made my water blades to do blunt damage, disorientate and make people tired. But even a direct head to his head just made him shake his head and then turned around. This was ineffective for this case. My opponent here did not seem to tire or care about blunt damage. So I switched my strategy. First, I double-team to create duplicates. Over and over, and now they circled him. He of course, started casting every single one with beams of fire, but it bought me time. I went over to Pikachu, and brought him back. He noticed us again and smiled. Then we started combat again.
Even with Pikachu as an ally, it was still difficult. First, Pikachu went upfront and started using iron tail to parry his dagger strikes. The vile one attempted to slash forward, but Pikachu jumped on his blade and taunted him. He tilted the blade and Pikachu simply jumped off and landed on his head. I couldn't help but be amused at the evil one try to peel an electric rodent off his head. Then I went in with aerial ace, but noticed something odd. When I cut his cloak, it seemed to grow back as if made from flesh. I was stunned for a moment but regained my face and then went again, this time for the neck. But he ducked and I accidentally hit Pikachu, sending him flying. Then the vile one said, "I thant thee, nowe we can go on, oon on oon,"
I gave him a puzzled expression.
"Sorry, unornlic, sorry old habits. I meant one on one,"
Then I braved myself. I could barely defend myself here. Blades seemed to flash from every direction, and I bad to black each one. When one came from the left, I blocked it, but another came from the tight, and I blocked that too and even disarmed him, but he re-grabbed his knife and went for my head. Only my reflexes saved me from death. This was too difficult. This was a fight, I couldn't win. I double teamed and activated many water shurikens to distract him, picked up Ash and told Pikachu to run.
"Pikachu! Run!"
"But what about Kirlia?"
He was right. But then I saw Kirlia wasn't anywhere anymore.
"He probably left! Lets go!"
And we both sprinted into the forest. By now the blaze was dying and only a few lonely sparks of the great beast of fire remained. Not that that mattered to me, I just needed to get my lifelong friend to safety. I soon found the edge of the forest, but I didn't see Ash's companions. They were probably in the pokémon center. I left.
Eventually I found the place. Everyone stared at me carrying my trainer instead of the opposite, as normal but right now Ash needed medical attention.
I was about to say something but I remembered humans don't understand my speech. So I put him down and gestured to the wound.
"Oh dear! What happened to this? Oh right. I can't understand you. Chansey! Were gping yo need a bucket of water, a towel and some bandages!"
She immediately went behind the counter to help my trainer. I can only hope he didn't lose too much blood. His blood had dried around the wound, so at least it stopped spilling everywhere.
Then a small Bunnelby came out from under the table and saw me. Suddenly he came toward me and hugged my leg. Then I remembered.
"Hello Bunnelby! Still trained by Clemont?"
"Yes! And I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Well perhaps not ages..."
"And Pikachu, where have you been?"
"Its a long story... but the short story is Chaster!"
"Wait, really? Him?"
"Yes!"
"Wait, I don't know who you are talking about?"
"The person we were fighting before!"
"Oh, so that is his name,"
"Come on guys, everybody is upstairs waiting!"
"Come on Greninja!"
"Anon!"
I imbed the stairs to reach the top. I never understood why it is called "climb" to the top despite us simply walking up. Or maybe that is the definition of climb. Thats for another time.
When I came to the top, a small tornado came and hugged my lower body.
"Greninja, your back!"
It twas Bonnie, the little girl with a heart of gold. It great to see her again.
"Bonnie, what about me?"
It was Clemont, the brilliant young scientist with a mind matched by none. Especially for his age. I met and greeted the rest one by one, I saw Luxray, the loyal companion of Clemont since his days at the academy, Bunnelby, whom I met downstairs, Magneton, and Heliolisk, a two loyal pokémon to Clemont, who served at his gym, Dedenne, the tiny fairy mouse who spent her time in Bonnie's pouch, and Pikachu, the most loyal of Ash's pokémon.
"Wait, so where is Ash?"
This was a problem. A speech barrier separated us, so we could not tell them directly. I was thinking  of ways to tell them when suddenly Pikachu started acting. I suddenly rembered the electric rodent's uncanny ability to mimic any pokémon in existence. He first started mimicking Ash's face, and starting walking around, then I got an idea. I took a black blanket and put it over myself like a cloak. Then we took turns roleplaying what happened, fighting, and getting stabbed.
The two humans stood there for a bit, absorbing the tale we had told. It was Bonnie who made the first move. She immediately ran downstairs, and the rest of us followed after some of the pokémon were returned. Then, we found Ash's room.
We found Ash sitting on a hospital bed outside, one of the emergency hospital areas set up to help accommodate the citizens of Lumiose city. There was even a woman outside reporting the great tragedy and interviewing some of the people.
"See here folks, something grave has happened to Kalos's crown jewel. At September 2, around sunset, a fire started to burn around the city, causing massive economic damage, estimated around 369 billion euros, 428 billion dollars for our overseas viewers. Hey look! An officer! Excuse me!"
She came over to Officer Jenny.
"Officer Jenny, do you know what happened to this fine city?"
"Well were still looking into it, but we think a rabid charizard came in and blew up a few cars, possibly causing the fire along with it,"
"What do you think of the fire?"
"It was very devastating. Tons of buildings were wither damaged or destroyed, and now a lot of people's homes were destroyed.
We've got emergency rooms for now until things are rebuilt. The clean up should arrive tomorrow,"
"Where was the most damage?"
"The center of the city, in front of Prism Tower, where the fire seems to have centralized. Prism Tower has been burned to the ground and only ash remains,"
"Thats a shame, considering its both the gym and a tourist attraction?"
"Yes, very devastating,"
"How do you think this will be prevented?"
"Probably better anti-fire measures like more fireproof means and making fire hydrants more accessible,"
"One last thing, Officer Jenny, there are rumors that a person started the fire on purpose. What do you think of these rumors?"
"Well why would anybody want to burn down Lumiose city?"
"It could be Team Flare again!"
"I doubt it. We got the leader and many of their grunts. What would be left of Team Flare?"
"But we heard one got away!"
"And thats all the time I have, I need to be off. Got some things to do!" And promptly left.
After that I turned back to where we were doing before. I recently learned this is the same Officer Jenny who helped stop the Malamars in the old observatory, so she understood a jit about magic. Then we looked at Ash. His jacket and shirt had been removed, and now blood soaked bandages covered his side blood staining them red that looked almost brown. He still wasn't conscious, but still respirating normally, so he wasn't dead. I took his hand at looked at not only my trainer, but lifelong friend.
Please, wake up...

Pokédex entries:
Greninja, The Ninja Pokémon
This pokémon appears and vanishes with a ninja's grace. The first one was supposedly found by a traveller who rescued a large toad from a snake.