Ketchum Chronicles

Scrapped Chapter

Ash
I watched as the stranger walked through the wrecked doors. He was entirely covered in cloth, not like a cloak like Chaster, but a thin viel that seemed to be burnt at its edges. Imagine a mummy, you know, the kind in a pyramid. But the bandages weren’t rotting, and knots were tied to the front of him, and a small coat that covered the top of his shoulders and trailed behind him. His face was wrapped in a white cloth, white like a ghost, with two holes where his eyes seemed to be. He had a small cap that covered part of his head, and dark curly hair poked out at some parts.
The quiet that followed this person was jarring, like a classroom suddenly quieting down. The only sound came from his staff knocking on the floor, and a scent like candles trailed behind him.
“I shall only say this once, get out of her, demon,”
I looked back to the monster that had once been my friend. It didn’t even blink. Then it ran towards the stranger, screaming some slimy mix of sound and slobber.
“Watch out! That thing is dangerous!”
But the stranger stood firm like a wall and threw his staff on the ground. Immediately it turned into a snake Pokemon I hadn’t seen before and coiled around the monster.
“Hey! That’s my friend in there!”
“Do not be afraid. The situation is under control,” He then gestured to his partner Pokemon. “Marshadow, use shadow punch,”
“What? No that’s even wors-”
The inkly mass that was Marshadow apparently jumpedand started readying a  punch. ABut the strike didn’t hit the monster, it went through. No, really, he passed through like it was made of air, and at the end of its fist was a strange Unown. It looked like a normal Unown, but instead of white its “eye” was red like a blood stain.
The Unown got up and then eyed me. It then flew towards me. I raised my hand to defend myself, but nothing happened. I looked up, and the Unown seemed to be held in place. I looked and saw the stranger holding out what looked like a lantern, a warm orange glow surrounded by cold bars. He yanked it backwards, and the Unown flew inside and disappeared.
“What… was that?”
“Oh, don’t worry, the Unown won’t get out,”
He came over to me and helped me get up on my feet again. When I felt his hand, it didn’t exactly feel solid. When I took his hand, I felt something underneath those wrappings move amnd twist like a living wind. Not like a violent tornado, but a gust of wind that cools you down.
I heard something like a scrape, a rattle, something… no… many things were coming our way.
“Now is not the time for introductions. Take the girl and get out of here,” he said, pointing to the door.
“Okay I… wait Serena’s still knocked out. How will she get out?”
“Well you carry her,”
“I… what?”
“Is it not natural for a man to take care of a woman’s needs?”
“Maybe… wait isn’t that outdated?”
But he was already running for the door. A loud sharp noise sounded off, alerting my ears to whatever was coming. I slid one of my arms underneath Serena’s legs, then under her chest bridal style, and started running.
When I got out, the freezing mountain air hit me like a truck. Snowflakes fell like raindrops, blowing directly into my face like a thousand little daggers stabbing my face. The wind screamed against my ears, filling my ears with ghastly screams. Serena’s body heat keeps my arms warm, but the tips of my fingers felt as lifeless as the stone statues around me. I had forgettn my gloves.
“Come on!” the stranger yelled.
He swung his staff against the ground, svcraping it enough to create a fire on the tip, a small warm glow holding off the bitter, biting chill. I ran after him, not wanting to lose the light.
“Pika!”
I looked and saw the Pokemon struggling to keep up. The strange Kirlia, who seemed to be ice type, didn’t seem to mind the cold, but Pikachu and Pancham did, and were drowning in the sea of white around them.
“All of you, onto me!”
Pancham and Pikachu immediately leaped onto my arms and shoulder respectively, but Kirlia stayed on the ground.
“Are you sure you're okay by yourself?”
“Kirlia,” it said, and nodded.
“Well if that suits you,”
We ran together through the blizzard. I ran through, determined to keep going. At least we were out of danger-
“DUCK!”
I immediately stopped and leaned back as far as I could, just as a sword cut through the storm. Of course, the statues were alive.
“Of course,”
I heard the stranger call out. “Dusknoir! Marshadow! Clear us a path!”
He threw something that looked like a Duskball out and Dusknoir came out, with Marshadow not far behind. They both used dark pulses and brought forth dark rings that sent black signals into the white void.
“Pikachu, Pancham, Kilria, you do the same,”
They all started blasting, sending rays of yellow, purple and more yellow energy into the white void, followed by the stranger’s Pokemon following. We ran through, moving, running, dodging through the path. The sharp tapping of my shoes on the cobbled path rang in my ears, the tips of my ears started to numb, and something seemed to form on my face that felt suspiciously like ice.
I turned around and saw shapes obscured in the cold, forms like angry ghosts.
“They’re gaining on us!”
“I know! Let me think of something!”
I looked around looking for anything, then noticed something: we were running next to a large wall, covered entirely in snow, that seemed ready to fall at any moment…
“Hey! That snow looks like it’s ready to fall! If we had something like a Pokemon that knew bulldoze or earthquake…”
“We don’t need one. Keep running, I’ll stop them,”
“But-”
“Do not worry about my safety. I should be doing that. Get the girl and your Pokemon to safety. I’ll deal with these,”
I nodded, and then ran. As I was headed out of the clearing where the mansion stood, I looked down and saw the stranger seem to say something to himself, before raising his staff and slamming the base of it in the side of the wall. Cracks grew out of place where he slammed down, spreading like a disease, shaking the entire wall and bringing down the snow. The snow fell like a waterfall, burying… whatever those were.
“Good, that should keep them occupied,” he turned to me “What are you still doing here? I thought I told you to leave,”
“I… that was so cool! You need to show me how you did that!”
He shook his head. “Now is not the time,”
“Yeah, your right,”
Now that those things weren’t after us, we could breathe a little easier. Pikachu and Pancham still held onto me since they couldn’t go throught he deep snow. The stranger seemed to know where he was going. I thought about asking where we were going, but after he saved our lives, I didn’t wanna annoy him. Eventually we came to a spot where he began to dig into the side of some snow. Pikachu and Pancham helped and eventually we had ourselves a place we could sit.
“This snowdrift should be able to provide us with shelter until the storm calms. I’ll make us a fire,”
He took some wood and started rubbing sticks together. He tried for some time then gave up and had his Dusknoir use will-o-wisp and lit the fire that way. I laid Serena down next to it and put my coat over her like a blanket. Now that I had time, I could notice more details about the person who had just saved me.
The scarf he was wearing wasn’t really a scarf, but some cloth that went over the shoulders and some of the arms. It had blue stripes that flowed downward, and it ended in little… What were they again? Tassels. Yeah, tassels. There were no bandages across his face, but a single white sheet connected to the rest of his clothes, with two holes for his eyes. His feet were encased in solid brown boots that seemed tied by rope to his feet.
“So… I never got your name,”
“Oh, I apologize. My name is Esau, what’s yours?”
“I’m Ash Ketchum, Pokemon trainer. Thanks for helping us,”
“You're welcome. It’s my job to help people,”
“Your job? What is your job? Are you a rescuer of some kind?”
“Not exactly. I track down rogue souls and bring them back to where they come from. In short, I hunt down ghosts,”
“Okay,”
“Really? Normally people don’t believe me and I have to convince them,”
“Well I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff, so this isn’t that weird. Besides, when I took your hand, it didn’t feel normal. I could feel it, but it didn’t feel completely solid,”
“Good observation. It’s true, I am not of the world. I’m a hunter, who tracks down rogue souls and brings them to the underworld. As you saw, they ihnabit that mansion, and they seem to have possessed your friends,”
“Possession… that’s when a ghost or something takes control of something?”
“You know a surprising amount about this,”
“Well I have my experiences with ghosts,”
Then Serena shook.
“Serena! Talk to me,”
She slowly opened her eyes.
“Ash…? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Those… things… well I’m not sure what they did to you, but your safe now,”
“I’m glad you heard me. Those things… It was really scary,”
Pancham immediately leaped and hugged its trainer.
“Ah, I’ve missed you too Pancham,”
Serena looked around for a second.
“Where’s Braixen? And Sylveon? Oh no… are they still…”
“They probably are…”
“Well we’re going after them!”
She immediately stood up but fell down almost immediately.
“Slow down young lady,” Esau said. “Possession takes a toll on your body. And the storm outside makes it impossible to go back,”
“But we can’t leave them! They’re my friends who’ve helped me so far…”
“I know how you feel Serena,” I said. I put one hand on her shoulder and another on her hand to comfort her. “Pikachu is in there too, but we can’t rush in there. It’s too dangerous. If you go in now, you’ll get hurt,”
Serena looked down. “You’re right,”
“You two have some rest. If we are to find a way to assist yoru friends, you’ll need al the rest you can get,”
“But I’m not tired-”
He waved his hand and I blacked out.


I woke up a little later to the smell of food. Something good. Something familiar.
“Are those…?”
“Yeah,” Serena said. “Turns out I still have some macarons in my bag. They’re not the best I’ve made and have been in my bag for a while, but they’re still edibles. If you don’t want it’s fi-”