Fractured World Chapter 1

Ash opened his eyes as he saw the view before him. He was standing around in….nothing….nothing but air. This feels familiar to him but it has more of a dark essence than a light one.

“What….what is this place?” he looked around some more looking for something or someone that may be here but again he saw nothing but clouds all around him as he floated driftlessly in the air.

“HELLOOOOOO!!! ANYBODY OUT THERE??!!” he shouted. Ash continued to shout for about five minutes until he rendered it was useless to do so.

“……you…are….” Ash stopped and looked in multiple directions as he tried to locate the voice.

“…..my..s………on……..y…..r……a….l……ve” the voice continued speaking as Ash tried to understand what it saying. He couldn’t make it out though, it sounded too weak and distorted. Wherever he was it wasn’t helping him.

“S..o…….on…….i….s……….you…….s….o…..Ash.” the voice then faded away leaving Ash alone as a bright light engulfed him blinding his sight and the area he was in.

Present:

Ash was sleeping peacefully in his bed as soft snores rocked his body. He didn’t realize that someone had entered his room and was now standing over him.

“Ash. Ash time to wake up.” He didn’t seem to hear her as just turned over his side and went back to sleeping.

“Ash, if you don’t wake up then I’m gonna kiss you.” Ash seemed to slightly hear those words but still refused to get out of bed.

“Okay you asked for it.” He heard before he felt something wet pressed against his cheek. That seemed to bring him out of his slumber as he quickly sat up and looked over at who kissed him. He saw Skyla with a hand on her mouth as she tried not to laugh.

“Skyla~~” he whined as his face grew red.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” she reminded him.

“Yeah but you didn’t have to kiss me!”

“Oh, are you saying you didn’t like it?” She mocked with fake anger.

“What! NO! I’m not saying that- I just—Ugh!!” he exaggerated as he covered his steaming face with the pillow.

“I’m just teasing you Ash.” Skyla joked. Ash just held his face in the pillow and turned away from her. He felt Skyla climb the bed and pulled him upwards wrapping her arms around his neck and rested her chin on his head.

“You look so cute whenever you blush like that.” She smiled cheekily at him. Ash removed the pillow before speaking quietly.

“I hate it when you do that.” He mumbled. Skyla just giggled before releasing her hold on him and ruffling his hair.

“I know but you love me anyway. Come on let’s go downstairs and eat breakfast, Ursula doesn’t want us to go on missions without an empty stomach.” She got off the bed and walked out of the room heading downstairs. Ash leaned over the bed and stretched his arms out as he yawned before getting up. He then looked out the window up into the sky. It was dark red as the sun was rising.

“It’s only been a month and I still can’t get that day out of my head.” He said quietly. He wasn’t thinking about the Zygarde incident, he was thinking about when Dark had surfaced and almost sent him into despair and separate him from his sisters.

It’s been a month since the incident with Dark, and 4 in total if you count the Zygarde incident. In those months, he’s been training and going off to different places fighting soulless Pokémon. It took him awhile to get used to fighting those…..he wished there was a way to save them but there isn’t. All those Pokémon were too far gone and he can’t fix that.

“Well I can’t dwell on it now, the best I can do is free them from their pain of being mindless animals that roam the world.” He thought. He shook his head removing those thoughts and headed out of the room. As he headed downstairs he was met with the sweet aroma of bacon hovering through the air.

“*sniff**sniff* awesome bacon for breakfast. I wonder what else were having?’ he questioned as he reached the end of the steps and turned left making his way into the kitchen. He walked in and saw Ursula near the stove cooking and Skyla sitting on the stool near the island.

“Well look who’s awake, finally decided to get out of bed and eat?”

“Finally?”

“Korrina and I tried to wake you up earlier but you were out like a light.” Ursula explained as she started scrambling eggs.

“Oh, my bad. I just haven’t been falling asleep lately.” Ash said as he rubbed the back of his head. He sat down on a stool next to Skyla before releasing another yawn.

“Well if you haven’t been staying up last night training your Aura Arts than you wouldn’t be so drowsy.” Ursula commented.

“Hey where is Korrina?”

“Oh, she’s looking through the Aura globe, she’s trying to pinpoint a location.” Skyla answered.

“A location?”

“She felt some type of disturbance with her aura earlier, it could be just more soulless running around or something else.” Skyla propped her chin as she started thinking.

“What do you think it is?”

“We won’t know until we hear more about it.”

“Could it be a person or maybe people?” Ash asked with hope in his eyes. Both Skyla and Ursula frowned at him.

“Ash, we haven’t found a single person alive within months. Even we did find someone they’re probably soulless just like the Pokémon.”

“But…”

“Like I said we have to wait for Korrina to tell us more until then we don’t know.” Ursula said ending the topic. Ash just looked down at the counter and sighed while Skyla placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Don’t think on it too much, I’m sure there’s someone out there in the world that’s normal and not a mindless drone.” Skyla tried to reassure him. Instead of answering, he just laid his head on the counter.

Ursula shrugged her shoulders and went back to cooking while Skyla patted her brother on the head trying to comfort him. The atmosphere was a bit tense until someone burst in the kitchen shouting.

“Hey, I found out where the disturbance is coming from.” It was Korrina. She then noticed the tense atmosphere as she observed her siblings. She then noticed Ash up on the counter with his head in his arms.

She walked over to them and patted Skyla on the shoulder silently communicating. Skyla got the message and removed her hand as Korrina put hers on top of Ash’s head and ruffled it. Ash instantly noticed the change in touch as he lifted his head and looked to his right seeing Korrina’s face.

“Morning sleepyhead.” She greeted.

“Korrina.”

“You were knocked out. I thought you would’ve been asleep until afternoon, soon we’ll have to change your name from Ash Ketchum to Snooze Ketchum.” She joked. This caused all of them to laugh at her joke weakening the tense atmosphere from before.

“Thanks for the laughs Korrina.”

“No problem, everyone was down so I thought I cheer you up with a joke. Thank you very much I’ll be here all week.” She bowed.

“Anyway, what were you guys talking about before I came in?”

“We were talking about the disturbance you sense with your aura; did you figure out what it was?” Ursula asked as she took out bacon from the oven and turned off the stove.

“Oh right. Turns out the signal is coming from Santalune City.”

“Santalune City? Why there?”

“Beats me. Either way we should head over and check it out.” Korrina said as she sat down.

“Here you go breakfast is served.” Ursula handed them their plates full of bacon eggs and hash browns.

“Oh, awesome you made hash browns too.” Ash said as he started eating his meal.

“Well someone’s hungry.” Korrina joked.

“I can’t help it, there delicious.” He muffled

“Ash manners!!” Ursula reprimanded. Swallowing his food, Ash rubbed the back of his head and apologize.

“Oh sorry, sorry.” Ursula sighed at him while Korrina and Skyla giggled. Ash then remembered the dream he had.

“Hey, I have a quick question to ask?”

“Did any of you have weird dream lately?” he asked receiving looks of confusion.

“No why?” Ursula asked before he waved it off.

“Uh its nothing. Just asking.”

“Ash.” Skyla called. He heard a slight edge in her tone sending shivers down his spine. He took a deep breath before speaking.

“Sorry. It’s just, I’ve been having the same dream lately. I’m in a blank white space all by myself and I hear this voice. It’s faint but I can hear it.” He explained. The three girls looked at him in worry. After their encounter with Dark he’s been sleeping a lot lately and staying up late at night training.

“Do you know what it’s trying to tell you?” Ursula asked him.

“No, it was mostly faint so I could only make one word. All she said was soon.” He finished.

“Soon?” Korrina asked in confusion.

“For what? Is it something big?” Ursula questioned.

“I don’t know.” All he knew was that voice sounded familiar he wasn’t completely sure who it was but he knew it from somewhere.

“We’ll figure out when we get back from Santulane, right now we need to check out that area.” Korrina decided.

“When do we leave?”

“Right after breakfast. Meet up outside once you’re ready.” Korrina said as she hopped off the stool and walked to the front taking her plate with her and putting a piece of bacon into her mouth.

“Hey! NO! Korrina, we eat in here not outside! You better not leave it somewhere in the living room again!!” Ursula shouted as she ran out the room following the skater.

Skyla turned her attention to Ash who was in deep thought as he played with his food moving the eggs around the plate repeatedly. She knew there was more to this dream than what he told them.

“Ash, what’s troubling you?” She asked him. He seemed to remain quiet about before she pressed it further.

“There’s more to it is there? To your dream?” He stopped his hand completely and stared at his plate.

“The voice……she sounds so familiar. I feel like I know who she is but at the same time I don’t, it’s just so…...vague.” he concluded.

“Don’t worry about it. Right now, I want you to clear your mind and focus on the problem in Santalune. When we come back I’ll see when I can do to help you okay?” she suggested.

“Okay.” He smiled slightly at her. Skyla finished her food before getting up and ruffled Ash’s hair.

“Good, now go change and get ready to leave. 5 minutes.” Skyla ordered him as she left the room. Ash nodded and quickly finished his breakfast before washing his plate and headed upstairs to change leaving Ursula to clean the kitchen. After cleaning the kitchen, Ursula sat on the steps waiting for Ash while Skyla and Korrina were outside in the yard. She heard footsteps and turned her head around seeing Ash in his regular blue collard t-shirt and black pants with yellow hi-tops and fingerless gloves.

“That was quick.” She said.

“Hey! I only had five minutes.” He countered.

“Fair enough.” She said as they both walked out through the door and closed it.

“Okay everybody here?”

“All right, Santalune City here we come.” Ash shouted excitedly. Skyla raised her hand opening a small vortex in front of them before it expanded to the size of a human tunnel. They all walked through as the portal closed sending them to Santalune City.

Santalune City (Destroyed):

The portal opened in the middle of the plaza. The four walked out of the vortex as it closed disappearing from sight. Speaking of sights, what they saw around themselves was a little unnerving. They saw vines all around the area, on the ground, the buildings, everywhere.

“Okay not what I was expecting to see here.” Ursula commented.

“What’s with all the vines?” Ash asked.

“I don’t know, this isn’t a side effect from the incident. Last time I came here this place was full of grass type soulless instead of huge forest vines.” Korrina answered

“So…….where are all of the bugs?” Skyla asked as she searched their surroundings.

“I…don’t know. We should’ve at least been swarmed by a herd of soulless Scatterbug or Fletchling by now but……none of them have attacked us yet.” Korrina placed a hand on her chin as she thought about the missing soulless.

Ash looked up ahead and noticed the statue at the center of the plaza and walked towards it. As he approached the Roselia statue, he saw tiny green dots lit up like fireflies floating all around in the water.

“Uh, guys, you might want to look at this!” he shouted. The girls approached him and noticed the dots as well making Korrina eyes burst in shock.

“What!? How the!? There’s no- What!?” she shouted.

“Uh, care to share with the rest of the class?” Skyla asked. Korrina ignored her as she put her hand in the fountain and grabbed one of the dots before opening her palm to them revealing…

“Is that…..a soulless spirit!?” Ursula asked as she looked at the tiny orb.

“Yes.”

“Wait what’s the big deal about it? It’s already been beaten.” Ash asked.

“Exactly. It’s already defeated. We just got here and haven’t fought any of them yet which means something or someone else did.” Korrina answered.

“From the count of all these spirits inside the fountain, looks like this is almost all the soulless in the city.” Ursula said.

“What!? There’s no way that someone could’ve beaten these soulless that easy!” Ash declared.

“I think that’s where the vines come in, whoever it did it must’ve use them take out all of the soulless in one swoop.” She deducted.

“It’s probably also the cause of the disturbance I felt from earlier, all of them being taken out at once spiked the energy making this place a bit unnerving.” Korrina added.

“We should probably search the city for any surviving soulless. We should also find the main root of where all these vines are coming from.” Skyla said.

“Wait what about all of the ones here?” Ash asked before Korrina suddenly put a hand to his mouth. She focused her ears on hearing any movement from all directions. She then wrapped her free arm around him and quickly jump from her current spot a few paces ahead next to a building before pulling him behind the wall.

Skyla and Ursula were confused by her actions before the said girl motioned them to take cover as well. Not arguing they both ran to them and hid behind a wall the opposite of them. Korrina motioned them to keep quiet and listen.

They waited a few seconds before hearing sounds of footsteps come from the other side of the fountain and something being dragged through the ground.

A cloaked figure came into view as they slowly walked towards the fountain with a bag beaten soulless Scatterbugs being dragged across the floor.

“Heh, you could’ve been given me a better challenge you know but instead you all bored me to death. I killed about 3 herds of you idiots to have some type of enjoyment but spilling your blood wasn’t good enough so I saved you for a very special friend of mine.” The voice sounded childlike but she had the body of a teenager and she was wearing a green cloak so they couldn’t see her face.

“Who is that!?” Ash whispered as he saw the female figure.

“Don’t know but I got a bad feeling about her.” Ursula said.

“She can’t be evil, we just saw her.” he whispered.

“Ash, she’s dragging beaten soulless Scatterbugs so yeah she’s evil.” Ursula whispered heatedly.

“So, that’s your assumption of her. For all we know she could’ve been trapped by them and had no choice but to fight them. Sure, killing is a little overboard but she had to find a way to survive.” He countered.

“Must you always find a bright side for every situation?” She asked.

“Someone has too.” he whispered back.

“Quiet something’s happening.” Korrina interrupted the two before pointing back to the cloaked figure.

“Time to feed~~~” she said. She let a small whistle that ranged through the air. At first nothing happened until the vines around the Roselia statue suddenly unwrapped and laid its arms on the ground before a giant mouth formed and raised its head from the fountain. It roared aloud causing the group to cover their ears.

“Look what I got~~~” the teenage girl lifted the bag holding the Scatterbugs before throwing it in the air towards the plant. With its food in midair the plant caught the bag before closing its mouth and headed back into the fountain. The cloaked girl started laughing manically while the others looked at her in horror.

“Hah, that was funny. I think next I’ll give it- hmm?” she stopped speaking as a buzz sound went off. She reached into her cloak and pulled out a communicator before answering.

“Hello.”

“Terra. Where are you? we need to get back home now.”

“Ugh. Why? I’m having so much fun right now can’t we go back home later Wave?” Terra groaned as she rolled her eyes.

“Afraid not. As much as you love killing soulless Pokémon for fun and use them as corpses for you pets to feed on, we have other things to do. Plus, I think we may have company.” Wave replied

“What do you mean by that?”

“I felt a small energy spike of where you are at, someone or something may have come here unannounced.”

“Don’t worry I felt that energy spike on my way here but I didn’t come across anyone or anything yet. I think that something may’ve also—hmm?” Terra paused midway as she examined the spirits in the fountain. She placed her hand in the water before quickly pulling out leaving an angry expression on her face.

“Terra what is it?”

“Sorry Wave but I have to go. I’ll come back as soon as I’m done with my morning stroll.”

“What!? NO! You are meeting me back here ri--*buzz**static*” Terra cut off the communication before Wave could finish. She put away her communicator before looking around the area.

“I don’t know who’s out there but I don’t like it when someone tampers with my traps nor do I like them touching my pets.” She seethed loudly knowing that someone was here.

“I know you’re here, it’s only a matter of time before my pets or I find you. You better hope the pets find you first because when I find you……*giggle**giggle* I’m gonna have so much fun torturing you.”

“Speaking of enjoyment, I need to get back to that bug infested gym. There’s something in there that doesn’t want to be disturbed and there’s some type of weird energy coming from within it.” Terra sighed.

“But first a trip to the forest……I need to get some more food for my pets. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find my uninvited guests. *giggle**giggle*” She smirked maliciously as she walked away from the fountain and back the way she came.

Waiting a few minutes, Korrina motioned them that the coast was clear and came out of hiding.

“That was unpleasant.” Ursula commented.

“Who was that?” Ash asked.

“Her name is Terra and she’s dangerous.”

“No argument here. Looks we found the main root for all of the vines.” Korrina said as she picked up a broken one off the ground.

“Not to mention we just met her pet what was that thing?” Ash asked.

“A Venus fly trap and a giant one. I can’t believe someone has a pet as huge as that.” Ursula answered.

“And there’s more of them out there. Remember that Wave girl said her pets meaning she has more than one and they could be anywhere around here.” he exclaimed.

“So, what’s the plan then, with that cloaked female running around she might be a problem and interfere with our mission?” She asked.

“Hmm.” Korrina started thinking about what to do next. They still need to search for any soulless left around the city to take out but with the vines created by this Terra character not to mention the said female looking for them……this isn’t going to be easy.

“I think we need to split up.” Skyla suggested.

“Ursula, you and Ash will go to the trainer’s school and Santalune Gym. Something tells me that she came here for a reason and those vines are probably guarding something important. Be careful on your way there, watch out for any traps Terra may have set around here.” She ordered.

“Right.” Ursula answered.

“Okay. Wait what about you two?” Ash asked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be right behind as soon as we’re done around here. Now go.”

Ash and Ursula felt a little uneasy on what Skyla had planned for her and Korrina but they knew that they could take care of themselves and they could call for help if things got bad.

“Alright, we’ll see you later.” Ash said before he ran off to the Santalune Gym.

“Please be careful.” Ursula said worriedly before following Ash.

“So, what will we be doing?”

“We are going to follow Terra. The direction she headed was to the forest, I got a bad feeling about the forest. I sensed most of the soulless in that direction anyway, it could be where’s she keeping them or……. torturing them.” Skyla paused before finishing.

“Plus, the aura that girl was giving off…….it felt……twisted.”

“So that’s why you sent Ash and Ursy the other way. Skyla, you can’t protect them forever you know, they have to fight bigger battles at some point.” Korrina said.

“I know…...I know. It’s just right now I don’t think I can give them that option. But you’re right I have to let them grow up at some point.”

“Don’t worry I know how you feel, you love them both so much that they basically became family. You act both like an older sister and sometimes like a mother.” Korrina placed a hand on the redhead’s shoulder.

“You’re making me sound like an old lady.” Skyla said as she sweat dropped.

“Sorry but my point is you’re not alone. If you ever feel uncertain about something just talk to me okay?” Skyla smiled at the girl glad that she was helping her with her problem.

“Okay. Thanks, Korrina.”

“No problem now come on let’s head to the forest.” Korrina said as she started walking leaving Skyla alone to her thoughts. She smiled at Korrina’s words of advice before slightly frowning as she looked at the cream blonde.

“Korrina, I can see that you’re hiding your feelings too.” She shook her head ridding those thoughts before following Korrina to the forest. Then Terra’s voice came into her mind.

“That girl’s voice……why does she sound so familiar?”

With Ash and Ursula:

The two teens were heading to the gym and carefully scouting the area for any soulless that may or may not have survived the vine onslaught.

“Ash, do you want to check out the school first or the gym?” Ursula asked.

“Not sure why do you ask?”

“Because I think there’s something important in the gym more than the school.”

“What makes you say that?” he wondered.

“Remember what Terra said, she’s said that the gym was infested by bug-type and soulless and under protection.” She reminded him.

“Oh right.” He remembered.

“Now if we’re going to do this right, we need to have the advantage hereWhat do you know about this gym, you’ve been inside before right?” She asked him. After hearing about his travels to different regions, she thought he may have some insight on all the gyms he’s battled at.

“Yeah, twice. From what I can remember it was a photo museum and the gym leader was Viola she was a photographer who loved taking photos of precious memories.” He remembered.

“Memories of what?” she asked.

“Pretty much everything. She was also Alexa’s younger sister, she was a journalist.” Ash smiled as he remembered the two sisters from his travels. “I wonder if those two are okay.” He wondered.

“A journalist and photographer, I guess they both were pretty social and traveled together a lot.” Ursula said in curiosity.

“Yep. Anyway, that’s what I can remember about the gym.”

“Was there anything odd about the gym other than the photo museum?” she pressed further. Ash started to focus on what else there was about the gym and then he remembered the web.

“Oh, the gym floor is a giant spider-web and to reach the field where to take the gym battles you have to figure out how to get there. The place was a maze.” He finished.

“Okay so we may have to go to the school first, see if any soulless are there if not then we head back to the gym.” Ursula suggested.

“What if the school is heavily guarded instead of the gym?”

“Well we won’t know until we get there, now will we?” Ash nodded his head and they both took a different direction and headed to the school. Only to find…

“Well what do you know.” Ash trailed off as they both stood at the entrance of the school which was completely wrapped in vines. The doors were blocked and the windows were broken plus there were a few vines going out from the roof down to the ground.

“You were right the school is heavily guarded but why?”

“Uh, Ursula.”

“Hmm?” she replied to him. Ash then pointed over to the doors of the school and saw a pod.

“What is that?”

“That is one giant plant pod.”

“What’s it doing here?” Ash’s question was answer as the pod suddenly started moving a bit before opening its mouth. When it fully opened it released spores around itself before revealing the creature inside. It has needles all over its body.

“Is that a….

“A Cacturne? What the heck I thought they only live in the desert!?” Ash exclaimed. The soulless Cacturne body was a forest green color and had pixel patterns covering the upper half of its body and hat.

“I don’t think it matters anymore, remember soulless can pretty much go and live anywhere in the world since they bodies can adapt to the climate.” Ursula said as she pulled out her scythe and put into combat form and twirled it around before setting the of the blades into the ground.

“Okay so let’s take this thing down!” Ash shouted as he clicked his wrist gauntlets together before separating them. As they did, the blades withdrew and he got into a fighting stance.

Caturne shot out its arms as needles withdrew from its body aiming for the two. “Pin Missile!!” Ash shouted as he and Ursula jumped away from each other to dodge the incoming missiles. What they didn’t expect was the missiles to fly up in the air and aimed back at them.

“What the!?”

“They can heat-seek us?! Tch! Find Cover!!” Ursula shouted as they both ran.

Ash went into one of the broken windows of the school and jumped through crashing to the ground. He got and saw the missiles heading straight towards him. Quickly searching the room, he found a piece of a wood broken from the desk. He quickly put up the desk as a shield and was suddenly met with numerous vibrations as the missiles stabbed the plank. He then threw it to the far end of the classroom as it landed the plank exploded into few pieces.

“That was close.” He sighed in relief. He then attempted to run back to the window until the vines came and blocked the window keeping him inside.

“What the? Hey! Let me out!” He said as he cut off a few vines only for it to regenerate and block the exit again.

“The vines can regenerate!?” he thought inwardly. As he was about to slice through the vines again, he heard something move behind him. Turning quickly, he saw nothing but the door that was sealed……wide open as vines slipped away into the hallway.

“Where are they going?” he walked up to the door and peeked his head out into the dark hallways and saw the vines slither further away.

“Wherever this leads to I hope it can get me back to Ursula.” He said as he started walking down the hall not knowing where his destination would lead him to.

Back outside, Ursula was having a hard time dodging all the missiles aimed at her. She was jumping from one spot to the next trying to avoid them. She was almost out of breath, she was becoming exhausted. She then looked at the soulless Caturne and the pod behind it before quickly coming up with a plan.

She saw the missiles above her and started running towards the soulless. “Vanishing Locus!” she shouted as her speed tripled and dashed towards the Caturne as her body became a blur. The missiles suddenly became fast and followed the wind that Ursula left behind. Ursula then threw her scythe at the Caturne only for it to move out the way and dodge the incoming attack.

“Got ya!” Ursula mentally shouted as her scythe hit her intended target the plant pod. The blade pierced the pod staying impaled in the side as green juice spurted out of the live plant. Ursula then approached the plant phasing through it as she placed her foot on a large piece of rubble and jumped off it up high into the sky. The missiles head towards the pod and exploded on the impact sending the Cacturne into the sky as well.

Dust emerged blinding the Cacturne’s vision, taking this opportunity Ursula descended from the air and grabbed her scythe that also flew from the explosion. She spotted the soulless and gripped her scythe tightly before reaching it.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH” she approached the soulless and slashed right through it and landed gracefully on her feet. The soulless roared in agony before it’s body puffed up into a small cloud of smoke. Ursula turned around and saw a tiny green orb floating in midair.

“Well that was easy. Too easy.” She thought as she grabbed the orb and absorbed it as its energy faded into her body. Her own aura lighting up before quickly fading.

“Okay, now that that’s dealt with let’s go check out the school Ash.” She said only to receive no response. She then looked around and called out his name.

“Ash…..Ash!!” she shouted again only to receive silence. She was about to panic and call Sky and Korrina until she saw the doors to the school become clear as the vines guarding it withered and broke into pieces and fall apart. It looks like the pod from earlier was in control of the vines but it looks like just at the front door.

“Tch! I’ll have to worry about the soulless later right now I got to find Ash.” Ursula declared as she busted through the broken doors and ran inside the school.