Pokemon World Disaster

Beware the Shadow Beasts

Okay, I'm just going to go on a quick rant before I get this chapter started. So this morning I woke up with a massive headache, but of course my dad wouldn't let me skip school. I went to the nurse to get something for it, and she gave me a flipping cracker. Tell me, in what universe does a cracker help cure headaches? Needless to say my head still feels like someone dropped a ton of bricks on it, so this chapter might not be as good as the rest.

The gang arrived in Pewter City the next afternoon at about one o'clock. Greninja was used to flying on Charizard by now and didn't have to grab hold of the large orange lizard Pokemon when he decided to dive straight down after Ash called for the descent. Of course, his trainer still had a more graceful landing.
"Come on, the gym is just this way," Ash said, pointing due east after recalling Pidgeot and Charizard. "Let's get going and maybe we can get there before two-thirty."
"Why the rush?" Greninja asked curiously.
"Well, we still have a lot of people to round up," Ash explained, but Greninja felt as though there was something he wasn't telling him. His trainer was standing with his shoulders tense and there was a hint of apprehension in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
He decided to pursue that thought. "Is something wrong, Ash?"
Ash sighed and turned his head to look into the froglike Pokemon's eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this," he admitted. "I feel like something might have happened at the Pewter gym."
"Like what?" Pikachu asked.
"Like what?" Lillie said as well, looking a bit frightened.
Ash shook his head. "I don't know...but I think we should get going now," he replied. "Come on, let's pick up the pace a little."
They started walking even faster than they had been before. Greninja had no trouble keeping up with his trainer, but Lillie kept falling behind. He realized that Ash must have been really worried about something; otherwise he would have stopped occasionally to let Lillie catch up.
"Ash...can...you...slow...down?" Lillie panted, clutching her sides in pain. Ash finally stopped, albeit reluctantly.
"I'm sorry, Lillie. I just want to get there quickly," he said apologetically. Greninja patted his shoulder comfortingly.
"Don't worry. We'll deal with whatever's there when we get there," he said reassuringly. Ash nodded, looking a little happier now.
"Yeah, you're right," he agreed. Much to Lillie's obvious relief, he slowed down enough after that to allow her to keep up without looking as though she had just run a triple marathon.
"Thanks, Greninja," she whispered, keeping her voice low.
"You're welcome," the frog-ninja Pokemon answered. Of course she couldn't understand him like Ash could, but she nodded and smiled nonetheless.
At two-thirty five, they finally arrived at the Pewter City gym. As soon as they entered, however, Greninja saw that Ash had been right to be apprehensive. There wasn't a single living soul in sight, despite the fact that there had been no note telling challengers that the gym leader was away. On top of that, there was also the fact that the lights had been left on.
"You know, I'm starting to think you were right, Ash," Lillie said, looking around worriedly.
"Let's have a look around," Ash suggested. "Greninja, help me search the gym for any hint of suspicious activity-besides the fact that Brock has mysteriously disappeared without a trace and left the lights on."
"All right, Ash," Greninja said seriously. Ash nodded and turned to Lillie.
"Lillie, I need you to keep an eye out. If anyone that looks like they might be trouble comes in, alert us," he ordered. Lillie nodded, looking unusually grave.
"You can count on me, Ash," she said determinedly.
Greninja followed Ash to the back of the gym, where he immediately spotted something that made his insides squirm. A small pool of dried blood was on the floor, along with a piece of yellow paper.
"Ash..." he said slowly, staring at the paper. "I think we might have found the problem..."
Ash turned around from where he'd been inspecting the walls. His eyes widened when he took sight of the dried blood and note. He picked up the note, read it, and paled visibly.
"Ash, are you okay?" Greninja asked worriedly, instinctively latching his arm around his trainer's shoulders in case he keeled over. "You look a little pale."
"Read the note," Ash whispered. He looked frightened, which scared the frog Pokemon a little. Ash was never scared, so whatever was in the note must have been extremely terrifying. His webbed hands shaking, Greninja took the note from his trainer and looked over it with his own eyes.
Beware the Shadow Beasts, and stop if you value your lives.

"There's no other explanation. They know what we're up to," Ash said gravely.
After Greninja and Ash had found the note, the group had decided to leave the gym in case the Shadow Beasts decided to come back. Greninja kept an eye on his trainer, who was pacing back and forth aggressively. He hadn't seen him so worked up over anything before, and it was pretty terrifying.
"How can you tell?" Lillie asked fearfully.
"Well, don't you think it's a bit strange that there just happened to be an abduction at the very gym we were planning to check up on and that whoever did this left a note telling someone to stop what they were doing?" Ash asked rhetorically. "Why else would they leave a note like that unless they knew we were coming to get Brock?"
As much as Greninja hated to admit it, Ash had a valid point. It was entirely too convenient that Pewter City gym had been attacked, and judging by the look of the blood pool, not too long before they had arrived. But the creepy note was the real giveaway.
"What do you want to do, Ash?" he asked, hoping to calm the raven-haired boy a little. Much to his relief, it worked.
"First, we need to search the forest for Brock," Ash replied authoritatively. "We'll be able to cover more ground if we split up, so let's do that. Remember, Greninja, Lillie, if you run into any Shadow Beasts, get yourselves out of there. Lillie, I'm going to give you Charizard's Pokeball. If you need to make an escape, fly to Hoenn. That's our next pit stop."
Lillie took Charizard's Pokeball. "But what about you?" she asked.
"I've still got Pidgeot. I should be fine," Ash said reassuringly.
"But Ash-" Greninja started to protest, but he was cut off.
"I need you to trust me on this, Greninja, and get yourselves out of danger without worrying about me," he said sternly. "Besides, I'll be fine. Nothing to worry about."
Before Greninja could protest again, Ash turned around and ran into the forest. Lillie followed him more slowly, shaking her head slightly.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to trust him," Greninja muttered.
But no matter what he did, he couldn't get the memory of his dream of finding Ash's body in the middle of the forest out of his head.