The Humble Beginnings of a Fanfic

(If the poll is down when you read this, Diddy won it, Metaknight second, Sagat third).

Chapter 1:

Its only logical to a trainer that your first Pokemon would always be your most valuable to you. It’d know your personality, your soul, and would’ve been trained for years. Its strength would be comparable only to the most legendary of Pokemon, or another trainer’s first. Selos had abundance of Pokemon of all types, from the sandy beaches through to the harsh deserts, and its League, the Corundom League, had thrived through it. The gyms were spread through the many cities, but they were also conglomerated in the capital city, Azure. With the amount of gyms in Azure, it was possible to qualify for the League’s finals without ever having left.

Cody Brannon had never been in necessity much, with his family living a pompous life in a mansion just outside Azure. The mansion sat on top of the cliff, looking down into the city in the gaping crater below. While the city was entirely protected from wild Pokemon, the mansion was partially exposed. That wasn’t a problem for Cody’s father, an ex-trainer, as it gave him some time to be nostalgic about the old days, but when he was at work it did sometimes get dangerous when he was a child. Now, though, he’d moved on and his father had retired, leaving the mansion protected most of the time, but it was thanks to those wild Pokemon that Cody had gotten interested in the same dream his father had.

It was an empty night when it happened. No clouds in the sky, and no wind to speak of. Only the moon shining down on the windswept plains. Most of the problems had come from herds of Tauros knocking down fences and damaging the mansion’s gardens, but this night had a mischievous tang to it. A few days before, though, an abandoned house further out into the plains had burnt down, leaving a few of its ‘inhabitants’ homeless. With nowhere to go, they followed the wind down into the city and found the mansion.

Cody had been the first to spot one of them, while his mother was too caught up in the book she was reading. A small flash of shadow swept by the door, breaking through the fireplace light. ‘Mum...I saw something move’ He whispered, tapping her on the shoulder. She nudged him away, without responding or so much as looking up from the book. The shadow fluttered by again, going off in the opposite direction. Its shape was distorted by the crackling of the fire, to a point of inderteminability. Cody looked at the halfway, biting his leap fearfully, before shrugging and running off down the hallway in chase.

The door was creaking at the end of the hallway, with the light from the candles inside being devoured by an unknown hunger. Cody pushed the door through slightly, muttering a stuttered 'Hello?' to the room, to no response. As he stepped in, the door slammed shut behind him, the lock clicking. Laughter burst out from the room's denizens, who arose from the ground to greet Cody. A few Haunters, a Gengar, a Duskull and a Mismagius all rose up, with the Gengar and Haunters mucking around with each other. The Duskull was the most serious of the few, showing no real signs of joy from traumatizing Cody. The ghost Pokemon in the area weren't exactly just pranksters, and a few in Azure believed some murders had been commited by a serial murderer Gengar.

Cody, now curled up into a ball on the ground near the door in fear, started to trickle out a few tears. At this, the Duskull started to seemingly talk to the Gengar, interrupting its laughter. The Gengar's expression grew more and more annoyed as the Duskull continued its moans, and eventually the Gengar shot a ball of darkness at the Duskull, knocking it out and blowing the candle out. As Cody thought the worst would happen, a beam of light shown out from the corner of the room. The band of ghosts stopped as the newly formed Dusclops rose up, slamming a blow into the Gengar before it could attack. It slammed into the wall at a hurtful pace, but gathered enough energy to fire off another ball of energy. Dusclops flickered in and out, dodging the ball, and slamming a punch into Gengar, knocking it out.

Before the other ghosts could react, Dusclops put its hands up and began to talk in its moan-like cry once more. The other Pokemon stopped in their actions, and carried the unconscious Gengar out through the walls, and unlocked the door. The Dusclops hovered towards Cody, leaving him unsure of what to do. As he stood up to open the door and run for his life, the Dusclops dropped to the floor and knelt before him. Cody just froze, still panting in deep breaths. The Dusclops hovered through the floor, quickly returning with one of Cody's father's empty pokeballs, resuming its kneeling position. Cody picked up the Pokeball, before whispering 'Do...do you want me to catch you?" to the Pokemon. As it nodded, Cody glanced back through the door to make sure neither his mother nor father were watching. The hallway was empty, not even disturbed the sound of the fireplace anymore. Cody threw the Pokeball at the Dusclops, which it willingly went into, with what appeared to almost be a smile.

(This is definitely not a cop-out of a post.)