Ash walked through Viridian City uneasily. He had been driven to go for a walk due to a bad feeling in his stomach. He felt like something really bad was about to happen to him.

"Help!" Somebody cried.

Ash stiffened. He knew that voice. It was his father's.

He ran. He tried to reach his father in time, he really did, but it was too late. He skidded around the bend just as a shot rang out and his father fell to the ground.

Ash stood for a moment, taking in what had just happened, as the murderers turned and saw him.

A bullet narrowly missed him as he began to run for his life.

Three hours later…

Iris and Cilan were stopped by Nurse Joy as they went to look for their friend.

"No going out. It's past Curfew." She told them.

"But our friend is still out there. He went for a walk and never came back." Cilan protested.

"No exceptions. You can look for him in the morning." Nurse Joy said strictly.

"Yes ma'am." Iris and Cilan chorused. They went back up to their room.

"I hope Ash is okay. He said he'd be back in a little bit, but he's been gone for three whole hours." Iris worried.

"I'm sure he's all right." Cilan assured her.

Meanwhile…

Ash finally stopped to catch his breath. He'd been running flat-out for hours on an adrenaline rush, but now he was exhausted. He looked up. The lights of Pallet Town sparkled nearby.

He felt a little guilty. He had accidentally left Iris and Cilan behind in Viridian City. He would have to call them in the morning to apologize.

He walked the rest of the way. There was a van parked in front of his house. Scared, he started running.

As he reached the porch steps, he heard a gunshot from inside. He flung the front door open and saw them. They had beaten him home. He trembled as he stared at his dead mother.

He turned and ran once more, his exhaustion slowing him down. Maybe he'd be safe at the Oak Corral with all his pokemon protecting him?

A bullet hit him in the shoulder. He hit the ground hard.

As his eyes closed, he caught sight of Pikachu coming to his rescue.

Meanwhile…

Tracey looked up from washing the dishes. Lightning lit up the cloudless sky not far from Professor Oak's lab.

"Professor Oak!" He called. "Something weird is going on!"

The professor thudded down the stairs. "What is it?" Tracey pointed wordlessly at the lightning. "I see… I'll go check it out. It's obviously a pokemon. Stay here."

He ran to the scene of the crime, but wasn't seen because the criminals were distracted by Pikachu. He put Ash's head in his lap and whipped out his pokegear.

The police and paramedics arrived instantaneously. The murderers were pushed into a police car and taken to the police station to await trial.

Ash was put in an ambulance to be taken to a hospital so that his wound could be treated more thoroughly. Professor Oak and Pikachu went with Ash.

Tracey was outside with, to Professor Oak's surprise, Misty when the ambulance passed by. They both look worried. Professor Oak made a mental note to call them later.

An hour later…

"It's Professor Oak." Tracey told Misty, picking up the phone. "Professor Oak? Are you okay? We saw that ambulance go by and got worried."

"I'm aware. Let's just say, it's a good thing you saw that lightning. I found Ash at the scene. He was hurt, but not too badly. Can you go tell his mother to come here? You and Misty can come too. Thanks. Bye." Professor Oak made the conversation brief.

Tracey was in too much shock to answer. The phone buzzed, signaling that the other person had hung up.

"Tracey? What did he say? What's wrong?" Misty asked.

"It… it was Ash in that ambulance. Professor Oak said he… wasn't hurt too bad. I… I don't believe that. He wants us to tell… tell Mrs. Ketchum. That won't be… won't be fun." Tracey stammered.

Misty turned pale. "Ash… is…"

"Let's go!" Tracey interrupted. "The sooner we get done telling his mom, the better."

They walked down to the Ketchums' house together. The door was wide open. Both kids screamed at what they saw inside.

The next day…

"I just received notice from my cousin in Pallet Town." Officer Jenny told Iris and Cilan. "Your friend is in the hospital there."

"In the hospital?" Iris choked. Cilan just gaped at the officer.

"I'm afraid so. Poor kid. Anyway, Pallet Town is of here. Now hurry along. I have issues to deal with." Officer Jenny shooed them away.

Outside, Iris turned to Cilan.

"I say we get there pronto." She said. Cilan just nodded. They hurried off.

Meanwhile…

"Thanks for helping me with my chores, Misty." Tracey commented.

"No problem. This way, we can go see Ash sooner." Misty replied.

Tracey stopped what he was doing for a minute. "How do you think he'll react when he hears his mother is dead? Professor Oak freaked out about it."

Misty stopped as well. "I think he'll be upset, and he won't get over it for a while. After all, he loved her very much."

They both went back to work. The pokemon felt their nervousness, which made things all that much harder.

Finally, the chores were done, and Misty and Tracey went to the hospital to visit Ash.

Professor Oak met them in the lobby and brought them up to Ash's hospital room.

Ash moaned in his sleep.

"The doctor said all his body energy has been used up somehow and the injury made things worse." Professor Oak explained. "He won't be waking up for a while."

"Pika…" Pikachu's ears drooped. He was sad that he hadn't been able to protect his trainer.

"Pikachu, you did everything you could. It was thanks to your lightning that Professor Oak went out to investigate and found Ash. You basically saved his life." Tracey assured him, petting him on the head.

"Pika…" Pikachu jumped on the bed and cuddled up against Ash, hoping to comfort him by being there. Tracey gently took Ash's arms and positioned them so that they were holding Pikachu.

"He looks so peaceful." Misty whispered. "So… innocent."

"Well, he is innocent. He never did anything to deserve this." Professor Oak responded.

"Yeah…" Tracey muttered.

"Mommy… Daddy…" Ash mumbled.

Professor Oak, Tracey, and Misty sat down. They would be there a while and there was no need to stand the whole time.

"Let's just hope it's not worse than we think." Professor Oak murmured.

Two days later…

"Look! That must be Pallet Town!" Cilan called to Iris.

"Finally! Let's hurry up and find Ash!" Iris called back. She then caught up to Cilan and they headed down into the town together.

"Strange. Why is everyone wearing black?" Cilan whispered to his friend. "Did someone die?"

"To quite an extent. The whole Ketchum family was murdered a couple of nights ago." A man said, stopping them short. "Everyone is mourning them."

"Did you say the Ketchum family?" Iris stammered. "Oh no… Ash…"

"Rumor has it that the youngest member of the family survived with a shot wound and a coma. The police are supposedly watching him twenty-four seven." The man continued. "There are only three people allowed past: the Cerulean City gym leader, Professor Oak, and Professor Oak's assistant. There's no guarantee any of this is true though. They're only rumors."

"Thank you for telling us, sir. We appreciate it." Cilan told him. "Come on, Iris." Cilan led Iris to a small corner where they could talk privately.

"Maybe we can get past security if we find one of those three people. If we can get past security, we might be able to find out more." Iris suggested.

"Good idea." Cilan responded. "Let's start looking."

An hour later…

Tracey hurried towards the Oak Corral. He was late in feeding the pokemon. He had to hurry.

Suddenly, somebody stepped in his path. He screeched to a stop. He took a step to the left, attempting to go around the person, but the person stepped back into his path and pulled out a gun.

Tracey froze. "Help!" He shouted.

"Yell one more time and I shoot." The person threatened.

Tracey gulped. What now? He started to back up. He bumped right into another person, who grabbed him by the arms and pricked him with something.

The first person quietly told Tracey to turn around and start walking. Tracey did. A van came into view after a couple of minutes. Two more people, a boy and a girl, were standing by the van. For some reason, they looked younger than Tracey.

"Get out of our way." The second person ordered.

The boy threw a pokeball. "Go! Pansage! Use Bullet Seed!"

A pokemon jumped out of the girl's hair. "Fraxure! Use Dragon Rage!"

Tracey braced himself for the attack, but it hit his captors instead. The girl grabbed his wrist.

"Come on!" She yelled.

Not really sure what was going on, but feeling he could trust them, Tracey followed the girl and the boy as they tried and succeeded in outrunning the criminals who had been trying to kidnap him.

"Thank you for saving me. I'm Tracey. May I ask your names?" Tracey said.

"I'm Cilan and this is Iris. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." The boy, Cilan, answered.

"It's nice to meet you." The girl, Iris, responded. "We heard your cry for help, so we tried our best."

"Thanks for that. Come with me to Professor Oak's lab. We can talk more after I feed the pokemon." Tracey offered.

An hour later...

"So you're trying to find out more about what happened to the Ketchums?" Tracey asked.

"That's right. We're worried our friend Ash is… you know…" Iris paused. "So can you help us?"

"Ash is still alive, but he's badly wounded. It's thanks to Pikachu we found him in time. We suspect Ash might already know his mother is dead. We don't know if he knows about anyone else in his family, though." Tracey told her and Cilan. "The group that hurt Ash was caught, but we suspect they weren't the only ones participating in the operation. There's no way that one group could have killed the whole family in one night. I still have to wonder why. Why did they murder them? Wasn't there another way?"

"Maybe it was for revenge. It's possible that the group was angry at one member of the family and decided to kill all of them." Cilan suggested.

Suddenly, Tracey fainted.

"Tracey!" Iris screamed. "Cilan! Call 911!"

The paramedics got there in the blink of an eye and loaded Tracey into an ambulance. Iris and Cilan begged to be allowed to come as well.

"Go alert Professor Oak." One of the paramedics told a nurse when they got to the hospital. The nurse hurried away.

Iris and Cilan followed the paramedics until they were allowed no further. They were worried sick about their new friend.

After a few minutes, Professor Oak came running. A doctor stepped out of the room they'd taken Tracey into.

"Somebody injected a harmful chemical into him." He explained. "The child will be all right, but he's fallen into a coma."

Iris and Cilan looked at each other, knowing who had done it.

"Oh no… What do I do now?" Professor Oak groaned. "Poor Tracey."

"I suggest you call his parents and let them know." The doctor said.

Professor Oak nodded, his mind turning back to the Ketchum tragedy.

Meanwhile…

As Misty watched, she was sure she saw Ash stir a little. She leaned forward.

Ash moaned, but didn't wake up.

Misty was disappointed. She had been sure he was going to wake up that time.

There was the sudden sound of breaking glass. Someone had broken through the window. More people followed.

They barricaded the door quickly and grabbed Misty, who screamed, and Ash. They shoved Pikachu into a rubber cage before he could thunderbolt anyone. Misty's Azurill went in a cage as well.

Out through the window and down to a van they went. As the kidnappers drove away, their colleagues tied up Ash and Misty (although Ash didn't really need tying up).

They were prisoners.

To be continued…