The Light That Shines

Description: When an ordinary practical joke in the Hall of Origin backfires in the most unexpected of ways, it's up to a deity of time, a deity of space, a cynical basilisk, and a teenage boy to find a way to stop it before it's too late, and he becomes stuck like this forever.

~Prologue~

…Oops.

An ordinary day in the Hall of Origin…

"Hmm…" Giratina hummed idly, scanning an issue of the Sinnoh Science Journal. Only he, Arceus, Palkia, and Dialga were present in the Hall at this time of day.

"Incoming!" Palkia exclaimed, and the ghost dragon quickly raised up a wing to deflect whatever idiotic prank the space deity had thought up now. Living here, you come to expect these as daily occurrences-

But not what happened next, as the attack-a Spatial Rend-bounced off of his wing, smashing through a nearby window and streaking off into the distance.

The ghost looked back at the space deity, who was whistling and twiddling his claws sheepishly. "Eheheheh…oops?" He commented apologetically. The basilisk just rolled his eyes, returning to his magazine.

"Let's just hope that that doesn't do too much dam-" *CRICK...CR-K-K…CRAKOOM!* A loud crumbling noise could be heard in the distance-in other words, Palkia's attack grazed the side of Mt. Silver and sheared off about a hundred metric tons of rock from the massive mountain, tumbling into the forest below with an thunderous crash. "-You've really done it this time, Palkia. You do know I'm going to have to let Arceus know about this, right?"

"Yes, Giratina." He replied, rubbing his arm at his side. "I'm sorry, Giratina."

"And stop doing that. It's hardly befitting of a god of space, and it makes you sound like an eight-year-old being berated by his parents." He scolded sharply. "Now, who's going to tell him?"

"No need." Arceus interrupted, trotting over to the chair with a stern glare on His features that generally meant someone-almost always Palkia, Raikou, Mew, and/or Latias-was in very deep trouble. "But there is nothing even I can do to stop an attack of that magnitude now that it has covered such a distance."

"So you're just going to let it keep going until it possibly levels a major human city?" Giratina exclaimed incredulously.

"The blame of this incident falls squarely on Palkia's shoulders, not on my own." He intoned sternly.

"How will we know when it stops?" The space deity inquired curiously.

"An earthshakingly loud-" Giratina began, stopping and blinking as he noticed something in the distance.

A massive flash, eventually followed by a faint, high pitched "Shing!" "…Something like that?"

Meanwhile, in Pallet Town…

Ash Ketchum's Viewpoint

I whistled cheerily, strolling toward Oak's pokemon laboratory with my friends May, Max, Brock, Misty, and Dawn in tow, and Pikachu on my shoulder.

"Wow! Look at all of the pokemon!" Max gushed, having never seen such a diverse variety of species in such a small area.

"So this 'Oak' guy…he's friendly, right? Not a crotchety old badger or anything like that?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Nah; he's probably the nicest old man you'll ever meet." I replied reassuringly.

"It's good to be back home, isn't it Ash?" Misty asked, cradling an Azurill in her arms-much like she'd done with Togepi before she released it.

I breathed in the pristine beachfront air, sighing happily. "Definitely. And after we've visited Oak to see how everyone's doing, we can all go over to my mom's house for the best food you'll ever eat."

Brock's shoulders sagged. "Aww, man…"

"Don't worry, Brock; as far as camping food goes, you're still…on…top…?" Max defended, trailing off as he noticed a vividly purple streak of light hurtling through the sky.

"Hey, uh…Ash?" The boy asked timidly. When I turned to look at him, I noticed he was facing away from me and pointing up at the sky.

"What…what is that?" Dawn asked slowly, squinting as the light became brighter and brighter. Pikachu seemed to recognize what it was and scampered off as fast as he could, frantically issuing his cry all the while.

"If pokemon are running away from it, what do you think we should be doing?" Max suggested.

"Whatever it is, it's going way too fast to outrun! Everyone, find cover!" Brock warned.

Everyone else managed to get behind something, but by the time I had reached the edge of the road, a spatial distortion-apparently caused by the strange light-dragged me towards it and began to twist around the matter of my body. It felt like I was being pressed through a potato masher, and the next thing I knew-

*FSSSHIIIIIING!* There was a tremendous flash…

And I was lying in the middle of the road, unconscious. Nothing had been damaged-with the exception of a few smoking, blackened leaves on the nearby trees from the blindingly bright flash that the strange projectile had emitted on impact.

My friends slowly appeared out of their cover, as Pikachu practically dragged the Professor out to where I was.

"What? Pikachu, what is going on? What was that flash? Why are you even here?" The man asked frantically, stopping in his tracks as he noticed me lying in the street. "A-Ash? And all of his friends, too?"

"We were going to give you and Delia a surprise visit." Misty explained. "But it looks like something had other plans."

"Pi pika pikachu pika?! (Can't any of you see that that was a Spatial Rend attack?" The electric mouse exclaimed incredulously, before sweatdropping as nobody paid any attention to him whatsoever. "Pi, pika…pi pika pikachu…(Oh, right…humans can't understand pokemon…)"

"Whatever the cause, we need to get him medical attention as soon as possible! Help me carry him into the non-pokemon treatment room!" Oak ordered rapidly, picking up my legs. Everyone stared at him, even Pikachu.

"It's typically just for accidental poisonings and paralysis, but we need to get him out of the street, so we may as well take him inside!" Brock nodded in affirmation and picked me up by the head and neck. May, Misty, and Dawn shared my midsection, and Pikachu just rode on top of me.

The professor opened the door, and in no time at all they had already gotten me up the stairs and into the bedroom. (Yes, Oak actually called the guest bedroom the "non-pokemon treatment room.")

As they put me in the soft bed and quietly exited the room, none of them seemed to notice my skin slowly turning a deep black…

The cliffhangers begin.

So yeah, I basically had an idea for this, and just ran with it. You'll see what's happening to Ash…next chapter.

Yeah, I know that this has probably already been done in a similar fashion-and TF as a premise itself approximately eight hundred sixty-three thousand, four hundred thirty-seven times, give or take-in other words, done far beyond death, but I'm not going to change it. And with any luck, it won't be a copy of all the other stuff out there-

At least, not precisely.

Until then, this is RCTM, punching out for the day.

-~RCTM~-