Chapter 5 – The Graveyard of Kanto

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Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

'Please'-Pokédex voice

"Read"-Dialogues

'Review'-Thoughts/Telepathy

"Support"-Announcement

*- Small explanations are provided in the author's note.

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Chapter 5 – The Graveyard of Kanto

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The route from Cerulean city to Rock Tunnel is one of the least used roads in the Kanto region. But that was set to change in the coming years, as the Cerulean City has given permission for the construction of Battle Factory, a part of the Battle Frontier in the Kanto region, owned by an ultra-rich battle maniac named Scott.

Initially, Battle Factory was to be set up in the outskirts of Pewter City however, Cerulean City was successful in grabbing the project. Ash could see the huge building that was being constructed a few meters to the left of the route. Turning his eyes away from the massive structure that was being constructed, Ash continued his trek towards Rock Tunnel.

Most trainers never pass through Rock Tunnel, as it was a bit out of the way and the only major place it linked to Cerulean City was Lavender Town and even then, people preferred to go to Lavender from Saffron City, which was to the south of Cerulean City.

There was a reason behind the fact that Ash was traveling through this route, he needed a Ground-type or a Rock Type on his team to deal with the Electric Pokémon of the Vermillion City gym.

Additionally, this trip would also lead to Lavender Town, where he could catch a Ghost-type or a Dark-type to deal with the Psychic-type Pokémon used by Sabrina, the leader of the Saffron Gym.

Ash was brought out of his musings by a call from the right side of the road and a trainer, who looked to be around his age ran towards and stopped to catch his breath and said, "Hey, I'm Albus from Lavender Town, if you're not busy, I was hoping that we could have a battle"

"Sure, how about a one-on-one?" Ash asked.

He continued, "By the way, my name is Ash and I'm from Pallet Town"

"Nice to meet you Ash" Albus replied and continued, "one-on-one is fine with me, let's go that clearing," Albus said, pointing to the direction that he ran over from.

"I'll go first, go Machop," Albus said as he released his first Pokémon.

"Let's go Abra," Ash said as he released his Pokémon.

"Machop, charge in with a Brick Break" Albus commanded.

"Dodge with Teleport and use Confusion till it drops" Ash commanded.

Abra quickly teleported out of the way of the attack and blasted the Machop with Confusion attack till it was out cold.

"Return Machop, you were amazing," Albus said as he returned his Pokémon.

He then turned to Ash and said, "Thanks for the battle, I've been looking forward to having a battle ever since I left Lavender Town"

"That's alright," Ash replied.

He then asked, with curiosity evident in his tone, "What Pokémon did you see while you were in the Rock Tunnel?"

"There are a lot of Zubat, Sandshrew, Diglett, and Geodude in the tunnel" Albus replied.

"Did you see or hear any other Pokémon in the Tunnel?" Ash asked him.

"I didn't see any other Pokémon, but I did hear an Onix roar in the cave" he replied.

"Alright, thanks for the information, but I have to get going," Ash said to his opponent, who just nodded back.

Ash continued his journey towards Rock Tunnel and after a few minutes, he finally reached his destination.

The entrance to the tunnel was huge and he couldn't see much further than a few feet from the entrance due to the darkness. Ash proceeded to release his Pokémon and took his torch from the bag and entered the tunnel.

He then turned to his Pokémon and said, "I want all of you to keep an eye out as there is a chance that wild Pokémon might attack."

He continued, "Abra, I want you to scan the minds of Pokémon as we walk and let us know if any of them are getting ready to attack us"

They all nodded and continued walking deeper into the tunnel guided by the light from the torch, Ash could see many Sandshrew and Geodude scurry away as they saw the light.

As they moved deeper into the tunnel, they started encountering more aggressive Pokémon like Zubat and Geodude that had to be chased away by his Pokémon.

They soon reached a junction, with a path to the right that led to Lavender Town, while the one on the left led deeper into the tunnel and the path straight in front of him led to the old Kanto Power Plant. Based on his Pokédex, he had been inside the tunnel for nearly 30 minutes, so he decided to take the path that led to the lower levels of the tunnel.

He then turned to his Pokémon and said, "It seems like we have to go deeper into the tunnel"

Then, turning to Abra, he said, "Remember this spot, once we find a teammate, we can save time if you could teleport me back here"

'Understood' Abra replied.

They took the path to the right and followed it for a while and soon enough, they were jumped by a Graveler that was blasted back with a Water Pulse attack from Seadra.

"Good work Seadra" Ash praised her for her quick action and seeing the Graveler rolling away, they rushed away from the scene, in case it went to collect backup.

Ash and company continued walking deeper into the tunnel, only to stop in their tracks on hearing the roar of an Onix that seemed to be above their level. He had no desire to tangle with an Onix in an underground tunnel and quickly returned both Elekid and Seadra to their Pokéballs before they could react and quickly picked up Abra and said, "We are going to go deeper, but if we run into that Onix, I want you to Teleport us to the path I told you to remember"

Abra just nodded and Ash slowly made his way deeper into the tunnel.

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Time-Skip: A few hours later

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Ash was annoyed, he was back in the uppermost level after Abra saved him from the Onix after it tried to kill him by collapsing the tunnel. With a sigh of frustration, he took the path in front of him and after a few minutes, he found himself outside the tunnel.

Taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, he took the path in front of him, which led to Lavender Town. After walking for some time, he decided to take a break and moved off the main path towards the forest that bordered the route on the left side and released all three of his Pokémon and said, "I was not able to find a new member for the team. Let's have some food and take a small break"

They all ate the food that Ash had procured for them before setting out early in the morning and after a short break, they resumed their journey to Lavender Town.

As the sun started to set, Ash finally made it to Lavender Town and the first thing he noticed as he entered the town was the Pokémon Tower to his immediate left. There was an eerie-looking light purple-colored mist covering the top half of the tower, which seemed to be growing thicker with each passing second. He noticed the Pokémon center to his immediate right and quickly made his to the Pokémon center.

Ash made his way to Nurse in charge of the Pokémon center and said, "Hello, my name is Ash and I would like to book a room for tonight."

She quickly checked her computer and replied, "Sure, we have a few rooms left, can you please give me your Pokédex?"

He took out the Pokédex and handed it over to the nurse, who used it to book a room for him and proceeded to hand over the Pokédex and the key to the room that he just booked.

"Thank you," he said as he accepted them and quickly made his way to the room marked on the key and quickly entered inside the room and decided to wait until nightfall to look for a ghost Pokémon to add to his team.

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Time-Skip: A few hours later

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After having dinner from the cafeteria, Ash exited the Pokémon center and found that the town was absolutely quiet and there was no one out in the town. He then looked at the Pokémon tower and noted that it was completely cloaked by a strange unmoving mist that made the tower look even more mysterious in the night.

He could hear the occasional barks of Houndour and Houndoom as he passed various houses in the town as he made his way to the Pokémon tower. Ash finally made his way through the thick mist and found himself in front of a large door. He then proceeded to release Abra from his Pokéball and said, "Keep an eye out, we are looking for a ghost Pokémon that's willing to join us"

Abra nodded and they entered the tower by gently pushing open the door, only to find themselves in a round white hall with rows of black tombstones, which were separated by a narrow path that led to the stairs at the edge of the hall. The room was filled with thick mist and there were lit candles in front of some of the tombstones. As they walked past the tombstones, Ash noted that they were more than 200 years old. He continued walking towards the stairs with a gut feeling that something was watching each step that he took.

Ash jumped back in shock as a snickering Gastly floated up from where he was about to put his next foot. Abra just glared at the Gastly as it continued floating up and they continued walking as the room rang with loud, obnoxious cackles. He finally reached the stairs and started climbing the stairs, only for the Gastly to pull the same trick once again, only to be met with an unimpressed stare from Ash, which prompted Gastly to huff in indignation and float away once again.

They continued climbing the stairs and reached the next floor, in which the mist was so thick that Ash could barely see Abra who was walking right in front of him.

Abra suddenly indicated Ash to stop, who saw a small figure approaching them from the mist, which was revealed to be a Golett, which suddenly stopped in front of them with its arms crossed.

"What does it want Abra?" Ash asked his Pokémon.

'He's mad that we hurt Gastly's feelings and he wants to fight. If we lose, we have to leave the tower' Abra replied.

"Are you willing to join us if we beat you?" Ash asked the Golett.

Golett thought for some time and nodded, agreeing to Ash's proposal and the mist cleared away, revealing that they were surrounded by Ghost Pokémon.

Ash could see various ghost Pokémon like Gastly, Haunter, Misdreavus, Shuppet, Duskull watching them as Ash took out Seadra's Pokéball in preparation for the battle.

"Seadra, I choose you," Ash said as he released his choice for the battle, while the Golett looked unimpressed at his choice, as its fists started crackling with electricity.

"We'll start, Seadra use Aurora Beam" Ash commanded.

The Golett suddenly glowed silver and started spinning, deflecting the attack, and started charging towards Seadra.

"Catch it with Whirlpool and slow it down" Ash reacted.

The Golett was captured with the Whirlpool attack and slowed down with opposing spin using liberal water manipulation. Golett tried to free itself by using Thunder Punch but was instead electrocuted by its attack as it was surrounded by water.

"Seadra, dispel the attack and gently lower it to the ground" Ash commanded.

He then took out a Pokéball and tossed it towards the downed Golett, the Pokéball rocked from side-to-side for a few seconds before coming to rest, indicating that the Pokémon was captured successfully.

Ash picked up the Pokéball and a Gastly slowly levitated towards him.

"What does it want Abra?" Ash asked his Pokémon, seeing the ghost approaching them.

'He wants to say goodbye to his friend' Abra replied.

Ash released Golett from its Pokéball and used a Potion he had on hand to heal its serious injuries.

He looked on as his newest Pokémon said goodbye to the Gastly and the other ghost Pokémon. Golett turned towards him and nodded, showing that he was ready to leave and Ash proceeded to return Golett and Seadra to their respective Pokéballs.

"Abra, we are done, let's get back to the Pokémon center," Ash said turning to his Pokémon, only to be interrupted by a deep voice.

"Well done kid, you managed to capture one of the most elusive ghosts in the tower, one that we have been searching for quite a long time. You're not leaving till our business is concluded"

"I'm not willing to trade my Pokémon," Ash said as he turned towards the direction of the sound.

"Good for you, but who said anything about trading?" was the reply as a green-haired man wearing all black stepped into the light. Ash froze on seeing a large blood red-colored 'R' on his chest.

He continued with a smirk, "The name's Proton Kid, and of all the Pokémon in this tower, why did you have to go and capture the one Pokémon I was looking forward to personally gift the boss with?"

He then proceeded to release a Golbat and Weezing and said, "Nothing personal kid, the boss just loves Ground-type Pokémon, and unfortunately, you have something that I want"

Ash quickly released Elekid and Seadra from their respective Pokéballs in response to Proton's action.

"I'm glad you decided to make this interesting kid" Proton said as gazed at Ash's Pokémon.

He continued, "Quite a collection you've got kid, I'll be happy to take them off of your hands"

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Author's Note

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I have decided to stop using nicknames as it will get difficult to remember what stage each Pokémon is at in each chapter. I will edit the previous chapters to remove the nicknames.

I'm sorry that it took so long to post this chapter, I had rewritten this chapter at least five times before I found this version to be satisfactory.

The first draft had Ash catching a Rhyhorn and Golett; there was no need for two ground types on the team. Then, it was a Rhyhorn and a Honedge; Aron and Litwick, etc. and I decided that there was no need to add Rhyhorn or Aron at this stage. Hence, Ash didn't run into a Rhyhorn or an Aron in the Rock tunnel and I finally decided on sticking with just Golett.

If you need any clarification about something, leave a comment and I'll get back to you in the next chapter.

I hope all of you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought of this chapter in your comments.

You can support me on [https://www.patreó/sandboxcreations]

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Thank you.

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