The Real Story of How Maple Ketchup Helped Jerry Cherry Discover Unicorns and Fight God | P2 | S3

Pak-a-mon trainer Jerald Cherry regales a group of children with exploits of his adventurous youth, and the great rivalry which defined his life.Story by Justin ChurchNarrated by Joe MorinForeword and Afterword by Joe MorinEdited by Joe MorinTHE PROMPTA fairy works for the Department of Mythical Creature Conservation and discovers unicorns are real.THE STORYThe Real Story of How Maple Ketchup Helped Jerry Cherry Discover Unicorns and Fight GodBy Justin Church, Narrated by: Joe MorinAn Elderly fairy sits down in a rocking chair holding a book. He is surrounded by a crowd of children sitting cross-legged on the floor.“Now, you all know the story of how Maple Ketchup discovered Unicorns, fought god and became the most famous Pak-a-mon trainer around, but today Children I will be reading to you my new book. It is called The Real Story of How Maple Ketchup Helped Jerry Cherry Discover Unicorns and Fight God. By Sir Doctor Professor Director Jerald Cherry PHD”The children all clap and cheer as SIr Jerald, otherwise known as Jerry Cherry the Fairy, opens the book.Chapter 1: Maple Finally finished his paperwork.In Pellet town’s office for the Department of Mythical Creature Conservation, a 20 year-old Maple Ketchup was sitting at a desk in the dark back corner, with a single light to read by. Maple checked off a final box on the sheet he had in front of him, and placed the page on top of the stack of paper on the floor which reached the height of his desk. Maple shouted out “Professor Cherry, I’m done.” An older fairy passed out at a tipped over desk surrounded by beer bottles groaned.“By the way, this isn’t me, that’s my grandfather who’s also called professor Cherry, this was a long time ago, I show up later.”Maple stood up from his desk and walked over to the passed out Professor. “I’ll just leave the paperwork beside my desk for you, and before you ask, I triple checked, all the forms are completed.” The professor rolled over and groaned again. Maple took that as an acknowledgment and gathered his bag and walked out the door. Outside, he looked at the stable the unicorn he discovered had been staying for the four years it took him to fill out the paperwork. The unicorn was dead. “Dammit” Maple sighed, collapsed to the ground, curled into a ball and cried like a little bi-“…wait, am I allowed to say that in front of you guys?”Maple curled into a ball and cried like a little child. Inside Professor Cherry put a hand to his head and stumbled over to the papers Maple had told him about. He moved aside the 3 page checklist and checked the top page. Maple had filled out all the basic info about the unicorn he had found. He checked page 2, which was an essay portion where one needed to write all about how the creature was found and caught. He began to read it. It went a little like this.Chapter 2: Maple’s Essay of Events“My name is Maple Ketchup, and I’m gonna be the very best, like no fairy ever was.” And that day was the day he could finally prove it, because he was going to become a Pak-a-mon catcher. Maple Ketchup the fairy put on his running shoes, popped his baseball cap on, and ran out the door, completely forgetting to say goodbye to his mom. Next stop, the Department for Mythical Creature Conservation, to get his pack and select his first pack monster. As Pellet town was very small, it didn’t take him long to reach the office of the DMCC. Maple rushed through the doors and cried out in a shrill “Professor Cherry, I’m finally 16 and I’m ready to start my pack monster adventure.”Professor Cherry jerked awake from his drunken nap on his desk, looked at Maple then put his head back down saying “Oh, Maple, it’s you. I was waiting for my amazing grandson Jerry to arrive.” “Well I didn’t see him on my way over, but I’m here and ready to start my Pak-a-mon adventure! Can I pick my Pak-a-mon yet?” Maple Exclaimed. Professor Cherry held a hand to his throbbing head “Slow down Maple, we will get there. First you gotta sign some paperwork.” Professor Cherry slid the empty beer bottles off the papers on his desk and gave the papers to Maple. Maple didn’t even read them and just signed, thinking he already knew all the rules of being a pack monster catcher. “So now can I get my Pak-a-mon?”“ Slow down Maple, that’s like the last step before you leave. Take this backpack, with it you will be recognized as an official Pak-a-mon catcher.” Maple grabbed the worn looking bag and put it on then excitedly cried out “Time to choose my Pak-a-”“MAPLE!” the professor shouted “Slow down. You have to take this first, it’s your Pak-a-dex, you use it to log all the creatures you encounter, don’t forget this part, it’s basically your whole job.”“Yes professor, I know” There was a long pause, Maple vibrated with excitement, and Professor Cherry stared off into the distance. After an awkward amount of time, Professor Cherry slurped up his drool and asked “What were we doing?”“You were going to let me pick my Pak-a-mon.”“Right, right.” Professor Cherry walked over to his cabinet, slid his case of beer out of the way and brought out a case. Maple eagerly awaited, knowing the Pak-a-mon crystals were inside, and he would get to pick out his first partner. Maple’s older brother had always told him about all the amazing choices he’d had, and Maple couldn’t wait to see his options. Professor Cherry opened the case, and two crystals lay inside. It was not as many as he expected, but at least he had a choice in the matter, or so he thought. Just then, the glorious figure of Jerry Cherry the Fairy burst through the door at top speed.“See, I told you I’d show up later. This is when things start getting good.”“Sorry I’m late Gramps. Guess those are our crystals, sweet.” And before anyone could object, Jerry grabbed one of the two crystals and tossed it on the ground. With a puff of smoke and a burst of light, out popped a 2’ tall dragon. “Awesome, I’m gonna call you Drago.” He ran towards the door with the small dragon struggling to keep up “Smell ya later Maple.” and out the door he went.“What is that even supposed to mean?” Maple asked. Professor Cherry sighed, “He didn’t even get his pak-a-dex.” Maple looked at the lone crystal in the case with disappointment. “Well Maple, here’s your pack monster, and if you wouldn’t mind, can you bring Jerry his pak-a-dex. I’m sure he isn’t far.” Maple took the pak-a-dex and crystal and ran out after Jerry. Chapter 3: How Maple Came Into Possession of the UnicornOutside he looked towards the tall grass at the edge of town, but there was no sign of Jerry. He ran up to the edge of the grass, ready to begin his adventure, who knew what could be in store for him. He stepped forward and as if appearing from nowhere, Jerry Cherry popped up. “Maple, Battle me!”“What, where did you even come from?”“We locked eyes, you gotta battle me, them’s the rules.” Maple didn’t want to look even more like a wimp, so he pulled out his crystal and tossed it on the ground. Through the shimmering light, he could see it, his partner pak-a-mon. It was a 5 inch tall yellow mouse. Jerry Cherry laughed “Haha, your partner is a pak-a-chu? I probably passed like 12 of those field mice already.” Jerry tossed 2 crystals out, his dragon appeared but was now 12’ tall and blew fire out its nostrils, and next to it was what looked like a glowing horse with a horn on its head. “How, what? You got out here like a minute earlier than me.”“What can I say Maple? I’m just a better trainer than you.” Maple pulled out his pak-a-dex and scanned the new creature, yet it came up with only ‘no data collected’. “Hey Jerry, you forgot your pak-a-dex, also what the heck is this thing?” “Pfft, pak-a-dex are for chumps, now let’s fight. Drago, blast that pak-a-chu to dust.” The dragon roared and blew a blast of flame at the small mouse. When the fire cleared, there wasn’t even ash remaining. “My Pak-a-mon!” cried Maple, as he curled up into a ball on the ground and started crying like a little-“Um…bad word again.”“Maple don’t cry, I really can’t stand that sound. I guess you weren’t ready to fight someone on my level.” Jerry Cherry summoned the unicorn back into its crystal, and tossed it to Maple. “Here, take this one, I didn’t like it anyways.” Maple wiped the tears away from his eyes as he watched Jerry mount his dragon and flew off towards adventure. Maple looked at the crystal and remembering the pak-a-dex entry, headed back to the office.Chapter 4: Maple Made a MistakeProfessor Cherry cracked open another bottle just as Maple walked in “Oh Maple, back so soon, aren’t you supposed to be adventuring or whatever?”“Well, I found something you might find interesting.” Maple threw the crystal onto the floor, and the unicorn sprang out, knocking over Professor Cherry’s desk and scattering empty bottles of beer all around on the floor. The Professor just stared wide eyed at the creature. “A unicorn! I’ve heard of these only in stories. My boy this is a mighty fine discovery, hats off to you for catching a never before seen pak-a-mon.” Professor Cherry pulled open the drawer of his tipped over desk, and out came a stack of paper that filled the whole drawer, then the Professor shoved the stack into Maple’s arms. “Fill these out, this is a big discovery, so a lot of information is needed, be as detailed as possible.”“Do I have to? I kinda just want to-”“Maple! You signed the contract, this is the job you agreed to. You wanted to work at the Department of Mythical Creature Conservation, well this is it. It can’t be all fun and exploration and adventure and battles and such. Some people have to buckle down and do the hard work. Now find a desk and fill out these papers, and get that creature out of my office, it’s too big.” Maple hurriedly pushed the unicorn out the door, then looked for a desk far away from the Professor. He picked a desk in the back corner, in the dark, and set his papers down.The first 3 pages turned out to be a checklist of all the paperwork he needed to fill out. This was going to take forever. He flipped to the next sheet, A1. It was a basic info form for the creature, name, weight, height etc. Maple didn’t really care about accuracy so just made his best guesses. He just wanted to get out of there and adventure. Next page, A2, was to write an essay about all the details of how he discovered the creature.The elderly fairy yawns. “Well this is boring, you guys are bored too right? Why don’t we just skip ahead a bit. Let’s see.” The fairy flips through pages, then stops and sniffs the air, as though a rotten smell has hit him. He glances up at his audience of children and notices a larger figure in the dark back corner, then focuses once again on his book. “Let’s see, paperwork, paperwork, more paperwork. Ah here we go!”Chapter 37: Maple arrives at Jerry’s moment of needJerry Cherry climbed into the mouth of his pak-a-mon Claydough. The creature made of soft lumpy clay shifted around until it was vaguely human shaped. By wearing the creature as a suit of armor, it gave Jerry enhanced strength and agility to take on Nazalinth, the thunderous pak-a-mon god. But the main ability he needed for this plan to work was the resistance the ground based creature provided against the lighting that weaved around the body of the god. Jerry climbed atop Drago the dragon and flew into battle against the 30’ tall human shaped pak-a-mon god. Leaping off with the master crystal he designed in hand, he clung to the gods body, feeling the lightning travel across his clay body and tickle the human flesh residing within. “Nazalinth, your day of reckoning has come!” he shouted. Using the energy coursing through him, he redirected it into growing the clay body’s size to try to match that of the towering god he clung to. His size grew, but his strength was still no match. Nazalinth slashed a light blazing arm into Jerry’s clay arm, and knocked the master crystal far to the ground. Jerry roared with pain, but did not give up, grabbing Nazalinth into a headlock. The giant clay body held the god in place, but Jerry did not know how much longer he could hold on. Then a smell crossed his nose, he sniffed twice. “Maple,” he called out “I know you’re out there, I could really use a hand. Grab that master crystal and throw it back up to me.” Maple had indeed arrived below, and ordered his Pak-a-chu to fetch the crystal.A young boy near the front spoke up “Excuse me sir, but didn’t you say Maple Ketchup’s Pak-a-chu was completely destroyed?”“Well, is it my story or yours kid?” The fairy glances at the figure in the back. “He caught a new one somewhere in the stuff we glossed over.”The pak-a-chu managed to recover the crystal and bring it back to his owner. Maple Ketchup had never been any good at tossing things, so when he threw the crystal for Jerry to catch it, he missed. It flew right at Nazalinth’s head, and crashed into it. The moment the crystal touched it, the god was sucked inside. They had done it. Jerry Cherry, with a little help from Maple Ketchup had ended Nazalinth’s reign of terror and had finally caught the god of all pak-a-mon.A girl cut in this time “I’m really confused, I think we skipped over a lot of parts. What happened to the unicorn?”“I said that part at the beginning, Maple was a neglectful owner, forgot to feed it and it died. We only skipped over like 4 years of him doing paperwork, you really want to hear the paperwork part and not the parts where I literally went toe to toe with god?”The kids all cheer the word paperwork. “I guess you’re all a bunch of chumps then. Fine, I’ll read some of the paperwork parts”Chapter 9: Maple goes home after a bit of workMaple sharply stood from his desk, frustrated with the little amount of paperwork he had gotten done during the day. He stepped over the drunken form of Professor Cherry yet again. This was his daily routine at this point, come in, do paperwork till dark, pass by the Professor Drunkard, go home, eat, sleep, repeat. He couldn’t help but be a little jealous wondering what adventures Jerry Cherry had been up to these last 2 years. As he walked up to his doorstep, Jerry Cherry stepped out the door. “Oh Maple, funny seeing you hear, I was just helping your Mom with a few things she needed to get done.” Maple, clearly not understanding the meaning Jerry had implied, instead let out his frustration “Jerry you know you’re kind of a jerk sometimes, you dumped this stupid unicorn on me and I’ve been stuck doing your paperwork in this stupid town with Professor Coors over there for 2 years now. I don’t care if you are helping my mom with stuff, I want you to leave me alone.”“Jeez Maple, I didn’t realize you’d have such an issue with me spending quality time with your mom.”The fairy looks up from the book as he realizes the figure in the back starts walking away further into the dark hallway leaving the room. “You know it’s rude to walk away, Ketchup.” The figure pauses, the children all turn to stare at the now 60 year old Maple Ketchup. “What’s wrong, you didn’t like hearing about your mother and I? Going to curl into a ball and cry somewhere?”The man in the dark hallway says nothing.“Would you come out of the darkness please? It’s quite terrifying. It’s like you’ve come here to kill me.” A 60 year old Maple Ketchup steps out of the darkness and stands across from his old rival. “I’m not here to kill you Jerry, I came to see how you were doing, to see if you’d finally grown up. I figured I already have my answer.”“Are you calling me childish? If anybody is childish it’s you, because you can’t stand hearing the truth can you”“I didn’t want to do this Jerry, don’t push me into an argument”“Why, because I’d win?”“You know what? Fine, Jerry. You wanna hear what I actually think? I think you do act like a child. You’ve held on to this made up rivalry with me for all these years, always trying to one up me. Did it make you feel tough to obliterate my pak-a-chu, or maybe sleeping with my Mom?”“She was always a looker, can you blame me?”The tension between the two becoming uncomfortable, the children all began to quietly shuffle out of the room.“I don’t even care that you were with her, but you lost my respect when you abandoned her to look after your child. You had a chance to be a good father and actually do something your grandfather would have been proud of, but instead you spent your time trying to steal an ounce of my fame. This book you wrote, it means nothing. It only lays out more evidence that you wasted your life.”“I didn’t waste my life, I was a powerful trainer who went on adventures!”“But you didn’t accomplish anything! Maybe your book is right, I got fame from the work you did. But the research and time I dedicated are the reasons I became so well known. Your grandfather had been working on Nazalinth research for many years, but you wouldn’t know that, because you refused to take a pak-a-dex. Professor Cherry had high hopes for you Jerry, he wanted you to help finish his research, but instead you squandered your life. Once again you left me with the burden of the paperwork. But your book said it right: some people have to buckle down and do the hard work.”Sir Jerald and Maple wait in silence as Sir Jerald digests the words that were thrown at him.“So what did you think of my book anyways?”“Honestly, it’s good, surprisingly funny. I don’t remember Professor Cherry drinking that much that we needed to avoid the piles, but him never picking up that desk for four years was pretty accurate. I do have a question though. When we fought Nazalinth, how did you know I was there?”“Same way I always know. I told you I’d smell ya later, and the wind was coming my way.”Maple chuckles “Do I really smell that bad?”Sir Jerald chuckles as well “Oh yeah, it’s a very distinct smell, 38 years and I still knew it was you in the back of the room.”The two sat in silence yet again. Jerry broke the silence “So about Gramps’ research, did you complete it?”“The paperwork is at the Department office right now, although it was a lot more forms and essays than the unicorn needed.”“And Nazalinth?” Maple flashes a smile and pulls out the master crystal containing the god, before tucking it back in his pocket. “Now Jerry, did you seriously write 30 chapters on me filling out paperwork?” Sir Jerald chuckles dryly, then his smile fades. After a short time Maple, with nothing left to say, turns and walks down the hall and away from his once rival.Sir Jerald looks at the book in his hands, and closes it up, stroking the cover gently, before staring into the dark hallway. Maple was gone, the children had left, and Sir Jerald Cherry sat alone, with only his book to keep him company.END