A/N: Hey guys, I'm not dead, just busy. This little story is a little something to hold you over, while my Goddess of the Wasteland gifts me with inspiration once again. This will be a Pokemon fic, that came about while listening to my iTunes. I will tell you right now, this was inspired by both the music, as well as many fics with a similar plotline. The Idea of Ash disappearing and the motives behind it always intrigued me, but With every story, it had a similar beginning. 'We begin on the snowy peak of Mt. Silver' or 'On a far away island away from civilization' are fine and dandy, but it's a bit overused. Ash may be hurting, but staying in isolation and doing nothing but training his Pokemon does not represent the full Ash. Any rate, I'm rambling, just enjoy the fic
disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Pokemon. If I did, Many of the great fics on this site would be made into mini series like Pokemon Chronicles
Saffron City... An urban city in the region of Kanto. Normally, the streets are littered with people. People trying to get somewhere, or trying to sell you something. The crime rate is not atrocious, nor is it serene. To sum it up, You look left, you'll see a shoplifter running out of a convenience store and if you look right, you'll see a family enjoying their day. The police have things pretty locked down in the city dubbed "The Golden City."
As said before, the streets are usually filled, except for tonight. Tonight, instead of being out, all the citizens of Saffron were either at home, or at the Saffron City MPEC. Now, you may be wondering: Why is no one out tonight? Well, the answer to that is simple: Tonight was the championship match. This wasn't a Pokemon battle either. This is far more gruesome. This match is a boxing match. In the past, boxing wasn't all that popular, what with the Pokemon League holding the title of best spectator sports. But with the league only running once every two years, people had to find another source of entertainment. Boxing was the answer. And this isn't the P1 Boxing Tournament for Pokemon. This was Human vs. Human, and tonight, was THE match of the year.
Moving over to the Saffron City MPEC, you could hear the crowd roar from three blocks away. Tonight was the night that determined whether or not Kanto's boxing champion retained his title or if it was turned over to the challenger. Inside, the stadium was packed. All twenty-five thousand tickets were sold, hours after the match was announced. On the floor was a mat that was 50'x50' and was four feet off the ground. There was a decent crowd around it as the two combatants made their way to the mat. They made their way towards opposite corners, one red, one blue. They stood in their respective corners as the MC made his way toward the center of the mat.
As the MC got to his spot, a microphone descended from the rafters. When the mic was within grabbing distance, the MC took hold of it.
"Good evening!" The MC began. "Welcome to the match we've all been waiting for. Tonight will be a match unlike any other. Tonight, our boxing champion defends his title for the first time in three year!" At that last statement, the crowd was in an uproar. The Champ had kept his title for six years, only defended it twice in his reign as champion. And tonight, he was going for a third defense. "Ladies and gentlemen" He began again. "In the red corner, I present our reigning champion! In his reign, he has taken on the monicker of 'Undisputed Champ' and has never been proven wrong. The man of the hour, the fighter with the Dynamic Punch, DOOOOOMMMIIINNOOOOOO!" The crowds reaction was the loudest chorus of screams and cheers as the fighter in the red corner removed his robe. Domino stood at whopping 6'4". His graying brown hair was in a military buzz cut. His face was slightly leather-like from years of hard work and training. He was broad shouldered, giving him an intimidating aura about him. His boxing gloves were black with red thread holding them together and the shorts he was wearing were black, with white around the waistband and single white lines going down the outer leg. The boots he wore had the same color scheme as his shorts.
As the cheers died down, the MC turned his attention to the blue corner.
"and in this corner, We find his challenger." he stated. "Not much is known about him, only that he is from the desert region of Orre. He started his climb to the top a mere three months ago and now, he is taking on our champion. Clearly a dark horse in every way. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce the 'Wrath of Realgam Arena' give a warm welcome to RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGEEE!" As his name was announced, Rage threw off his robe, revealing a young man around the age of twenty years old. He was tan, and stood about 5'11" and had a definite muscle tone to him. His hair was raven colored and stuck out everywhere and his eyes were chocolate brown. The bottom of his face was covered by a bandana depicting the maw of Groudon. His boxing gloves were cobalt blue, with Electric yellow threading. His boots and shorts shared the same color scheme, except of stripes on the outer legging and shoe, it was lightning bolts. Rage's introduction was met with mixed reactions, mostly cheers, but there were the occasional 'Kick his ass, Dom' or 'Go back to the desert, punk.'
"And now," the MC said. "Let the match begin." There were nothing but cheers when the match started. Both Rage and Domino made their way towards the center of the ring, where a ref was waiting to in a sense, 'read them their rights.'
"Alright, you know the basics." The ref said. "No kidney punches, no hits below the belt, Etc, you understand?" Both fighters nodded and proceeded to knock gloves as a sign of respect. "Alright, keep it clean." The ref stepped back as the bell sounded. As soon as they heard that bell, Rage and Domino began circling each other, looking for an opening to throw a punch. Domino, thinking this would be an easy win, went in for the hit. His fist was three inches away when Rage shifted to the left and jabbed him in the abdomen, which was blocked. This same process lasted for another good minute before, Domino went in for a head shot. The hit landed and, causing Rage to stumble back. Domino saw it as an opportunity and began a series of rapid punches to Rage's abdomen.
Rage proceeded to protect himself from the assault, but was unsuccessful and backed up. With the slew of punches thrown, Domino tired himself out momentarily, giving Rage time to retaliate. With a swift uppercut, Domino was sent into a daze, to which Rage began to repay him for his assault in kind. 'Is this guy packing iron in his gloves?' was what Domino thought as he was hit in the abdomen several times by what he knew were his opponents fists, but they felt like fifty pound barbells being thrown at him. Rage was about to throw another punch when the bell sounded, ending the first round. Both opponents returned to their respective corners to do damage assessment. As soon as Rage made it to his corner, his trainer; a man about 6' in height, black hair, dark amethyst eyes and low build, helped him to his stool. He then proceeded to pull up the underside of Rage's bandana and pull his mouth piece out. He looked over Rage and found little to no injuries.
"Damn..." was all the trainer said. "It looked like you got pounded out there, but there's no proof." Rage gave a smirk after he spat out the water he was given.
"The guy's a bit out of practice." was all Rage said in a gruff voice. His trainer nodded and put the mouth piece back into Rage's mouth.
"Remember what I said." The trainer started as he pulled Rage's bandana back to its rightful position. "If you begin to see red, don't go blue. We don't need another incident like Realgam." Rage chuckled and nodded.
"I'll try not to, Mac." The bell sounded yet again, signaling the breaks end. Both boxers returned to the center of the ring, where the ref signaled to begin. Rage pulled the first move, with a left side body jab. Domino had no time to react as the fist hit its mark.
The next several rounds had Rage ahead of the game, even scoring a knock down on Domino. Though Rage was not the over-confident type, he did underestimate his opponent. At the beginning of the semi-final round, Domino pulled all of his stops. As the bell sounded, Domino managed a knock down on Rage with a swift uppercut. As Rage hit the mat, the people in the stands got out of their seats and began to cheer. They thought the battle was won. In Rage's mind, he did not feel the will to get back to his feet. As he lied there, hearing the count off, he saw a memory. A memory of why he was in the boxing ring in the first place. A memory that made him who he was today. The ref was almost done with the count off when Rage's eyes snapped open and he began to pull himself to his feet. The ref was stunned. He had seen many a fighter fall at the hit of the champ's uppercut, but none had ever gotten back on their feet. Domino turned around to see his opponent standing.
"How are you still standing?!" Domino exclaimed. Rage didn't reply, only getting back into a fighting stance. Domino looked into his eyes and noticed they had a tinge of blue. He was slightly intimidated by this, but steeled himself and returned to the center of the ring in a fighting stance. The ref signaled the okay and they began. In the blue corner, Rages trainer, now known as Mac sensed something he was hoping wouldn't happen. 'Oh, no! I need to stop this.' Mac thought, but it was too late. Rage, taking the initiative, swung towards Domino's abdomen. The champ, still shaken that his most powerful punch failed, took the punch, unable to block out of shock. After several shots to his abdomen and torso, Domino tried and failed to block the hits, only causing more injuries.
Before Rage could deliver the finishing blow, the bell sounded. Rage didn't hear it and supplied Domino with a swift uppercut knocking him onto his back. The ref pushed Rage back to his corner, where Mac did his best to restrain is charge. The ref turned his attention to Mac and said, "If he does that again, I'm ending this match with a disqualification." The ref's words were finite, and Mac nodded.
"Don't worry," Mac started. "It won't." Mac turned his attention back to his charge. He knelt in front of him and slapped him. "Snap out of it!" Mac exclaimed. Rage settled down and was brought back to reality.
"What happened!?" Rage asked. He looked around and found himself back in his corner, when the last thing he remembered was being down on the mat.
"What happened was you pulled an illegal knock down." Rage turned to his trainer who was explaining what happened. "Do it again, you'll get disqualified." Rage nodded and began to calm himself down. He looked over to the red corner and saw his opponent broken and bleeding. Rage knew what happened, he just didn't want to believe it.
"So what's the game plan?" Rage asked. Mac looked at him with concern.
"We either finish this fight," Mac started. "Or we forfeit." Rage contemplated these choices. He didn't want to injure his opponent more than he already was, but he didn't want to back out of a challenge. In the past, he never backed down from any challenge thrown at him. The bell sounded the end of break for the last time, which was also then Rage chose option three.
"I'll pull my punches." was all he said as he made his way to the center of the ring. His opponent looked beaten and could barely stand, but yet he was going to finish this fight, no matter how beat up he was.
The ref gave the okay and they resumed their fight. After a few moments, Rage started launching soft punches. Domino was perplexed at what his opponent was doing, but he was in too much pain to explore his thoughts further. Seeing an opening, Domino launched a powerful body jab at Rage, which was not blocked. Rage was knocked back a few inches, but was still ready to fight. At this point, Rage decided to dodge his opponent's remaining attacks, tiring Domino. As he launched his next punch, Domino lost his strength and speed from exhaustion, leading his fist way off target. Rage was going to use this opportunity to deliver a swift uppercut, but Domino, a last ditch effort, launched one last powerful body jab, sending Rage into a full on curl. Satisfied with this match, Rage gladly took the last hit, which was an equally powerful uppercut. Rage was sent a good foot off of the ground and landed on his back. Rage was content. He knew he could get back up and knock out the champion, but he didn't want too much attention and it didn't seem right after the last round. So he stayed down and listened to the crowds cheers while the ref counted off. He turned to his corner to see his trainer smile and nod his head. Mac was proud of how Rage fared against the champ, and at his decision to throw the match. His victory would have not been an honest one, even though the dishonesty was unintentional.
As the ref finished the count off, the MC returned to the ring. The microphone made its way from the rafters again. He grabbed a hold of the mic and began to speak. "Unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "Ladies and gentlemen, this has to have been one of the best matches we've seen. Not only was Domino nearly knocked out from his reign, he was given what seemed to be one hell of a match." The MC continued his speech, but neither Domino, nor Rage were paying attention. Domino made his way to his corner, where his brother/trainer was waiting. As he sat down for a moment, Domino was examined by his brother, who was shocked at how much damage he had taken.
"Holy Shit!" his brother exclaimed. "by the looks of it, you look like you went toe to toe with a very angry Machamp. Domino only chuckled at his brother's comment.
"I feel like I did. Rage is definitely someone to look out for, Chess." In the other corner, Rage had made it to his stool, where he was examined by Mac.
"Well, you'll be okay in the morning." Mac said. "Just gotta work on your emotional control." Rage sighed and looked at Mac.
"I didn't mean for it to happen." Rage replied. "Three months being here and no event, yet here, one knock down, sends me blue." Mac shook his head and chuckled.
"It doesn't matter now." Mac explained. "You did the right thing throwing this match. Besides, you said you didn't want too much attention, now didn't you?" Rage nodded. When the MC declared the winner, both opponents made their way towards the center of the ring. They looked at each other for a moment before touching gloves, signifying a mutual respect for each other.
After the match, both boxers returned to their respective dressing rooms. In Rage's dressing room, he was having a discussion with Mac.
"So, what now?" Mac asked. "Now that we're done here, are you going to finish the boxing leagues in the only two remaining regions left?" Mac didn't mind his charge's outlet, but the more they went into the ring, the more attention they brought onto themselves. Rage came out of the showers, a towel wrapped around his lower half.
"No." was all he said as he made his way towards the locker, where his clothes were. "We've already gotten enough attention here in Kanto. It's time we went home." Mac sighed and asked. "So you're done?" Rage turned to Mac, revealing the rest of his face. Because of the his age and his training, the zigzag birth marks under his eyes were nearly faded away.
"yes.." Rage replied. "For now." Mac nodded.
"Very well, Rage. I'll order us a bo-" Mac was cut off by Rage.
"We're not in public." Rage said. " you can refer to me by my given name. Also, you can returned to your true form." Mac sighed and was enveloped in a bright light. When the light died down, standing in Mac's place was a large bipedal feline creature.
'Thank you, Ash.' the creature replied. 'Being in human form for too long gives me a weird vibe.' Ash only chuckled at the creatures comment.
"No worries Mewtwo." he replied. "thank you for training me and posing as such in matches." Ash turned around, fully clothed and face Mewtwo.
Ash was wearing a pair of black Converse high top, and baggy blue jeans. Underneath his black hoodie, he wore a shirt depicting the outline of a face that was distorted into a creepy smile.
"As for the boat tickets," he continued. "I've already ordered them. We leave from Vermillion City tomorrow at noon." Mewtwo nodded and turned towards the door.
'Do we take the door, or shall I teleport us back to our hotel room?' Mewtwo asked. Ash contemplated this for a moment before responding.
"We'll take the door. Most likely, reporters will assume I have a Pokemon that knows teleport and be waiting at our door." Mewtwo nodded as Ash continued. "Now the question is if you want to return to your Poke-ball, or if you want to keep walking." Mewtwo responded by transforming back into Mac.
"I'd rather walk as a human than be confined in a virtual room." Ash nodded while pulling out another bandana, this one depiction the mask of Giratina, and wrapped it around the bottom half of his face. He finished his attire by adding black sunglasses and pulling his hood over his head. He picked up a back pack and slung it over his shoulder, resulting in a mildly painful shock.
"Gah!" Ash exclaimed. Out of the back pack came a very angry yellow mouse.
"Pika!" the mouse exclaimed. It was taking a nap when it was awoken his trainers careless act.
"Sorry Pikachu." Ash apologized. "but you may want to get back in. We're walking home and you remember the last time we walked and you decided to stay out in Johto." at this statement, Pikachu sweat dropped and immediately climbed up his trainers leg and arm to jump into the back pack. Ash chuckled. "Sleep tight. We'll be back in the hotel in no time." Ash and Mac moved towards the door, getting ready for the reporters to berate them with questions. Ash sighed and smirked under his bandana.
"Let's say hi to the people." Ash said as he opened the door out of the dressing room.
A/N: Well, there you go. I hope you enjoyed this. I planned it to be a one-shot, but my fingers just wanted to keep typing. Definitely a change from training on Mt. Silver. Also If anyone can guess where I got the idea for this first chapter, even though I made it pretty obvious will get a shout-out in the beginning of the next chapter. Now to something that tends to get on my nerves. Review... Not necessary for chapter progression, but they help me when I make a mistake. I welcome them with open arms, if they are to truly help fix any mistakes I've made. And on a final note, Mewtwo, when in his human guise will be called Mac, even by me. So, until the next round
Phant0m