"ash, please sit down."
ash's friends and rivals were all gathered inside his mother's house. brock spoke in a careful, considering tone.
"we've all been talking, and...well... erm..." the tanned man was sweating bullets.
ash, who didn't have a clue about what was going on, sat down on the couch next to his mother. just like him, she didn't know what was going on either. one moment ash returned from his travels in unova, and the next moment all the others just barged in. misty, brock, tracey, gary, may, max, drew, harley, dawn, zoey, kenny, paul and trip were all standing across the room.
ash grinned and spoke up. "guys, what's up? whaddya wanna say brock?"
ash's smile made brock even more nervous and started to stutter even harder until misty had enough.
"oh for arceus's sake, grow a pair. ash. what squinty's trying to tell you is, we've all been talking, and we all agree on the fact that you're a lousy trainer."
as soon as ash's smile appeared, as soon it vanished, and became replaced with a deep scowl.
"what do you mean, misty? are you freaking serious?! don't tell me you guys actually agree with her."
everyone looked awkward, but hesitantly nodded. gary spoke up. "you don't have any skill at all. you just rely on dumb luck."
"you're dumb as hell, and have no strength to compromise for it." paul was sneering at ash.
"even me, who just started two years ago, already surpassed you." max looked a little too confident.
"just face it, ketchum. your skills suck, and you can't get any better at all. just give it up, and hand your pokemon over to the REAL trainers like paul, or trip." drew sneered.
that was the last straw. something snapped inside ash, and a shadow creeped across his face. his eyes, normally a warm amber color, turned into an ice cold stone-grey
only dawn and may looked with a guilty expression on their faces and ash knew that they weren't sure if this was right.
"i...see... heh...heheh...heheheheh..." a spooky chuckle escaped his mouth. one that would make a gengar shiver in fear.
"I SAVED YOUR ASSES COUNTLESS TIMES, AND THIS IS HOW YOU SHOW ME YOUR APPRECIATION?!"
the girls all cringed, and the other men's eyes became wide at ash's sudden outburst.
"IF I WEREN'T THERE, YOU GUYS WHOULD'VE BEEN TORN TO PIECES BY LEGENDARIES ALREADY! i thought you were my friends, but i guess i was wrong... i'm sorry mom, but i'll be leaving for a while again."
delia, who was now on the verge of tears, nodded and gave him a crushing hug. she told ash she understood that he wanted to leave, and pleaded him to take his strongest team with him to keep himself safe.
"i was planning to do that mom. i love you."
ash almost felt sorry for the others, because his mother, while normally a very kind and gentle woman, was also a strong willed woman with a nasty temper when provoked.
pikachu jumped from the couch onto ash's shoulder, and he growled at the rest, his pouches sparking with electricity.
as he walked through the front door, he dug into his backpack, and found a small golden box. when he opened it, he grabbed a red-black cherish ball from it.
"i'll show you, just who you've been messing with. take flight, lugia!"
as the legendary majestic sea-dragon pokemon appeared, the others just watched in awe. not believing what they were seeing.
"what do you desire, my liege?"
lugia spoke in a soft, caring manner, as if he knew what was going on.
"please take me away from this place... just fly, please..."
lugia saw the pain and sadness reflected in ash's eyes, and lowered his neck, so that ash could step on.
"very well. off we go!"
he flapped his silver wings, and soared into the sky. unfortunately, max recovered from the suprise, and flung a sharp rock at ash. it connected with his right eye, and the poor young man roared in pain as blood emerged from the socket.
they flew for three days straight, until lugia started to show symptoms of exhaustion.
"lugia... please land in that open field over there." ash had not slept in three days time,and he had to apply a bandage to his eye to stop the bleeding. by now, a clear vertical cut was seen from his eyebrow, till his cheekbone. as soon as lugia landed, ash jumped off, and returned lugia to his cherish ball.
"thank you my friend. rest well,"
he hung the ball onto a silver chain. connecting it to five other identical cherish balls, and hung that chain around his neck. (the same way as alder does.) ash checked his pokétch, and saw he was very close to the seaside city, undella town.
"well pikachu, it seems we're back in unova huh?"
his yellow rodent rubbed his head against ash's cheek, and cooed.
"ash ketchum? pikachu?"
the two flinched, as they heard a familliar voice behind them. they turned around and saw a beautiful tall woman stand behind them. she had blond hair, long enough to reach her feet. it also covered about half of her face. though she had the face of an angel. she was wearing a long black coat, along with wide black pants and a black tank top underneath.
"c-cynthia..." he managed to say before unconciousness finally caught up with him. the last thing he saw was a black and yellow blur moving toward him before he fell into a deep slumber.
when ash woke up, he noticed that he was laid down on a hospital bed. he touched his right eye, and felt that the bandages were refreshed.
"you won't be able to see with that again, ash." he looked to the left, and saw that cynthia and nurse joy were standing next to his bed. pikachu was curled up on his stomach, sleeping soundly. he stared at the yellow mouse for a while, and sat up straight. pikachu rolled fromhis stomach to his lap, but he didn't wake up. ash grabbed the cup of water from the desk next to him and drank some, before he finally responded.
"so... i'm officially half-blind now huh?" he looked over to the desk and grabbed the silver chain with cherish balls. he hung it around his neck.
cynthia looked suprised by his calm response, but then confused when she saw the cherish balls.
"ash? what are those?"
ash grinned, before explaining the basic idea. it was a combination between a master ball, and a premier ball, and thus very hard to find.
he snapped one of the balls off of the chain, and enlarged it.
"ash, what are you going to do?"
"see if my old friend can do something about my eye. he's an expert healer, who can put a blissey or an audino to shame."
he threw it up in the air before it released it's content. "come on out, celebi!"
a small green fairy-like pokemon emerged, both nurse joy and cynthia went wide-eyed by the sight of the legendary guardian of the forests of johto.
"bi bi beeeee!" the green creature flew straight at ash and hugged his face.
"great to see you too celebi, i know it's been a while... sorry."
celebi pouted at that, but started looking worried at the sight of the bandages.
he flew at ash again, and put his hands on the bandages, while emitting a faint light.
"beeeeeeeee..." as if he was in a trance he groaned. after a while, he took his hands away, looking sad.
"no use huh... well, if even you can't heal it, i guess i'll have to live with it. thanks for trying anyway."
celebi flew up, and circled the room for a few times, before landing on top of cynthia's head. she scratched his ear while he purred in delight.
"seems he's taken a liking to you cynth." ash had to laugh at the sight. cynthia and nurse joy both cracked a smile, and nurse joy told ash he had been asleep for about two days straight. the lack of sleep and the blood loss from his eye had certainly taken their toll on him.
"ash... it's not my place to ask, but.. what happened to you? when you stood in that grassland, you looked like a mess, both physichally and mentally..."
ash's face became serious, and told cynthia everything that had happened in the past five days. the betrayal, the fleeing on lugia, max throwing that rock, and the flight towards unova. by the time he was finisshed, cynthia had a tear running down her face, and a disgusted look in her eyes.
"those ungrateful little BASTARDS! and there i thought, brock and misty were actually decent people. and that paul... don't get me started on him."
ash became pretty depressed at that.
"h-hey cynthia? am i really a worthless trainer?"
she looked shocked at the question, and replied with a heartwarming smile.
"of course you're not. you did things no-one else can, you've met pretty much every legendary, AND pseudo-legendary pokemon there is, and you even pushed ME, the champion of sinnoh in a corner during a battle. something even the elite four couldn't do when they combined their forces. and believe me, THAT is an admirable feat!"
he smiled at the compliments, but still had a depressed look in his eyes.
suddenly an idea hit her.
"you know... ash, you have every sinnoh gym badge don't you?"
ash nodded and threw his badge box over. it contained every badge, ribbon and medal he's ever earned in the seven years since he's become a trainer. (this'll be a really long list!)
badges
boulder bagde
cascade badge
thunder badge
rainbow badge
soul badge
marsh badge
volcano badge
earth badge
coral-eye badge
sea-ruby badge
spike-shell badge
jade-star badge
zephyr badge
hive badge
plain badge
storm badge
mineral badge
glacier badge
rising badge
stone badge
knuckle badge
dynamo badge
heat badge
balance badge
feather badge
mind badge
rain badge
coal badge
forest badge
cobble badge
fen badge
relic badge
mine badge
icicle badge
beacon badge
trio badge
basic badge
toxic badge
insect badge
bolt badge
quake badge
jet badge
freeze badge
legend badge
frontier symbols
knowledge symbol
guts symbol
tactics symbol
luck symbol
spirits symbol
ability symbol
brave symbol
contest ribbons
terracotta contest champion ribbon. (half of it.)
cynthia first looked shocked ( oh my arceus! he has 45 gym badges, all 7 frontier symbols and even a contest champion ribbon!). then she smiled.
"ash... did you know bertha wants to retire from the elite four?"
ash raised an eyebrow. "oh does she now? well... i guess we all saw that coming, i mean she DID mention something like that when we last met."
she chuckled, but then looked dead-serious. "we DO need a replacement for her absence."
ash had a gut-feeling where this conversation was going. "yeeeees?" his face became suspicious.
"a-hem... ash ketchum, from pallet-town, kanto. would you like to become one of the sinnoh elite four pokemon trainers?" her face was a mask of seriousness, but ash could see a certain hope in her eyes.
ash pondered about it for a bit.
"ash. you are at LEAST on my level of battling. please consider it."
his face became dark, and he grinned.
"i will not even consider it..."
cynthia looked quite disappointed.
"...because i accept your invitation."
her face lit up as soon as he said that. while beaming, she handed him his certificate of entrance.
"welcome to the world of the elite four, kid."
he smile while he shook her hand. "please take care of me from now on... my champion."
LIKE? HATE? BURN? PLEASE REVIEW! I'LL CONTINUE THIS STORY SOON. PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO MY NEXT CHAPTER.