Chapter 5: Confrontation
"Ash," everyone breathed out. Ash hadn't been seen in years, everyone presumed he was dead after all these years. Now he was back, and seemingly much stronger. Ash's mother made the first move.
"Ash!" His mother called out smiling jovially. She had missed her son, so very much. She just wanted to find a better path for him, so he could successfully live a life, maybe even have a family in Pallet. When he left though, she was heartbroken and fell into depression. She took a few shaky steps towards him slowly opening her arms into a hug. Much to everyone's surprise, Ash's eyes narrowed and glared, warning her to stay back. She took another hesitant step. His eyes flashed blue for a second. Everyone cringed, preparing for the worst. Nothing happened. Taking it as a sign, Delia ran to her son with arms wide open. Ash just simply stared at her. A few feet away from Ash, Delia crashed into something. She stumbled back surprised. Now visible, a blue shining barrier stood between Ash and his company and the competitors. It flashed blue before turning invisible again.
Ash spoke, deep and heavenly, "I prefer to be separated from people who are….beneath me. Exception of Goodshow, and the Elite Four. I believe we are right on par. Some more than others." He shared a quick glance with Cynthia who shot a small smile at him before going back to her calm demeanor. "Now, about that battle," he drawled the sentence out. He was about to make a wave of energy to reveal the stadium, but May interrupted him. "What happened to you?" she questioned, shocked and scared. She had the faintest blush on her face, masked by her still pale face from the previous attack. Who could blame her? Ash had changed. In the place of a scrawny kid, stood a tall muscular man with blue highlights and eyes. His face was more angular with defined cheekbones and a hard jaw. He had an aura of confidence and was gorgeous. Even she would admit it. The biggest change though, was the eyes, gove was the warm, caring, amber eyes. Instead, there were blue, glowing eyes that were hardened and cold, as if they would freeze you if you get too close.
"I believe you have yourself to thank for that." He said pointedly, miffed that he got interrupted. "Who will be battling me?" he continued making the wave of energy and summoning the battlefield again."
Lance stepped up and announced, "Me."
Ash nodded, "Very well, Mewtwo shall be the referee. Handicap match, six-on-three."
Everyone was openly surprised at the revelation. Wasn't the handicap a bit much. Both of them walked to their trainer boxes. Lance stood confident, his cape billowing in the open stadium. Ash stood eyes closed, he grabbed a blindfold and covered his eyes. Some people gasped, but no one spoke up. His cloak picked up a little wind. He let out a loud cab whistle and waited for a moment. A yellow blur appeared onto the battlefield. As it stilled, it revealed a stilled Pikachu, giggling, licking his paws and slicking his hair back. Going down on fours, Pikachu sparked with a menacing glare.
Lance cocked an eyebrow at the sudden personality change, but knew pikachu was coming. He kissed his pokeball and tossed it up. "Aerodactyl! Win for me!" With a massive screech, the fossil pokemon appeared gliding in the air.
Mewtwo looked at both sides and started, "This is a handicap match between Champion of Kanto, Lance Wataru and Ashura Satoshi Ketchum of Pallet town. Lance will be given a choice of six pokemon and Ashura will be given a choice of three pokemon. The battle is over when one side has lost all of their pokemon. There are substitutions and no time limit. Are both sides ready," Lance and Ash both gave a curt nod, "Begin!" Mewtwo spoke waving both flags down.
In a blur Pikachu immediately shot off. Everyone gasped at it's speed and Lance took action. "Aerodactyl, ice beam!" With a shriek, the field was an ice-skating rink. That, however, didn't stop Pikachu at all, right before the ice beam hit the area in front of him, it jumped, flipped and started skating around. A bit slower but still incredibly past. It raced towards the wall and ran along the sides even faster than before. It shot off in a white and silver gleam. It hit Aerodactyl and Pikachu was already back on the walls running. The combination of quick attack and iron tail was damaging, but not critical and Aerodactyl recovered fast, gaining altitude.
"Why isn't Ash saying anything?" Misty asked.
Sabrina was quick to follow with an answer, "He's talking to them through telepathy. I can sense the energy."
"Amazing, "Norman spoke, this obviously wasn't the boy from all those years ago.
Pikachu emitted a thunder that tore apart the field and sent ice and rock flying. Aerodactyl starting dodging the rocks and chunks of ice but found it difficult. It yelped in pain as several chunks began to hit him.
"Aerodactyl look out!" Lance shouted, but it was too late, Pikachu had used the rocks as skipping stones to get higher than Aerodactyl. He then came crashing down toward it with a thunder-powered volt tackle. It slammed Aerodactyl down into the ground. Pikachu sprinted back to his blind trainer. Aerodactyl got up shakily and winced as it tried to move it's left wing. Ash smirked noticed by all and uttered his first verbal command in the battle. "Now." Pikachu screamed and emitted a purple energy from it's hands rapidly coming closer to Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl found itself unable to move, paralyzed from the electricity from the last attack coursing through it. It slammed into the wall and slinked down to the ground unconscious. Lance swallowed and returned his fossil Pokemon.
"What power." Goodshow spoke.
"That's not Pikachu, Pikachu can't perform Night Daze." Cynthia uttered.
"That what is it?" Anabel spoke watching the battle with wide eyes.
Ash chuckled and waved his hand. Pikachu stood up and giggled once more. It glowed a purple color and turned into a Dragonite. It roared before giggling once more. Lance called out his own Dragonite as well.
Ash gave a single order this time. "Do as you please," In a blur of speed Ash's Dragonite flew into action spewing attacks left and right not giving room for Lance to command anything. Before he knew it, one of his dragonites were down. Gasps were heard round the arena. No one finished one of the Dragonite's that fast before.
Ash spoke once more, "Transform and 75% power." The Dragonite glowed purple once more before turning into a bipedal pokemon with a mane and purple and red colors. It wore a smirk on its face and giggled.
"A Zoroark, I've wanted one of those for a while," Iris spoke. "Hard to catch."
Lance gulped at the powerful pokemon but still confidently threw a pokeball again releasing his red gyarados. It's eyes widened seeing the human that helped it when it first evolved. It went over to his side and bowed down. Ash stroked its crest and pressed his forehead to it. Everyone watched amazed at the now docile pokemon. Ash stepped back and nodded. Gyarados returned itself to his pokeball and refused to battle.
"Gyarados?" Lance whispered not seeing this kind of behavior from one of his powerhouses before.
He shook his head clearing his thoughts and opened another pokeball to reveal a Dragonair.
"Pluvia, sunny day, and solarbeam."
"Zoroark, play time," Ash responded eerily calm. To much confusion. Zoroark glowed and Dragonair looked around in confusion before turning upside down and went all the way down to the arena floor (The world is upside down for it) It started to try and perform attacks but just ended up hurting itself or shooting in a completely different direction. Sabrina had to stop an attack that was headed for them as well. Dragonair starting smacking his head on the ground and released a dragon rage hurting itself and flew into Zoroark as well. Not expecting it, Zoroark waited for the impact. A double knockout.
Lance breathed a sigh of relief of getting rid of the confusing pokemon but he felt bad for dragonair, getting put through mind torture like that. But he also had his trump card.
"Dragonite, come out and win them all!" Lance shouted and revealed his oldest and most powerful pokemon. Everyone in the stadium smiled. Ash was going down.
However, Ash just laughed at the supposed threat confusing everybody. They half expected for him to make another whistle but he just took off the blindfold and revealed his glowing blue eyes. He wore a handsome grin and spoke, "Shame, i'd thought that you would come up with something new. Pikachu!"
The real electric mouse leaped up to Ash's shoulder and rubbed his cheek with Ash's. Many smiled at the heartwarming scene but grew serious. Lance would be in big trouble. Pikachu had beaten a dragonite once and he could certainly do it again, especially now that he's been training hard. This would be an amazing battle.
Lance made his move first, "Dragonite ice beam, just at Pikachu," he stated, careful to not make his mistake twice.
Pikachu shook his head at amusement and deflected the attack with an iron tail.
"Flamethrower!" Lance called frustrated ice beam wouldn't work.
Pikachu countered with screech and ripped the flamethrower apart.
Lance was getting ticked off, "Dragon Rage!"
Pikachu used its tail as a springboard and jumped over the Dragon Rage. The Pikachu came spinning down with an iron tail and smacked Dragonite on it's head. It gave out a cry of pain and clutched his head. Pikachu dashed off once again to a safe spot and made a little ball of blue energy in his hands and threw it up. Thunderclouds formed in the arena and rain beat down on the pokemon. Pikachu released a thunder into the sky and waited for a response.
"I know what's going to happen," May, Max and Brock spoke together afraid of the outcome.
An even larger bolt of electricity came down upon the small mouse and shocked it. The rain vanished and a wet Dragonite snarled at the gold glowing Pikachu. Pikachu was sparking and snarling looking ferocious with electricity crackling through its fur. Pikachu started a screech and jumped into a quick attack. The screech enveloped the quick attack and swirled around Pikachu. He then charged into a volt tackle and turned his tail to iron. He growled while running lowering Dragonite's defense, finally, an electro ball swirled on its iron tail. Everyone looked in horror at the devastating combination. Lance turned away and heard the pained cry of Dragonite.
Mewtwo broke the silence, "Lance has lost all of his Pokémon, and Ashura is the victor." The arena was deathly silent. Ash tossed a ketchup packet at Pikachu who sat down, ripped open the little packet and started to slurp the treat down. Pikachu squaled in happiness and returned to Ash's shoulder still eating the red condiment.
"Anyone else need more convincing?" Ash spoke pleased at their baffled expressions. "No one? Good. The tournament starts tomorrow 8 A.M. sharp, you're not there, you're out. Goodshow will be watching. I'm sure my preposition will come to pass soon. Your rooms are labeled in that hallway. Don't come into this one or I can't promise your safety." Ash said pointing to the individual hallways as he walked away, cloak swishing behind him and Mewtwo floating nearby. Paul, Jessie and James followed snickered at their faces and shortly followed.
"Lance? Are you okay?" Clair, his cousin, asked. Lance didn't move from the trainer's box since the battle ended.
"I don't know, I've never been crushed that way before," he whispered. Alder and Wallace agreed. "He's a monster,"
"No he isn't," Cynthia snapped. Realising her mistake, she recomposed herself and quickly followed with another statement. "He's compensating for the betrayal." She spoke before going into the guest hallway to try and find her room.
"Wait, how does she know about that?" Brock whispered.