Chapter 6: New Revelations
Cynthia cursed herself for slipping up like that. Now she's planted the seed of curiosity and it's only going to grow. "Goddamn it!" She swore as she walked down the long corridor looking for the door with her name on it. The guest area was large with a main hallway with many branches; it would take a good ten minutes to explore the entire thing.
"If you're looking for your room, you won't find it here." A voice spoke.
Cynthia whirled around to see Ash leaning on the wall with a smile on his face. "I labeled the rooms based on compatibility. Gym leaders with each other, couple with next door rooms, and the lot of it. Your room is across mine." Ash spoke with a glint in his eye.
"Ash, you know, that's a dangerous thing to do with so many people around."
"I live by danger," he spoke with an even bigger grin. "I missed you," he said softly, walking towards her. "So, so much." He circled his arms around her waist and gave her a hug. She inhaled his musty, pine scent. His signature smell and she loved every whiff of it. She looped her arms around his neck and stared at his handsome face.
"It's been 8 months too long."
"I know….you realise Mewtwo is taking everyone to dinner tonight. Maybe you have some unfinished business to take care of….in my room."
Cynthia laughed and pushed him off, already regretting leaving his warm embrace, "You know that can't be possible. I'm always at things like that, they'll question my disappearance. I wish I could do that though."
Ash sighed, "It was worth a try." His eyes flashed blue, "Someone's coming," He gave her a quick peck on the lips, smiled and teleported away. Cynthia smiled to herself at the small kiss and turned around to see who was coming down the hallway. Sabrina and Agatha came walking down scanning the doors for their name.
Sabrina suddenly stopped, "I sense psychic energy. Has Ash been here?"
Not noticing Cynthia, Agatha responded, "Last minute checks?" Cynthia capitalized on the obliviousness and quietly tiptoed into another branching hallway.
Sabrina snapped her head at the moving object. The only thing she saw was a tuft of long, blond hair. Cynthia. What was she doing with Ash?
She thought about it as she walked further down the hall. Cynthia and Ash shared a glance when he revealed himself and Cynthia had the sudden spike of defense for him as well. Now this? Something was definitely going on.
Cynthia escaped into the main hallway breathing a little heavily. That was close. Too close for comfort.
"Cynthia, where's your room?" Clair questioned. Cynthia pointed to a door in the "forbidden" hallway.
Clair gasped. "Really? He must have run out of rooms then."
"I guess, I'd better go and unpack."
"Right. See ya." Clair waved bye and walked into the maze of hallways to find her room. Cynthia unlocked her door with the key given to them with the letter and closed it behind her. It clicked letting her know it was locked. She turned around to unlock it so she can get her bags from the lobby faster, but it wouldn't budge. Knowing who was behind it, she turned around, hands on her hips, with an amused expression.
"You're going to trap me in my room?" She asked the man sitting on her balcony chair. He opened the screen door and walked into the room. He closed the curtains behind him and smirked.
"Most definitely. We didn't finish what happened in the hallway and I was looking forward to that kiss."
Cynthia giggled before stepping towards his outstretched hand. He grabbed her and spun her around so she was wrapped between both of his arms, unable to move.
Cynthia cocked an eyebrow, "You've never been that controlling before."
"I am controlling myself with much difficulty right now. I want my kiss."
She laughed but got cut off by a pair of lips capturing hers. He let her go so she could tangle her fingers through his hair. He dropped his hands to her waist. A minute passed before they broke apart for air.
Ash sighed playfully, "Much better,"
"Jeez lord, am I really that addicting?"
"You have no idea. There's a welcoming party/ceremony tomorrow. Dress well like you always do. Tomorrow's the first time you see me in a tux. Enjoy it while it lasts."
"I will. I'll also remember to take many pictures. MANY pictures."
"Ha, ha, ha, that's just so funny," he replied rolling his eyes. "I gotta go, I have training lesson scheduled with Mewtwo. " He gave her another quick kiss before jumping off the balcony. Cynthia rushed out to see if he was okay, only to see a Pidgeot with a standing rider speeding off into the distance. She smiled before starting to unpack.
Cynthia walked down to see all the competitors gathered in the lobby.
"What's going on?"
Lance replied quickly, "Were picking the best gym leaders for this challenge because there's way too many. Ash wants the best."
"Oh, okay. Who are we keeping?"
"All the frontier brains and elite four/champions, Sabrina, Surge, Blaine, Misty , Brock, Drake, Morty, Clair, Pryce, Juan, Winona, Norman, Maylene, Fantina, Volkner, Elesa, Clay, Drayden, Cilan, Iris, May, Max, Dawn, Delia, Gary, Oak, Barry, Tobias, Harrison, Tyson, Ritchie, and lastly, Red and Blue."
"What?" Everyone chorused.
"Yes, both wish to take part in this tournament. "
"My son/dad?" Gary and Professor Oak said together.
"Yeah," Lance replied seemingly shocked himself.
"Things just got better for me then," A deep and cold voice replied."A worthy competitor," Ash said stepping out of the shadows. "I take it everyone found their rooms most accommodating?"
Everyone nodded not being able to speak to the man who was once a boy.
"So what's this about Cynthia's room in the "forbidden" hallway?" Clair asked, her voice laced with curiosity. All the people in the lobby gasped at the new piece of news.
"Ah yes, Cynthia's room had recently been taken over by a family of pidgeot with a couple of eggs. Unfortunately, they can't fly over the ocean carrying them. So I just simply moved Cynthia to another spare room."
"Can we seem them?" Max cried.
"Very well," Ash replied turning around but not without giving Max a glare and motioned them to follow. He led them down the hallways and to a door marked "Pidgeot" over another card.
He knocked quietly and spoke, "Ari? Are you there?"
"Ari? Who the heck is Ari?" Max asked confused, "I thought we were looking fo-" A glare from Ash shut him up. A caw from the other room answered him and Ash carefully opened the door. A pidgeot was sitting on a straw nest on the bed. It smiled at Ash and glared at everybody else. It screeched unhappily.
"Relax, they're…..acquaintances. They won't harm you or your eggs as long as i'm here."
It glared once more and shuffled off the nest revealing three brown eggs with feather marks.
"Thank You." He spoke softly, "May they hatch into beautiful pidgey."
Ari cawed happily hopping over to Ash. It pecked him once and messed up his hair with its beak. Ash laughed and wrestled the Pidgeot away. It bats its wing against him and laughed at his shocked face.
He spoke again with an evil grin, "Luckily I have a certain pokemon with me." Ash opened a pokeball revealing a pichu. It cried out happily and nuzzled Pidgeot. The bird fell into paralysis and groaned at the baby pokemon. Ash laughed even harder at its disgruntled face and returned the tiny mouse. Pidgeot, at this point ticked off because of losing the battle, fired a small flamethrower with Ash promptly dodged. He pushed everyone out and slammed the door in Pidgeot's face. He chuckled once more and turned back to the group with a cold expression. Everyone was awestruck at the magnificent pokemon and baffled at Ash's sudden mood change.
"Mewtwo is taking you out to dinner tonight. Dress classy. Whoever is not participating will leave after tonight. There will be yachts in the docks at eight. My Elite Four will take you to your regions unless you have other means of transportation. Don't be late. To personnel competing tomorrow is the opening ceremony and party. All formal wear. Dresses for the women, tuxedos for the men. We will be recording the event but not doing it live stream. If all agree to it, we will broadcast all of the battles except for mine. No questions asked. Meet me in the gardens; my pokemon will guide you through the maze to get there if you get lost. The main stadium is for the top 16. There will be many challenges in between battle much like the Orange Crew. You may only choose six pokemon for the entire tournament. Legendaries are all included. The battles upto the last 32 will be three on three, then the rest will be 3 one on ones and the final 16 will be full six on six. A winner that is not me will reject my proposal of making the Orange Islands an official league. If I win however, The Orange League will become a yearly official battle if Goodshow approves. Does everyone agree with these terms?"
Everyone nodded their heads and eyed each other. This would be fierce competition especially with Ash. They had two days including today to pick their pokemon that would be sticking with them the entire time. Tough Choices.
"Good," he continued. "Dinner starts in five hours. I would save three for the maze." Ash turned around to leave. He looked back and and spoke with a smirk, "You only get three hints from my pokemon and the maze changes every hour. Have fun." He chuckled and walked away.
After an hour and a half had passed, everyone was waiting at the entrance of the maze. It was easily twice as tall as Cynthia, who was very tall by any standards. It was a bit different though, it had stone walls with Poison Ivysaur mixed with vines, making it impossible to climb over. They weren't allowed any pokemon for help either. Wonderful.
"Is everyone here?" Wallace called out to the mob of trainers behind him and the other champions.
No one objected and so, he led them into the maze. There was a couple of pokemon. An Illumise and a Volbeat using flash to give light as they walked through.
A long time passed and they were wandering around in circles. They were getting there though. One of Ash's pokemon helpers gave them a couple sticks of chalk. The other two guided them to the middle of the maze. Halfway there.
"We're due to meet him in another 20 minutes." Lance said frustrated and cold. The maze was extremely difficult now, it shifted three times. Their chalk marks were useless now.
Lance took out a pokeball.
"What are you doing?" Clair asked shivering.
"Getting Dragonite out. We don't want another temper tantrum for being late."
Cynthia bit her lip at this not noticing Sabrina watching her. Dragonite was called upon and started to take off when a hyper beam shot him down. A Drapion stood and roared. It chased them down and everyone took off running. Lance tried to hold it off but it destroyed every single one of his pokemon. The large group of finally shook it off and found the exit.
They found Ash and Mewtwo sitting across from each other concentrating. Mewtwo was wearing a bowtie around his neck and Ash was wearing black slacks with a navy blue dress shirt with the top few buttons undone. He had a black and navy blue fedora on to shadow a bit of his face. Sabrina excitedly spoke, "May I join!"
Everyone stared at her, it was unusual to see her so happy. Ash nodded and said, "It will be a little difficult for you."
"I don't mind the challenge. It's been a while since I had one."She walked towards them and sat down making a triangle. They concentrated for a couple of minutes before Sabrina gasped and found herself flying. Ash and Mewtwo shot their hands out, eyes blazing blue, and psychically caught her and gently put her down.
"I apologize; we got carried away and didn't control our powers enough."
Sabrina smiled weakly, "It's okay. But...such power."
"Comes with my work."
"What work?" Delia piped up. She had been unusually quiet during the entire stay. Possibly because of the entire shock.
"My life is none of your business." He responded curtly and partially annoyed not even looking at her.
Delia gasped and started to form tears at her son's cruelty. Misty and Brock were quick to comfort her. May and Dawn stormed up to him.
"What's wrong with you? She's your mother!"
Ash glared harshly, "She lost her title as my mother when she betrayed me."
"We were just looking out for you!"
"So what? Make me give up my dream? Not a snowballs chance in the Distortion World"
"You were at it for a long time! Your mom just wanted you to settle down!"
"What about you huh? A loss at every Grand Festival and can't get over her crush on one of her rivals. You didn't even like pokemon when I met you. Now I'm regretting that experience. You were more of a failure than I was. Both of you."
May and Dawn gasped and started crying.
Misty came up next, "Ash! What in the poke-world is wrong with you! You're still the brat I remember years ago!"
"Enough..." Mewtwo spoke trying to diffuse the argument already feeling Ash's temper starting to rise.
"Shut Up!" Misty yelled at the pokemon fired up. "You're not even in this argument! Heck you killed him when he was still 10!" She turned back to Ash. "You know what! I think you need another wake up call! We were looking out for you and this is what we get! You're selfish and as stupid as you were ages ago! Nothing's changed except that the big head of yours gained even more volume," She was crying now, she just wanted Ash back.
She realized what she said and looked up at him quickly. He was shaking and a violent blue and purple glow was surrounding him. His head snapped up and everyone in the front gasped. His hat lay next to him, his hair was floating in an invisible force and his eyes weren't blue or amber. They were a harsh violet. Sabrina felt dizzy from all the negative psychic energy from him and fainted and fell into Surge's arms.
"ENOUGH!" Ash roared snapping his arm to the side. The table cloth flapped up knocking everything out of order. He closed his open palm into a fist and all the glass shattered causing many screams.
"I can't feel anything from him...It's all gone….."Anabel muttered with her eyes closed causing Brandon to look at the boy worriedly.
He brought Misty closer to him using psychic. As much as she struggled, she couldn't break free. He spoke softly and calmly scaring everyone more. "Say that again, I dare you," He flung her to Brock who was scared out of his wits. This wasn't their Ash. This was a monster. He snarled at his mother who tried to take a step toward him. His eyes flared once more before going back to Blue then the loving amber everyone missed. He fell back in a slump into Mewtwo's arms as Pikachu came dashing from the woods holding a half eaten berry in his mouth. Seeing the sight of its trainer, it dropped the berry and began conversing with Mewtwo frantically.
"He had a temper flare again. I had to drain his energy temporarily." Mewtwo responded to the mouse looking at the now asleep boy. He looked to the crowd and spoke, "You just had to provoke him and get him to throw his control out of the window didn't you? Are you satisfied?" Mewtwo yelled. He set up the table again fixing everything. The food appeared and Mewtwo spoke once more, "I have to go back to the house and make sure Ash is stable, you may eat. The Drapion that attacked you for cheating will guide you back through the maze." With that, Mewtwo, Ash, and Pikachu disappeared in a flash of light. But no one noticed the Sinnoh champion teleporting away as well.
