Sorry for not being able to update for a while, but I had major writers block on all of my stories. Even swapping over to animating for a while didn't sort it. But I found something to clear it up. I've seen Rise Of Darkrai! It was a subbed Japanese version which I couldn't read occasionally, but man it's good. It's a shame a great joke is likely to be lost on the translation, but I digress. Listen out for the Oración. It is absolutely amazing. I've been listening to it almost non-stop all day.
I updated three stories at once. That's what took so long for another installment. That and Veoh though it would be funny to delete my copy of this movie. Grrrrrrr.
Lateral Ganon
# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #
Regular italics are Ganon's telepathy
'Italics bounded by quotes are Laura's telepathy'
Chapter 3: The Heat of Battle
Rafe leapt into the battle with practiced precision.
"Let's do this! Blaziken. Use Blaze Kick now!" He ordered. The Blaziken nodded briskly, building flares around it's wrist as it focused its power. The Pokemon leapt high into the air and somersaulted, pointing it's now burning heel directly at Ash's Team.
"Dodge Pikachu!" He called out. The electric mouse leapt out of the way just before the searing heel drove itself into his skull. However Torkoal, having been given no orders from Tory, took the full brunt of the attack; his face pressed into the ground. Pikachu leapt up, intending to thundershock the Blaziken without further adding to Torkoal's pain. What he didn't count on was the Blaziken's partner.
"Go Blastoise! Hydro Pump!" Sid ordered, showing remarkable alacrity for someone so apparently easy-going. The Blastoise cocked his right shoulder cannon, taking careful aim, before blasting Pikachu with a highly pressured barrage of water. The jet barely clipped Pikachu, but was still more than sufficient to spin him out and send him hurtling painfully to the ground. He bounced twice on impact, sliding backwards about a metre. Ganon nudged Laura gently.
"You saw how the Blaziken backed off quickly when Blastoise revealed the cannons, didn't you?" He asked her quietly. She smiled.
"You think they're related?"
"Without a doubt. I'll ask him later."
Torkoal winced when he saw the amount of pain his partner was in, and looked back pleadingly at Tory. The boy recoiled under his gaze and Ash glared at him in annoyance. Before either of them could recover, Sid shouted another command.
"Blastoise, Bubble attack!"
The overgrown turtle bared its jaws and belched out a stream of bubbles at the Torkoal, taking full advantage of the weakness to water. The beam hit the small turtle square in the face, the force from the bubbles sufficient to throw his head around as though he was being punched. Again, Sid was demonstrating that they were both stronger than they looked. Ash gaped at the pounding that Torkoal was receiving, but quickly came to his senses. There was still a chance to turn the match around.
"Tory. You have to tell Torkoal to do something!"
"But… I don't know what to tell it." He answered. Laura growled in her seat, before standing up and yelling into the arena.
"USE PROTECT, SMOKESCREEN, THEN IRON TAIL!" She tried to bellow through the pandemonium of the stands. From the arena, it was impossible to discern the advice from the thousands of chants, calls, jeers, and whooping from the crowd.
"Blastoise Rapid Spin!" Sid called out. The Blastoise tucked his limbs into his shell, pushing himself around with his last hind leg quickly, before spinning straight at Ash's team. Tory dropped his jaw in a mixture of shock and fear as the Blastoise hurtled straight through the Torkoal, hurling it across the stage, before it continued on straight towards him. Everything seemed to slow down as the spinning shell mad its way towards him, and he made a terrifying connection in his minds eye.
Four years ago. Herds of stampeding Walrien and Sealeo. Huge Pokemon fleeing past him a matter of inches away from him. Trapped in place by a slab of ice behind him, and the sides blocked by the scything tusks of more Walrien.
He closed his eyes and grit his teeth, turning away to try and brace the inevitable impact which would surely kill him. Ganon noticed the movement, and clutched Laura' hand instinctively. She gave him a taunting look, before turning back to the battle.
The Blastoise punched its limb back out of its shell, stopping its spin just before him. He watched the Torkoal landed on its back on the ground in front of him, and leapt back, ready to deliver a finishing water blast. Ash wasn't about to let that happen.
"Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt! Cover Torkoal!" He yelled, hoping top give the turtle enough time to recover. Pikachu obliged, jumping to block Torkoal from the Blastoise, and unleashed thousands of volts of electricity through the Blastoise, the current coursing through the water in the Pokemon, and rendering it immobile. That was the plan anyway. The Blaziken jumped across and dipped a claw into the flow of current just before Pikachu could build the bolt to full power, earthing the jolt, before unleashing a flamethrower at the mouse and turtle. Pikachu leapt into the air, quickly proving to be its downfall.
"Blastoise! Skull Bas Go!"
The Blastoise rushed forwards faster than his lumbering bulk would suggest, head butting Pikachu in midair. The combined momentum of Pikachu's own dodge and the Blastoise cranium was too much for the mouse, hurling it backwards like a living missile at the Torkoal, which having just been able to find it's feet again, was aghast at being toppled over again, rolling an landing on it's back. Pikachu was in a much less comfortable position, as the roll had left him underneath the Torkoal, crushing him. Tory shielded his face from the dust cloud that was thrown up, whilst Ash just blinked it out.
"Looks like the blue corner just can't seem to get it together as a team." The commentator said disdainfully. The twins were laughing happily for their brother's obvious advantage.
"Man. Ash's partner isn't doing anything to help him out at all. I don't see how he could win." Max said disappointedly. May felt her anger simmering, and considering that Laura had let it be known, she decided she might as well do the same.
"Come on! Do something!" She shouted at the arena. Rebecca just continued typing on her laptop. Nothing was able to shock her anymore now.
Ash seemed to have heard this comment, and rushed forwards.
"Tory, don't worry. I'll take care of it." He said quietly, "Flamethrower Torkoal, go!"
Pikachu heaved until the Torkoal was pushed off his back, falling flat on his front from the effort. The Torkoal however, now vertical again, reared back his head and belched out a stream of flame at the opponents.
Pikachu thought he could smell something burning, and about a second later, he realised what and leapt up. When he'd fallen onto his front, his tail had remained stuck up in the air, right in the middle of Torkoal's flamethrower. He hopped about madly to extinguish the smouldering appendage and waved it to remove the soot.
"Oh! A flamethrower from Torkoal, but it hit Pikachu!" The commentator continued. Torkoal heard the announcement, and looked down to see that he had burnt the Pikachu. He threw his head back in shame and cried rivulets of tears onto the floor, and blew long streams of black smoke out of his nostrils with a sound like a train whistle. Pikachu had the misfortune of being caught in another impromptu smokescreen, and coughed heavily. Ash pulled his hand over his face in shame, whilst Rafe brushed his fringe aside with his fingertips.
"How embarrassing." He said coolly. Sid had his arms folded behind his head, and looked at Rafe out of one eye.
"So Rafe, wanna finish this one up?" He asked calmly. Judging by the state of the Pikachu and the Torkoal, they could finish it up anytime. It just depended on how much they wanted to humiliate Ash, although judging by the Pokemon he had, he'd been humiliated enough already. Rafe nodded in agreement.
"Let's go. Blaziken. Overheat!" He called out dramatically. The Blaziken reared back and loosed a heavily focused stream of flame at both the opponents. The fireball swarmed around the two, the heat enough to melt steel, and the floor of the arena exploded, hurling both Pokemon back to Ash, thoroughly defeated. Ash rushed forwards to tend to the Pokemon's wounds.
"That's it! Pikachu and Torkoal are unable to battle! Rafe and Sid are the winners! Congratulations!" The commentator called out to the crowd, applause ringing from every stand as the piston carrying Ash and Tory descended back underneath the arena. Rafe was waving regally to the entire audience, whilst Sid just waved both arms crudely towards May trying to attract her attention. May put a palm over her face in embarrassment. Laura turned back to face Ganon.
"He could easily have turned that around. All it would have taken was a rock slide from Tork-" She was cut off as Ganon kissed her on the lips, this time to shut her up. Left to her own devices, she'd have pointed out everything that Ash had done wrong, and having just seen the battle himself, she would have been ranting aimlessly for hours. He hated seeing her embarrass herself like that.
Laura, we both know what a mess he made of it.
'But if he'd used rockslide, the Blaziken would be down in one, and a full blown thunder would-'
Have taken down the Blastoise.
'Exactly!'
So how would you have taken down the Blastoise?
'Mist ball.' She teased.
I'll rephrase that. How would Maria have taken down the Blastoise?
'Attract and Seismic toss.'
How does that work?
'First, she makes him dim and gormless, and then she throws him straight into the pit at the edge. One hit knockout.'
Ganon opened his eyes in surprise.
Genius. Absolute genius.
He could feel her smiling into the kiss as she answered.
'Of course.'
Laura, I need to breathe. He said. She laughed telepathically, and pulled back, laughing again as Ganon took a deep breath. They moved onto the central stairway leading back up to an elevator, and Rebecca ran up to them both. She nodded to Ganon before talking fervently to Laura again.
"We need to schedule a rematch with those two at the counter downstairs, I was thinking-" Her voice faded out as they wandered off, and Ganon found himself next to Brock again.
"So Laura's a trainer too." He said, "How about you come with us for a while?"
"What?" Ganon asked incredulously.
"Hey Brock. Who are you talking to?" May asked, peering around his shoulder to get a better look at the boy. Brock spun around.
"Just an old friend of mine." He said quickly, causing Ganon to glower at him evilly. Max looked up to see what all the commotion was about, and noticed Ganon's glare.
"He doesn't look like an old friend. He's looking at you like May looks at me when I show any of her prospective boyfriends a photo of her when she's just woken up." Max said. Ganon smirked as he saw his expression mirrored perfectly on May as she scowled at her brother.
"You sill have that photo?!" She bellowed at him. He laughed and jumped up the stairs.
"Of course! Any zoo that takes you will need to know what they're letting themselves in for!" He called down. May bellowed and pelted after the youngster. Brock face-faulted and followed after them, and after a few seconds hesitation, Ganon joined him.
The lift doors opened, and Ash and Tory stepped into a departure lounge for losers. What made it even more oppressive was the fact that there was no-one else there. Both kids stepped out broodily, and began walking across the open floor in silence towards the exit.
"Tory!" Someone shouted from their left, accompanied by the quick patter of footsteps. They both looked up to see a middle aged man with greying hair in a style that looked like a refined version of Tory's in a black suit, and a woman about the same age with brown hair in a short ponytail over one shoulder, wearing black trousers and a smart white jacket.
"Huh? Daddy."
"We just watched your Pokemon battle. I'm incredibly proud!" he said, holding his arms stiffly as though to hug him, then thinking better of it. May, Max, Brock and Ganon arrived on a balcony overlooking the area. Upon hearing the noise below, they looked over the edge to investigate.
"Don't be. It was all an accident. It wasn't even supposed to happen." Tory replied sullenly, looking at his feet. He closed his eyes briefly, before running out of the room underneath the balcony, and into the open air outside. Everyone watched as the boy ran off in tears, before the group on the balcony walked down an escalator to join Ash on the losing floor.
"What happened out there?" May asked Ash, "It was all going so well until-"
"The battle started." Max mumbled quietly. Ganon smiled weakly at the jibe, whilst Ash winced.
"Yeah. It did kind of slide downhill from then. But I could have picked it up any time I wanted if I'd-"
"Had Torkoal use Rockslide on the Blaziken, and a full on Thunder on the Blastoise. Yeah, we know." Ganon interrupted. Ash blinked and looked at Ganon. For some reason he reminded him of someone, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked. Ganon shook his head.
"No, I don't believe we've met. I'm Professor Ganon Darcy." He lied offering a hand. Ash took the proffered hand, and shook it lightly. The man looked at his assistant.
"I've got to get back to work. If you could tie up ends here Yuko."
"Right." She said. She watched as the man ran out of the building, before turning back to the trainers.
"This is going to take a while, so maybe you'd be more comfortable taking this conversation somewhere else." She suggested, walking over to the doorway and waiting for the rest to follow.
"Yuko. Meeting you reminds me of a time in my life when I too spent long hours toiling as a professors assistant. I'm sure professor Ivy would be proud to vouch for my work." Brock said as Ganon brought a tray of coffees to the table. Max grabbed Brocks ear and dragged it down to his level.
"And I'll be happy to vouch for his insanity." He said. Ganon licked off the foam moustache he'd got from his cappuccino.
"Thank god I didn't get an assistant like him. How she got any insurance firms to cover her lab is anyone's guess." He said quietly.
Yuko gave Brock a motherly look at the bad attention he was getting, before turning to Ash sat next to him.
"We apologise for the mix-up with your battle. The truth is, Tory is completely afraid of Pokemon." She said. Ganon looked over at them both.
"How could he be afraid of Pokemon?" He asked. Ganon growled to himself. Ash always asked simple questions with hideously long or boring answers.
"Well, about four years ago, he had a very traumatic experience, and it left him terrified of them. Sadly, he still hasn't been able to get over those fears."
A touching image formed itself behind Ash's eyes, a small boy walking between a row of fountains; no comforting weight on his shoulder, no Pokemon to while away the hours with, no friend to love. To all intents and purposes, totally alone in the world.
In actual fact, Tory was pretty much doing exactly that. He was walking on a path between a quite large water feature on one side, and a bank of trees on the other, watching the pavement drift past him as he walked along it. He settled on a block made to hold up a railing at the side of the pond to wallow in his loneliness. A red and yellow creature bounded up a short distance away from him, before bouncing up onto the railing next to him. The Pokemon tugged at the sleeve of his arm squeaking in alarm. Tory looked up absently at the commotion, and recoiled as he saw the Plusle, almost pushing the tiny Pokemon into the lake in his desperation to get away.
"Shoo! Shoo!" He cried, holding his hands out to fend it away. The Plusle continued to look at him, and squeaked more urgently, running further along the pavement to an overturned bin. The back end of a Minun was sticking out of the top from under the lid, trapped in place. The Plusle squeaked at it in reassurance before squeaking back at Tory to get him to help. Tory looked at it, unsure what to do.
"Wow… I shouldn't have pushed him so hard." Ash said, blaming himself for his actions in the arena earlier.
"But underneath it all, I think he loves them. All he really needs is the chance to get to know them. That's all."
"I'm sure that's all it will take." May said, pondering the circumstances. Ash stood up dramatically.
"Fine. Then I'll give him that chance. All he needs now is to become friends with me and Pikachu. Right pal?" He said, stroking the Pikachu's face on his shoulder.
"YAY! I wanna help too! Max said, holding his arms out in the air."
"So do I." May added.
"Me too." Brock said finally. Ash looked at Ganon expectantly. He leant back on his chair.
"Might as well. It'll be a laugh I guess." He said.
"Cool. So what do you say we all go and look for Tory okay?" He said.
"Yeah!" They all shouted together. Except Ganon that said it normally.
"You're awfully kind. Thank you. Especially a master taking the time out to help him." Yuko said, her eyes almost brimming with tears as she looked at Ganon. He smiled awkwardly, and scratched the back of his head.
"Err… yeah… any time." He said. He wasn't used to his status actually being known, considering he specialised in sciences rather than battling as most other Masters preferred to.
Tory meanwhile, had wrenched a branch off a tree, and was using it like a crowbar to pry open the lid of the bin. The lid suddenly gave way, and the trapped Minun fell out. The Plusle looked over the Minun, glancing over it until it was satisfied that she was okay, before they both put their tails together, causing a small shower of sparks. Their equivalent of a secret handshake, Tory mused as he watched them, fascinated. He smiled. Maybe Pokemon weren't so bad.
Then they just had to ruin it by jumping up onto the bin right next to his face. His hair stood on end but as long as they stood where they were, there wasn't a problem with it.
The Minun made a jump for his face.
He screamed and back-pedalled away from the Pokemon, causing it to land on the ground in front of him.
"Err! Um… Later!" He called out to them, before sprinting away. The two Pokemon watched him as he ran off, both of them confused. Ash made his way down the steps to chase after him.
"Come on. He's no fun if he doesn't want to play with us." The Minun said.
"Yeah. I know! More rubbish bin trampolines!" Plusle said. The Minun ran off.
"Last one there's a Slowpoke!" It called back.
"I don't wanna be the Slowpoke!!" The Plusle called as he ran after her.
Ash was wandering back towards the coffee shop when he noticed a red and blue shape moving erratically out of the corner of his eye. He looked over to see the Plusle and the Minun, and more importantly, Tory. He dashed down a nearby stairway to chase after him.
Tory slowed down to a walk as he entered Silicon Plaza. It was the home-place of his father's laboratory, and the security was paramount. A sentry block robot approached him.
"Passport please." It chimed, presenting an interface for Tory's passport to register. Tory held up the chip to the card reader, and waited as the robot processed it.
"Passport rejected." The robot chimed. Tory looked at it in shock.
"No way!! I live here! I'm one of the defaults on the database! Tory Lund, son of Professor-"
"Jeez. Keep your hair on. I was only joshing you." The robot said, making a sad face on its screen. Tory scowled at it, "Hostility detected. Evacuate immediately!" The robot shouted, flying off ridiculously fast. Tory watched after the robot disappeared, and continued on towards the Botanical Gardens. Ash saw him, and continued to follow him.
"And so even if you were in the battle instead of those two losers, you'd still have been trashed." Rafe was bragging to an irate Rebecca. The twins underfoot were hardly helping matters.
"Totally trashed!" They chimed in.
"Then we'll reschedule a match." Rebecca roared at him. Sid looked at her.
"Any time to look good for the ladies I'm fine with." He said, winking at Laura. She scowled at him.
"Don't even think about it lard-arse." She said warningly.
"Save the trash talk to the match, okay?" Rafe said, writing something on a piece of paper, "Tomorrow then, two-thirty. Don't be late again." He said snidely.
Tory presented his passport to a reader next to a glass doorway opening to the greenhouse. With the unbiased sensor accepting it readily, the doors opened and let him into the gardens. This building was maintained with a tropical atmosphere inside, with the main floor about ten metres below the surface of the ground. In the main floor of the arboretum, rare and exotic plants, where growing. A small artificial river snaked though between some of the trees, pooling into a pond cut into the centre of the room. Tory made his way down to a paved patio next to the lake, and began calling something.
"Hey! Come on out! Where are you? I want to tell you something important!" He shouted. It was almost as though he was calling a Pokemon, but of course being a Pokephobe, he was terrified of them.
A small patch of air distorted next to a landscaped waterfall feeding the pond, becoming a shimmering patch of tiny green lights, like the stars in a galaxy. It was similar in shape to a Metapod, but it was fluid and manipulated itself into various shapes as it approached Tory. He gasped in wonder at some of the new forms it was making, before holding his hands out as though to pick it up. The light moved between his hands, although it could never truly be touched. It chimed quietly.
"You'll never guess what I just did, I helped out a Pokemon! Cos it had its head stuck inside a garbage can and so I helped it get it out. Isn't that cool?"
The sparkles twisted into an S shape, which Tory knew to be a yes, and he laughed.
High in the sky of Larousse city, a bright purple aurora burst out of a point on the top of the battle tower, spreading across the entire city. It was remarkably beautiful, and an awe inspiring sight. Everyone in the city that could see it stopped in their tracks, including Laura and Rebecca. Rebecca was spellbound.
"Laura, what do you… Laura?"
Laura was staring through the glass roof at the aurora, totally unaware of anything else happening around her. For all the world, in a trance.
'Ganon. Are you seeing this?'
The Calling? Definitely.
'That's the Duke's signature isn't it.' he said. She could feel that Ganon nodded.
No doubt about it.
'What's it say? All I can read is friend.'
Then you've done a better job than me. I can't read anything from it. He's shouting like mad, and I can't make heads or tails of it. HQ warned me about this. They told me they saw the Duke on the satellite feed.
'They saw him? He's too small to be seen on the scopes.'
Well, detected him would be more accurate. He's wearing a really outdated tourist Visa.
'Where are you?'
Just outside the Battle Tower.
'Great. I'll meet you outside then.'
Okay.
Laura looked across to see Rebecca glaring at her.
"What were you doing?" She asked irritably. Laura smiled at her.
"Just talking to someone about this. He's waiting for me outside." She answered, before turning to leave. Rebecca jumped after her.
"There's no way you're leaving me behind. You know something don't you." She said, her voice laden with suspicion. Laura nodded.
"You catch on fast don't you? Come on then. If there's anything I can do, its run." She called back as she tore away from her. Rebecca snapped her laptop shut, and tucked it under her arm, pelting after her.
Tory, still totally unaware of any atmospheric anomalies, was still talking to the sparkling light. He was sat at the edge of the spring, dipping his feet in the water.
"And I was even part of a Pokemon battle too. Course, I wasn't very good, so that part kinda stunk."
"Hey. Who are you talking to?" Ash called from a balcony that ran along the level of the surface ground. Tory spun around and looked at the intruder, shielding the light from view with his back. The sparks faded out into thin air behind him, and unknown to either of them, the aurora cloaking the city dissipitated.
"Nothing!" Tory shouted, grabbing his shoes and tying them up quickly.
"I'm only asking."
"And I don't want to tell you." Tory said, walking back up the stairs to leave. He pressed a button to open the doors, and steeped back into the plaza.
"Come on. Who was it?" Ash persisted, following the youngster.
"None of your business!"
"What? Would it hurt to tell me?"
"Ugh! Stop! Leave me alone okay?!" Tory said angrily, before trying to run away from Ash.
"Hey wait a minute!" Ash called as he ran after him. Tory looked over his shoulder to see the boy still chasing him, causing him to run through a set of scaffolding occupied by a flock of Wingull. They cried in alarm, swarming up into the sky, causing him to spin around quickly and lose his balance. He screamed and fell over painfully.
"Are you okay?" Ash asked, running over to help him. Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder to look at Tory himself.
Pikachu squeaked, and Tory opened his eyes to see the Pokemon right in his face. He screamed and pushed hard against Ash's chest in an effort to get away, shoving Ash roughly to the ground. He stopped a metre away from the Pikachu, staring at it petrified. Ash picked himself up from the ground, and grabbed the boy by the collar of his jumper.
"Gee thanks (!) Why did you have to go and push me?" He shouted at the helpless boy.
"Ash, stop!" A girl shouted from somewhere behind Tory. May dashed in and pushed Ash away from the boy, "Don't start something!"
"Okay." Ash said apologetically. Tory looked away from the group around him shamefully.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked them. Ash stepped forwards.
"I wanted us to become friends."
"So your idea of friendship is trying to punch me?" Tory asked quietly. May took the opportunity to argue their cause.
"That's just temper getting the better of him. He's not really as bad as you think he is. He's really sweet when you get to know him."
Ash blushed at May's compliment, and Max's glasses whited over again suggesting another scathing remark was imminent.
"And May's a magician with food. She's just turned Ash into a beetroot." He said cheekily. May glared at her brother evilly, and Ash's blush turned an even deeper shade of scarlet. Brock pulled Max away from May before a fistfight ensued.
"If you want, you can come visit us at the PokeCentre anytime. We're staying there all week, so if you want to find us anytime, you can ask…" Brock's eyes turned into hearts, "The lovely nurse Joy that I love so much and-"
Max reached up and grabbed both of Brocks ears; pulling the breeder over backwards and making his ears resemble Pikachu's.
"Terrified them every time we've met one." Max finished. Ash and May face-palmed simultaneously.
"And he wasn't even near a Joy that time." May groaned. Tory burst out laughing, clutching his sides trying to control himself as released the ears allowing Brock to ricochet forwards. Pikachu looked up at the now Pika-fied breeder and groaned. It looked like the worlds worst hall of mirrors set up.
And this is probably quite an awkward place to finish it. But If I didn't stop it now, I'd be obliged to include a much longer event which is the equivalent length of another chapter.
