Hello again! Welcome to chapter 4 of the past and the present! As I said last chapter, we will be getting back to the travelling around hoenn part of the story, I also stated that a few hints will be dropped so look out for those! If you have any ideas, opinions or views on how this story could be better, feel free to talk about them in your review! Another thing that I would like to mention is that I have decided to delete my other story so that I can keep on posting chapters for this one! So, with out further delay, on with the story! *Hears thunder outside and jumps* Y-yeah...I don't like thunder storms...:(
Ash had finally made it to the bottom of the cliff, the climb down had been a living hell, since his scar on his chest caused a lot of pain whenever he reached for a rock. He picked up the little bird pokemon from his good shoulder and put her down on the ground, much to her relief. He then stood up and walked over to the waterfall again. "I wonder if this will work again" He said to himself, the teen cupped his hands and watched as they quickly filled with water, he then put them to his mouth and drank deeply. Ash felt his tiredness fade away to nothing but when he looked down he saw through his torn clothes that the injury's were still there and were leaking quite a lot of blood. "Crap! Better get back to camp..." He said to himself as he turned around and began to stumble back in the direction of May's and his camp site with torchic following close behind.
Ash could see the clearing that he was staying in now, by the time he had gotten back, it was already noon. The raven haired teen saw May sitting on a log in the middle of the clearing with her legs and arms crossed, she had an unhappy look on her face. "Oh great, she's pissed..." Moaned Ash inside of his head, he made his way out of the under growth, getting her attention...
May was beginning to get angry, she had read the note that Ash had left for her when she had woken up which was ages ago! She was sitting on a log in the middle of the clearing, pissed. Was Ash even planning to come back? She mentally slapped herself, Ash would never do that! Right? She was about to give up but then she saw Ash stumble out of the bushes into the clearing with torchic close behind. She was about to welcome him back but then she remembered that she had to act pissed and make him do anything for her, at least for a day and then she would forgive him. Her face turned to one of horror, All of these thoughts suddenly vanished when she saw the state that Ash was in, the front of his hoodie and shirt had been completely ripped apart and there was a huge slash going from his left shoulder all the way diagonally down to the right side of his waist. His jeans had tonnes of rips in them and his sneakers were muddy, he had blood all over his bare chest. May was horrified, what could of happened to him?! "O-oh my...A-Ash, what happened?!" Shouted May as she ran towards him, Ash simply shook his head with a grin and then fainted, falling into May's arms as she brought him into an embrace to keep him from landing on the ground.
Ash slowly opened his eyes to see the afternoon sky, how long had he been asleep? He sat up, pushing through the pain, he then received a scalding from May who was sitting next to him. "Don't force yourself! You should lye down and let your injury's heal..." Ash looked at her worried face he then noticed that whilst May had been scalding him, so had torchic, "Tor! Torchic! Tor!" He grinned, "looks like an angel is watching over me..." May blushed deeply and looked away, she then looked back at Ash and was about to say something but she noticed that Ash's eyes were directed at torchic who was now in his lap, receiving a lot of petting. "Oh, thanks for your help too May" Said Ash with a cocky attitude, May puffed up her cheeks and pouted which made his smile grow even wider. "This is no time to be making jokes! Why did you take so long!" Pouted May, Ash still had a huge smile,"Worried were we?" May blushed again but countered, "Are you kidding? I missed torchic" she said whilst yanking the fire type from his lap with a sly smile on her pink face. They both laughed for a while or in Ash's case, just grinned widely.
Later on, when they had both calmed down, May began her barrage of questions. "So, what took you so long! I was starting to think that you wouldn't come back..." She said with a sad face, Ash frowned at her, "Do you really think I would do that to someone I care about?" May felt her cheeks heat up a bit, "There's no way I would leave you behind!" May smiled, "Thanks..." Ash nodded at her and continued, he didn't want to tell her about the encounter with suicune just yet, maybe later when he could actually make sense of it himself instead of passing the confusion onto someone else. "We were walking by the river hen this feraligatr jumped out and started attacking." Said Ash, making it up as he went along, "Torchic didn't stand a chance because of her type disadvantage." He said, taking a glance at the pokemon, who was playing along by nodding although she was slightly unhappy that Ash had made her sound so weak. "After torchic went down, I sent in my pokemon but all of them got thrashed, the pokemon must have been leader of the territory or something because he was so strong! Elekid hit him a few times with some shock waves but they did hardly anything! Anyway after skorupi went down, who was my last pokemon, the water type used slash on me and that's how I got this..." He said whilst pointing to she bandaged injury on his chest, May nodded with her head on top of her hands, she completely belived him. It made Ash feel very guilty but he had to continue. "When the big guy was about to hit me again, an ursaring walked up and said that he wanted to challenge the water type for ownership of the territory, feraligatr must have thought that his territory was more important because he started battling ursaring. That gave us a way out and I took it, I didn't stick around to see who won." "Wow..." Said May, "Don't be so reckless!" She shouted at him whilst swinging her arms around, Ash just smiled and went back to lye down.
A while later they were both in there sleeping bags, ready to sleep for the night. Ash was about to close his eyes after about five minutes of looking at the sky, when he heard May talk. "Hey" She said whilst lying on her side, facing away from him. "Next time...Take me with you..." She said quietly, Ash smiled "I'll never leave without you again..." May blushed then closed her eyes and smiled, "Goodnight...Ash..." She said as she drifted off into a slumber. Ash looked back at the sky, "Goodnight May" He yawned and then closed his eyes.
-Ash's dream-
Note:
'Ash'= The person that Ash is seeing the dream from.
Ash= Real Ash.
They were running down a stone paved alleyway out of a burning city, a man and a pokemon. 'Ash' began to shout to the person next to him, "Don't stop running, as soon as you do the bandits will catch you!" "Yes master!" The pokemon replied whilst picking up the pace to match his owner's. "If I may master, one question?" 'Ash' turned to look at his companion whilst still running, "You are confused as to why we do not stand and fight?" He said in his formal speech that came from his upbringing. The pokemon nodded but then quickly ducked under a market stall as he continued to sprint. "There are far too many of them, we will be killed before we can even make one strike, a good fighter knows when to attack and when to retreat and at the moment, we are retreating. Believe me my friend, this hurts my pride as much as it does yours..." The pokemon nodded, understanding his master's logic, up ahead of them they saw the draw bridge being pulled up by bandits that were on top of the city wall. They both looked at each other and nodded, at the same time they formed blue spheres in their palms and hurled them at the chains that were connected to the draw bridge's sides. One sphere hit one chain whilst the other sphere hit the chain that was on the opposite side of the bridge, making the wooden plat form slam back down onto the ground, offering a way out for the duo. "Are you ready lucario?" Asked 'Ash' confidently, the pokemon nodded with the same expression, "Yes master!" He shouted as they both leaped forwards, using their aura to smash through the blockade of bandits that were waiting outside the gate, behind them they heard one bandit shout to the others. "Hurry and chase after them! We cant let Sir Aaron escape!"...
Ash groggily opened his eyes to see a confident looking torchic standing on his chest, "Tor! Torchic tor!" Ash let his head fall back down onto his pillow and he rubbed his forehead. "You want a battle?" He groaned, "Go back to sleep, it's too early for this..." Said the grumpy teen as he rolled over, making torchic slide off of his chest. The small pokemon pouted and was about to walk away, when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and brought into ash's chest, she was being used as a teddy bear! Torchic shouted at Ash, "Torchic tor tor, torchic tor!", Ash opened his eyes slightly. "Noon? what do you mean it's almost noon?" He mumbled, if torchic had a hand, she would have slapped it on her forehead at that point. She decided that the only way to wake Ash up was the hard way, she took a deep breath and launched an ember attack at Ash, the teen was sent flying out of his sleeping bag with a terrified look on his face. "Ow! Hey that hurt! Fine if it's a battle you want, then it's a battle you'll get! Pesky chicken..." He shouted as he got dressed.
A while later, Ash was standing on one side of the clearing with Torchic on the other, the chick pokemon had told Ash earlier that May had gone to pick some berries and would be back later. Ash frowned, "You can be a real pain sometimes, you know that?" Torchic simply grinned and began to dance around, taunting Ash. He growled, this little chick was way too cocky, no pun intended. He took out a a pokeball and threw it out onto the battle field, out of which came a very jolly magby. The pokemon noticed that torchic was dancing and began to dance himself, thinking that this was some special event. Ash slapped a hand on his forehead, "Magby, this is a battle, not a dance party..." He groaned, magby froze mid step and turned towards his trainer, rubbing the back of his head with a silly smile. Ash just sighed and then became determined, "Let's show that chicken how a real fire type battles!" Magby nodded whilst shouting his name in agreement, his fists were clenched and he was ready to win. "I'm warning you torchic, you can still back out with your pride intact, or you could battle me and have it shattered to pieces..." Ash said coldly with a grin, torchic just began taunting again, not listening to a word of his warning...
(One ass kicking later...)
Torchic was devastated, she had been beaten at her own game! Ash walked over to her and patted her head, "Not to worry torchic, your training has paid off, you dodged a few attacks and landed some hits on magby. I bet that if May had been there to help guide you, you could of beaten us!" He said with a grin, torchic looked at him wide eyed, she had never been praised by anyone like that before, except May. "Torchic!" She chirped, determined to get stronger and eventually beat Ash.
After May had come back later they had eaten dinner and slept for the night. The next morning the began to pack up their things, ready to move on. "So, where are we heading?" Asked Ash, May thought for a moment, "Well maybe challenging the gyms whilst we are on our journey would be a good idea since the places that we are going to be travelling to have strong wild pokemon, we need to be ready." Ash nodded, "So where's the nearest gym?" "The nearest gym is in rustboro city, it's at the exit to the petalburg woods so it's not to far away." Ash nodded again and began to walk back towards the path, "Well, better get a move on..."
