CHAPTER 4 – BRICKS AND MT. MORTAR

Ash leant on the railing, standing on the balcony of his hotel room, staring out at the dark expanse of ocean in front of him. Pikachu stood on the railing next to him.

"Hey, Pikachu," said Ash, still looking out to sea.

"Pii?" said Pikachu blankly. Yeah?

"You reckon we can win this tournament?" he asked casually.

"Pii," said Pikachu, nodding. Of course.

Ash smiled. "Me too," he said excitedly. He turned away from the night sky. "Come on, buddy," he said, scooping up Pikachu and placing him back up on his shoulder. "Let's go see what Brock and Dawn are doing."

They walked back inside the hotel room, where Brock was grabbing a bottle of lemonade out of the fridge, and Dawn was nowhere to be seen. "Hey Brock, where's Dawn?" Ash asked, walking into the kitchen and pouring himself a cup of water from the tap.

Brock took a sip of lemonade then shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea," he said. "She said something about going outside with Piplup then she took off."

"How long ago did she say that?" asked Ash; he and Pikachu had been standing outside for a long time.

Brock checked the clock on the wall. "About an hour and a half ago, I'd say," he said. "Why?"

"Just wondering where she's gone, that's all," muttered Ash, draining his glass. "Have you noticed how weird she's been acting ever since we came here?" he asked, sitting down in an armchair.

Brock remained silent, preferring to drink his lemonade. When he'd finished it, he chose his words carefully. "I wouldn't necessarily say 'since we came here'," he said slowly. "She seemed normal when we walked through the main gates. But yes, I have noticed her acting a bit… differently."

"Well when did you notice it?" asked Ash, taking off his cap.

"About the same time that Ari came and introduced us to Leoric," said Brock, shrugging his shoulders again. He looked at Ash curiously. "Why, does it matter that much to you?" he asked, smirking.

"No!" said Ash stubbornly. He ran a hand through his hair before he stood up and said, "I'm gonna use the computer. I might be able to find out some more about Ari and Leoric's Pokémon."

He walked over to the small computer in the corner of the lounge-room and sat down in front of it. Brock picked up a stool from the kitchen and joined him.

"Okay, Leoric, let's see what kind of Pokémon you've got," murmured Ash as he typed. He pulled up a search engine and asked for the Pokémon Conference campaign he'd entered last year. The computer bleeped, and a window popped up showing a picture of Leoric, and underneath the picture were the words "Mt. Silver Conference – Grand Champion".

"Grand Champion, no way!" said Ash in disbelief.

"Well at least take a look at the Pokémon he used in his finals match, Ash," said Brock. "That way you'll know what his main Pokémon are."

Ash looked at Brock, impressed. "That's a good idea," he said, turning back to the computer and typing commands furiously on the keyboard. The computer bleeped again, and a window appeared showing six Pokémon pictures. Ash and Brock saw Apache, Leoric's Salamence, a Tyranitar, a Swampert, and also a Magnezone, Yanmega and Gengar. Ash raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"He's got some pretty strong Pokémon in his possession," said Brock quietly, mirroring Ash's thoughts.

"Yeah, he does," said Ash, scrolling through Leoric's profile. "And look here, he's made it to at least the top eight in every Conference around; he won at Mt. Silver, he made the top four at the Indigo League, top four again at Ever Grande, and he made the quarter-finals in the Sinnoh League."

As he tried to find the link to show him Leoric's other Pokémon, a small icon appeared and started flashing in the corner of the computer screen. Ash and Brock looked at each other.

"What's that?" asked Ash, pointing at the icon.

"I think it's a video call," said Brock, furrowing his brow. "Click on it," he suggested.

"Alright," said Ash, clicking the icon with the cursor.

In seconds he was looking at an almost mirror image of his hotel room, except that instead of himself, he was looking at Ari, who was grinning widely at him. He waved at them and finished eating an ice-cream cone that he'd been holding before saying, "Hey guys, what you doing?"

"Just checking some things on the tournament," said Ash hastily, closing the window with Leoric's information on it.

How did he know we were here? he thought. He was about to ask Ari that same question, but before the words had even formed in his mouth, he saw a movement on the side of the screen as Dawn came into view in Ari's hotel room. She was also eating an ice-cream, and she beamed as she saw Ash and Brock on the screen. "Hi!" she said, a little loudly, as her Piplup came on-screen and jumped up onto her hat with a squeak. "Sorry I didn't come right back after going outside, but I ran into Ari, and he invited me along to get something to eat, and, well… here I am!" She giggled, offering Piplup some of her ice-cream.

"Ah, so that explains it," said Brock, who also seemed to be thinking what Ash was. "Did you tell Ari what room we were in?" he asked Dawn knowingly.

"Yep," said Dawn lazily, sitting down next to Ari.

Ari glanced at her before smiling sheepishly and turning back to the screen. "Yeah, and since all the rooms here have computers, I just checked to see if your one was being used, and it was, so I figured I'd stop by and say hi. Oh, and let you know where Dawn was," he added.

"Thanks," muttered Ash. "So what have you two been doing?" he asked coolly.

Ari and Dawn looked briefly at one another. "Nothing much," said Dawn. "We met outside the hotel, and he asked me if I'd like to join him and get a bite to eat. So we went down to the shops and got some ice-creams, and we just talked. Then he invited me up to his room for a little while."

"Well, not just my room," said Ari hurriedly, sensing as possible misinterpretation. "Leoric's staying with me for the first week of the Championships."

"So have you checked the tournament ladder, Ash?" he asked.

"No, I haven't," said Ash honestly. He didn't know the ladder had even been drawn up yet. "Have you?" he asked Ari blankly.

"No, I prefer not to know who I'm facing until the day," said Ari. "It takes out all the little advantages you can get from looking at someone's Pokémon, and I find it makes the battle that much better."

There was a short silence following this, during which Dawn finished eating her ice-cream. Ash took advantage of this to ask Ari a question which had been on his mind for most of the day.

"Hey, Ari," said Ash cautiously. "Earlier today, when we saw Paul on the bridge, we all saw Leoric… sort of… go mental at him. He said it was long unsettled business, as if the two of them have some kind of bad history. What's the story behind that?" he asked hesitantly, worried that Ari would lose his temper at him.

Indeed, Ari's expression seemed to harden, just like it did on the bridge. With a worried look, Dawn put a soothing hand on his shoulder, and the shadows on his face faded quickly. He looked away, finally saying, "It's a bit of a long story."

"We've got plenty of time," Ash rallied. Admittedly, he thought he was pushing the issue, but at the same time he was eager to hear the reason for the Trainers' animosity.

"Well, Leoric didn't lose his temper at Paul for something that between the two of them," said Ari. "He… got angry at Paul because of something that happened… between Paul and me."

"Oh, so is that why Paul..?" said Dawn, trailing off at the end, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Why Paul spat at me?" finished Ari. "Yeah, and he paid for that one, thanks to you," he said, grinning at Dawn, who smiled grimly.

Brock sat down next to Ash, his curiosity piqued, to hear more. "If it's between you and Paul, why was Leoric the one that tried to get back at him?" he asked.

"Because that's how Leoric is," said Ari simply. "He's pretty headstrong, and if something upsets him or gets him angry, you'd better believe that he's gonna let you know about it. He was just defending me, like I told Dawn after Paul left," he added with a meaningful look at Dawn.

"So what's the bad blood between you and Paul, then?" asked Ash bluntly. Dawn gave him an angry look, but Ari merely sighed, resigned to telling the tale.

"Well, he and I had a bit of a run-in about five or so years ago," he said. "I was still living in Ecruteak City at the time, and one day this guy and his little brother came through. Their names were Reggie and Paul. My mother let them stay in our backyard for about a week, y'know, to rest up and get supplies. She seemed to get along with Reggie, because he respected his Pokémon, and he was a kind and polite sort of person. But I never liked Paul from the moment I saw him. He was only a little kid, a year or two younger than me, but he just had this attitude, as though he didn't want to be associated with anything that could be seen as weak because it might make him look weak to other people. He already had a couple of strong Pokémon with him, too, like that Torterra we saw today, and an Elekid. Poor Pokémon, they looked so angry, and for no reason. But I suppose that's how Paul had trained them to be…"

"Anyways, Paul didn't seem to like me either. He hated me on sight, just like I hated him, and he thought I was a weakling because I believed in compassion and friendship between a Trainer and his Pokémon, even though I was a bit older and more mature than him; no doubt a dislike he has for you too, Ash?" he asked.

"Yeah," answered Ash bitterly. "I'm not even sure he knows what compassion means," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah, well Paul and I had a few heated arguments over the subject, but both of us stuck to our beliefs, so they were pretty pointless," continued Ari. "But the day before he and Reggie left Ecruteak, I saw Paul grab a couple of his PokéBalls and run off into the forest behind my house. So I decided to follow him and find out what he was up to. So after about ten minutes of wandering around, I saw Paul in a clearing, and—"

Ash felt rooted to the spot, desperate to hear more. What? he thought. What?!

"—I saw Paul and his Elekid torturing a Duskull," said Ari.

Ash swore loudly, Brock gasped in disbelief, and Dawn clapped her hands to her mouth. They knew that Paul was unkind; his display on the bridge today had proven that. But none of them had expected Paul to do something that extreme; it was almost inhuman.

"The next time I see him," seethed Ash. "I'm gonna tear him a new a—"

"Ash!" said Dawn, dismayed.

"Yeah be quiet," said Brock, through gritted teeth, trying to contain his anger. "I get the feeling that there's more, isn't there, Ari?"

"There is," said Ari, shifting in his chair. "Thanks for giving me the chance to continue," he said to Brock, who fell silent.

"So, I saw Paul and his Elekid, torturing this Duskull," he went on. "And I was as outraged as you guys are now; I didn't like him, but at the same time, I didn't think he was capable of something like that. I don't know what he was thinking – maybe he thought that a little pain would toughen it up – but it was still a cruel thing to do, whatever his reasons. So I ran into the clearing and punched Paul square in the face," he said, to which Dawn cheered and clapped Ari on the back, and Ash smiled vengefully. "Once he was on the ground and his Elekid had turned around to see what was going on, I ran over to the Duskull, scooped it up, and ran off with it."

"After a few seconds, Paul realised what I'd done, so he sent out his Torterra, climbed up on it and started chasing after me. I ran as fast as I could for what seemed like forever, until I ran right up to the mountain range behind Mt. Mortar. I looked around, but I couldn't go anywhere without being seen, and I could hear Paul's Torterra getting closer. So I hid the Duskull behind a large rock, and I waited. A few moments later, I saw his Torterra come into view, and then I saw Paul. He looked livid, but I could see something else there; he looked almost happy. Then I realised that he was happy that he'd finally gotten me alone, in the middle of nowhere, and he had the upper hand; he had his Pokémon. So then he said, 'Well, since I can't find that Duskull anywhere, I suppose I'll have to make to do with you'. And with that… he sent out his Elekid, and… decided he'd torture me instead," he said, as the colour drained from his face.

As he said those last words, there was a crack, the sound of breaking glass and a cry of "Pikaa!" as Ash looked down and saw fragments of glass jutting out from his fist. He'd been holding his glass of water when Ari had finished his story, and he'd gripped it so hard that it had broken under the pressure. Ash didn't feel any pain from it; he felt nothing but shock and rage. Torturing an innocent Pokémon was bad enough, but a fellow person? It was madness. He sat there, numb, barely registering the blood as it began flowing from his wounds.

Brock noticed the source of the sound before Dawn and Ari did, and he threw his hand in front of the computer screen to stop them seeing Ash's cut and bloody hand. He closed the window of the video call and led Ash over to the kitchen sink, Pikachu hopping onto the kitchen-top, looking at Ash's hand with a worried eye. Ash ran his hand under freezing cold water for several minutes, grimacing and grunting with pain as Brock carefully eased the glass shards out of his hand.

"Pikachu, get a roll of bandages out of my backpack," said Brock urgently, as he took out another piece of glass.

Pikachu ran over to the door, where Brock had dropped his backpack, and jumped back up to the kitchen-top several moments later with a rolled-up bandage between his teeth.

"Thanks, Pikachu," said Brock, removing the last shard from Ash's hand, as Ash hissed and banged his other hand on the sink. He took the bandage from Pikachu and wrapped Ash's hand in it gently, taking care not to cut off the circulation. Once they all seemed satisfied with the bandage, they returned to the computer, and Brock brought the video window back up. Ari and Dawn were still there; Ari looking puzzled, Dawn looking distraught.

"What happened?" squeaked Dawn. "We heard a crack, and then Brock closed the window, and it sounded like one of you hurt yourself…" She trailed off, her lips trembling.

Ash forced a smile and showed them his bandaged hand. Dawn gasped. "Nothing major," he said quickly. "Just a bit of an accident with a drinking glass, that's all. Brock fixed it right up, so nothing to worry about," he added, with another forced smile.

"So what happened after… that?" Ash asked Ari quietly, noticing Dawn still looking worriedly at his hand. He quickly hid it below the computer desk.

"Well," said Ari with a sigh. "It turned out that the Duskull I saved was one of Morty's Pokémon. He was really impressed that I'd manage to find it out in the wilderness without any Pokémon of my own. I didn't mention who I'd saved it from, or what the circumstances had been. Anyways, he gave me an egg that actually came from the Duskull that I'd rescued, and it ended up hatching into Horazon," he finished, somewhat lamely, but Ash saw the colour return to his cheeks as he mentioned his first Pokémon.

"I don't get it," said Brock, shaking his head. "If that happened so long ago, why didn't you take your revenge on him?"

"Oh, believe me, I wanted to," chuckled Ari. "I wanted to hunt him down, but not because of what had happened to me. I wanted to make him pay for using Pokémon to do what he did to me. I don't blame his Pokémon; they were just obeying their Trainer. But ordering your Pokémon to do what they did, that's just sick."

"But why didn't you--?"

"Have my revenge? It wasn't worth it. He wasn't worth it. Sure, Paul's a little piece of vermin that needs to be taught a lesson, but sooner or later he's gonna have to answer for his actions. Plus, I'm not going to sink to his level just to settle an old score. Although I must say, I will savour the day when I beat him in a battle with Horazon."

"Well, if you're not going for full-blooded vengeance, I'd say I'd be happy with that too," said Ash, as Pikachu sat in his lap, still watching his hand.

"Yeah, it would be nice," Ari joked. He glanced at his watch and let out a whistle. "Geez, is that the time?" he said. "It's nearly eleven! I'm gonna be heading off to bed soon."

"Really? That's a shame," said Brock. "But I suppose we should all get some rest too," he added, nodding at Ash, who looked down at his hand.

"Yeah, me especially," he said, raising his hand to make the point, before wincing and lowering it back down.

"That's probably a good idea," said Dawn seriously. She turned to Ari. "I should get back to my room," she said.

"Well, I hope you won't mind if I walk you there?" asked Ari politely.

Dawn blushed. "Of course not," she answered. "I'll see you three in about ten minutes, okay?" she said to Brock, Ash and Pikachu before turning off the video link.

The three of them sat around the computer silently for a while, until Brock stood up, turned off the computer, and said to Ash, "Well, I'm off to bed. Today's been a long day, and I get the feeling we're only just at the beginning, in more ways than one. Hope your hand's feeling better in the morning," he added with a small grin, clapping Ash on the shoulder before he walked off into his room.

"Thanks, Brock," said Ash, more to himself than anything. "Come on, Pikachu, we're going to need our sleep," he said, and he and Pikachu went to Ash's room.

Ash took off his jacket and fell back on his bed, staring at the ceiling, his thoughts running through his head faster than he could keep track. He thought of Leoric sending out his Salamence against Paul on the bridge, of Dawn slapping Paul in the face, of the way Ari and Paul glared at each other before Paul stalked off, and of the way Ari had looked when he told them of the story behind his and Paul's hatred of each other. He stayed awake for a long time, even after Dawn came back inside and went to sleep in her room, before he finally fell into a restless sleep.

Trivia:

*Although Ari says that Mt. Mortar is behind Ecruteak City (i.e. north), geographically it is north-east.

Quiz:

*Of the sixteen attack types that can be super-effective, what is one type that none of Leoric's six Pokémon have a weakness to?