Chapter 10: Mt. Battle
By sunrise the next morning Ash was at the steps to the HQ Lab. No one but he and his Pokémon were up. All he had with him were his three Pokémon, his backpack, and a PDA, which Aidan had given to him the night previously. It was meant primarily to keep in touch with the lab, but it also had a map installed. It also served as a Pokédex.
"Ready Pikachu?" he asked his partner. Pikachu nodded. Ash began to walk down the road at a fast pace. He was determined. According to what Lily had told him the previous night, Vander had indeed seen some strange vehicle on the highway the previous day while on patrol. Ash was almost certain that he knew where that vehicle was headed: Drussel City. A part of him doubted himself though. It had been two days since Michael had busted Cipher in that city. Surely the police would have shut down their laboratory by then?
He was about an hour down the road when he heard a motor running behind him. He turned around to see that Michael was following him on his bike.
"Ash!" Michael called unnecessarily. He pulled over his bike a few feet from Ash's feet and dismounted.
"Geez, you didn't even tell anyone you were leaving!" Michael yelled.
"Sorry…" said Ash, "I was bit too excited I guess."
"That's alright," said Michael, folding his arms, "But the morning news came up with something interesting. Might blow your theory out of the water. That lab that belonged to Cipher back in Drussel City? It exploded out of nowhere last night. Hurt several people. No deaths… yet. I think it was planned." Ash was silent.
"Also, you were planning on walking the whole way ON FOOT!?" Michael asked, "This region is enormous! It would take you a whole year to get from the north end to the south end!"
"Hey, I've travelled a lot of other regions on foot," said Ash, a little offended.
"We're in a bit of a race against time if you haven't noticed," said Michael, "Cipher is gaining power quickly. Sooner or later, they'll have the Shadow Pokémon army they're after. We need to be ready."
"Why didn't you just e-mail me about this?" asked Ash, "I have a PDA now."
"The second thing that I said," said Michael, "We kind of realized that you had no means of transportation other than your feet. So they sent me to help you out." He gestured to his bike.
"Hop on," said Michael, "We're heading to Mt. Battle. Vander is expecting us. He e-mailed my mom saying that he had more information for us." Ash, a bit overwhelmed at the overload of information, nodded. They both got on the bike and took off.
They arrived at Mt. Battle within the next hour. It was quite literal in the way it was named. As they approached it, Ash saw that the facility was hewn into the mountain. He saw faint traces of yellow paths up in the clouds hanging around the mountain.
"This is the hub for all trainers to come test their skills in Orre," said Michael, "It's even more popular than the Colloseums."
"Colloseums?" Ash asked.
"I'll explain later," said Michael, "It shouldn't be too hard to find Vander. He works on the first level of the facility. We might have to battle some people though. He's usually busy with training."
"That's what I do best," said Ash. They dismounted from the bike outside of the main facility. People stood around exercising with their Pokémon or lounging outside against the wall of the building. The two boys walked into the building. It opened up into a lobby. Counters were stocked with rare goods. Price tags showed battle points rather than normal money values. The lobby was quite crowded and lively.
"There are more people here than usual," said Michael, "I wonder why none of them are taking the challenge?" Indeed, none of the many people in the room even bothered to step close to the receptionist at the other side of the room.
"That is odd," said Ash, "Maybe their cheering others on?"
"Spectators are allowed on the battlefields up to level 3," said Michael, "It's really difficult to get past that though…"
"Where is Vander?" asked Ash.
"Inside," said Michael, "I think we might need to take the challenge to see him." Ash nodded. They walked towards the receptionist. She smiled at them.
"Hello there," she said in a friendly tone, "I'm sorry, but Mt. Battle is closed right now for repairs to some of the helipads."
"We're here to see Vander," said Michael, "Can you let us through for that?" The receptionist frowned.
"I'm afraid not," she said, "He's busy helping with the repairs." Michael stared at her as though she was an idiot.
"Area leaders don't help with repairs!" Michael almost yelled, "That's a job for the mechanics!"
"Well we didn't have enough mechanics for this job, so we enlisted the help of some of the Area Leaders to help out," said the receptionist impatiently.
"There are ten zones in this facility," said Michael, "You've got to have at least four mechanics for each one. So forty mechanics isn't enough?"
"Mt. Battle is closed and that's that!" the receptionist yelled at him, "If you can't accept that fact, then you'll just have to leave!" Michael looked about ready to charge past her and break down the door.
"Michael…" Ash started. Then he was struck by an Aura Vision. His vision turned negative again, and the Auras around him became apparent. He stumbled backwards, his vision blurred for several seconds. Then his will overcame and he gained control over the vision. The Aura Vision cleared significantly. He now stood about five paces from Michael and the receptionist both of whom were looking at him strangely. Pikachu had jumped off of his shoulder and was standing on the floor in front of him. His head swiveled around and his heart sank. He saw the receptionist's Aura. It was red, as were half of the Auras in the room. He willed the vision to stop. It did, but he fell over on his bottom. As he opened his eyes, he yelled: "Pikachu, attack!"
Pikachu hesitated so Ash got up and pointed at the receptionist.
"Thunderbolt, go!" Ash yelled. Pikachu reluctantly charged its energy and fired a bolt of lightning at the receptionist. Michael dove out of the way. The receptionist jumped out of the way at lightning speed and landed on the ground. The Thunderbolt struck a light and put it out instantly.
"How did you know?" she asked through gritted, teeth, "Was it because of my Aura… Aura Reader!?" She threw off her clothing to reveal the outfit of a Cipher goon beneath. The rest of the Cipher goons Ash had seen throughout the room did the same.
Suddenly, the room had become a lot less lively and a lot tenser. People begin to panic. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then the goon who had been playing the receptionist threw two Poké Balls at Ash. One opened up behind him and the other in front of him. From the light behind him appeared a Heracross. From the one at his front came a Kirlia.
"Kirlia, Psychic! Heracross, use Brick Break!" the goon yelled. Ash reacted before she could finish giving the commands. He grabbed a Poké Ball and threw it to his side just as Kirlia's eyes glowed blue. Ledyba appeared just as Ash and Pikachu were immobilized. The Heracross was coming up behind him.
"Ledyba, Aerial Ace!" Ash yelled. Ledyba slammed into the Heracross twice, once heading at it, and another time heading back. The Pokémon was knocked to the ground unconscious from the powerful blow. Michael took action and called upon two Pokémon of his own.
"Teddiursa! Houndoom!" he yelled as he threw the Poké Balls. Teddiursa appeared alongside the fire and dark type Pokémon. Goons began to surround them.
"Houndoom, use Dark Pulse!" Michael called. A compressed pulse of dark energy appeared at Houndoom's chest. The energy was released in a wave of darkness that knocked back the goons surrounding them. That wave of darkness also caught the Kirlia and knocked it to the ground. Ash fell to his knees.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" he yelled, pointing at the female goon who had ensnared him in the Psychic. Pikachu did as he was told with no hesitation this time. The female goon was zapped and fell on the floor unconscious. Three more goons remained.
"Fury Swipes!" Michael yelled. Teddiursa initiated its attack. A few seconds later, the goons were on the floor unconscious, thus ending the, quite literally, thirty second battle. The two young trainers and their Pokémon met in the middle of the room.
"They won't stay out for long," said Michael, "We need to get out there. Chances are there are more of them waiting." He turned away from Ash to address the shocked group of normal people.
"We need someone to call the police!" he said, "And we need everyone to help in holding these goons!" The people immediately began to do as they were told. Michael watched for a few seconds before Ash tapped him on the shoulder. He turned.
"Let's go," said Ash, pointing towards the door, "We have to find Vander. I have a feeling that he's in some sort of danger."
"You think?" said Michael. With that, they briskly began walking towards the door into Mt. Battle, allowing their Pokémon to follow at their sides. If a fight were to come at them entering into the battle facility, they would be ready.
A/N: First of all, I'd like to apologize for my leave of absence on this story. I've been writing another story for a while that I got a little obsessed with. Then I took about two weeks off. Second, I'd like to thank all of you for the support this story is getting. I've never had a story get this popular in so few chapters. This story already has more favorites and follows than my previous most popular fanfiction and it's sixty-five chapters shorter at the moment. So thank you so much for all of your support!
That said, I don't know when the next chapter will be up, because I'm stuck writing a huge battle (and breaking every rule of Pokémon in doing so), but it will come eventually. Also, if anyone thinks I'm being too harsh with the battles and themes of this story, good, because I'm basing the style of this fanfiction on the manga series, Pokémon Adventures, even though Ash is an anime character. In my opinion, the manga provides a deeper story and deeper themes than the anime and the games, which I want to embrace in this work. That is all.