A/N- "Speech" 'thoughts' 'telepathy'
Thanks to my beta reader Flamewing98!
Please enjoy and review.
Chapter Eleven
The sun was beginning to set in the town of Rota, and the roads were jam packed. Normally at this time, the streets would be mostly empty, but today was the grand opening of the Royal Aura Resort Poke-park, and visitors had poured in from all over the region to attend. Among those visitors was May and the gang. After waiting for a whole week for the Pokemon park to open, they were ready to finally see some Pokemon.
"Come on Guys!" May ran ahead of the group to find their seats "They're starting the ceremony!"
"Slow down May," Brock panted as he struggled before managing to fall into the seat beside her "Not all of us got so much sleep last night. We were busy."
He was referring to the Meowth Casino and Spa, where everyone but May spent a lot of the night relaxing and having some fun. May didn't like the casino because it had a bar, and the bar reminded her of some of the hard times she had after Ash disappeared. Her eyes unfocused as the manager began to speak, slipping into a memory.
(Two months after Ash's disappearance)
May was wandering through Viridian City. In her hands was a bottle of Spinda Brew and it was more than half empty. A look at the path behind her and one could tell that it wasn't her first either.
Eyes glazed over, May made her way over to a door, above which read "The Tipsy Taillow". She opened the door and walked into a crowded room filled with men and women either dancing or playing pool. Almost all of them were drunk. She stumbled over to the bartender and drunkenly asked for another bottle of Spinda Brew. As she waited for her next drink, a shallow looking man with greasy black hair and a trench coat filled with holes walked over.
"Hey girlie," He sat down next to her "wanna have some fun?"
May took her bottle from the bartender and gave him five Poke dollars. Popping off the cork, she turned to look at the man.
"No thenksh."
She turned her attention back to her drink, but he just laughed.
"Playing hard to get, are we?" He leaned over, and she could smell his sour breath "I like a good chase."
"Please." May sniffed as she got up to leave "I'm shpoken fer."
She walked for the door, but not before she heard him say, "Oh, but who doesn't want what's out of reach."
May stumbled out into the street and waved down a taxi. Unfortunately for her, the taxi was just a large Rattata that, in her stupor, she mistook for a taxi.
"Jerk." She kicked the Rattata, and it scurried away "Guess I'll hafta walk home m-myself."
The way back to Pallet Town was a long one, almost a thirty minute walk, but May was too drunk to think of any danger. About halfway there, she finished her drink, and stopped for a moment to check that it really was empty.
* Snap *
May turned as quickly as a drunken mind allowed "Whoosh there?"
Nothing.
She scanned the treeline, and a small Pidgey burst out of a bush.
"Heh." May laughed "I'm goin' crazy. I need 'nother drink."
Suddenly, a man jumped out of the same bush, and knocked May over.
"Wha!?" A surprised May exclaimed.
"Hey baby," the man purred "I told you. I love a good chase. Now why don't you just make this easier for the both of us and not resist?"
He slowly walked up towards May. Alarmed, as if just registering that she was in danger, she tried to run.
"Now now. Not so fast." The man leapt forward and pinned her against a tree. "Sakes, they oughta put a ban on young things like yourself. You're liable to get a man like me in trouble."
May squirmed and tried to scream, but the man quickly clamped a hand over her mouth "None of that now, ya hear?" He ran a hand down her face, her neck, her shoulder, her arm.
"Let's just have some fun, yeah?" She was trembling in horror. A muffled "Please..." escaped her covered mouth.
He tore her jacket off of her body, revealing her red tank top. Tears started to leak from May's eyes.
"Wow." He breathed heavily, eyes wide and alert as if he was in combat "Beautiful."
He wrapped his arms around May, constricting her as her took her out of her baggy sweatpants. Underneath were her short biking shorts. Another hitched breath from the man.
"Now that's what I like to see."
On the verge of a total panicked breakdown, May thrashed wildly, and managed to smash her bottle on a nearby tree trunk. The man jerked backwards, and May lunged at him with the broken glass, cutting his arm deeply. He howled in pain, the sound reverberating in the empty night.
However, like a cornered Growlithe, she wasn't about to let her advantage go. She slashed again, catching the same arm, and again; his leg. He screamed and screamed, but May didn't stop. Calling upon her anger and bitter longing for Ash she hacked at the man again and again, until he stopped screaming. Once he did, she stopped, and looked down at herself. She was bleeding, except… it wasn't her blood. She was splattered with his blood.
Tears once again overtook her, and she collapsed on the ground, weeping, crying herself to sleep where she laid until morning, where her Blaziken, sent out by her mother, found her.
Shaking her head, May dispelled the memory from her mind, and focused on the present. This wasn't the time to think of those times. This was the time for fun with her friends.
"May?" … "May!" A clap in front of her face helped her tune back into the present.
"Sorry guys, just a little lost in thought." She gave a fake giggle "Funny, huh?"
Brock and Misty exchanged a look, but decided not to press the matter.
"If you say so."
Dawn stood up "Well, I'm glad that's over. What say we go and check out some cute Pokemon now?"
May blinked as she realized she had missed the speech "Um, yeah, let's go!"
Ash zoomed in with his binoculars "Hmmm. No sign of Team Rocket yet."
Ash and Red were camped out on one of the highest buildings in the town of Rota, surveying the Royal Aura Resort for Team Rocket activity.
Red leaned down from his makeshift lawn chair he constructed out of rubber bands and some Rhydon horns "Well, duh. There not gonna show their faces immediately." He spat off of the building and onto a car as it drove by "If I were Giovanni, I'd wait 'till everyone was nice and cozy with their trip first too."
"Yeah," Meowth agreed "Giovanni's not one to rush things before they're ready."
Ash grunted and set the binoculars next to the sleeping Pikachu curled up next to him "Yeah, but I'm ready to roll. You got me all pumped up when we left, and we've been sitting here for two days since then." He cracked his neck "The initial adrenaline has worn off."
"Lightweight."
"Ha ha." Ash stood up, stretching his back as he did so. "Make fun if you will, but I want to get this show on the road."
"Patience is key, Ash." Red yawned, looking at his new eyes in the reflection of his sunglasses "Part of being a good soldier is being patient. Combat is just short bursts of intense action with, if you're lucky, looong stretches of boredom. Get used to it. At least you've made it to the boredom."
"Ugh." Ash grunted as he dropped back down and picked up his Pikachu, petting him.
Silence dominated the small group for the next few hours. Ash continued to pet Pikachu and watch with his binoculars while Red snacked and napped.
"Red!" Ash whispered fiercely.
Red snapped out of sleep and knocked the bag of Poffin-O's to the ground "What is it?"
"It's your turn to watch." Ash loomed over Red "I've been watching for almost ten hours; it's almost oh two hundred. I need sleep and delicious assorted berry flavored goodness too. Move it." He kicked him out of the chair.
Red landed face first, but managed to crawl over to the edge of the roof, grumbling some not very nice things about his partner.
Red sat for about fifteen minutes in silence, mainly plotting how he would get back at Ash, when a glint of a fairly large truck caught his eye.
Red smiled sinisterly and dashed over to the chair and the sleeping Ash to tip him over and wake him up. Ash crashed to the ground, and had a ball of aura ready to go in seconds.
"Wha-?" Ash blinked "Red!"
Red stifled a smirk and waved him to the truck.
The aura ball vanished "What?"
The truck was pulling into a side lot where some guys were hanging out. With their binoculars, they could see Team Rocket uniforms on them.
"Why don't they ever change their uniform?" Ash wondered aloud "I mean, even Jessie and James were smart enough to do that."
"Whose idea do you think that was?" Meowth rubbed his eyes.
Red pointed to a pair standing away from the group of grunts "Like those guys, they're not wearing any distinguishable markings."
As they watched, the men started to unload crates from the back of the truck. They were rather large but, like the pair of guys outside, held no markings so they could tell what they hid.
"Hmm." Red scratched his chin thoughtfully while tapping his knee "I want to see what's in those crates."
He closed his eyes and stretched out his hand, and it faintly glowed purple. One of the grunts tripped, and the crate he was holding fell to the ground.
"Let's see what they've got."
The crate smashed against the ground, and all kinds of stuff came out. Alcohol bottles, rocket launchers, assault rifles, cigarette boxes, pistols, silencers, and poke balls spilled everywhere. The men frantically cleaned it up, and it was all out of sight within two minutes. No evidence of any illegal activity within view.
Ash whistled "Well, that pretty much proves that they're up to no good."
"Yeah, go figure."
"I don't know about you, but I would rather get our Pokemon before they can put all of those weapons to use."
"Ya know," Red stood and released Espeon "I'm inclined to agree with you." He pointed to the small building that the men were loading into. "Recon. Ten minutes. Look for entrances in and out and look for secret rooms that could lead to their real FOB. Go."
Ash released Ninjask and Gengar "Go with her."
Espeon and Ninjask raced to the site, and Ash and Red awaited their report.
After nine minutes and forty five seconds, the trio raced back up, and delivered it.
Red nodded, and he and Ash returned their Pokemon "Good. Once these punks are done, we'll sneak in, catch 'em by surprise, and bust our Pokemon outta there. Sound good?"
Ash gave a thumbs up "Yup. I'm done with working for them. My only regret is that I probably have no life to get back to, but hey, we've got each other now. We're partners."
"Blech," Red pretended to throw up "Quit it with the sentimental crap. We're about to risk our lives, not attend a wedding for your baby sister. Shape up or ship out, man."
"Sorry. I've just been waiting for this day for a long time. A lot of pressure built up in my mind for it."
"Yeah, well suck it up." Red jerked his head in the grunt's direction "Looks like they're finishing up. Time to move. Let's go."
May walked down the large outdoor hallway of the Royal Aura Resort; it was much like an archway. Troubled by memories of her past once again, she was wide awake, even though it was almost two thirty in the morning. She wasn't especially distraught; she just couldn't sleep.
Alone with her thoughts, she had wandered pretty far off, and was in a section of the resort she knew she technically wasn't supposed to be in. But, that was okay. Who was going to find her in the middle of night this far away from the hotel?
As she walked, some of the local Pokemon ran up to her and tried to get her to play. Just some nocturnal Pokemon: a Marill, Oddish, and Meowth.
"Come on guys." May giggled tiredly and tried to shoo them away "Maybe some other time."
The Marill and Oddish scurried away, but the Meowth opted to jump on her shoulder and rub heads with her instead.
"Hee, come on, that tickles." May laughed and pet the Meowth's head "All right, you can stay with me. As long as you keep out of trouble."
"Meeeowth." the scratch cat Pokemon purred and nodded.
They continued walking, heading towards the end of the Resort's property. The Meowth's eyes were darting around nervously, as if looking for something, but May didn't notice. She was enjoying the cool night air.
"Ahhh!" the muffled scream softly sounded through the quiet night.
May's eyes squinted in concentration "Did you hear something, Meowth?"
The Meowth quickly shook his head.
"Hmm." She started towards the noise "It sounded like someone fell. They could be unconscious. I'm just going to go check really quickly."
The Meowth hopped down and pushed her legs in the other direction, clearly wanting her to not investigate.
"What is it Meowth?" She knelt down to look at him "Why shouldn't I go and look? Someone could be hurt and need me to get someone to help."
The Meowth looked strained for a moment, then replicated the scream in an almost perfect manner.
"Ahhh!"
However, to someone who hasn't slept well, it sounded like a match "Oh, that was you?"
The Meowth nodded vigorously.
"Well, why didn't you just say so? That was pretty good." She stood up "You want to go check out the cool pond over there?" She pointed towards a large pond in a divot between hills filled with water Pokemon, away from the direction that May thought she had heard the scream.
The Meowth nodded vigorously once more and bounded over to the pond before May could.
"Hey, wait up!"
"Ahhh!" The grunt screamed as his arm broke, before Ash threw a hand to cover his mouth.
"Now," Ash asked coolly "want to rethink that? Where do you all hide the Pokemon that you steal?"
The grunt whimpered in pain before nodding "Go in the warehouse, down in the stairs inside, then into the facility. There is a statue of a Persian." he quickly told Ash how to open the stairway "The Pokemon are in a small room at the northern end, next to Giovanni's personal quarters. Now let me go!"
Ash smiled grimly, turning to look back at Red "Got that?"
Red nodded and gave a thumbs up.
"Good." Ash formed an aura sphere with his free hand "Sorry, but we can't afford any witnesses."
The grunts eyes widened in fear, and opened his mouth to protest just as Ash jammed the sphere into his head. He quickly went limp in Ash's arms, and he dragged the body to a nearby bush, where it would stay out of sight long enough to get the job done.
"Ready?" Red asked as Ash walked over to him "Which Pokemon are you gonna use?"
Ash checked his belt "Same pair, Ninjask and Gengar." His head moved around, scanning the area "I'd like to use Meowth, but I have no idea where he went. It's not like him to miss out like this, but he can take care of himself."
"I'm gonna use Espeon again too."
They released their Pokemon and went inside.
The place looked like a regular warehouse, with crates, marked this time, filled with food for humans and Pokemon, and various other equipment and supplies necessary to run a resort and park. However, at the end of the building was a statue of a Persian with ruby red eyes, just sitting there by itself, surrounded by none of the clutter like everything else. Ash walked up to the statue, and pressed the right eye, left eye, right eye, then the jewel on it's forehead, and repeated the sequence twice more. It's eyes flashed and mouth opened, and a small green button raised up from it's tongue. Ash pressed the button, and the wall next to the statue began to rumble slightly. A panel opened up, revealing a staircase that led underground. Ash, Red, and their Pokemon exchanged a glance, then went down.
"Ahh. This little pond is so nice." May breathed deeply with her eyes closed.
She and the Meowth were sitting on the bank of the pond, watching the water Pokemon swim around and play.
"Don't you think so?" She turned to look at the Meowth, who was looking off in a different direction.
"Meowth?"
The cat's head swung back at May, and he gave a short purr and a nod.
"Yeah. I wish I could just lie here forever." She closed her eyes once more, and the Meowth turned away again to look in the same direction.
"This would be way easier with Mewtwo." Red whispered to Ash as they sneaked through the Rocket base "He's a lot better at sensing people than we are."
Ash's eyes were closed as he focused with his aura "There." He pointed to his left "Two of them."
Gengar disappeared, and moments later returned with the bodies of two grunts.
"Dispose of them."
Espeon opened one of the crates psychically, and Gengar eased the bodies in, before Espeon quietly put the lid back on.
"Good work." Ash nodded.
Red made a face "I guess you're not so bad at it yourself. I wish my psychic powers were that well formed."
Ash shrugged and waved his hand forward, signaling everyone to continue.
They continued on in silence from that point on, only stopping to repeat the process of eliminating guards. Once they made it to the back of the facility, Ash held a fist up: telling everyone to stop.
He closed his eyes again, really focusing as he tried to sense anyone nearby before they took back their Pokemon.
He shook his head "I don't sense anyone else."
Red grunted "Too bad. I would've liked to give Giovanni a quick hello when we're done."
Ash chuckled "Me too." He gestured at the door "Age before beauty."
Red put his hand on the handle and shook it "Of course it's locked." He knelt down and pulled out a lock pick "Luckily, I used to know a guy who taught me the basics."
He fiddled with the lock for a moment before it gave a soft click, and opened up.
They went in, and saw rows upon rows of poke balls.
Ash and Red split up to find their respective Pokemon.
After a few minutes, Ash found what he was looking for. All of his Pokemon's poke balls were gathered in one spot at the very back of the room, surrounded by a field of electricity.
'Meowth would be really helpful right about now.' Ash thought as he powered up an aura sphere to discharge the field.
He thrust the ball in, and the field immediately dissipated, leaving nothing between Ash and his Pokemon. He quickly gathered up the poke balls and put them into his bag.
"Nice to have everyone back."
As he stood up, he heard a quiet "Yipee!"
Red ran over to him "I found mine, you ready?"
Ash nodded "Let's get out of here. I can't wait to see everyone again."
Before they left, Ash did another aura check of the area, and didn't sense anyone.
They stuck to the back wall as they left, making it back outside without encountering anyone else.
Suddenly, the lights on the building flashed on, and grunts too numerous to count flooded around Ash and Red.
Ash took a small step back in absolute shock "What!? How could this be!? I didn't sense anyone!"
Red gave a loud growl and assumed a fighting stance "I guess you're not as advanced as we thought. Looks like we have to fight our way out."
A man obscured by the grunts started to clap slowly "Well, well, well. I guess you two were stupid enough to try and double cross me." The figure stepped out, revealing Giovanni "I thought that I had you both under my thumb. I thought the lives of your Pokemon would be enough to keep you under control. My only option now is to kill both of you." He sighed "A pity. You two were so good at this. Maybe in another life you would be my lieutenants instead of my enemies."
"Ha!" Ash laughed "Good luck. You'll get your money's worth trying to stop me with all of my Pokemon."
Giovanni smirked "Oh really?"
A spotlight drew attention in the treeline, where all of Ash's Pokemon were lined up with behavior collars on, chained to a machine and each other. They were all painfully thin and had darkened bags under their eyes, as if they hadn't eaten or slept properly in months.
"You don't really think that I would be stupid enough to keep all of your Pokemon in one spot like that, do you? In case you tried to betray me, I put your poke balls in there to throw you off."
Ash gasped, all of his confidence escaping him. How could he have fallen for such a basic trick?
A small light flashed behind him, and a Poliwrath materialized.
"Too bad you didn't try and hide Poli!" Red smirked "Don't worry, Ash. We'll get your Pokemon back."
Giovanni gave a booming laugh "Not likely. Look at how outnumbered you are!" He walked back out of the crowd and into a stealth helicopter that was hidden in the tree growth "If you really think you can win this fight, we're so far away from the hotel and park that no one will hear a thing. You'll both die with no one to know, or anyone to care."
He smoothed back his hair "However, I'm a reasonable man. If you surrender now, I'll think about giving you another chance.
"Never!" Ash yelled pulling all of his poke balls off of his belt.
Giovanni shrugged "Fine then." He turned to one of his officers and spoke to him quickly and quietly. "Now, I have some business to attend to. Gentlemen."
The officer saluted as Giovanni's helicopter took off and flew away.
Left to face off against hundreds of grunts and their Pokemon, Ash and Red released the rest of theirs.
The officer that Giovanni had spoken to pulled out some poke balls of his own "Git 'em boys!"
May had fallen asleep by the pond. She was dreaming about the life she would have had with Ash if he hadn't disappeared. They had three kids, two boys and a girl, and lived peacefully. No more crazy adventures, where they could just enjoy life together and with their friends, family, and Pokemon.
Her dream was interrupted by a huge commotion. People yelling and Pokemon fighting dominated the quiet that had reigned just moments earlier.
The Meowth jumped up, suddenly alert. He ran to the top of the hill, and his eyes grew wide before bounding back down to May.
"What in Arceus' name is that?" May tried to run where she could get a better view, but the Meowth stepped in front of her and held it's arms our, not letting her go.
"Come on Meowth, listen to that!" She stepped over him and continued "I need to see what it could possibly be."
She went up the small hill, and tried to looked over, but the Meowth tried once again to stop her. To no avail, however, and May just sidestepped him again and looked out at the battle raging.
May looked on, mouth agape "What could possibly be going on?"
She looked a little closer and saw that the battle seemed to be going on between two men and their Pokemon and a huge group of men and their Pokemon. Electricity, fire, poison blobs, every kind of attack was being thrown around.
"This looks dangerous. I think we should go alert the authorities, shouldn't we?"
The Meowth nodded frantically and tried to pull her away. As she was about to go with him, something caught her eye.
"Hold on a second, Meowth." She squinted in concentration and there it was again! Aura balls, just like the ones Ash could use were being thrown by the two, men. Except one man's were red instead of blue.
May's eyes widened, and she suddenly wanted to continue watching. People who had a talent like Ash did? She had to see what was going on.
"I'm going to go a little closer." She looked at Meowth, who was shaking his head "I just want to watch. Anyone who tried to interfere would just get hurt anyway, so calling someone would be a bad idea. Let's just watch and wait it out."
She darted over the hilltop and made it closer and closer to the battle, with Meowth tailing very close behind. May made it to the woods about one hundred yards away, close enough so that the sound was almost deafening.
As she watched, she saw people and Pokemon going down everywhere, but when the two men's Pokemon fell, they returned them. The group left their Pokemon out on the ground and focused on the fight. From this distance, she could make out what everyone was wearing.
She gasped "Those are Team Rocket grunts! I'll bet they're here to try and steal the Pokemon from the resort!"
She saw a grunt's head come off as an aura sphere hit it.
She almost threw up in horror "Arceus! They're killing each other!"
The Meowth stepped and stood in front of her, as if ready to protect her.
However, try as she might, she couldn't make out who the pair of men were. They both wore strange cloaks and had hoods on, and she didn't recognize their teams, either. The Pokemon the man with the blue aura still had a Charizard, Lucario, and Pikachu out, while the man with the red aura still had out a Poliwrath, Pikachu, and Espeon. The rest of their Pokemon had already fallen and been returned before she could see them.
'They must be security guards,' May thought as she watched with a horrified expression 'why else would they be fighting such a large group? They're pretty strong for just security guards though.'
As she continued to watch, she saw one of the Rockets sneak away from the battle towards another stretch of woods. In the woods, May could make out a large group of Pokemon chained to some sort of machine.
'That's funny.' May thought, now thoroughly confused 'What's going on here?'
Ash, Red, and their Pokemon were fighting like demons. For every one of their Pokemon that fainted, they took down ten of Team Rocket's. Ash and Red were making quick work out of the grunts, who couldn't use their guns because of the risk of friendly fire, and had to resort to hand held weapons.
A grunt rushed Ash with a long knife, and Ash's fist grew blue in response. His hand darted faster than the eye could follow, and he tore the weapon out of his hand before delivering a quick aura infused slash to the man's throat. As the man died, Ash still had a grip on his hand, and used his body to block the stab of another, who was then crushed as Charizard rolled out of the way of an Electivire's lightning. Ash then shot off a quick succession of triple aura spheres that ripped through the bodies of three grunts, felling them, and was throwing up aura shields left and right. A few feet away, Red was using his psychic powers to trip up grunts and wrench their weapons out of their hands. However, unpracticed as he was with his psychic power, he quickly grew tired with it and switched back to only aura. Technically speaking, Red's aura shouldn't be stronger than Ash's, as his was red and Ash's was blue, but Ash was still relatively untrained in the matter, so Red had the stronger of the two. Using it in tandem with his Ka-Bar, Red shot and slashed like a whirlwind through the grunts. In less than thirty seconds, he felled almost a dozen of his enemies.
Ash and Red bumped backs and continued to fight, determined to make their way through the grunt's ranks. They were already almost halfway done.
A loud noise pierced the sound of the battle. The officer with whom Giovanni had spoken was standing next to Ash's group of Pokemon, and had turned on the mysterious machine.
He flipped a switch "You asked for this!"
When Giovanni had spoken to him, he told him that should for even a moment, it looked like Ash and Red could win, he was to kill all of Ash's Pokemon. That way, Ash would be too distracted to fight, and therefore be an easy target.
The machine started to hum loudly, and glowed blue. The blue glow shot it's way through the chains connected to it, and all of Ash's Pokemon started to thrash in agony.
Ash looked on in horror, unable to help as he was onset by an attack renewed by grunts confidant that this was their chance.
"NO!"
An aura sphere here, a shield there, another burst of spheres. Ash tried to make his way over to his Pokemon, but there was nothing he could do.
"I'm coming, you guys!"
He ran as fast as he could, panic starting to set in, but it was too late.
The air was dominated by the screams of his Pokemon, and, one by one, they started to fall over. First Bulbasaur, then Muk, then Pidgeot, Kingler, Tauros, Corphish, Quilava, Staraptor, Heracross; slowly but surely, they all fell. Dead. The one at the end of the chains, the last one alive, Bayleaf, made eye contact with Ash. She nodded at him before closing her eyes for the last time.
Tears filled Ash's eyes, which quickly became hot tears of rage as he let loose a primordial scream that tore through his throat.
"GIOVANNI!"
Ash became engulfed in his blue aura, and blasted everything and everyone; his rage knew neither friend nor foe.
Red had to return the rest of his Pokemon and make a mad dash for cover before he was hit. Ash's Charizard scooped up Lucario and Pikachu before flying for what little cover there was.
The rest of the grunts, they weren't so lucky. They were all destroyed. Every Rocket grunt and Pokemon disintegrated or mangled by the sheer amount and power of aura spheres Ash was throwing in every direction. The building, unable to move like living beings, was buffeted by Ash, and quickly fell. Even the ground within twenty yards wasn't exempt from his fury, and was torn and churned, like a chef kneading dough, leaving it a barren field of dirt. Eventually, Ash, tired from his rampage, fell to the ground, unconscious from exhaustion. His clothes were torn up, leaving him barely covered.
His warpath lasted forty five seconds.
"Oh, man..." Red emerged from cover, and was greeted with destruction and death.
Bodies, even parts or halves of bodies, were strewn about around Ash.
He looked around for Ash's Pokemon "Charizard? Pikachu? Lucario?"
He feared the worst until Charizard appeared, visibly drained with an equally tired Pikachu and Lucario on his back. They landed next to Ash, and began to check him for signs of life.
"Don't worry about him." Red assured them, as he too, knelt beside Ash "He's just wiped out. It's extremely taxing on the body to use that much aura in such a short amount of time. I've done this before, like when we fought. He'll be fine with a couple hours rest. I've just never seen a rage that powerful before." He wiped his forehead "He has a ton of potential."
Red pulled two poke balls off of Ash's belt and used them to return Lucario and Pikachu. They were so tired and worried, that even Pikachu didn't resist being put back in his ball.
He picked Ash up and handed him to Charizard before climbing on himself "Sorry, I know you're tired, and I would ride Aero if he hadn't already fainted."
Charizard shook the apology aside with his head, and instead roared a question.
"Yeah, I know." Red patted him on the head "We'll go back to our FOB and wait for Meowth there. He knows protocol."
With a snort of content, Charizard expanded his wings and took off.
May's mouth was in danger of hitting the dirt. Meowth was in a similar state of disbelief and horror. The man with the blue aura just destroyed everything near him, after what she assumed were his Pokemon were murdered. As he fell to the ground, she saw that he was no longer properly clothed, but she still couldn't see him properly, as he was curled up on the ground. She watched as the other man reappeared, and then a Charizard, Pikachu, and Lucario come back. She heard them exchange words, but didn't really hear. She was looking at the man on the ground. The other man picked him up before giving him to the Charizard and returning the other two and climbing on it's back.
All of this processed with the mind of someone in shock.
But nothing was as shocking as what she saw next.
As the Charizard ready itself to fly away, it dipped its body slightly, giving May full view of the unconscious man before taking off. He looked extremely familiar, even though the raven black hair wasn't as unkempt as it once had been.
Meowth looked at her with fear, knowing there was nothing he could do anymore, before running away, presumably back to their FOB in the town of Rota.
'This is bad.' He thought as he ran 'The boss isn't gonna be happy.'
May just stared at the space where the Charizard was. He mind was reeling in shock and confusion
"Ash?"
A/N- Thanks for reading!
See y'all later
DarkLucario98