BP: Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows! Unfortunately, as I said, school has started, and assignments are piling in, so most of my time has been taken up (even my time on weekends), therefore I might not be able to update as often! As for the AV (Alternate Version) of this fic, there would be a lot of differences (and the AV is a much darker fic than this one, you would know why when I post it), so look forward to it, as there would be a lot of differences (although some content would be exactly the same in this one)
"What was that about?" Tenma asked, as the Zodiacs were in the dining room that was off the courtroom getting their dinner while they discuss the verdict. Food was arranged on carts around the room and they were supposed to serve themselves. The PAL Elites (except Pakura) and their love interests were dragging all the small tables to form one big table so that they could all (Zodiacs, PAL Elites except Pakura, since she went to Arceus-knows-where and their love interests) eat together. He took up a tray and started to make his way around the food-laden carts that ringed the room. He avoided the Pokémon that were currently eating on the floor.
"Beats me. Maybe we can ask Akira or Ai later." Makoto replied, he picked out a slice of pizza for his plate, and scooped out some chicken shepherd's pie for himself. As he went to collect the utensils he needed for his food, he heard a bowl drop and someone saying "Opps."
Tenma and Makoto looked up to see Jin looking at his phone with one hand while precariously holding his half-laden tray in the other. Ash's Gardevoir was using Psychic to place an empty bowl which he dropped back on the tray, while Jin nodded his thanks.
"Jin, could you please put your phone aside?" Ran asked from behind him, as she got herself a potato bar, and is now ladling stew into a bowl.
"Come on, I'm just looking at some inspiration for my next design. Couldn't hurt, can it?" Jin replied, placing his phone on the tray, and getting the utensils.
"What could you be looking at?" Tenma snatched the phone from Jin's tray, much to Jin's chagrin ("Hey, that's my phone!") and looking at the screen.
"You're looking at Rosaline's winning artworks?" It was well-known to everyone that Rosaline had won PAL's Art Competition (occurs three times a year) 15 times in a row.
"Well, everyone knows she's the best artist in PAL. She and Tyler Clearwater should get together and have tea sometime." Jin shrugged, as he joined Tenma and Makoto at the utensils section.
"Isn't he the one featured in this month's Art All over the World as the Artist of the Month?" Ran wondered, as she picked out drinks for her friends.
"Yeah, he is." Makoto nodded. Tenma was absent-mindedly searching through Jin's phone for some latest updates.
"Oh My God, look at these!" Tenma showed the phone to the others. "It looks like Champion Red is against Champion Alder tomorrow at the Top 32!"
"Really?" Ran snatched the phone from Tenma, which earned her a "Hey! Be careful!" from Jin. "And look, Princess Pakura is up against Clair from Blackthorn. It'll be really interesting to see a member of the most well-known Dragon Clan fighting against the Dragon Slayer."
"We are so going to that." Jin nodded.
"You know you need tickets to get in, right? Not including the participants, since they can get in for free because they are participating. It's closed to everyone except invited guests and press, specifically, PAL press."
"Oh, that won't be a problem. You can get us in, Makoto. Don't the reporters of PAL give you tickets so that you could report the event?"
Makoto shot Jin a sarcastic look, which made Jin say, "Oh yeah, you nearly got into trouble because you didn't notice a reporter from other regional paper or magazine was following you and once he got in, he took pictures like nobody's business."
"Let's just drop it." Makoto sighed.
"Aren't Prince Red and Princess Pakura the ones who give out the tickets?" Ran asked.
Jin looked over to Ash, who was sitting together with Cynthia and currently talking to Phillip.
"Ooh." Tenma said. "Good suggestion. They might have extra tickets that they didn't give out. Let me go and check."
Makoto wished he could stab both of them with his spork.
"I'll go sit down now." Makoto muttered, not wanting to hear anymore. He kept his gaze fixed on Ai and Tappei, who were his two close friends, determined not to glance in Tenma's direction, as he made his way across the dining room to the empty seat near them, which they clearly saved for him. Ai and Tappei, who were chatting with Naoto, Ryoko and Mika, looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back.
However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tenma talking to Ash, and Ash absent-mindedly handing over his wallet, which Tenma started digging through. He saw Ash taking a piece of paper from Tenma's hands, before taking back his wallet and returning to chat with his friends.
Makoto sighed, as that could only mean that Ash did have extra tickets to the tournament.
"Already?" Pakura said in mock surprise. She was taking a break in her cave with all her Pokémon, when Lance decided to drop in.
She suppressed the urge to rub her temples, as she felt a headache coming on due to lack of rest lately. While looking and feeling healthy isn't a problem to her (due to the fact that her first ability is Regenerative Healing Factor, which meant that she can heal rapidly from any physical injury, from minor to fatal, and also she would always be in very good physical shape as her body is constantly reverting to healthy state), it doesn't mean she can't feel tired.
"Yeah, already." Lance replied, clutching to his Egg. "Phillip started to use Mega Evolution during the Top 64. He Mega Evolved his Mawile during his match against my friend Bruno, and crushed him really bad. Bruno was still in a little shock about his loss."
"And here I was, thinking they won't use it until the Top 32. Looks like I was wrong." Pakura muttered. "Alright, I guess it can't hurt to tell you more about Mega Evolution."
Lance put down his Egg, and paid attention to Pakura.
"Look, in order to Mega Evolve, the Pokémon must be holding the appropriate Mega Stone and its Trainer must have a Key Stone. But I know for one that Rayquaza can Mega Evolve juts by learning the move Dragon Ascent."
"Wait…Rayquaza can Mega Evolve?" Lance asked.
"Yeah, the PAL Elites know that actually. I actually own a Rayquaza myself, so I should know."
"What?" Lance gaped at her, as he couldn't believe his ears. Did the Dragon Princess just say she owned a Legendary Dragon Pokémon?
"Alright, it was originally the Prince's." Pakura conceded.
"How many Legendaries do you actually have?" Lance asked.
"I don't know why you are so surprised, each PAL Elite owns at least 3 Legendaries. The Prince and I had 7 between us, 5 were originally his and 2 were mine. And…." Pakura paused, before briefly glaring at Lance for making her go off-topic, and Lance wisely shut up. "I think even with the Mega Stone and the respective item to resonate with the stone, Mega Evolution cannot be achieved if there is not a strong bond between the Trainer and Pokémon."
"I don't know. Max's Gallade did Mega Evolve successfully, and Ash said they didn't have a strong bond?"
"Something happened to Mega Gallade, didn't it?" Pakura pointed out.
"Yeah, you were right. Max's Gallade went on a rampage after the Mega Evolution. Pakura said it was because Gallade couldn't handle the sheer increase of power, and this power actually manipulated him, and Pakura said something about the bond is so that the Pokémon could hear the owner's voice and help the Pokémon stay calm. How did you know, anyway?"
'Because I was there.' Pakura thought, inwardly rolling her eyes, but instead she decided to talk more about Mega Evolution, "The thing is, once per battle, only a single Pokémon in the Trainer's Team may Mega Evolve, which means a Trainer has to choose carefully on who to Mega Evolve during the battle."
"It can only be used once?" Lance was surprised.
"Yes and no. Oh, and also, the Pokémon would remain in the Mega Evolved state even if you switch it out. A Mega Evolved Pokémon can only revert back to its original state upon fainting or the conclusion of the battle. Mega Evolutions are only temporary."
"Ok….and what do you mean by yes and no?" Lance frowned.
"The PAL Elites can Mega Evolve more than one Pokémon during battle. Maybe their deep bonds helped bypass the rule. While it's true we used Mega Evolution for quite a while already, we still do not know the mechanisms behind it, the only one who know the secrets behind it would be Champion Ash. Another thing is, when Pokémon Mega Evolve their Abilities change and sometimes, their Pokémon type. There is also an increase in their stats."
"Any examples?" Lance asked.
"Loads." Pakura replied. "Charizard, for instance. When it Mega Evolves with this-" Here, Pakura held up a light blue stone that was dark blue and black in the middle. "It actually becomes a Fire/Dragon, and it would be able to learn more Dragon-type moves. Its Ability would change to Tough Claws."
"Cool…" Lance looked at the stone, but then Pakura held up another one. This time, it was light orange one with yellow and red in the middle. "This, while it doesn't change Charizard's actual type, it changes Charizard's Ability to Drought. Why don't we see the power of Mega Evolution?" With that, Pakura summoned a Pokéball with her telekinesis. "Follow me."
Unbeknownst to Lance, she levitated herself off the ground slightly so that her feet wouldn't keep kicking Eevee when she walked as she was hidden in her gown.
"So, what's the result?" Ash asked Akira, who joined their table with their dinner on the tray.
"The killer used Aconite to kill the victim." Akira replied, watching Ash's Pikachu and Buneary eating together, and laughing together at some sort of joke no one but Ash and the PAL Elites could understand.
"What's that?" Cynthia frowned.
"It comes from the plant monkshood. Also known as wolfsbane, aconite leaves only one post-mortem sign, that of asphyxia, as it causes arrhythmic heart function which leads to suffocation. Poisoning can occur even after touching the leaves of the plant without wearing gloves as it is very rapidly and easily absorbed. Because of its untraceable nature it has been a popular one with the "get away with murder" crowd." Ash explained.
"How did you know all these?" Cynthia asked.
"Learnt it during the training I went through during my four years." Ash replied. "The killer must've found a way to get this guy to absorb the poison, and it's most likely the person dipped something small, a needle probably, into the poison, before throwing it at Richter. Where the needle is, I wouldn't know."
However, Ash inwardly thought that the Dragon Princess must've taken the needle back via teleportation or telekinesis the moment the needle sunk in any of the body part and also, he was told about this poison a few years back when Pakura was teaching him about various poisons, but he daren't talk freely with the jury here, since they do not know anything about the mysteries, and he certainly isn't going to mention anything to them now.
"Anyway, what did Tenma want?" Rosaline asked Ash, as she noticed Tenma asking Ash something which lead to Ash handing over his wallet earlier.
"Just wanted some tickets so they can watch the tournament live." Ash shrugged. "Apparently, I'm up against Alder and Paku's up against Clair and they didn't want to miss it for the world. In exchange, he gave me a coupon to the confectionery store. It entitles me to up to 30 free items when this coupon is used. He must've gotten this as his reward for being one of the best postmen in PAL."
"And who are we up against?" Rosaline asked.
"According to Tenma, you're up against Koga, and Cynthia's up against Lorelei, Grimsley's fighting Phoebe, Jasmine is up against Lance…" Here, everyone winced. Everybody knows that not counting the Dragon Duo, Lance is the strongest Dragon Master, and Jasmine's chances of winning are rather slim, even with her type advantage, for he is a Champion and she's a Gym Leader. "And it looks like Phillip is up against Glacia and Jude will be fighting Lucian. Paul and Gary apparently won against the Psychic twins, and so they are moving on to the top 32, and they are going to battle Roxie and Fantina respectively."
At the last sentence, Ash smiled for his friends who had won against the twins, as he had heard they are fairly powerful even when they are separated, though he thought they still needed more work to match Sabrina, Will or Caitlin's level. His intuition told him that the power of their combination is beaten by the Dragon Duo by a mile.
"You mean Lucian won against that Virgil guy?" Jude asked, remembering Virgil as the guy who owned all the Eeveelutions (except Sylveon). Also, he knew that Virgil was up against Lucian this afternoon.
"Apparently so." Phillip nodded. "Not very surprising, isn't it? Lucian's the strongest Sinnoh Elite member after all."
"Even if I can't win, I will do my best, and give Lance a good fight." Jasmine declared, determined.
"That's the spirit, Jasmine." Cynthia clapped her on her back. "Show him what you are capable of."
"I guess I can wish you all good luck for tomorrow." Akira gave them his rare smile.
Meanwhile, at the other side, the others were discussing the verdict. Akira, who was currently talking to the Elites, had told them beforehand that he votes guilty.
"She's definitely guilty. Her final argument may have added a little doubt, but I'm sure she is guilty. Red himself had evidence to back up his claim." Tappei said.
"Tappei's right." Ai agreed. "Besides, Misty didn't bring in any evidence at all, it was all just words."
"All I heard from her was just nonsense." Ryoko curled her lips in a slight sneer.
"Yeah, nothing logical came out of her mouth." Gou shrugged.
"But to pronounce her guilty, we all have to have a unanimous vote. And I believe everyone is important in this decision." Jin said, a hint of seriousness in his voice.
"She's guilty. Enough said." Naoto nodded.
"I vote guilty." Mika said.
"I stand by Sister's decision." Kenta added.
"She's guilty!" Ran declared, raising her spoon, which caused Mika to give her a look that clearly told her to put that spoon down, as the spoon narrowly missed Ai's face. Ran lowered the spoon, and shot Ai an apologetic look, and Ai nodded in forgiveness.
"Shouldn't have trusted them to go in due to their status without malicious intent in the first place." Makoto rolled his eyes.
"Calm down, Makoto." Tappei said. "It was unexpected."
"But if we vote guilty, we still need to return tomorrow to mete out the sentence so we still have to decide on her punishment tonight." Ai nodded. "Would she be ok in our jail though?" Everyone knew that while PAL is the most luxurious region to live in, according to Gou, the prison has got to be one of the worst he has ever seen.
"She should've thought of the consequences before she committed the crime." Naoto muttered, leaning back on his chair, and fell silent after that.
"I'll have to agree with Naoto for this one." Gou said.
"Everyone vote guilty?" Tenma pointed his chopstick at everyone, who nodded. As foreperson of the jury, he is responsible for speaking for the rest of the jurors. "Great." He sat down, and started on his plate of Buffalo Bites, and gulped down some soda.
"Well, now that's out of the way." Ran said, as she happily continued eating her dinner. The others looked at each other before following suit, and some went over to talk to the PAL Elites about their upcoming match and what they had been doing lately.
"You've got 29 new Pokémon?" Kenta sounded awestruck.
"Yeah, it's all traded from various trainers from around the World. Paku helped me do the trading. I was just lucky all of them were different types of Pokémon." Ash replied, drinking his grape juice. "Most of them had issues with previous Trainers, which is why they are given to me, despite some being a powerful Pokémon in general." Ash sighed when he finished the last sentence.
"So how is your relationship with them?" Phillip asked.
"It's going fine so far. The thing is, the previous Trainers lacked the characteristics needed to raise the more powerful Pokémon, such as Dragonite or Goodra. The more powerful a Pokémon, the harder it is to take care of them, and when the Pokémon feels the Trainer can't take care of their needs, that's when they get disobedient. That is a common thing among disobedience from Pokémon, but my Charizard was an exception. As for him, it's because spending time with that abusive Trainer, Damien..." He said the name out with venom. "...and his characteristics rubbed off on him as a Charmander, but it wasn't obvious until he evolved."
"How did you get him to obey you again?" Makoto questioned. They had seen that Charizard was still with him, which indicated he never released it.
"I never gave up on him." Ash answered. "I'll never give up on any of my Pokémon."
"And that's one of the reasons why I love you." Cynthia muttered, loud enough for all the PAL Elites (except Pakura) to hear, due to their enhanced hearing.
The three of them (Rosaline, Jude and Phillip) exchanged knowing looks and smiles.
Ash sighed, as he decided to take a nice long walk after dinner with Pikachu and Lucario. This time, Buneary was with them, sitting on Ash's other shoulder.
"You've been sighing for the umpteenth time, Ash." Buneary commented.
"Yeah, is something wrong, Master?" Lucario asked. That earned him a short look from Ash as he had called Ash 'Master' which Ash told him so many times not to do.
"I don't know. The Dragon Duo vanished around 5 years ago, so Jude and Phillip should know something about them. I think the Dragon Princess used to be friends with them somehow, as they probably knew her since she was the Princess at that time. She probably erased their memories so that they can't speak of her before she vanished. If that is so, only Phillip and Jude would have their memories wiped. But question is, why did she erase Rosaline's too?"
"Maybe she found out something about the Dragon Princess?" Lucario shrugged.
"No. Knowing the Dragon Princess, she would usually kill to silence others, and since Rosaline is psychic, the Dragon Princess would never take the chance of just erasing the memories. No, she told Rosaline something about her willingly, and I am ready to bet that the memories the Dragon Princess erased were all memories of herself."
"Do you think the previous manager has something to do with it?" Pikachu spoke up.
Ash stopped. Now he thought of it, none of his Elites had bothered to mention what their previous manager was like, and he didn't know much either, as he vanished shortly after Ash became Champion for unknown reasons. Pakura came back with a long letter from him, apparently confessing to all his crimes, but he never got to read it, as Pakura sent the letter to the Hunter's Association to tell them everything, and then they burned up the letter after reading it, so he actually never knew what the previous manager did.
However, during the hearing, Ash thought he was a tyrannical manager, thinking he has power over the PAL Elites, and he probably used Pakura and sold her into prostitution to his business associates, most likely as part of his business deals. The reason why was probably because she had many men, taken or not, who admired her for her extreme beauty, and Benzene possibly took advantage of this fact to earn profit, and boost her popularity among boys. The thought alone made Ash's face contort in disgust.
He wondered if Benzene himself got to the Dragon Princess as well. He had a picture of the Dragon Princess in a normal outfit in a newspaper (dated 8 years back, and acquired by Rosaline) before, and her normal outfit consisted of a dress that was white from neck to chest and light pink down the rest. The outfit had white long sleeves (with lace cuffs at the end) and had a bow tie on the chest part of the outfit. Her shoes were pink with bows on it. In other words, it was a typical Sweet Lolita outfit. Her black hair was in a short ponytail, and she wore a pink headband with a bow.
In other words, she was a cutie (even though her face can't be seen due to the fringe covering her eyes and shadowing her face), and Ash knew some older guys (no less than forty) would go for sweet-looking girls like her, and he knew that the Prince and Princess usually lived in the Plateau with the Elite Four (even though they are not members).
"I think Benzene, the previous manager did business by selling desirable residents of the Plateau without permission, such as Paku. If that is so, all four of them should be affected, and most likely have trauma that I would have picked up, but I detect none, not even from Paku. The question is, why did he leave the other three alone, and why wasn't she traumatized?"
"Pakura's the Leader, isn't she? Maybe she said something to him?" Buneary suggested.
Ash paused. The only thing Benzene could threaten them with is their loved ones. And Paku had none, so he couldn't threaten her, yet she was the one being sold instead of the others, who had families.
"We better do more research on this person tomorrow. Something tells me he did more corrupt things, besides selling Paku, which may explain why the others never bother to mention them to me." Ash said grimly.
"And knowing this type of people, they would use threats, and the only threat they can use is threatening to kill the families if they do not cooperate. And among the four, three of them have families, and yet the one who doesn't have the family is sold." Lucario nodded.
"Which means…" Ash widened his eyes, as he realized that maybe Paku may have loved the other three at one point so much she decided to sacrifice herself to save the other three and their families, most likely by making a deal with Benzene: she'll entertain the clients herself, provided if he leaves the other three and their families alone. Perhaps she cheated in the deal, as he couldn't detect any trauma within her.
'Was Benzene the one who tore Paku away from them?' Ash thought.
"This would be a quick one-on-one battle, alright? I'm pretty busy and I don't have much time left." Pakura announced.
"Sure." Lance shrugged. "Salamence, battle time!" He threw a Pokéball, and out came Salamence in his full glory.
'Hmm….Ash's Salamence has a more powerful aura about it, but Lance is a powerful Champion, so I better not underestimate him. Shi-chan talked quite highly about him after all.' Pakura thought. "Alright, Charizard, take the battlefield!" She used the same battle cry as Shiki's so Lance would not suspect her real identity. Charizard appeared, and he was wearing a Mega Stone on the neck.
"And now….Mega Evolve, Charizard!" Pakura revealed her Key Stone, which was a Mega Charm in the shape of a dragon's head, and Lance watched as the same yellow and blue tendrils of lights he saw in Phillip's and Max's Mega Evolution appear once more, and as usual they turned white when touched, spreading, and finally, Charizard glowed in a vibrant of colours, and when the glow died, Charizard looked completely different. If Lance didn't see Charizard Mega Evolve, he'd have thought it was a completely different Pokémon.
"You may have the first move." Pakura offered.
"Don't mind if I do. Salamence, start things off with Dragon Claw!" Salamence's claws glow white and it flew towards Mega Charizard, about to slash Mega Charizard.
"Dodge it." Pakura said calmly, and Mega Charizard got out of the way in time, and reappeared behind Salamence.
"Salamence, behind you!" Salamence started to turn and tried to attack with Dragon Claw again, but Pakura simply told Mega Charizard to dodge again. This continued on with Salamence unable to hit Mega Charizard.
"Is that all you've got?" Pakura asked.
"Salamence, change of plans. Use Dragon Breath!" Salamence stopped chasing Mega Charizard around, and prepared a powerful Dragon Breath.
"The best defence is a good offence. Flamethrower." The Flamethrower and Dragon Breath clashed in the middle, looking like a stalemate for a moment, before the attacks exploded, and covering both Pokémon in a cloud of thick smoke. That gave Pakura and Mega Charizard an advantage, because Mega Charizard can see through smoke, and Pakura can pinpoint both Pokémon's positon in the smoke.
"Now, use Dragon Rush." Mega Charizard released a dragon-shaped energy that covers its body, and then slammed into Salamence in full force, knocking it out of the smoke cloud, which had almost cleared by now.
"Salamence, Fire Blast!"
"Steel Wing to absorb the impact." Mega Charizard flew into the Fire Blast, and the Steel Wing was now burning and glowing orange from the Fire Blast, and Mega Charizard charged towards Salamence with the flaming wings.
"Salamence, counter with Giga Impact!" Salemence's body was then surrounded by an orange sphere of energy. Then, the orange colour faded and turned purple, with orange streaks of energy that spiral around the orb. The Steel Wing clashed with the Giga Impact, with both Pokémon flying backwards, and hitting trees that were opposite to each other.
"Dragon Pulse, Charizard." Charizard opened its eyes, and fired a Dragon Pulse at Salamence, and before Lance could react, the Dragon Pulse already hit Salamence dead on. Lance knew Salamence was now tired out.
"What do you think?" Pakura asked, knowing the battle is over. Mega Charizard also reverted back to its original form.
'So this is the power of Mega Evolution.' Lance thought, as Pakura walked (read floated) over to Salamence, and placed her hands on Salamence's body. He watched as her hands glowed blue and the injuries that Salamence sported during the battle disappeared, and soon enough he was healed up.
"You can heal Pokémon?" Lance was surprised.
"Pokémon and humans. I can heal anything as long as the target is alive. I can also remove sickness and poison from the target's body, not just injuries. I don't want people to abuse my ability, which is why I never said anything about this ability. So keep quiet about this." Pakura warned him, as he returned his now fully-healed Salamence, while she returned her Charizard. 'Frankly, I prefer killing instead of healing.'
"I won't." Lance promised, as they made their way back to the cave. Pakura, as usual, floated.
'If only I had learnt to remove poison five years ago, I could've saved him. But I only mastered this last year….' Pakura thought bitterly. She unconsciously clenched her fists, and that did not go unnoticed.
"Is something wrong, Princess?" Lance asked, concerned.
Pakura realized she had clenched her hands into fists and unclenched them. "No, nothing." She replied in an airy tone. "Don't worry about it. So now you saw the power of Mega Evolution, right?" She decided to change the subject.
"Yeah." Lance nodded. "I think Mega Evolution would be something every Trainer would want."
"True, but not many people can master it. But I'm sure considering the bonds with you and your Pokémon, I think you can master Mega Evolution with some practice."
"Me?" Lance was surprised, as Pakura went somewhere in the cave, and returned with a rectangular black box.
"I think you might like these. You should've seen how much they usually give us, and we have so much extra." Pakura sighed, as she remembered how they'd give them a set of Mega Stones along with a Key Stone for free as gifts, which led to many extras. Perhaps she'd give Cynthia one later, along with a Garchompite or maybe she could get Ash to give Cynthia those items later.
"Thanks, Princess." Lance nodded, taking the box in one arm and the Egg in another. He wondered what was inside the box.
"So who are you up against in the Top 32?" Pakura asked.
"Jasmine, one of Johto's Gym Leader."
"As in the Steel-type master? She does have the advantage."
"I'm not worried about me actually. More worried for Clair, she's going against Pakura."
Is she? That's news. Now, it wasn't a question of whether Clair can win, it was more like how long she can last against her.
"I'm sure she'd do fine. She's the most powerful Gym Leader in your region after all." Pakura replied in a reassuring voice. 'Actually, since she's a member of the Dragon Clan in Blackthorn, I'm so not going to give her any openings.'
"I just hope Pakura doesn't send Clair's Pokémon to the Emergency Ward, I won't put it below her to do that."
'Who do you think I am, I keep the promises I made, ok?' Pakura thought. "Well, we'll leave things here for today. I think you might want to practice with your Pokémon one last time before you battle Jasmine, after all, she is a fairly powerful Gym Leader."
"You're right, Princess."
"Good luck for your match tomorrow."
"Thanks." With that, Lance left.
"Why did you give him the Mega Stones for his Pokémon?" Skitty asked, as her Pokémon emerged from different parts of the cave. Suspiciously, Sylveon and Espeon emerged together, and Espeon's eyes were glowing with the tell-tale move of Psychic.
Pakura shrugged. "Why not? I want a good fight from him when I challenge him with my Dragon Pokémon. It'd be a disappointment if he lost early, right? I do so like to crush an opponent when he's at the top of his game. And it seems like he already trusts me." She gave a smirk. "So much the better." She trailed off when she saw a brown egg with a cream-colored zigzag stripe around its middle.
"Congrats, Sylveon, Espeon." Pakura nodded, as both proud parents smiled at each other. "But you know I have enough Eeveelutions."
"Should we give this Egg to someone?" Espeon wondered.
"Yes, but I was thinking to give to someone who we can monitor your baby. And somebody who can evolve the Eevee into his or her speciality type." Pakura said. "That way, we can watch your child, and if the person doesn't treat your child well, you'll have a lot of chances to say, beat them up."
"How about Grimsley?" Sylveon suggested. "He always wanted an Umbreon."
"Good idea. I'll get Tenma to send the Egg later. It'll be anonymous." Pakura nodded.
"By the way, don't you hate those men who only sees you as an object to pleasure them, or some trophy wife?" Sylveon asked the question that was on everyone's minds but had no opportunity to ask until now, flicking her tail in anger. The other three knew she was referring to the hearing and what Josh said.
"Which is why they meet death at my hands, in addition to their money, precious goods and properties being taken." Pakura said simply, referring to the sheer number of kills she made (and the amount of valuables she had taken) just by Benzene "selling" her to clients. Every single one of them end up dead by her hands, and possessions taken.
Ash yawned, as he walked into the deep part of the forest. At least he had learnt that his Elites used to be a close-knit group, until Benzene cruelly tore them apart, and he was the one to wreck the friendship between the four of them.
He wondered what had happened right after he won. He remembered that Pakura was called into Benzene's office shortly after he won. He didn't hear much, only muffled yelling coming from Benzene, a smashing sound, and Benzene storming out. Pakura emerged a few minutes later looking positively murderous, holding something in her hands (but Ash can't see what due to the lack of lighting, and he doesn't have night vision like Jude) before going back to her room silently. When Ash went to check the office later, there was nothing broken, and he wondered whether the smashing noise was all his imagination.
"Hey, Pakura! How are you?" Pikachu greeted, snapping Ash out of his thoughts. Sure enough, Pakura was there with her usual three Pokémon.
"Hey, Paku." Ash greeted her.
Pakura nodded at him.
"So what are you doing in the forest?" Ash asked.
"Same as you, taking a walk. The deep parts of the forests are quiet and nice, isn't it?" Pakura replied.
"Sure is. It's pretty nice and cool too." Ash said. Just as he finished his sentence, both of them heard a crack of whip in the air, and a pained Pokémon's cry.
Ash and Pakura looked at each other, and nodded, before rushing off to the direction where they had heard the noises, Ash a considerable distance behind Pakura.
Both of them stopped when they were at the source of the noise.
"You stupid Pokémon!" A vaguely familiar voice shouted, shouting at a cowering Pokémon. The Pokémon had its forepaws tied to the trunk, and it slumps barely conscious on its knees, held up only by the ropes at its forepaws. What used to be its back was a raw, bloody slab of flesh. Ash could tell that this Pokémon was a Vulpix judging by the red-brown fur and the six orange tails. By the pleas Vulpix was making, Ash could tell it was female.
"I should've won the Top 128, but you have let me down!" The boy shouted. Ash noted that this boy had teal hair and purple eyes. Ash gasped, in surprise and anger. It was Charizard's former trainer, Damian.
And he is here in their region.
As Damian brought down the whip once more, someone grabbed it. It was Pakura.
"That's enough." Pakura said coldly to Damian, as she reached over to untie the Vulpix and cradle her in her arms. "How could you do this to a Pokémon? You're a monster."
Damian, however, wasn't paying attention. Instead, he was checking her out, looking at her assets, and drooling at her cleavage.
"Wow, a beautiful girl just coming in to talk to me….it must be my lucky day!" Damian approached Pakura. "Would you like to go for some coffee with me, and get to know each other?" He winked at her.
Pakura looked at him in disgust. "I don't go for little boys." She sneered.
"Come on, once you get to know me, you know I'm the One." He reached for her hand, but a Pokémon used Thunderbolt on him, shocking him, and before he could recover, someone gripped his wrist so tightly it actually formed a bruise. Damian turned to see Ash, slightly dazed from the Thunderbolt. Judging by the sparking cheeks of Pikachu's, the Thunderbolt most likely came from him.
"Listen here, Damian, she's not here to accept a date, we are here to arrest you for abuse of Pokémon. You know you can get executed for that, since you are in our region, and you follow our rules." Ash hissed. At the background, Pakura began healing Vulpix.
"Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?" Damian replied arrogantly. "I bet I can beat you in a second!"
Pikachu's cheeks sparked, while Lucario and Buneary growled at Damian. Eevee, Sylveon and Skitty were also glaring at him.
"Oh really?" Ash laughed. "How about we battle right here, right now?"
"Sure!" Damian replied, not knowing what he is getting himself into.
"Why don't we make a bet, you win, and I'll let you go…"
"And I get a date with this hot chick!" Damian interrupted, looking at Pakura.
"And you'll get her as a date." Ash agreed. Pakura didn't say anything, as she knew there is no way he'll win. "If I win, you give us…." He paused dramatically. "Your Pokémon and your life. How does that sound?"
"Sounds fine." Damian said, knowing he'd get a beautiful date soon. He couldn't wait to brag to all of his friends. "Go, Absol!"
Much to Ash's disgust, Absol didn't seem to any better condition than Vulpix to battle. He clenched his fists at the battered and bruised body of Absol's. However, he was calm enough to hold Pikachu, Buneary and Lucario back.
"Guys, I think we should send an old friend out. Shall we?" Ash gave a dark smirk.
The Pokémon knew what he meant, and nodded both eagerly and reluctantly.
"Lend me your aura, Charizard!" Ash threw his Pokéball, and out came Charizard, who roared to the heavens, causing some sort of shockwave. He was wearing two Mega Stones on his neck, which he could actually choose which should react with Ash's Key Stone.
"Charizard, we're having a battle with an old friend. Perhaps you want to take care of it?" Ash smiled.
Charizard looked around, before looking down at Damian. He growled when he remembered where he had seen Damian before.
"Charizard, let's take him down…badly." Ash said.
"I'll do more than that." Charizard replied, cracking his knuckles.
"You may have the first move." Ash offered.
'As if that makes it any better.' Pakura thought.
"Absol, start things off with Shadow Ball!" Damian commanded.
"Charizard, disperse it with Shadow Claw!" Ash replied. Charizard did, and the Shadow Ball was sliced in half.
"Use Quick Attack!" Damian said.
"Dodge them." Ash nodded to Charizard, and Charizard kept dodging Absol's attacks. Absol tried its best to his Charizard, but he was simply too fast.
"What are you doing, Absol? Hurry up and hit that thing!" Damian yelled.
"Charizard, use Air Slash!" Charizard fired multiple light blue glowing saw disc-like energy blades at Absol, all hitting him effectively.
"Grr…Absol, Double Team!" Absol created copies of itself, but Ash could tell that due to fatigue, the copies were flickering.
Ash knew he had to knock out Absol. "Charizard, let Absol out of its misery. Use Focus Blast." Charizard obeyed, and the super-effective move knocked it out instantly.
"You useless Pokémon! How could you…." Before he could finish, Ash placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You lost. Now to give us what you bet. Your Pokémon, please."
Damian took out all his Pokéballs (which was way more than six and it's illegal unless you're a Gym Leader, Elite Four or Champion) and tossed them to Ash, before turning to leave, but Ash stopped him again with a chilling smile.
'I sure taught him well.' Pakura thought, looking at Ash's disturbing smile, as she absent-mindedly petted the Vulpix, which made Vulpix purr in contentment.
"I haven't get the second thing we want. Your life."
Damian widened his eyes. Was he really going to die? He looked to the girl for help, but she wasn't even looking at him.
"Charizard, Fire Blast. Pikachu, Thunderbolt. Buneary, Ice Beam. Combine all these moves, and make sure he suffers." Ash ordered. "Paku, when they are done, please help me make sure he's dead. I'll be taking his Pokémon to the Pokémon Center." Pakura bowed, showing she understood his orders.
A scream echoed through the deep parts of the forest.
Moments later, there was a gunshot.
"It's going to be a while before they are healed completely. The abuse has done a lot of damage to them." Nurse Joy reported to Ash and Pakura. "Vulpix seems to be much better, but we are keeping it in the Center just in case."
"Very well, Nurse Joy." Ash nodded. He knew Pakura had the ability to heal Pokémon, but didn't mention it as it might risk Pakura being asked by various people to heal their Pokémon with even the smallest injury, and it may lead to them abusing her power, which means that even if she were exhausted, they would still demand her to keep using that healing power. However, what he didn't know was that she also could heal humans, as she didn't bother telling him that part of her power.
"I think we should get the other Elites to come down here tomorrow. Maybe they can adopt some of the Pokémon." Ash said.
"But we have to ask if they want to come with us or go back to the wild. We have to respect their decision." Pakura replied.
"You're right. We'll ask them, and we'll adopt for those who wants to come along with us."
"You four can adopt them if you like. I have no intention of adopting a new Pokémon after Eevee." She absent-mindedly scratched Eevee under her chin, which made her coo in contentment.
Ash knew that by the very slight exasperation in her tone, she had no intention of taking Eevee as her Pokémon, as she already had all the Eeveelutions she wanted, but Eevee was persistent and followed Pakura around, and she had no heart to just abandon any Pokémon, let alone one that looked like she just recently hatched from her Egg.
"Suit yourself." Ash shrugged. With that, they left the Center.
Unknown to her, a certain Vulpix sounded hurt that Pakura had no intention of adding a new Pokémon. As she fell asleep, she thought when the four people come to check on them tomorrow, she would sneak out to find and convince her.
"Have you reached a verdict?" William asked the jury. Everyone was seated back in the courtroom awaiting the verdict.
"We have, your Honor." Tenma said.
"And what is the verdict, Tenma?" William asked.
Tenma stood up to read the verdict, and as he did so his mouth was trembling, as he was trying not to smile at the charges that were given to Misty, which had been discussed over dinner. Mika gave him a smack on the arm, and he turned to glare at her.
"Just get on with it." Mika hissed. "And stop smiling."
Tenma just gave her a look that clearly told her that she was crazy, and cleared his throat before reading, "We the jury, in the case of The People of PAL versus Misty, find the defendant…"
Everyone held a breath as Tenma paused at this point.
"Please not be guilty, please not be guilty…." Max chanted. The others also had their fingers crossed for Misty's innocence.
"….Guilty of the charge of breaking into the PAL Tower, attempted kidnap of a Pokémon belonging to Champion Red, and being an accomplice to rekindle a former illegal prostitution deal involving Princess Pakura. Additional charges with resistance of arrest and vandalism of Hunter Association property would also be added. The final sentence would be handed out at 7.30pm tomorrow."
As soon as Tenma read the verdict, May screeched, "You can't do this!"
"Erm, yes, we can, Miss Maple." William replied. "Thank you. Court is adjourned."
The guards took Misty by the arms, and she screamed and kicked while the guards dragged her towards her cell to await the sentence. Her friends tried to get to her, but they were intimidated as the guards showed that the bulge they had sticking out of their jackets was a gun and not the stump of an extraneous third arm as they originally thought.
"You! How dare you land out innocent friend in jail?" Max shouted at Red.
"Innocent? The evidence is all there, and you guys are delusional if you think Manaphy is still May's and Misty did nothing wrong!" Ash snorted.
Max growled, and was about to lung forward at Ash, only to be stopped by the 12 Zodiacs, each of them holding their weapon of choice to intimidate them further.
"Do you really want to take us on?" Akira raised his eyebrows, holding his weapon that looked like a rifle, but works like a cannon when used.
"Yeah, we are like the PAL's Battle Frontier." Kenta replied,holding his two swords in defensive position.
"They are chosen because their Pokémon battling skills are around a typical regional Elite Four member, Max, in addition to their skills to earn them at least one star in their Hunter field. They are our Battle Frontier. Do you still want to challenge them?" Rosaline asked, folding her arms.
"You have a Battle Frontier?" Cynthia whispered to Ash.
"Well, yeah, didn't you know?" Ash replied. "Ours works differently in terms of collecting symbols, though. There are four symbols, but it's cut into 12 pieces. So in order to get one whole symbol, one must defeat the group who holds the three pieces."
"Tenma, Mika and Kenta hold the pieces of the Flame Symbol, Akira, Ryoko and Jin holds the Wind Symbol, Naoto, Ran and Gou hold the Earth Symbol, and Makoto, Ai and Tappei hold the Water Symbol." Jude continued. "Phillip placed a special chip inside that would fix the three pieces to make it into one piece without showing that it was once in three pieces once a challenger gets all three pieces. Due to the fact that the symbols are all cut differently, there is no way the pieces one group is holding can fix with the pieces that is held by another group."
"Usually, the challenger faces Kenta, Jin, Gou and Tappei first, depending on the symbol they are battling for, followed by Mika, Ryoko, Ran and Ai, the female members, and finally the Leaders, Tenma, Akira, Naoto and Makoto. Of course, the Leaders are the strongest." Phillip finished. "They would compete in the Pokémon World championship, but they are pretty busy with their own Hunter jobs, their duties as a Zodiac and in some cases, their everyday jobs, and they would never give them up temporarily in favour of competing in the tournament, especially since they practically run the Hunter's Association."
Just then, there was a scream, and everyone turned in time to see Ryoko having May on the floor with her right arm being twisted behind her back. Apparently, she had tried to attack Ash when she wasn't looking, only to be stopped by Ryoko.
"She's lucky it wasn't Naoto who did it." Ash muttered. Everyone nodded in agreement, as in terms of hand-to-hand combat, Naoto is the best among them, and the only people who have defeated him so far in that were Pakura and Ash (without aura).
Ash watched as Misty was taken away, and the traitors being kept in line by the Zodiacs and the guards. He ignored the heated glares sent to him by them, suggesting they would get revenge on him later.
"Well, now all we need to do is wait for the sentence tomorrow." Pikachu remarked.
"I wonder what sentence they would give her." Lucario added. "I hope it's a heavy sentence."
"They won't give her such a harsh sentence. The theft wasn't even successful. Now let's go, I promised Paul and Gary I'd do a practice battle with them and help out with their training." Ash said.
"Yeah, I want to spend some time with Grimsley now." Rosaline yawned.
"I'll play some sports with Jude. We did promise each other this afternoon." Phillip said.
"I'll come with you." Jasmine added.
Pakura frowned at her three Elites. Those three had been blowing off training ever since they started dating. Well, Jude wasn't dating, but even he started to slack when Phillip and Rosaline started neglecting training.
She shook her head at their relaxed attitude. Those three would eventually face their downfall if they continue to skip training, which she could totally see them do. Of course, she won't warn her Elites, because of two reasons: one, they have to learn things the hard way, and two, she really wanted to see them go down (or suffer) if that day comes.
She turned to Cynthia and mouthed, "Meet me in half an hour" before making her way back to the Tower.
"Is that all you've got, Paul?" Ash asked. He had his Shiny Greninja out against Paul's Torterra. Due to Greninja's speed, it was very hard for Torterra to hit Greninja despite the type advantage. Gary was currently watching them with his Umbreon, Ash's Pikachu and his Lucario.
"No way, Ash." Paul replied.
"Very well. Greninja, use Water Shuriken!"
"Counter with Razor Leaf!" Paul said. The Water Shuriken and Razor Leaf clashed, and since both of them are at equal power, they simply disappeared upon contact.
"Greninja, use Aerial Ace!" Since Torterra is weak to Flying-moves, it was super-effective, and the Aerial Ace was strong enough to send Torterra skidding backwards.
"Torterra, can you still battle?" Paul asked worriedly. Torterra nodded.
"Alright, use Giga Drain!" Torterra somehow managed to hit Greninja with Giga Drain, slowly draining his energy.
"Greninja, we can't have that now, can we?"
Greninja nodded. "No we can't, Ash."
"Glad you agree. Greninja, use Icy Wind!" It was a new move that was taught to Greninja by his Latios just the other day. Greninja worked hard to master this move, and eventually did after a few hours.
"Torterra, get out of the way!"
But it was too late, as the Icy Wind hit him head on. Torterra couldn't stand the sheer power of the Icy Wind, and collapsed with swirls on his eyes.
"Torterra is unable to battle. Greninja wins. Which means, the winner is Ash!" Gary announced.
"Good job, Greninja." Ash petted his Greninja.
"Thanks, Ash." Greninja replied.
"Now take a good rest, alright?" Ash said, as he took out Greninja's Pokéball, and returned Greninja.
Ash checked his Stopwatch function in the CommuniDex. "Well, Paul, you lasted for 8 minutes and 43 seconds this time. I'd say it's an improvement."
"Thanks, but someday, Ash, I'll make you go all out against me." Paul declared. He knew Ash was still many levels above him when it comes to Pokémon battling, and Ash was going easy against him.
"I look forward to that day." Ash nodded. "Gary, you ready?"
"Always have." Gary got up, and Umbreon was already battle ready.
"Alright. Gliscor, lend me your aura!"
"You're not sending out any of your Eeveelutions?" Gary asked, surprised.
"Didn't I battle you with my Leafeon the last time, and you lost?" Ash muttered. "Nah, I had enough of battling Eeveelutions with another Eeveelution. Besides, we battle with our Eeveelutions pretty often back at the Plateau. After all, all my Elites combined owned all the Eeveelutions with the exception of Leafeon. So, some other time, Gary."
"Fine." Gary sighed.
"You may have the first move." Ash offered. It was the same offer he gave to Paul earlier.
"Alright, I won't hold back. Umbreon, start things off with Shadow Ball!"
Cynthia checked herself out in the mirror. She tied her hair in a ponytail, and is currently wearing a black flexible shirt and navy blue short pants provided by the closet in her room. She also replaced her usual black boots with sneakers.
'This should do.' Cynthia thought, as she left her room to take the elevator down to the lobby to meet Pakura.
Sure enough, Pakura was waiting, and she herself was wearing what was supposedly her training outfit- a long sleeved burgundy shirt, a black skirt and navy blue leggings. She was wearing sneakers as well.
"I knew you'd show up." Pakura said, nodding. "Let's go." Pakura headed towards the elevator, and entered, Cynthia following behind. Once they were in, Pakura removed a panel at the bottom of the elevator buttons, revealing a mini keyboard. Cynthia watched as Pakura typed something onto the keyboard, and the elevator doors closed. Instead of going upwards, which Cynthia was used to, the elevator started moving downwards.
The doors opened to a huge gymnasium filled with various weapons and obstacle courses. Cynthia was awed at the sheer number of weapons available in their gym.
"Here is where we usually prepare and practice for when we have to fight for our lives." Pakura explained to Cynthia. "I am going to test your agility and balance." With that, she took Cynthia to the gauntlet.
"This gauntlet is a daunting obstacle courses used by us. As you can see, they consist of ascending platforms that rise up to a landing."
"What's the objective?" Cynthia asked.
"Simple. To jump from platform to platform to finish in the fastest time possible. To make it even more difficult, we usually swing padded clubs at the person currently using it. What makes it even thrilling is that if you lose your balance, you'll fall to the ground."
Cynthia gulped, when Pakura took a padded club from the side of the gauntlet.
"Ready?" Pakura asked. Cynthia nodded. "Alright….go!"
Cynthia started running and jumping on the first platform, and jumping to avoid the padded club Pakura was currently swinging at her.
She jumped to the second platform, and blocked the padded club swinging for her middle this time. The padded club nearly hit her face.
'She's fast.' Cynthia thought, as she pushed the club away and headed for the third platform.
However, as she jumped, Pakura hit the padded club at her legs, which caused Cynthia to lose her balance, and fall to the ground. Cynthia swore she bruised her elbow when she fell.
"Hey, get up." Pakura said. "Try again."
"What?" Cynthia was shocked.
"Do you really think we all take breaks just for one tiny injury?" Pakura snorted. "No, we continue on. Now go attempt the gauntlet again. We are not stopping until you clear the entire gauntlet course."
Cynthia nodded as she got up, and ran towards the gauntlet course, once again jumping on the first platform, with Pakura trying to make her lose her balance.
"I shouldn't have used Toxic against Gliscor." Gary winced, as Umbreon fell to the ground with swirls in its eyes, and Gliscor looking better than it did before battle, although it was glowing purple, the sign of a poisoned status. He turned to Paul. "I thought you said Gliscor can be poisoned?"
"Well…" Paul replied sheepishly. "During the Lily of the Valley Conference, I did poison Gliscor during my battle with him in the Top 8, so how am I supposed to know Ash's Gliscor has Poison Heal as its ability?"
Ash snickered, as he returned Gliscor. "I activated this Ability during my battle with Jude when I was taking on the Elite challenge. Didn't mention it, did I?" Paul and Gary glared mockingly at him.
"Why don't you two have a Double Battle with me this time?" Ash asked.
Paul and Gary looked at each other, before they shrugged. "Alright." They replied in unison, and sent out Froslass and Blastoise respectively.
"Froslass, and Blastoise, huh?" Ash nodded. "Then…" He threw his Pokéballs, and out came Gardevoir and Delphox.
"Blastoise, start things off with Tackle!"
"Froslass, Ominous Wind!" Paul commanded.
"Gardevoir, use Reflect!" Gardevoir used Reflect to repel Blastoise's Tackle, and he was sent skidding backwards.
"Now Delphox, use Mystical Fire!" Ash didn't give them time to react, and Mystical Fire managed to damage Froslass.
"Froslass, are you ok?" Paul asked, concerned for his Pokémon.
"I'm ok." Froslass replied.
"Blastoise, use Hydro Cannon on Gardevoir!" However, Reflect was still in effect, and thus Gardevoir was protected from the attack.
"You know, in double battles, cooperation between trainer and the Pokémon themselves are very important. And since there are two of you, you two need to work together as well." Ash said. "If you only attack one at a time, it's not going to work."
Paul and Gary looked at each other, and nodded.
"Froslass, jump on Blastoise's back!"
"Blastoise, Rapid Spin!" Gary said. The Rapid Spin momentum threw Froslass off, and Froslass gracefully spun above Reflect.
'Very impressive. But…' Ash thought, as Paul said, "Froslass, use Ice Shard."
"Gardevoir, use Shadow Ball!" Ash countered, and the Ice Shards were sent back to Froslass, in addition to the Shadow Ball hitting its mark.
"Delphox, Flamethrower at Blastoise."
"Blastoise!" Gary shouted, but Blastoise opened its mouth and released a strong blizzard to counter Flamethrower.
"Is that…" Paul was surprised.
"It's Blizzard! Blastoise, you learnt Blizzard! That's amazing!" Gary said in awe.
'That was one strong Blizzard. It was able to take on Delphox's Flamethrower, although it was on low power.' Ash thought. He was glad for his friend, whose Pokémon had learnt a new move.
"Game set, Robinson, 7-5!" A machine announced in the Sports Complex.
Jude panted, as he straightened himself up. "Great game, Phillip!"
Phillip nodded. "You too." He replied, as both of them walked to the benches to get a drink, placing their racquets beside them.
"That was a great job, Phillip." Jasmine complimented. She was sitting at the bench watching them play.
"Thanks." Phillip nodded, as Jasmine passed him his bottle. As both of them started on their isotonic drinks, Phillip started to talk. "Hey, Jude?"
"Yes?" Jude replied, looking at the person sitting next to him.
"Has it occurred to you that we might've been friends with the Dragon Princess at one point?"
"What made you have this theory?" Jasmine frowned, as Jude wiped his sweat off with a towel.
"Look, we all know our memories had been modified and erased. What if it was the memories of the Dragon Princess so we can't give any information on her? And why do I feel like I'm missing something important?" He felt a slight hurt deep inside, and he did not know why.
"Yeah, me too, Phillip. I feel like I lost something dear to me, and I don't even know what it is." Jude sighed. "I feel like our relationships and our lives had been messed up." He didn't mention that he had a very slight inkling that Phillip wasn't his best friend, despite spending the most time together with him. On the contrary, his instincts told him his best friend was Rosaline. So, who was Phillip's real best friend, then?
Phillip was in deep thought about something. He was currently living the good life, as he had everything he could ever ask for: cool friends, a powerful position, great Pokémon, a high-paying job that is dangerous but fulfilling which fits his somewhat adventurous character, and people vying for his attention, especially a certain Gym Leader, who he inwardly admitted was pretty. But he felt that something significant in his life was missing, as if he lost his best friend. Whoever made him think Jude was his best friend all those years must've did a good job on it, and a good job of supressing his actual feelings too.
Jasmine looked at Jude and Phillip worriedly. By the looks of things, there was something off.
'I don't even know how I feel anymore.' Jude thought, cradling his head with his hands. 'Ever since the mysteries have been made known, we're feeling unsure of the truth our lives currently are.'
"It's too bad we don't have Ash's ability to dream of the past. That way, we might be able to dream about our lost memories." Phillip remarked.
"Yeah…." Jasmine agreed.
Then, something struck Jude. "Wait, Ash did mention a dream that he had that involved me and another girl!"
"That dream where you'd promise the girl you'll be a better family than her family would ever be?" Phillip asked.
"I'm almost certain it was the Dragon Princess in the dream, and she was the one that erased our memories in the first place. I say when we find her, we demand for her to return our memories first." Jude said.
"Yeah, I prefer to have my memories back too. I'm sure Rosaline would agree. I wonder what made her do it in the first place, you know take away a chunk of our lives we lived through." Phillip replied.
"Maybe she did something bad and you saw and then she erased your memories to cover her crime or something." Jasmine shrugged.
"Makes sense…." Phillip trailed off. But why does he think it's more than that?
He inwardly shook his head, and turned to Jasmine. "Jasmine, after this, do you want to…well…train your Pokémon with me for your er…battle?"
Jasmine smiled. "I'd love to."
SNAP!
Both of them looked up to see Jude lowering his camera. "Aww, how sweet." He joked.
Jasmine got up, but Jude managed to escape.
Phillip shook his head, as he tried to supress his laughter. "Don't chase him, Jasmine. He usually likes taking pictures of us doing our daily stuff when we are unaware, looks more natural that way, he says. He's very good at photography, you know. I guess we forgot to mention he's a famous blogger as well."
"Must be a really busy social life." Jasmine raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah." Phillip nodded. "That's why he's one of the more popular Elites."
"You gamble too much, Grimsley." Rosaline looked at Grimsley in disapproval, as they left the Casino in Ludunt City. "Do you know it's unhealthy?"
"Hey, what's wrong with a little bet on your luck?" Grimsley shrugged.
Rosaline shook her head. "Fine, it's either you stop gambling from now onwards, or I'll…."
"Or?" Grimsley prompted her.
"I'm breaking up with you!" There were unshed tears in Rosaline's eyes, as if it hurt her to say that.
Grimsley froze in fear. He remembered what had happened after he asked Rosaline out.
Grimsley was alone, counting the money he had won through gambling for today. He looked up, and found Pakura pointing a knife at the back of his head in the mirror.
"Move and I will kill you. Make a sound, and I will kill you. Attack, I will kill you. If you understand, close your eyes." Pakura said in a soft but deadly tone.
Grimsley trembled, and closed his eyes. He knew Pakura is not above in hurting others physically. Once, if he remembered, Rosaline once mentioned she was the best assassin among the five of them.
"Now, answer me. You asked Rosaline out correct?"
Grimsley meekly nodded.
"I want you to treat her well. I know of your reputation as a playboy, Elite Grimsley. I know about how you go out with girls, and dump them a week later. I know it all. While I don't care about Rosaline, our Champion would be angry if we were to lose a unit. If you understand, open your eyes, and look at me in the mirror." He did, and saw that her eyes looked like the ones from the underworld.
"But, Rosaline is an adult, she should-" Grimsley started.
"Don't interrupt me, Grimsley." Pakura cut him off coldly. Grimsley flinched at her tone. "You may be Unova's Elite Four member, but if you take one step out of the line, I won't hesitate. It has nothing to do with your abilities and position. After all, you are an ordinary Elite, so what am I afraid of?"
Grimsley trembled, as Pakura went on, ""I just thought I can warn you whenever and wherever. When you sleep, when you are in the bathroom….One point of advice, never try to ask a PAL Elite out without being ready for commitment. We hate that." With that, she took out a knife, and threw the knife across the room, hitting an insect. Grimsley flinched at her stunning accuracy.
"You better do as I say. If you want to go out with her, stay true to her, and do whatever she says. Swear it."
"I understand."
"OK! I will try!" Grimsley shouted, hastily stepping back. The unshed tears immediately disappeared, and Rosaline became happier.
Unfortunately, Grimsley stepped onto a bike gang member's shoes when he stepped back hastily.
"Hey! What do you think you are doing in our turf?" The bike gang member shouted, which made Grimsley turn in surprise. The surprise turned to horror when he realized there were at least 7 gang members in the alley.
Before Grimsley could say anything, he was grabbed by the scarf by the gang member.
"Let go of him!" Rosaline used telekinesis to push the gang member back, forcing him to let go of Grimsley. "You ok?" Rosaline asked Grimsley, who nodded.
The gang members laughed at Rosaline. "Hey little girl what are you doing here trying to protect your boyfriend? You should be with the big guys like us!" One said.
"Yeah, you're pretty cute. Maybe we can squeeze in time for you." Another added.
"We should kill the boy. And take the girl with us." A third nodded. There were murmurs of agreement.
As they approached the pair, Rosaline lit a flame in her hand.
"You do not harm my loved ones." Rosaline said coldly, as she surrounded the gang members with her flames. "Have fun burning to a crisp."
She turned to Grimsley, who was staring at the flames in shock. "Let's go."
"I-I thought you don't kill?" Grimsley spluttered.
"I do. I prefer to do it indirectly, however, and I only kill people who insult my loved ones and myself."
'I don't want to be burned to a crisp.' Grimsley thought, following Rosaline back to Luonto City.
"Well, I suppose it's an improvement. After all, you did make it up and back down without falling." Pakura shrugged.
Cynthia was panting on the ground, wincing at the injuries she got from Pakura hitting her with the padded club. Who knew she could pack a punch even with a club that won't be much in an actual combat?
Pakura looked at her abrasion and bruises, and sighed, before taking a small plastic box out of her pocket, and throwing it at Cynthia. Cynthia reached out a hand, and caught it successfully.
"Nice reflexes." Pakura said. "Anyway, use this. It's good for wounds, bruises and abrasions. After using these, your injuries should be healed in a few hours."
"Thanks." Cynthia replied, for both her compliment and the item. The pot easily fit into the palm of her hand. As she unscrewed the lid, by the smell of it, she knew it was medicine. She probed the surface of the ointment, and the throbbing in her fingertips (due to abrasions gained from falling) vanished.
Cynthia dipped two fingers into the jar and gently spread the balm over her bruises and abrasions. The effect was almost magical, erasing the pain on contact, leaving a pleasant cooling sensation behind. Cynthia just knew it was not the herbal concoctions she heard people usually use during their Pokémon journeys, it was a high-tech medicine brewed up in labs. She wondered who made this medicine, as it doesn't seem to have a brand, so she had an impression it was a secret recipe from one of the Elites.
"Now, I'll be teaching you how to use a weapon. Which weapon do you want to learn how to use?" Pakura enquired.
Cynthia looked around at the massive collection of weapons provided at the gym. There were so many she wanted to learn how to use, and wondered if she would be able to take those weapons from the gym to use in combat. Her eyes landed on the various bow and arrows that were made in various materials such as wood, plastic, metal, and some that she can't even name just by looking. There were also quivers of arrows with feathers cut in flawless uniform lines. Beside the bow and arrow station, there was a work table with some scrap materials which Cynthia would tell that the table was usually used for making arrows.
"I want to try that." Cynthia requested, pointing to the bows and arrows.
Pakura shrugged. "I guess I can give a short demo." She took a random bow and a sheath of arrows and walked towards the
There were no shooting range that Cynthia could see, no bull's-eyes or human silhouettes. There was only a room that had a glass panel and sliding doors for that station. But Cynthia saw Pakura press a button and a holographic screen and keyboard appeared on the glass. She pressed a few buttons, before entering the room. The room suddenly turned dark.
Cynthia watched as an orange holographic target holding a knife came running towards Pakura, and she shot an arrow straight through it, ducking and taking another and shot through another throwing an axe at her. She shot another arrow at the bullets that were fired towards her by a holographic person and fired one more to destroy the target. She then managed to shoot another one holding a sword and a final one that was running with a trident.
"You're talented with the bow and arrow." Cynthia nodded. She was also impressed with the advanced technology PAL has.
"I went through vigorous training that's all." Pakura made sure to keep the spite off her tone when she said vigorous training, because that would make her want to annihilate Team Rocket for what they did to her. She then worked on the holographic keyboard, and the glass panels disappeared and the bull's-eyes targets and human silhouettes appeared. "Here. I set it to standard for you. Earlier it's the targets we Elites usually use in training, but we have beginner targets as well. Now try to take aim."
Cynthia nodded, and took a bow and slung the sheath of arrows on her body. She loaded an arrow in the bow, took aim, and pulled back the string before releasing it. The arrow flew, and struck the wall next to the target she was aiming.
"Your posture is wrong." Pakura said, going over to help correct Cynthia's stance. "Try to do it like this. Relax your elbow, not so stiff. And I advise you to close one eye for now. The wide view of the second eyes can be distracting."
"What are we going to do after this?" Cynthia asked, as she shot the second arrow.
"We'll call it a day after we go and catch you a new Pokémon."
"A new Pokémon?" Cynthia was so distracted she let the arrow fly, and the arrow hit the wall.
"See, you got distracted and missed the target." Pakura sighed. "Yeah, I've checked your data through the PAL computer on your roster. I think you need more Pokémon. Good thing is you can catch almost any Pokémon you want here, if you look hard enough. Now try the stance I show you and shoot again."
Lance made it back to his room, and placed the black rectangular box and his Egg case onto his bed. He wondered what the Dragon Princess had given him this time.
He undid the clasp, opened the box, and widened his eyes at the contents.
Inside were many stones that were similar in design to the Charizardite X the Dragon Princess has showed him. Below each stone were labels that told him the name of each Mega Stone, which enabled him to roughly tell which Pokémon the stone is supposed to be used for. There was also a Key Stone in the shape of a necklace.
'She must've checked my data for my Pokémon team, and gave me the stones for those who can Mega Evolve.' Lance thought. 'Thank you, Princess.'
Ash yawned, as he stepped back into the Tower with Pikachu and Lucario on the way to the elevator so get back to his room for a shower, and then sleep. It had been a long day, and he needed the rest so he could prepare for the Top 32 tomorrow. Alder may be one of the weaker ones in his opinion, but he's still the Champion, and he must not let his guard down.
"Are you worried about tomorrow's match?" Pikachu asked Ash.
Ash nodded absent-mindedly. "Sort of."
"Hey, you don't have to worry too much." Pikachu petted him. "After all, you are already more powerful than a regional Champion."
"True, but I think the regional Champions aren't that simple. Who knows if they have an unexpected strategy they might have up their sleeves."
"Hey, Ash, what is that?" Lucario pointed to something above the elevator.
Ash raised his eyebrow as one of the elevators had the "Temporarily Unavailable" sign on it. He wondered who would be training at this time. Certainly not Phillip, Jude or Rosaline, as those three had been doing anything but training those past few days. So that just leaves Pakura.
"It's probably Paku. That girl is always serious in her work and training, sometimes she can cover for the other Elites if anything happens." Ash replied, as he pressed the elevator button. "She's indispensable to our Elite. I wonder what we would do without her."
"Probably fall apart?" Lucario joked.
Ash hummed. "Maybe."
Just then, the elevator arrived, and the three of them stepped in and pressed the button to their floor.
Only Phillip was at the living room, watching some Chinese game show. While all Elites are fluent in another language besides English, Phillip is the best in this case. Ash himself is fluent in Latin, French, and Spanish, Jude understands German, Pakura understands Chinese and Japanese, Rosaline understands Korean, and Phillip understands Japanese, Irish, German, French, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Latin, and Spanish.
"Hey, how did tennis with Jude go?" Ash asked.
"Fine." Phillip shrugged. "I won, of course."
"Didn't Jasmine go with you?"
"She did. After that, I went to train her Pokémon for tomorrow."
"You know she had a slim chance against Lance, right?" Ash enquired.
"I know that. But what's stopping her from putting up a good fight against him? Besides, she has a Mega Stone for her Steelix and her own Mega bracelet now."
"You gave her a Key Stone and a Mega Stone?" Ash was surprised.
"Well, yeah. I mean, the friendship between her and her Steelix is pretty strong, so I figured she should use it. Is something wrong?"
Ash made a mental note to give Cynthia a Key Stone and a Mega Stone for her Garchomp as soon as possible. He should probably get to the gymnasium to get the Key Stone and the Mega Stone for her first thing in the morning.
"You're right. The tournament would be much more interesting with the Mega Evolution. And I have a feeling that more of us would get the Key Stone and Mega Stones from us very soon."
Phillip nodded. "Oh, and there's something I have to tell you…"
"Thanks for helping me catch the Sylveon, Pakura. I'll train him well." Cynthia held up the Pokéball containing her new Sylveon.
"You caught it yourself, Cynthia. I just told you where a wild Sylveon can be found." Pakura waved dismissively. "Anyway, go to bed. You have matches tomorrow. We'll continue training tomorrow, same place, and same time."
"Alright, see you tomorrow. You know, you're the most helpful person I ever met! You can help anyone if you put your mind to it." Cynthia nodded to Pakura, and left, not noticing Pakura suddenly had a closed-off look about her.
Once Cynthia left for the Tower, Pakura suddenly ran back towards the Tower, followed by three worried Pokémon and pressed the up button. As one of the elevators are currently located at the lobby, the doors immediately opened, and she dashed in. She hastily opened the panel, and pressed the passcode, returning back to the gymnasium.
"Paku's lost her mind!" Skitty cried worriedly, dodging the vases and various glasses she was throwing haphazardly against the wall using telekinesis. The glasses and vases shattered upon impact, leaving glass shards on the ground. There was a somewhat crazed look in Pakura's face.
"Not again!" Sylveon tried to intertwine her feelers on Pakura's arm to try and calm her down, only for her feelers to be slapped away with telekinesis.
"Stop it, Paku! This isn't the owner I know." Eevee wailed.
Skitty and Sylveon looked grim. They both knew Pakura wouldn't stop.
"IF I CAN HELP ANYONE WHY CAN'T I HELP HIM? WHY CAN'T I SAVE HIM? WHY?" Pakura was shouting to no one in particular, as much to the three Pokémon's horror, she threw herself on the glass shards. Around her, blood started seeping out.
Just then, a Pokéball opened, and out came Espeon. He sighed when he saw that state Pakura was in.
"Again?" Espeon asked. The three of them nodded.
"I think Cynthia's remark of her being able to help anyone triggered it." Sylveon said. "Probably reminded her of that time, you know."
"We better get the glass shards off her body first. That way, her body would be able to heal. But be careful." Skitty warned.
Espeon nodded, and used Psychic to lift Pakura and get the glass shards off her body. Some were easy to take off, others were lodged into her flesh, which made it harder, while the other three Pokémon helped clean up the glass shards.
'How is she going to put herself together to battle tomorrow?' Espeon thought, as Pakura's wounds automatically healed thanks to her Healing Regenerative Factor. 'And the things she do isn't good for her health. At the rate her mental health is going, we might lose her completely in a matter of time.'
"Come on, let's bring her back to her room."
Sylveon nodded, and took out one of Pakura's Pokéballs. She opened it, and out came Gardevoir.
Gardevoir looked around, and as soon as her eyes landed on Pakura, she shook her head.
"Let me guess, again?" Gardevoir enquired.
"Yes. Can you bring us all to her room?"
Gardevoir nodded, and teleported everyone to her room.
"Thank you." Espeon said.
"No problem." Gardevoir replied. "Take care of her." She then got her Pokéball, and returned herself.
Espeon placed her on the bed with a sigh. Pakura's eyes were open, but they were glazed. Apparently her mind has closed off to reality. Espeon used Psychic to close her eyes. Rest might do her some good, even if she didn't really sleep.
'Hmm, what's this?' Espeon wondered, looking at the note in Pakura's pocket and another flower, this time it was a geranium.
'Must've wanted to send this to Ash.' Espeon thought. 'Well, I'll send it for her.' With that, he went out to place the note and flower somewhere where Ash would see, before returning.
Espeon stared at his owner, before liking her on the cheek.
"Goodnight, Paku, I love you." He then returned to his Pokéball, after exchanging a tender goodbye with Sylveon.
Sylveon sighed, as the three of them curled up on the bed next to their owner. She knew that the once confident and determined Princess was crushed, not once, but twice. She knew everyone couldn't bear to leave her even if she told them to, for her (and Shiki's) Pokémon were all she had left.
Ash found himself staring at Rosaline, who was painting an unknown picture. Rosaline was humming a song, and by the daylight, he knew it was an afternoon.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Rosaline said to the knocker.
The door opened, and someone else, Ash couldn't tell who it was since once again, the person was a silhouette, came in, carrying a tray of strawberry shortcake and some tea. Ash presumed that this was the Dragon Princess.
"Hey, you made some cake?" Rosaline sounded excited, putting down her palette and paintbrush.
"I'm surprised you haven't splashed paint on yourself." The Dragon Princess sounded amused, as Rosaline washed her hands, before going over to eat the cake. "But then again, you are the best artist, you never spill a single drop of paint."
"Thanks. You're great at making pastries too, especially cakes." Rosaline nodded.
"Thank you for the compliment." The Dragon Princess said. "So, what are you painting this time? Surely it's not for the Art competition? You already won like the 6th time in the last competition, and the next one isn't until three months later. And I am certain you already finished the mixed-media piece for one of our art galleries, Creative Dream Space."
"You're right. I'm doing it for fun this time. I'm almost done with the painting." Rosaline chirped. "Want to take a look?"
"I guess it won't hurt." Princess shrugged, as she went over to see the painting. Ash heard her gasp as she saw the painting.
"Rosaline….it's beautiful…..I don't know what to say." The Dragon Princess seemed at a loss for words.
"I thought since you couldn't have the dream wedding with Shiki anymore, at least you have this. What your wedding picture would look like." Rosaline said shyly.
"Thank you, Rosaline." The Dragon Princess replied appreciatively. "I love it."
"You can have it as a gift after I'm done." Rosaline offered.
"That's very nice of you. I can't thank you enough."
"No need to thank me. We're friends, aren't we?"
Ash sat up, and frowned. Rosaline mentioned that the Dragon Princess couldn't have a dream wedding with Shiki anymore, which meant that Cynthia's suspicions was right. Shiki Kurobane IS the Dragon Prince! And it seemed that this may be another memory that the Dragon Princess had erased from the Elites' mind, considering the memory most likely contained information on who the Dragon Princess really is.
'One thing's for sure. I can't ask Rosaline. She most likely have her memories modified, along with the other three.' Ash thought, as he walked out to the living room, expecting to see Pakura there, only she wasn't.
'She's probably resting after a few nights of not sleeping.' Ash thought. 'But it's still weird not seeing her out here waiting to talk.'
And there was another note on the table, along with another flower.
Ash rushed over, and opened the note. Like the last note, it contained a single line.
The loneliest people are the kindest.
Ash wondered what the Dragon Princess was trying to tell him. He wished Pakura was here to help him and tell him what the flower meant, but she's probably getting a good rest after a few days of not sleeping. He placed the note in his pocket, and decided to make his way to the gymnasium, figuring now that he's awake he should get the Mega Stone and Key Stone for Cynthia. With the elevators, the ride was less than a minute.
Once he arrived at the gymnasium, he walked over to the cupboard at the corner, and opened it. He noted that the Mega Stone supply seemed to be depleted, but shrugged, and took one of the Garchompite for Cynthia. He looked at the various Key Stones available, before deciding on a necklace, as she could always conceal it under her shirt for safekeeping. He placed both in his pocket to give to Cynthia later in the day.
He heard something break when he stepped on the floor, and Ash looked down. He realized it was some piece of a vase, and looking around, he realized several glass decorations and vases were missing. Ash sighed. It looked like he'd have to order more decorations and vases. He looked back down at the piece of glass, and realized the floor around it had dried blood on them.
'But none of us would be bleed that much during training, especially Paku.' Ash thought, knowing she was probably the last person who used the gymnasium, having used it the previous evening. 'Unless she deliberately broke the glass deco and the vases, and is crazy enough to throw herself at the sharp pieces, which might explain the missing vases and glass deco, but I'm sure Paku would know better than that. Perhaps it was just a minor accident. And if she had a problem, she'll talk it out with me, I'm sure.' With that thought, he cleared up the remaining pieces, and made his way back to the elevator, dismissing the feeling that something might be wrong.
Much to his surprise, when he arrived back at the twelfth floor, Paku was there, looking at the wall blankly.
"Hey, Paku." Ash greeted her. He thought his Leader looked worse than usual. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot, with the tired look about it, her hair was lank and unkempt, and Ash noted there was a defeated look about her.
"Are you okay?" Ash asked, concerned about his Leader.
Pakura nodded.
"You don't look fine." Ash frowned. "Something wrong?"
Pakura shook her head. "Just work."
"Why not get the other three to help or something? It might lessen your workload."
"They seemed too busy with their social lives, so I thought I won't burden them with my work." Pakura replied sarcastically. She yawned. "Where did you go?"
"Went to get a Key Stone and a Garchompite for Cynthia." Ash replied.
"Ah….ok. I knew you'd give her one sooner or later, considering the huge competition here and she probably needs all the help she can get to win the Cup. So, what dream do you have this time?"
Ash told her about it, and when he was done, she had this thoughtful look to her face.
"It seems that you have been dreaming of the lost memories of ours. I think I have a theory to why she erased their memories."
"And what is that?"
"We all know the Dragon Princess had some sort of a mysterious but tragic past. But perhaps this past has allowed her to learn to protect others so they would never suffer the same fate. What if she erased their memories to protect them?"
"But both memories are happy and not…" Ash trailed off.
"No, hear me out. Maybe if they still had memories of her, they would question her actions as of late, and try and find out what happened, and maybe she wanted to prevent that and protect them quietly. Thus, she erased their memory."
"Now you're making sense." The pieces now clicked in Ash's mind. "But the question is, if the Dragon Princess loved all of you very much, why is she causing all these, and harming us?"
"Maybe she was disappointed. That they couldn't fight the memory blocks she placed." Pakura shrugged. "Or her love turned into hate over time."
"Anyway, maybe Phillip and Jude would regain their memories soon." Ash mentioned.
"What makes you say so?" Pakura enquired.
"Phillip and Jude had the feeling that their memories had been modified and their lives and relationships was not what it seems. They said they feel like they are missing something. I think they are starting to resist the memory block."
'This is bad. Once Ash goes to sleep, I better go to each of their rooms to try and strengthen their memory blocks. I can't afford for them to regain their memories. They'll try and stop me from doing what I am going to do later, especially Phillip because he wouldn't want to lose his best friend. But if their memories are gone, they wouldn't mourn the loss so much.'
"Is there anything wrong? You've gone quiet." Ash was concerned.
"Ah…no. I was wondering why Rosaline and I didn't feel that something is wrong or missing. Are our minds that weak?"
"Don't worry, just give it time. I'm sure you'd feel something is wrong soon. And I think we can then piece what memories the Dragon Princess took from you. But at least we know that Shiki Kurobane is the Dragon Prince. I think the Dragon Princess lied to Lance about this."
"So, should we tell him?" Pakura asked.
Ash shook his head. "Not until we solve this. We might turn the Dragon Princess in to Lance for him to decide what to do with her. After all, she killed nearly his entire clan, and ruined his home."
"Fair enough." Pakura nodded. "But by the dream, it just seems to me all she wanted was to be Shiki's bride. Rosaline probably painted her imagination on what the couple would've looked like on their wedding day."
"Oh yeah, one question."
"What?"
"Another note came and another flower. Dragon Princess must've sent it" Ash showed her the note and the flower.
Pakura frowned, as she didn't remember leaving it at the table, but thought maybe her Espeon did it.
"The loneliest people are the kindest. And who do you think of when you read it?"
Ash wanted to say "You" but afraid that it may offend her, so he merely said, "Nobody I know. So, know the meaning of this flower?"
"It means Stupidity or Folly."
"You mean she's mocking us for being stupid?" Ash was slightly outraged.
"Pretty much." Pakura didn't seem as fazed for being called stupid. "Maybe because we haven't figured out who she is."
Ash yawned. "I think we better save that for tomorrow, we need to sleep now, we have matches tomorrow."
"You go first, Ash. I still got things to do."
"Just promise me you'll sleep in five minutes. You haven't been resting well, and I can tell." Ash said sternly. "It's starting to take a toll on you."
"Alright, I promise." Pakura waved him off.
"Goodnight, Paku."
"'Night."
'Luckily I did force myself to pull myself together to hear Ash's dreams and his opinions. If not I wouldn't have been able to plan the next step.' With that thought in mind, she teleported away.
"What's so important that you have to drag us to the Pokémon Center before breakfast?" Jude grumbled. His head hurt somewhat, and he attributed it to lack of sleep. Well, at least the feeling of something may be wrong with his life is gone. His Liepard was nuzzling his legs to help keep him awake.
"We caught a Pokémon abuser before we returned to court. I figured we could adopt some of his Pokémon, considering how many Pokémon he has. I wonder if he's even licensed, since he had way more than six Pokémon with him." Ash muttered.
"Did you kill him?" Phillip asked, petting his Emolga.
Ash nodded.
"Well, that's good. But why isn't Pakura coming with us?" Rosaline enquired.
"She said she doesn't have any intention of adopting another after Eevee." Ash shrugged, as they stepped in the Pokémon Center.
"Hello, Elites." Nurse Joy greeted them. "Here to see the Pokémon?"
"Yes." Ash replied. "How are they?"
"Good, thank you for asking. The Pokémon are recovering nicely. But some are still emotionally jittery." Nurse Joy replied, and her Blissey nodded. "They are currently living in rooms that we assigned for them until we find the time to bring them back in the wild or someone comes along and adopt them."
"So, Blissey, did you ask if they wanted to go back to the wild or be adopted?" Ash enquired.
"I did. Nurse Joy and I took the liberty into separating the Pokémon into two different rooms. Shall I take you to the room where the Pokémon wished to be adopted?"
"I know I've seen it many times, but understanding PokéSpeech is still impressive." Nurse Joy complimented.
"Thanks, Nurse Joy." Jude gave her a smile that made her blush.
Ash nodded for Blissey to lead the way, and Blissey led the four of them to a door.
"Here is where the Pokémon who wanted to be adopted is currently residing at."
Ash nodded, as he opened the door, gesturing for the other Elites to enter.
"Whoa, just how many Pokémon does this guy have?" Jude demanded. "Is it even legal?"
"Beats me. But I'm glad he's gone." Rosaline replied, looking around at the hopeful eyes of the Pokémon. She immediately saw one she liked, and went over to greet it.
Ash watched as Rosaline started to connect with a Chikorita, and he himself went over to a Swampert.
"Hello." Ash greeted. The Swampert looked at him warily.
"Don't worry, I'm a friend. I'm here to help." Ash said kindly, holding out a hand. "I promise, I would never hurt you."
"He'll never do it, Swampert. All of us are happy under his ownership. I promise." Pikachu assured.
"That's right. He values Pokémon more than his own life." Lucario replied. "And I'm sure you're a brave one, wanting to be adopted and try for a new trainer."
Swampert considered their words, before holding Ash's hand, and calmed down at the soothing aura he emitted.
"Do you want to be my Pokémon? It's ok if you don't." Ash smiled.
Swampert shrugged. "I guess I can try again."
"Good. But so you know, you can leave anytime you want, if you don't like me. Just say the word." Ash nodded, as he tapped a Pokéball, and Swampert got sucked in. He then went over to talk to another Pokémon called Smeargle, who was sitting on the bed staring into space.
At the corner of the room, a Vulpix and Shinx were talking. They were hiding under the bed.
"The girl from last night isn't here." Vulpix whispered sadly. She was hoping the girl would change her mind and arrive to come get her.
"You mean the girl you were talking about last night when we arrived?" The Shinx replied.
Vulpix nodded. "I want the girl to be my owner."
"I know she sounds amazing and all, but are you sure you even know how to find her?" The Shinx sighed. Her best friend didn't want to be adopted by any of them because she had her mind set on a girl, but apparently, the girl didn't come to the Pokémon Center. And as her best friend, she would stay by the Vulpix's side until the very end, and agreed that if they get adopted, they must be adopted by the same person.
"I got a plan. Once they finish selecting the Pokémon they wish to take care off we'll sneak out of here and then follow that boy…" Here, she pointed a paw at Ash. "To find that girl. Those two were seen together yesterday, and I'm very sure he'll lead us to her."
The Shinx nodded. "If you say so."
"Yay, I got a Clefairy, Chikorita and a Lilligant!" Rosaline held out her three Pokéballs. Espeon was trotting by her side, excited to have some new teammates.
"Bisharp, Dedenne and Aegislash are all mine!" Phillip was putting two Pokéballs in his pocket, and his new Dedenne was out on his shoulder. Emolga was currently helping Dedenne feel welcome.
"And I got a Vivillion, Ninetales and a Dewgong." Jude said happily. "What did you get, Ash, besides that Smoochum?" He looked down at the Smoochum in Ash's arms, who was waving its arms and legs happily.
"I got a Swampert, a Smeargle, as well. I wonder how Damian can abuse Pokémon like them. Good thing is the ones we didn't adopt would be open for adoption to all the other trainers. But they have to go through a test first before adopting in case a new Damian appears." He knew that they didn't need any test because everyone knew that the PAL Elites treat their Pokémon very well.
Unbeknownst to them, a Shinx and a Vulpix snuck out of the Pokémon Center and followed them.
Because they spent too much time choosing what Pokemon to adopt, they had no choice but to rush to the Battle Arena, which was where the rest met them.
"Where were you?" Grimsley demanded. "We were waiting for you, and you didn't show up!"
"Sorry, it was my fault. I was in a rush and wanted my Elites to adopt some Pokémon that was previously under the ownership of an abusive trainer." Ash apologized.
"So you got new Pokémon?" Cynthia sounded excited.
Ash nodded, and they showed off their new Pokémon.
Everyone except Pakura looked impressed at the Pokémon. She simply rolled her eyes and petted her Eevee.
"I got a new Pokémon too!" Cynthia declared, and the Pokéball opened to reveal Sylveon.
"You caught a Sylveon? Since when?" Rosaline stared at the Sylveon open-mouthed.
"Caught it last night." Cynthia replied.
"That's great! Congratulations!" Jasmine seemed thrilled for Cynthia.
The getting of Pokémon seemed to remind Ash of something. "Oh yeah, now I think of it, there is something I want to give you."
"What is it, Ash?"
"Follow me." With that, they left the Battle Arena.
"I wonder what was it that he wants to give her that can't be given in front of us." Rosaline wondered.
The others shrugged, while Pakura simply rolled her eyes and was about to leave, when Phillip called her.
"What?" She asked irritably.
"Well…there's a Shinx and Vulpix following you." He said hesitantly.
She looked down, and sure enough, looking back up at her with innocent eyes were a Vulpix and a Shinx.
"One of you get them. I have no intention of taking them." Pakura said, waving dismissively.
Phillip and Jude reached out to take them, but the Shinx and Vulpix dodged, and jumped into Pakura's arms. Pakura stumbled slightly as a result.
"Hey! Get off!" Eevee yipped angrily.
"Please adopt us!" Vulpix begged Pakura.
"Why don't you like us?" The Shinx asked, looking hurt.
"Well, we'll just leave you." Jude chuckled, as they left for the Battle Arena, leaving Pakura to deal with the Shinx and Vulpix. He could feel Pakura's eyes burning at the back of his head, but tried to shrug it off.
"I got to go now. The first match is mine." Ash said. He had to separate from Cynthia once again, as he had to go to the Launch Room to get to the battlefield, since his battle was the first one. He thought he was lucky he wore a hood otherwise they would've seen the smudged lip-gloss on his face right now. Not that he minded Cynthia showing affection as thanks, but he wished she did it at the right time.
"Alright. Good luck." Cynthia gave him one last kiss on the cheek, before leaving for the VIP Box.
Ash then went down to the Launch Room as usual, and flopped onto the couch, washing the lip-gloss off his face at the sink.
"She really liked the Mega Stone and Key Stone, huh?" Pikachu joked.
"Well duh." Lucario looked at Pikachu incredulously.
Ash laughed nervously as he sat down on a couch, waiting for the time where he'll have to step on the platform. He ate some food provided, since they didn't have breakfast.
"Are you nervous for the match? It's the first match you have against a regional Champion." Lucario said.
"A little. But I'm sure I'll win." Ash replied, as a pleasant female voice announced it was time to get to the battlefield, and Ash stepped on the platform with his Pokémon. A glass box lowered around them as usual.
"Continuing the Top 32 at the PAL Battle Arena, and the first battlefield of Round One of the top 32 battles would take place in Icy Terrain." said Ken. At this cue, the neutral battlefield was replaced with an ice battlefield.
"And our first competitors are Champion Red and Champion Alder!" That was when the platform pushed both competitors out of the battlefield.
"Trainers, please send out your Pokémon!" Evan said.
"Alright, Chandelure, I choose you!" Alder chose the Fire/Ghost Luring Pokémon.
"Flygon, lend me your aura!" Ash sent out the Ground/Dragon Pokémon, one of his traded Pokémon.
"Ooh, I get to battle?" Flygon said eagerly. "That Chandelure looks strong!"
"Yes. So will you fight for me?" Ash smiled.
"You bet I will." Flygon replied.
"Trainers ready?" Both Ash and Alder nodded. "Then…battle begin!"
BP: And that's all for chapter 11. I got a few things to announce too. (do read this)
There is one reason why I didn't reveal Ash's identity. It's because I want him to meet various rivals like how he met the other Elite Fours and Champions, only this time he is the celebrity.
Unfortunately, I couldn't display Ash's other abilities in this chapter, as you can see, I couldn't find a way to fit it in. Really sorry about that.
Yes, Pakura would train Cynthia in various aspects, so I'll let you readers decide what to teach her this time. She was taught the bow and arrow and balance, agility and jump.
Yes I will write the alternate version as soon as I finish season 1/or the entire story.
I'm sorry if the traitors aren't having their spotlight in this chapter, as I couldn't find anyway to fit them in the storyline for this chapter. Also, killing Damien off was one of the highlights of this chapter, so….
Ash told Pakura to kill Damien instead of doing it himself is because Pakura likes to do the dirty work of killing. Yes, she may seem like a murdering sociopath, but she used to be a sweet girl who never hurt a fly. She only started killing when something tragic happened.
Yes, Pakura reapplied the memory blocks off screen to make things more difficult (in exchange, she was telling the truth to Ash about the theories, so the theories were actually the reasons why she did all these). It is up to the three of them to fight it off mentally, although it may be difficult (but not for Ash since he has the ability of Indomitable Will, which means he can use sheer willpower to resist her psychic powers.
And no, she didn't invade Ash's mind in any way. Sometimes, his thoughts are loud enough to be picked up, and he tells her everything anyway.
Yes, Ash is in a higher position than the other four Elites, as he's a Champion and he leads the Elite, and he also has the highest position in PAL as Prince, which is why he constantly refers to the other four as his Elites (except Pakura, he refers to her as his Leader as she is the Leader of the Elite).
Grimsley would get his Egg in the next chapter. For now it's still at the cave, probably taken care of by Espeon.
Suggestions are welcome on the following:
1. Pairings in the story (I think you can suggest any pairing you want to see here.)
2. Any traitors you want Paul, Gary, Tracey, the Elites, or their love interests to battle in particular (outside of tournament)
3. What should Pakura train Cynthia in next?
4. What kind of Key Stone should Grimsley get (necklace, bracelet) and what should Jasmine's one be (Phillip gave her one but it wasn't stated what kind of Mega Stone it was).
5. The story is split into two Arcs: The Mystery Arc and the Five Bosses Arc. Do you want the Top 8 to happen during the Mysteries Arc or the Five Bosses Arc
6. What Pokémon should Cynthia, Grimsley and Jasmine catch? (Can be any Pokémon except those listed before in my A/N, and what they have caught so far in this chapter.)
7. When should the traitors find out who Red really is, and how? (reason why I haven't revealed him was stated, so I would reveal him only after he finishes meeting the people that he is supposed to meet)
8. I decided that people should meet Ash and the others for a change, since this time, Ash is the celebrity instead of a fan. Who should Ash meet? It can be his old rivals from the regions he traveled in, or even characters of the day from Pokemon episode (but if it's the latter, I'd appreciate it if you mention which episode this character came from)
9. Do you want me to start writing the Ash x Pakura version of this story after I finish season 1 or I finish this entire story? I am fine with both. Oh and tell me what differences would you like to see in the alternate version, as the AV is a much darker fic than the original.
10. Whose turn should it be to film the next week's PokéVision and what should it be about?
11. What sentence (not verdict, since she is guilty) should Misty be given in the next chapter?
12. Any suggestions on how I can write the next chapter? (running out of ideas)
Do favourite, follow and review this story
PS: If you don't happen to like it, don't read. I don't get why I had to have a critical review that I can't delete since it's signed. True, Pakura may seem overpowered at first but hey, she has flaws and her own fears too, and with her mental health it's a miracle she isn't in the mental hospital. If you think betrayal fics aren't worth it in the first place, and I solidified this belief, don't read. I really had enough, because I think I can write what I want, and I like writing this. And technically she's an antagonist here, and do you think I'd make it easy?
