Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Chapter 12
The ship's horn rang loudly throughout the port as it safely docked.
"Thank you for your patience," the captain's voice announced over the monitor. "We hope you enjoyed the cruise and hope you enjoy your stay here in Twinleaf Town. Please follow the attendants' instructions as you exit the ship. Thank you."
"Alright, everyone," said a man in the attendant's uniform near the exit ramp. He clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Please walk as you are leaving. We don't want anyone to get hurt, so please no running. And exit in an orderly fashion." Despite the worker's guidelines, May and Drew were moving quickly through the crowd going down the ramp.
"Excuse me," May would say getting through people. She bumped into a few individuals while trying to make her way. "Pardon me…sorry, I'm just in a rush…can you move—thanks."
Drew was following closely behind her and would receive the angry looks from the people she was hitting. "Sorry about her," he told them with a nervous grin. "She just, uh, really has to use the bathroom…when you gotta go, you gotta go, you know?" The people would then nod in understanding and smile at Drew to which he would sigh in relief.
When they reached the docks, May and Drew began looking to see if they could find Ash. But he was nowhere to be seen.
"He said he'd be here when we docked," she sighed frustratingly. She then turned to Drew with a stony look. "We should've taken Flygon when it got back to the ship. We might've gotten here sooner if we did…"
"May," Drew began to defend himself, "it took Flygon almost two hours to drop off Ketchum and come back. We were only an hour away when it finally showed up on the ship. It wouldn't have been worth it to put Flygon through that kind of strain. You know Ketchum would've have thought the same."
May sighed once more. She knew he was right.
"May? Is that you?"
The brunette quickly whirled her head after hearing her name. Her irritated expression turned into a bright smile when she saw the breeder standing behind her.
"Brock!" May exclaimed happily as she gave him a quick hug. She let him go before she continued. "I didn't think I'd see you here…well, here in the port, that is."
"Same here," Brock said with a confused expression. "I thought you'd be in Johto right now competing in the Pokémon Contests with your rivals…though, it seems like you all decided to come to Sinnoh instead," he noted after seeing the green-haired teen standing behind her. "How've you been, Drew?"
Drew flicked his hair. "I've been fine. I'm just trying to be—,"
"We can skip the introductions for later," May sternly interrupted him. She turned to Brock again. "Have you seen Ash around?"
"No," he said while shaking his head. "I was actually going to look for him while I headed to Twinleaf Town. I always end up finding him somewhere. We could look together if you want? Unless you and Drew want to leave already to register for the contests. I could tell Ash that I saw you here in the Sinnoh Region. I'm sure he'd be surprised to hear that."
"Huh?" May questioned. She then realized what he was trying to say and wanted to clarify the misunderstanding. "Oh, no, I'm not here traveling with Drew," she stated, waving her hands frantically to dismiss the idea. "I actually came here with Ash."
"Okay, now I'm confused," Brock said while crossing his arms. "Why isn't Ash with you then?"
May proceeded to tell him the events that occurred on the ship. She began from the moment that Ash and Drew battled to when Ash flew on Flygon to go look for Pikachu. She glossed over eating lunch with Drew since it was irrelevant.
Brock clenched fists infuriatedly. "So, Team Rocket is here the Sinnoh Region, too…those three never learn," he commented before continuing. "You said Ash promised to be here by the time you guys arrived, right?"
May frowned and nodded.
"Okay, so that means something else must've happened. Ash is not one to say one thing and do another."
"If that's so, then we should go look for him," Drew interjected.
Brock and May both nodded in agreement.
They all turned to head to Twinleaf Town when someone called out to them.
"Excuse me," exclaimed a womanly voice from behind. They all looked to see a woman with short, red hair that came down to her neck standing close to them. She was wearing a stripped white and grey dress with white boots that came up to her knees. However, her most distinct feature seemed to be her eyes. They were beautifully sharp and piercing red, which allured the trio's focus. "Are you Drew?" She asked politely to the green-haired teen.
"Wow!" Brock answered before Drew could say anything. He pushed him aside and swiftly grabbed the woman's hands. "Yes, he's Drew, but let's not waste time talking about him," Brock continued with an adored expression. "Let's talk how beautiful destiny is for bringing us together at this very moment. Our love for each other will be brighter than those gorgeous eyes of yours!"
The woman laughed nervously as she pulled her hands away from the breeder. "I think it's just my eyes and my destiny that will be bright…"
"Aaahhh!" Brock said as grabbed his chest with his right hand. He slumped and put his head down. "Rejected and I haven't even reached the first town yet…"
Drew cautiously moved a sulking Brock out of his way to walk up to the mysterious woman. "I'd apologize for his behavior, but I don't know him good enough to say if he was joking or he really meant it…anyways, like he said I'm Drew…and you are?"
"Oh, my name is not important," the woman said smiling while dismissing the question. Her smile was just as sharp as her eyes. "I'm here to take you to see your uncle. He wants to see you."
"My uncle?"
"Yes," she replied seriously. "He heard you were coming to town and instructed me to find you when you arrived. And he wants to see you right away, so if you don't mind…" She stepped aside and urged him by gesturing with her arm to walk with her.
Drew was about to follow her when he remembered what he was going to do. He turned and viewed May smiling at him.
"It's okay, Drew," she reassured with a soft smile. May put a hand on his shoulder as she continued. "I'll tell Ash that you had do something with your family. He'll understand."
He thought about what she said before smirking and flicking his hair. "Alright. Tell Ketchum I'm really sorry for what happened, and I guess I'll see you at the first Pokémon Contest."
"I'll be ready!" May grinned confidently as she removed her hand.
With that Drew followed the red-haired woman in the opposite direction of his rival. In a few minutes, the two were lost in the crowd and out of their sight.
May watched them disappear before shaking her head to focus again.
"Let's go, Brock," she said to her heartbroken friend. "Ash is in trouble."
"How can you tell?" The breeder asked as he regained his composure. They began running towards Twinleaf Town at full speed as May responded.
"I don't know but…I just do."
XxXxXxX
"Ow!" Ash mentally yelled as he received a fifth blow to his leg. "This stupid bike keeps hitting my shin with the pedal!" After apologizing to Dawn for Pikachu destroying her bicycle, Ash volunteered to carry it back to her house. He told her it was the least he could do to repay her. However, he was regretting even asking because the pedal kept hitting his shin as he carried the bike under his right arm. It wasn't that each blow hurt a lot, but it kept hitting one spot and the pain was adding up. "Crap!" Ash complained as he took another hit. "Dang it, Pikachu. We're gonna have a talk about this 'destroying people's bike' thing later…"
"We're almost there, Ash," Dawn said interrupting his thoughts. "It should take us another ten minutes to get there."
"Great…" Ash grunted.
"So," she started as she viewed Pikachu and Piplup walking ahead of them down the path. "This 'Team Rocket' you talked about—do they really try and take other people's Pokémon for themselves?"
Ash knew she was recalling them from the story he told her on how he and Pikachu were separated. "Yeah, it's like their job or something," he said bluntly while looking at her. "They've been trying to take Pikachu ever since I've started my journey."
"That's awful!" Dawn exclaimed angrily looking at Ash.
"You're telling me," he responded. "It's annoying that they keep trying."
"I didn't want to believe people actually did stuff like that…I can't imagine anything like that happening to me." She turned her attention back to the walking Pokémon and frowned. "I just got Piplup, but I already feel so attached to him," she said softly. "I don't know what I'd do if someone tried taking him away from me…"
"If it makes you feel any better, Team Rocket isn't good at what they do," he stated truthfully. "You have a better chance of scaring them with a Burmy than getting your Pokémon taken away by them."
Dawn giggled at the thought of people being afraid of such a small, harmless Pokémon.
Ash smiled as he got her to think of something else. He then thought of something that might work.
"But…if you're still worried about them, you could travel with us," he suggested nonchalantly.
Dawn stopped laughing after hearing his words. She took in every word carefully before replying. "You want me to travel with you?" She asked curiously. Everything seemed to slow around her as she waited for his response.
"I mean, if you want to."
"Y-You mean just you and me traveling the Sinnoh Region?" A blush slowly emerged on her face. "How I can go from hating this person at one moment to feeling flustered in another? I've spent less than two hours with him, but…I don't even know how to describe it. It feels like I've known him for years…"
Ash could tell she was thinking but decided to answer her anyways. "Uh, no, it wouldn't just be you and me," he clarified. "I'm traveling with another friend…or at least I think I still am."
"You don't know if traveling with someone else?" Dawn eyed the trainer curiously. She broke her thoughts and concentrated on him once he began to speak.
"It's complicated," Ash stated while scratching his chin. He smiled to himself when he thought of another way to convince her. "But, I'll find out when we get to Twinleaf Town. She's probably waiting for me at the port right now. I'm sure she's in a rush to sign up for the Sinnoh Contests…I'm not sure she'll be happy if—,"
"Wait!" Dawn yelled as she stepped in front of him. "Your friend is a coordinator?"
"Yeah…is that a problem?"
"No, I'm gonna start my journey as a coordinator!" She exclaimed happily, placing a hand on her chest to emphasis she was.
"Really?" Ash tried to act surprised. "I would've never guessed you were one."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Nothing. I'm just not good at reading people," he lied.
"Oh," Dawn relaxed, stepping away from him. She then began to bombard Ash with questions about his friend as she moved aside to continue making their way. "Has she competed in other regions before?"
"Yes."
"Has she won any Grand Festivals?"
"No, but she's come pretty close."
"What's her name?"
"May."
"Her full name, Ash."
"Dawn is pushy this time around." Ash briefly glanced at her before speaking. "May Maple. She's from the Hoenn Region."
"Ahhh!" Dawn squealed loudly, causing Ash to flinch from the sudden outburst. "Your friends with May Maple—the Princess of Hoenn!"
"Yeah…people call her that?"
"Yes, now stay focused!"
Dawn then proceeded to ask Ash more questions until they reached her house. And even then, she was still talking about May.
Ash saw the familiar house and sighed in relief. It had been the longest ten minutes he had ever spent with Dawn—in both his lives, he concluded. He placed the bike on the side of the building and could still hear her talk. He had mostly stopped paying attention after she began talking about how they could learn from each other. Dawn described how May could teach her based on experience and how she could teach the brunette based on wisdom Dawn received from her famous, coordinator mother. Overall, Ash had a headache and was tired of hearing about coordinating. It wasn't until they were standing on the porch and Dawn asked her last question that he concentrated on her again.
"So, is she your girlfriend?"
"My what?" Ash turned around carefully to regard her.
Dawn crossed her arms and smiled coyly. "Yeah, your girlfriend."
"No," he said bluntly.
"Really?" She stated in disbelief. "I think you'd be lucky to have May as your girlfriend. From everything that you've been telling me, she's perfect…not to mention you're not bad yourself…" She muttered the last sentence to herself.
"Huh?"
"Nothing," Dawn said, grinning nervously and waving her arms to dismiss him. "Nothing important."
"I knew I heard talking coming from outside," a voice interrupted as the front door opened. A woman, who Ash knew as Dawn's mother, was smiling and looking towards Dawn. "I thought you'd be back earlier, but I see you've been busy…" She glanced over to Ash as she finished. "Hi, I'm Dawn's mom, but you can call me Joanna!"
Ash grinned and extended his hand to greet the older woman. "It's nice to meet you. Dawn talked about you the whole way here."
"Pikachu!" Pikachu said running up the porch and onto his trainer's shoulder.
"Oh, and this is Pikachu," Ash continued while patting his best friend.
Joanna had accepted Ash's hand and greeted Pikachu with kindness.
"I met Ash when I was on my way back," Dawn explained to her mom. She smiled and jumped when she remembered about Piplup. "Oh, mom, I got my first Pokémon from Professor Rowan!"
"That's great, Dawn," Joanna exclaimed happily. "Who did you choose?"
"Piplup!" She replied. She then looked around to see if the little Pokémon was near, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Um, he was around here somewhere…Pikachu, where were you guys playing?"
Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and ran down the porch. Everyone followed closely behind the mouse as he went towards the garden off their left. To their surprise, they found Piplup leaning against the home sound asleep.
Joanna giggled as she saw Piplup's nose bubble grow and shorten as he breathed. "I think he's going to like it here."
Dawn walked over to Piplup and picked him up.
"Come on," Joanna continued as her daughter made her way back. "Let's go inside, so you could all get some rest. What do you say, Ash? How about you come in for a while and relax before you head out?"
"Thanks for the offer, but I really have to go," Ash said sincerely. He allowed Pikachu to jump once again on his shoulder before continuing. "I really have to get to the port to meet up with my friend."
"I understand." The older blue-haired woman sounded disappointed.
"Mom, he's going to meet up with May Maple!" Dawn interjected. "Remember she's the coordinator from the Kanto Grand Festival we saw a few months ago on tv!"
Joanna's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, that's a very talented friend you have there, Ash," she told the trainer. "Is she going to enter the Sinnoh Contests?"
"Yeah," Ash nodded. "Most of her rivals are competing in the Johto Region, and she wanted to try something new, so she came here."
"Well, she has a rival in me!" Dawn said confidently, still holding a sleeping Piplup in her arms. "I won't go easy on her!"
Joanna grinned at her daughter's enthusiasm. She then thought of an idea. "Why don't you bring May back here to rest, Ash?" She suggested. "You said she was waiting for you at the port, so I'm sure she'd like to relax after a long trip before you both head out. What do you say…?"
Ash scratched his cheek as he contemplated her suggestion. He knew May wouldn't object to the idea resting for a bit, but he really wanted to get going already. He felt like he wasted enough time with everything that's happened today. However, Ash took too long to decide that Dawn answered for him.
"He'll be back with May when he finds her," she estimated. Her comment earned her honest expressions from her mom and Ash. She merely smiled at their responses. "They have to come back, so we could all leave together!"
"You're going to travel with them?" Joanna asked curiously.
Dawn nodded happily. "Yeah. Ash offered me the chance to go with them, and I think it's the best thing for me to do…"
"That's great to hear, honey."
Ash was slightly surprised at first, but then he realized his plan worked and congratulated himself mentally on a good job.
"Okay," he spoke up. "I'll be back in a little bit, then."
"We'll wait for you here, okay?" Dawn said.
Ash nodded and began making his way with Pikachu to go find May.
"Don't take so long!" Dawn yelled to Ash and Pikachu as they distanced themselves.
"Dawn, don't act like that," Joanna scolded her daughter. "He just became your friend and you're treating him in that way."
The young blue-haired teen's expression turned to a soft one as she regarded her mom. "It's weird, mom," she began in low tone. "There's something about him that seems so familiar and…so comforting. It's hard to describe in words, but…I don't know."
"Okay, let's go inside and you can explain this 'weird' feeling," Joanna suggested with sly smile.
"It's not like that, mom," Dawn said, noting the look she was receiving.
"Whatever you say, dear," the older woman teased as they began making their way back to the house. "I saw the way you kept glancing at him…"
"Mom!"
"Hey, I'm just saying what I see."
Dawn sighed. "Well, it's kinda hard not to look. He's just so mesmerizing to look at…"
Joanna laughed at her daughter's honesty. "I understand, dear," she admitted as she thought of how strong the trainer appeared physically. "Not many boys around his age look like he does. He must've worked hard to get like that."
"Yeah, he probably did…" Dawn said thoughtfully. She then shook her head to clear her thoughts. "There's no worry about stuff like that right now, though. I'm, more focused on winning Sinnoh Contests!"
"That's my girl," Joanna thought proudly.
"Besides," the teen continued. "I think he likes May but won't admit it."
"True, that's a possibility," her mom stated as she put a hand on her cheek. They began to walk back to the house when she came to a conclusion. "She could be his girlfriend."
"He said she wasn't."
"How personal did you both get coming back home?" Joanna questioned as she opened the door to the house.
"Somewhat personal," Dawn replied as entered her home with Piplup. She could smell the lunch her mom had been preparing and breathed in deeply. "It's kinda a long story."
Her mom responded as she closed the door. "Well, we've got some time, so start explaining."
XxXxXxX
"Where could he be…" May muttered to herself worryingly.
"We'll find him, May," Brock reassured his friend.
After arriving in Twinleaf Town fifteen minutes ago, May and Brock had been searching for any sign of Ash and Pikachu. The town was not big, but it was very spread out—the houses and other buildings weren't close to each other which made it difficult for them to scout the entire town quickly. So far, they have had no luck.
They began to ask people if they had seen Ash around to get some help. May would describe his appearance because she knew it would be very distinguishable to other things. Brock was going to ask her if Ash was really the way she made him out to be but thought if they found Ash, he'd find out then. Many people said they saw someone pass by not too long ago with the description but didn't know where he went. They admitted to May and Brock that he looked intimidating to stare at, so they didn't bother paying attention in order not to cause trouble with him. It was after asking ten individuals that they decided to take a break and sit on a nearby bench.
"If anything, Ash will find us," Brock stated, patting her back to comfort her. He could tell it wasn't working and decided the only thing to do was to continue looking. "Come on," the breeder stood up determinedly. "He has to be around here somewhere. There's no way he could disappear without anyone knowing where he was heading."
May clenched her fists and stood. "You're right," she stated, knowing moping wouldn't get them anywhere. "Let's keeping looking."
The duo gathered their things and began searching for Ash and Pikachu again. May thought it would be helpful to split up and ask everyone this time. She told Brock to ask everyone that was passing by on the road and she would knock on people's homes to ask those individuals. They both agreed that they would meet up in ten minutes with their findings.
May began going door-to-door of different homes with less success than before. Nobody had seen anyone with the description she was giving them. It was until she arrived in front of a nice, brown home with beautiful off to the right that she received what she was looking for.
She sadly walked up the porch and knocked on the door. She didn't believe this house would be any different from the rest. When the door opened, May saw a blue-haired girl around her age smiling at her.
"Hi," May began, grinning slightly to be nice. "My name is May, and I'm looking for—,"
"You're May Maple!" The teen interrupted excitingly. She took a deep breath and recollected herself. "Sorry. You're looking for Ash, right?"
May's eyes quickly perked up. "You know who I'm talking about?!"
"Yeah," the blue-haired teen smiled brightly before realizing something. "Oh, I'm sorry again. My name is Dawn. I'm a friend of Ash!"
"Y-You're a friend of Ash?" May was taken back by her comment.
Dawn nodded eagerly.
The brunette, now, really viewed the girl in front of her. She admitted this girl was really beautiful and her figure was almost as developed as hers. May shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I can't be acting like this right now," She told herself. "Um, i-is he in there right now…?" She found herself nervous to know the answer to her question.
Dawn gave her a confused expression while shaking her head. "No, but that's weird," she stated. "He said he was going to look for you and come back here."
"He was going to come back here?"
"Yeah, with you," Dawn said happily. She then clasped her hands in excitement. "I'm sorry for acting like this, but I just can't believe you're here! You're a wonderful coordinator, May. One of the best according to mom!"
"O-Oh, I'm not all that," May blushed from the comments.
"Don't try to down yourself," the blue-haired teen argued while crossing her arms. "From what I've seen and from what Ash said about you, you're amazing!"
"He talked about me to you?"
"Yup," Dawn said nodding.
For some reason, this caused May to smile warmly to herself.
Dawn noted her sudden change in expression before continuing. "Yeah, I wanted to know everything about you," she shyly responded. "Since we're going to be traveling together—,"
"We are?" May asked.
"Yeah, Ash invited me to travel with you guys. He thought it would be fun for us since we're coordinators."
May smiled brightly and clasped her own hands. "You're a coordinator, too?!"
Dawn nodded eagerly once more.
"Hey, May! Did you have any luck?"
May and Dawn both whirled around to see Brock walking up to them.
"Yup!" She exclaimed. She stepped aside, so Dawn and Brock could see each other. "This is Dawn. Ash invited her to travel with us through the Sinnoh Region."
"It's nice to meet you, Dawn. My name is Brock. Any friend of Ash is a friend of mine," the breeder said with glee. "The more, the better."
"It's nice to meet you, Brock!"
"Brock is also the cook in the group," May added to Dawn.
"Oh, good," Dawn said in relief, placing a hand over her stomach. "I honestly didn't know what I was going to do about food when I was going to travel on my own."
They laughed for a bit before Brock spoke again.
"So, where's Ash and Pikachu? Are they inside?"
"No, he said he was going to look for May at the port," Dawn recalled thoughtfully. "But why don't you guys come in and wait for him here?"
"I don't know…" May contemplated as she rubbed her arm. "I mean, if he thinks I'm still over there, shouldn't we go look for him?"
"True," Brock agreed.
"I'll go with you guys to look, but we should still wait about ten minutes before we head out," Dawn suggested. "He could be on his way right now for all we know, so we better wait to make sure. There are many ways to get to the port that if we head out now and take one path, Ash could've taken a different one, passing us, and we'd just be going back and forth."
"You have a point there, Dawn," Brock admitted reluctantly. "We should wait a bit, May—just to make sure."
May sighed in frustration but agreed with her friend.
"Come on," Dawn stood aside to give her new traveling companions a path to enter her house. "We'll wait inside and rest before leaving. I could tell you how I met Ash and Pikachu."
XxXxXxX
"I kinda figured she wasn't going to wait at the port for us, buddy."
"Pikachu pi pika pika pika," Pikachu told his trainer.
"Yeah, she's going to be mad at me," Ash sighed, rubbing his face against his hands before continuing. "Have you noticed that May and Dawn get angry with me easily this time around?"
Pikachu nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"Let's head back to Dawn's house," Ash recommended tiredly as he stretched his arms. "We'll go get her, so we could find them together. This way, we could just leave all at once." He stretched his back. "I know I said we rest in her house for a bit, but we've wasted enough time as it is."
The duo started making their way through the port to head towards Twinleaf Town. They had entered the path outside the port when Pikachu spoke.
"Pikapi, pika pika chu pi," he said.
"True, it is odd that we didn't see May or Drew coming here," Ash concurred with his buddy. "It would've been easy to see Drew's green hair if we passed by it." He then scratched his chin before thinking out loud. "Why do you think he chose green as his hair color? I mean there's no way his hair to naturally be that color, right?"
"Pika pika pika chu pika pi pika, Pikapi."
Ash sighed. "You're right. It's his hair, and he could do whatever he wants with it."
Pikachu nodded disappointingly.
"You'd think he'd cut it, though."
Ash and Pikachu had walked another sixty feet when the sky suddenly darkened. Dark, brooding clouds were quickly covering the clear, blue sky that it was a few minutes ago. Thundering could be heard, and the wind had picked up tremendously. The trees around them appeared to be tipping over from the strong gusts. The sudden change in weather seemed suspicious to the duo.
They continued treading down the path and noticed nobody was around them—no one was in sight. Ash and Pikachu stopped and scattered the area with their eyes to search for someone but couldn't find a single person in view. They turned around to see if anyone was behind them, but it was the same scenario as it was ahead. When they turned their heads to continue down the path, however, they saw a dark-hooded figure standing ten feet away from them. Ash wasn't getting a good feeling about the person, so he was preparing for a dangerous situation—Pikachu followed suit by becoming more attentive than before. As Ash took a step forward, the dark figure mimicked his actions. The trainer stopped moving, knowing something was about to happen.
Ash got a better view of the mysterious person with the step they both took. The dark figure's face was mostly covered by the large black overcoat he was wearing, but his eyes were clearly visible and threatening. His eyes were completely white—there was no color, no emotion, or no life in them.
"Who are you?" Ash yelled to the cryptic person. "What do you want?"
"No…" the figure echoed in deep, menacing voice. "The question is who are you…time-traveler…"
Ash's eyes widened and quickly grabbed a Poké ball from his waist to ready himself. Pikachu jumped from his shoulder and readied for battle.
"I'll ask again," Ash said, deepening his voice as well. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The dark figure merely put his left arm behind his back and pulled out a black Poké ball. It was surrounded and emitted in a dark aura.
"That's not normal," Ash thought, trying to think if he's seen anything like it before. "I don't recognize his voice either."
Rain began to vastly pour down and lightening began to strike around them occasionally.
"What I want, Ash and Pikachu," the mysterious slowly voiced. He threw is Poké ball and yelled. "IS FOR YOU TO DISAPPEAR!"
The dark Poké ball opened and showed its possession—a dark, three-headed dragon with a ferocious expression.
"RAARR!" The Pokémon raged.
Ash didn't waste any time and sent his Poké ball in the air. It opened and out came Infernape.
"Infernape!" The Fire-type exclaimed, colliding its fists together.
"I have the advantage against his Hydreigon, but I won't go lightly," Ash strategized. "Use Mach Punch!"
Infernape didn't hesitate and speedily closed the distance between it and its opponent. The Sinnoh starter's fists glowed blue as it jumped and launched the attack.
"Stop it," the dark figure countered.
Hydreigon waited for Infernape to be inches away from it before screeching loudly, discharging a powerful Hyper Voice attack. The attack instantly threw Infernape fiercely away, causing it to crash harshly against the ground. However, the Fire-type quickly rose to its feet and retreated to Ash.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FATE," he continued as he pulled out another black Poké ball and hurled it into the air. Out came a strong Automaton Pokémon.
"He sent out a Golurk." Ash eyed the still Ghost-type and could tell it was strong. "Ready, Pikachu?"
Pikachu nodded confidently. He ran next to his fellow Pokémon and waited for a command.
"Draco Meteor," the dark figure ordered.
Hydreigon fired an orange sphere into the gloomy sky. It raced for a few seconds in the air before exploding and creating hundreds of orange meteors.
"Get ready," Ash told his Pokémon. He'd never seen a Draco Meteor disperse so many spheres.
"Psychic," he called to Golurk.
Golurk lifted its heavy arms and opened its hands to use the attack. Suddenly, the spheres from the Draco Meteor were surrounded by a blue glow from the Psychic and froze in midair. Golurk then brought its arms back before launching them forward fiercely. As a result, all the orange meteors huddled together closely and raged towards a still Ash. Foreshadowing what was happening, Pikachu and Infernape fired counterattacks to intercept the attack from landing on their trainer.
"Pika-CHU!" Pikachu said while firing a powerful Thunderbolt.
"APE!" Infernape yelled while using its powerful Flamethrower. Though weakened by the rain, the fire was still tremendous.
The Electric and Fire moves fused as they headed towards the Draco Meteor. The attacks collided and instantly destroyed one another, causing a massive explosion in the area. When the dust cleared, Ash was standing strongly and unyieldingly in the same position. He had not moved even though he knew the move was coming towards him.
"A cheap move to come after me with your Pokémon," the strong trainer stated assertively. He stared the hooded figure directly in his emotionless eyes.
"As I said," the mysterious man responded coldly, "you can't escape fate, and we're here to make sure of that."
"We're?" Ash wanted answers; however, he got a different response.
The dark figure opened his white eyes widely, which caused a bright light to flash the area. Ash and his Pokémon shielded their eyes. When the flash disappeared, they noticed that the strong mystery threat was gone—along with Hydreigon and Golurk.
Ash looked around to see if they were anywhere in sight, but the field was empty. The rain and thundering had stopped as the grey clouds disappeared as well. The winds had also faltered. He gave a stern look to his Pokémon before walking up to them. Ash had taken two steps when he heard a voice rang loudly.
"This is a warning," Ash recognized the menacing voice as the man he just faced. "Fate cannot be changed, time travelers. You're not safe…nor are any of your friends…"
The raven-haired teen clenched his fists and gritted.
"Who was that guy?" He asked himself as he walked over to his Pokémon who seemed to be having their own discussion. "He just threatened me and my friends…I haven't faced someone that strong in a while." Ash then began to think about everything the hooded man told him. "What did he mean 'I can't escape fate'? He also knew Pikachu and I were from the future…I need answers…my friends can be in danger because of me. Celebi needs to start explaining more than she's letting on."
And that's Chapter 12 for you all. Sorry it's been a while, but you know…I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it's getting better. I'll try my best to update as often as I can, but I started, yet, another semester of college.
To clear something up, Dawn in the anime lives in Sandgem Town, but in my story, she lives in Twinleaf Town. Just thought I'd put it out there before you all point it out.
Also, for those of you confused on how Ash has Infernape, in the anime Paul finds Chimchar in the wild battling when captures it. Since Paul still had a Chimchar when he met Ash, and it was his 'weakest' Pokémon in his party, it is obvious to state that he barely caught it when meeting the gang. So, I just had Ash catch it before Paul did when he went to Sinnoh.
Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Not like it? I like reading what you all think. It's fun for me.
Alright, that's it for me. Until next time.
-RedHood06
