If you've read the last chapter (which I assume you have) then you will wonder how Ash stood up so many times after damaging his back. He had the use of a wall for support and we've all seen moments when Ash overcomes great pain with the use of his willpower. Here we go with the next chapter as promised.
Ash opened his eyes and was met by bright lights and instinctively closed his eyes again. Ash wanted to look around to see where he was, but the lights kept on forcing his eyelids shut again. Ash could hear soft shuffling of feet around him and was happy to know that he wasn't alone. After gaining the strength to open his eyes Ash moved his eyelids slightly so he could peek across the room. He saw a figure of a girl with black hair sitting next to a bed to the left of him. Ash tried to tilt his head so he could get a better look, but felt a crick in his neck as he tried to do so. Ash let out a weak groan as he began to realise just how sore his body was.
"Pika" Pikachu said with joy.
Ash looked slowly down to see his overjoyed Pikachu standing and looking at Ash lovingly. Ash felt a smile grow on his face as he felt the warm paws of Pikachu place themselves on Ash's neck and the little electric mouse gave Ash a relieved and warm hug. Ash returned the hug by resting his head lightly on the little Pokemon.
"Oh Ash thank goodness you're ok" exclaimed a voice behind him.
Ash after adjusting to the lights lifted his head to look at the worried Dawn. The girl had been looking after Ash and Paul who was sitting in the bed to the left of Ash. She and Pikachu had been with the two for the long time that they had been out cold. May and Brock had gone out to get supplies from the shops.
"What happened?" groaned Ash.
"Well May and I were on the beach waiting for you and Paul to return. After a while I became nervous after I heard a loud noise so I walked up the steps to see what was going on. When I went up the steps and saw the large fortress shake violently for some reason I panicked and raced down to the beach to look for Brock and the captain. When Brock and the captain returned I told them about the fortress moving about. They told me to wait there and they ran off to check it out. After waiting for a while I saw a large muscular man walk down the steps calmly. He looked at me and for a moment I was frozen in my place. He then walked off where a large plane with propellers on the side collected him. After he left I was waiting for what felt like a century when Brock returned with you and Paul who was being carried by the captain" Dawn spoke breathlessly after her long explanation.
Ash nodded and took in all the information given to him from the young black haired girl. He slowly turned his head over to the long haired boy sitting to his left. Ash noticed that he was in pretty good shape aside from his bloodied bandaged leg.
"So where exactly are we?" Ash asked.
"Well after you were brought down to the beach Brock and the captain quickly got the boat fixed and we took you to the nearest Poke Centre which happened to be in this small town called Pacifidlog" Dawn answered.
Ash and Dawn looked up to see the door open. Brock and May entered the room, with Brock sporting something that made Ash cringed. May had been wearing a head bandage and Brock had on his face a black eye. Ash had a bad feeling where the black eye had come from.
"What happened to you Brock?" Ash asked awkwardly.
"I don't really know. After Dawn told us about the fortress shaking I ran up the steps. As soon as I opened the door I saw this bulky man dressed in a black robe. When I told him to stay still he punched me so hard in the chest that I swear I could taste blood in my mouth. After that he punched me in the face and walked out of the fortress" Brock said.
'I didn't want my friends to get hurt because of my quest, I only wanted to save my best friend' Ash thought guiltily to himself. Brock and May sensed Ash's guilt and could tell why that was.
"I'm sorry for dragging you guys into this. Especially you May I shouldn't have let you come along with us" Ash said guiltily
"Look Ash you've got to stop feeling so guilty. I came here out of my own free will and so did your other friends because we care about you. You couldn't have known that things would get this drastic" May said practically shouting at Ash.
Ash went silent and looked down at himself. He wondered if he had been a bit too strong with his emotions. Ash started to wonder why he was suddenly so strong with his thoughts about Misty. He'd never been this strongly upset as he has over Misty joining Team Rocket. Ash noticed how he had been crying a lot more than usual and he carried a picture of Misty that he often looked at. 'Why am I so concerned about Misty? Before in the Sinnoh region I hardly thought of her, well aside from the fishing hook she kindly gave me'. Whilst Ash sat thinking about his friends and why he was so upset about Misty, May, Brock and Dawn were standing awkwardly in the silence. Brock and May exchange glances at Paul to see how he was.
"Guys why do I keep on thinking about Misty?" Ash asked.
As soon as Ash spoke those fatal words, like magic May and Dawn were frozen in place. They knew the answer yet they didn't want to say it, if they would make a very awkward situation. 'Oh no. He's in love with her. Well I'm not going to be the one who has to say it' May thought defiantly to herself.
"I mean whenever I think about her I get upset and when I look at a picture of her I get happy. Why do I feel so guilty about Misty being part of Team Rocket?"
May and Dawn nervously exchanged glances at each other. They both had an answer in their head and they both knew the other did. May glanced over to the asleep Paul 'Lucky man. He gets to sleep and avoid this situation' thought May to herself. Dawn bit the bullet and slowly opened her mouth. Luckily for her Brock opened his mouth with a more educated answer.
"My guess would be your old emotions of friendship with her. You were still upset deep down when Misty left so your mind made you forget about her, yet when you saw her again all those emotions came rushing back to you. So that's probably why you think about Misty non-stop and the picture of her makes you happy as it reminds you of the old times you had with her. The guilt arises from you thinking that if you had never let her go she would never have joined I mean become part of Team Rocket." Brock said factually.
Ash nodded at all that Brock had said. Ash always respected Brock's advice and intellect and accepted it straight away. 'It does seem to make perfect sense aside especially that warm fuzzy feeling I get when I see a picture of her'. Dawn and May let out a soft sigh as Brock had once again solved another problem. The group heard a stirring sound and looked over to the bed next to them. The long haired man let out a groan as he slowly sat up and placed his hand on his head.
"What happened?" Paul said groaning.
"You were knocked out by Aeleus and Brock and the captain helped us out of the fortress" Ash explained.
Paul felt a twinge of pain and looked at his foot and then it all came rushing back with the large stone breaking his foot. Paul leaned forward and slowly removed the bandages to see how bad the damage was. The group cringed at the sight of the torn and bloodied flesh. Dawn almost screamed at the sight of the injury on Paul ruined leg. 'I'll kill him for this. How dare he try to render me useless and then just toss me aside like some weakling.' Paul thought angrily to himself.
"How long till I can get out of here?" Paul asked angrily.
"We just checked with the nurse. Ash you should be fine in a week with some therapy and Paul you will take about two weeks for your leg to be healed completely."
"My back will take a week, but Paul's leg is two weeks?" Ash asked confusingly.
"Well the skin will take a while to grow back, but your back will get some great therapy from a chiropractor plus it wasn't broken just damaged" May responded.
Paul grit his teeth angrily and turned over and closed his eyes so that he could pass the time from sleeping. Dawn let out a sigh and walked over to bandage the bloodied leg before Paul died of blood loss.
Ash slowly opened his eyes and smiled as he slowly stood up from his bed. It had been a week and Ash's back was better. Ash smiled slowly as he felt no great pain as he slowly bent over and leant back. He still felt a slight pain on his back. Ash took off his shirt and looked at the mirror in front of him. Ash looked over his shoulder and let out a gasp as he saw the mess of his back. The fight that he had with Aeleus had left his back severely burnt. He slowly moved his arm over to his back to touch the burnt area and Ash winced in pain.
"What are you doing?" Ash's neighbour asked him.
Ash turned to see Paul sitting up eyeing him curiously. Ash slid his shirt over his body and turned to face the long haired boy.
"I was checking out my back to see if it was ok and luckily it was" Ash lied.
"Good then we can get out of here then." Paul asked.
Ash was a bit taken a back as Paul slid defiantly out of his bed and to his foot as his injured one was raised in the air. Paul hopped over to a pair of crutches and took them off the wall they were resting on. Paul placed them on his arms and started to walk about with the use of the crutches to see how he fared with them.
"Are you honestly that desperate to find Aeleus that you're going to walk about in crutches before your leg is healed?" Ash asked.
"Yes" Paul said bluntly.
May, Brock and Dawn entered the room to see Paul standing strongly in front of them. Dawn rolled her eyes at how over macho Paul was by trying to leave the Poke Center early.
"We can't persuade you not to leave early can we?" Dawn asked hopelessly.
Paul nodded his head and made his way through the doors. The group packed their luggage up quickly and raced after Paul before he made the boat take off.
The boat made port in Lilycove as the captain would not be able to take them all the way to Johto. Ash and the group made their way to the ticket office where they purchased five tickets to allow journey on the large ship. Ash could not believe his luck when he saw the boat dock as soon as they had bought their tickets. The group made their way up the stairs attached to the ship and made their way inside the Ship. Paul immediately detached himself from the group and made his way to his room, shutting the door quickly as he entered it.
"Typical" muttered Dawn.
"I think I'm just going to unpack my stuff. Hey I'll meet you guys at the buffet" said Ash.
"We wouldn't have it any other way Ash" joked Brock.
The group exchanged laughs and Ash made his way to his room. Ash opened his door and threw his bag on the bed. Pikachu leapt off his shoulder and curled up on his bed. Ash smiled at his little friend and picked up his bag to retrieve his picture of Misty which he placed on the night stand. Ash, not wanting the picture to get damaged, had placed the picture in a frame. As Ash was about to fish out his clothes he heard a knock at his door. 'I thought I was meeting them at the buffet. As Ash opened the door he was greeted by the stern face of Paul.
"Oh hi Paul what are you doing here?" Ash asked him.
"How did you beat him?" Paul asked angrily.
"Sorry, what?" Asked Ash confused with Paul.
"How did you beat Aeleus?" Paul asked again with a more irritated tone in his voice.
Ash still a bit confused replied with "I didn't really, he used explosion with his last Pokemon. His Pokemon were probably tired from the battle with you anyway".
Paul was not satisfied with the answer given to him. He turned around and took a few steps, before turning around to face Ash.
"Come with me" Paul said bluntly.
Ash, confused as ever, simply agreed and shut the door behind him and followed the injured boy in front of him. Ash followed Paul along the corridor to the outside of the ship. Ash stood on the deck with Paul taking a few step ahead of him, then turning around to face.
"It'll be a three on three with the same Pokemon we used against Aeleus" Paul said bluntly.
Before Ash could say anything Paul surprised Ash by sending out his Ursaring. Ash, never one to back down from a fight sent out his Kingler. Before Ash could react Paul shouted his first command.
"Use hammer arm and put all your power into it".
"Kingler use crabhammer to defend the attack." Ash ordered
The large crab Pokemon swung both of its claws to block the large arm being swung at Kingler. As the hits collided Kingler's legs were slowly scraping along the ground, but the strong crab held its ground.
"Now use thrash to defeat it" Paul said flatly.
The large bear Pokemon became fuelled with strength and repeatedly hit the crab Pokemon with its fists and feet. Kingler tried to deflect the hits with its claw, but it was overwhelmed with the strength and the poor crustacean Pokemon was sent off the ship into the sea. Ash raced over to the side of the ship and quickly took out the Pokeball and returned his fainted Kingler to its ball. Ash turned around and glared at Paul. Ash took out the second Pokemon he used and sent out Snorlax. The large Pokemon left the ball and let out a yawn.
Ursaring still thrashing about flung its body at the tired Snorlax. Snorlax grunted in annoyance as the hit collided with its belly. Snorlax grunted and rested before Ash could tell it to. As soon as it closed its eyes the body of Snorlax was healed immediately. Paul was annoyed at the thought that all Snorlax was going to do was fall asleep.
"Use slash to hurt it"
Ursaring raced to the sleeping Pokemon and it was a few millimetres away from hitting it when the sleeping Pokemon let out a loud snore. Once again the lazy Pokemon used its own moves. This time the move was effective as the unprepared bear Pokemon fell back at the loud noise from the sleeping Pokemon. Snorlax spoke softly in its sleep and suddenly its body stood up and shot towards the Ursaring. Snorlax collided and sent the Ursaring flying off into the distance. Paul was lucky enough to get his Pokeball out and returned his Ursaring before it was too late. Paul had to choose his next Pokemon which showed it to be Magmortar.
"Now burn it with flamethrower" Paul said.
Magmortar aimed its cannon at the sleeping Pokemon and released the flames that covered the sleeping Pokemon who slept through the pain.
"Snorlax use sleep talk" Ash shouted.
Snorlax ended up using rest as it fell into a deeper sleep. Magmortar let out a deep chuckle as it saw its enemy was in a deep sleep making it easy prey.
"Now build up with fire blast" Paul ordered.
The large fire Pokemon aimed its cannon at the sleeping Pokemon and released a large star shaped fire blast at the sleeping Pokemon that winced, but just remained asleep.
"Now use hyper beam" Paul commanded.
The fire Pokemon aimed its arm cannon and charged up a large yellow beam at the Snorlax. It only took a few seconds for the Pokemon to charge up its hyper beam to let loose on the lazy Pokemon.
"Please Snorlax use something with sleep talk" begged Ash.
Magmortar let loose its hyper beam directly at the Snorlax. Just before it hit the Snorlax rose to its feet, still asleep, and charged through the hyper beam. Snorlax's momentum slowed down as hyper beam pushed it back. Snorlax's pace slowed down till it hit Magmortar who stumbled back into the railing and fell over. Paul could only watch on as the steam from the sea rose up due to the Magmortar evaporated the water. Paul moved over to the railing and returned his fainted Pokemon to its Pokeball.
Paul turned around to see Ash return his exhausted Pokemon to its ball. Paul glared and sent out his last Pokemon showing itself to be a Torterra. The ship was able to support the weight of all the heavy Pokemon that had fought luckily. Ash reached out and sent out his last Pokemon that was his Sceptile. The two Pokemon glared at each other, twitching and ready to fight.
Right here is the next instalment and the next chapter will be with you on Friday (hopefully). Please read and review.