Hello! Sorry for the long waiting-time, I'll try and turn in the next chapter faster, although I'm not sure when...
Anyway, to the answer of the 'hard' quiz: Yeah, it was Rome and Juliet (not that hardest question, heh?)
By the way, I would appreciate if those who hasn't voted on the poll will do it, I really want the count to reach over 100 voters.
I'm going to stop babbling now, so you can enjoy the chapter, I've listened to your requests and added more pokemon-scenes (although the next chapter will have May's P.O.V in it, it took a little more place than I expected...)
Don't forget to review at the end of the chapter!
R&R!
"(Leave, now! Or you'll regret it...)" The little mouse growled as he stood in the middle of the pokemon line that was protecting the semi-conscious butterfly.
"(Should we leave?)" Blaziken asked as she countered the mouse's growl with one of her own. "(You're the ones who came here so you're the ones that are intruding!)"
"(Trust me, if we could leave, we would!)" Sceptile spat his twig in front of the fire-pokemon. "(But, we have our orders to stay here... and that's what we'll do!)"
"(We can solve this in two different ways.)" The earth-turtle, Torterra, stated slowly as he looked at his friends and opponents. "(One, we fight, and cause each other a great deal of pain... or, we leave now and forget that this ever happened... so, what do you say?)"
"(I'll fight!)" Sceptile stated as his leafs began to glow, the bigger rodent nodded as his cheeks began to spark. "(But, we're taking orders from Pikachu, so we will follow his command.)"
"(Same here.)" Blaziken nodded as she glanced at Glaceon. "(What's your choice?)"
The rodent and fox-pokemon glared on each other, at least from Pikachu's side. You could see that the yellow rodent wouldn't hesitate to fight, but the ice-fox seemed to be hesitant on what she should do... she seemed to have been backed into a corner somehow.
"(We'll leave.)" Glaceon simply stated as she began to walk away. "(It's unnecessary for anyone to get seriously hurt.)"
"(Tell that to Butterfree!)" Raichu snapped as he held the body of the now unconscious butterfly in his paws. "(How do you think he'll feel when he wakes up? You attacked him, damn cowards!)"
But his opponents didn't listen to him, they only turned around and walked away.
"(If he would've just left Beautifly alone, it would never have happened!)" Blaziken snapped back at the bigger rodent. "(I suggest that you tell your friend to stop following her!)"
The group of Ash's, Paul's and Surge's pokemon got looks of disbelief on their faces, why did Butterfree ignore Ash's orders? That is... if Blaziken and the others spoke the truth... it could've been them who attacked Butterfree when he was alone, they needed to ask him about that later.
But, now they only walked home with the tired butterfly on Torterra's back, nobody said a word, they were immersed in their own deep thoughts.
Next day, at the Harrison's house...
Brock looked around nervously as he walked around the house, he had been lucky to have woken up alive, in his opinion... Ash didn't seem to have found him yet, and he hoped that it would continue to be that way until the wedding was over.
Most of the other males were asleep, the girls had let them sleep in the morning since they knew that they were hungover from last night and needed their rest, although the betting and card-games were kept secret to the females.
The breeder frowned, the only two who didn't have an excuse to sleep in late were just Max and Drew, Max hadn't drunk anything since he was only 16 and Drew didn't even come to his party, he couldn't remember what kind of excuse the former coordinator had given his friends.
Brock froze as he saw a cat, that was walking on two legs, coming his way with a big frown on his face... it seemed like he wanted to do, or tell, something to the breeder.
"Hey! Old-Twerp!" Meowth shouted as he ran up to him with an annoyed look. "Where did you and the boss go? I couldn't find you after I had alerted the girls."
"We..." Brock hesitated, then he sighed, it was better to tell him the truth instead of trying to lie himself out of this mess. "We sent you away so we could give Ash a haircut."
The frown deepened on the cat's face. "From a real barber?"
"Y... yes?"
The cat started, to Brock's immense surprise, to laugh loudly.
"Nicely done!" He started to roll around on the floor with tears in his eyes. "I wish I could've seen the boss's face!"
"Not likely..." Brock mumbled as he shivered and remembered the emotionless face that was looking at him. "I just hope that I'll live past the wedding."
"What? No, you're getting it all wrong!" Meowth halted his laughter down as he rub the tears from his eyes."You did him a FAVOR, he hated his long hair, but at the same time he refused to cut it since he never trusted anyone to do so... so, tell me, what did he do when he woke up and found out what you did to him?"
"Well..." The breeder seemed to be lost in his thoughts as he tried to recall what happened. "The first thing he did was to jump from his chair, take the scissors from the barber and hold them against his throat..." The breeder paled along with the cat. "You think he killed him? I haven't seen anything in the newspaper about it!"
"If the boss killed someone, nobody would find that person until next year..." Meowth was starting to walk back and forth. "But, believe it or not, the boss actually knows what's right and what's wrong... he only doesn't want to show it, so, my guess is that he didn't kill the barber...if we're lucky, he might've thanked him instead!"
"I hope you're right..." Brock sighed as he hit himself lightly on the head. "I really do."
They were interrupted by some loud, crashing noises, and words that sent shivers down their spines as they stood in front of the house.
It sounded like it came from upstairs, and they looked up to see the whole floor shake.
Then, suddenly, a window on top floor shattered and you could see something dark brown in color fly out from it. The object in question crashed two meters from the breeder and cat, causing them to jump in surprise. Meowth wasted no time in running towards the dark brown mass.
"Boss! What happened?" He shouted as he shook the half-lifeless body in front of him.
Ash got up on shaky legs as he glared at the window that he had been thrown out from.
"That bloody witch!" He spat as he wiped away some blood from the corner of his mouth. "I'm gonna get her this time!"
With those words he began to walk back towards the door, only to be held back by Meowth and Brock.
"Hold on, Ash!" Brock shouted as he used all his might to hold him in place. "You promised! No fighting!"
"That promise disappeared when she decided to throw a damn vase at my head!" Ash growled as he looked for his hat on the ground, giving Brock a clear view of the trainer.
It seemed true, some blood was running down the side of Ash's head, and he had some cuts and bruises on his body that showed that he had been in a fight.
"I don't get it, Ash." Brock shook his head. "How could you lose to a girl? I thought you were good at fighting, at least what I heard from Suzie and Salvador."
"Believe me, if she only fought fair, I would've kick her psychic ass!" Ash spat out some more blood. "She cheated, I couldn't maintain my aura over my body so she used that opportunity to levitate me and throw me out the window... that witch!"
"Boss, I say that we should wait!" Meowth spoke up after a moment of silence. "Look at you, if you go in there again she'll kill you, take some time to recover first, then we can attack her, all of us!"
Ash seemed to think about his pokemon's words, they made sense, but he really wanted to get revenge on Sabrina for the beating she gave him... even thought it was a miracle that he even survived it.
"Brock! I heard an explosion and-" Holly stopped as her face grew bright red and she looked down towards the ground. "I... I'm sorry, I d... didn't know..."
Ash frowned, then he looked down at his clothes and saw that they were completely torn apart... no wonder why he couldn't find his hat... it didn't exist anymore!
His coat had been ripped to shreds and the only trace of it was that some of it still hung from his right arm, the rest of his upper-body was fully exposed. His long black jeans had been ripped on the right leg and exposed most of his leg when the wind blew, you could also see a clear red line on his leg.
"Oh, Arceus damn it!" Ash cursed as he saw his clothes. "This was my only pair."
"I... I think I should... leave..." Holly's face was still bright red as she hurried away from the scene, trying to suppress the picture of the half-naked Ash from her head.
"Wild night?" Paul smirked as he appeared to the dark trainer and breeder from behind. "Nice hair."
Ash took his fingers through his short-cut hair and smirked a bit. "Yeah, I'll thank you guys for that later."
"No need!" Paul laughed as he responded Ash's smirk with one of his own. "What's up with your clothes?"
"Sabrina." Ash simply stated, causing Paul to raise his eyebrows.
"Her? I don't judge you, she's hot and all... but I thought-"
"Not like that, pyramid-head." Ash growled as he sent a deadly glare towards Paul, which had lost a little of its might since some of his intimidating look had disappeared. "She used her psychic on me."
The Pyramid master got a frown on his face, then the frown turned into a smile as he began to laugh at the dark trainer in front of him.
"You got beaten by a girl?" Paul roared with laughter as he looked at the, now furious, trainer in front of him. "Oh, wait until Surge hears about this!"
"You bloody-" Ash was about to take a step towards Paul, to strangle him, when he suddenly knelt down as he felt a great pain in his right leg. "Arceus dammit!"
"Ash! What's wrong?" Brock quickly knelt down beside the trainer, along with the cat, and looked at him worriedly. "Are you in pain?"
"No, I'm not hurt at all after fighting a psychic and getting thrown out of the second floor of your bloody house!" The trainer spat as he supported himself on Brock's and Paul's, both of whom had stopped laughing, shoulders to lift himself up. "It's only temporary, in an hour or so I'll be able to get my revenge on-"
"No, Ash!" Brock growled as he shook off Ash's hand from his shoulder, causing the trainer to flinch as he felt too much pressure on his leg. "You gave me a promise! You wouldn't insult or fight with the guests! And you couldn't even keep that!... I thought you were a man of your words..."
The next thing that happened took Brock by surprise, Ash actually got a slightly guilty look on his face. The trainer had promised the breeder to not cause any damage to anyone, and he couldn't keep it... and he had always kept his words.
"You're right... I-" It looked like Ash tried to force something out of his mouth. "I'm..."
"You're...?" Brock figured out what he was going to say and decided to help him a bit. "Come on, you can say it."
"I... am... am... sorry..." Ash's voice was so restrained that a normal person would believe he was joking. "I... won't fight... anymore."
"That's good, Ash." Brock nodded. "Looks like there's still hope for you yet!"
"Wait!" Ash suddenly lifted his head up to face the breeder. "Forget that! Let's put it this way instead: I won't fight, as long as someone doesn't start a fight with me!"
"I think I can agree to tha-" Brock stopped himself as he started to glare at Ash. "You can't 'get back' at someone for a thing that happened years ago... they need to pick a fight with you on the spot! Go ahead, say it!"
"Yeah, yeah." Ash mumbled with his head lowered in disappointment... Paul got a flashback from when he was in the kindergarten and one of the teachers was scolding one of the children, he couldn't help thinking how much the scene in front of him reminded him about that.
"Now, let's go, we need to get you patched up... and some new clothes." Brock stated as he remembered Ash's ripped clothes. "I've some things you can borrow."
"From you? Never!" The trainer coughed as he tried release himself from Paul's support. "I'll find something myself and-" Paul and Brock had to catch him as he was about to fall again. "Okay... but this is just temporary!"
"Sure, sure." Brock shook his head as the three males and the cat walked towards the door of his house. "My room is not far from here a-"
"KHYIIAAA!" Was a roar that came from the cat as he launched himself towards the person that was coming through the door, stunning the others.
The person quickly raised her hand and the cat stopped in mid-jump, and was trying to wiggle himself free from the psychic.
"That's enough, Sabrina." Brock sighed. "Let him down, there shall be no more fighting here!"
The psychic looked at the breeder, then at the slightly intimidated Pyramid Master, and then finally at the injured trainer, causing her to smile a creepy smile that sent shivers down Paul's spine.
"Hello, aura-user, how are you doing?" The smile turned into a smirk as she saw the furious look on Ash's face.
"You know damn well how I'm 'doing', witch!" Ash snapped at her, but was still being supported and held back by Brock and Paul. "Let my pokemon down! I swear, as soon as I'm better I'll-"
"Ash!" Brock had no other choice than to hit him on his injured leg, causing the trainer to groan in pain. "No fighting! Is it so hard to understand?"
"She started it!" Ash growled.
The psychic just laughed as she walked away from them. "You've grown weak, aura-user."
"Okay, that's it!" Ash roared right after Meowth had been let down. "Screw that promise! It's time for re... would you stop hitting my damn leg?"
"I'll stop when you're back to your normal self." The breeder explained as he continued to lead Ash through the house.
"This is my 'normal self'" Ash stated with a grim tone as they helped him up the stairs to Brock's room.
"No, it isn't." Meowth shook his head, this needed to stop. "You've never been acting like this, not even when your mother died, or when Second-Twerpette told you-"
"Don't talk about that!" Ash snapped at his pokemon as he glared at him. "That's an order!"
"Yes, 'master'..." The last word of Meowth's sentence was filled with so much sarcasm that Brock thought Ash would hit him... however, Ash only sighed and let them continue to lead him towards Brock's room.
They entered it and everyone, except for Brock, took a look around.
"That's strange..." Ash commented. "I don't see any Jenny-posters anywhere."
"Very funny, Ash." Brock was actually surprised that Ash, for once, didn't make a very crude or insulting joke. "I told you, I'm not that kind of guy anymore."
"That explains why you're so boring then." Ash nodded and was followed up by laughter from Paul and Meowth.
The breeder simply ignored them as he placed Ash on the bed and started to look through his closet. He shoved away Holly's dresses that seemed to take up most of the closet's space and continued to look in it. He finally found what he was looking for.
He pulled out his head from the wooden 'box' and threw three pieces of clothing at Ash, who caught them and got a very neutral look on his face when he saw what it was.
"You've got to be kidding..." Was the only sound that came from the trainer as he looked at the clothes in his hands.
"It's either that, or go naked." Brock simply stated with his arms crossed.
It looked like Ash was really considering the two options, but then he sighed and removed his ripped pants and shirt, amazingly his boxers had survived the fight. Brock was embarrassedly reminded of his own need for training as he saw the almost-naked Ash in front of him.
Thirty seconds later Ash had put on the clothes Brock had given him, causing the breeder's and cat's eyes to go wide and Paul to frown a bit.
The trainer in front of them looked like a totally new person, as well as looking like something out of the past. He had baggy, light-blue jeans, and a blue hoodie with a white hood and short, black sleeves, it also had a half pokeball logo that was white in color on the front of the hoodie.
"So... what do you think?" The trainer asked hesitantly.
The Pyramid Master only shrugged. "Looks okay, I liked your old ones better."
"Perfect!" The breeder smiled as the memories started to flow back into his head.
"Boss..." Meowth was speechless. "You... you look like a twerp again!"
Ash walked up to a big mirror in the room and got a look of disbelief written all over his face. He then turned to the breeder with a questioning look.
"Brock, do you mind explaining to me what a bigger version of my Hoenn-clothes was doing in your closet?" He tried to sound as calm as possible and tried to hide the awkward tone in his voice.
"Well..." The breeder chuckled, greatly embarrassed. "Um... A few years ago... I was invited to a... ehurm... Look Alike Contest... and, well.. you get the rest of the story!"
Meowth had to clasp his paws on his own mouth to not burst out laughing, Paul didn't bother masking his laughter as he just started laughing loudly. Ash, on the other hand, did not look amused.
"So, you're saying." Ash's leg had recovered enough that he could hobble towards Brock who was backing away slowly. "You're saying that you dressed yourself, at the age of 23, as a twelve year old boy?... Are you sick, or something?"
Both Paul and Meowth were lying on the floor, rolling around as they laughed to the point of choking. Brock had a look of shame on his face, which was kinda strange because it was not such big deal.
"Let's..." Brock tried to find the right words. "Let's... just go down to the others and not talk about it anymore..."
The other males agreed and started to walk down the stairs, and out towards the yard where people were waiting for them.
"(Oooh, my head...)" Came a sound from a certain butterfly as he found himself waking up with a major headache on some hard surface. "(Where am I?)"
"(Slept well?)" Came the voice from the great earth-turtle, Torterra, below him.
"(Huh?)" Butterfree looked groggily under himself and found out that he had been sleeping on the aforementioned pokemon. "(How... how did I get here?)"
"(That question is not what we're looking for...)" Came the voice from Pikachu as he jumped up on the turtle's shell. "(What we want to know is: What were you doing with May's pokemon?)"
"(Well... I was out for a walk and-)"
"(Cut the Tauros-shit!)" Sceptile snapped at him as he walked up to the side of Torterra and looked at the Butterfly. "(We know what you were doing! You were meeting with that bloody Beautifly!)"
"(No! I... I was-)"
"(I tell you!)" Sceptile continued to bark on. "(Don't you know what you just did? You hanged out with the enemy! They aren't to be trusted! They are just a bunch of lying, cold-hearted, idiotic bi-)"
A really strong wind came and knocked Sceptile away with such force that he smashed into a tree, a few meters away. Everybody turned their eyes on the now bright red and angry Butterfree that seemed to be breathing heavily.
"(Don't... you... EVER... call... her... that!)" Even Sceptile felt a slight shrill of intimidation at the butterfly's voice, some of the others in the team backed slightly away. "(She is more of a person that you ever could be! She's not a liar! She has more heart than any of you guys put together! I... I... love her!)"
"(Butterfree! For crying out loud!)" Pikachu snapped at him as he ran in front of him. "(Don't you see what you're doing? Are you ready to give up PikaPi, us, your family! Just for one of HER pokemon?)"
"(I'm ready to give up a lot more than that!)" The butterfly cried out as it felt its eyes water up a bit. "(If our trainers can't come to an agreement... well, then we'll not belong to either of them!)"
"(Bloody traitor!)" Sceptile had gotten up and spat out his twig in front of Butterfree. "(After all that our master has done for you! After all that we've done for you! You're simply throwing it all away on a pokemon you've known for a few days? You don't deserve to belong to this damn team!)"
"(Fine! I don't even want to belong to it!)" The Butterfree flew away into the woods as quickly as it could, it was hard for some of the pokemon there to follow his movements. "(Just... leave me alone!)"
"(Why you little...)" Sceptile growled as his leaf began to glow as he got ready to charge the butterfly, only to be hindered by Pikachu and Blastoise.
"(No! Remember our rules!)" Pikachu exclaimed as he held back the furious lizard. "(Rule number one: 'Anyone can choose to leave the group at anytime.'!)"
"(He has made up his mind, Sceptile.)" Blastoise sighed. "(The only chance he'll come back to us is if our master accepts their mistress in his heart...)"
"(So long then, Butterfree!)" Raichu stated as he tried to cheer his fellow pokemon up. "(Come on, guys, don't be like that! We've much to look forward to!)"
"(Yeah?)" Sceptile frowned at the rodent's statement. "(What?)"
A long period of silence followed until they heard some kind of flapping noise in the air. First they thought that Butterfree had changed his mind and was about to return, but that thought was quickly dismissed when they saw that it was only one of Paul's pokemon, Honchkrow, who was coming back from his hunt.
"(Greetings, friends.)" He nodded as he landed in front of them. "(Did I missed something?)"
The other pokemon sighed and started to relate what kind had just transpired, Honchkrow's frown deepened with each word that they spoke.
When they had finished him tell the story the bird simply shook his head and looked at the pokemon with a look of disappointment in his eyes.
"(My friends...)" He sighed and looked at them again. "(Can't you see?)"
"(See what?)" The lizard shouted out. "(That we've been abandoned by that little traitor? That we're going to kill him if he ever comes back?)"
"(Don't you get it?)" Honchkrow's frown deepened. "(Think about it: Would you treat the other pokemon the same if it hadn't been for Ash's words against their trainer? Answer honestly!)"
"(We don't know.)" Pikachu simply stated. "(But, that doesn't matter anymore, since we DO know them, and we DO know what their trainer did to our! There's no way in hell that anyone of us will be spending time with those idiotic, naive-lowlifes!)"
"(Alright, guys, this has got to stop.)" The turtle sighed as he walked up to them and looked them in the eyes. "(Seriously, this has gone way over our heads.)"
"(Blastoise, what are you talking about?)" Sceptile asked his close friend with suspicion in his eyes. "(What do you mean?)"
"(Funny story...)" The water-turtle chuckled a little to himself. "(You see... I haven't been totally honest with you...)"
"So... let me get this straight..." Paul's voice seemed to be really strained as he thought of the news some of the girls had told them. "Due to fact that the majority of the guys have a big hangover, you're saying that you girls will lend us a hand in our work, too?"
"That's right!" Lola smiled as she looked at the Pyramid Master. "By the way, where's Brock?"
"Oh, he's just trying to convince Ash to walk out of the house." Paul snickered at the thought. "Are we the only three guys who are able to work?"
"No, we managed to convince Max and Drew to help out too, isn't that great?" Lola had her face a little bit too close for Paul's liking, making him back away slightly.
"Umm..." Many different scenarios about how Ash and Drew would meet for the first time in years went through his head... and he loved them all. "Yeah, that's great!"
"I know, right!" Lola cried out, Paul thought for a second that she was going to hug him. "Tell them to meet us at the marquee that we've hired for this special occasion, we're going to decorate and prepare it for the wedding!"
"Sure, I'll do that." The Pyramid Master only smirked as he reentered the house in search of Brock, Ash and Meowth.
You could see several people inside the big, white tent that had been set up at the rear of the house, next to the fence of Brock Harrison's Breeder Farm. Several people were there, you could see May, Holly, Max, Dawn, Paul, Misty, Lola, Rhonda, Zoey, Drew, Solidad, Caroline, Johanna, Sabrina, Erika, Casey, Scott, all of Brock's siblings and Marilyn... some of them working, others not so much.
May, Holly, Misty and Zoey were busy hanging the streamers on the walls of the tent, they had to use a ladder to reach it as it too high up for any of them to reach.
Rhonda, Solidad, Caroline and Johanna were trying to figure out how they should arrange the wine and other alcoholic beverages such that none of the youngsters would be able to get their hands on them.
Max and Casey were busy watching Scott and the youngest of Brock's siblings so they wouldn't interfere or ruin anything that the others had set up, it was rather hard work since the small children decided to crawl away every so often.
Paul looked like he was watching someone too, but it wasn't a youngster, it looked like he was watching a certain blue-haired girl as she, Erika and Sabrina, were busy with arranging the tables and chairs.
And Drew... let's just say that he didn't just sit there doing nothing, but the others wouldn't call his actions of any 'great' help whatsoever.
"I'm telling you, it needs to be put higher!" He declared with a hint of arrogance in his voice. "You can't stand like that, you're doing it all wrong!"
"Well, Drew, if you could only lift your lazy butt off the chair and try to help we wouldn't need to listen to your 'instructions'!" Misty hissed at him with one of her glares that would make any man with a hint of common sense to tremble, and Drew was no exception.
"F.. fine!" He flicked his hair as he took one heavy breath and then rose from his chair. "Why can't you manage without my help or presence?"
"Believe me, we can..." The brunette beauty muttered under her breath as she stood on the ladder and hung one of the ropes over a nail that she had recently hammered in. "You're as lazy as you were before... Isn't that right, Skitty?" She asked her pokemon who stood beside her on the ladder.
"Nywaaa!" The cat purred happily as she rubbed her head against May's bare leg, causing the brunette to giggle a bit.
"I'm sorry I'm late, everybody!" Brock shouted, causing everyone look up from their work. "I got a little held up with-... Ash! Don't you try and walk away, come in here and lend us a hand!"
"Forget it." The mass of people inside the tent heard a harsh voice outside, and it didn't sound too happy. "I'm NOT going in there, I know who is in there, and the answer is: No!"
Brock muttered something to himself; he then made a small gesture towards Paul, making the Pyramid Master walk up to him. Together they walked out, out of sight for anyone in the tent, but they could hear the verbal exchange going on outside.
"Ouch! Bloody hell! Why do you always hit me on the leg, you f-"
"DON'T say that word!" The other voice was interrupted by one the people recognized as Brock's. "There are children in here, and the last thing they need is another lecture from you!"
The people inside the marquee could then hear some kind of scuffle going on, followed by a shout, then they could see someone get pushed through the entrance and into the room.
May, Max, Dawn, Misty, Solidad and Caroline gasped and started breathing a little heavily. It was like an older version of the Ash they once knew stood in front of them. And his Hoenn clothes, that they're familiar with, helped even further to see who it really was. The only different was that he had no hat that hid his now short hair, which all of the girls seemed to love, both young and old.
The other guests were also stunned, they finally got a good look at the man's face for the first time, and most of the women liked the sight they saw.
Drew, on the other hand, got a look of terror over his face as he saw the supposedly 'dead' trainer standing there alive. The trainer himself didn't look too happy... although the expression on Drew's face turned into panic when Ash, after looking around the tent with a frown on his face, caught sight of Drew, a big smirk appeared on his face, along with his cat who stood at the side of his master.
"Alright, people, let's get back to work!" Brock shouted as he waved his hands, getting everyone's attention and causing them to forget about the raven haired trainer for the moment, so he could sneak away unnoticed.
But he couldn't escape the eyes of Brock. The breeder glared at him as he saw him pull out a chair and sat himself in a corner. He looked like he was waiting for someone or something.
The breeder walked towards the trainer with a hard look in his eyes, not stopping until he was right in front of him.
"Can I help you?" Ash only looked at Brock as he glared at him. "Or did you just confuse me with a pretty girl... again..."
"What makes you think…" Brock simply ignored Ash's snide remark and continued with his lecture. "What makes you think, that you can just sit here while the others are working? It makes you look like a slouch!"
"So?"
"'So'?" Brock's face grew red with anger as he leaned closer towards Ash and his voice had a threatening tone to it. "Now you go over and help Paul, or I'll make sure that... that... that..."
The trainer sighed and got up as he looked at the breeder with tired eyes.
"You know, Brock." He couldn't help but laugh a little to himself when he saw the slightly embarrassed breeder. "Someone really needs to teach you how to threaten people..."
With those words he walked towards Paul, who seemed to have removed his eyes from the blue-haired girl and had started with sorting out chairs on the other side of the room.
However, on the way there, something happened.
Ash and Meowth made their way towards the Pyramid Master by walking close to the wall of the marquee, very close. And, out of nowhere, came a pink cat. The pink cat seemed to have slammed into the other cat who was walking on two legs, causing him to cry out in surprise and made his trainer turn around quickly to see what was happening.
But when Ash turned around, he could feel his good leg hit something, some wooden object. He then heard a short, and loud, shriek before he turned around and caught the person who was falling with such amazing reflexes that even some pokemon would've envied.
The whole room went silent as everybody turned around to see the short raven haired raven trainer holding a very beautiful brunette in his arms, who had her arms around his neck, in a bridal-style position, even those who were on the other side of the tent could see the brunette's beat-red face as she looked into the trainers eyes, like she was in some kind of trance.
Any person would've called this a classic 'Sweethearts'-moment'. Unfortunately, the raven haired trainer decided to let go off the brunette, rather abruptly, causing her to fall to the floor on her rear-end, causing her to flinch in slight pain. And the trainer then continued his little journey towards Paul, along with his cat who had broken loose from the other one, who seemed to really enjoy their altercation.
"May! Are you okay?" Dawn cried out as she, followed by Holly, quickly ran up to their friend's side.
"Y... yeah..." The brunette still seemed to be in some sort of trance, she didn't even take notice the slight pain she had in her body from the fall. "What... what luck that he was... there... to catch...me..."
"'Catch me'?" Holly asked with a frown. "May, that guy dropped you on the floor! He's a real jerk!"
"Please, don't say that about Ash..." Dawn muttered silently, more for herself than Holly. "He... he's probably just not feeling so well, or something, right now..."
"'Not feeling so well'!" Holly cried out in anger. "Dawn! How can you defend that jerk, after what he did to May!"
"But, it seems like Max is scolding him anyway!" Dawn declared quickly, causing May to wake up from her trance and quickly look in the direction that the trainer now stood.
True to word, you could see the shorter trainer standing there and shouting at another person who seemed to be about a head taller than him, making the scene rather funny.
Ash just stood there with a neutral face as Max yelled about how he shouldn't 'Disrespect his sister' and so on, causing the dark trainer to yawn every now and then.
"Alright, enough." Ash simply held up a hand in front of Max's face, causing the young trainer to go quiet. "I've heard you, and if you don't shut up soon I'll be forced to fight you... one way or another, so, what's your decision?"
Max's head dropped down, there was no way in hell that he would stand a chance against the former Sinnoh Champion, the young boy simply walked away, leaving the dark trainer to feel quite happy about himself.
The guests, who had seen the outcome, muttered about Ash under their breaths, that he didn't even bother listening to, before they went back to their own chores.
After about five minutes, Ash, Paul and Meowth decided to take a rest. So they simply pulled out three chairs and sat themselves on them, causing them to sigh in relief.
"Well, Ash, let me tell you this." Paul looked up at the trainer with a smirk. "You really know how to make things interesting, wherever you go!"
"You're not that bad yourself, Paul." The trainer simply smirked back as they exchanged nods with each other.
"Hey, you guys remember that time when I came to look for you, and then when we walked to that pub in Orre?" The Pyramid Master waited until the memory had come to the cat and its trainer before they started laughing.
"Y- Yeah!" Meowth actually rolled around in laughter on his chair. "I- I still re- remember that look you h- had when those gu- guys wanted to talk with... you!"
"There were six of them, against two of us, what was I supposed to do?" Paul asked with a frown.
"I told you I got your back." The dark trainer simply smiled at the Pyramid Master, getting one of Paul's own in return. "What do you say that we-"
"Hey! Ketchum!" The trainer got a really neutral look on his face as he turned his head towards the man/blob who had called out to him.
"Drew..." The trainer actually forced a little smile on his face. "People who know me, calls me Ash, people who've heard of me, call me Ketchum. And people who I don't want to meet, well, I don't meet them... so, will you please leave this place, you're blocking the sun."
He ignored the sweat-drops and anime-style falls he got from his very illogical and confusing sentence.
The former coordinator only leaned closer to the trainer, causing Ash to hear his loud and heavy breathing.
"Don't think that I don't know your game, Ketchum." Drew said with a weird smile. "May's mine! And you can't have her!"
"And I thought that I was bad at taking care of my hygiene..." Ash emphasized his statement by waving with his hand in front of his face. "Ever heard of water, that doesn't come with sugar?"
"Why you..." The former coordinator seemed to pause for a good comeback, but when he couldn't find one he decided to go on a direct attack instead. "I see that you haven't any sense in evolving that weak-looking cat, how pitiful that-"
"Hey! Fat-Twerp!" Meowth quickly arose from his chair, causing Drew to back off with a shocked look on his face. "We don't tell you how you should do your business, and since we've promised to not fight anyone here I suggest that you back off!"
The dark trainer looked towards the breeder with a pleading look, but that look turned into disappointment when he saw Brock shake his head.
"Not fight anyone here?" Drew seemed to suddenly regain his cockiness at that as well as a feeling of relief as well. "Well, what a nice deal! What did you get for that? New clothes? A shower?"
The trainer only laughed straight in the ex coordinator's face, making Drew even more angry.
"Well, I can see that your mother didn't teach you any manners, Ketchum, it's a shame that it's too late for that now!" Those people who heard that gasped, since most of them knew Delia, but Ash kept a calm face.
"I'm warning you, Drew, don't go there." Ash still had a calm aura around himself, but Meowth could both see and feel something else.
"Why not? Aww, you're still sore about that thing that happened between us three years ago, aren't you?" Drew asked with a fake-caring voice, causing several people to perk up at his words.
"Drew, I'm warning you-"
"You're still a little grumpy that May chose ME over YOU all those years ago!" Drew laughed straight in his face, some saliva even came flying at Ash. "Well, Ketchum, seems like I've won again!"
Drew waited for an outburst from Ash, or at least a change of expression in his face.
However Ash's face was as relaxed as ever when he said his next sentence.
"Drew, thank you."
With that, he then threw himself at the former coordinator, Drew had just enough time to release his pokemon, before an all out war broke loose.
"(So, let me get this straight...)" Pikachu tried to talk as slowly as possible. "(You're saying, that after that little battle we had with those pokemon, you've been seeing May's Blastoise? The one called 'Toisy'?)"
"(Pretty much.)" The turtle gulped and looked around nervously. "(I... euhm, I thought it would be a good idea to tell you now, since-)"
"(What the HELL are you talking about?)" Sceptile roared as he pushed the turtle onto the back of its shell. "(After all we've done for you! You decide to stab us in the back too! You're no pokemon of Ash's!)"
"(Come on, guys!)" The turtle wiggled himself up from his lying position and then looked at the other pokemon. "(It's not that big of deal, I mean, we weren't even there when our trainers started to not get along... so why do we need to dislike each other just because they're like that?)"
"(His words do make sense.)" The earth-turtle nodded in liking. "(Was this what you were talking about, Honchkrow?)"
"(It's good to see that someone understands.)" The big bird smiled as he sat high up in his tree. "(The world has had enough of pain and suffering, it needs all the love it can get. I think we can all agree that it's just plain ridiculous that you shouldn't be able to love someone since Ash a-)"
His next words was a cry of pain as a yellow light surrounded and engulfed him, courtesy of a really pissed of rodent.
"(Shut up! I won't let you question PikaPi's judgement!)" The mouse growled in anger as the Thunderbolt that he sent slowly started to fade away. Causing the bird to almost fall off his tree. "(He's a better person that any of you'll ever be!)"
"(I bloody agree!)" The lizard stated as he placed himself at the side of the rodent. "(You've nothing to say about this, Honchkrow, if you haven't traveled with him for so long.)"
"(Even though I haven't traveled with Ash, I agree with Pikachu and Sceptile.)" Raichu nodded and placed himself at the other side of Pikachu. "(You've no right to say what's right and what's wrong in this matter!)"
"(Don't make fools out of yourselves!)" Torterra warned them as Blastoise lifted up the weak Honchkrow and put him on the earth-turtle's shell. "(We've had enough of the division in this group, and I would like to see that we won't have to anymore!)"
"(That's something you should've thought about before you took sides!)" Sceptile spat out his twig in front of the other pokemon. "(It's your mistake, not ours, I suggest that you leave... right now!)"
"(Come on, let's find Butterfree.)" Blastoise mumbled as he walked away from the scene. "(We need to let him know that he still has friends here, even if it doesn't seem that way...)"
So, that's where the group split up. Torterra, Honchkrow and Blastoise went looking for Butterfree, while Pikachu, Raichu and Sceptile refused to have anything to do with the 'traitors' and continued to sit there and try to figure out a plan on how to get their 'enemies'.
End of Chapter 14
Well... what do you think?
I would like to thank the ones who helped me through their reviews with how the characters are going to be dressed for the wedding... although I still need some ideas for Brock, try and picture him as a groom in a wedding with medieval theme and tell me what kind of clothes he's going to have!
What do you guys say about that we break the 400-limit in reviews?
I might get complains about Drew-bashing... and I know that I should've warned you before, but I simply forgot it. And, if you don't like it, I'm not forcing you to read the chapter (except a few people...)
Well, the only thing that's left to say is: It's better to review later than never and I'll be seeing you in the next chapter!
R&R!