Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.
Chapter 38: Unexpected Help
Dawn felt a bit strange. She has been walking through the area for nearly half an hour without encountering a single scout, which was highly unusual considering all the poachers who were supposed to be there. It really made her nervous and the swampy area didn't help calming her down. As usual, she had Piplup, Espeon and Lucario with her. Her other pokémon were Metagross, Froslass and Vibrava. She didn't notice a staraptor flying in the distance but it noticed her, returning to its trainer immediately after.
Ash and Zoey had split up to cover a larger area. He had sent out Staraptor to look for Dawn and now he returned, landing next to him.
"Did you find her? Where is she?" The flying type pointed in the direction where he found her. "Good job! Let's go!"
It took some time since Dawn was also on the move but in the end he found her. At least it was on a grassy field instead of in the middle of a swamp.
"Dawn!" She had already noticed him and didn't seem happy. "We have to get out of here! This is way too dangerous for you!"
"Ash? What are you doing here?" she asked. "You should go. It's too dangerous."
"Yes, I'll go. But not without you," he said.
"I'm not going with you. I still have many things to do. And being with me will only endanger you as well. I don't want them to target you too," she told him. "That's why I have to do this alone."
"Don't be so stubborn! You can't do this alone! They'll kill you sooner or later!" She shrugged.
"Maybe. But at least I can change something that way. I won't leave now," she told him confidently.
"Come on, Dawn. Be reasonable. They have already tried to kill Johanna and completely destroyed your house. What do you think they're going to do next?" he asked.
"They tried to kill Mom?" Her eyes widened. "They will pay for that. Even more reason for you to stay away. I can take care of myself."
"What can I do to convince you?" he asked.
"Nothing," she just answered. "Why are you even trying? You should be glad that I'm gone. You said it yourself."
"I didn't mean that. Those were all lies. I was mad at that time and didn't know what I was saying. Please understand it. I'm so sorry," he told her.
"You're sorry? For saying the truth?" Just as he suspected, she really believed it. "I always knew that I was little more than a bother to your dreams. You were just too nice to mention it. But I can't go on like this."
He had enough now. The time has come to tell her what he really felt. Maybe it was his last chance.
"You aren't a bother! In fact, I have become stronger because of you." She looked at him incredulously. "It's true. Your support made me stronger. Your battles inspired me. You motivated me to do my best. Hell, without you I would have had trouble beating Roark. You went further than all my other friends, cheering for me in your cute, little outfit and creating moves like the spin for me. There's no way you would ever hold me back! And because of that, your sweet and helpful personality and pretty much everything about you I … I …" Now it was getting just as difficult as he thought. He turned away, blushing heavily.
"You what?" she whispered.
"I … love you!" Her eyes widened even more. "I love you with all my heart. I fully realized it when I hurt you so much. It hurt me as well. I promise to never do it again. But please, come with me!"
"You … you're just trying to get me to follow you, aren't you?" Dawn could hardly believe that he would say all those things."No, I won't." His heart sank.
"Why? Don't you believe me?" he asked desperately.
"On the contrary. I don't want you to get hurt because … I kind of feel the same." She looked away, blushing. "I am already their target. You would be next if they found you here with me."
"Then just let's go home!" he suggested. "I'm sure Looker can hide you until they forget about the things you did."
"No way! Someone has to do something against those poachers and since nobody seems willing to do it, it's up to me. Do you really think the police are going to do anything? I've seen them. Their numbers are way too low," she told him.
"You're so stubborn… you know that? Well, how about a deal? I beat you in a battle and you come with me." He didn't like having a serious battle with her but he would do anything to get her back. "What do you say?"
"You won't leave until I agree, right? But if I win, you have to go without me. And I must warn you. I have become much stronger due to new training methods. It won't be easy for you." He nodded. It took quite a lot of persuasion but at least he had a chance now. "I accept no less than a full battle. Are you ready?"
"Ready!" Ash said. Pikachu, Sceptile, Dewott, Infernape, Krookodile and Staraptor were waiting.
"Metagross, go!" Ash had battled this pokémon before. It was one of her strongest.
"Infernape, I choose you!" Infernape didn't seem to like fighting against Dawn's pokémon like that but he trusted Ash.
"Use gravity!" The gravity in the area increased dramatically, making it hard for Ash to stand properly. Dawn, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any trouble. "Don't you find it difficult to stand like this?" he asked.
"I'm used to it. Metagross and most of my other pokémon always train under these conditions so it's no problem. You'll get used to it with time as well. But let's continue now. Earthquake!" A massive shockwave made its way towards the fire type.
"Dodge it and use flamethrower!" However, he couldn't jump high enough to evade the shockwave, which dealt quite a bit of damage. He used flamethrower nonetheless but Metagross quickly dodged it. Its enormous strength made it possible for it to pretty much ignore the effects of gravity although it couldn't use magnet rise like that. "Mach punch!"
"Psychic! Then zen headbutt!" Ash's pokémon was slower than usual so Metagross had no problem stopping him right before his attack could hit and follow up by hitting him with the glowing X on its body. "Use psyshock!" Infernape quickly got up, dodging the purple orb before hitting it with mach punch.
"Flamethrower!" But Metagross stopped him with psychic again.
"Zen headbutt and earthquake!" First it pushed him back. Then it followed up with another powerful shockwave. When he got up again, his eyes were red and the flames on his body intensified. "Blaze is already activated? Oh dear." She had to be very careful now.
"Use flame wheel!" He was much faster rolling instead of walking so he closed the distance before it could react. "Flare blitz!" With blaze, it dealt a massive amount of damage, pushing Metagross back quite a bit."Now flamethrower!"
"Protect! Then psychic!" The green shield protected it from the fire before it used psychic to stop his next attack. "Psyshock!" It was a direct hit, nearly finishing him. "Now earthquake!"
"Flame wheel!" Despite the faster movement, he couldn't dodge the shockwave, resulting in another direct hit and knocking him out. "Well done. Take a rest now." Ash recalled his first pokémon. "Not bad. Krookodile, I choose you!"
"Thank you. Return for now!" Dawn recalled the steel type. "Froslass, it's your turn! Use blizzard!"
"Earthquake!" The gravity made dodging impossible for both of them so they tried to end it quickly with powerful attacks. "Dig!" He dug a hole and jumped inside.
"Blizzard on the ground!" It resulted in Krookodile having a layer of ice to break through, receiving a bit of damage when doing that. "Ice beam!"
"Payback!" Both attacks hit, resulting in massive damage for both of them. But they could continue. "Use crunch!"
"Blizzard!" The crunch was a direct hit but the blizzard hit him in the face in return. Neither of them stood up again. "Poor Froslass. Thank you."
"Well done, Krookodile. Take a good rest." They sent out their next pokémon. "Go, Dewott!"
"Piplup, it's up to you now!" They called out the water types at the same time. The gravity move lost its effect and they could sense their pokémon's hesitation. "Please do this for me. Use hidden power and drill peck!"
"Use ice razor shell!" While Dewott was preparing his scalchops, Piplup launched himself at him, spinning like a drill and surrounded by two large hidden power orbs. "Throw them!" Piplup shot the orbs, which shattered the ice and sent the scalchops flying far away. The drill peck hit the surprised Dewott hard, dealing a lot of damage.
"You didn't think you could surprise us with that, did you? After all, we trained a lot with him," Dawn teased but got serious again soon. "Brick break!"
"Aqua jet!" He flew up, evading Piplup's attack before attacking him from above. "Use Revenge!" The attack was strong, sending Piplup flying far away. "Now get your scalchops back!"
"Grass knot!" Dewott tried to fly away with aqua jet, but grass knots tied around his feet, making it impossible. "Now drill peck!" It was another direct hit. "Now ice beam!"
"Use revenge again!" He dealt some damage before Piplup was pushed back by the force of the ice beam. "We know your combination," Ash told her with a grin. "Now rock smash!" He shattered the ice that encased part of his body.
"Grass knot!" This time, Dewott evaded it and finally got back at least one of his scalchops. "Hidden power and drill peck!"
"Razor shell!" Dewott blocked the drill peck but the following hidden power orbs broke his defenses. The following attack was too much for him. "You fought well. Return!" He recalled the fainted water type and readied his next pokéball.
She's way stronger than I thought. Or is it because I haven't been training a lot for days now? My pokémon are probably completely out of shape. But how could I have known that something like this would happen? He clenched his other fist. I can't lose now. I have to get her back. I promised Johanna to bring her back.
"Sceptile, I choose you! Use agility!" His already great speed increased even more. "Finish him with leaf blade!"
"Ice beam!" Piplup tried to create a wall of ice in front of him but only created some spikes when he realized that Sceptile was too fast. The grass type hit him twice with his glowing forearms but not without taking damage from the ice spikes. Piplup stood up again but fainted right after. "Thank you, Piplup. Take a rest. Espeon, go!" She was a bit worried since Espeon hasn't gotten a lot of real battle experience lately. "Use psyshock!"
"Night slash!" Sceptile cleaved the purple orb before closing the distance quickly and attacking Espeon herself.
"Double team!" Dozens of copies appeared around him. "Psyshock again!" He tried to attack as many of them as possible but got hit by the real one several times. "Psychic!" She pushed him away, gaining some distance.
"Use leaf storm!" The attack dealt a lot of damage but it also weakened Sceptile.
"Morning sun!" Espeon's body started to glow when she used the move to regain her health.
"X-scissor!" He was still fast, much faster than Dawn thought, closing the distance quickly and interrupting Espeon's move.
"Teleport!" But she couldn't do it due to the strong attacks. "STOP!" Sceptile stopped and everyone looked at her. "You have defeated Espeon. I don't want her to get knocked out because she can teleport us to safety if necessary." Espeon stumbled back to her trainer. "I'm sorry. I have neglected your training a bit lately. We will train hard again soon. But for now, use morning sun to get back to full health. Sceptile is really strong and fast. But it's time for Lucario! Use extremespeed!" Before Ash could give a command, Lucario was already next to his pokémon. "Ice punch!"
"Detect!" The first punches hit but the rest was dodged. "Now leaf blade!"
"Detect!" Those attacks were dodged as well. "Ice punch!" Their moves met but Lucario soon overpowered Sceptile due to the type advantage. The grass type hit Lucario's right leg with leaf blade before he was knocked out by an ice punch to the face. All in all, Lucario appeared to be much more motivated to battle Ash's pokémon. He was angry at the trainer as he felt Dawn's pain stronger than her other pokémon.
"Well done. Let's see how well you can handle a flying type. Staraptor, I choose you! Use aerial ace!" Lucario had trouble with Staraptor's fast movements because of his leg injury.
"Vacuum wave!" He just didn't manage to hit Ash's pokémon. After he got hit several times in return, Ash was confident enough to attack him with stronger moves.
"Finish him with brave bird!" Staraptor's body burst into blue flames when he charged at the fighting type like a missile.
"Thunder punch!" To Ash's surprise, his pokémon couldn't break Lucario's defenses. "Again!"
"Close combat!" Both of them landed multiple hits until a thunder punch pushed Staraptor back quite a bit.
"Now aura sphere!" The blue orb hit him just as he was about to rise into the sky again, knocking him out.
"It seems you've trained a lot with him. Anyway, well done, Staraptor. Pikachu, it's up to you now." Ash saw that there was no way Lucario would win this. He could barely stand after Staraptor's powerful attacks. "Use thunderbolt!" He took the attack head on, fainting almost instantly.
"I'm proud of you," Dawn said, recalling him. "You have become much stronger. But now it's your turn, Vibrava! Use super sonic!" Pikachu dodged the sonic waves easily, though.
"Use iron tail!" He jumped up but Vibrava just flew up higher.
"Hidden power!" Pikachu used iron tail to reflect some orbs. Although they dealt massive damage to Vibrava, he got hit by the rest. "We better don't use that again. Sonic boom!" Pikachu spent the next minute dodging the attacks and looking for a chance to strike her down with iron tail. He used the chance when he got it even though it meant getting hit by a sonic boom as dodging it would have cost too much time. Pikachu hit her wings, causing her to fall to the ground, where she was helpless, fainting after a few more iron tails.
"Well done. That was better than expected. Metagross, it's all up to you now!" It was still damaged from the battle against Infernape but it had more than enough energy left. "Use earthquake and psychic!"
"Thunderbolt!" Pikachu hurt it baldy but didn't stop it from using earthquake. It also used psychic to maximize the amount of damage just as it had calculated and that turned out to be quite a lot.
Although both of them could continue, the trainers waited for the other one to make the next move. They focused too much on the battle so that they didn't hear something approaching Dawn rapidly. The pokémon noticed it, though, and Espeon jumped in front of it, stopping it but getting knocked out by a powerful crunch in the process. It was a drapion, who was trying to attack Dawn now. Before it could do that, Metagross took the attack and even though it was too much, the steel type still managed to use meteor mash once more, slamming Drapion to the ground with its weight. Ash quickly realized that this wasn't a coincidence.
"Dawn, get behind me! Quickly!" She did as she was told. Only a few seconds later, a nidoking jumped out of the ground behind them, attacking her with horn drill.
Pikachu tried to battle the ground type but was sent flying by a strength move. Ash was ready to take it when a steelix emerged from the ground in front of him, blocking the horn drill and crushing Nidoking with a single heavy slam.
"Damn it! What is that steelix doing?" A bald man had emerged from the hole with a seviper, ariados, venusaur and toxicroak. Dawn recognized the black uniform.
"It's my steelix!" Another man, who was behind the first one, shouted. "It's over, Viper. Just give up!"
"Bones?" Viper's eyes widened. "What the hell are you doing here, traitor?"
"I came here just for you. I haven't forgotten what you did to my friends among the captains." He turned to Ash and Dawn. "You there! Get out of here!"
He didn't have to tell them twice. Since they only had Pikachu left, they quickly ran away from the battle after Dawn recalled Espeon and Metagross. They have been running for several minutes when they finally collapsed from exhaustion.
"Who … was that?" Ash asked, still catching his breath.
"No … idea," Dawn replied. She hoped that Espeon would regain her consciousness soon. "I'm sorry … for getting you into trouble … like that."
"It's alright." He stood up, offering his hand. "I would never let you down. Especially in …"
"How sweet!" They looked up. A man wearing the same uniform as the first man said that. He was riding his staraptor but that wasn't what caught their attention. It was his face, which was full of ugly scars. Because of them, Dawn could hardly recognize him but soon she was sure that it was commander Hawk. "I have a surprise for you." A salamence landed on the ground next to them. A woman wearing a red and black uniform with short, silver hair, blue eyes and dark glasses was standing on its back.
"J! You are alive? What are you doing here?" Ash yelled, trying to shield Dawn with his body.
"Shut up and get out of the way! We're here for the girl, not for you!" she retorted.
"The boss wants you to do it. What are you waiting for?" Hawk asked her. She raised her arm, aiming at Dawn with her cannon.
"Get out of the way! You don't have to die!" Ash didn't move. "You … get out of the way! Now!"
"Just as I suspected. You're too weak for the job," Hawk remarked.
"You're hesitating way too much. Don't you remember me?" Ash asked.
"Huh?" She looked at him questioningly.
"You're not J! J would have remembered me! She would have remembered all the trouble I caused her! She would have shot me without a second thought. Who are you?" Hawk slapped his forehead.
"I always said that she was too weak for this job." He turned to Ash. "You're right. She's not J. J is dead. This is just a puppet we use to promote our little organization. The boss thought that we would get more customers if we had a legendary pokémon hunter like J in our organization. I don't know whether it worked but this one is pretty useless and weak. Anyway, now that you know about it, we have to kill you as well. Such a pity. Oh look!" The grunts also arrived. "About time. That happens if you don't have a proper flying type. I don't think we'll need them but …"
A strange sound distracted them. It was an orange orb that flew up high, exploding and creating dozens of smaller orange meteors, which crashed down on them. Staraptor managed to dodge them but Salamence was hit by several meteors. When it tried to stand up again, a garchomp knocked it out with dragon rush.
"You leave them alone!" A young, blonde woman in a black outfit, accompanied by Zoey yelled. A car, which was probably hers, was parked nearby.
"Cynthia?" Dawn exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
The champion also called out Gastrodon, Spiritomb, Milotic, Togekiss and Lucario, who surrounded the young trainers.
"Looker attached a tracking device to Ash and Zoey. It allowed me to follow him and listen to everything he said so that we would know when Ash found you," she told them. "Zoey, protect them while I'm taking care of them!"
"Of course!" Zoey ran up to her friends. "Are you stupid to just battle there?" she yelled. "You not only made yourself quite vulnerable but you also lead them to your position with all the noise and flashes." The she also called out her pokémon.
"You're right. I was stupid," Ash admitted.
"You mean WE were stupid," Dawn corrected him. "Anyway, thank you for your help. We would have died without you."
"Thank us later. The battle isn't over yet." Even though most of the stone cannons were destroyed by psychic moves from Togekiss and Lucario there were still dozens of pokémon to take care of.
"Pikachu can still help." Ash saw that J, who had been knocked out by the draco meteor for a short time, rose again. "Thunderbolt on that cannon!" Pikachu shocked her, not only destroying the stone cannon but also the rest of her equipment.
"It's over. Just give up!" Bones shouted.
Drapion and Nidoking were unconscious. The rest of Viper's pokémon were lying on the ground, catching their breath whereas Bones' pokémon were mostly unharmed.
"You only won because you had a type advantage!" Viper yelled. "But it's not over yet," he added with a diabolical grin. He pressed a button on one of his devices, which made his conscious pokémon stand up again with red glowing eyes. All the pain and exhaustion were gone along with their free will.
"You piece of shit! You would use that on your own pokémon?" Bones was more than just furious.
"So what? If I have to do it to win, I'll do it. It's not like they'll remember anything after we're done here. It'll be my pleasure to slowly torture you to death. Just like I did with your friends." Viper hoped that provoking him would work.
"My friends? They didn't know anything about my decision! What did you do to them?" The commander just laughed.
"Of course they didn't know anything. But do you really think I cared? No! I even asked their pokémon. It's a shame they didn't know anything either." This only intensified Bones' hatred for the commander. "I would have done the same to Rose if Charon didn't think that we needed her. But enough of this. Kill the traitor!" Viper's pokémon charged right at the former commander, who knew exactly which moves were effective against the devices inside their bodies.
"Stop them! Claydol, use extrasensory on Seviper!" It shot a rainbow coloured beam at the poison type, pushing it back and destroying the device that controlled it. It looked around, confused about what just happened until it saw its fellow pokémon. Slowly it turned around, angry at its trainer for using that thing on him. Needless to say, it didn't like being controlled like that one bit.
"What are you doing? Attack him!" Instead of obeying, it charged at him. "What? Stop it!" The order only caused his other pokémon to cancel their attacks. Seviper, on the other hand, used poison tail on him, stabbing his chest. He tried to utter a curse but couldn't find the strength before he fell to the ground, dead.
"This was a better death than you deserved," Bones said with contempt clear in his voice. Claydol freed the rest of the pokémon, who crushed their pokéball and left the area, looking for a new home. "Let's see what those kids are doing."
The battle was going well. Although they were outnumbered, Cynthia had no problem dealing with the grunts. Their pokémon were no match for Cynthia's. With powerful moves like stone edge, dragon rush and aura sphere they knocked out the opponents, one after another. Dawn had to admit that Cynthia's pokémon were way stronger than hers but she expected no less from the champion. Soon even some of Ash's and Dawn's pokémon like Espeon and Staraptor had regained consciousness, joining the fight as well after healing up. It was then that they let their guard down. Hawk managed to call out Ninjask, Crobat and Honckrow just behind them. Dawn saw that Ash was standing too far away from the others, thus being basically unprotected for the moment.
"Kill him! Hyper beam!" Hawk yelled. "If we can't kill the bitch, we'll at least get rid of this nuisance."
"ASH! WATCH OUT!" Dawn screamed, running towards him.
Everyone else could just watch three hyper beams being shot at him at the same time.