Hello everyone!
How can I describe this next chapter? Eh, I can't. You going to have to read and find out. Oh and don't kill me at the end for what I did.
Anyways, let's get rolling everyone!
"That is a lot of grunts," commented Serena as she was crouched low overlooking the cliff, observing Team Plasma's activity in the grotto. Professor Kukui nodded in agreement, "Yes if we attack head-on we will most likely get caught."
"I warned ya, twerps. But did anyone of ya listen to me!? No!" chimed in Meowth, pointing his finger frantically at the humans in front of him, "Please tell me that someone has one of those last-minute crazy ideas to get us out of this mess."
The honey-blonde ignored the Pokemon, instead of focusing more on the people below them, "What do you think they are doing?" Professor Burnet peeked over her shoulder, "I am not sure. But something tells me it isn't good. We need to stop them but must not get caught. How are we going to do this?"
"I am not sure," replied Serena, "Maybe we should attack from the back. They won't suspect it and it's their least guarded area and will probably be easier to get into. What do you say?"
"I say it's a crazy idea to even think to attack them," deadpanned Meowth, "Besides twerpette, we don't even know if they have your boyfriend. For all, we know this could be a trap." Serena blushed at the thought of Ash being her boyfriend, her face a deep shade of red. She quickly shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think of it! Concentrate! Dammit!
"But we have to make sure Meowth. I am not leaving until I am sure they don't have Ash." Serena stood up while taking out Braxien's Pokeball, "Besides, what is the worst what could happen?"
Little did the group know that they were being watched by a Pokemon in the distance. It's white fur covering its quadruped, mammalian body swayed with the wind while it's red eyes observed them. The crescent-shaped horn on the side of its head glowed for a few seconds before it turned and ran in the opposite direction, disappearing like a ghost.
"I don't see why you making such a fuss of it. It's nothing big," mumbled Ash as Lysandre was cleaning a scratch just above his right eyebrow, which he got while training with Lucario. They were working on boosting his speed while running using aura. The Pallet town native had the speed right, he just forgot to steer. And, of course, a tree branch had to be there at the wrong place and wrong time as well.
Ash thought it was fine since he had been through much worse. But apparently, it wasn't since he got scolded by Lucario and Pikachu before the two Pokemon dragged him to Lysandre. In turn, he got another earful before being taken to the medical wing. Honestly, he didn't know why everyone was making such a big deal. A little scratch wasn't going to kill him.
Lysandre snorted, pausing while giving the kid an annoyed glare, "If you were watching where you were going I wouldn't worry so much. From now onwards please be more careful. If your mother was here she wouldn't be happy very me if I didn't take care of you. That is one line I crossed once and I don't want to face her wrath again."
Both males shivered, just thinking of Delia being upset was daunting. She was sweet and caring most of the time, rarely ever getting angry. But like all women, she had a very dangerous side. Especially if someone was unlucky or stupid enough to piss her off. Lysandre knowing this more than Ash having accidentally triggered her once when they were dating. Not in a million years he thought that such a small and usually peaceful woman could pack such a painful punch. After that, he never made her angry again for his own safety.
"Speaking of mom, how are we going to get her back from Giovanni?" asked Ash, looking up at the orange-haired man that was fixing the cut on his head. Lysandre sighed heavily and shook his head, inwardly wishing he could give the kid good news, "I am sorry Ash, I don't know yet."
"Oh," the boy looked to the floor. Lysandre's gaze softened while he smiled reassuringly, lifting Ash's chin upwards, "But we are going to get her back, I made a promise about that, didn't I?" The trainer's eyes lite up, "Yeah! Then once Giovanni is defeated and mom is back I am gonna take on the Alola league!"
"Wait, Alola has a league?" asked the man, blinking in surprise. He heard Ash mention something about training for the league during their stay in Alola but shrugged it off as nothing important. But he didn't know it was for Alola, since last he heard that the tropical region wasn't even considering hosting a league. Now there was one coming up? Just what happened while he was dead?!
Oblivious to Lysandre's confusion, Ash grinned and nodded excitedly, "Yup! It's going to be so awesome! Professor Kukui with Lillie's mom, Lusamine, are helping to build it! I want to get stronger then my Pokemon and I are going to win the whole thing! Right Pikachu?" The electric mouse in question, who was sitting next to Ash during the whole conversation, ears perked up as it lept on the boy's shoulders while pumping its paw in the air, it's small black eyes holding the same determination as it's trainer, "Pika!"
The orange-haired man couldn't help but smile at the duo's enthusiastic energy as he leaned back into his chair, relaxing slightly as he finished fixing the scratch on the trainer's head. Ash looked back at Lysandre, "Will you be entering?"
"Me?" asked Lysandre, raising a questioning eyebrow. Him? Entering league? Eh, right. He was about to shoot the idea down when the trainer's grin grew, his eyes practically stars, "Anyone can enter and you don't need badges! Please! I want to battle you again since the last time was when…" the boy trailed off with a grimace before he grinned ear to ear again, "But I want it to be at the league this time! Then we can have a proper battle! Please say yes! Please?" begged Ash like a puppy would for a treat.
Lysandre hesitated, before rolling his eyes and finally giving into the kid's persistence. Why is it only with Delia and Ash where he could never say 'no'? Must be a Ketchum thing. He smiled, ruffling the boy's messy hair, earning a giggle from the trainer, "I will see how things work out."
"Awesome!" Ash was so excited he launched himself upwards off the bed, unintentionally banging his head against one of the lower shelves, almost knocking himself out, "Ow!"
"Ash!" Lysandre lept from his seat, his heart skipping a few beats, "What did I say about being careful?!"
"Sorry?" muttered Ash rubbing the bump on his head while smiling sheepishly. Lysandre groaned as he massaging his forehead, if Ash keeps this up he is going to have grey hair by the end of the day, "It's alright. Just please don't hurt yourself this time."
Before Ash could reply, Pikachu's ears shot up straight, twitching, hearing something, "Pi?" Noticing his starter's sudden change in behavior, the raven-haired trainer frowned, "What is it, buddy?" As if someone was giving an answer, everything around them began shaking violently and the sound of whirling machinery could be heard from outside.
Thick smoke suddenly rolled into the room, blinding them. "We need to get out of here now!" yelled Lysandre above the smoke, while squeezing his burning eyes shut, "R-right!" He heard Ash's reply, the kid sounding strained. Thinking quickly, the man grabbed Ash's shoulder and began guiding both of them through the smog-filled corridors, which were barely visible.
He managed to finally stumbled outside and to his surprise, everyone was there as well, hunched down and coughing frantically from the smoke. Lysandre turned to Lucario, the Pokemon on his knees breathing heavily, "What happened?!"
"I don't know. One minute I was meditating before we got attacked," rasped out the Aura Pokemon standing back up. Gary nodded his head, managing to cough out, "I was outside here with him taking samples of some of the nearby crystals before this happened."
Ash frowned, about to ask something when a large silhouette appeared in the smoke, two glowing bright eyes upon them, "What is that!?" As the smoke began clearing, it revealed it a giant metal robot with two certain people piloting it from within its head section, both laughing and posing.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!"
"Here's our mission, so you better listen!"
"To infect the world with devastation!"
"To blight all people in every nation!"
"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"
"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"
"Cassidy!"
"And Butch, of course!"
"We're Team Rainbow Rocket, circling Earth all day and night!"
"Surrender to us now or you will surely lose the fight!"
"Oh no, not you clowns again!" yelled Tasha, seeing the familiar evildoers feeling highly annoyed. Her breakfast this morning was rudely interrupted because of these idiots and now she wasn't in the best of moods, "How did you find us?!"
"You can thank Team Flare's leader for that," replied Butch, his eyes gleaming. Confusion swept over the group. Gary, Brandon, and Tasha wondering who Team Flare's leader was while Ash, Jessie, and James stared at Lysandre questionably, the orange-haired man looking equally bewildered by their words as everyone else.
Lysandre shook his head, taking Gyarados' Pokeball out, now wasn't the time to worry about that. Now they had to get rid of these two before anything bad happens. Seeing what he was doing, Cassidy sneered, "Not so fast! You won't be using any of your pesky Pokemon to help out! Butch!" Her male counterpart grinned as he pressed something and a low buzzing sound echoed through the area. As something passed through everyone, Pikachu and Lucario froze their eyes wide.
"Pikachu!" Ash caught the electric mouse that was falling off his shoulder. His starter just lay limply in his arms, not moving at all. The trainer looked to Lucario and saw the Aura Pokemon laying on the ground in the same state. Fear coursed through his body as he stared up at the duo who supposedly caused this, "What did you do!?"
Cassidy just laughed, "Don't worry they are fine. Well, they will be in a few hours." Jessie scowled, feeling irritation as she took out a Pokeball, "That's it! No one treats our Pikachu like that, except us! It's time to teach you a lesson! Serviper!" However, as she threw the round sphere it didn't open. It instead paused mid-air and fell to the ground with a clonk. Lysandre frowned, pressing the button on his Pokemon's Pokeball but the result was the same: no response.
"Uh, what happened?" asked Jessie as she picked up Serviper's Pokeball, staring at it confused. Cassidy rolled her eyes, "You really stupid, aren't you? We sent out a specially modified EMP wave that not only disables any machinery or technology, including pokeballs but puts any Pokemon within a 10-mile radius to sleep."
"Aw, why didn't we get that when we working with the boss?" asked James, dropping his shoulders, "That would have come in helpful in trying to catch the twerp's Pikachu!" Cue the glares he received from Ash, Gary, Tasha, Brandon, Jessie, and Lysandre.
"James now isn't the time to admire them!" groaned Jessie, facepalming. Although, inwardly, agreeing that would have been very useful when they use to try and steal Pikachu. It would have saved them a lot of blasts off. Cassidy smirked, "I agree with you for once Jessie. Enough talking because it's time to take what we came for!" She pointed to Ash, the trainer tensing at the action, "You are coming with us!"
"No ways am I going anywhere with you!" The blonde woman smirk twisted into a sickening grin, "We aren't asking! Butch activate the vacuum system!" The robot's mouth opened and a strong wind started pulling towards it, threatening to bring everyone in.
Brandon dug his heels in the ground, grunting in effort to not get sucked into the machine, "We need to get inside of the Pyramid!" The group turned around, Jessie and James carrying Lucario's unconscious body, and ran to the entrance of the battling facility.
Cassidy scowled in irritation, "You're not getting away that easily! Butch turn it up!" The green-haired nodded, "On it!" With a few presses of buttons, the winds picked up, pulling even stronger. It seemed to do the trick as a certain trainer, still cradling his fallen Pokemon, quickly found his feet leaving the ground, "Whoa!"
"Ash!" Lysandre whirled around to grab the boy, his hand shooting towards Ash's wrist. Time seemed to go slower as his fingers brushed inches away from the kid's hand that slipped away from him. However, as he closed his palm he realized something.
He missed.
"No!" Lysandre could only watch in horror as Ash was sucked into the mechanical machine's mouth that directly closed afterwards. Evil cackles of laughter echoed from above, both Cassidy and Butch grinning madly, "Sorry for leaving so shortly but we got a war to create and the world to conquer."
The giant robot began bending its knees as its thrusters went on, the earth under everyone's feet vibrated as it got ready to take off.
"Wait!" But alas Lysandre's desperate shout fell to deaf ears when everyone was thrown back by the shockwave created when the massive robot took off into the air at breathtaking speeds, disappearing out of sight.
Lysandre winced, standing up feeling slightly little dizzy from the impact, having the air basically being knocked out of him. Shaking the fatigue off, he stared off to where Ash was taken away, feeling his chest tighten and his mouth go dry, completely mortified at what a few seconds ago.
Thinking of if, the man growled clenching his fists so tight that his nails cut into his skin through his leather gloves. Something strong and hot began boiling inside his chest. It curled hot and unstoppable in his gut, like a blazing inferno that wanted to burn him from the inside out. It began rising to the top, red consuming his vision. Nothing stopped the rage from flowing as Lysandre screamed, punching the ground, an audible crack filling the air.
Silence.
No else dared to speak a word.
The orange-haired man's body was trembling as he collapsed on his knees, tears streaming down his face. He lifted up his fist, blooding tricking out from his swollen knuckle onto the singed dirt. He let out a ragged breath, screwing his eyes shut feeling something inside of him twist in agony as reality settled heavily on his shoulders.
'I failed.'
You didn't expect that, did you? Hahaha!
Want to know what happens next? Stay tuned for the upcoming chapters.
Petrolhead1 drifting away!
