6
"How do you think we'll get out of this one?" asked Misty.
"Meh, I don't know," Ash replied.
The group of lopunny carried a long stick horizontally, with Ash, Pikachu, Misty, May, Johanna-Skiddo and Paul all hanging from it, tied by the hands and legs just like freshly caught prey, which they were.
Walking through the jungle, the mega lopunny was at the front of the group, while the weavile traveled on the sides guarding the rest of the lopunny, including the ones who carried the stick.
On their path through that merciless ground, the group encountered a silent oranguru, who was sitting calmly on a rather thick branch of a tree. Its shape was partially obscured by the shade from the tree, but it was clear that the looming pokemon had been observing them carefully for some time.
A grunt came from the tree as the lopunny walked by. Their leader raised its paw and everyone stopped in front of it. The oranguru came down also holding its paw up, as a sign of goodwill, and then revealed what it was holding on its other paw: two small oran berries. The leader of the group glanced at the modest boon, then moved out of the way, allowing the oranguru to inspect the captures of the day.
The oranguru observed the immobilized explorers while stroking its chin. Meanwhile all Ash and company could do was to stare confusedly at the pokemon deep in thought. They waited in silence until the oranguru finally pointed at them. Specifically, it pointed first at Paul, then at Johanna-Skiddo.
"Ahh! Why did the oranguru point at me?" Paul exclaimed with alarm.
One of the Lopunny went to cut both of them from the stick, then a group of them placed both Paul and Johanna-Skiddo inside a big bag made out of straw.
The oranguru gave the berries to the leader and was then handed the bag containing Paul and Johanna.
"Come on, surely I'm worth more than a single oran berry! Ash! What's happening? Please save me!" Paul exclaimed, with his head sticking out of the bag. "I'll take back everything I've ever said about you, but only if you save me."
Johanna, also with her skiddo head sticking out of the bag, also started crying, fully aware of what was happening to her.
"Don't worry Paul!" Ash shouted. "We'll save you guys. We'll find a way, just keep strong!"
"What! No! we need saving right now!"
Ash attempted to free himself, but the ruthlessly tight rope that was binding his limbs together didn't move in any way.
Paul got quite mad.
"You know what Ash," he said angrily, "I always thought you were annoying. You're probably the most annoying person I know, and I know a lot of people. Every time I would see you approaching me I'd get very tired and wish you'd just go away. Then you'd start talking, and I'd get even more tired. Seriously, I don't understand how you could talk so much like things are always great. It's probably because things somehow always end up being great for you in the end, which makes you more annoying! But now, when we need you to be insufferably successful in everything you do, you come here all gloomy and thoughtful and meditative and such. Nobody wants you like that!"
Paul continued talking, but Ash soon became unable to hear him, as the oranguru took him and Johanna away from the rest of the group, and deeper into the dense vegetation.
Still tied, the group protested and demanded to get their acquaintance—not quite friend—Paul, as well as their friend's mom Johanna back, but both the lopunny and the weavile ignored them, and casually resumed their travel through the jungle.
"What are you planning to do with the rest of us?" Ash asked out loud, but got no answer.
While looking around for a way to escape, desperately, Ash caught the eyes of a weavile who was walking along with the group beside them. The weavile mocked him with a devilish grin, then took its tongue out and licked its fangs suggestively, leading Ash to think of the worst alternative, which was that they'd all be eaten.
Ash kept trying to free himself, and when Pikachu, Misty and May, the only ones remaining, saw what he was doing, they started doing the same. Unfortunately the rope was just too thick, and was masterfully tied around their limbs. Ash looked at the suggestive weavile once more, the mischievous creature repeated the gesture, gladly so. Ash suddenly remembered that he didn't even want to be there in the first place.
His friends had been taken away from him, his limbs were tied, and the end of his life seemed near. Ash then remembered what the little man shrouded in shadows had said to him, right before they reached Meripa. Being eaten alive by an extremely powerful group of weavile and lopunny, was probably not what the shadowy man meant when he said Ash needed to die.
"Stop!" a commanding voice echoed through the land.
The wild pokemon obeyed, all of them.
Or at least it seemed like they were complying with the sudden demand, but the truth was that they were merely getting ready to deal with the sudden threat. The weavile started looking around for the source of the shout with their sharply trained eyes. But their scan turned out to be completely unnecessary, when the one who had shouted appeared in front of them as a tall figure dressed in filthy drapes of different shades of brown.
He, had big hairy hands burned by the sun, and his feet were also hairy and naked. He had very long red hair, badly tied into a ponytail which reached his waist, and which clearly hadn't been washed in a long time. His whole head was covered in dirty bandages, from which red strands of hair managed to seep at the top. The rest of his body was covered in brown rags.
"Are you a group of explorers who have been taken captive by these pokemon?" the man said boisterously.
"Yes!" replied everyone who was captured.
"I see. You were unfortunate enough to encounter the scytians, the well organized group of dangerous pokemon before you. Its members descend from a legendary race of warriors, a group so powerful that not even Lance dares to meet in open battle. But fear not, I'll rescue you."
The man took off the drapes around his neck and shoulders, revealing a pair of flaccid and malnourished arms. He raised them up to his chest, made his hands into fists, and released a proud grunt.
The weavile quickly surrounded the man in a circle, then started creeping closer to him, slowly, audibly sharpening their claws as they walked in the most threatening matter possible.
The weavile that was right behind him, out of his sight, silently moved to strike.
"Be careful!" Misty shouted.
The weavile lunged at him with claws shrouded in darkness, but the man masterfully rolled to his right without looking back before the claws could pierce his skin.
"Don't worry," the man said with confidence after standing up, "I got this."
More claws shrouded in darkness started flying at him. But the man was keenly aware of his surroundings and completely aware of his body, at least in that very moment. He managed to dodge every single attack of that first wave with precise movements of his arms, legs, neck and torso. Some of the claws passed so close to his skin that some microscopic contact was made. He knew that any of those attacks, regardless of where it landed on him, would cause a life-ending hemorrhage, but in the heat of that moment he didn't care.
A weavile went for another strike, jumped very high up in the air with a war-cry and its claw ready to sever a limb. Alder- err! I mean, the man, with his face all bandaged, managed to grab the attacking weavile's forearm, and with a swing of his arm sent the dark pokemon flying away, not really intending to cause any harm. May and Misty, watching from afar, still tied up, wondered why he didn't care to strike back, seeing as he was so dexterous. Meanwhile Ash knew exactly why he didn't do it: because he didn't need to. He was on another level. That display was the sign of a true pokemon master.
The weavile continued attacking, dancing around the man, trying to get a good swipe, one that actually managed to separate some tissue. The man kept avoiding all their attacks, all the way until his movements became slower and he got tired, which happened rather quickly. The weavile started cutting, he started bleeding and his drapes started falling, leaving him more and more naked with each ruthless strike. The still-immobilized explorers screamed and feared for the man's life. The weavile attacked so fast that there seemed to be a black storm going on around him, with sharp noises and red liquid spilling abundantly in the air.
The weavile stopped their vicious attack, the man fell on his knees, and the bandages fell from his face, revealing him to be none other than Alder, Unova League Champion, who was currently kneeling, all cut and bloodied in front of them.
"I guess I thought, I'd have more energy," Alder said with an overconfident smile, his right eye closed and drenched in blood pouring from his eyebrow.
One of the weavile walked to him, casually grabbed the side of Alder's head with, and placed the claw from its other hand, freshly sharpened, right on the man's neck. The weavile turned to the mega lopunny, expectant for a nod of the head.
Ash, May and Misty pleaded for Alder's life, but the leader wasn't moved by their voices. Executing an enemy with a slash to the throat had long become commonplace among them. And even if the leader didn't give the order to execute him, Alder would end up succumbing to his many wounds very quickly. Still, the leader raised its hand amidst the constant screams coming from the explorers, and then lowered it decisively.
The weavile moved to finish Alder off before the lopunny's arm had completed its downward motion, but the sharp claw was stopped before the lethal contact could be made. Greninja appeared between Alder and the weavile at such speed that made him imperceptible to the eye, and caught the weavile's paw just in time.
All of the weavile and lopunny, even the leader, hissed in such a way that made the air heavy. Even they, with their exceptional senses, had been caught off guard by Greninja's speed. They had to react as the sudden enemy's ability called for.
The wild pokemon jumped away from Alder and Greninja, then trapped them in a circle. This time even the lopunny joined in the predatory stalking.
For this, the lopunny carriers carelessly dropped the long stick on the ground. But no one hit the ground. Instead, Ash and the rest of them remained suspended in the air, with a radiant pink aura enfolding their bodies whole.
At the same time, a fluorescent pink beam fell gracefully from the sky. The bright light turned into a stream of shining sparkles that reached Alder's body and showered the light over him, compelling him to make a dumbfounded smile. His wounds were instantly healed.
"They sure took their time," Ash said with renewed energies.
Latias descended from the sky. Her power was such, that she even managed to untie everyone from the stick, as if all it needed was a simple thought from her.
The soil of Ash's shoe made a soft impact with the ground. He then helped his friends and Pikachu up.
"You knew your pokemon would save us?" Misty asked.
"Not really. But I sure was hoping they would. Before arriving in Sicaum, I asked some of my friends to come and have yet another adventure with me. But I wasn't sure if they'd agree. Who knows, someone else might show up soon. Honestly, I'm hoping they do."
Without hesitation Greninja threw a giant water shuriken at the mega lopunny, who jumped just in time to avoid being hit by the projectile.
The surrounding weavile retreated, moved in front of the mega lopunny to protect her, leaving Alder and Greninja enough room to escape.
Ash ran to them and called Sceptile out. The rest of the group gathered with him. May and Misty called Blaziken and Gyarados respectively.
Still, they were vastly outnumbered. The group gathered in a circle, with the pokemon in front of their trainers for protection. Meanwhile the wild pokemon quickly hid within the darkness of the dense jungle flora.
From the enemy came two shrieking ice beams. Pikachu jumped to stop one of them with a thunderbolt, then Blaziken easily neutralized the other one with a flamethrower. But the ice beams were in fact a mere distraction, and the real danger came from a weavile who appeared from the shadows and furtively lunged at Misty. Fortunately Gyarados stepped in with a hydro-pump, which the weavile managed to evade, rather easily so, but at least forced it to stop the heartless attack, and the weavile went back into the shadows.
The weavile continued their furtive hunt, and Pikachu and company continued defending, driving each of the weavile back into the shadows after every failed attempt to hurt the group. The explorers even tried to hit back, however, none of their counter-attacks managed to hit the wild pokemon, who disappeared completely just as fast as they had come out of the shadows. It wasn't a very honorable tactic, but it was cunningly effective, as it limited incoming damage to basically zero.
That was, until Greninja intercepted a weavile coming out of the shadows and punished it with a night slash of his own, then followed that critical hit with many water shuriken, all of which hit their targets. Many wounded weavile fell on the ground, unconscious.
After a dreadful silence, the wild pokemon released an ear-piercing hiss from the shadows. The ensuing noise worked well to fill the little group of explorers with fear, and it also served to communicate that they had crossed a line.
The wild pokemon first thought our heroes were inoffensive enough to be taken captive. They realized just how much they had underestimated them; it had been a grave mistake, one they sought to correct immediately with fatal intent.
It was obvious to Ash and the rest that their best alternative was to escape, but there seemed to be no clear path away from danger. They were in a very dense part of the jungle, everywhere around them the shrubs and trees cast many shadows within which, Ash was sure, the enemy was eagerly waiting for the right moment to wound them.
In fact that dense part of the jungle was just like the rest of it, and there wasn't a place close by in which he and his friends could rest safely. Ash knew that if they tried to escape on foot, the weavile would follow them closely from behind until they became tired, or hungry, or simply distracted, at which point the pokemon would sink their claws into them.
A drop of sweat fell from Ash's forehead at the same time a bright stone of many different colors fell on the ground in front of him. He looked up and saw that it had come from Latias, so Ash picked the stone up and inspected it for a second. It was a Key Stone, which, when used along with another stone carried by a pokemon, enabled said pokemon to mega evolve.
Ash had rarely made use of them. The resource never caught his interest and he never needed to recur to something like that before, but he had seen the process numerous times in order to know exactly what to do.
The Key Stone began shining, at the same time the stone—which Ash just knew—Latias was carrying did. Latias began morphing into its mega form. First her eyes changed, from a gentle yellow to an aggressive orange that encompassed all of her sclera. The factions around her mouth gained predatory characteristics, her fangs grew larger and came out of her mouth, and her resting lips now made a menacing grin. Her vivid red color turned to a lugubrious purple, and her delicate arms and wings fused and became like the wings of an airplane, turning her whole into a truly intimidating creature when looked at from up close. But she had not turned into that to intimidate, nor to fight. She had gone through that reversible, two-way-painful process, to give her beloved trainer and his friends a vehicle to escape.
May and Misty rushed to get their pokemon back into their pokeballs and then jumped on Latias. Ash hurried to do the same, only Pikachu remained outside by his side, and, before getting on Latias's back with the rest, he shouted at Alder to follow after him.
Ash started running, but a quick glance behind him showed that Alder was staying put, so Ash, moved by his most immediate sense, his most instinctive one, stopped on his track and ran to him.
"Alder, we need to leave, now!"
"No," Alder replied serenely.
"Don't try to be a hero, we can all escape, but it has to be now."
"I'm not trying to be anything for this place. Nothing of this world can hurt me, for I renounced it long ago."
"What?"
"I renounced the world. My body, my being, doesn't need any of its empty promises. I've seen all there is to see here, I've done all there is to do, and I even thought of myself as victorious. But it was all a lie."
"Ash, hurry up!" Misty cried.
But Alder continued speaking seamlessly, as if he hadn't heard her at all. Ash suddenly found himself so interested in what Alder was saying, that for a second he forgot he was in the middle of a dangerous jungle.
And so Alder continued.
"I fought long and hard to be noticed. I thought I understood the way it all worked. My way of life, and my way of thinking, both led me to becoming champion, to achieving many incredible feats, all of which came with shiny big trophies. After many years I thought I had made it, I thought I had all there was to have. But then, as I looked at the big field in front of me, which was all mine, full of vibrant green, filled with many pokemon prancing merrily, and a big house in the middle of it all, containing all of my trophies and everything I had built, I realized, it would all fade away. My dear pokemon would perish, my field full of green would become brown and barren, my physical goods would turn to dust, and all of my experience, my memories, would be lost in the haze of old age. Then I would perish, and soon afterwards, the world would become something so vastly different from what my eyes once saw, that I wouldn't be able to recognize any of it if I were able to see it again."
"Ash! Seriously, hurry up!" May exclaimed desperately.
"Hold up for a second," Ash replied casually. He was fully invested in what Alder was saying. "So what did you do?" he asked with an intrigued tone.
"I told you," Alder said, "I renounced the world. I looked at the life inside of me, untainted, unspoiled. The source of life, true life, was within me, as it is within all of us. But that source of life isn't outside of us. And so it can be contaminated easily by the outside world."
A weavile appeared from the shadows of the jungle. A sharp claw hit Alder's right side, running him right through his kidney. Vivid red blood burst from him as he cried from the acute pain. The weavile then disappeared.
Latias, who was ready to fly away with Misty and May on top of her, graced Alder with a heal pulse, just as she had done earlier. Once more, Alder received the heavenly glow while making another overjoyed, peaceful smile. He was healed instantly
"See, I told you, idiots!" Misty shouted. "Now get on top of Latias and let's get out of here!"
"Ash, you know I'm not going anywhere," Alder said. "And I know that you out of all people perfectly understand what I'm saying."
Ash was very confused, torn between his common sense and what his gut told him to do, which was, stubbornly as he knew, to follow Alder.
"Are you asking me if I will renounce the world? Because I don't think I can," Ash said.
"I understand, this path isn't for everyone. It's unbearably arduous, and difficult to maintain," Alder replied.
"You just got wounded, and if it weren't for Latias you would've died twice already."
"And yet I am here, and I've never felt better."
"Yeah, because Latias just healed you."
"Listen Ash." Alder became mildly irritated, he grabbed Ash's shoulder with considerable force. "I renounced the world a long time ago. Look at me, for whatever reason you want, I'm still complete."
A weavile appeared from the shadows of the jungle. A sharp claw hit Alder's right side, running him right through his kidney. Vivid red blood burst from him as he cried from the acute pain. The weavile then disappeared.
Latias healed Alder again. He made the same dumbfounded, overly pleased smile as he received her heavenly beam for the third time that day.
"See, it happened again," Ash said.
"And I was healed again. Wasn't I?"
"Wasn't I?" Alder pressed.
"Okay," Ash said with a defeated exhalation. "Show me how to renounce the world."
After Ash finished saying this, Latias covered both him and Alder with her pink light, then levitated them all the way to her back. Then Latias flew away.
"Put me down this instant!" Alder exclaimed angrily.
"What for? We need to get out of here," Ash replied.
"I said, put me down, now. I don't need your help."
"You know, for a guy who was just saved from certain death, not once, not twice, but three times in quick succession, you are very ungrateful," said May.
"I didn't ask to be saved," Alder replied stubbornly. "I can't accept too much favor from the outside, otherwise I will grow complacent."
Alder started struggling on top of Latias, making the already cumbersome carrying of four people on her back much more difficult. He closed his eyes and wiggled his arms forcefully and Latias quickly became fed up with him. So she came down on a small clearing, and, sensing no enemies close by, she let Alder come down from her.
"Great!" Misty said, raising her arms feigning enthusiasm. "What now?"
"I think we should go back to Meripa and regroup," May said. "Then maybe we could try going to Cataeus through the air, with the help of Latias."
"I don't know about that," Alder said, "the wild pokemon here have very effective ways of dealing with aerial threats."
"Yeah, I'm sure. It will be very difficult for us to get there now. We need to find the rest of the group, and you," May pointed at Alder as she spoke, "aren't making our job any easier."
"Desire!" Alder shouted loudly all of the sudden. "You'll always have needs, you'll never stop having things to do. That will never change. But could you lay still, without wishing to move a muscle, without aching for a drop of water on your tongue, after spending days in the desert, all alone?"
While Alder spoke, Ash nodded intensely, in complete agreement with what he was saying, with a conviction that practically made his open eyes burn. His eyes burned, like they used to.
"You leave if you wish, complete your mission and embark on a new one. I'm staying here," Alder finalized.
"I'm staying too," Ash suddenly said.
"Come on Ash," Misty said with a tired tone, "You always have to be exasperating in some way! I know you haven't been feeling like yourself lately, but can't you see? Alder has gone mad."
"Face it Ash," Alder said, without minding Misty in the least, "it doesn't matter how hard you look. You won't find anything in this place that you haven't seen before, in all the other places you've already visited."
Ash lowered his head, something inside of him told him Alder was right.
"What do I do?"
"You have to let go of everything you've ever had, even your clothes."
Ash didn't flinch at Alder's words, instead he turned to his friends with unmovable resolve.
"I'm sorry, but I must stay with Alder. It's the only chance I have to obtain what I'm looking for. Do as May said, take Latias and the rest of my pokemon back to Meripa. You too Pikachu," Ash said to his best friend on the ground.
Pikachu felt betrayed. Anger overwhelmed him. He went for his trainer's legs and started shaking him, trying to knock some sense back into him. But Ash wasn't moved.
"I have to do this," Ash said.
And Pikachu understood that Ash wouldn't change his mind, and because of this the little pokemon became incredibly sad. His pearlescent black eyes glistened from the tears instantly harboring within them.
Both May and Misty knew, that if Pikachu hadn't been able to change Ash's mind, then there was no way they could succeed.