Damian Returns
"Confound it, get back here!" A yellow Luxrio raced through the forest as a Fearow and Dartrix chased after it, blood dripped from the Luxio's paws as Fearow's beak was marked in blood that wasn't his own. A more ragged version of Damian followed, he had grown a bit of a stubble as he hadn't shaved in the months since his expulsion and he had ditched his usual attire for a gray leather jacket and black cargo pants which appeared to have gone through some wear and tear. His hair was also far longer, draped over his shoulder while a scar went diagonal across his face.
The Luxio eventually reached a cliff edge and stared down at a rushing river before glancing back at Fearow and Dartrix as kept getting closer and closer! Dartrix began to lunge out to grab him only for Luxio to quickly choose to dive off rather than let the sadistic trainer grab him!
"Damn it!" Damian shouted as he raced towards the edge, looking around before giving Dartrix a swift kick and drawing some blood. "Some help you turned out to be, utter garbage!" Fearow joined in and pecked Dartrix before letting out a squawk as Damian began wringing his neck. "And don't even get me started on you!"
"You messing around again, boy?" A more rougher and experienced looking man in his early thirties soon appeared, sucking on a lollipop as he examined the situation around him before giving it a crunch and spitting out the stick! "Not many people would consider taking a runt like you in on their organization, you better not let be down boy. My client is paying top dollar for that Luxio and it's paying more than enough to settle your debt to me!"
"Oh don't worry sir, Fearow and I will kill that-" Slap! The experienced hunter gave him a powerful slap. "We're not poachers boy, we're Pokemon hunters! We take things in alive, if you wanna poach then you could sign up with Pokemon Hunter A once you're debt is settled with me but until then you're working for me! Understand?"
Damian rubbed his cheek while glaring up at the man. "Yes sir..." He mumbled.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?!" The hunter raised up his hand as he was about to slap Damian again.
"Sir yes sir!" Damian shot straight up.
"Good now go get that Pokemon for me, I'm keeping an eye out for a bigger prize." The man smirked as he looked towards the horizon. "There's a shiny Dragonair in them hills and I aim to catch it!"
"Alright everyone, you need to go catch a Pokemon." Venom spoke with an uninterested tone to his voice as he rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna assign your partners this time to ensure that none of you goof off or do... other things." Venom leered at Flash and Giselle as they nervously sweated, apparently he'd caught the two going at it when they were supposed to be catching a Pokemon, or at least that's what Ash had heard.
"Chloe, you're with Ash."
"M-Me?!"
"Keep an eye on her for me, will ya Ash?" Gary asked. He usually wasn't protective over his crush but this was where Damian was last seen by authorities and well... Chloe wasn't exactly the best at Pokemon battles.
"Misty, you're with Brock." Misty and Brock gave each other a smirk before fist bumping one another.
"Janine you're with Sabrina," Janine bowed her head while Sabrina let out a soft tsk.
"Giselle you're partnered with Leaf. Flash you're with Lillie."
"Seriously?!" Flash groaned out.
"Gary, you're with Serena. Wally you and Samurai boy will go together."
"That's not my name-" The 'samurai boy' started only for Venom to raise up his hand.
"Don't care, get!" Venom pointed at the forest. "And don't come back without a Pokemon or there will be hell to pay!"
"Have you noticed Venom's been more of a prick than usual lately, what gives?" Ash growled out.
"Y-You're not mad that you're stuck with me are you? I-I'm sorry if that's the case, I know the two of us aren't close." Chloe spoke softly as she lowered her head.
"Huh? N-No nothing like that at all! You seem sweet, n-not in the romantic sort of way of course!" Ash quickly raised his hands as he didn't want Chloe to think he was trying to step on Gary's turf. "It's true that we aren't close but I'm sure you're a great person, Gary wouldn't fall in love with just any girl after all. I don't really have anything against any of you, it's just Venom that annoys me." Ash spat out.
Chloe smiled lightly and give him a thankful expression. "You can have the Pokemon by the way, I'm not much into battles. I much prefer doing research and studying Pokemon, Yamper and Eevee are all the friends I need for now." She knew Ash needed a bit more coverage too, he'd yet to find a Electric type in particular and it'd help a great deal in beating Misty for sure. Misty was one of his closest friends and knew him inside out, a surprise reveal would do a great deal towards beating her!
"So you're thinking about becoming a Pokemon researcher?" Ash asked as Chloe hadn't informed anyone of her goal yet, well other than possibly Gary but if she had Gary kept it between them.
"Maybe... i-if Gary wants to become one too, being a researcher feels a bit overwhelming but if I had a partner..."
"I don't think that's happening, sorry to say." Ash shrugged while giving her an apologetic look. "Gary wants to be the champion and I don't think he'd throw it away to be a researcher."
"He could do both!" Chloe shouted in Gary's defense. "Diantha is a champion and an actress, Cynthia is an archeologist on her spare time and Steven collects rare stones and gems! A champion can have other hobbies you know, it's not just battling twenty four seven." Ash realized that Chloe did have a point there and didn't push it any further. He instead decided to find them a Pokemon to catch.
"Corvisquire, I choose you!" The raven Pokemon burst out with a loud caw as he flew through the air, looking down at his trainer and the girl he'd yet to be introduced to.
"Corvi!"
"Corvisquire, see if you can find anything nearby!" Ash called out. Corvisquire gave a nod before flying off.
"Huh, that bird was cool." Chloe commented as she watched it fly away. "You don't mind if Gary and I borrow it to study some time? W-We won't do anything to it! I'd just like the chance to properly study a Galar Pokemon other than my Yamper and Serena's Grookey."
"Sure, I don't mind." Ash smiled as he started to warm up to Chloe. The two started having a series of friendly discussion with one another while keeping an eye out for any possible Pokemon, Ash debated catching a Bidoof for a brief second but figured that somebody might have already captured one. He'd hate to look like a copycat.
Chloe's eyes darted about before noticing Corvisquire flying back with an alarmed expression.
"Corvi!"
"Corvisquire! What's wrong?" Ash asked only for the bird to squawk out frantically, Ash narrowed his eyes before releasing Espeon to translate for him. Espeon twisted her tails as she listened in before turning back to Ash.
"There's an injured Pokemon laying next to the river, it's bleeding!" She telepathically informed in a frantic manner causing Ash's eyes to shoot wide open before looking up at Corvisquire.
"Lead the way!"
"Corvi!" Ash and Chloe quickly gave chase after Corvisquire as he flew above the forest before beginning to fly around in circles as he hovered over a river that passed through the middle of the forest, a yellow lion Pokemon laid on his side, breathing heavily while blood was visible within the water and grass where he'd emerged.
Ash raced over and bit his lip as he didn't know the first thing about treating injuries, that was more Brock or Lillie's thing. Thankfully it appeared that Chloe was also advised in that field, the girl looking the injury over with a light hum before spraying it with a Hyper Potion and handing it a Sitrus berry as she started wrapping up it's leg injury with a bandanna.
"There you go, should be good as news!" Chloe cheerfully exclaimed, giving Luxio a light pat as the lion slowly began to stand up. Luxio gave Chloe a friendly lick before turning as it started to limp away rather quickly.
"Hey wait, you're injured you should rest!" Ash called out only for Luxio to not respond. "Hey I'm talking to you!" Ash quickly shot after the Luxio as it continued limping.
Chloe shook her head, realizing that this Luxio was as stubborn as Ash. Maybe the two were a perfect fit for one another! She was about to suggest that Ash just catch it as to not risk it injuring itself any further only to feel something rise up from the shadows behind her and wrap it's wings around her mouth as it utilized Shadow Sneak!
"Mmmph!" Damian appeared from the shadows besides Dartrix and smirked as he pulled out a knife. "Is that one of Ketchum's girls? Oooh I'd love to kill one of them!" Damian's eyes narrowed to slits as he saw it was Chloe. "Oh, you're not one of his girls..." From what he recalled Chloe was the equivalent of killing Flash, not worth his time. Damian then took a quick glance around before licking his lips. "But maybe I can still have some fun with you!"
Chloe's eyes widened as she began putting up a struggle, her cries muffled beneath a rag that Dartrix had gagged her with. Damian began tearing at her shirt before pausing as he remembered what his boss said, if he did this then Ketchum would beat him to Luxio and probably come right back here looking for her! "Let's leave her, maybe they'll be time after killing Ketchum."
Luxio soon collapsed as his leg gave out, the lion Pokemon let out a whimper as Ash and Espeon rushed forward.
"I told you that you were injured, you need to rest!" Ash looked at Luxio's paw and let out a sigh of relief as it didn't appear as if Luxio had started bleeding again. "You need to rest Luxio, you-" Ash realized that Luxio's personality wasn't much different from his own. There was one time that he broke his leg when he was younger but he refused to sit around! Several of his friends had injured themselves over the years and always rested but Luxio was just too stubborn to stay still much like he was, perhaps there was a good reason for it?
"Luxio if I might ask, why are you running?"
"Why indeed, Ketchup!" Ash froze as he heard the voice of somebody he thought or rather hoped to never see again, he slowly turned around and saw Damian standing a few feet away, Fearow perched up on his shoulder while a Dartrix stood by the boy's side.
"Damian! If you hurt Chloe I swear I'll-" Ash growled out immediately upon noticing she wasn't there. Damian had attempted to kill Zach when he got him on his own once, it was highly likely that Damian had attempted it again.
"Please she's fine, she doesn't mean as much as killing a best friend or a girlfriend would hurt you!" Damian laughed sadistically as Fearow let out a sadistic squawk. "I do aim at having some fun with her once I've gotten you out of the way though!"
"I've gotten stronger too you know," Ash growled out, him and Espeon watching as Damian circled them with a hungry and vengeful expression. A similar look was in Fearow's eyes but Dartrix was difficult to read, based on the markings though Ash could only assume that it was a similar relationship to Charmeleon back when he was under his control.
"Is that so? You've got two badges?" Damian asked with a light head tilt, unintentionally causing Ash's blood to boil which seemed to rather please him. "Oooh, you've only got one don't you?" Damian howled out.
"Oh that's rich!"
Ash and Espeon gave each other a look. "We don't have time for this, Shattered Psyche!"
"Never-Ending Nightmare!" Damian shouted, revealing his own z-ring as Dartrix began posing with him. The shadows around Espeon began rising up as she looked around frantically before suddenly being dragged into the shadows screaming followed by the sounds of Pokemon hitting her before her defeat form was thrown out of the shadows.
Thankfully Espeon had managed to pull off the z-move in time as Espeon's attack blasted Dartrix and sent the owl flying back before it crashed into a nearby tree and laid unconsciously at it's feet.
"Pathetic!" Damian shouted aggressively, delivering a kick right to the defeated Pokemon's face as Ash let out a growl. Fearow let off a smirk as Damian turned his attention back to Ash. "Now where were we? Oh yeah, your strongest Pokemon is out for the count! Fearow let's end this, Hyper Bea-!"
An electrical shock was delivered to Fearow before Ash even had the chance to react for a moment he wondered if Flash and Lillie were nearby as he was the only one with an Electric type currently but then he saw Luxio standing up with a determined expression as he stood in front of Ash, his cheeks sparking as he fired off a powerful bolt of electricity, shocking both Damian and Fearow as they cried out in pain! An explosion soon occurred due to an electronic device on Damian's person causing him and his Pokemon to get sent blasting off into the sky with him howling in rage.
"This isn't over Ketchum, I won't rest until you suffer!" Damian shouted before disappearing over the horizon. Ash glared after him before turning back in the direction that they'd left Chloe in.
"Chloe!"
Flash walked through the forest with Lillie, an annoyed look as he kicked a rock. "Seriously unfair, I miss Giselle..."
"Can't you two hang out after school?" Lillie questioned.
"Yeah but I just prefer spending time with her all the time, ever since my best friend got transferred she's all I have. Everyone else is too afraid to hang out with me because of my father." Flash sighed out.
"You mean Lt. Surge? He is scary..." Lillie shivered. She passed the man on the street before and he looked quite intimidating!
"See? I knew you'd be scared." Flash narrowed his eyes.
"You're not scary though, you're more light hearted and honestly kind of funny at times. I'm sure if you gave the others a chance you'd see that they feel the same way, honestly I don't think Ash even knows Surge is your dad." Lillie added on with a light shrug.
Flash stared off with a thoughtful expression before noticing a blue mouse Pokemon up ahead.
"I'm not much an expert on non-Electric types but ain't Marill a Fairy type? You could use a new addition to your team," Flash offered the catch to his newest friend. Lillie gave him an appreciative smile before sending out Clefairy.
"Metronome!" Clefairy began waving her fingers before her body started spinning like a drill as she raced towards Marill and body slammed it! Marill let out a cry before going limp as Lillie grabbed hold of an empty ball before giving it a good throw, Marill disappeared in a beam of red light before the ball let out a chime to announce the capture complete!
"Way to go Lillie!" Flash clapped for her as Lillie held the ball in her hand.
"Welcome to the team Marill, hope you like us!"
"You promise to keep this one a secret?" Misty asked as she held a Pokeball in her hand. Brock nodded his head while letting off a smirk.
"Don't worry besides I'm sure Ash wouldn't want to find out ahead of time," Brock laughed. He was really looking forward to their rematch, Ash may be looking for an Electric type but Misty had expected her close friend to do precisely that and prepared a counter for it!
"Maybe after I kick his butt again his sisters will drop that 'boyfriend' nonsense," Misty rolled her eyes with a light scoff. "Ash and I are just friends and that's all we'll ever be. I have as much interest in him as I do with you, no offense!"
"None taken!" Brock smirked with a light chuckle. "They're just teasing you though you know, don't take it so personally."
Janine walked through the forest with her best friend Sabrina as the two continued keeping an eye out for Pokemon, Sabrina closed her eyes as she used her telepathy to scan the minds of the Pokemon around her, eventually discovering a peculiar presence in a tree not far off. One that her father always warned her might come after her one day.
"I-I need to go." Janine gave her friend an odd look before beckoning her head, telling her to just go before walking off. Sabrina waited until Janine was far enough away before looking up and shouting out.
"I know you're up there, guardian."
"Not up there, behind you."
Sabrina leaped up before her eyes turned bright blue. "I should end you right here, I won't let you hurt Janine or any of my other friends!"
"Me hurt you? Ha! Your kind started the fight." Victor spat in disgust, he always disliked Psychics but ever since he met Shade his dislike turned into full hatred. He didn't believe there was any such thing as a 'good psychic'.
"Your kind did, don't you remember the great war from 10,000 years ago?!" Sabrina shouted.
"Of course, my girlfriend was such a nerd... too bad your brother murdered her."
"I-wait what? Shade would never-"
Victor narrowed his eyes as Sabrina's shock seemed genuine, the man slowly held out his hand to her so she could read his mind as he opened his mind to just the events of that fateful night, mentally locking away his knowledge of Ash and everything else for the boy's own safety. He may be Sabrina's friend but he was certain that would change once Sabrina found out.
Sabrina's eyes turned wide as she saw what appeared to be her brother slaughtering hundreds of Aura Guardians, their heads exploding as he blow up their brains and some being hurled right over cliffs!
"I-No, this is impossible! This has to be some kind of trick, I know Shade he'd never-"
"It's very real," Victor growled out. "I'm one of the few of my kind left, what would I have to gain from killing a mere child or manipulating her?" Victor was actually debating rather or not he should just outright kill her, prevent another Shade from happening.
"No... no, I'm certain of it! Y-Your kind killed our mother, he was just getting revenge!"
"Revenge by slaughtering countless villages? Is one woman's life really worth that much?! Face it, he's evil!"
"Enough!" Sabrina's eyes shot a bright shade of blue as she started levitating off the ground. "I'm tired of your tricks villain, I'm going to-"
"Sabrina?" Janine called out as she returned.
Sabrina calmed down for a brief second as she glanced back in the direction her best friend was before turning back towards Victor only to see the man was gone.
"Something wrong? I heard shouting!" Janine spoke with visible concern as Sabrina stared off into the distance.
"No, I'm fine... let's go." Though she didn't agree with him, Victor's words did stick with her.
Ash pulled the bondage off of Chloe, freeing her as she breathed out a sigh of appreciation. "Y-You got him?"
"He got away but yeah, I kicked his ass!" Ash smirked lightly, Chloe gave him a friendly hug before pulling away.
"Thank you, he was... he said..."
"Don't worry about it, I'd never let him touch one of my friends like that."
"We're... we're friends?" Chloe asked.
"After today I'd say we are!" Ash smiled, Chloe smiled lightly before her eyes turned towards Luxio.
"What about him though? You gonna catch it?"
Ash looked at Luxio before dropping to his knees as Luxio tilted his head. "Luxio you're too injured to handle this the right way but... would you like to join me? I could use a good Electric type on my team and you'd never have to worry about Luxio coming after you again!"
Luxio blinked for a brief moment before letting out a happy cry as a smile crossed Ash's lips, the boy held out a ball and Luxio tapped it with his paw before disappearing in a beam of red light, the ball shook a bit before chiming out to announce the capture complete!
"So what, you're Ketchum's girl now too?" Gary asked.
"Y-Yeah," Serena nervously spoke as she looked away.
"I think I remember you, you followed us around all the time." Gary laughed. "It makes a lot more sense now, you loved him!" Gary laughed as he tossed a ball up and down, having finished their work already.
"I-I do, yeah." Serena spoke before looking to her feet.
"Hm?" Gary questioned as he looked at her. "Something wrong?"
"I-It's just that... I always thought that you could only have room in your heart for one, i-is it right to share Ash with another?"
Gary narrowed his eyes before sighing out. "Well some people in life are happy with just one, take me and Chloe for instance I don't want anyone other than her! Flash and Giselle are in a similar boat as they're hardly away from each other's sides. Then you have something like Zach and his two girls, May and Dawn. Both of them love him and he loves both of them, I think the girls might actually like each other as well. He gives them an equal amount of attention and treats them fairly, they're all happy! Not every girl out there is down for sharing like those two are though, I know that Leaf and-Lillie was it? are willing to share but that doesn't mean you have to if you don't want to. Just because Leaf and Lillie pushed it doesn't mean you should go for it, it's your decision."
Serena looked thoughtful from Gary's words, wondering if she was making the right choice or not. May and Dawn along with Leaf and Lillie didn't have any regrets or doubts but she sure did, was it actually love or just a strange sense of puppy love that now that she and Ash were together it had lost it's allure and shown it's true colors?
Damian's boss handed a Pokeball over to a very rich and spoiled looking Kalosian girl that was the same age as Ash and the others. She wore an expensive looking purple dress along with a pink sunhat and had long flowing black hair. The girl took a look at the ball for a moment before opening it to confirm the contents, a squeal emitted from her mouth as she bared witness to a shiny Dragonair!
"Now here's where you pay me miss...?" The man said as he held out his hand.
"Amelia, future Grand Coordinator!" Amelia smirked before handing him a briefcase full of money. "Here you go, what you did with it is of little concern to me!" She took the ball and walked away with it while Damian returned, his boss turned around expecting to see a Pokeball only to see nothing but failure on the boy's face. His boss' eye twitched before he punched the tree next to them.
"Unbelievable, you failed!"
"It wasn't my fault, it was Ketchum he-"
"Who the hell is that? Accept responsibilities for you actions, boy! You lost!" His boss growled out.
"So no Luxio I take it?" Midas addressed as he appeared.
"Nope, sorry." The boss gave a wave as Midas scoffed before walking off. He lifted up Damian and looked him directly in the eye. "It was all you, you failed. You couldn't beat Luxio and you're trying to blame somebody else for your problems and now you must pay..." He reached into Damian's pocket and withdrew the knife, Damian began sweating as it ran across his neck for a minute before letting out a sigh of relief as it left and instead stabbed Dartrix!
"Who?!" Dartrix dropped dead and Damian hardly reacted to it, looking happy that he survived the encounter.
"Cold..." His boss commented. "Next time, that'll be you! It'd be a shame to do that but you owe me a great debt for saving your life and I expect to be paid back you hear?!"
"Yes sir..."
"What?!" Damian's boss raised up his fist resulting in Damian letting out a panicked shout.
"Sir yes sir!"
The man smirked before waving his hand as the two walked off, unaware that dying was a natural thing all Dartrix went through. Some time had passed since Damian and his boss had left, days turned to weeks but the body soon began changing form to reveal a hooded archer owl, the owl let out a loud cry before swooping off into the air and enjoying it's newfound freedom!
So a bit happened.