AN- Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated, hasn't it? Sorry, but wrestling season started up last month, and then exams, so… I've been really busy.

I'm gonna try to get another chapter up before Christmas Break ends to make up for the wait.

"Speech" 'thoughts' 'telepathy'

Please enjoy and Review!

Chapter Nine

"I really hate everything and everyone right now."

"Tell me about it. I had to pull double shifts for all of last week 'cause of him."

"..."

Some Galactic grunts were sitting in the cafeteria of the base talking about the bases newest prisoner. Most of the population at the base was unhappy with him because of the extra work they had to do. So naturally, they turned to alcohol to help ease their "pain".

"I don't know why they even want him alive. I think he's too dangerous." The grunt took a swig of his drink then looked over at the third, quiet grunt "What d'ya think mate?"

"..." The man continued with his silence, not even looking at the other two.

"Hey!" The intoxicated grunt shot up and grabbed the man by the front of his shirt "I'm talking to you!"

The man looked at him for a moment before throwing a powerful punch to his stomach. As the grunt stumbled back several feet, he walked over to him and stomped on his chest, cracking some ribs; he took a knife out from his boot and held it up against his throat.

"Please, don't..." the injured grunt spluttered up some blood.

The man looked him in the eyes, then sheathed his knife. He stood up and went back to his seat. The other grunt slowly stood up before running over to his friend and taking him away as fast as he could. What they didn't know, was that the man was and had been making mental maps, pictures, records of everything that he could, memorizing patterns that patrols made for weeks; everything. He was planning on breaking out multiple targets, and he needed it to go off without a hitch. And he was finally ready.

Ash was asleep in his cell, exhausted from his time in captivity. His captors were merciless and intent on getting Magma secrets, and studying his aura. Ash of course didn't know any secrets and wouldn't cooperate with their studies, and since he wasn't going to give himself or his aura away, he just took the torture. He kept the hope that Domino would come and save him, but deep in his mind, he knew she wouldn't. Team Rocket had a strict policy banning rescue missions to prevent further damage done to operations. So even though she cared for him a lot, she was more loyal to Team Rocket, and had to follow it's rules. Ash was on his own.

As he slept, some more grunts came into the room. They switched places with them, and one of them began to knock on the glass.

Ash stirred, but just waved his hand at them before falling back asleep.

The grunt laughed at him before turning back around "Idiot. I hope the execs decide to get rid of him soon so things can go back to normal."

"..." The other grunt said nothing, and just nodded.

After a few minutes, another one walked in carrying a tray of food "Time to feed him"

"Wha? Oh sure." the grunt nodded and opened a slot for the other guy to push the tray through. He pounded on the door "Food, ya maggot."

Ash quickly woke up at that, and slowly walked over to his supper. They only fed him one, small, meal a day, so Ash was slowly beginning to starve, though he would never show it. But they knew anyway.

"Look at him," the grunt who brought the food laughed, "Maybe they're just plannin' on lettin' him starve to death."

"It would feel good to know that he would die suffering." the other one nodded "Make up for him troubling us."

Suddenly, the third man lashed out and struck one in the throat, then whipped out his knife and stabbed the other in the chest twice before he could react. He made sure that they were dead before taking out his key and unlocking the door, letting Ash out.

Ash slowly walked out, staring at the guard "Who are you?"

"..." The man said nothing and just took a uniform off of the grunt and handed it to Ash.

Ash hesitantly complied and put it on. While he did this, the man took out his Aerodactyl and had him get rid of the bodies.

When Ash was finished, the man wordlessly motioned him to follow before walking out.

Ash was getting a bad feeling about him, but seeing no other viable option, obeyed, and they walked out into the hallway. The whole walk through the base, Ash made sure that he kept his head down so no one would recognize him. Finally, the man took Ash to the room where Mewtwo was being held.

"Wait," Ash asked "you're gonna help me break Mewtwo out too?"

The man nodded and pointed to the poke balls at his belt and then at Ash.

"My poke balls are in there also? Why are you helping me?"

But once again, the man ignored the questions concerning his motives, and opened the door. The room was still the same as before, except Ash's poke balls were on a shelf encased in glass.

As they walked in, Mewtwo slightly raised his head, recognizing Ash, but doing nothing else to acknowledge the two of them.

The group guarding Mewtwo came over to them. One asked "Are you guys our replacements?"

The hooded man nodded.

"Where are the rest of you?"

The man raised his hand and made a hand gesture indicating that they were out drinking.

"I should have guessed. Just as well, it's an easy job, just boring as all get out. Have fun; we're gonna go out ourselves."

Ash and the man walked over to their post and waited for the others to leave. Once they did, the man went over to Mewtwo and unlocked his cuffs with a key card. Ash caught Mewtwo as he fell, as much of his strength had been sapped. The man ran to get Ash's poke balls while Ash talked to the legendary Pokemon.

"Are you okay Mewtwo?" Ash lifted him onto his back, piggyback style.

"I-I'll be fine." Mewtwo answered telepathically "These Galactic people are even worse than Team Rocket. At least they had to keep me strong so I could fight. Saturn only wanted me so he could experiment on me and make enhanced psychic weapons. Luckily, they haven't been able to make any yet."

The hooded man ran back over and gave Ash his poke balls before giving him a thumbs up. Ash's eyes glinted with blue as he scanned the poke balls, making sure that the Pokemon inside were his. "Great to have you guys back."

The man nodded, then motioned for Ash to follow him once again.

Ash, knowing that walking in the open with Mewtwo was a poor decision, protested, "Wait! They'll see us, and we won't be able to get away before they kill us! This place is crawling with grunts!"

The man just waved his hand again before pointing to a door in the back. He opened it up and went out.

Ash was confused, but decided that dying with a fight was better than dying of hunger. As he went out, he saw that at the man's feet were the bodies of five grunts. "How…?" He was dumbfounded. How could he take out five grunts single handedly in such a short time? But he got no response from the man, and he ran down the stairway to the left. Ash followed behind, watching as the hooded man took out the occasional grunt along the way. Luckily, the path was empty save those few grunts. Once at the end of the hallway, Red stopped at the door and waited for Ash to catch up. He then opened the door, which revealed the night outside.

The hooded man motioned for Ash to stay put before he ran into the darkness. Ash just stood there as he waited. After a few minutes, he heard a car getting closer. Just to be safe, he hid himself and Mewtwo behind a large crate. The car came up to the side of the base, and the hooded man jumped out, looking for Ash and Mewtwo. Recognizing him, Ash picked Mewtwo back up and carried him over to the car. He tried to put Mewtwo into the backseat, but he weakly protested, "No. I need a better place to rest than this."

"Well, we don't have much choice." Ash told him "It's either here or in a poke ball."

Mewtwo frowned. But, he seemed to be thinking it over. "If I let you put me in one of those devilish devices, do you swear to free me when I ask?"

"Of course."

"Then I choose the poke ball."

"Alright," Ash took a poke ball out of his recovered bag "are you sure?"

Mewtwo nodded.

"Okay." Ash threw the poke ball, and it hit Mewtwo on the head before sucking him in with a flash of red. It caught without any resistance. Ash walked to the ball and picked it up "Never thought I'd catch a legendary."

'Hardly' A voice appeared in Ash's head.

"What?" Ash whipped around "Who was that?"

'It was me, Stupid.' Mewtwo responded 'Just because I'm in this prison does not mean that I cannot communicate with telepathy.'

"Oh." Ash didn't really know what to say "That's kind of creepy."

'Whatever. Just don't ever say that you caught me again, or I will replace your arms with your legs and vice versa, then remove what makes you a man.'

"You got it." Ash nervously laughed as he gingerly placed the poke ball in his bag "Never again."

Ash got into the car and received an impatient look from the hooded man.

"Let's just go before any grunts see us." Ash told him.

The man grunted and pushed down the gas, following a small path into the woods.

As they drove through the forest, an uncomfortable silence, for Ash, arose. He felt both anger and gratitude for this mysterious man. Clearly he was grateful for the man's help, but at the same time, what was with the lack of talking and the mystery?

"So, what's your name?" Ash asked him "Can you talk?"

The man smiled and nodded.

"Then why don't you?"

He didn't get a response immediately.

"Because it's funny to watch people get mad." The man responded.

Ash looked at him with shock. He didn't know what to make of that, and he didn't think that he was going to get a real answer. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he did, a thought occurred to him. He looked at the man "You sound familiar..." His eyes shone blue as he looked at him with aura. 'His aura looks familiar too.' He thought "Do we know each other?"

"Why, yes. Yes we do." The man took off his hood, revealing his face to Ash "I'm Red, the guy who kidnapped you and tried to kill you the other week, though now that I think about it, we were never properly introduced. Remember?"

Ash threw his fist out and punched Red square in the jaw, causing the car to lurch to the side.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm trying to drive here!" Red complained while rubbing his jaw "Don't you know that you're not supposed to mess with the driver? You could get us killed!"

Ash jumped into the back seat to get away from him "So that's why you rescued me? So you could finish the job yourself?"

"What? No, of course not. Though I do have a deal for you."

"A deal? What kind of deal could you possibly want with me?"

"I'll tell you in a little bit." Red told him "But first, let's get to know each other some. So, tell me something about yourself."

"No!" Ash refused "First, tell me what you want with me."

Red laughed "Gosh Pika," he smiled "He's real jumpy, isn't he?"

"Pi Pika!" Pika said from the glove compartment.

"What?" Ash asked "Why is your Pikachu in the glove compartment?"

Red turned off of the path and onto a highway "Because that's where I keep the mustard."

"Mustard..." Ash shook his head "Look, just tell me what you want with me."

"Fine." Red looked back at him "How much do you know about aura users?"

Ash thought for a moment, still warily eyeing Red "Not much really, though I did learn a little once when I visited Rota."

"Oh good," Red smiled "I love telling stories. Okay, first, you need to know about us red aura users. A very long time ago, aura users were relatively common. They weren't necessarily everywhere, but there were a whole lot more than there are today. There were two kinds of aura users, blue, and red. The red aura users had psychic powers as well as aura powers. Blue aura users had no psychic powers, but their aura was way stronger, so they were about even. That goes for today too, by the way. Now, since you were at Rota once, I'm sure you heard about the massive battle that took place there but was stopped by Sir Aaron?"

"Yes." Ash curtly replies.

"Geez, calm down," Red turned on the radio "I said I'm not here for revenge, remember? Anyway, that battle was not between two warring kingdoms, it was a battle between the red and blue aura users. Long story short, the Aura Guardians won, and the red users lost. Both sides were still in relatively good form manpower wise, but they both had suffered a great number of casualties, and they were no longer welcome anywhere. The leader of the red aura users, Abigar, was sealed in the Reverse World with his five best warrior's. While that's good, because most red aura users are less than pleasant, it's also bad because life is eternal in the Reverse World, so they've been in there for the last thousand years or so getting stronger. But it's kind of irrelevant because he can't get out. While the red aura users were going back to Orre, Arceus sent Rayquaza to create a huge storm that killed most of the red aura users."

Red turned hard to avoid hitting another car, then stuck his head out of the window "Watch where you're going, you idiot!"

"Continuing, what most people don't know, is that Arceus also placed a curse on them. He separated their powers and made it so they could only reunite them if a blue aura user unlocks it with their aura."

"So that's why you want me." Ash said "You want me to unlock your psychic powers."

"Basically, yes."

"Why would I do that?" Ash questioned "You kidnapped me and tried to kill me. Now, can you let me out?"

"Nope!" Red chirped "And remember, I said I had a deal for you."

Ash thought for a moment "What's the deal?"

Red looked at him through the rear view mirror "I know that you hate being with Team Rocket, and I hate them too. But because I've been working with them to make money, I know where your Pokemon are. I'll help you bust them out."

"I don't believe that." Ash told him "What reason could you have to work with them if you hate them?"

Red's eyes burned with anger "Because Giovanni has one of my Pokemon, and I want him back. Use your aura. You can tell if I'm lying or not. Seriously, do you know anything besides the extreme basics?"

Ash mumbled something incoherent before climbing back into the front seat "How do I do that?"

Red sighed "Close your eyes."

Ash did as he was told.

"Now, focus on my aura. When you do this, you will feel what I feel. You will be able to feel my sincerity or insincerity."

Ash did so, and a wave of emotions hit him. Red's aura projected his anger, frustration, and deep sadness. Over what, Ash didn't know. But, he did feel that Red was being sincere with his words.

"Well, that will come in handy." Ash said as he opened his eyes "Fine. I believe you. Where are my Pokemon?"

"Good. Seriously kid, just because someone kidnaps you and tries to kill you, doesn't mean that he's a bad person. Don't be so paranoid."

Ash stared at him "Are you always so… strange?"

"Yep!" Red smiled "But only around people or Pokemon that I like."

"Anyway," Ash shook his head "what are we going to do next?"

Red laughed "I have my very own plane. We are going to take it back to Kanto, which, by the way, I believe is where we both hail from. Once there, I have a place where we can train you to not suck so much. Then, you can help me with my problem, and then we can get your Pokemon back."

Red held a hand out to Ash "Deal?"

Ash looked at his hand "Deal.

AN- How'd ya like it? Worth the wait? Tell me with your reviews! Like I said, I think that I can squeeze another chapter in before Christmas Break ends; the only problem being that I have wrestling practices and a huge tournament next week.

See y'all later

DarkLucario98