A/N: I hope you are having a nice day and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Chapter 4"Ash wait! What about May?"
From deep within the cave, Ash Misty and Pikachu stopped at the sound of a distant echo.
"…wait…here…guys…"
"I guess she's going to wait back at the entrance for us. Come on Misty, let's go!"
Misty thought about it for a second, and then she decided that Ash was right. The cave was dimly lit on the sides by old and rusty torches. Anyone could tell that people had inhabited this cave for a long time, but why someone would want to live in here was anybody's guess. It would have been creepy, if not for the way that Team Magma had treated it. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were flat, not edgy with rough dirt, but smoothed out and then glazed for a nice looking earthy tone.
"Ash, what are we going to do… I mean, we don't even have the slightest clue as to what they are doing here. For all we know, this could be like a hotel or something for Team Magma."
Ash chuckled at the bit of humor she had put into the situation.
"Misty," he smiled as they walked down the path inside the cave, "we just can't assume those kinds of things. They could be hurting pokemon just like Team Aqua did… and if we do happen to stumble upon a Team Magma resort hotel, then we'll book some reservations."
Ash eased the tension and they began to laugh. He stroked Misty's hair and kissed her softly.
"Come on, what's the worst that can happen? We've gotten out of a lot of situations before, and this isn't any different. We've got each other and that's all that matters," Ash whispered softly.
Misty smiled warmly at him, only three words able to describe her emotions.
"I love you,"
"I love you too Mis-"
Suddenly, Pikachu tugged on each of their legs and the three of them hid in an indent in the wall that wasn't very visible because of the poor lighting. Heavy footsteps began to become louder and louder, until finally two men in Team Magma uniforms ran past them. One of them was the member they had met previously.
"What did they look like?"
"There were three of them; a guy and two girls. The guy had a really powerful Pikachu, so watch out."
They ran past without noticing them crouched down, trying to be as still as possible. Misty tried to get up by pushing her hand against the indented wall. Without warning, her hand began to sink into it and as soon as she took her hand away, the ground beneath them as well as the whole indented part of the wall, started to turn.
..:-:..
May began to check her watch nervously. They had been gone for a while now, and they hadn't come back. Did they hear her telling them to stay there with her? She sighed, seeing that she had no choice. One more look at the bright daylight, and then she headed into the dark cave.
The cave was dimly lit with the small flickering torches. She could barely make out where she was going. If not for the small sources of lights on the walls, she would have bumped into the walls and she would have many noticeable bruises everywhere. May kept looking back at the cave entrance, until finally she could no longer see the white circle of light. This was pointless. She would never find Ash and Misty in here. They could be a mile away by now and if she did meet up with them, what good would she be?
May shuddered. For some reason, she had been feeling really cold lately, but the thing was, it was supposedly really warm outside. And how could it be cold in a cave? Especially when there were torches with burning flames in them? She wrapped herself in her arms and then the idea hit her. She could use Combusken's Ember to add to the torches flames. Suddenly, May heard fast paced footsteps drawing near her. It must have been Ash and Misty. But why were they running?
"Ash! Misty! Where are –"
A hand covered her mouth and she was dragged into the wall. How that was possible, she didn't know. The footsteps were getting closer and then she saw the Team Magma members running past. It wasn't Ash and Misty at all. But who… She turned around as the grip on her loosened. Her mystery man, all covered in black was standing in front of her, his eyes as compelling as ever.
"What are you…"
But she couldn't finish her somewhat repetitive statement, because the ground beneath her started to turn and she was now facing an unbelievable site. After calming herself down, she turned to face her mystery man. She was about to start yelling at him for everything he had done to her. Maybe Ash was right, what did she know about him? From the looks of it, from what she saw in front of her, there was no doubt in her mind that he was a criminal of some kind.
"Get away from me! Do you think this is a funny joke? Always following me? How dare you-"
From behind his back, he pulled out a crimson long stem rose and handed it to her without a word. Instantly May's heart skipped a beat and was now pounding as fast as a Tauros stampede. She looked at him dreamily as she accepted the rose. The mesmerizing scent filled her lungs and then her knees began to lose their strength. Her eyelids began to droop as she lost her balance and began to fall slowly to the ground. The dark figure caught her and then he held her gently while she mumbled something back to him.
"What a beautiful rose…"
Finally her eyes closed and she began to drift into a peaceful sleep. As all of the muscles in her body began to relax, the grip on the rose in her hand loosened and it fell to the ground. The man chuckled and smiled to himself. He picked up the sleeping girl and carried her away.
..:-:..
The site before them was unbelievable. Ash and Misty had never seen anything like it. They were in a vast secret room of some sort and in the middle of it, was a large pool of molten hot lava. Hanging just a couple of feet above the pool was a cage with a trapped Macargo in it. Slowly the cage was lowering itself into the lava inch by inch. The Macargo was ramming itself into the cage's sides, a desperate attempt to free itself.
"I knew it! How can they be abusing pokemon like this?" yelled Ash in fury.
"This is just as bad as Team Aqua! Ash, we have to do something!" Misty stated in equal anger.
Ash was attempting to figure out a way to get Macargo down, but Misty thought of an idea first.
"Go Gyrados!"
She threw her poke ball into the air and out of it came a very large water/dragon type pokemon. Ash was amazed to see this come out of Misty's poke ball. He never knew that she had such a powerful pokemon.
"Wow…Misty…you have a…Gyrados?" said Ash, awestruck.
Misty grinned from ear to ear.
"Why yes, I do. Pretty cool huh?"
"Yeah! That's so awesome!"
The cage shook as Macargo rammed into the bars again. Ash and Misty became serious once more and put their attention back to the task at hand.
"You can help too Ash."
He scratched his head with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Uh, how?"
"Just watch and do what I do. Gyrados! Use Hydro Cannon, and aim it towards the lava!"
Gyrados nodded and turned to the pool of lava in front of him. Out of its mouth came a powerful blast of water. Instantly, the lava began to cool and harden. Ash nodded and threw one of his poke balls into the air.
"Corphish! Help Gyrados and use Water Gun; aim it at the lava!"
Even though Corphish wasn't as powerful as Misty's Gyrados, the added burst of water was just the thing that helped cool off all of the lava. Up in its cage, Macargo stopped ramming the bars and looked down at Ash and Misty hopefully.
"Now…to get it out of the cage…Gyrados-"
"It's okay Misty, I'll handle this. Corphish! Jump from Gyrados's back and then use Crabhammer on Macargo's cage!"
Corphish's claw began to glow and it ran up Gyrados's back. It jumped up into the air and then its claw hit the cage at the point where the chain held it up. The cage broke in two and Macargo fell and landed on in the now hardened and cooled off lava.
"Mag-Mag!"
The fiery pokemon yelled in gratitude and then ran off somewhere. Ash and Misty smiled. At least they had saved one pokemon.
"Great job Gyrados, return!"
"You too Corphish! Return!"
"We're a good team Ash."
"Yeah, we sure are…"
Suddenly the wall where they had come in began to turn again and Ash, Misty and Pikachu braced themselves for who would come from behind it. Two members of Team Magma approached and Ash and Misty got ready to battle them.
"Stop right there! You are not going to hurt anymore pokemon!"
"Yeah! I'm with Ash! We're are not going to let you do anything else to these innocent pokemon!"
The Team Magma members stood there stiff and not moving a muscle, as if they were made of cardboard. Then unexpectedly, each of them smirked. Ash and Misty were confused why they would do this, but they soon found out why. Out from behind the two runts came a tall, well-groomed man in a red suit. His hair was sleek and combed back, also a matching shade of red. Ash and Misty were shocked and somewhat intimidated by his stature. They quickly got a hold of themselves as the Team Magma leader snickered at them. His evil shined right through him and you could tell that he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
"These are the trespassers Boss."
"Ahh, yes. Our lovely…guests."
"But Boss, I thought you said…"
"Enough from you! Do what you came here to do!"
"Yes sir!"
Quickly the Team Magma runts grabbed a hold of Ash, Misty and they put Pikachu in a cage. Ash and Misty struggled to free themselves from their grip, but the runts were too strong.
"Who are you? And what are you doing with these pokemon?" yelled Ash with complete anger rising through his blood.
"How could you be so cruel? Pokemon should be treated just like human beings!" Misty's rage was rising along with Ash's.
The tall man chuckled.
"Well, let's see, shall we go in order then? My name is Maxie, leader of the well-known Team Magma. As for what I'm doing with these lovely pokemon, well, I am of course enhancing their fire power…by putting them into the lava, which you so kindly put a stop to for me."
Misty was about to yell something back, but Maxie put up a hand to stop her from interrupting him.
"How could I be so cruel, you might ask? It's my nature of course! But you see, since it is my nature to behave like this, I don't find it cruel at all. I see it as an extraordinary opportunity for my pokemon, so that they could become stronger and then eventually…well, you don't need to know that now…but I can give you a demonstration!"
He clapped his hands twice and then the Team Magma members turned Ash and Misty around to look at the pool of lava that they had just cooled off. It was now bubbling again with fresh molten lava and another cage had begun to drop slowly down. In the cage was a baby Magby, crying out desperately to Ash and Misty.
"No! You can't do this!" Ash yelled while trying to free himself.
"You won't get away with this! That pokemon is just a baby; you might kill it!"
Maxie laughed uncontrollably.
"We'll just see then won't we? How about speeding things up?"
He clapped his hands once and the cage dropped down into the lava in the next second. Misty looked away, tears of rage forming in her eyes. Ash yelled violently, but his 'body guard' didn't let go of him. After about five seconds the cage was lifted up from the pool to reveal a very badly burned baby Magby, lying down with practically no energy left.
"Maaa-"
"Shut it, you good for nothing…"
Maxie held his tongue and clapped his hands twice.
"No…that poor little pokemon…" Misty whispered.
"That poor little pokemon happens to be very weak, and a waste of my time. Oh well… moving on… I need a more powerful pokemon… ahhh…"
The Team Magma leader snapped his fingers and another Team Magma member came to his side.
"Take that pokemon over there and attach it to the chain. I shall leave now. You three know what to do with them."
Maxie left and the third runt did as he was told to do. To Ash's horror, Pikachu's cage was taken and attached to the chain above the pool of lava.
"NOOO! PIKACHU!"
Ash's rage was now uncontrollable and he freed himself and punched the Team Magma member that was holding him back.
"Pika! Pika Pi! Pikachu!"
"It's going to be okay Pikachu! I'm com-"
The third Team Magma member stuck out his foot and just before Ash could reach the flaming pool, he tripped and fell, his head crashing into the side of the pool.
"ASH!"
Misty's anger could go to no further limit. An enormous amount of strength bolted through her veins and she stepped on her captor's foot with such power that he let go of her immediately. She knocked him out and then ran over to Ash, who was lying motionless on the floor with his back facing her. Misty turned him over, and held him in her arms. There was a small river of blood trickling down his forehead and from the corner of his mouth. She bit her lip to try and keep herself calm. First she would need to take off his hat, so she did that. And now she needed something to wipe away the blood…
She took off Ash's backpack and prayed that there would be something inside of it that she could use. Finally she spotted it, and she couldn't believe her eyes. In her hands she held her own handkerchief that gave to Ash on the day they had parted so long ago. A single tear fell down her cheek, but she wiped it away and got to work.
"Go Gyrados! Do the same thing you did last time."
Gyrados used Hydro Cannon and cooled off the water. Then it rammed the cage with Pikachu inside of it. Pikachu got out and ran to Ash's side.
"Thanks Gyrados! Return! Corsola, it's your turn! Spray some water on the handkerchief."
It did as it was told and then Misty wiped away the blood on Ash's forehead and mouth. She took out some bandages that she had found in her own backpack and then put one over the cut. Afterwards, she folded the handkerchief and put it on his forehead. There, she had taken care of Ash and now she would…
The third member of Team Magma was running away just like Maxie had, but she could see his brown hair, now that his hood had fallen off. Misty could have sworn that she had seen him…but no, that wasn't possible. She looked around desperately, but no luck. Whoever it was, was now gone so she turned her attention back to Ash. She held his head in her lap and stroked his black raven hair. He was going to be fine, he always turned out okay. Suddenly, he began to stir and Misty looked at him eagerly. His eyes opened and he touched the spot where he had been cut. He winced in pain, but then realized that someone was hugging him without letting go.
"Ash! Oh Ash! I knew you'd be fine! You scared me so much! I'm so glad you're okay!"
..:-:..
May began to stir in her sleep. She curled herself closer and cuddled up close. It was so nice and cozy. She could sleep like this forever… Suddenly she jolted up from her position and her eyes widened. She had her arms around her mystery man and he was carrying her away from that awful site she had seen. But that didn't matter to her as much now.
"PUT ME DOWN NOW!"
The stranger did as he was told and he stood there silently. Finally he spoke.
"What's the matter? You were sleeping like a baby."
May was infuriated. She could hardly speak. Knowing what she knew know… She couldn't believe it. Looking at him made her sick to her stomach. After all of this time… How could she be so stupid not to realize it? And the way she felt about him… the way he made her feel. If she had only known…
He could barely make out anything that she was saying and she realized that she too was not making any sense so she just said the one word, so softly that it sounded like it was a gentle breeze. Her face finally calmed down, and on it was a look of sadness and soft anger.
"…Drew…"
..:-:..
She finally stopped hugging him and backed away a bit. The girl had the happiest expression on her face, but he was just plain confused. She saw this, and suddenly her happy smile became burdened with worry.
"Ash…what's wrong?"
He pushed her away and looked at her with confusion.
"What are you talking about lady? And why were you hugging me? Who's Ash? Who are you?"
Misty opened her mouth, but no words came out. Silent tears filled her eyes, as she looked at him with horror. The silence was cut, but only Misty could hear her heart shatter.
..:-:..
A/N: Thanks for continuing to read my fic! It means a lot to me, but I'm sorry to say that this time I will not leave a hint for you lol Just that fact that this is going to get a lot more… juicier lol
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!