"You sure you don't want a ride back home?" Gary asked, slipping his coat on as Leaf waited at the door, while May was seen helping her mother out
"It's fine. Besides... there's something I gotta do first" Ash replied as Gary suddenly had a mischievous look on his face and slowly closed in on his friend
"Oh, don't tell me someone's got a crush and wants to stay back in order to admit there dying love" Gary teased, making Ash look at him with shock
"What? No! There's nothing going on with me and her, Gary. Heck you know I have trouble trusting people and everything! Besides I recently just started allowing her in" Ash said with narrowed eyes as the brown haired teen rolled his eyes
"Whatever man. Just saying, if you do actually ever get a crush on like any girl... don't wait or push down your feelings... you never know if you'll be to late" Gary said with a sad tone, his eyes drifting towards Leaf
Ash decided not to comment on this since he knew about Gary's crush on Leaf. It was unfortunately one-sided, as Leaf had no interest in Gary whatsoever and had made it clear on multiple occasions. Instead, Ash gave him an understanding look and a quirk nod at the words as soon his two friends left, leaving only himself to leave
"Thanks for the invite May. It was nice meeting you Ms. Maple, you to Max" Ash said with a smile
"It was lovely meeting you as well Ash. I hope we get to see you and your friends come over more often. May usually only brings her girl friends... it was quite a shock when she mentioned having a couple of boys coming over" Caroline said, as May was seen hiding her face in her hands
Ash sweat dropped at this and was about to leave when May grabbed a hold of his arm. Turning to face her, he saw her slowly lift up her head with a small smile "Thank you for accepting this invitation, Ash... I had fun with you, Gary and Leaf and like my mom said, hope you guys can come over some other time. Also, sorry about my mother and her antics" the brunette said, with a sigh at the end as Ash waved it off
"If you ever come over to my house and meet my mom, we'll be even" he said as May laughed at this and watched as he soon left
"So, when should I start planning the wedding?"
"MOM?!"
With Ash
Looking at the slightly destroyed building, Ash knew he was in the right place. However... it didn't bring him the answers he thought it would bring as the teen, who at this point wanted to just explode at the lack of answers, turned towards a loose brick and punched it hard as it broke just like that day with basketball net
Once again Ash looked shocked at the display and looked at his hands. Were these powers of his tied to his emotions or something? Wasn't that something that was seen in shows and books when it came to controlling powers...
Hearing a noise, Ash suddenly felt himself feel that same feeling he did in the alleyway and at school. Closing his eyes, he could see a couple of faint blue hues moving towards him as he snapped his eyes open and slowly started to walk again
Ash was so focused on whether he was being followed or not, that he didn't realize until he smacked his body against a wall that he was in a dead end. Carefully looking back, he noticed what looked like one of those tough alley gangs; Flare or Galactic, that the news sometimes reported about
"Look what we got here boys" one of them said, Ash slowly backing up slightly as they walked closer towards him... this was not gonna end well
"Aren't you young to be in these kinds of streets alone?" another said, grabbing Ash's hair as the teenager tensed under the hold
"Teenagers these days, don't understand that at night... these are our hunting grounds" a third said, with the sound of a pocketknife being heard
'This is the second time I'm being attacked in an alleyway' Ash thought, hitting the one holding him hard and ducking under a strike that would have been lethal did he not dodge in time
"Any chance we could talk this out?" Ash tried, only to suddenly get send flying hard towards the wall after being kicked hard
"We got ourselves a fighter here" alleyway thug 1 said with a laugh
"It's cute, he thinks he's some kind of hero" said the one with the knife
Rubbing his head, Ash suddenly felt himself being picked up and smashed onto the ground hard multiple times until it finally stopped. Breathing hard, he was surprised by the fact that he was still alive... if it was because of his powers, then he couldn't be more grateful for the quick healing that came along as he slowly got back onto his feet
"He's still alive?" one asked in genuine surprise
"He won't be for long" said a lower rank thug as he went to go sweep the teen; however, Ash just moved out of the way and threw the thug into the wall with a loud crack and scream being heard. The other thugs' jaws dropped, as they looked back to Ash
What was surprising for the thugs was the slight glowing coming from his hands and also that his eyes were now a glowing blue hue
"What the-what the hell are you?!"
"I'm the guy who's gonna end this"
With that said, 3 thugs came running at Ash, only for the teen to jump over them and use one as a springboard in the process. The braver of the bunch charged as he went to throw a punch, only for Ash to stop the punch with his own hand and suddenly swung the thug into the other two. They crashed into one another and were going to go at it again only to see something blue hurdling towards them and knocked them into unconsciousness
The guy who tried to use the knife against him came running from behind as Ash moved his head slightly and grabbed the arm. Using the momentum, the teenager flipped the guy onto the ground, used the knife to stab him on the shoulder hard and knocked him out with a shoe to the face
The last few circled around him, with three of them not at all confident in themselves
All four charged Ash at the same time, but the teen took down 3 of them. The last one got lucky and had Ash currently pinned to the ground. The teenager tried to get free, but they were quite heavy and as such, Ash didn't notice when the thug on top of him suddenly got something outta their pocket
Ash screamed. The thug stabbed him with a knife and without even realizing it, a blue sphere appeared on his hand as it shot into their chest, making the thug fly up high and crash onto the ground with a big bang
Taking a deep breath and letting everything sink in, Ash's eyes returned to their normal auburn hue. Looking people around him that were either unconscious or... (hopefully not) dead. Ash wasn't sure what just happened... he knew what he was doing, but at the same time he didn't
Sighing he pulled out the knife out as quickly as possible "Out of control… again. 2 weeks and still I lose control these powers... even if they saved me again" he said looking at the knife in his hand and throwing it on the ground in defeat
Ash wanted to drop to the ground, but suddenly felt something... as if someone were watching him. Slowly turning around, the teen's eyes widened in surprise to see a young adult staring at him in surprise
He looked like someone in his early or mid-20s. He had raven black hair, bright blue eyes, a leather jacket around a dark-coloured shirt, jeans and some formal dress shoes
"You saw everything..." Ash said a little scared... what if this guy had seen him use his powers?! Ash sure as heck remembered using them
He nodded, but made no move to call the police or anything, instead he kept looking at the teenager with a slight look of awe "You're… not scared of me, or what I can do?" the raven-haired teen asked shocked when the older male shook his head
"Why should I be? You defended yourself, didn't you? They also look to all be breathing, so you haven't killed anyone either... Besides I know what you're going through" he said, as disbelief appeared on Ash's face
"How could you know what I'm going through? I have powers you can't even begin to understand... I don't understand them" Ash glumly said and ran a hand through his raven hair
"That's where you're wrong. We aren't much different; you and me. In fact, we have the same abilities" he revealed in a soft tone. Holding out his hand slightly, a familiar blue sphere appeared
Ash looked quite surprised. It looked like the one he remembered from the janitor closet incident at school and also what he had just used a while ago! He slowly and hesitantly looked down at his own hands... wondering if he could actually achieve that level of control or not
"I know you're scared and can't control your abilities, but if you'll let me, I can help you learn to better understand your powers" he said, the blue sphere dissipating as he held out a hand towards the teenager
Ash knew whatever he chooses would be an important decision in his life and would affect his future either for the better or worst
And this story is now done! I still suck at fight scenes, but I wanted Ash and well no surprise here Riley to meet each other again around the same place as their first encounter. Not much of a cliffhanger as you all should know what he chooses and also the chapter title is a dead giveaway too! Anyway first multi chapter story of mine that I finished, ya! Hope you enjoyed book 1 and the sequel titled 'The Road to becoming a Hero' will begin after the holdidays so I can focus on some of the others currently in the works ;) Side note, the next book will be crossed over with Young Justice since I'm bringing in some of the characters :) Till next time everyone ^^
P.S. the alleyway fighting scene was hugely inspired by The Treecko Man's work "Pokemon: To Kalos and Beyond"