Disclaimer: I realize I have been gone a long time, which is in no way a good way to show my appreciation to all those who have taken the time to read – and in some cases review – this story of mine, which has grown more and more like a personal journey of something akin to a discovery, you could say. All I can say is that here is the next chapter, and I hope you all are gonna like it. I certainly enjoyed myself writing it. Oh, and none of it is mine.
A/N: I've gotten some reviews saying they miss some action for Ash's Pokémon. While I do agree that they need to be shown off - this is a Pokémon story, after all - I do also believe, though, that it must be at the right time and place for the story. Trust me, as the story progresses; they will get their time in the light, so to speak.
Finding Purpose in Hell
- Sometimes, the hardest things to say, Ash, are the ones we must say, for they can save your soul
- Professor Samuel Oak
Yeah, Drew – redemption was found and innocence was… regained. I was once again pure and whole, man of flesh beneath a man of steel. I walked, with a heart of sin, into the tempestuous winds of Fire – and something called Time – as a wicked man and came out…
Oh, Master Above! What a load of fuckin' bullshit, eh! Yeah, I've given up the idea of redemption for men like me. The Rough men. The men not fit for society, for society would be, for very good reasons, indeed, appalled by the simple nature of my madness. My face, sinful and handsome – most women cannot see the sinfulness, but those who can are, most unfortunate, the only ones who matter to me. Anyway, my face is a mask of a man who cannot find his purpose. And we all know what's the key difference betwixt a man and a monster.
Purpose.
A monster is but a man waiting for something in his life, seeking that fuckin' glorious purpose that will set him down on a path – a path of life. That path will differentiate for all of us, of course. Thank the Master! But I believe we all have that path to walk – that Epic Mile of Life.
See? A man without purpose is a man capable of any feat, driven by cowardice, by panic, by lust, by greed, by anything really.
Even by vengeance.
I am the most monstrous creature alive.
I've questioned my purpose, Drew. I've brought these questions onto you, I've brought these questions onto those beyond the window behind you, and I've questioned myself over and over again when sleep was but a hollow memory of a time when I was still fucking human, haunting me with its complexity and imperfection. And by the way, it's the imperfect things that are the best in life. You'll know this if you're in love, my friend. So much in love that a single gaze can rattle your bones, shake your soul, and tear your self-confidence asunder, for you know she sees right through you like no one else could.
I'm trailing off again, going where my mind refuses to go at night – back to dreamland, baby!
I've questioned my purpose, man – over and over and fuckin' over, for I am indeed a most monstrous being. The most monstrous being on this side of the realm. I won't speak for Arceus. I am not that arrogant yet. Those questions have taken me far, or so I think, and those questions have also taken me onto bitter lanes of remembrance. I remember training with Riley, I remember growing more and more perfect – in the worst way – and becoming less and less human for every day. I remember being fuckin' prideful about it, and I remember being scared so shitless I had trouble sleeping even though my body begged me to sleep on those cold nights out in the wild.
But right now, sitting in front of you, Drew – sitting before the eyes of man, my very soul and actions to be judged – I am afraid the answers to my wonderment and pondering continues to delude me. I cannot see the light in the dark anymore. I cannot see the purpose for my awesome powers, for it has become abundantly clear to even the greatest of imbeciles that I am in no way capable of controlling and harnessing 'my gifts' sufficiently enough to overcome my enemies. Beneath this awesome suit and the awesome powers at my disposal, is a man of arrogance, a man fucked by his own pride; and though I can see my faults clear as sunlight, and though I try so goddamn hard to change my ways, I cannot quite seem to make a difference. I cannot change myself, and I cannot change all the suffering and pain I see and feel and hear all over the world. Every-fucking-day. There's simply too much of it.
Oh God… I'm too pathetic to even cry about it anymore. Please, just leave me alone. Why must I take this responsibility?
I am beset with responsibility and guilty memories growing bleak.
The fucked up thing is… and this must be some sort of confession of mine… I'd rather bask in the afterglow of a burning kiss with May or a simple night wasted in front of the TV watching a movie with Serena – hearing her (always with a smile on my face, for I cannot help it) beg for me to tell her how the movie's going to end, if the hero will get the girl and save the day. In movies things happen like that, you know. I've found in real life things aren't always so neat and tidy. I'd rather spent my life doing those things than trying to save the world from being burned to the ground by mad ambition gone awry. For he must be mad.
That makes me a monster, I know. That makes me the wickedest man of all, I know.
No, Drew, I can never overcome the sins I've committed. Never. I can only endure 'em, and hope that that will be enough, that that can see me and all of you through till the end, whatever that end may be.
Or it could until yesterday, I guess. For all the fuckety in my life, it was just a little bit easier until last night. Until the massacre of Vermilion City. I cost that. My arrogance took a new low – or high, I guess – and it cost the lives of millions of innocent. All those souls… burning… burning in the fire of my fuckin' pride.
You know, it makes me wonder. All this, that is. What is a life? When does a life… qualify as a life well spent? When does a life stop being an – an unfinished life and become something more? Something that it was, perhaps, initially supposed to be. When I was in Sinnoh, I read a story, which might just be bullshit – which I thought at the time – but hear me out, will ya? Don't worry, I'm not gonna bore you with all the build up, just spoiling the end for you. You won't mind, right?
The kingdom of Arceus is within man – not a group of men, but in all men. You just got to have faith.
Fear can hold you prisoner inside your own mind.
Hope can set you free.
Faith is Hope, and Hope is Faith.
When I first read those few lines, I thought it must mean that I had to believe in Arceus. I'm sure that's what whoever wrote it wanted it to come across as, too. But today, with all the shit weighting me down, and in desperate need for a ray of light in the cold, never-ending darkness, I've formed another opinion – a much stronger, potent, and all-too-fucking-human opinion. I've formed my own opinion, Drew – you should try it sometimes, might make you more of a man. Who knows, right? The Kingdom of Arceus is, after all, in all men. For I believe, you know – maybe not in Arceus, and right now, maybe not in myself either, but I believe. I believe in you, even though I cannot stand you. I believe in hard work, even though I feel like I'm running a mile in a second and getting nowhere faster. I believe in redemption, even though I do not believe it is for me. I believe in the eyes of mankind, in the heart of mankind as a whole, even though I fear its capability for evil. I see men do wrong by each other every day, without anything to do with all my strength and resources to help them, to stop it, and still I believe. If that isn't a fucking miracle then I don't fuckin' know anymore.
I believe in the Kingdom of Arceus within all of men – even though I don't necessarily believe in Arceus. Fuck if it sounds stupid, it's profound as shit! It's coming right from in here, you know, where it really hurts, where you start speaking and you pray that the tears you can feel throbbing at the edges of your eyes won't spill. Where it is so profound and so important to you that you almost won't dare to actually say it aloud, because mere words only weakens the importance of that kind of message. A simple 'I love you' won't ever be able to express the complex rush of adrenaline and sheer emotion coursing through your body, heart and brains whenever you even think of her. Such words cannot exist, for they'd destroy what it means to be human in the first, and most primal, place.
I believe in that kind of thing.
Even if it's not for me.
Moltres rose. Out of the water. Burning like It was trying to replace the very sun with It's intensity. It had broken It's shackles, set upon It by an arrogant, mad man – sounds familiar? – and now It was rising like a beacon of liberty before and atop me. Flames vaporized water, the fires too strong to be clenched. Yet I didn't feel any heat. The fire could lick me in the face, I thought, and still I wouldn't get burned. This was not the result of some superpower on my part. This was all Moltres. It had found me worthy of It's flames.
Stupid Bird. That's all I can say to that.
I was awed all over again. Awed by the Being of Fire, awed by my own arrogance for ever thinking I could go up against something like this, and most of all I was awed by the asshole who had become able to, if only for a moment, controlling this God.
Moltres broke free of the water; It's flames becoming so bright it even hurt my eyes. It fluttered It's wings with the smallest of efforts, rose even further off the surface of the water, and swung round in place, looking down. Looking down at me. I don't know, even to this day, what I saw in It's burning gaze – beyond a lotta fire, of course – but I think (I hope) I saw forgiveness. Today, though, I think I was witness to a prophecy, not of words, mind you, but of emotions.
I think It was saddened, not by what had happened but by what was going to happen.
I think It knew. It knew.
I don't know, either, if It saw me. You know, really saw me. Saw me beyond the Helmet; saw me as I could be, and not just the man I now was. By Arceus, I hope it did. I hope it saw all the goodness within me, all the good, if given the chance, I could become. I tried, in a single look, to convey the sincerity of that goodness. I tried to be profound with my eyes.
I'll never know if It saw me.
One second we looked at each other, just staring, and the surface of the water making Moltres seem almost like a liquid fire upon the sky; it was like seeing the Creature through writhing mirrors. Two seconds the moment stretched. Five. The moment dragged out, into something of a meaning I couldn't quite make out. If I'd been holding eyes with a girl like this I'd known I wouldn't be sleeping home alone that night.
Just messing with ya, Drew.
And then the moment, quite suddenly – almost randomly – I'd say, stopped, and It turned round gracefully, leaving smoky trails of fire that could be everlasting if Moltres wanted it to, and flew away speedily, soundlessly. Otherworldly.
At that moment I became aware of myself again. I was still floating submerged beneath the surface of the water, still breathing through some kind of technology which scope I didn't dare to actually contemplate when I was even at my most insane, most fucked up, and most drunk.
Some things are just better left unexplained, I think.
I broke into a swim, making for the surface. When I reached the surface, I started to calculated how to get back to the remnants of Pallet Town. I had Charizard on me – giving myself a mental pat for my genius, as I thought it over – and made for the edge of the nearest island. It was a very rocky beach, I guess, which would have hurt my feet under normal circumstances going in. But now, as I rose out of the water myself, looking grey and naked like I'd just been baptized, nothing could hurt me.
I released Charizard, praised him for his not-so inconsiderable part in the fight, and told him to take me home as fast as inhumanly possible. My earpiece had been quiet for a long time, which told me that something must have broken during the fight – possibly just the connection (some things even the suit couldn't enhance) – but I had no doubt that Oak and especially Clement would have a fuck-ton of questions and, most likely, even more ideas.
I actually couldn't wait for that. It would make me feel almost human again. And I had a few questions and ideas of my own to brainstorm.
As I flew back on the shoulders of my great dragon, I reflected upon the sadness within Moltres eyes. It was a reflection of the sorry state of mankind. The sadness in Moltres eyes, and of this I have no doubt, was meant for the eager hatred within the hearts of men and the lust for gratification and oppression through war.
War. War fucking everywhere nowadays.
Nowadays?
It was a God that had watched our sins, though, with the eyes of a God – and It's judgment cometh harsh and cometh soon!
And that, my dear fella, is… prophecy.
Would that mean more trouble for me later? I had a bad feeling it would, for I was a man bestowed upon with great might. Or something like that.
Sometimes it feels like life's just fucking with me.
I made it back in one piece, Drew. Charizard, though it was tired and flew kind of uneven, came through for me and landed without much fuckety – and yeah, that's the word of the day!
When I arrived, my friends must have been lying in wait for me, for I'd barely even returned Charizard before my vision was blocked by brown hair.
Light brown hair! Smelling just fine! Which meant Serena – not that May's hair didn't smell just as nice. Anyway, I was a tad surprised, I must say, for I still wore the grey leathery suit, which bulged just as powerfully as ever over my arms when I wrapped my hands round her lithe waist, and held her as carefully as I could. Those bulging cords of muscles were built for fighting and killing, unfortunately, not for something so simple and wonderful as hugging.
But hugging her I did, and hugging her I'd forever do if the world would allow for that. A life spent hugging Serena as lovingly as that moment was a life not wasted. But beyond her the rest of my little gang stood and waited patiently, and the hug wasn't really as lovingly as I'd initially thought. It was a desperate hug. A hug that begged for the world to make sense again. Even May stood back and patiently let Serena hug me – she must have known she needed it. I kinda loved her for that gesture of kindness. I could still feel May's lips, hot and raw against mine. Her taste would forever be upon my mind. Sometimes, eidetic memory does have its upsides. This was, however, not one of them. Good memories and good dreams can become like a haunted fragment of something better-left-forgotten. Can become like pieces of glass in your head, hurting you with their pointy edges.
After a moment or two stretching into three were spent hugging, we finally separated. And with a simple thought the skin of my suit unraveled before their eyes, revealing my body like a Christmas gift coming undone by itself. Still wearing my clothes, of course. Get your mind straight, Drew!
Serena, adjusting her hair fretfully and wiping at her eyes, then held me at arms length and studied me with careful eyes. Like she was afraid I was too frail for a hard look. When she saw no wounds upon my face and no blood pouring ghastly from my body beneath my clothes, she gave me a look of pure, murderous rage. So fierce and so sudden I almost took a step back. She'd always had that, you know. The look. I won't say it could make me cower away in blood-pulsing fear, for nothing could that. Not anymore. But it was a look that said I was in trouble and I oughta know that.
Mostly, deep down, it was a look of love and I ought to be thankful for that. I didn't deserve it.
She gave me that look for just the briefest of moments, then turned, with the grace of royalty (nose in the air and all) and went inside. I blinked, shared a look with Oak, Clement, and May, looked for and found no compassion, and went in after her.
What I did find in their eyes, however, actually, I must say, scared me a little, for the fight had only just begun, after all, and they couldn't be thinking about quitting already. Could they? If they'd grown some sense, then sure they could. Actually, they must have been thinking about it, favoring the idea.
I found fear and doubt and a need for it all to be over and the world to make sense again within their eyes. By the Master! Those looks almost made me wish I was a man capable of tears again, for tears can sometimes say all the things our hearts cannot.
Fear. Rage. Love. Hate. I cannot suppress it. Not anymore. Welcome to the war, they said by not saying anything. And what a welcome it is. I see a land under siege - a people apprehended by something invisible. Invisible chains spun round our waists, weighting us down with our own misery. It never occurred to me, and it might not have occurred to you, either. It must have slipped right by you. It must have.
Not Serena, nor May, nor Clement, nor even the old man spoke a word to me when I arrived. Not out of fear, though they were fearful enough, but because they finally understood just what they were looking at. Not me. Not the man I once was. The man they had known so well. They saw me standing in the suit. Naked and grey. Like a confession to sins beyond human comprehension. She, Serena, hugged me whilst I was in the suit, which she wouldn't have dared just a few days before. They saw me for what I now had become, and not what I could be, if given the opportunity. My fight with Moltres, a beast beyond human comprehension, must have had a scarily awesome and profound effect upon their vision of me.
A most changing effect, indeed.
Serena hugged me to cleanse me of it.
Serena failed, as she knew she would. There's no escaping for this lad, my good fella. This boy's going to war!
They were giving up on me. Pure and simple. Their silence was like a whispered breath of prophecy, promising I'd become a lonely man... filled with regret... wasting a lifetime of opportunities because I, in my blinding rage, could not see reason, could not see the monster I'd become. Or perhaps I could see it – yes, I fuckin' could – but I chose not to, because fear, because rage, because love, and because hate are my only guidance. The only things which can make the world right to my eyes.
I've wasted opportunities of a lifetime in this lifetime of opportunities. Does that even make any fucking sense whatsoever? You look confused, buddy. Don't be that. Be glad if you don't understand. Be happy, for hope shall spring eternal for those with the will to conquer indomitable odds within their hearts.
They didn't speak a word to me as I stepped in. May, her warm and soft lips still fresh upon my mind, looked, not quite like she was seeing a stranger, but seeing a man she wished, with all of her heart, was different. I could question what a girl like that saw in a guy like me? I've asked that question before, haven't I? A girl so fresh and pure, not worn down by the evilness of the world. How can a girl like that, who is smart enough to see the ugliness in the edges of my soul, live with the haunted look in my eyes, live with the look of a man who has become lost in his own suffering, lost in his own dreams of grandeur? A man, though maybe not of evil, who can nonetheless commit murder of innocence with the worst of 'em.
You see? I feared that silence, for I knew that silence. Knew it better than they themselves knew it. It was a prophecy of silence. A prophecy of innocence lost and memories shattered.
My life seems beset with condemning prophecies, huh?
Oak, too, for all his greatness and simple but insightful understanding of the human nature, for all his own pain which had granted him such a vast life experience, could not, sufficiently I must say, understand - or rather appreciate - my predicament.
Pain consumes you, Drew, turning to rage that then consumes you even more. Turning to vengeance which becomes eternal. VENGEANCE! It's a vicious circle you cannot get out of once entered, Drew. The only thing you can do, the only thing that can save you, is giving all that rage and pain a target – conjure a purpose for your own suffering, lest the man shall become a monster.
Finding Purpose in Hell, my friend. Or, if you cannot find any, then just conjure it out of your fucking ass.
"It strikes me," I said, scratching my head in mock-puzzlement, with a lazy grin, "that there's a substantial amount of bullshit going round in this very room in this very particular moment of time."
"Don't be a hoot, Ash – not right now," Oak said, running a gaunt hand over his tired eyes, frustration and weariness and goddamn fear bleeding off his body. "We need you to take this serious now, son."
"I'm always serious," I said – dead-seriously (Haha), "even when it doesn't seem so."
It had finally occurred to me that something was wrong, that my friends didn't quite seem to meet my eyes, and that they didn't quite want to even talk with me. I didn't understand at the time why. I thought maybe they had been scared, rightly so, by the fight with Moltres. They must have understood the seriousness of the situation if whoever controlled the Pokémon could control something of that magnitude.
The point was, of course, that it was me who couldn't fathom the seriousness of our situation. Call it arrogance, pride fucking with my stride, or whatever. I just couldn't see it at the time.
We were sitting on the couches in the living room – the lab had seemed far too audacious for our current state of minds – and we were having a nice spot of tea. Talking aimlessly in low voices (like we were afraid the walls would have ears and those ears would go on to tell the ears of the world of our illicit secrets) about nothing in particular, circling the subject, of which I had no doubt would soon resurface again.
"We have to stop this."
Ah, and there it was again.
I blinked, caught up within the confinements of my own mind for second, and turned to look upon the source of the voice. It was Clement of all people who had spoken up. Clement? For a moment my mind seemed content with being in another dimension in another plane of existence. Contentment, which had slowly been filling me ever since I got back, slipped out of me like water in a sieve, replaced by a big flare of anger. Such a sudden change I had no possible way of containing it. Only give it a goal, lest it would overcome me.
Clement!
"Stop what?" I said, shaking my head, trying to get the idea of another dimension out of my fuckin' head. But you know the funny thing about ideas are? Once they take ahold of you, seldom do they leave you again. "Stop what, you fucker?"
"Ash!" Oak cried, outraged by my sudden outburst. "That was uncalled for!"
I ignored him. "Stop what, you fucker!" I repeated, my voice low and cold. Inhuman, almost. I was angry, consumed with rage for reasons I couldn't fathom. "If you're so smart, then tell me how to stop him, you fucker! Tell me!" I would have called him something else than 'you fucker', too, but my imagination didn't seem able to conjure up another word for him at the present moment in time. Scary and weird, really, with the increased vocabulary I now possessed and all.
Oh well.
Serena, seeing now was not the time to push me, tried to be reasonable about it. "We've all been under a lot of stress lately, Ash – especially you. We know that. But taking it out on-"
"Shut up, Serena," I said, and she fell silent. But I'd hurt her – I could see it in the way she shrank back from me, the way her hand, which had been hovering close to my shoulder, retreated back and away; but mostly I could see it in her eyes. They weren't quite crying but oh, they were close. That shoulda made me feel all kinds of bad, but Clement needed to learn that words alone is sometimes not enough. Or that was my excuse. Looking back, it's obvious I just wanted somebody to take it out on. Reaching for a purpose in Hell. "If he's got something to say, Serena," I said, "then he oughta say it instead of just blue-balling us." I turned my eyes upon Clement again, some of the heat leaving me, for I knew the look in his eyes. "Something tells me he's got something cocking inside that brains of his."
Clement nodded, fearful yet determined. I liked him for that, even respected him for it. More of my anger receded into the deepest vestiges of my mind, where I could control it again. The burst of anger was dispelled as frighteningly fast as it had burst free. "I do, Ash – I think I have an idea. A good idea."
"Well," I said, "let's hear it, shall we?"
He told us his idea.
It wasn't a good idea.
It was fuckin' brilliant!
It wasn't until later I noticed May hadn't said anything the entire time. Not a single word. She never even made a single sound.
Standing atop the buildings of Saffron, where Charizard had put me moments ago (only possible because the city's security systems were still out of order after the attack), I had a good view over the whole damn city. All the noises, buzzing, blaring, screaming through the air from the ground to me. All the smells, used and worn and almost leathery – with a faint aroma of coal, like the charred remnants of my fight with the monsters, though you couldn't really see it anymore, hadn't quite left the city – it was like there were too many people living too close to each other for the air to strive properly.
I had arrived in my suit, because Charizard had dropped me from far up into the air, lest some passerby would discover a great dragon carrying a man to the top of Silph Co. building – which would make some alarm bells ring, security systems or not. To survive the fall, I had to wear my suit. But now it was off, and I wouldn't take it on again before the mission was a go, as was the plan of Clement.
"Oh fuck," I whispered, shaking my head, trying to rid it of all the noises and smells. Too many fucking people gathered at the same place, all walking throughout the motion of their days, trying to make all their little banalities seem important to each other.
Like sheep getting hurdled to the final slaughterhouse!
The air seemed like it was gasping for breath, too, dying. Dying.
Dying?
Oh. Fuck.
Saffron City was a vastly different city from the city I had visited only a few days ago. Those few days felt like months and years spent in exile. Like the world had went and got itself in a big, damn hurry whilst I was gone. On the street below me, Liberty Street, a crack started forming in the ground, soundlessly yet screaming at me, black and formless yet with clear intent to break the world in half. Forming quickly and sporadically like an earthquake. It grew and grew and...
For a moment I was afraid it was going to grow so large it would swallow the skyscraper I stood on, but then it stopped expanding and then something worse happened. Out of the blackness, a cadaver rose like a silhouette of nightmare. The framing of the street lights made so you couldn't quite make out its form, but it had a distinguished humanoid shadow trailing behind it as it shambled with frail limps hanging loosely in thin cords and threads.
I swallowed, my heartbeat skipping, my eyes wide, and sweat starting to form on my forehead beneath the helmet. Goddammit, I remembered smelling the foul air a second ago, remembered hearing all those sounds of lives living and lives wasted – now there was just a big fucking nothing. Nothing but the dead body shambling impossibly into the light of the street lamb. It was a human, and even from the rooftop I could see it was a human I knew.
It was me. Ash fucking Ketchum.
My jaw, normally firm and powerful, hung loosely, quite like my mouth was hanging open in a constant state of shock, or some fucker had sucker-punch me so motherfucking hard it goddamn broke to pieces! My eyes had burst, hanging downwards in thin, slimy threads, like I was looking with the utmost of fascination on something on the ground. My right side had been torn asunder, the whole arm gone, most of the leg hanging in fleshy shambles, looking like it was only my clothes which kept it somewhat in place.
I was a dead-man-walking. The monster within coming to life at last. Out to wage havoc upon the forsaken face of Saffron City. One last motherfucker coming your way, people of Saffron! Once more into the fray!
"Ash? Ash! Do we have a problem? Are we on already?" Oak almost yelled into my ear, and I only then realized I was wearing the suit again. Only I didn't remember saying the password, didn't remember even thinking of it. I must have said it, though, right? I must! "IS HE THERE, ASH? TELL ME, GODDAMMIT!"
"NO!" I gasped out, and willed it all to stop - and for a wonder the lords of creation actually listening for once. For the suit retreated off my skin in an angry flare of light, all the maddening sounds and fetid smells returned, making me feel alive and whole, and the cadaver of Ash Ketchum and the crack in the ground – or crack in the very fabric of reality – concealing the ethereal blackness disappeared, too.
I stood there, atop the city like the king of all, gasping for breath, gasping for a life worth living, gasping for sanity. I was scared shitless! That I was seeing things didn't really concern me much at that point in time. I must have been going crazier and crazier for years. It was only a question of time before something made me crack, I guess. But seeing the suit, without my knowledge, spring onto my skin and ready for action was most unsettling. I still remembered how it had taken control back in the Pokémon league's HQ. What if it took control in the middle of the city and went on a rampage? Could I stop it then? The very thought of it all made me shiver in the heat of the sun.
"Yes," I said, nodding vigorously. "Of course I can. I must stop it. I must. I must. I must!"
Do you really believe that, Guardian of Aura?
"Shut up, Aaron!" I snarled.
You're gonna die alone. It is the faith of man. Especially men like us, Guardian.
"I'm not even gonna dignify that with an answer."
Isn't that an answer in and of itself. Isn't that enough?
I blinked, frowning. "Eh...?" I uttered. "I said, shut up!"
My phone vibrated, ending my argument. When I answered it, Oak started speaking rapidly.
"Yeah, I'm fine - nothing to worry about. We are fine," I said, interrupting him before he got going.
"Oh." I couldn't be sure, but Oak almost sounded disappointed. Going to war could become like a drug, I suppose. Addictive as hell. "Then don't give me such a fright! My poor heart cannot stand for all the excitement, son."
I managed a rough laugh, which might have sounded like crying if I had been of a sound mind. "Yes, sir." I ended the call without saying goodbye. We had a job to do, and a brilliant plan to bring to life. I stood atop Silph Co., where it all began, I guess, seeing no monsters anymore. The plan was simple, as the most brilliant of planes often are, and required only a couple of things: scare-tactic, false-reassurance, some B&E - that's breaking in and entering to you – and May.
Easy-peasy.
I walked to the stairwell, finding the door closed. No matter. It was expected. I lifted my hand to the door handle, a blue glow like fire within the palm of my hand, and the handle (made of steel, by the way) dissolved away like vapor. I didn't need no power suit for this shit! Burned and scorched by my Aura, man! Now the door was open and free. When I opened it, the plan would commence.
"The Aura is with me," I whispered, feeling like I was uttering some intricate spell.
For all I know that's exactly what it is.
Anyway, the suit obeyed my command this time, and once again I became a Guardian.
I touched my hand to where my ear used to be. "Everybody ready?"
"Ash! What the Hell happened?" May. Distressed. "I thought the mission was a go. I almost got in trouble with the janitor. Luckily, I know him and he's got this crush on me and-"
"Did you have to flash him, May?" I said. Dead-serious.
"What, no!" Now she sounded outraged, and I suppressed a chuckle. "How could you even – oh! You're joking again."
"Very astute of you, miss Hutton," I said. "You okay and ready?"
"Yes. But, Ash, I do not like this."
"Neither do I," I lied, and I think, deep down, May was lying, as well. She kinda liked this, I think. I must admit I was warming up to the idea of breaking into somebody's office again. A powerful somebody! "But we must do this," I added. "We must. We've been over this, May."
"Yeah, yeah – I know," she said. "You don't have to cuddle me, you know."
"I know." I looked up, past the entrance to the stairwell, past two skyscrapers, zooming in on a silhouette crouching over a computer atop another building with the face of the sun beating down his neck. I knew how much he hated being out when the sun was high and warm like now. "You ready for this, Clement? When I step inside this building, I'm gonna be made in three seconds if you're not absolutely sure about this."
He lifted his hand and waved to me. "Ready in a sec, Ash – just hold on, dammit!"
"Good. Serena," I said, speaking to the last member of this operation, "keep the engine going, sweetheart. If things goes south, May and Clement will need you to give 'em a lift out of town."
"You sure you're not going with us?" she asked, her voice not betraying the worry she must have felt.
"Yes," I said, nodding even though she couldn't see it. "If they're gonna rain fire from above – they are gonna do it at me. You must slip away whilst they're hunting for me. Right, Oak, my man?"
"He's right, Serena," Oak said. He was sitting in his lab back in Pallet Town, and thus the only one looking through my visor with me. "Ash can take care of himself. You need to worry about yourself, May, and Clement if… if they're gonna rain fire from above as Ash puts it."
Clement drew in a breath of resignation. "Oh, I'm not cut out for this kind of thing."
At least, I reflected, he didn't say 'oh, I didn't sign up for this!' I fuckin' hate it when the cops do it in the movies. 'I didn't sign up for catching this killer' and 'I didn't sign up to catch this rapist!' Just fuckin' stupid line, that, for that's exactly what they've signed up for, right? Or am I the only one getting bothered by, and thinking too much into, such lines in movies?
Anyway, I answered Clement with unrelenting truthfulness, "Yeah, you're not cut out for this, Clement," I said. "Which is exactly why it's going to work."
"That's… not really a logic I understand," he said, and I could almost hear his frown.
"Don't question the powers that be, my friend," I said, "not when you're on a roll like you must be with this idea. Just go with the flow."
"Not really comforting."
I sighed. "If you're too confident, as most people who are 'cut out for it' usually are, then you might end up slipping in your own arrogance and make mistakes." Just look at me, dammit, I thought. "You're gonna be fine. Trust me."
"If you say so, Ash."
"I do, and trust me." I frowned. "Well, Clement – ready whenever you are."
"I am ready." The way he said it, so ceremoniously, like he did a job for the Almighty Kingdom of the Sinnoh of Old – Ha, it almost made me burst out laughing. Thankfully, I managed to hold it in. The poor kid was too nervous to handle it if I started laughing at him now.
"Good," I said, and thanked Arceus that you couldn't hear the laugh in my voice. "May?"
"Ready whenever you are, babe."
"Oh, I like the sound of that," I said. "Oak? Getting the feed?"
"Yes. Come on, now! Bring it on!" So he was fucking excited. "The suspense is literally killing me."
"Don't go and get yourself a stroke, old man," I said, with a chuckle. "Serena? Ready?"
"The car's burning gas as we speak."
"Okay then." I paused for dramatic effect, waiting for the moment to come. It must have slipped by me, for I wasn't feeling it. No matter. "Do it now, Clement - take out the cameras."
One beat of a heart and a thousands thoughts of plans gone wrong later. "Done!"
And we were on, moving onwards into the great dangers of the unknown.
The plan was pretty ingenious, I must say. Clement had outdone himself with the simplicity of it all. You know, the funny thing about most geniuses is that everything has to be so goddamn complex and intricate that it takes a fuckin' degree in something fucking arduously hard to master and extraordinary boring to even understand what they're trying to say.
Clement could be like that, I guess. But this time wasn't one of 'em. When I pushed him, he pushed back, and thus proved himself in a way even I didn't predict possible. You see, it is only when we are pushed to our absolute limits that we can find out how far we can reach. Clement didn't know he could understand something so simple as human nature, which had always eluded his great mind with its complexity and simplicity wrapped in one fucked-up package. But when pushed, he understood – and adapted his mindset to its random madness.
He was a far greater genius than anybody had dared to believe. Than he himself had dared to believe. For that he could be proud. You'll see, he had understood a fundamental error in the human mind, and found ways to explore it.
May, though she still seemed cold and distant to me, was warming up. I guess the idea of breaking into one of her boss's boss kinda turned her on in some, no doubt, morbid – and fucking hot – way. I didn't question her motives, seeing no reason for it.
Serena would go through fire for me, I knew, and for that I loved her dearly – loved her, as I imagine, only I was capable of. But she had her problems with this, too, for it went against her very nature and moral code of honor. We were not only breaking into Silph Co., but ultimately we were there to deceive 'em. We were there to plant an idea so preposterous – and yet so horrible it must be the truth – it could grant us favors for the precious time to come.
Had I been given a week more, and with all the facts laid bare to my eyes, I would myself had come up with a similar plan, for it was risky, and it was most definitely arrogant.
But it was still fuckin' brilliant.
Of course, I do not think Clement saw it as a plan of arrogance. More, I think, he saw it as a plan of necessity. We had been pushed into action by the enemy, pushed into a corner with no friends amongst the general populations. We had to move. Clement realized that, too. But we were playing with the lives of others, and the heart of another man. That is – no matter how you look at it – arrogant actions.
When a man is pushed into a corner, he can become a monster. Purpose or no purpose. And a monster with a purpose is a creature of indestructibility, for he shall stop at nothing to achieve success.
Right at that moment, we five people – call us Freedom Fighters, if you like – the five of us together made that terrible but oh, so necessary monster.
His judgment cometh harsh, and it cometh soon!
"His judgment cometh harsh, and it cometh soon," I whispered without meaning to, without understanding why.
"Sorry," Clement said, "didn't catch you, Ash."
"Neither did I." I shook my head. "No matter. Get it done."
"Two seconds..."
It didn't take one, I'd wager. The lights in the stairwell before me blinked out of existence for a second, then appeared again, somewhat dimmed. If everything had gone according to plan, which I had no reason to doubt, then Clement had just frozen their camera recorders. In time the security personal would, no doubt, start to get wise to our clever tricks, but if we made haste, as we planned on doing, then I'd make it to the office before anyone sounded the alarm.
This was, after all, the section of the President. Seldom did the employees ever go into this section, and as long as the cameras never caught anything of peculiar interest, then why would the security personal be there? Simple yet brilliant. Brilliantly stupid is more like it.
"You can go now, Ash – the feed connection has been established," Clement said. "Successfully," he added as an afterthought.
That was the very reason why Clement was upon the rooftop so very near the crime scene. To make it easier to establish – and keep check on – the feed. The only reason why he wasn't upon this particular rooftop was because it would be a helluva lot easier to escape unseen from the building next to the break-in than the very building itself.
"I am moving from topside to bottom," I said. "Get in position, May."
"I am there in ten seconds," she said.
"Okay – I'll race ya!" I said, grinning.
"Ash," May said, almost with a condescending tone of voice, though I could hear some delightedness in her voice again – she always liked it when I teased her, "it's 103-story skyscraper. There must be millions of steps on that stairwell!"
"Perhaps, though I was only planning on taking two steps."
"What? Oh, no…"
I took two steps – as promised – more like a running leap, and jumped over the railing, and plunged straight down, falling fast like a blue shooting star amongst the twisting stairwell. For you see, in my free fall, endorphins were released into my system and into the suit, and the grey skin of my suit gained an angry glow of blue, making me look quite like a shooting star. Aura rained down through the stairs, and I fell and fell and laughed pure madness all the way. Seeking May with my Aura I made sure she wouldn't be standing right below me as I hit the ground. She wasn't. She was, in fact, hiding behind the wall of the corridor leading into the stairwell. Good, then I could make my entrance truly ground-shaking.
I narrowed my body, zooming with vastly greater speed towards the ground. Had I not been wearing my visor, my eyes would have been watering by the sheer speed I now fell, and I would have missed all the destruction and burned stairs the Pokémon had left behind when they last attacked. The staircase, which had once been grey, boring, and feature-less, was now black, scorched, and still feature-less. My Aura was pushing me onwards, though, helping me in my pursuit of speed and wreckage.
I hit the ground hard, harder, hardest, and landed upon one knee. Shaking my head like I was trying to rid myself of a bothersome fly, I rose from my position on one knee and jumped out of the small crater my heavy form had left behind.
And, though I really wanted to, there was no time to admire my landing and what it had created, for May sprung out from behind the wall, face white with fright and eyes wide with rage – God, she was all kinds of sexy.
"You - you… you!" she sputtered, for a wonder at a loss for words. "You utter bastards!" she went wide of the crater, not sparing it a moment's look – probably thinking if she stopped to consider the force of the impact she would lose her rage – and came to stand before me, hand raised and finger jabbing into my chest like I was a simple schoolboy getting told off. "Never do that while I'm next to you! Got it? The first time nearly broke my heart!"
That actually made me feel kinda bad – only a little – but it, of course, went unseen beneath my mask.
"But, May," I began, whining in my suit of awesomeness before a girl half my size, "walking would have taken forever, and I was just-"
"Come on!" She pushed past me and went to the special elevator. The elevator that would take us to the office of the President of Silp Cooperation. Our part goal for this mission.
"If he rats on you, I'll fall with you, you know," she said, as she typed in the password on the keypad hanging on the wall beside the elevator. "I'll lose my job, and will be hunted for treason or worse for collaborating with you." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than me that this was a stupid idea. And failing at that. "Arceus Above, I hope he takes the idea."
"He will," I said. "It's a good idea. And it has the potential, like all good ideas, to become like a contagious virus you just can't get rid off. It will grow on him the moment he becomes fearful enough – and he shall know fear intimately today."
May looked at me. "You are not gonna hurt him. Are you?"
The fact that she had to ask that question spoke of my derangement. Spoke of the light she had come to view me in.
"No," I said, "his body won't suffer any harm." His mind, on the other hand, will be broken beyond repair.
The keypad, shinning purple, accepted the password May gave it. That wasn't all the requirements needed, though – if it had only been that easy May wouldn't really have been needed on this operation. The keypad shone green, then yellow and a mark pattern was displayed. May had said she'd got this covered, and I believed that when she said it. But now, looking at that square field upon the keypad, I couldn't for the life of me figuring out what we were supposed to do.
Luckily for me, I had May, and she knew exactly what we had to do. She touched the square area with her thumb, and the keypad flashed red, scanning her fingermarks… and something else, which I didn't have a goddamn clue what was.
"Identification of my DNA and test of my heartbeat," she explained upon seeing my curious gaze. "You know – in case some asshole should cut my arm off to use it and get access."
"Ah, yeah." I nodded, as if that was perfectly normal. "Seen that movie."
The red, scanning light turned green and confirmed that she was indeed May Hutton. And that she was indeed alive. A picture of her grew on the keypad, on which she was smiling innocently – in stark contrast to her actions now. That picture signaled, as we'd known going in, just who had entered and when the person had entered. They'd know it was May who helped me if we failed the second part of the mission.
If I failed.
May turned to me as the door opened before us, looking at me imploringly. "Please, Ash, do not let this be for nothing."
I nodded and stepped onto the elevator, feeling May turn and run back out to the street, where Serena would be sitting in a car waiting for her. I hoped Clement was on his way down, too. I hoped they'd make it out of town.
I hoped I would, as well – without having to fight again.
I tensed my muscles and prepared my Aura, for things were seldom that easy. Stepping onto the elevator, clearing my mind of all thoughts of fear and things-that-might-go-wrong, I pushed the only button there was, and watched in silence as the doors closed soundlessly in front of me.
I was coming.
Love's a foolish man's game. That shit will only break you.
When a girl have the power to level you with her gaze alone, it is best to just get the fuck away from her, unless you're prepared to sacrifice everything for her, lest you are prepared to work for her. The problem is… when you try to move on from her, I mean… you're kinda stuck in the feeling.
And it is a good feeling.
When I first saw Serena, I didn't fall in love with her. I barely even desired her. Oh, she was good-looking, in that modest kinda way of hers. But she wasn't a knock-out. She wasn't a drop-dead gorgeous girl you just couldn't take your eyes off. She was, in all the best ways, just an ordinary girl with kind eyes.
Blue eyes that could level me with a single gaze of kindness. That's Serena.
She came to my hometown with her parents for a few months every summer when she was sixteen and a little older than me, until she decided to move to Kanto when she turned eighteen. We were always together those summers, and slowly, though I didn't know it, I fell in love with those soft blue eyes. The color of the irises is actually a light blue, I quickly noticed, but they appear darker than they are because of a dark-blue ring round the edges of her irises. She always found it funny that her eyes were like that, and I always pretended I never saw it before she mentioned it.
I don't know – guess I felt it must have made me look like a pussy or something if I had said it. As I said, it is often the hardest things in life speaking about those things that might reveal just how vulnerable you really are. Those things so important to you, you're afraid you might cry when putting words onto them.
In some ways I knew it was dangerous getting so close to her. She was an ordinary girl, wanting an ordinary life. I was just the opposite. I wanted fame and power, wanted my name written in the stars – to become a legend. To get away from all the mediocrity and pain of my upbringing.
Look where that got me.
Love's a foolish man's game. Master Above, but I wish I was a fool. A fool ready to risk getting tearful when I told her how much I loved her and how much it hurt being away. All those things, you know, that we are too afraid of to tell each other, because it will give them power over you if they knew. Those big things that little words seem to diminish in size. Those things that can save your amputated soul.
Those things that makes a life worth living.
The elevator doors clicked open, and I could step out onto the top level of the building. The secret room where only those with clearance or special permission were allowed. When I stepped out of the door, it locked behind me, leaving me in a single, barely lit corridor leading up to an impressive-looking office door. Encased in fine, rich golden-brown wood, carved in an elegant arch over the door, it seemed almost like a gate leading into another world of wonders. Upon the wood of the door, brown and without cuts or marks, was two simple words printed: THE PRESIDENT.
Well, that's not at all pretentious, I thought, swallowing. Now that I was here I felt a certain amount of apprehension for this. Thinking about the man – who was innocent for all I knew – which life I was about to taint with the ugliness of my life. Every step closer to the door I walked, the nervous feeling increased. This was something I couldn't use all my strength and powerful recourses to handle. This needed my brain.
"He has tried the phone three times now," Clement said. In the background, I could hear the traffic of Saffron clearly. Good. That meant he was in the car with the girls now, getting away. "They are wise to our act. In a second, I'll be too far away to block his signal, Ash. You'll have to confront him soon."
"I'm at the door now," I whispered back. "Does he know of May's involvement?" I asked, though I think I knew the answer.
"He must," Clement said. "He must. I couldn't block the information being transmitted directly to his personal computer. He must have known from the moment she opened the door for you."
"As we had calculated he would," I said soothingly. "Nothing to fear – your plan is sound, my friend. It will work." It must. I frowned. "Get outta the city, guys – I'll be along presently. Have no worry about that. See you in Pallet Town. I'm gonna break the connection for a bit, okay?"
I didn't wait for their permission, and broke the connection with a simple thought. To succeed here, I had to do it by myself. Call it pride fucking with my stride, or arrogance or whatever. I had to do this alone.
I opened the door and entered the stranger's office like I owned it. For the next ten minutes or so I did own it, better make sure the only occupant of the room understood that.
It was an impeccable office. Nothing seemed the least bit out of place or thrown along without the utmost of consideration. There were no personal effects to tell you at least something of the owner of the room. No shelves filled with exotic books of the owner's favorite subjects. No pictures of loved ones hanging on the walls. Nothing. Just a big, fuckin' emptiness.
There was a desk with a laptop, of course. A great oak desk just as stylishly cut as the door to the office. I'd never seen the laptop before (and the database of the suit wasn't able to identify the brand, either) so I assumed that it was a costume made one. The president of Silph Co. had the power to get his hands on such an object, no doubt.
The man himself was no different. He was old, and looked older than he probably was. But he was a man of power; of that there could be no doubt. When I barged into the room, he just sat back, folded his hands together beneath his chin, and looked expectantly up at me. Like he had been waiting for me all day. His movements, sloppy, slow, uncoordinated, suggested not a man without the ability to take care of himself, but a man who had become so powerful he didn't need to take care how he moved. The very aura of him suggested a man so accustomed to power he automatically received it when he entered a room.
His grey hair was combed back perfectly, his green eyes powerful and penetrating. His belly was fat and sloped down over his belt. I guessed if he didn't have the tight shirt on, it would look even bigger. He was, by no means whatsoever, an attractive man, but I don't think he ever cared about being it.
He got his pussy by other means, if I should put it crudely.
"Well, look at this," he said, drawling the words richly from his thick lips, "if it isn't the new species."
My frown went unseen by him. "I am no Pokémon," I said. "Which, I think, you already knew."
"Indeed." He looked down at his laptop, studying it. "You must have some powerful friends, eh? That suit couldn't have been easy, or for that matter cheap, to make? And May don't usually hang around with... meager friends. Did you know there were rumors she was even seeing Ash Ketchum at one point? You must know who that is, right? I mean, he's only considered among the greatest talent in the League Divisions of all time."
"I am familiar with the name, yes," I said, trying to keep the unease out of my voice, lest it might expose me. Yet I couldn't help but wonder if he knew somehow? Or was the mention of my name merely a coincidence? Stranger things had happened, but I'd never be sure. "What makes you think I didn't design this myself?"
He drummed his left index fingers against his lips in consideration, studying me carefully with his cold eyes. "You don't wear it like property, son," he said at last. "You wear it like a man wondering why it must be you wearing it at all."
"I am apt at disguising my true nature."
"Of course you are. You strike me like a creature who are apt at a lot of things."
The use of the word 'creature' instead of 'man' didn't escape my notice. "It's comfortable for you to label me as a creature, isn't it?"
"Oh, it's very comfortable for me."
"Makes it easier, doesn't it?"
"No." He frowned, like he had just discovered something particularly awful. Like his fascination just ran out, and he discovered to whom he was speaking. "It doesn't. Your crimes against this city – against my city – shall not be forgotten. Why are you here? To kill me?"
"Kill you?" This time I didn't manage to keep to surprise out of my voice. "Why would I wanna kill you?"
He suddenly smiled, leaning back again. "You never answered my question."
"You never answered mine."
"I asked first," he said, smiling broader.
"I'm not here to play fuckin' games!" I snarled, bringing my fist down upon his desk harshly. It split apart under my hand, breaking in two pieces, and the laptop was caught right in the middle and fell to the ground, shattering to pieces. Cheap shit!
The President didn't even blink. Didn't even make a sound. But he did stop smiling.
"No," he said, "we are not." He paused, and scratched his temple. "Which is why I want you to answer my question."
"Fine." I sighed. "What's the question again?"
"Your suit, my boy – I say 'my boy' because you sound a little young, I hope it's okay – your suit is obviously a highly advanced piece of equipment. Something that not just anybody could have made. Or afford, for that matter. My question is who made it for you? I'd also like to know why they chose you to wear it, seeing your obvious discomfort within it, I mean. But I do not think you'll wanna answer that one."
"Arceus," I said.
He blinked, and for the first time I saw something other than cool indifference spread over his face. Annoyance. It gave me a certain amount of satisfaction knowing I was pissing him off. Even though that was kinda counterproductive to my goal. If May and the others had been looking on, and I hadn't broken the connection, they'd no doubt be in the middle of telling me how stupid I was for risking the mission with my big mouth and careless words.
"I'm sorry," he said, regaining some of his patience and posture. "I didn't quite get that."
"Arceus," I repeated. "The suit was made by Arceus."
"If you insist on bullshittin' me, then I think this meeting is over, my little friend."
"I'm not bullshitting you, Mr. President." I paused. "To the best of my knowledge, this was made by Arceus."
"Then your knowledge is insufficient."
"Of that we can agree completely."
He leaned forward in his seat, his body moving in between the two sides of his once pure and whole desk. "Why are you here, creature? If not to kill me, then I cannot see what for. Surely, you must know you can't bribe me."
I ignored his meaningless speculation. "I'm here to warn you of the dangers coming your way." I paused, thinking, and to explore your name to my means. "As long as you have a Master Ball within the confinements of this building, attacks like the one at the party the other day will continue coming, only growing in magnitude with time."
"We do not have a Master Ball here in Silph Cooperation," he said. "It was only a fanatic rumor started by the press."
I didn't believe him, but that didn't really matter. "Be that as it may, my little friend," I said, "rumors can be a powerful thing, and the man who attacked you before will do so again. Only next time I might not be there to stop it. And then Saffron will burn to the ground."
"Stop it? Stop it!" He laughed. "I'm sorry, son – but you didn't really seem to stop it as much as… furthering it along."
"You ungrateful son of a-" I stopped when I saw the triumphant glint in his eyes as I was about to lose my cool, taking deep breaths. "Never mind what you think you know." I paused, thinking of his cold indifference to me. It suddenly all made sense. Clement's plan had been perfect. Clement had known this guy's weak spot just by reading the quotes of this fucker! "You care a great deal for this city, don't you?"
"Of course," he said, seeing no harm done in admitting that well-known fact. "I was born and raised in this city. It has shaped me into the man I am today. I owe it everything."
I recognized some of those words from the quotes Clement had shown me. "Then you don't want it to endure any more harm, do you?" I asked. "Beyond what it's already endured, I mean."
"You cannot convince me to help you in whatever endeavors you've got inside that brains of yours," he said. "And you cannot threaten me," he added harshly. "No doubt it will only lead to the ruination of Saffron City."
"I'm not threatening you any. I'm making a fucking guarantee!" I snarled. "Saffron will burn if you do not heed my words." I paused for dramatic effect. "Just hear me out, and if you then think me crazy, I'll leave you alone," I said. "Though I daresay a rational mind will wonder why I was even here if not with pure intentions when I'm finished."
Clement had told me of the rumors surrounding the President. The rumors of his love for Saffron City. It was love, and love was a weakness that could be explored through fear.
"Okay, I'll bite," he said. "Impress me."
I tilted my head to the side for a moment, impressed, despite my best intentions, by the man. "You didn't fear I was going to kill you?"
"Scared shitless," he admitted without shame. "Though I reasoned that if you wanted to kill me, you'd have done it upon entering my office."
And with that logic, I could find no fault. So I started telling him about the prophecy I'd seen within the eyes of my friends, within the eyes of the God, and within the nightmares of my life. Omitting careful facts, and giving the man just enough so he'd draw the conclusion I wanted him to. The man controlling the Pokémon, which he knew deep down wasn't me because they had attacked me, too, must be after either me or Silph Cooperation. Then I told him what an army of insane Pokémon could do to Saffron City. It wasn't hard for him to imagine or believe. He had, after all, seen it happen only a few days before. When I had him good and scared, his soul scarred for life with the ugliness of the world as I saw it, then I told him about Clement's plan. It took no less than ten minutes, as Clement had predicted. When I was done, the President of Silph Cooperation – one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world – was in the palm of my hand.
"You think that might work?" he asked.
"Yes. The man controlling the Pokémon knows of my identity. The only reason he would attack Saffron would be because of the Master Ball or because of me, as I've already said. I think it was because of the Master Ball, but I have no prove to support that claim. Not yet, at least." I paused, and drew a breath, playing it for the dramatic effect. "But if we give him both – Master Ball and me – I might just be able to lure him out."
"He would come for you, you think?"
"He did so yesterday. I must be getting close. There was a certain level of desperation within that attack." And there had been a certain measure of desperation within that attack. He had, after all, revealed some, if not all, of his hand to me when he could have played it safe and still be an enigma. Both his purpose and his hatred would be unknown. Now I knew some. I knew plenty.
"But how will you get him," The President said, "when he'll just sent his Pokémon into the fight?"
"My accomplish says that in order to maximize the effects upon the minds of the Pokémon, he has to be close by during the attacks. On the night of the attack in Saffron, he was within the city – possibly even inside this very building."
"So you wanna give him a target," The President said wonderingly, "to lure him out in the open and then, what, track the source of the signal?"
I nodded. "Something like that."
"It's bold, though I have a few issues with that."
"What's that?" I asked, thinking I almost had him.
"If you're gonna be off trying to find him while this army of Pokémon's gonna strike, then who's gonna fight them?" he asked, not really any heat in his voice, just honest curiosity. "I saw the devastation these creatures were capable off – we could get the League to support us, I suppose-"
"They won't help you if you associate yourself with me, which you are gonna do. In a way." I scratched my forehead. "I'm not a very popular figure in the eyes of the League right now."
"Then how are we gonna fight the army?" he asked, puzzled. "And how are you gonna make sure my city will suffer no harm?"
I smirked, though it went unseen, of course. "Why, Mr. President, with my army, of course," I said, giggling a little at the prospect. "We shall fight them in Cerulean City, upon the open fields where, hopefully, no innocent souls shall be lost. Are you with me, Mr. President?"
"You're fucking crazy, you know that, right?" He shook his head, though, too smiling. War can be like a drug, so fuckin' addictive. And he had his beloved city to think of. "But if we shall walk into the depths of Hell, we better make sure we earned it, right? How are we gonna make sure he comes to Cerulean City?"
I, too, now noticed the use of the word 'we' instead of 'you'. I had him. I fucking had him! "We throw out the bait there, of course," I said, with my best winning smile. "And then we strike."
His judgment cometh harsh, and his judgment cometh soon!
That's another chapter done. The stage for one helluva war is about to be set, but nothing is easy for Ash and more groundwork will need to be laid out before he can have his war and we can see some Pokémon-on-Pokémon action! Yeah, that probably came out wrong, but I'm too tired and too fucked-up to change it now. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as me.
-Stjernefald