"Oh my God." Red said in disbelief as a sharp dagger seemed to have pierced his heart a familiar, striking, pang of pain. Pikachu also sat beside Ash licking his face.
"Pika-pi!" it cried with worry for its trainer as it then took off to get Delia and inform her of the incident. Red apathetically watched Pikachu dart off only focusing on his son.
"Ash...my son...Oh, God..." Red whispered as a tear gently slid down his face. He gingerly put his hand on his boy's arm. "How...how did you ever find me?" Red whispered again to himself. "HAROLD!" Red yelled sharply to "Muscle Man" consumed with anger.
"Yes, sir..." Harold said fearfully since Red was even more respected than he, Red being a Pokemon Master and former Mt. Battle champion.
"Do you have any idea who this child is!" Red screamed as the huge crowd fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.
"No, sir, who?" he asked as he quivered.
"This is my son, Wormadam it! This is Ash Ketchum, my son that I haven't laid eyes on in years...I'm so sorry, Ash... Look at what you did!" Red shouted trying to restrain himself from attacking the man who beat his son. The entire group fled the scene, seeing the rage in Red's frightful eyes. Red scooped up the broken, unconscious boy in his arms and began to head to the Pokemon Center, the closest thing to a hospital in town. Back at the ship Pikachu finally made its way to Delia, Misty and Violet then immediately, Pikachu awoke Delia .
"What is it, Pikachu? What's wrong!" Delia said in panic presuming it had to do with Ash, she then assumed the worst case scenario since Ash and Pikachu were never apart. Pikachu then mimicked Ash to portray that something had happened him as Pikachu began leading to his location.
"Something happened to my Ash?" Delia speculated, her voice cracking and Pikachu nodded to signify that she was correct and she then took after Pikachu desperate to find out what was the matter with her child. Somewhere between the Pokemon Center Delia and Red met face-to-face for the first time and much to many years. Tears welled up in Delia's eyes from all the things she was witnessing at once, she saw her husband in torn up worn down clothes with her beaten up son in his arms. Red just stopped and stared into his wife's eyes, not believing who he was looking at, the woman he loved, the woman he had torn into pieces and shattered.
"Wha-Wha-What did you do! ... What did you do to my baby!" She screamed slightly on the verge of going into hysterics as tears flowed off her cheek. She turned around to face the opposite direction of Red unable to bare the sight of him and what she believed he had done to their son then she cupped her hands over her mouth to suffocate her muffled screams of slight hysteria, she was having too much go on at once.
"Delia, I can explain, I swear this isn't what it looks like!" Red said defensively as he painfully watched his wife, whom he loved dearly cry uncontrollably, him unable to comfort her.
"Then explain! Explain what happened to my baby!" she yelled, biting her knuckles, sobbing.
"I'd love to, but we don't have time we have to get Ash to the center, I-I don't know what's wrong with him." Red explained rationally.
"Fine." Delia agreed to Red reluctantly in desperation to get instant care for her child. When they arrived at the Pokemon Center Nurse Joy directed them to a hospital bed. Red delicately lied Ash down onto the bed, cautious not to hurt him any further then Delia pulled the covers up to his chin and stroked his bangs.
"People aren't my specialty but I'll do everything I can for him, it doesn't look too serious." Joy said reassuringly.
"Thank you." Red said gratefully.
"He has to be alright, he just has too." said Delia as she sat beside Ash's bed on a stool holding his hand as Pikachu licked his severely bruised cheek and Red stood behind them.
"Delia...I swear it was not me." Red said coldly. "I know how much you hate me, but I would never, ever do anything like this to anyone let alone a little boy of my own flesh and blood." Red said fighting back tears, still confused as to why his wife and son were here.
"Oh, so that's all you care about is proving yourself innocent, not that your son may be in a fatal condition, how typical, only concerned about yourself, I see you haven't changed a bit...Why should I believe you anyway? After all you've done, give me one good reason why I should trust you!" Delia shouted trying desperately to keep her voice down, so she wouldn't disturb Ash.
"Because...Delia...because I-" Red began.
"You don't have a reason you never did and you never will. You left us without a reason too, simply because you were bored with us is that why, you had to go see the world because raising Ash was getting dull, is that it? Red, you made a vow, a commitment to me on our wedding day to be there...never mind you'll never change." Delia said sternly.
"No matter what you say I do care about Ash, much more than I do myself, I'm sure of it. And for your information I have a completely rational reason for leaving, and you two shouldn't be here you need to leave, now!" Red demanded.
"No, why should I listen to you? And exactly what is your oh-so rational reason for deserting your family." Delia said sarcastically as Pikachu continued to lick Ash's wounds.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you, no matter how much I want to..." Red said, in resistance.
"Of course, you can't..." Delia said rolling her eyes. "I bet you've even been with someone else haven't you?" Deila accused.
"What! Delia, you don't honestly think that I would ever..."Red said, hurt that his wife could even think he'd ever cheat on her.
"I didn't think you'd ever leave me either but you did that! So who is she!" Delia cried.
"That is so ridiculous, everyday what in heaven's name do you think I think about! Don't you get it, Delia Ketchum, I love you for crying out loud, I never stopped! There is no other woman, I don't even know how you could think such a thing!" Red said as one tear slipped out, much to his embarrassment.
"What! Red,...I-" Delia started.
"Ugh... Where am I? Pikachu?" Ash said as he slowly came to his senses, regaining consciousness.
"Ash! Sweetheart, are you alright? I was so worried, oh thank, God." Delia said, sighing in relief as she stroked her son's hair. Ash took a deep breath seeing where he was and remembering what had just happened.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Ash replied as Pikachu joyously leaped into his arms glad to see Ash was doing well.
"Thank goodness, I was so scared my heart almost stopped I don't know what I would've done if something happened to my little Pokemon Master. Now, mister would you mind explaining what in the world you were doing out alone at this hour? Also, explain to your father what happened, he seems to have forgotten." Delia said. Ash's eyes widened at the sight of his father and he instantly sprang up from his bed but as Ash began to speak Red left the PC and returned to his place in duel square.
"Dad! ... Come Back, hey wait a minute, I've been waiting years!" Ash yelled but quickly flung back into the bed from the pain of his injury, he hadn't yet fully recovered.
"Pika-pi!" Pikachu cried.
"Ash, dear, take it easy. Don't worry about him we know where he is now, you'll face him, today, I promise." Delia promised as Ash glanced up at the clock the time was 4:32, he hadn't been out cold too long.
"Mom, I'm sorry I should've told you, no, I shouldn't of been out at all, I should've waited like I was supposed to. Now, look what I've done, I worried everybody...I'm really sorry." Ash apologized sincerely.
"It's alright, honey but don't do it ever again. It took at least twelve years off my life... where you got such a reckless streak, Lord knows." she smiled. "Misty and Violet are still on the S.S. Anne I'll get them in two or three hours. Ash, sweetie, rest up now you'll need plenty of strength if you want to battle your father today. Oh, Ash before you do, what did happen out there?" Delia interrogated curiously.
"...um, well when I went out there were all these trainers they were having a tournament battle, but the way the battled was so wrong, they treated their Pokemon like they weren't even living creatures! I got so mad I had to say something, I couldn't just stand there so I challenged this guy to a battle and they all laughed but, when I beat him and he got mad and hit me! I thought he was only mean to Pokemon not kids too, after that I must've fainted or something because I don't remember." Ash vaguely recelected
"So, it really wasn't him..." Delia thought aloud.
"Wasn't who, dad?" Ash asked.
"Never mind."
Nurse Joy then came in to check on Ash and make sure everything was running smoothly. "The trainers in duel square play rough, you'd be surprised how many Pokemon and trainers I get in around this hour. What they do in that arena to those poor Pokemon is so morally wrong, not to mention extremely illegal." Nurse Joy said.
"I can imagine...So, how's my little pumpkin doing?" Delia questioned.
"Mom!" Ash said embarrassed by the phrase little pumpkin.
Nurse Joy smiled and replied" Everything is going according to plan, your little pumpkin should be up and active by about seven AM ."
"Oh, that's great, thank you so much, Nurse Joy." Delia said as Nurse Joy went to exit the room.
"Excuse me, Nurse Joy, but I was wondering what do you know about Red Ketchum? I mean how'd he end up in a horrible place like duel square?" Ash asked as Nurse Joy stopped in her tracks.
"Yes, please tell us, just out of curiosity and to pass the time." Delia said also curious of what had happened to her husband after he left her and Ash.
"Oh, you really don't know it's a quite common tale here in Orre. Well, everybody knows that Red was once Champion Master of the Kanto region, where you're from, right? But no one knows what happened directly after his victory, urban legend has it that he got married to a student of world renowned Professor Oak and they had a child but that's just a theory of myth, in my opinion. All we know is that when he got here, for whatever reason he then challenged Mount Battle. Mt. Battle is a facility where the challenger battles the top 100 best trainers in Orre without resting, at all. So when the champion, Red challenged and defeated Mt. Battle it was big news around here, you see." Nurse Joy said telling the story of Ash's long lost father. Nurse Joy had no idea that the people she was telling this story to were immediate family of the celebrity character.
"He beat all 100 without stopping?" Ash interrupted in awe.
"That's right and that's why he's regarded as top trainer here. Anyway, after winning Mt. Battle an evil organization called Team Snagem had negotiated a plan with the notorious Team Rocket. Team Snagem then captured Pokemon in special evil Poke'balls that turned the Pokémon's heart evil." Nurse Joy continued.
"Ah, I saw a Poke' ball like that! It was used on a celebei by an evil man who called himself the masked marauder he was from team Rocket. Luckily, me and a kid named Sam stopped him." Ash said.
"Probably was the same Snag ball since Team Rocket designed the contraption. When Red heard of this despicable crime he was disgusted he then set out to put an end to the horrid crime of destroying a Pokémon's soul. Red isn't the first to shut down Team Snagem a couple of years before Red a boy, Michael shut it down and before that it was a teenager, Wes. Team Snagem and Rocket sure are persistent!" Nurse Joy stated.
"You have no idea..." Ash remarked more so talking to himself than Nurse Joy.
"It's true that Red's mission to close off Team Snagem was successful, but ever since the whole association, TR and TS have been after him, as if they weren't out to get him before, considering he was a Master they probably were planning to do what they did to his father to him and now this to boot...Well, to disguise himself from the evil groups identifying him he battles at Duel Square and has a part time job at the TV studio across the street. It's a shame, he was such a kind-hearted man but he turned to duel square to spare himself." Nurse Joy finished, concluding Red's biography.
"Kind-hearted, ha!" Delia stated, annoyed of how kindly her backstabbing husband was spoken of.
"Excuse me?" Nurse Joy asked, confused.
"It's a long, personal story..." Delia replied as Nurse Joy dismissed herself.
"I still want to know why he left in the first place." Ash stated.
"You'll find out, after your battle, I guarantee it." Delia pledged.