A/N: Okay, I'm back with another installment of Unfinished. First off, I am amazed at how many readers took an interest in this story. In the first two days, the first chapter received over 150 view. Some may not think that's impressive, but I truly didn't think many would get interested in it. Any rate, I'd like to talk about the challenge I set up at the end of the first chapter. I wasn't very surprised that none were able to figure out the inspiration of that chapter. The inspiration was a song called Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute by Coheed & Cambria. I understand that, with me only having written two stories, I have no right to set up these trivial challenges. But I just wanted to see if anyone could figure it outs. Maybe some did, but hey like I said 'new writer' had no right to set up challenges. I may set up more in the future, but their just for fun. Anyway, rambling ends here, now on to the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Pokemon. That belongs to Game Freak and the Nintendo Corporation. If I did own it, There would have been a console based MMORPG released already.
As soon as Rage and Mac neared the front entrance, Ash was bombarded with questions regarding both the match and his personal life. The questions ranged from 'how are you taking this loss,' and 'what are your thoughts on this match,' to 'Are you seeing anyone,' and 'is there anyone you are interested in.' Mac immediately ended most question with 'no comment,' but reporters were relentless. After the the twentieth question, Ash finally snapped.
"That's enough!" The reporters were taken aback by the boxers sudden outburst. "I will not be answering anymore question. I'm tired, sore and really have no patience to deal with such bullshit." The reporters were stunned by Rages statement. Mac on the other hand, chuckled and rolled his eyes. As Ash calmed down, he said "Now if you excuse me, I'd like to return to my place of residence and sleep the rest of this night off." Ash and Mac resumed their walking, leaving several stunned reporters in their wake. They now realized why he used such a name in the ring. Even out of the ring it was evident that he was angry. Eventually, the reporters shrugged off their experience and proceeded to search for the champion for an interview.
Ten minutes after his little scene, Ash decides that needs loosen up for a moment.
"I know what you're thinking." Mac said. "That isn't the best idea at the moment." Rage cocked his head at his friend.
"And why is that?" Rage asked. Mac sighed.
"Alcohol isn't something you need." At that point, Ash's stomach growled. Over the years, Ash's appetite had fallen into normal ranges, but there were cases, like after a fight where his old appetite would return. Ash turned to find somewhere to eat. There were none.
"Dammit." muttered Ash. As they kept walking, they turned a corner to see a bar & grill called The Ring. As soon as Ash saw it, he was weird-ed out by the name, but his stomach roared when he saw the word 'grill' under the name. He turned to Mac and raised an eyebrow at him. Mac brought his head down shook it.
"Alright, but no beer, or liquor." Ash wasn't pleased by these conditions, but his stomach wasn't allowing him to argue.
"Fine, I'll get a coke." Ash said. He stepped forward, but immediately stopped when Mac said,
"It better not be lace with rum." Ash brought his head down and muttered "Dammit!" for the second time tonight, before continuing towards the grill.
They entered the grill and were greeted by a young woman at a podium.
"hello, and welcome to The Ring. Table for two?" Ash nodded. "Alright, just follow me please." As they were lead to the main dining area, Ash finally got the title. All around the area was boxing and wrestling memorabilia. Pictures, boxing gloves and everything in between. The T.V.s in the bar area were playing past boxing matches, most likely to commemorate tonight's match. The young woman lead them to a table in the far corner of the room. As they took our seats, the woman said, "Alright, just sit tight while I find y'all a server." With that, she left. The two men sat in silence until Ash decided to break it.
"Man, it's gonna feel so good to go home. I just hope the guys haven't been giving the professor a hard time." Mac only chuckled at this.
"Well, they are your Pokemon. The funnest thing to do in the desert is to cause a ruckus." Ash laughed at this. He knew that Mac was right about them being his Pokemon, and it's always said that Pokemon emulate the personality of their trainers. It's not to say that Ash is reckless, but he did have his moments.
As Ash finished laughing, another young woman came up to them with an order pad and pen in her hand. She was a dirty blonde with green eyes. She wore a pair of black slacks, a server's apron and a t-shirt that hugged her body.
"Hi, my name is Meri. Welcome to The Ring, where everything is sure to be a knockout. Can I get you guys anything to drink?" Ash was the first to answer.
"I'll have a coke and..." he stopped because he saw Mac give him a look that said, 'finish that order, and I'll rearrange your thought process to make you think you are little girl.' Ash gulped and decided to try something else. "and your phone number?" Meri giggled a bit before answering.
"Nice try, Casanova." she replied with a smile. "But I've got a boyfriend." Ash feigned disappointment.
"Damn, what a shame. But I guess I should have known a beautiful woman such as yourself was already taken." She laughed at that and replied,
"Stop, you're making me blush." she composed herself and repeated Ash's order. "Okay, so one coke." She turned to Mac. "And for you sir?" Without shifting his gaze, he said, "Water will be fine, thank you." Meri jotted down the two orders and said, "alright, I'll have those right out."
She left to get the drinks, like everything was normal. What she didn't know was that Mac was picking at Ash's brain. This did not go unnoticed by Ash, but he didn't want to snap a him while the server was there.
"How many times have I asked you not to do that?" Ash asked. Mac just smirked as he kept picking at Ash's brain. This went on for another minute, but Mac was interrupted by Meri bringing the drinks.
"Alright, do either of you know what you would like to eat?" Ash felt relief and quickly replied, "I'll have two cheeseburgers, a plate of nachos and an order of buffalo wings." Meri looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"And you're gonna eat all of that?" Ash simply nodded. No one may have saw it, but she sweat dropped at that order. She wrote down the order and turned to Mac and asked "and you sir?" Mac turned to her and she was immediately mesmerized by his piercing Amethyst eyes.
"I'll have a salad, no dressing." She nodded and wrote down his order as well. She stood there in a daze, looking like she was running on auto pilot. Mac knew what happened, because this happened often when they ate out. "Um, Ma'am?" was all he said as he waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped back to reality with a quick jump.
"Huh? What?" She looked around and saw that she was still at the same table. "Sorry, I'll get these orders out as soon as I can."
She left to put the orders in, Mac attempted to resume picking at Ash's brain, only to hit a brick wall of blue. Mac groaned, as he was forced out of Ash's mind.
"I told you not to pick my brain." Ash said. Even though he was a bit upset that a Pokemon was invading his brain, he was amused that he could block out the most powerful psychic type Pokemon in the world out of his mind. Mac ignored him and took a drink. Ash on the other had had a straw in his drink so he wouldn't have to remove his bandana. Sure it may sound stupid, but he could never be too careful of who was in the bar.
"May I ask why you were invading my brain?" Ash asked. He was in a better mood after literally launching Mac out of his brain. It wasn't easy, so he was proud of himself.
"I'm trying to find the trigger." Mac said. Ash raised an eyebrow at his response.
"What trigger?" Ash asked.
"The trigger of tonight's event." Mac replied. Ash was angry again. He knew that Mac was trying to help him control his aura, but there were cases where he would get tired of Mac's invasion of privacy.
'Mac, I'm trying to have a good time. We'll deal with it when we get back to Orre.' Ash thought to him. Mac felt a slight pressure when Ash projected, so he just nodded and backed off.
After a few minutes, Ash calmed down. He looked around the bar and found what he usually found after a boxing match. Boxing fans crowded the bar, mainly the actual bar area. There several customers that had varying ranges of emotion. Some were angry, some happy, some sad. In a place like this, it didn't matter where you're from, whether you were richer than Michael Jackson, or if you were poorer than hobo living behind the bar. If you liked boxing, or any other sport out there, you could find a place like this. Ash's brain was abuzz with his thinking a mile a minute. As he was thinking, he was pondering whether he should have visited his hometown while he was here. Then his mind moved over to his latest match. He pondered whether he could have won if he hadn't had an aura event.
"What are you thinking about?" Mac asked. He knew that when Ash was thinking like this, he was trying figure out things in his life.
"Do you think I could have won I hadn't gone blue tonight?" Ash asked. He had no doubt about how long he could last in the ring with a champion, but in the past two years of boxing, he had never gotten to a single championship match.
"Honestly, I think you could have knocked his lights out within the first three rounds." Mac replied. There was no hesitation in his voice, nor were his words forced. "But, now that you're going on hiatus, you can worry about other issues, like your aura training. We're just lucky you haven't formed an aura sphere while in the ring."
"Yeah, that's because of this." Ash said. He pulled down his hood and lowered his bandana just enough to reveal a small tattoo behind his right ear. It had seven circles: three of which were large and in a triangular pattern; four circles were slightly smaller, formed in the same triangular pattern, only going the opposite direction of the larger circles and the seventh circle in the center of both patterns; and in the middle of it all was an actual triangle.
"What is that?" Mac asked. He had never seen any symbol like it in his existence.
"It's a channeling mark." Ash said.
"A channeling mark?" Mac asked. "What do you mean a channeling mark?" Ash was grinning from ear to ear at his friends confusion.
"Before you found me, I competed in underground fighting rings. It was really brutal and there was no chance of you getting out unscathed." Ash explained. Mac nodded, signaling to continue. "Well, everything was fine and dandy. I got my share of battle scars, but then again, they were unavoidable. One day, I had to fight this brute of a man. His name was Al, and there were rumors that he never left his opponents alive. I was scared. Most of my fights left me bruised and cut, but never dead or near death. A few days before my match, I was approached by a man named Ryan Williams." Mac put a hand to stop Ash.
"I know this story, just get to why you have that mark on you." Mac said. Ash nodded and continued.
"Well, during my match with all, I was nearly beaten to death. That was when I had my first event. I was lying down, taking a beating when I felt something snap in me. As Al was about to deliver the finishing blow, he was blown back by an unknown force. I blacked out after that, but when I came to, Al was on the floor, his right arm was missing a few of his ribs were sticking out of his chest. I was so sickened by the sight, I ran away." Ash shuddered at that memory. "I found someone who was at the fight. He was scared out of his mind. I asked him what happened. He said that I just went berserk on Al. Apparently, I ripped his arm out of its socket and used on his chest like a baseball bat. What disturbed me the most was when he said I hit Al across the face with his arm so hard, it snapped his neck. After his explanation, I asked if there was any change to me aside from the berserk mode I was in. He said that I had a type of blue energy around me."
"Aura." Mac said. Ash nodded. It was the only time he was afraid of his aura. He hadn't dealt with it since incident at the Tree of Beginning, but apparently, his aura capacity increased due to lack of use.
"After that, I left for the Kanto Region, wearing my disguise of course," he gestured to what he was wearing. "to learn at the Tree of Beginning. I found nothing there. So I came back to Orre, and stopped fighting for a while. I stayed with the Pokemon professor in Orre while trying to find out how to control my aura. One day, I read an article about a strange temple being excavated somewhere north of Phenac City. The article had a picture of wall carving that depicted a time flower. As soon as I saw it, I hoped I could finally find something to help me control my aura. I went over to the site, and found it deserted for the night. It was the perfect opportunity to sneak in and find something. After I went in, I spent an hour searching the halls of the ancient temple, hoping to find its library. I found it. I looked through some of the ancient texts, hoping to find something, until I found a book of symbols. I felt in luck, that is, until I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around to see a blonde woman wearing all black as well as a satchel to her side. She asked me why I was there. I said nothing and bolted with the book I had. She ran after me, and almost caught me, but I had a minor event that increased my endurance and agility. After that, I ran out of there like a Zubat out of hell. I made it back to the lab by dawn and as soon as I hit my bed, I passed out." Mac nodded
"That still doesn't explain the mark." Mac said. He was losing his patience. True as a psychic Pokemon, he had a large amount of patience, but it was wearing thin at this moment.
"Well, I began scanning each page of the book and putting it through a translator that the computer had. It took several hours to translate it all. After that, I had report that translated every page. Each symbol had a different effect on one's aura. I was fascinated with everything that the ancient guardians did with their aura. When I came across this mark, the translated description indicated that it was used in younger students who were able to manipulate their aura, but would have sudden outputs of it. I figured I'd give it a shot. I made a photo copy of the symbol and headed to Pyrite Town. And that's where you found me." Ash finished explaining. Mac was amazed at the lengths Ash was going to control his aura.
"Well, it looks like it's starting to fail." Mac said.
"No, the ink's wearing out." Ash replied. Mac was puzzled at this statement. But before he could ask about it, Ash continued. "When ever I first got it, I didn't want it to be permanent, so I asked the tattoo artist to use temporary ink. After that, I entered the Realgam Tower boxing tournament, where I made my official debut in the ring. It definitely worked, but that jackass, Fisk somehow sent over the edge to nearly kill him. That's when I noticed the ink starting to fade the first time. So now, whenever we'd go to a new region, I'd get the tattoo renewed." Mac nodded at this. He knew that if Ash hadn't taken this precaution, there would be many dead boxers.
"But now that you're taking a break from boxing, we can begin training with your aura." Mac said. Ash nodded. He wanted to learn to channel his aura without the mark. I suggest that when we return to Orre, we go the temple and find anything that would be useful in training." Ash was happy that he wasn't getting a lecture about taking an easy route in controlling his aura. They decided to wait for their food in peace, but sometimes, peace something hard to come by.
A/N: Well, there ya go. I know it was mostly dialogue, but all this info is important to the plot. The next chapter will take place immediately after this dialogue and there will be some action (Though not rating change action). Keep the reviews coming guys. I don't need them to continue, just to revise. And on a final note, after this chapter, I will try to post a new chapter starting this friday and posting every other fiday after that. Until the next round
Phant0m