Ash was anxious... very anxious... in only ten minutes, he would have a meeting with all gym leaders, elite four and champions in the world. INCLUDING the newly added kalos region! that wasn't the reason for his anxiety however. he's fought most of all these gym leaders already, helped several elite four on several occasions already, and met practically all of the champions. hell, he's travelled with the newly crowned unova champion for nearly one year. - taught her nearly everything she knows. no that wasn't the reason. the reason, or reasons are the fact that Misty, Brock, and Norman will most certainly be present. Ash wasn't afraid, but instead he radiated a certain killing intent.
"Ash. stop pulling at your eyepatch. it'll come off again." Cynthia sighed. this happened every time he got anxious about something. he would pick at his eyepatch, it would come off, and they had to stare at his cloudy grey blind eye.
they stood in a separate room. in ten minutes, the meeting would start and everyone would gather in one large conference room.
"GI-HI! can't wait to meet the idiot's so-called friends!" a young man of approximatley 21-years old grunted out while he grinned like a madman. he had waist length spiky black hair, and wore loose pants and a sleeveless tattered trenchcoat that was covered in metal studs. his left arm from the shoulder down was decorated with dark green feathers. that arm was covered in scars. on his hands, he wore leather gloves with metal plates on them. he had three eyebrow piercings above each blood red eye, six nose piercings, three studs in each ear, and two studs beneath his lower lip. around his head, he wore a white and grey bandanna, keeping his long hair out of his face.
"Gajeel. it would be appreciated if you would keep your mout shut. especially with such a... touchy subject." another young man said carefully. the man had pure white hair that framed his face at the front, and spiked up on the back. he was also hetrochromatic, meaning he had one onyx-colored eye, and one crimson red eye. he had a red scar-like tattoo consisting of an inverted pentagram, and a long cross like line covering the left half of his face, and he wore a nineteenth century gentleman's outfit, complete with cravat, and white gloves. in his hand, he held a golden pocket watch in the shape of a pokeball.
"alright. cut it out you two. Gajeel, as Allen said, SHUT UP! Allen, don't start another fight." the last elite four said. it was a short twenty year old woman, who wore a simple black kimono that was being held together by a white obi. she had sharp violet eyes that held a mischievous tint to them, and smooth raven colored hair, in a shoulder-length bowl-cut with one thick strand of hair crossing her face.
Cynthia smiled softly at the sight of the four friendsbickering over the most useless things. it felt a bit like how a family should be.
"Rukia's right guys. cut it out. Gajeel, quit picking on Ash. Allen, quit picking on Gajeel. Ash, QUIT PICKING AT YOUR EYEPATCH!" by now a tick mark had appeared on her forehead. ash quickly put his hands in his pockets, not wanting to invoke the champion's wrath.
a short man entered the room, and told the group, that it was time. they followed the man to a huge conference room, where several people were talking to each other about several subjects.
as Ash entered the room, everyone fell silent. it took about ten seconds before someone finally reacted.
"oh. my. ARCEUS! ASH!?" a short dark tanned girl in a traditional dress ran towards the young man. Ash widened his eye at the sight of the thirteen year old, and walked towards her. she jumped up, and he caught her in a tight hug. (what did you expect. he's 6 years older, and about 1.5 foot taller.) suddenly, she let go of him, and dropped herself to the ground. she coughed, and blushed. the sinnoh elites looked at the scenery with amused grins evident on their faces. Ash turned around, and put his hand on her shoulder.
"guys. I'd like to introduce you to my third student, and VERY good friend, Iris. Iris, meet Gajeel redfox, Allen walker and Rukia kuchiki. the three remaining members of the elite four of sinnoh."
Misty walked up to the group and scoffed.
"if THOSE people are your elite four, sinnoh must've fallen very deep."
Cynthia turned to the annoyance and cocked an eyebrow at said annoyance. "and what do you think is wrong with my elite four, miss waterflower?"
Misty grinned. "oh please miss shirona. a short geisha wannabe, a white haired moron, who's obviously been born in the wrong era, a wannabe-punk, and not to mention that pathetic trainer REJECT! I woudn't call that pathetic bunch an actual elite four-"
her scentence was cut short by a brief flare of pure killer intent, followed by a flash of bright blue. within a second, Ash stood behind her and put his arm over her shoulder. his face next to hers.
"I don't care if you fuck around with me, but friends mess with my again, you overused cunt, and I'll make you wish that you never picked your first fucking pokemon. got it?" he whispered in her ear. the frosty tone in his voice was enough to make her shudder.
another flash, and he stood next to Iris again. grinning as usual.
"ooookaaaay... this is... awkward." Brock stood next to Misty, and he didn't look happy. Ash's eye widened.
"so the cunt's pet stoner's here too huh? i'm suprised tha they haven't kicked you out of the league yet."
Brock turned red in fury at that, and steam nearly emitted from his head.
"you'll pay for that, ketchum..." Ash smirked. 'gotcha!'
"well then. make my fucking day! as far as I know, you guys are the two weakest gym leaders of the weakest region- no offence to the kanto faction, i still respect most of you- and I'm the second-strongest trainer of an entire region. but if you REALLY insist on making complete fools out of yourselves, let's battle. two on two. you two, against me and Gajeel."
"o-oi, isn't that a bit overkill?" Allen and Rukia both deadpanned while sweating a bit. Cynthia looked worried.
"y-yeah! you know how Gajeel is on the battlefield." she added with a little shudder.
Gajeel however gained a psychotic grin on his face. one that nearly matched Ash's.
"GI-HI! fine! I accept Ash's offer to kick some asses!"
"so do we!" Misty and Brock said at the same time. Ash's smile became even bigger. "Allen. could you film this battle for me?" Allen nodded and went to get a camera. the four battlers made their way outside to the small stadium, while all others went to sit on the benches around the court. blaine decided to act as referee, and told everyone the rules.
"aaaaallllright! since we don't have much time before the meeting starts, it'll be a two-on-two battle. every trainer can send one pokemon out. the team that defeats both opponents is the winner, understood?" everyone nodded and the battle started.
"crush them: GOLEM!" Brock roared, throwing his ball into the air.
"show them your beauty: GYARADOS!" Misty called as the ball opened.
Gajeel grinned. "make 'em cry: AGGRON!"
Ash threw a ball up with a serious expression. "break their bones: bearctic."
the four giants glared each other down across the battlefield, and Misty made the first move.
"gyarados use hydro pump on aggron, and finish it with a hyper beam to bearctic!"
"aggron, endure the hit, then use iron claw on golem!"
"bearctic, use aurora beam to cancel out her hyper beam, then jump and spin."
gyarados fired a spray of highly compressed water at aggron, causing a small dust explosion where he stood, and immediatly fired a large stream of energy at bearctic, who fired a rainbow coloured beam of his own. the two beams collided, and struggled against each other for a bit before the aurora beam overcame the hyper beam, cancelling out the larger shot. almost directly aggron shot out of the dust at unimaginable speeds for such a large beast, and raised his claws.
"golem! use defence curl! QUICKLY!" golem retracted his head and limbs into his boulder-like body, and endured the hits. "GOTCHA! USE FLAMETHROWER ON THAT PIECE OF RUBBLE AGGRON! GIIII-HIHIHI!" the iron giant spewed a steady stream of fire at the defending golem, heating the battlefield very effectively. bearctic jumped towards gyarados, and began spinning sideways at a rapid speed, turning into a white drill of doom.
"use ice-fang, and use the momentum of your spin to slam gyarados into golem!"
during the spinning, bearctic's fangs started to glow, creating a blue-ish glowing ring at the tip of the 'drill' and he bit gyarados in the neck. in mid-spin, he used his movement to lift gyarados off the ground, and threw it with all his strength. the now partially frozen serpent hit the now heated golem, and upon contact, a small explosion occurred.
"aggron, lets finish this. use gyro ball." Gajeel grumbled with a surprisingly serious look on his face, signalling his boredom.
"end it with blizzard, bearctic." Ash said without looking at his opponents. in the corner of his eye, he saw the kalos faction watch with amazed expressions on their faces.
the two powerful attacks flew right into the smoke and collided heavily, causing another, much larger explosion.
when the smoke finally withdrew, the two prized pokemon laid in a large crater, covered in snow and ashes, both knocked out cold.
both sides withdrew their pokemon, and Ash walked past his opponents towards the conference building. as he passed Norman, he stopped briefly and mumbled something to the man that caused him to grit his teeth.
the rest soon followed, leaving Misty and Brock behind. Brock spoke first.
"what... just... happened?"
"Ash... just beat... us..."
unknown to them, three figures were watching the entire battle from a nearby tree.
the kanto gym leaders were stupified. not only did Ash return from disappearing from the face of the earth for 2 years, he became the leader of the sinnoh elite four. known as the strongest of all regional elites, but he also mercilessly beat two of their strongest gym leaders down in a double battle. beating a golem or a gyarados was quite the feat. beating Misty's gyarados or Brock's golem was damn-near impossibe.
Sabrina, Koga and lt. Surge were watching the battle with great interest, and were impressed with how much the naïve, moronic little runt they once knew had grown up into a fine young man. Falkner, Chuck and Clair had to agree with the three kanto leaders on that front.
Wattson, Drayden , Drake, Blaine and Pryce, however looked at Ash's retreating form. all with one and the same sad line of thought.
'Ash... what in the world happened to you...'
Norman simply glared in the direction Ash walked as he recalled what the boy said.
"that pathetic shitstain you call a son is next. tell him to train as hard as he can. maybe he'll be able to amuse me."
the words kept reverbating in his head.
Ash went throught the sliding doors, back into the conference building, not bothering to wait for anyone else, or answering any of the other's questions and compiments. once out of the view of everyone else, he started running. he ran through the hallways, not caring where to go. he smiled. he smiled like he did on the day he got pikachu. he was glad that he could finally extract revenge on that traitorous bitch and her perverted lapdog. he noticed that he passed the conference room, and went inside.
now that it was empty, pikachu jumped off of his shoulder, and went exploring.
Ash saw a beautiful white-wing piano in the back, and he decided to play a little, while waiting for the rest. he sat down, tinkered a bit, and decided on a song to play. his face became softer, he smiled thinly and closed his eye.
(search on youtube: beethoven, moonlight sonata.)
when he started playing, he started swaying to the sides for a bit. because he was completely into his music, he didn't notice the rest coming back. Cynthia had a warm feeling in her chest and a proud smile on her face, while Iris, Cilan, Clair, Sabrina and the older members were completely suprised. none of them knew that Ash had such refined skills, so this was a complete shock.
the song managed to loosen the tense atmosphere, because soon, almost everyone just stood there in silence. eyes closed, thin smiles and enjoying the soft melody that floated through the air. after a while, two of the cherish balls on Ash's belt popped open, releasing lugia and meloetta. lugia just stood there next to Ash, listening to the soothening tune, while meloetta hummed along with it. pikachu jumped on top of the wing, and curled up.
when Ash was done, he stood up. he smiled at the two legendaries, and his best friend.
"alright guys, better get back inside, before the others-" he looked back to see all of the current league members except Cynthia, Gajeel, Allen and Rukia, completely shellshocked out of their minds.
"-come back... oh... fuck." Ash groaned as he started sweating bullets. he felt his heart throbbing, and he began shaking.
realising that they were seen, the two legendary music-lovers quickly shot back into their respective pokeball, and Ash turned white as a sheet.
'oh, fuck all kinds of duck.' he thought in desperation.
before anyone could react, an explosion of smoke erupted from behind ash, and from it, emerged jessie, james and meowth.
"boss! that was a superb battle as always!" the three yelled simultanuously while ash facepalmed.
"out of all times to come out." he groaned. "you guys just HAD to come out NOW, didn't you?"
A/N: CLIFFIE!
ash's harem list: ( I am going to put ONE more in there. you can put in a review who you want.)
cynthia.
malva.
anabel.
iris.