Chapter 7
Ash urged his Charizard to fly faster as they pursued Domino and Articuno. "Come on Charizard, almost got them," he said venomously. To put it simply, Ash was seeing red. This woman can't just come in here and threaten my friends without expecting backlash, Ash thought contemptuously as he charged an aura sphere.
Just a little further, Domino thought to herself before she felt Articuno jolt to the side. "Stupid bird!" Domino called out, almost falling from its back. Thats when the Rocket Headquarters came into sight. Domino smiled.
May awoke in complete darkness. Reaching down to her belt, she went to grab Blaziken's pokeball, but to her horror, it wasn't there. A pit began to form in her stomach as she remembered the events leading up to her current predicament. "Max?" She called out tentatively, "Dawn?"
No answer.
"Max?! Dawn?!" She yelled a little louder, panic starting to creep into her voice.
To her relief, she heard rustling on the other side of the cell. As she drew closer, her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she screamed. In front of her was a shirtless old man chained to the wall, his ribs nearly breaking through his skin, and his lips cracked with dehydration.
"May?!" Someone called from nearby. But she was in too much shock to move.
The man's eyes wandered the room crazily, and his feet shuffled creating the same noise that had drawn the girl over.
"Youu," he said pointing at May, "help me...help me...please help."
His pleading continued but May closed her eyes and backed slowly away, the gruesome image of the dying old man imprinted on the back of her eyelids. These people are going to kill us she thought despairingly. They wouldn't, her rational side argued, were just kids she thought trying to calm herself.She kept moving back trying to drown out the man's pleads by focusing on her own thoughts, but they scared her even more. She continued until she backed into someones arms. She screamed again.
"May! It's me Max!" he said looking at his sister.
"Oh...Max I'm so glad to see you! Where's Dawn?" She asked throwing her arms around her brother and putting on a brave face.
"She's over there sleeping," he replied.
"Well wake her up, we need to get out of here before we end up like him," she said pointing to the man on the wall and shivering at the thought of the desperation in his eyes. Max just turned away, not wanting to have any memory of him.
May woke up Dawn and all three set to work looking for a weakness in their prison. Unfortunately, there were none. Team Rocket was very thorough when it came to securing their prisoners.
"There. Has. To. Be. A. Way!" May shouted, pounding the steel door with every word. The other two had sat down hours ago while May had kept looking.
"May, come on. Come sit down, we don't know when our next meal is going to be. Conserve your energy," Dawn said soothingly to her friend.
Nodding her head in defeat, May went and sat down next Dawn. Looking around at her brother and Dawn she noticed that even if they did find a way out of the cell, there was no way that they could escape. Dawn was covered in soot and coughing every two minutes from the smoke exposure and Max had a black eye and walked with a slight limp. Plus, none of them had their pokemon. It's hopeless she thought as she succumbed to her exhaustion and fell asleep.
May was having a wonderful dream, until it took a dark turn. She had just won the Hoenn Grand Festival and everyone was chanting her name. She was just about to receive her ribbon! A short man turned around to present it when his face began to morph and change into the old man's face from the cell. The man disappeared when the ground began to shake, swallowing him whole.
"...May...May!...May wake up!"
Her eyes shot open and she realized that the earthquake hadn't been in her dream. It was real.
Domino was just about to land on the roof of the Team Rocket base when she felt her back heat up. Turning Articuno around, she saw too late what it was; the bird took a Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, and Aura Sphere right in the chest. With a scream of pain the bird crashed into the wall of the base at a boosted velocity, breaking through into a small office. Swooping in, Ash recalled his Charizard and walked over to Domino, Pikachu in wake. As he reached down to grab Articuno's pokeball, he realized his mistake, Domino backflipped up kicking Ash in the chin, knocking him back.
"Never count your opponent out until you knock them out. You're learning all sorts of lessons today!" She said sarcastically as she recalled the legendary bird. Grunts began to pour into the room but Domino called them off, telling them to bring Articuno's pokeball to Giovanni, leaving just the two of them.
Ash looked helplessly on as Articuno disappeared through the door surrounded by ten grunts.
"See, people like you need to understand that if you mess with Team Rocket, you're going to lose. We aren't afraid to do things that would make others cringe just by thinking about them. For example," she started smirking, "killing teenagers who meddle in matters bigger than them, say like those three dumbasses we captured yesterday..."
Ash's eyes widened as he realized that she was talking about May, Max, and Dawn. "You are going to regret your words," Ash said stonily causing even Pikachu to take a step back.
"Ha, I don't think you have it in y-" Domino couldn't even finish, Ash was on her faster than she could react, letting off a devastating punch to the gut that had Domino doubled over. Looking up at Ash, she gasped, he was shrouded in a blue glow. Grabbing her by both arms, Ash picked her up off the ground and roughly pinned her, cracking her head against the wall.
"I am only going to ask once before this becomes miserable for you," he spat "where are you holding them?"
Pikachu was in awe at his trainer's raw power, but frightened at the dark side of Ash that he had never shown before.
Seeing the truth behind his words, she begrudgingly said "On basement floor 2. I don't know which cell exactly."
Ash nodded. "Now let me teach you a lesson. Never underestimate your opponent," then as he was about to drop her, he turned back, "Oh, and someone once told me to never count your opponent out until you knock them out." Then he elbowed an already stunned Domino in the temple. "Goodnight." Letting go, she crumpled to the ground.
"Let's go Pikachu," Ash said. And Ash took off out the door racing to free his friends with a shocked Pikachu following close behind.
As the building shook, May, Max, and Dawn got up and went to the door looking to see what was going on. But upon reaching the door, the tremors stopped and alarms began to blare. That's when two eyes appeared in front of the door.
"Don't speak," a voice said through the grate. "I am about to let you out, but you can't make a sound and you need to trust me," with that, the door clicked open and the three prisoners saw a man in full Rocket attire holding three belts with pokeballs attached.
"Why-" May began as she clicked her Pokemon back onto her belt.
"I said don't speak! But if you must know, they killed my brother, and for that, I will do all I can to stick a bullet through their back. Let's move."
The four of them ran through the maze of cells to a staircase.
"You need to be on my ass once we leave this floor. Is that clear?"
They nodded. Then opening the door, they began to climb the stairs. But as they got close to the ground floor, they heard a bunch of yelling, and sounds of battle.
"What the fu-" Greg muttered before May yelled "Ash!"
Pikachu and Ash were fighting a group of grunts in the entrance to the stairwell, Pikachu electrocuting them, while Ash incapacitated them. Blue and yellow attacks blurred together lighting the darkened stairwell in an earthy green hue. As the last grunt fell, Ash turned to see his friends.
"May! Max! Dawn! Thank god!" But then he turned to the Rocket and started walking forward, hands bathed in blue with Pikachu a step ahead, cheeks cackling menacingly.
"Wait!" Dawn yelled, "He helped us escape!"
Ash stopped in his tracks, "One false move and you go down like the rest of them, got it?"
"Yeah." Greg said simply, unafraid of Ash.
"Good, lets get the hell out of here then," Ash said.
"Sir, should we apprehend the invaders?"
"No. I've seen what I wanted to see. Feel free to jostle them up, but let them leave. And that traitorous Rocket, he gets five steps of freedom. Understood?" Giovanni said sternly.
The grunt nodded and left.
"Ash Ketchum of Pallet town, we will meet soon. And I have a feeling that you will soon find out that we aren't all that different," he said looking at his glowing hands.
Ash led the group down vacant hallways. Something's not right, he thought, reaching his mind out he saw forms of Rockets walking around as if it were a normal day on the job. "They're just gonna let us leave..." Ash said out loud.
"Fine by me!" Greg said shrugging his shoulders as they broke out into the waning day.
No more than five steps and the first gunshot was heard followed by a muffled scream as Greg hit the ground face first, shot through the back.
May stopped shocked by the brutality Team Rocket showed to one of its own and turned back to help the man, when more shots were fired.
"Get to cover!" Ash yelled over the gunfire. "I'll get the Rocket." Ash turned his back on the others and ignored their protests. Putting up an aura shield, he leaned down to the bleeding man.
"What's your name? You're gonna be ok! Let's try to move you to cov-"
"My name? It doesn't matter. I'm a Rocket, no one will see through the label. I'm glad I could help your friends escape."
"Come on man! You can make it!" Ash said putting his arm under the man's shoulder to try and help him stand.
"What if I don't want to! Ok? I have nowhere to go and no one left to love. I'm closer to them this way just go!" Greg sputtered harshly, blood starting to pool on the ground.
"Ok." Ash said unable to change the dying man's mind.
Before Ash could stand and run for cover, Greg said one more thing. "You take down Giovanni before he takes you down. Got it?"
Ash nodded and then Greg's eyes rolled back into his head and he took his last breath.
Taking no time to process what he had seen, Ash took off towards the woods where his friends were waiting for him. Bullets were flying everywhere. Ash felt a searing burn across his cheek but ignored it as he reached the entrance to the woods.
"Are you guys ok?" Ash asked.
No one answered. Ash was not the same person that had left Pallet town only a week earlier. And they all saw it. He just watched a man bleed out and the first thing he asked was if we are ok, Max thought to himself.
"Are you?" Ash asked again concerned.
"Y-yeah, b-but are you ok Ash?" Dawn asked shakily, staring at the blood running down Ash's cheek like fresh tears.
"Yeah I'm fine," he said wiping the blood away before turning his back to them. The safest place for them is with me Ash thought as he walked further into the woods. "Let's go, we need to be at Mount Silver as soon as we can. Team Rocket has all three legendary birds. That's where they will go next."
Had anyone been paying attention, the first thing they would have noticed was Ash's shaking hands dangling at his side and a single blood mixed tear drop to the forest floor.
That was cool to write. Did you like the darker side of Ash? I always thought that he needed one, it makes him pretty cool. Please review! I like getting them and it makes me happy to know people are enjoying the story.
Thanks For Reading,
theriot010