Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and sorry for the long delay..!
Chapter 19: More Complicated Stuff
"Well, now that the report's basically done.. I have to be on my way now, Brock."
"I understand.. Have you called the doctor yet?"
"Yes.. He'll arrive in an hour or so to inspect the nurse further.. Right now, you're in charge of the pokécenter. Think you can handle that?"
"O-Of course!"
"Very well.. Good luck, Brock."
Officer Jenny of Jubilife City gave the depressed breeder a simple nod before leaving the small patient room. On her way out, the officer also said goodbye to a strange looking girl who was holding a Pikachu with her arms.
"I heard everything.. Is she going to be okay?"
The girl stepped closer trying to start up a conversation with the breeder, although it didn't work that well.. He was still pondering on what he had done, just seeing her lay there unconscious made him.. him..
"Brock?"
"What is it.."
Who was this girl anyways? He did not have time for any chit chatting.
"What about the door..?"
Oh right, the door..
Turning around to see both the girl and what used to be the door, Brock couldn't help but feel at least somewhat proud over being able to completely demolish it just like that using only his shoulder.
Now that he thought of it.. Getting a pretty thick door and Brock over herself didn't make it surprising that she ended up in the state she was in right now.
"I'll have to pay for the reparations later, I guess.."
"Of course you are, who else?"
"Ehehe.."
The breeder sighed, who was this girl to tell him that? More importantly, who was she?
"Who are you?" Brock finally asked and glanced at the girl as she took a seat next to him.
"Oh, I'm just one of Ash's childhood friends." the girl replied, just like it was completely normal. "Is she going to be okay?"
"Childhood friend..? And we don't know yet, a real doctor is on his way right now.."
"Super!"
Without another word, the girl quickly left the room, leaving the breeder all by himself.
Lol
The young man was pretty sure of his whereabouts.. That was why he didn't dare to move.
Taking a deep breath, the young man tried to open his somewhat heavy eyes, only to realize that he was sitting on a very comfortable chair.
Chair.. It was more like a, sofa..?
Dismissing that thought, the young man continued on with his little recon mission, despite how strange it was to call it that since he was only sitting still..
After his eyes had adjusted themselves to the dark room or area, he noticed that there was an open fire not too far away in front of him.. Strange. Wasn't he supposed to be a hostage of some sort?
The thought of the sofa he was sitting on once again returned, it really was soft and comfortable..
"James."
"AH?"
And it all just hit him.. It was Giovanni's place.
lol
"Hm.. Sweetie, what's the matter..?"
It was a very strange feeling..
"Hello? Ash?"
A very strange one indeed.. A feeling he had never felt before..
"Sheesh, are you thereeeee?"
His hands were shaking, but not due to him freezing.
"Hey, are you sick?"
His breathing was going faster by the second, along with his heartbeating.. But he wasn't physically exhausted.
"If you don't reply, I'll hug you!"
Tears were slowly starting to form, but he wasn't crying, or being sad..
"Naw, you're no fun."
Or was he?
As the girl wrapped her arms around him, the boy realized that it was anger. Pure anger. A level of anger he had never felt before. And it was all because of her.
"Get off me."
Pushing the girl away with his elbow, the boy quickly stood up and went to the room opening, restraining himself from seeing his friend's dead body.
He had to calm down.. He just had to.. Before.. Before he..
"Sweety, get back here.. It's nice and cozy!"
.. Before he would kill her.
To stop that from ever happening, the raven haired boy took very deep breaths, which worked to some extent.
"Yes.. That's it, breathe in, out.. slowly, deeply!"
This.. This girl was BEGGING for some serious beating.
"You want to know something interesting, sweety?"
No. Shut up.
"Ah, don't be like that.."
"Why.. Why, get out of my head, you craz-"
"Why should I?"
Yeah.. was there a reason for her NOT to? After all, he wanted her to know his anger. And how would he do that? Simple.
"Ash.. Are you losing your mind..?"
Heh.. Maybe he was.
"I'm fine."
The raven haired boy ignored the girl for the moment and went forwards, away from the room, down the hallway. The last thing he needed was to see her body again.
May..
The sole thought of her limp body made the boy completely break down, falling down to the floor, crying.
"Ash, Ash, Ash.. Your mood swings are getting weird.."
The lamp just above Ash started to flicker in the same speed as his heavy breathing. Aurora started to giggle like she usually did, which worsened his mood.. but, it couldn't get worse than it already was.
"Oh, I just figured something out!"
While the boy tried to gather himself and calm down, Aurora was literally jumping around, praising herself for coming up with whatever it was she had just realized.
"Do you want to know what it is?"
"I don't.. care.."
Indeed, the boy did not care, due to him being to busy handling his raging feelings.
Should he be mad?
Angry?
Sad?
Happy..?
"You lied to me, Ash."
So what? Did it even matter?
"You promised that you would be completely honest with me.. And you weren't."
"Do you think I care..?"
The boy slowly got up to his feet before going back to the only lit up room besides the hallway, ignoring the girl's eyes gluing on to his back as he went past her.
"Why are you going back? There's nothing there to see."
Except for May's body..
"Stop going back and forth and listen to me."
"You've got 10 seconds, any more and I'll rip your heart out."
Ash's voice sounded much more harsh and hostile than before, even to the point of making the girl slightly gasp and surprising himself.
"You made a promise of having to be honest with me. You weren't."
'Is.. is she talking about that time we were in her world? Is she serious? Who gives a damn?'
Glaring at the girl, Ash tried to look for any sudden reaction but found none, which probably meant that she wasn't sneaking around in his head anymore.
"Five seconds have passed. I'm calling the police. Please hurry before I accidentally rip your heart out for real."
"You already have.."
"What?"
Who was this girl, the boy thought for himself as he stared into her strangely colored eyes, and what had she done?
The answer was very simple, but yet, he had a very, very hard time to realize exactly what it was.
The answer was right behind him..
Feeling his emotions burst again, the boy started to walk fast towards the reception, hoping to be able to use the phone and call Officer Jenny before he would turn mentally insane.
Maybe he already had?
"Oh, you wanna play it like that, huh?"
Completely ignoring the annoying girl's voice, Ash sped past her before frantically searching for a phone. No matter what, he had to keep his cool and deal with all of this later, or else he would.. he would..
"ASH!"
"WHAT!"
Aurora's nagging, his phone searching failure and the fact that May's dead body was pretty much right behind him all made him go insane for just a few seconds, causing him to let out a short scream and tearing a few papers apart.
'I.. I am Ash Ketchum, and I have to keep my cool..'
Taking a few deep breaths, again, the boy realized that there were no phone at the counter and quickly jumped over it as he decided to ask for someone else's phone instead.
"Aaaaaaaaash..!" Aurora called out with a rather teasing voice as Ash went through the automatic doors. "Listen to what I have to say, m'kay?"
The words reached the boy's ears, only to be replaced with his heavy panting once he lost his coordination looking for any other living people.
Where.. there weren't anyone around! Just a minute ago, there were people passing by, and-
"You remember when I asked you about how you would react?"
Left, right, above, behind.. Where were everyone?
"About how I asked you, what you would do if something terrible happened to May.."
"Shut.. up.."
Maybe he could run to a store? Yes!
Running straight ahead, the boy almost broke the door on impact as he entered the small bookstore.
Nobody inside.
"Aaaaaand.." Aurora's voice could be heard from behind, her annoying nagging continuing. "Your answer never included this."
"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"
"That means you broke our deal."
"HELLO? ANYONE IN HERE?"
Lucky enough for him, the bookstore also had a bell he could slam on, but it didn't make much difference since nobody ever came. Hearing footsteps from behind, Ash assumed it was Aurora. C'mon.. who else?
"And do you remember what would happen if you broke our deal?"
Taking another deep breath, one that for some reason felt like his last one, the boy considered just giving up on everything. Yeah.. that didn't sound too bad, at all.
"It seems you've forgotten.." Aurora whispered and wrapped her arms around Ash's waist. "Then I just have to remind you of it.."
Turning the boy around swiftly, as to not give him any time to react, Aurora pressed her moist lips against Ash's dry ones, causing everything around them to stay still.
What should he do..?
There was nothing he could do..
So the boy just relaxed, letting his mind realize the feeling of defeat.
lol
"Ash! Ash!"
"Shouting won't help, May! Where are the life guards?"
"They're.. They're on their way!"
"There's no time! Does anyone here know CPR?"
Surprisingly enough, nobody stepped forward. This was very strange, out of everyone in the whole waterland.. no one..?
"Oh you gotta be shitting me."
The green haired boy let out a moan of annoyance, but quickly regained his cool. Ash's life was om the line. Every second mattered. Lowering his head with a disgusted face, Drew prepared for impact before he started blowing in air into his friend's mouth while simultaneously pressing his chest every few seconds. This went on for around 20 seconds, but it felt like 20 hours for everyone around.
"OUT OF MY WAY!"
At last, a lifeguard had reached the diving area and was now trying to perform the same thing Drew had just done to Ash.
It seemed it was too late.
"Ash.."
Silence. The waterland had never been this quiet before, not even during closing time.
"MAY!"
The scream from the boy frightened the many people that were spectating, which was pretty much every single person. It took a while to realize it, but when everyone saw the raven haired boy pant heavily, happiness filled the area. The people around started to clap their hands, praising the green haired boy for his work while the small children tried to figure out what was happening.
As for the more involved persons..
Ash had no idea what was going on, but it looked like everything was.. fine? Drew was sitting on his knees in front of him at the edge of the pool washing his mouth for some reason, and the girls looked like they had just cried. The lifeguard, along with the others, seemed to also be very relieved.
"Thank goodness you're alright, boy." the muscular male lifeguard with red, thin clothes said with a sigh. "Are you feeling fine? I suggestion we head to a hospital right now just in case."
"No.. I.. I'm fine, I think.." Ash stated rather unsurely as he watched Dawn and Amelia wipe some tears away, why would he not be alright..?
Well, if he was alright by that time, he certainly wouldn't be after spotting a certain someone, looking at him with awfully tearful eyes. His heart seemed to stop, his eyes shot up, and his mouth opened up only to stutter the girl's first letter of her name.
"Ash! What are you thinking..!"
Not being able to control herself anymore, the girl threw herself at the boy, starting the most intense and tight embrace any of them had ever been through. This, obviously, also made certain body parts of hers to press against his body like never before, but unlike other times, he didn't give a damn about that.
"M.. M.."
Letting go of her squeezing with just a tad, the girl leaned back a bit and stared at the boy's confused eyes.
"Yes, Ash..?" she managed to get out through her crying.
"M.. MAY!"
This time, it was hers and the others time to be a little bit confused. Everybody that had heard his strange scream, which was almost everyone, now stared at the boy with wonder.
"MAY!" Ash screamed again, his face showing extreme happiness.
May raised her eyebrow and let go of the boy, thoughts of him getting his brain damaged overwhelming her. Before she could put anymore thought into it, the boy embraced her instead and eventually caused both of them to fall into the pool.
lol
"Soooo BORING."
"Pika."
Letting out an over 10 seconds long deep sigh, the black haired girl stretched her legs and tried to think of something to do.
Which she had been trying to do for the last hour or so..
She could try to contact her friend, yes, but why would she respond this out of hundreds of times? The thing that bothered her the most, though, was that Pikachu seemed to be completely fine with just sitting on her lap doing nothing. Impressive..
"Aren't you tired at all..?"
"Pika."
"I see.."
Sigh. What a well raised and patient pokémon..
But yeah, one thing worth mentioning is that he had also been asking her lots of questions, allowing him to squeeze some valuable information about Ash from her. Even if it was sensitive information, she also had a quite good time thinking about her eventful past.
Past..
"Pikachu, how about we get something to eat?"
"Cha."
"Stop lying, you know I can read your mind, right?"
"Pi. Pikachu, pika pika.."
"Oh, uhm, really..?" the girl asked and raised her eyebrow. "That's really clever.."
"Pi."
"Sh, don't be too confident."
"Pika pika."
"Excuse me?"
Before the girl could slap the rodent harder than she intended to, Pikachu had already jumped off her lap and was on his way to the caféteria.
"Oh you.."
The pissed off girl was about to hunt down the rodent and kick his ass, but the sounds from the automatic doors opening stopped her right before she would do that.
"Finally."
A pretty tall person walked in through the doors, having doctors' clothes and a suitcase that probably contained his awesome equipment. The doctor slowly went past the grinning girl with a nod as he tried to find the Jubilife Nurse Joy.
"Excuse me, miss." he started after giving up, staring into Sophia's happy eyes. "Could you tell me where to find the nurse?"
"Woah.." Sophia said and skipped in front of the man, completely ignoring his request as well as slightly intimidating the man. "Your eyes.. They're BLUE!"
"Indeed they are.." the doctor replied and chuckled, a bit surprised over where this conversation was heading. "I see yours are, too."
"Yes! But your eyes are more.. I mean less.. sapphire?"
"I suppose so." the doctor replied and chuckled a bit. "Well, let's talk about eye color some other time, where's Nurse Joy? I was told it was an emergency."
"Right that way, pleeeeeeease."
The doctor nodded and quickly followed the rather impatient girl as she almost ran to the room where Brock and the nurse were currently in. Little did he know that he was in for much more than just checking on the nurse..
lol
"Do you understand the situation you are in?"
"Y.. yes, sir."
"Do you know the consequences of what you have done?"
"Y.. yeah.."
"Good. Give me a moment to think."
Without another word, the very powerful man in terms of both money, control and raw strength spun around with his black chair and gazed out of the large window. The sunlight that came in from the windows along with the open fire behind the two men were the only things that lit up the rather dark room.
The powerful man, Giovanni, was currently trying to figure out an appropriate 'punishment', while the person in question was literally shaking on the sofa he was sitting on, fearing for his life.
"Stay here."
"What?"
Like last time, the powerful man continued with his 'duties' without another word, but this time, he quickly left the room, leaving the blue haired man all by himself.
Lol
"John, please.."
"Sh. Not a word."
The girl with the strange but pretty ponytail let out a deep sigh before straightening up: if she wanted to be with him, these kinds of things were necessary.
But really.. painting his garage..?
"What should we do about your car?" the girl asked, knowing that regular paint wouldn't work well on his beloved car.
"I've got some in my room, plain, shiny black."
"I see.."
"Yup, now quiet and finish that spot you just missed."
"Sorry.."
lol
"Do you think he'll be okay..?"
"He always makes it, that lucky kid.."
"Ash isn't a kid, Drew!"
"What, he's a man?"
"Hmpf, so you call yourself a MAN?"
"I never said so, but yeah, I'm a man."
The two teens' argument went on as usual, only now the topic seemed to be a different one. And like always, Dawn envied the love between them, wishing she could argue with a boyfriend herself, while May sat a little distance from the three, thinking about Ash.
.. And her stomach.
It had been a few hours since the incident.. Under these few hours, Ash was forced to do both physical and mental checks to see his health. Obviously the boy was completely fine, but after the lifeguards (and everyone else) saw his little show pushing down May in the pool, everyone insisted on giving him those extra tests.
Right now, the four teens were sitting on a small visitors' room where they had a full view over Ash and his room, whereas Ash had the opposite: he was in other words locked into a room and could not see his friends through that strange glass or window, although everyone else could see him.
"Hello?"
Dawn, Amelia, Drew and May got interrupted with whatever it was that they were doing once they heard Ash through a small speaker on a table infront of them. On the other side of that soundproof window sat Ash, completely confused since his next task was to just sit there, doing nothing. In that room were three things; a chair, a small table and Ash himself, if you counted away the steel door that held away his freedom.
Inside the visitors' room was also a doctor present, taking notes of Ash's behaviour and also giving giving new tasks. Behind the standing doctor sat the other teens on a very comfortable sofa, disturbing the doctor since they laughed so much watching Ash's bored antics. Because of that they were laughing so much, the doctor had to turn off the microphone on the table from time to time: knowing that his friends were present watching would surely affect his performance.
"Very good, Ash." the doctor spoke and took off his thick glasses.
"What?" Ash said out loud and glanced around the room, wondering how the doctor could see him since there weren't any cameras or so. "I never did anything?"
"You did more than you can imagine, my friend."
At this point, the other teens bursted out with laughter, including May and Drew, as they saw Ash's troubled face which got even worse once he heard their voices through the mic.
"What the- MAY? DREW? GUYS!"
As Ash started to freak out and check around the room for hidden cameras, the doctor facepalmed and turned around with his arms crossed, annoyed over the childish teens.
"Please, could you keep your laughters for yourself?" the doctor asked politely with a sigh.
The four laughing teens eventually calmed down and apologized, feeling a little bit guilty for ruining the whole test.
But.. that didn't last for long once they saw Ash slam the window several times with his almost depressed yet surprised face.
"GUYS!"
"Sheesh, today's youth.."
lol
"There. Just like new."
"It may not be exactly the way before, but it is indeed very similar."
Sigh.
"Do have to talk like that..?"
"How do you mean?"
"I mean.. You know what I mean!"
The irritated young man waited for the awfully slow garage door to open up from the sides before he would be able to exit. This took as expected quite a while, which got even worse since he knew that his friend was staring at his from behind.
"My apologies, John.." the girl whispered, causing the boy to feel guilt, again.. "If that is what you wish, I shall immediately cease-"
"There, you did it again!"
Sigh.. The garage door hadn't even fully opened up yet, but it was enough for him to crawl under it, leaving that strange girl behind.
"J-John, I'm.. I'm sorry."
"I don't even know the reason for you talking like that, you used to be cool, you know?"
Not wanting to face the girl after his rather harsh shouting, John quickly sprinted towards his house to get his keys for his awesome black car.
"But I can't tell you the reason now, can I..?"
"Why not?"
It surprised the girl that he had heard her whisper, despite him already being inside his house, almost having the door closed.
"I'm tired of this, alright?"
Further surprising the girl, John took a step back and exited his house and stared at the girl with a depressed face.
"You're acting like.. like.."
It was obvious that the young man was very furious about his friend's recent personality change, but it seemed that he had come up with a plan to counter this.
"Oh, I know!" the boy bursted out with a happy face as he took a step back inside once more. "Until you've gotten back to your old self, you're not gonna see me anymore!"
With that said, the boy slammed the door shut, leaving the crying girl all by herself.
Lol
"Are you serious?"
"Why not?"
"Because Ash will probably go wacko again?"
"HEY!"
Ash had just finished all of his ridiculous, although for some reason completely free physical and mental checks. Right now, the five teens were standing outside of the hospital/something similar, all of them trying to figure out something to do. They were basically in the middle of the city, and the time was around six; still, none of them were really hungry by that time.
"C'mon! Why not?" Dawn whined and jumped a bit with her feet. "They're closing in an hour!"
"EXACTLY!"
Dawn almost fell backwards after seeing how worked up her friends got, all of them seemed to be very annoyed..
With the exception of May, of course.
"May!"
Jumping over to her last resort with a huge smile, May nearly shrieked as she felt her blue haired friend wrap her hands around her neck.
"Then we'll let May decide!" Dawn suggested and giggled. "So, yes or no?"
Ash, Amelia and Drew already knew that May was on their side, but it was still interesting seeing her getting nervous and actually considering it.
"Eh.." May got out and laughed sheepishly. "Yes..?"
"EH? WHY?"
"W-Well, because of what happened, we weren't really able to have so much fun, Ash.."
"Are.. ARE YOU BLAMING THIS ON ME?"
Thinking about it, Ash realized that it could have been his fault for everything that happened.
What did happen, anyway..?
"Hmpf, I have to agree on that.." Drew stepped in and sighed. "But really? Yes, it is nearby but we'll only be there for an hour or even less."
"Who cares?" Dawn stated more than questioned with a giggle. "Let's GO!"
Letting out deep sighs, the three teens muttered for themselves before following the blue haired girl that held May captive as they started to walk towards the waterland.
lol
"I hate you."
"You don't."
"I hate you, mom."
"I love you too."
The young boy at the age of 10 stomped out of his small room, frustrated over his mother's recent actions. However, she was supposed to undo them by the end of the day.
"Why did you even do that?"
Turning around with her son's chair, the women could see her son poking his head inside the room with pouted lips.
"I did it for your sister, Max."
"For her..? How would keeping me from going help her?"
"She needs time.."
"With what?"
"Adult problems.."
"What? She isn't even 15 yet!"
Caroline sighed, even after all of this time, Max still couldn't understand what was going on.
"Max.." she started again and turned on the computer right behind her. "Your sister needs more time, if you go there, you'll probably just make things harder than it already is."
"I won't bug her or anything I promise!"
"It's really not like that, Max. I'm just saying that it would be better for her to be alone."
"But she's not alone..? Ash, Dawn, Drew.. Everyone's there!"
"Max.."
Caroline let out yet another sigh, but this time she motioned for her son to get closer rather than drag her hand down her face. When the boy had stepped closer and let out a sigh himself, his mother leaned closer and whispered four words that he thought he wouldn't hear for another few years.
"May is in love."
lol
The atmosphere is very calming, the girl thought.
Like always, the smooth winds made her silky black hair draw massive attention from people around, only now there was nobody to witness her stunning beauty.
It was early evening in the Sinnoh region where the girl was currently at, which gave everything an even calming impression than before because of the dark blue skies mixed together with the strongly glowing moon. It was probably the 18th of the month, meaning that the coming nights for the next few days wouldn't display a fullmoon anymore.
Bleh. Lame. Why was she fooling around, thinking about the irrelevant moon when there was so much more important matters that needed attention? Such as.. such as.
The girl let out a short sigh before leaning back against the large tree behind her, enjoying the view over the city at the same time. Yes.. it was cold, her being on a high point on a hill only made that worse, but she could handle it.
Ugh. Who was she kidding..? Thinking about the wind..?
It was weird, perhaps even completely strange, what she was doing. Well, what was she doing, then?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And she loved it.
Besides the obvious fact that she was there, leaning against the tree, breathing and watching over the city, there wasn't much more she did. One would likely ask what such a beautiful young girl would do at a time and place like that, and her answer would either be 'something' or 'go to hell' depending on who it was asking and what their intentions were. All in all, while she was up here, doing nothing, nobody could ever reach her without putting themselves at risk of getting slaughtered.
Sigh. Moving on..
Why am I doing this?
That was a question the girl had asked herself countless of times, and never even once gotten an accurate answer to.
Could it be because she was bored? Perhaps.. it sounds like it, but not quite. Too much energy..? Nah, there had been times when she had almost beat up an entire city when she had too much energy.. this was not the case. Could it be.. the more unlikely reason: had she turned emo..? Wanting to be lonely..?
No. Not that. It was true that she wanted to be alone, yes, but it was for a completely different reason.
Letting out another deep sigh, the girl gazed over the busy city, thinking that she might have come up with the reason for why she was out here, doing nothing. It was simple, really.
Because she wanted to escape.
Escape from everyone, from the people, her problems, reality..
Being alone just calming her mind was the perfect, although temporary, solution for this.
But she still loved it. Even if it never lasted for long, even if she knew that she soon had to return to solve her problems and concerns.
Problems..
Problems, issues and other similar shit had been haunting her for as long as she could remember. It was almost ironic; the fact that her earliest or only childhood memory was her and John getting abandoned by their father. If she ever saw him again, she would kill him.
But, there was an upside to that. Because of what happened, Aurora realized that she was weak. She cried and cried, that was the only thing she did after they got left in one of Sinnoh's greatest forrests.
What about John..? She didn't know how he was affected by that, nor does she know now.. But she knew that he was strong. That was the only reason they even got out of there.. If it weren't for him, she would still be that crying, annoying little kid. Huh. Guess she owns him alot more than she thought. Maybe she could buy two bottles of champagne for him later..? After all, he was the reason she could tackle any oncoming problems those two ever encountered.
Her eyes immediately shot up as she realized what she was doing. As a penalty, she punched herself, hard, in her stomach, which in the end made her fall down to her knees due to the power of her punch.
Pathetic. The whole point of this was to relax and forget about everything, and there she was, thinking about the past?
Screw the past. She lives here, now. Thinking about the future would be the most logical thing to do.
Closing her eyes, Aurora tried to once more return to her previous standing, but it was impossible. Instead, images of Ash and May invaded her mind, making her attempt a failure.
Ash.. The cause for all of her recent problems. She had to do something. About him.
But what..?
Well, now that she thought of it, it was simple. She just had to get rid of May.
Only now, she would do it for real.
Lol
"I see.. And why exactly did you do that, Brock?"
"I.."
The troubled breeder let out a very deep sigh as he tried to collect his thoughts and memories about what happened earlier. That showed to be rather difficult, since the brown haired girl in the room that claimed to be named Sophia was literally grinning at him.
To make it even harder, the doctor seemed to think that Brock did all of this on purpose..
"Could you please leave..?"
"Hm, me?"
The doctor obviously noticed that Sophia was the cause for Brock's nervosity, and to prevent any more misunderstandings he requested for the girl to leave the room.
"Are you serious?" she bursted out, feeling offended. "I haven't done anything!"
"Maybe not, but this is serious matter, so if you-"
"Fine, but promise me we'll talk more afterwards!"
"Of course." the doctor replied with a light chuckle. "This shouldn't take too long."
"Hmpf, that would be best for you!"
Without another word, the girl quickly skipped out of the room, but not without grabbing Pikachu and throwing the surprised man a quick wink.
"What an interesting young lady.." he silently muttered before turning towards Brock once more. "Moving on.."
lol
Ding dong. Ding dong.
A sound that had been repeating itself for quite a while now.
Sigh.
"John..?"
Maybe he was taking a rest? Raising her voice would probably work best.
"JOHN..?"
Still no response.. What a shame. And she had just calmed down, too.
"John?" the girl tried again, this time also banging the locked door. "I'm leaving."
Still no response. Was she really that annoying..?
It seemed so.. Then it shouldn't be a bad idea to do exactly what John wanted in the first place, for her to leave. And she would do precisely that. With a determined mind, a simple goal and tearfree eyes, the girl turned around on her heels to never look back again.
Lol
So many thoughts and questions circled around the young man's mind, giving him a feeling of insanity waiting there just around the corner. Additionally, the room was very dark and quiet.. the point of that was probably to give the guests a calming feeling and atmosphere.
But.. that was not the case this time, and those 'guests' who happened to be 'welcomed' in here turned out to never be seen again. How assuring.. He even felt like crying! It had been years since he wanted to do that.. Well, if you didn't count all of those times Jessie made him wince in fear.
Jessie.. Meowth.. How did things turn out for them?
Suddenly, steps could be heard from just outside the room, which made James pop his head up in surprise and nervosity.
Like some old horror movie, the door gave out a whining noise as it got slowly opened to soon reveal his boss.
His face was serious like always, but that wasn't the thing making him look frightening.
His right hand was free, of course, which was also the hand he used to open the door.
On his other hand.. was a revolver.
lol
"I can't believe we're actually here again."
"Ditto."
"Ditto..? Is there a Ditto around here?"
"Are you shi-"
The green haired boy facepalmed as he watched his stupid and dense friend look around them in search of any Ditto nearby.
"Are you sure there's a Ditto in here..?" Ash asked and raised his eyebrow, wondering why his friend was dragging his hand down his face.
"What are you being so grumpy about..?" Ash asked, completely oblivious over the obvious.
"Dude, do you even know what ditto means? And I'm not talking about the pokémon species."
"There's a word like that..?"
"Apparently."
"I see.."
"Gosh, you really are stupid."
"H-Hey!"
"Sh. Keep your eyes on those chairs and don't let anyone take them away."
"People actually ASK before taking stuff.."
"That doesn't apply to some young kids, they'll use fake tears or something to make you give in."
"Well, yeah?"
"Mhm..?" Drew got out and let out a sigh of annoyance as he fidged with his green towel on his hair. "Don't you know what will happen if the girls return only to know that their seats had been taken, even when they specifically asked you to cover for them?"
"They asked you, too! Amelia's seat is your responsibility!"
"I haven't stated otherwise.. At least I'm doing my job."
"So am I!"
"Oh really..?"
"Yeah..?"
As Drew started to chuckle at a rising rate, Ash realized that something was wrong, and it didn't take long before he noticed that the two white, plastic chairs right next to him were missing.
"What, HOW?"
Ash desperately looked around his surroundings, trying to spot any suspicious looking person escaping the area. Of course, he failed miserably due to the masses of people blocking his view.
"Well, I think it would be a good idea for you to come up with your last words, Ash."
"Ehehe, that's not necessary.." Ash assured, although he said that to convince himself more than the green haired boy. "I won't need to: they're probably having too much fun to care.."
"If you say so.."
"I mean, you're supposed to have fun, not sit here doing nothing!"
"That's funny coming from you, since you're the one doing nothing."
"You're sitting here, too!"
"I was assigned with this task." Drew defended himself and wrapped his towel around his stomach. "And unlike you, I can actually do what I was told."
"Bleh.."
"Well, since the girls are gonna kill, I mean, torture you, why don't go for a last swim?"
"Very funny." Ash got out and faked a laugh, which soon got replaced with a feeling of fear coursing through his body once he saw that Drew was being serious. "I don't think I can swim for a while after what happened.."
Oh, right.. what really happened just an hour ago?
"Drew, would you mind explaining to me exactly what happened before?" Ash asked and recieved a strange look from his green haired friend. "As you probably heard, and saw, from all of those tests, I don't remember much from that accident."
"Hm, I really thought you were kidding there."
"I wasn't.."
"I see."
Drew wrapped his towel around the top of his head again, probably a strange way of his to gain more concentration.
"I think it started.. here?" Drew finally said and looked around, trying to spot the location where it all began. "Somewhere around here though."
"Yeah? And then?"
This time, Drew was making a bandana out of his towel; the noise from all of the people around really made it hard for him to remember anything.
"We spotted a girl on the diving tower."
Suddenly, it all came back to him, just like that. Aurora and May.. but it was still kinda foggy, especially after Aurora had jumped.. there seemed to be a massive memory hole around those parts.
"Yeah..?"
"And then.. you went to see who it was. I was also curious, so I went after you since you took so long anyways."
For some reason, Drew lost his concentration and nearly dropped his towel.. Ash could only assume it was due to-
"Shit.. I think she was a hot one, too."
Bullseye.
"Moving on.." Drew barely muttered, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember much of that angel-like girl that jumped from the diving tower. "You.. you were standing at the edge of the pool or something.. over there."
Ash sweatdropped, is he insane?
"Eh, it's too crowded to even see anything.." Ash got out and sighed once he followed the direction of where his finger was pointing. "Lucky enough for you, I still remember at least that."
"Hmpf, how should I know?"
"At least point at stuff you know I can see..!"
"Sh, you sound like Amelia.. only that-"
"Only that I'm actually winning these arguments?"
"One win out of hundreds of other times isn't something notable, Ash."
"Anyways.." Ash said, changing back the direction of where this conversation was heading. "I remember that the girl-"
Wait. Should he tell them about Aurora..?
"Never mind.."
"Well.. you obviously fainted, some even think it was because of her hotness."
"When did I faint exactly..?" Ash further questioned, ignoring the irrelevant stuff Drew spat out.
"Hm.. I think it was just before she hit the water, or something.."
"I see.."
"I'm pretty sure you fainted because you caught a glimpse of her p-"
"And when did I wake up?" Ash interrupted Drew before any inappropriate word escaped from his mouth. "More important: how and why?"
"I don't know why, but it probably was her hotness again that even made your heart stop."
"I doubt that.."
"Hmpf, a-anyways, to get you back to life, somebody had to perform CPR, and that was urgent.."
"Uhm, yeah?"
"Mm.."
"Yeah?"
Drew started to get some shivers through his whole body, and it didn't take much to realize it was because of what he had to do earlier.
"Well.." Drew started again and noticed that he was starting to get a dry throat. "Since those stupid life guards took so long to get there, I figured.. that.."
Not being able to take it anymore, Drew nearly threw up on spot but managed to stop it as he stood up with a deep red face.
"I'm.. I'm just gonna get a drink." Drew stated and cleared his throat a bit. "This will probably take a while.. Guard my chair, will you?"
"Uh.. Right, I got it."
Ash stared at his friend as he went towards the snackbar, although slowly, and it looked more like he wobbled his way there like a drunk old man. After Drew had disappeared into the sea of people, it was time for Ash to think of what to do about his complicated situation.
Lol
"How is she..?"
"Fine.. I guess."
The pokécenter was very quiet. Unusually quiet. Perhaps it was because most of those staying there were out, enjoying themselves. Or maybe because the one managing the whole center was lying on a bed, unconscious..
"The doctor, Martin, said that it was incredible that she hadn't gotten any serious injuries.." Brock said lowly, with his usual depressed face and voice. "She should wake up in a few days."
"I see, I see.." Sophia replied rather bored since she knew that the nurse would be alright since the moment it all happened. "Well, I'm not going to help you run the center, you know.."
"I never asked for that, so, yes.."
Once again, the room, or the whole pokécenter went quiet, the only thing that could be heard being the various machines across the room, giving out beeping noises. The one that could be heard the most was the heart monitor that gave a beep whenever Mary's heart beat. Even though it was reassuring hearing it beat at a steady rate, Brock couldn't help but think of the risk that it may one day stop beeping. But for now, he had other things to think of.
"May I ask who you are, miss..?"
"I'm Sophia."
"Hi, Sophia." Brock got out, giving the girl a difficult time for her to know whether he was being polite or not. "I'm Brock. Nice to meet you."
"Eheheh, yeah.."
Brock turned around with his chair in the small and dark patient room, soon facing the girl with a depressed face which scared the girl with some amount.
"Quit it. I know you're Sophia. Tell me who you really are."
And that made him even more scarier.
"Well, I am Sophia. Who else?"
"So I've been told." Brock replied and crossed his arms, leaning back on his chair. "Where is Pikachu?"
"Hmpf, why do you care?"
"Because he's my friend?"
"Oh really? Well, he would pick me over you ANYTIME."
Brock didn't seem to convinced, but the girl was planning on changing that. With her chin high up and nonchalant face just outside of the room, the girl screamed for Pikachu, who was probably eating some ketchup at the moment.
"Chaaaaaa..?"
"COME OVER HERE NOW!"
First, the sound of a plate getting destroyed for some reason could be heard before small, quiet steps got closer and closer by the second. Soon enough, the girl's and Brock's friend Pikachu stood by the door with a very irritated posture.
"Pi..?" the rodent wondered, also thinking of how he should pay back for the plate he just vaporized.
"Pikachu, I'm going to give you two choices, alright?"
Pikachu got quite surprised by this sudden change of situation and atmosphere, but nodded nonetheless.
"Alright!" Sophia bursted out and giggled. "Now, Brock or me?"
Really..? That's it?
Pikachu let out one of his deepest sighs ever before going over to Brock, jumping onto his lap with a very bored face expression. Brock still 'maintained his cool' by not showing too much thought about Pikachu's choice, but did a mental note of thanking him later. The girl, on the other hand, had apparently already left the room, leaving them for themselves.
Lol
This.. This feeling, what was it?
Whatever it was, it was horrible. It made his whole body shake, his thoughts explode and his speaking ability drop.
"James."
"Y-Yes, Giovanni?"
"You're very brave to address me by my name."
"I-I'm sorry, boss!"
The man who was sitting on the chair, the source of this awful feeling, let out a deep sigh before 'inspecting' the object in his hands; the firearm.
"Do you want to live, James?"
Is this man insane? Who, besides emos, would reply NO to that? The possibility that his boss might be a little screwed up in the head made him shiver in fear.
Oh. Fear. That would be the last thing he would be able to experience before getting a bullet through his brain.
"James..? Should I take that as a 'no'?"
"Of course I would like to live, sir..!"
His fate said something else.
It was getting a little bit late, apparently. Even though it was in the middle of the summer, the sun, for some reason, had disappeared behind the masses of mountains, causing the room to turn completely black except for the area where the open fire was.
How ironic.. While the light went out, so would his life.
"Good. Then I'm going to give you a.. Mission. Complete it, and I'll let you be."
"T-Thank you, boss!"
What was it now.. What was he feeling? Hope?
"Not only that, but if you manage to do it without hesitation, I'll promote you."
It wasn't hope.. It was a dream!
"Y-Yes, sir!"
But something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. The revolver in his hand.. Also, he wasn't smiling, despite him hearing about the job offer, he would even get promoted if he did it correctly.
"Well then.." Giovanni started and leaned forwards, still holding the revolver tightly. "I want you to kill this person."
First, Giovanni put the revolver on the table and slid it to James before he picked a remote from his pocket, aiming it at something on the wall. Soon enough, it was obvious for James that it was a remote for a TV, although he was a bit surprised that he never noticed that screen before..
James hesitated as he grabbed the revolver, but he soon gained confidence, knowing that there really wasn't anything else he could do. Kill or be killed. Simple as that.
But, once he saw the screen turn on, showing who his target was.. It wasn't that simple anymore.
Lol
Who knew a single bottle of champagne could be so expensive.? No wonder he freaked out.. And WHY exactly is it so heavy? Does the drink contain some iron atoms or something?
Letting out a deep sigh, the black haired girl silently took off her shoes in the hallway of her house, not exactly knowing why she did it like that. Well, that wasn't really important, she had to ask her brother why the garage doors were pink and why he had left the door unlocked. Assuming he's around here, that is..
"John..?" she called out, wanting to smack her brother's face for some reason. "You here?"
No response. Guess he's still with Angel. Oh.. hoho, maybe they're 'having fun'?
Giggling quietly for herself, Aurora continued to walk through her house upstairs but stopped once she saw someone in the living room, lying on the couch. At first she thought it was a filthy burglar, but judging from his monkey-like sleeping position, it was pretty safe to say that it was her brother. Naw, how cute.. maybe a fight Angel? At least now she knows why she silently entered the house: she must've felt his presence, somehow.
Like always, her brother's retarded sleeping position caused her to giggle, and it was enough to wake him up since she was practically right next to him.
"You're home, I see.." John got out, slightly surprised to see his face near the floor. "You're home early."
"Does it matter?" Aurora countered. "More importantly; do you care? And where's Angel?"
"She's.. somewhere.." John replied with a yawn, avoiding the first question. Well, he did avoid both.. "And what's that?"
John hadn't taken a nap like that in ages, it was so relaxing.. Of course, taking one now made him feel drowzy since it had been so long. However, after seeing that his sister was holding an object of familiar shape, his mind and body was up and running again.
"What do you think?" Aurora replied and showed off her newly aquired bottle of champagne.
"You're 14.. you shouldn't be drinking."
"I do what I want, alright?" Aurora hushed, already feeling annoyed. Walking up to the large table between the two, she slammed the bottle on top of it, almost breaking the table's glass in the process. "It's not for me, anyways."
"Really..?" John got out and sweatdropped. "If you really wanna drink, you should at least get quality brands- hey, wait a minute.."
Since the lights were turned off and the couch faraway from the glass doors on the other side, it was pretty dark to se anything clearly. Only now was it possible for him, after his eyes had adjusted themselves, to see the brand and year of the champagne bottle.
"Holy crap.." John nearly whispered and grabbed bottle with wide open eyes. "This.. THIS..!"
John spent almost a full minute just watching the bottle from top to bottom, even feeling its form.. before he looked at his sister with massive wonder.
"How could you pick such a fine.." John said, or gasped.. "Where.. where did you steal this..?"
"Hmpf, I know my things.. And I actually bought that."
"You.. bought.. it..?" John stammered, more confused than before. "Who.. who is it for..? Angel isn't coming back for a while, I believe.."
Aurora forced herself not to punch her brother in his face and instead slapped her own face, dragging her hand down all the way.
"What do you think?" was all she said before being on her way upstairs.
"Uh.. Giovanni?"
"IDIOT!"
Aurora was already on the second floor, but somehow her scream penetrated all of the thick material in between..
"Well.." John got out and scratched his chin, still admiring the work of art he was holding. "If it's not for him, then who is it f-"
Oh. OH.. NO WAY.
Lol
It seemed like a large amount of people in Sinnoh's Jubilife city were troubled about something. It could be about their work, a disease or something as easy as their math homework. For one special young man though, a famous leader for a criminal special operations group, more complicated and personal problems occupied his thoughts.
His name was Jens, and he stood in front of a very hard decision to make.. even though it was very straight forward..
Love or work.
The man sighed and stretched a bit on the bench he was currently sitting on as he watched the sunset slowly fade away. Despite loving the main cities, occasionally going to a quiet place like this to think proved to be very benefitial.
As the man brought up his new cellphone he bought just a few hours ago, he noticed that it was only a few hours before he would 'go out' with his comrades. That was, though, only if he chose work over her.
Now that he thought of it, all he had to do was to go to the airport, tell her that he was sorry and enjoy a night of epic fun with his team. Simple as that.
Sigh.. if only it were that simple.
There were so many questions he had to deal with.
What should he do? What would happen..?
Also.. why exactly did Giovanni give them a night off? Especially during the festival time.. in fact, recently they've been getting less and less missions. Something was up, damn right something was up.
"Garde..?"
"Nah, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell to do. I can't pick one of them."
"Gardevoir..?"
Jens let out a deep sigh, unlike all other times, this was a matter Gardevoir could not offer any assistance with. All in all, he considered that his work was somehow connected with love since she had always been with him. Not to mention his team.. that's why he couldn't pick one. He needed both.
But he knew very well that that was impossible.
"Gar.. Gardevoir."
"Don't you think I've already thought of that? There's no way she would agree to that."
Gardevoir let out a low cry, depressed that she couldn't help out her master.
"It's fine. Really."
Lies.
Lol
"Ash.."
"Yes, Drew?"
"Where is my chair?"
"Your chair..? Well, it's in here."
"Where..?"
"In here..?"
The raven haired boy tried his best not to suffocate from too much laughter, and seemed to do pretty well.. that was, until Drew sat down with a pissed off face.
"Why, Ash.." Drew started and closed his eyes. "WHY is there a chair missing..?"
"How should I know..?" Ash said, continuing to play stupid. "I've been here all the time."
"I told you to watch my chair, Ash."
"I did.. that's your chair..?"
Well, Ash couldn't take it anymore. Drew's face as he realized what Ash had done was priceless, and Ash laughed so hard that he eventually drew lots of attention, some even recognizing him from before.
"Nice one." Drew got out, not sure if he should be pissed or impressed. "Very nice one indeed."
Judging from Drew's frightened look, it seemed that he was thinking of what Amelia would do to him, despite all of them knowing it was Ash's fault.. so, he calmed down, hoping to actually support his friend in need.
"Man.. I'm screwed." Drew nearly whispered. "I'm wondering if Amelia would be worse than Dawn and May combined."
"Hey, it's only a seat.. it's not like she would suddenly grab something and hit you, or-"
It only took a glance for Ash to know that Drew was indeed in trouble.
"Amelia is not a normal girl, I really hope you understand that."
"Well yeah.. but she won't do anything? I'll cover for you!"
"Oh really." Drew stated more than asked.
"Yeah! I mean, she's your girlfriend!"
"For some reason, that only makes it worse. It acts like an excuse for her to go all-out on me."
"Hmpf.. Well, I'll think of something."
"You'd better be. Incase you're wondering, no one but my family inherit my money in case death would occur."
"Amelia is family.." Ash said and raised his eyebrows in a teasing way. "Right?"
"Very funny."
"I know." Ash got out and laughed a bit for himself. "But don't worry, I'll figure something out. If you don't, I'll get you a burger."
"I won't be able to eat by that time."
"I knoooow."
"VEEERY FUNNY YOU D-"
"GUYS!"
While the sound of a few girls screaming for them made Ash's face light up, Drew nearly got a heartattack, which he preffered over getting it ripped out. Soon enough, three beautiful girls had approached the two boys by their table with sweet smiles.
Dawn, May, and lastly Amelia, who all wondered why there were only two seats, both which were also occupied.
"Hey Ash.." Amelia started and raised her eyebrow. "Where's our seats-"
"WOOHOO!"
None of the girls were really prepared for something like Ash jumping in front of them with a clenched fist, so they all let out short screams of their own, dragging more attention from bypassers than Ash originally intended to.
"It's a beautiful night to be swimming!" Ash exclaimed and let out a dry laugh. "HOHO, don't you think so, DREW?"
At first, Drew was still surprised over the sudden change of mood and atmosphere, but soon got along with the little play, wondering why he never thought of something simple as this before.
"Indeed." Drew quickly got out and got up to his feet, still having his eyes closed and his hands in his trunk's pockets, how that now worked.. "Shall we, ladies?"
Not only were the girls stunned over this strange scene, but people around also started to think that this particular group of teens were simply idiots. It even required for Ash to make a move for people to move on, which he did by sprinting over to the nearest pool.
"C'mon guys!" Ash screamed and did some pretty strange moves and splashes on the water like a kid, with other people still staring at him. "It's COOL over here!"
Drew, despite being aware of the situation, had still not fully grown custom to Ash's acting.. it was either professional or just plain stupid. Anyways, he just shrugged once before slowly dipping his body into the water, unlike Ash who nearly drowned himself, again..
It took a while, but after the girls had gotten over the initial chock over Ash and Drew, they enjoyed themselves to an amount they usually didn't reach in their everyday life. With the help of Ash's awesome imagination and Amelia's violent thinking, the teens were able to have lots of fun playing catch, hide and seek and even coming up with a few games of their own. Of course, with Amelia deciding the rules, it wasn't surprising to see that most of their games included penalties for the loser, and that Drew received almost all of them. Well, he DID lose every time, so he managed to get quite much pain from being slapped, punched, tickled and hurt due to being forced to answer embarrassing questions, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.
Besides.. anything over getting ripped apart by his so called girlfriend.
"DREW!"
Drew, who was sitting on the edge of the big pool with his feet under the water threw Ash an evil glare for disturbing his thoughts and relaxation.
How could Ash have so much energy..?
Drew pondered about that as he watched Ash quickly sprint through the water to Drew, not once losing speed or confidence. It was almost scary knowing that Ash reminded him of Amelia in terms of energy.
"Hey.." Ash gasped out when he finally reached Drew, leaning himself against the edge for support. "The place is closing soon so we're gonna play one final game before leaving. You in?"
Hm.. why not?
Letting out a deep sigh, Drew gave Ash a quick nod before following him over to the girls who were playing on the other side.
Which he soon regretted..
The rules were simple. Well, there wasn't any rules to start off with.. only the main objective: to knock the other team down to the water.
"Alright, first off.." Amelia announced with a slight giggle. "We should start off by deciding teams and-"
"Do you really think that it's such a good idea playing on this pool?" Ash cut off and rubbed the back of his head. "Not only are there too many kids around here.. but also, May and Dawn aren't even listening."
"HMPF! I appreciate your concern.. but could you please not interrupt me like that again..?"
Drew, even though very bored with the whole situation let out a loud laugh once he heard Amelia's sincere request.
"It's funny knowing that you can ask him so nicely, but not me."
"Hmpf, got problem with that?"
"But.." Ash jumped in and laughed sheepishly. "He's your boyfriend..?"
"Mm? And?"
Ash sweatdropped, it seemed that Drew was completely right about Amelia not giving a damn about that. Drew saw that Ash had just realized that, and so let out an even louder chuckle than before.
"Hmpf, let's just move, alright?"
Amelia sighed before practically running towards her two other friends in slowmotion through the water. As expected, she tripped once and splashed her face to the surface, much to Drew's happiness.. and of course, the girl quickly recovered and got up to her feet before glaring at Ash and Drew, checking if they were laughing or even just grinning.
Unfortunately for her, they were silent aswell, so she had no real excuse to beat them up. Yet.
Once she turned around to chase after May and Dawn, the two boys chuckled silently for themselves, not being able to get the image of a raging Amelia with her pink wet hair covering her eyes out of their heads.
"We should probably move to a less populated pool or something." Drew suggested and sighed after calming down. "There has to be atleast some people there, that way Amelia won't be so sure to kill us if people are watching."
"True."
"Yup."
Both of the boys let out silent sighs before they lazily tried to find a good pool enough suitable for whatever they were about to play.
It took a while, but they finally found a pool with not too many people, hopefully being big enough to move around in and play games.
"Took you long enough."
"Amelia.." Ash started and sighed. "It was kinda hard, you know?"
"Hm, alright.. I can't really see how it was hard, though." Amelia replied and lightly giggled.
"See.. WHY are you so nice towards HIM?"
Drew crossed his arms, clearly irritated over the lack of respect he gets from his girlfriend.
"I am nice towards people who DESERVE it, okay?"
"I don't deserve it?"
"Uh, no? And this.. This pool is FAR too deep, it even goes.. It almost reaches my throat!"
"Eheh.." Ash started and tried to get the two teen's attention, but failed miserably. "I'm.. just.. gonna get May and Dawn.. they're still in the other pool.."
Ash sighed, even though he stood in the middle of everything, neither Amelia nor Drew noticed him before or even after he silently left the now almost empty pool.
…
"Eh?"
Ash, May and Dawn stood by the ladder of the pool, surprised that Amelia and Drew were still at it. Strange. Or was it?
"I'm just saying that as your boyfriend, I deser- No, I DEMAND more respect from you."
"One can not ask for respect unless he or she is giving it themselves! ARE YOU RETARDED?"
After a few minutes of even more shouting and arguments, Ash managed to convince Drew that it would be a good idea to drop it all since.. Well, since they were obviously disturbing nearby people, and that it was soon closing time, if they wanted to play anything, now would be the time.
"Whatever." Drew got out, resisting the urge to splash some water into his girlfriend's face. "Now, what are we playing?"
"HMHM!"
Amelia, as if she had been waiting for this moment alone started to laugh in an evil yet proud way, indicating that she was.. well, insane?
"Fear not, my dear dog, cause I have prepared!"
May and Dawn also jumped down to the water and started to clap their hands with wide smiles once they had gotten over the fact that the water reached their throats. Ash and Drew, however, didn't like it at all that Amelia had planned this.. It would more or less end up in a very, very bad way.
"Alright.." Drew managed to get out, thinking of the many possibilities that could occur due to Amelia's retarded mind. "What have you planned for us?"
"Hehe.. A GAME!"
Once again, Ash and Drew tried their best not to chuckle and shout out in anger, respectively, while May and Dawn really loved the way Amelia was being 'mysterious'.
"Oh really..?" Ash lowly asked, knowing that Drew very much liked that he would finally take the initiative. "What game?"
"Hm.. Exactly."
May and Dawn now started to squeal in happiness, or something similar, while the two boys did the complete opposite, as usual.
"I will explain the rules," Amelia slowly started, "which are very simple."
Ash and Drew gave each other worrying looks but knew that there wasn't much to do other than to hold out until closing time.
"Well..?" Ash wondered and sweatdropped.
"First, teams of two!"
...
"We're.. 5." Drew plainly stated.
"Yeah..?" Amelia countered and glared at Drew like he was retarded for real. "I'm gonna be the judge YOU IDIOT."
"Oh. I see."
"Exactly. Now shut up and get with Dawn!"
"Oh, Amelia!" Dawn squealed and giggled as she went towards Drew through the water. "I admire you, I really do!"
"YEAH!"
'What is there to admire about her..?' the two boys thought almost at the exact same time.
"So.." May got out from behind Ash, surprising him. "I guess I'm with Ash! What are we playing?"
"Patience, sweety! Now that the teams are set.."
Before she continued, Amelia took a few seconds to 'inspect' what she was doing. Her friends were already assigned into two teams while waiting for her every command, which she came to like. Her standing inbetween them only added to that sweet, victorious feeling. There were a few spectators as expected, and a few other people playing in the pool, but due to the water deep there weren't many people, so they could do pretty much whatever they wanted to without worrying about annoying little kids.
"Well, it seems everything's set." Amelia proudly stated and giggled. "Let's BEGIN!"
...
"Eh? You haven't told us the rules yet.."
Amelia sweatdropped, realizing her mistake while Drew sighed, this was getting out of hand.
"I was just about to do that, thank you." Amelia quickly countered. "Well, since I am the judge, I have the right to sit on the edge, looking down on you!"
And so, Amelia got up from the pool and instead sat on the edge with her feet under the water surface, forcing her friends with her so that they could hear her rules.
"Now, May, get on Ash's shoulder, and Dawn get on Drew's!"
"EH?'!"
That was the collected sounds coming from four surprised teens.
"DO IT!" Amelia exclaimed with a huge smile.
"Well.." Dawn started sheepishly and giggled. "I guess we should do as she says, huh?"
"Why?" Drew got out and crossed his arms, something he found strange to do underwater.
"Because it's a game! We have to follow the rules!"
Hmpf. First of all, what game? What rules? And Amelia was in charge.. how did that happen?
Despite those critical factors, Drew motioned for Dawn to jump onto his shoulders once he got underwater, which they both pulled off pretty quickly.
"Ash, May!" Amelia called out and giggled even more, joyful over that Drew was finally doing as she wanted. "Hurry!"
With a short sigh, Ash also got under water, but did so without alerting May first which ended up with him staying under water for just a tad too long.
"HEY!" Ash complained once he got up from the water with May on his shoulders. "What took you so long? I think I nearly drowned!"
"Y-You didn't tell me in advance, it's your fault!"
"Hmpf!"
"Hmpf!"
"Eh.. guys?" Amelia cut in and giggled once more. "I hate to break your flirting, but we have a game to play."
"We..?" Drew muttered and sweatdropped, still surprised over how light Dawn was. "The only thing you're doing is to-"
"BEGIN!"
...
"Eh?"
"The rules, Amelia..?" May kindly begged and quickly slapped Ash lightly on his cheek, enjoying her power she was currently having.
'Oh.. I'll get my revenge..' Ash thought and grinned as he got lost in his own world, not knowing that he was grinning right at the wondering Drew. "Just wait.."
"Oh, right.." Amelia said and rubbed the back of her head. "The objective is simple: bring down the other team to the water to score! Best of three! No slapping, punches or scratching, only pushes, dragging and the like. Use your strength, balance and your concentration but more importantly, teamwork! Cooperate with your partner to give the other team an early shower!"
"Hm." Drew muttered again. "Fair enough. Dawn, you got this, hm?"
"You can count on me!" Dawn bursted out and clenched her fists. "You ready to get WET, guys?"
"I didn't get that joke or whatever it was," Ash started and tightened his grip over May's hanging legs. "But I get that you're the ones going down!"
"Yeah!" May joined in and giggled. "Unless Ash screws up.."
"What, why would I be the one to screw up?"
"Because you ALWAYS do that..?" May stated as a matter of factly and sighed.
"Wait, if any, YOU'RE the one who always-"
"BEGIN!"
"EH?"
Splash.
And just like that, the two teens' little argument stopped due to both of them getting their mouths filled with water, also giving the other team the first round win. When both Ash and May surfaced gasping for air, they were met with small laughter from various spectators and the joyful victory shouts from Dawn and Drew. Or more like Dawn only since Drew was busy trying to keep his balance over her constant jumping and clapping her hands.
"Well, that was round one!" Amelia said out loud and giggled like never before. "You guys ready for the second?"
"Ash, we lost because you weren't concentrating.." May stated and yawned. "Try to keep your mind together now, alright?"
"Oh, so I was the ONLY one, hm?"
"I suppose..?"
"Ash.." Amelia once again cut in with a calm voice and a sweet smile. "Will you SHUT UP AND LET MAY ON YOUR SHOULDERS?"
Ash was greatly annoyed with both of the girls but decided not to further push this, after all, patience and thorough planning always paid off. With a deep sigh, Ash once again got under water and soon resurfaced once May was sitting tightly on his shoulders/back.
"Good." Amelia got out and sighed. "Thank you. Now, are both teams ready?"
As Amelia turned to face Dawn and Drew, she was also faced with an energetic 'YEAH!' and a silently 'mm'. Whilst, when she turned to the other team, she got no response whatsoever.
"Eh.." Amelia said and sighed. "I'll take that as a yes.. BEGIN!"
Drew was surprised that Ash had the guts and even the brain capacity to pull of a sudden sneakattack, but it required more for him to get impressed.
"How about we make this interesting.." Drew started as he walked slowly to the left with his eyes locked onto Ash's, ready for any sudden movement.
"Indeed." Ash replied, also slowly going left, causing both of them to go around in a small circle. "The winning team gets.."
".. to command the other team. One time."
"Perfect."
"You're being too hasty, Ash. Remember that we're one point ahead. If we win this, we win the whole thing."
"Fine with me. We're gonna win anyways. Right, May?"
"Stop talking and charge him!" May complained with a giggle and raised her arm to point at Dawn's horrified face. "GO!"
Ash, before rushing forwards, threw Drew a wide grin, causing Drew to lose his concentration for a split second. Right before Ash and May got close enough, Drew stepped to the right, barely saving Dawn from getting completely pushed down by May's swift arms.
"Impressive." Drew got out and got back his balance. "I'm afraid it takes alot more than that to-"
"DIE!"
A scream, a grunt, and a loud, large splash.
"HEHEHE, Dawn and Drew gets totally annihilated, which gives Ash and May the win for this round! One-one!"
Amelia started to giggle frantically, and it got even worse once she saw that more and more people started to watch their little show. Some of them even wanted to join in themselves, which they did, by jumping down into the pool and playing the exact same game by the other side of the pool.
"Hmpf, you got l-"
"DREW! WHY DID YOU LET HER PUSH ME DOWN?'!"
"Agh, I never knew May could reach so far.." Drew muttered and prepared to let Dawn onto his shoulders again.
"HIHI, never underestimate your foe, Drew!" May proudly stated and playfully patted Ash on his head, which annoyed him to some extent. This only boosted his confidence, though, as he knew that his revenge would be much sweeter if she kept on provoking him.
"Alright, enough playing games."
Drew, getting picked on by Dawn and a few other guys was now starting to get irritated over why people couldn't recognize him as a top coordinator. This brought up memories.. if he hadn't let May win that time, everybody would look up at him. Everybody. Well, not like they weren't doing that now, it's just that the other 1% of girls who didn't fall for him would instantly do that.
One thing was for sure: he wouldn't let May win. Not this time. Not anymore.
"Dawn." Drew started, checking if Dawn still had energy left to continue. "We need some kind of tactic. Got any?"
"Tactic? Well, we COULD try to fool them by running and them sto-"
"Are you insane? They can STILL HEAR US."
"Oops."
Unfortunately for Ash and May, Drew and Dawn had started to whisper their various plans and tactics.. and it didn't take long before they did that, too.
"GUYS!" Amelia shouted, wondering why they would need tactics for this simple game. "This isn't a pokémon battle! BEGIN FINAL ROUND!"
As quickly as their discussions had started, they immediately ceased, with Ash and Drew staring at each other yet again, and their respective partners trying to find openings or anything at all that would help their determining final battle.
"Alright, May, you got this?"
"I got it.. Heads up, Ash."
Just like May said, it was probably best to focus more on Drew and Dawn since the combination of those two and what they could accomplish was unknown. When Drew started to walk forwards and backwards, constantly, it worried Ash alot.. not to mention Dawn who was quietly humming for herself, eyes on May.
What are they doing?
"May, I'm gonna try using our first plan."
"Right."
...
"What plan was it again..?"
Ash wanted to slap himself on his face, he couldn't. He wanted to have a burger, he couldn't. He wanted to charge right at Drew, he couldn't- well he could, but that wouldn't be very sma-
"ASH!"
By instinct and with his quick reflexes, Ash managed to dodge the oncoming team in just the right time, barely avoiding defeat. Because of that Ash moved so fast and swiftly, he almost lost his balance, nearly causing May to fall of his shoulders. Quickly getting back to his senses, Ash barely avoided Dawn's full out push with only a few inches.
This was an opening. And May saw it. Perfect!
Rushing towards Drew like a maniac, who was just about to turn around after recovering from their previous attack, Ash almost lunged forwards to allow May throw the last push.
Splash. Success.
"And the winner is TEAM IDIOT!" Amelia bursted out with joy.
"YE- Wait, team idiot..?"
"Great job, Ash!"
May started to laugh in pretty much the same way as Amelia did, maybe even worse as she started to 'jump' where she was sitting on: Ash.
"H-Hey, May, I'm gonna fall!"
"So?"
While the two of them were at it, Drew was feeling the bittersweet feeling of defeat, and Dawn tried to fix her hair, despite the water dripping and making it heavy.
"And now.. TEAM SWITCHES!"
May immediately stopped messing around, and along with the other contestants, stared at Amelia with wonder.
"Now, Ash, May, remember that you have one command you can issue towards Drew and Dawn, which they have to follow at any costs! And now.." Amelia started and stood up on her feet. "TEAM SWITCHES! Ash and Dawn versus May and Drew!"
"Alright!" Dawn bursted out and clenched her fists. "Ash! You better make us win!"
It seemed that May and Drew didn't have any comment regarding this sudden team changes, but decided to go with the flow nonetheless.
"Alright, Ash.." May started and giggled. "It seems that we'll be enemies now. Could you let me down, please?"
There. Now was the golden opportunity. Right, NOW.
"Hehehe, with pleasure.."
"Huh..?"
Before May could think more into why Ash was saying that in low and pretty evil voice, she noticed that her whole body was falling backwards, not downwards, and it didn't take long before her whole body splashed into the water.
"YEAH!" Ash exclaimed and clenched his fists as he watched May try to resurface. "I told ya I would get my revenge! HEHE."
"ASH! WHAT THE HELL?"
When May had finally resurfaced, Ash couldn't help but chuckle like a mad man, his revenge finally fulfilled. Drew also found this pretty interesting, while the two other girls joined May with her annoyance.
"Hmpf, I see you wanna play it like that.." May whispered and stomped her way towards Drew, meeting Dawn on the way there. "Dawn, don't expect me to go easy on you guys."
"I wouldn't expect less!" Dawn said, full with energy. "Now Ash, let us win this!"
"Alrighty.." Ash said with a light chuckle and quickly got under the water to allow Dawn on his shoulders.
When both of the teams were ready, Amelia thought of another winning prize instead of that original one.
"Best of three.." Amelia started and thought of it as she stood there by the edge of the pool, thinking hard. "The winning team gets.. 10 hugs from me!"
May and Dawn started to squeal, which was expected, while the two boys sweatdropped.
"I forfeit." the two boys said at the exact same time with painful face expressions.
And right after they said that, both of them got slaps to their necks, also at the precise same time.
"Nu-uh!" Dawn got out and crossed her arms. "We're winning this! Prepare to get down, May!"
"Hmpf! I'm taking Ash down, if you're in my way, so be it!"
Sigh. Well, they could just let the girls have all of the hugs in case they won, the both boys thought.
"BEGIN!"
Like the very first round from before, the round start announcement was very sudden for Ash, too sudden, and he didn't have anytime to realize that Drew had already sped past the small distance between them.
Splash.
He knew that they already lost, since everything was so blue and blurry.. Well, duh. Only to get back up and finish it like last time. Stupid Drew, starting it off like that.
As Ash tried to resurface, he noticed that something was blocking his way. What the h..
He tried to swim to the side to avoid it, but it seemed that whatever it was, it was very heavy, and thus it was sinking, also bringing him down with it..
This strange thing blocked his view, made everything blurry and worse of all laid on his face, pushing him down. It weigh like a big fat stone.. It reminded him of a two soccer balls sewn together, but almost double the size and much more softer.
Not wanting to end up in the same state as before, Ash got a determined look on his face and used his hand to push this strangely shaped object up from his face, and actually succeeded.
Ash resurfaced. Even though he only was under the water for about a few seconds, a minute max, he felt like resting for an hour to recover.
"Ash! You okay?"
Ah.. May's sweet voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Ash replied and looked around, surprised to see Amelia still laughing like crazy and Drew shaking his head. "What, what happened?"
Glancing to his side, he saw Dawn shiver for some reason.. Maybe she swallowed too much water or something?
"Dawn?" Ash asked and stepped closer to her. "Are you alright?"
"You.. You.." Dawn stuttered and shook even more. Also, it was pretty noticeable that her face had gotten so much red.
"Me..? Are you sure you're alright? You look awfully red."
"YOU.. YOU.."
"What? Did I do something?"
"YOU.. G.. GR.."
Dawn now stepped closer towards Ash, and for some strange reason, Ash stepped back..
"Y-Yeah..?"
"YOU GRABBED.. YOU.. GRABBED.. MY.."
"I grabbed? What did I grab? What nonsense are you talking about?"
And then, it hit him. In more than one way.