Ch 52: The rescue
Just outside a cave entrance two team Flare grunts were standing guard with electric batons in hand.
"How much longer are we stuck here?" One said.
"I don't know, this is so boring" The other said.
"I wish something exciting would happen". Not a moment later they saw a raven haired young man sprinting towards them.
"What the?" One of the grunts said. When Ash got close enough he thrusted his hand forward. A burst of aura flew through the air and knocked the two onto the ground. Before the first one could get up Ash got over him and smacked his palm into the man's throat knocking him out.
The other grunt scrambled to get back on his feet as he picked up his electric baton. Ash sprinted over and delivered a powerful kick to the man's face knocking him back onto the ground. Ash quickly smacked his palm into the man's neck knocking him out.
Once Ash saw the second grunt was unconscious he sprinted inside the cave. Elsewhere in the cave Vlad continued to press his hot iron onto Pikachu's back as the small electric pokemon continued to cry out in pain.
"PIka! PIkachu!". AZ had a look of horror and disgust on his face as he watched the poor Pikachu get tortured. Vlad noticed this and smiled.
"What does this bother you? Well maybe now you'll" Vlad started before AZ got up and pulled his hands apart tearing the ropes apart like they were tissue.
"What the?" Vlad said. The other grunts got up and ran at AZ with their electric batons in hand. AZ swatted the grunts away like flies before walking over to Vlad who was now backing up.
AZ reached out with his long arms and lifted Vlad up by his throat. As AZ lifted Vlad up, the team Flare grunt dropped his iron and Pikachu onto the ground.
"You can torture me to your heart's desire, I deserve it. But you will never, Never, harm an innocent pokemon!" AZ said as he brought Vlad's face closer to him before hurling Vlad into the cave wall, knocking him out.
Pikachu's back was still wrecked with pain as he slowly looked up at AZ. The massive man turned to PIkachu and picked him up.
"You poor little Pikachu, I'm so sorry that happened to you. No pokemon should ever be hurt like that" AZ said as he held Pikachu.
At first Pikachu was a little scared, but soon he realized that AZ was not going to hurt him. AZ looked at Pikachu's burn marks closer.
" You're lucky he stopped when he did, you will make a full recovery with some medicine. However, the there will always be a mark there" AZ said.
Elsewhere in the cave two of the grunts were moving Serena through the cave to another room.
"How much further do we need to take her? Anywhere should be fine" one of the grunts said.
"Come on this isn't so bad" The other grunt said with a sinister looking smile. It was then Serena felt one of the grunts touch her someone else on her body. Serena's face immediately turned Red as she tried to jerk away.
"Hey what are you doing?" The other grunt said.
"He grouped me!" Serena said.
"What?" The grunt said as he turned to his partner.
"Dude she's like what 15 are you some kind of creeper?".
"I don't know maybe she just said that so she could have an excuse to I don't know, RUN AWAY!" The other grunt screamed at him.
"Oh right, nice try brat" the first grunt said. Serena was thoroughly afraid when she saw the grunt give her a nasty smile as he walked back towards her. The two grunts grabbed her again and put her against a wall.
"Alright now we just wait until the Sgt says it's time to go".
"When would that be?".
"How should I know?" The other grunt said. Serena was very afraid of what was happening. But she was more afraid of what would happen next.
"What are you going to do with me?" Serena said. One of the grunts turned to her.
"Our boss has plans for you girl, he was very intent on you becoming a prisoner" The grunt said.
"Why? What have I done?" Serena said just before remembering how she and Ash stopped team Flare at that Army mine and the frost cavern.
"Well besides getting in our way twice, apparently there's another pretty big reason the boss wants you. I can only imagine what it is though" The creepy grunt said. Hearing that just made Serena more frightened.
"Actually we should have pulled out by now? I'm gonna find the sergeant and see what's going on. Stay here and watch the girl" One of the grunts said as he walked off.
"No problem" The creepy grunt said as he turned back towards Serena and gave her a nasty looking smile. Serena was now very , very afraid.
"Ash where are you" She said in great fear".
Elsewhere in the cave the team Flare Sergeant had 4 of his grunts with him as they finished packing up their supplies. The Sergeant loaded a clip into his pistol and cocked it back bringing the first bullet into the chamber.
"Everything's set Sergeant".
"Good now we just need to see what Vlad got from AZ, then we dispose of them both" The sergeant said as he put his pistol in a hidden holster.
"We're killing AZ too?" One of the grunts said.
"Once he gives us the info we need he's just a loose end the boss doesn't want".
"Uh Sarge do we really have to kill Vlad. I don't feel comfortable with that?".
"We're doing it, if we don't don't we'll be out of the team when it happens. Trust me you don't want that to happen".
"Right" The grunts said nervously.
Moments later another two grunts walked into the area.
"Sgt" one of the grunts said.
"What's wrong? Those girls giving you trouble?" The Sgt said.
"No Sarge the little girl just keeps telling me her big brother's gonna come and get us".
"Sarge we were just wondering when we were gonna pull out?"
"We just need to make sure we got the info from AZ , then we're pulling out"
"Behind you!" One of the other grunts shouted. Two of the grunts turned around just in time to see a raven haired young man right in front of them.
The grunts hurled their batons forward only to have them blocked by Ash's wrist blades. Ash quickly struck back and sliced off the ends of their batons. Ash then lashed the outside of his fist across the left grunt's face as he blocked the other grunt's incoming punch with his right forearm.
Before the other grunt could even respond, Ash grabbed his arm and dragged him forward into the other grunt and smashed their heads into each other.
The Sgt pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Ash. Not a moment later Ash wiped his arm across his chest unleashing a burst of aura that knocked the gun out of the Sgt's hand.
The other grunts quickly got up and each let out a Electrike and Golbat. At the same time the Sgt let out a pair of Manetric
Ash quickly turned around and saw this before hurling two of his pokeballs forward. Charizard and Lucario came out and took aggressive stances.
Before the grunts could even call a move Ash touched his mega evolution stone and both his pokemon mega evolved.
"The hell?" one of the grunts said.
"Flamethrower and Close combat!". Mega Charizard Y opened his mouth and unleashed a maelstrom of fire that engulfed 2 of the Electrike, Golbats, and their trainers. As the other 4 pokemon an their trainers.
The other grunts and their pokemon backed up and away from the fire. Lucario leapt up and over the fire before unleashing a furry of attacks, quickly knocking out each flare grunt and their pokemon.
Despite seeing this the Sgt seemed unfazed.
"Manetric Thunder!". The Two Manetric roared as they both unleashed a massive bolt of electricity at Mega Charizard Y.
"Steel wing!" Mega Charizard covered himself with his now metal wings as they absorbed all of the electricity.
"Manetric use ThunderFang".
"Flamethrower!" Charizard Y opened his mouth and unleashed an inferno that engulfed the team Flare Sgt and his Manetric. When the flames cleared all 3 were covered in soot and unconscious.
Ash noticed one of the grunts trying to crawl away and quickly walked over to him. Ash kicked the man onto his back as he stood over the man with both his Mega evolved pokemon beside him.
"Two blonde girls and a Pikachu, you have ten seconds to tell me where they are" Ash said. The man could see the anger and fury in the eyes of Ash and his pokemon.
"Alright they're deeper in the cave down the middle tunnel" The grunt said. Mega Lucario smashed his foot into the grunt's head knocking him out.
"Let's go!" Ash said. Elsewhere in Serena was still being watched by the creepy grunt.
"You're such a pretty girl, that boyfriend of yours is really lucky" The grunt said as he moved closer toward her. Serena tried to moved away but she was up against the wall.
The grunt slowly moved his hand towards Serena's chest. When Serena saw this she hurled her knee up in desperation hitting the grunt between his legs.
"Ouch!"The grunt said before backing up and putting his hands between his legs. At that moment Serena scrambled to her feet and ran for her life. Despite his pain, the grunt got up and ran after her. Serena was moving much faster and thought she was going to get away. That was until the grunt picked up a rock on the ground and hurled it at her. The rock hit Serena in the back of her leg and made her trip onto the ground.
"Alright you wanna play rough fine. Commander said no hurting pokemon, but you're not a pokemon" The grunt said as he took a knife out. Serena tried to back up but the grunt grabbed her and flipped her onto her back before straddling onto her with the knife over his head.
"First I'm gonna cut off all that pretty little hair of yours, then I'm gonna cut up that pretty little face, then I'm gonna" The grunt said as Serena started to tear up in fear.
"Please no".
"Oh don't worry, I'll be gentle" The grunt said as he came over her. Serena closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly. Just before the grunt could move his hand forward he felt a sharp pain enter his elbow. A blade had entered his arm as another arm came around the man's neck and mouth.
"Gaahh!" The man shouted before Ash turned the man around until they were face to face.
The grunt's eyes widened as he saw Ash's other wrist blade held up to his face.
"You were going to hurt her" Ash said.
"I , I" The man said trembling.
In that instance Ash acted out of pure rage and emotion with no thought whatsoever. he thrusted his left wristblade up and into the man's chest. The team flare grunt convulsed once and then stopped moving. That was when Serena opened her eyes and saw what Ash had just done.
"Ash! She shouted in disbelief. Ash slowly came forward and brought his wrist blades back out to cut Serena loose. Not even a moment after Serena's hands were free she grabbed Ash by the head and kissed him.
They remained locked together for almost a minute as tears of joy ran down Serena's face.
"Ash you don't know how happy I am to see you" Serena said.
"You don't know how relieved I am that you're safe" Ash said as he hugged her.
"Pikachu! Ash he's being tortured by team Flare!".
"I was afraid of that, come on we need to find him!" Ash and Serena quickly got up and ran back through the cave path. Ash was trying to track Pikachu through his aura and found he was close.
When they reached a large area where 4 different paths crossed they saw Charizard and Lucario walking towards them with Bonnie in between them.
"Great you guys found Bonnie!" Ash said.
"Ash thank heavens you found us, these guys were even meaner than team Rocket". A few moments later Red, Korrina, and Clemont rushed down the main path.
"Bonnie!" Clemont shouted as he ran over and scooped her up in his arms.
"Thank goodness you're safe" Clemont said.
"Serena good to see you're ok too" Korrina said.
"Where's Pikachu?" Red said.
"They still have him we need to split up and find him!" Ash said.
"Wait who's that?" Korrina said as she saw a very tall man walking towards them. The others turned and saw the man in his old and dirty jacket and his very long white hair.
"Wait a minute is that?" Serena said recognizing the man. As Ash looked closer he saw Pikachu was in the man's arms.
"Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he ran over to the man.
"Pika!" Pikachu shouted in excitement when he saw Ash. When Ash got close enough , Pikachu leapt out of the man's arms and into Ash's.
"Pika" PIkachu said rubbing his face against Ash's neck.
"PIkachu thank Reduka you're safe" Ash said. It was then Ash saw the burn mark on Pikachu's back.
"Oh no what did they do to you?" Ash said.
"He was burned with an iron, but with some healing he should make a full recovery" The man said. Ash looked up at the man and soon realized who the man was.
"AZ? What are you doing here?" Ash said.
"Wait Ash you know this man?" Korrina said.
"I do too, we rescued him from team Rocket's headquarters, I guess he returned the favor with PIkachu now" Serena said.
"Team Flare will send more men here to clean up. We should get some distance between us and them" AZ said. Later that night the group was sitting around a campfire having just finished dinner.
As the group ate Ash used his aura abilities to heal Pikachu's burn. While he had healed Pikachu's injury there was still a slight burn scar that Ash couldn't completely get rid of. Just like AZ thought , the scar would remain there forever.
"Thank you for the meal" AZ said.
"It was no problem and thanks again for helping Pikachu" Ash said.
"I will never allow anyone to hurt a pokemon, never" AZ said.
"So AZ why did they take you prisoner" Korrina said.
"I know the whereabouts on something that their leader wants" AZ said.
"What?" Clemont said.
"I'd rather not say" AZ said.
"I just want to know why they took you guys prisoner" Ash said.
"I don't know, but apparently they've been looking for me and they're leader wants me for some reason" Serena said in a slightly scared tone.
"It's alright Serena, I'm never going to let them take you again" Ash said as he put his arm around her shoulder.
"You've got three aura guardians protecting you Serena" Red said.
"You're aura guardians, it's been a while since I've seen another aura guardian before you" AZ said.
"So AZ what exactly do you do?" Bonnie said.
"You could say I've just been wondering around Kalos for a long time".
"How long?" Korrina said.
"Longer than you could imagine". AZ looked back at the fire and stared at it.
"Have you ever heard the story of Vaeron?" AZ said.
"Vaeron I've heard that name before" Ash said.
"Because he's part of an Aura guardian legend" Korrina said.
"The story takes place 3000 years ago during the age of the old Kalos kings. The king of Kalos was unable to have any children and felt great pain in this. He became depressed until he found a pokemon. He took care of the pokemon and cared more and more for the pokemon. As time passed he loved the pokemon so much that he saw it as his own child".
"His own child?" Clemont said.
"Yes, as more time passed his love for the pokemon only grew. That was when tragedy struck. The pokemon grew sick and the king did everything in his power to try and save her. But even all the herbs and doctors the king could bring in it could not save her and the pokemon passed on".
"That's so sad" Serena said. AZ didn't speak for a moment as he continued to stare at the fire.
"After the pokemon's passing, the king started to get angry at everything. His condition got so bad that he decided that no pokemon deserved to live without his own. So he ordered his armies to ravage the lands and strip them of all resources to build his massive weapon".
"Weapon?" Ash said.
"A weapon that could be used to drain the life out of living creatures, but to power it he needed the power of Xerneas and Yveltal to power the machine".
"Xerneas and Yvelta?" Clemont said.
"Xerneas and Yvelta are two legendary pokemon that were said to watch over Kalos. Xerneas was meant to provide life and harmony to the land. Yvelta is the bringer of destruction, he undoes life in the land so that Xerneas can bring it back even better. Together they watch over the harmony of life" Korrina said.
"The king heard of their legend and believed them to be real. So he had his men scour the land looking for the Tears of Reduka so that he could summon them. After he found the Tears he was able to complete his machine by summoning the pokemon and using the tears to control them. With Xerneas and Yvelta powering the weapon the King used it to destroy the pokemon around the Kalos region".
"Destroying them!?" the others said.
"One by one the weapon continued to ravage Kalos's pokemon until the Aura guardians tried to stop him. Unfortunately he found the guardians first and used the weapon on them. Destroying all the guardians except one young guardian named Vaeron. Vaeron alone started to resist the rule of the tyrant king".
"Alone" Ash said amazed.
"For years he fought alone against the king's army until he was able to train several more guardians. He slowly rebuilt the order until he was able to challenge the king. Vaeron met the tyrant king at the weapon and challenged him to a duel. It was a fierce fight but Vaeron defeated the king and freed the legendary pokemon and buried the weapon".
"But what happened to the king?" Serena said.
"Vaeron and his students recovered the tears of Reduka and then used them to summon Reduka himself".
"Reduka himself!" The others said.
"Reduka was very upset with the King and cursed him, cursed him to wander the Earth for an eternity. Never to pass on and be with his beloved pokemon again".
"So this king is still out there somewhere?" Bonnie said.
"It's just a story, an tale of heroism passed down through the ages" AZ said.
"Now that I think about it my grandfather actually told me this story a few times" Korrina said.
"Thank you telling us that story" Ash said.
"It was nice seeing you again, now I must be off" AZ said as he got up and walked off.
"Well we've had a long day, I say we call it a night" Clemont said.
"Agreed" Serena said.
Twenty minutes later Ash was with Pikachu who had a depressed look on his face.
Ash could feel from their aura connection that Pikachu felt very sad about the fact that he had been physically scared for life. Ash also felt bad for Pikachu , but he felt especially bad that he was unable to help Pikachu when he was in so much pain. But he know he had to help Pikachu get through this.
"Pikachu I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to stop them from hurting you. But you can move past this, you're stronger than some scar" Ash said.
"Pika" Pikachu said as he looked at his back scar again with a depressed look.
Ash took off his shirt as Pikachu looked over at him. It was then Pikachu saw the three claw mark scars across Ash's chest and slightly across his face.
"Pika" PIkachu said remembering that Ash had those scars.
"I know it can seem hard knowing that you'll have a mark on you the rest of your life. But just remember that it's only a sign that you have endured something hard and have overcome it" Ash said.
"PIka" PIkachu said. After remembering Ash had scars on him as well he realized that Ash knew exactly how he felt. Pikachu soon realized that Ash was right, even if he had the scar it wouldn't take away from what he could do.
"PIka!" Pikachu said as he leapt up onto Ash's shoulder and rubbed his head against his trainer's neck.
Serena was in her pajamas and laying in her sleeping bag staring at the top of the tent. Ash came in wearing only a pair of gym shorts and laid down beside Serena.
"How are you doing?" Ash said.
"I don't know, I'm still a little scared. Why would team Flare be after me?". Ash wanted to tell he she had nothing to worry about, but in truth he was also very scared. That day he thought he might loose the girl he loved and his partner.
Ash looked over to Pikachu on his shoulder and petted the side of his face.
"Serena, it's ok to be scared of something like that. Having a criminal organization after you is a serious matter. This means we have to be more careful when we're outside of towns and cities. We have to stay closer together when we're on paths and routes. I know this might seem scary but I told you this before. I will never let anything happen to you" Ash said.
Serena blushed a little.
"I love you" Serena said before she pulled Ash closer and kissed him. Pikachu leapt down from Ash's shoulder and laid down beside his trainer.
"Chu" Pikachu said. He was very relieved that he was safe with Ash, Pikachu was very afraid that he'd never be able to see Ash again that day. It made him appreciate being with Ash at times like this even more. Later after Serena had fallen asleep Ash was finally hit with the harsh realization.
"Oh my god, I , I , I killed a man" Ash said to himself.
Yup some pretty serious stuff happening, Serena's assault, Pikachu's scar, and Ash ending a man's life. I hope that wasn't too extreme for you guys, I was kind of on the fence about it , but in that situation would you have done any differently.
Rest assured this will be something Ash and Serena have to deal with later on, it won't just be a Woah I killed a guy moving on , like in Man of steel. Still a great movie though.
But in any case I hope you enjoyed the chapter and until next time please review, comment, suggest, or ask.