Chapter 55: A bitter cold gym battle
It was early in the morning on route 19 and two young women were up. Serena and Korrina were both in their work our cloths as they sparred. Serena tried to thrust her arm at Korrina only to have Korrina lock her arm around Serena's and forced her forward to Korrina's knees.
"Ouch" Serena said.
"Serena unless you start lifting weights you're not going to have the upper body strength of your attackers. Use their strength and force against them" Korrina said as she let go of Serena.
Serena sighed.
"I'm trying Korrina, this isn't exactly something I had much experience in" Serena said.
Korrina sighed.
"Serena it's been three days since we started I don't expect you to get it quickly. This is going to take some time" Korrina said.
"Well how much longer do we need to do this today" Serena said sounding a bit scared.
"Are you still afraid not to be around Ash. Come on I'm here, I could protect you just as well as him" Korrina said.
"I know, it's just when that grunt had me and was about to well. All I could think about was not ever seeing Ash again. Ash always said he'd be with me and the thought of that man about to well, and Ash not being there".
Korrina couldn't help but feel bad for Serena again. She remembered how helpless she felt when she first faces Olympia all those years ago. But in the end this only made Korrina want to teach Serena even more.
"Serena I know this might seem scary , but every minute you spend with me learning. The better it is for you to get over what happened" Korrina said.
Serena sighed.
"You're probably right".
"Good now get back into your fighting stance" Korrina said.
Elsewhere Ash and Red were out with their pokemon.
"Noivern use Steel wing!".
"Tyrantrum Dragon Claw!". Noivern roared as he flew up into the air and came back down at Tyrantrum with his wings turning metal. Tyrantrum sprinted at at Noivern with his claws glowing violet.
Red waited until they were close.
"Noivern brake!". Noivern brought his wings up and stopped just in time to avoid Tyrantrum's claws.
"Perfect now" Red started.
"Tyrantrum now!" Ash shouted. As Tyrantrum continued moving after he missed, he smashed his tail across Noivern's face and smashed him into the ground.
"Dam" Red said.
"Alright great work Tyrantrum" Ash said.
"Noivern get up!". Noivern turned his head towards Tyrantrum and hurled himself forward. Tyrantrum turned his head just in time to see Noivern's dragon claws rake across his face.
"Perfect stay high" Red said.
"Use Ancient power!" Ash said.
Tyrantrum's eyes glowed violet as he unleashed a series of boulders at Noivern.
"Steel wing!" Noivern turned his wings metal and flew down smashing each boulder away.
"Crunch!" Ash said. Tyrantrum tried to snap his jaws around Noivern but the bat dragon re-angled his wings and flew right above Tyrantrum's head. Just as Tyrantrum snapped his jaws, Noivern smashed his wings into Tyrantrum's head and knocked him forward.
"Perfect! Now come around!" Noivern re-angled his wings and came around for another pass when Tyrantrum raised his head and looked at Ash.
"Now!" Ash shouted. Just as Noivern came in close, Tyrantrum hurled himself around and plowed his claws into Noivern's chest.
"Alright you!" Ash started when suddenly he realized the way Tyrantrum smashed his claws right into Noivern reminded him of something else. Ash saw himself stabbing the team Flare grunt with his hidden blade again.
Ash jolted and stumbled backwards almost falling over. Pikachu, who was still on his shoulder, could see the fear in Ash's expression and got concerned.
"Pika" Pikachu said looking concerned. Tyrantrum turned around and saw how freaked out Ash looked and slowly walked over to him.
"Graww" He said as he lowered his head towards Ash.
"Huh!" Ash said with sweat on his face.
"Ash" Red said as he stepped up and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"What happened? You look like you just blacked out" Red said. Ash sighed.
" I'm sorry guys, it's just I saw it again" Ash said. Red and the others sighed.
"It's ok Ash, let's just move on" Red said. It had been almost 2 weeks and Ash was still getting freak out and black out moments about what he did. Ash seemed a little calmer when he was around Serena, but Red was concerned that if things like this continued it would affect Ash during a gym battle.
"Ash you need to focus, you can't let that happen to you at Snowbelle city" Red said.
"Easy for you to say Red, you've never taken a man's life" Ash said. Later that morning the group was eating breakfast together by their tents.
"So how did sparing go this morning?" Ash said.
"A little better than yesterday" Serena said.
"How did she do?" Red said to Korrina through an aura message.
"She still needs a lot of work" Korrina said back.
"So how much farther is Snowbelle city?" Bonnie said.
" Well I can already feel the temperature dropping so it can't be more than a few miles" Red said.
"Red who get's to face Wulfric first?" Ash said.
"Do you mind if I got first" Red said.
"I guess I've gone first the last few times. Ok" Ash said.
"Awesome thanks bro".
"So Serena when is your Tournament?" Ash said.
"Two days, I'm really nervous. This is my last chance to get into the Grand Festival" Serena said.
"Don't worry you're gonna do great" Ash said. Serena blushed a little. After finishing their breakfast the group put their winter cloths on and continued on towards Snowbelle city.
After another 30 minutes they started to notice snow on the ground get thicker and thicker until they saw snow everywhere.
"Hey look!" Ash said. The group looked over and saw several buildings on top of a large hill.
"I think we're here" Serena said. The group had to go up a large set of stairs before they reached the roads of the snow covered city.
"Alright we made it, now lets find the pokemon center" Clemont said. As the group walked towards the pokemon center they saw a rather large number of people on the streets. Many of them were wearing expensive looking coats and winter apparel. Some of them also had powerful looking pokemon out beside them.
"There sure are a lot of people here" Bonnie said.
"From the looks of their attire they're here to enter the tournament" Red said. When the group got into the pokemon center they saw another large group of trainers in the pokemon center.
"Oh no , look at how many people there are here. I hope they have rooms left" Serena said.
"Yeah she's right, what do we do if there isn't any rooms left?" Korrina said.
" I'm not sure. Maybe we can ask nurse joy if there are any other places that we can stay" Ash said. The group got into line and waited almost 20 minutes before they got to the counter when they noticed there was not one , but three nurse Joys and 6 Wigglytuffs behind the counter.
"Hello sorry for the long wait, there's a tournament in two days and countless people are competing for the chance to enter into the grand festival" One of the Nurse Joys said.
"I know, I'm planning on entering" Serena said as she set her pokeballs onto the counter.
"Oh well good luck young lady" Joy said.
"Nurse Joy we were wondering if there were any rooms available here?" Ash said as Pikachu leapt onto the counter.
"I'm sorry but we're all filled up until the tournament is over" Joy said as she took the pokeballs and placed them on a tray that a Wigglytuff was holding.
"Is there anywhere else we could stay?" Ash said.
"Well there is the hotel on the other side of town. But I'm pretty sure that place is filled up too" Joy said.
"Anywhere else?" Ash said.
"I'm afraid not" Joy said. Ash turned to the others.
"Ok you guys stay here, Serena and I will head to that hotel and see if we can get a room for us there" Ash said.
"Sounds good" Red said. As Ash and Serena walked down the streets they noticed more and more trainers and their pokemon in the streets. As Serena saw them she got more concerned about the tournament. With so many trainers competing, it would make it that much harder for her to win, and if she didn't win then she couldn't get into the grand festival.
As they walked Ash noticed how nervous Serena was feeling from their aura connection. He wanted to help her calm down but he could understand why she was so nervous. It was her only chance to get into the grand festival, if Ash lost in his gym battle he could just try again. He had plenty of time to get into the pokemon league.
Ash put his arm around Serena's shoulders.
"Hey Serena, everything's going to be alright. I know it seems overwhelming, but the more trainers here just means the more trainers for you to beat" Ash said.
Serena smiled and laughed a little.
"Thanks Ash" She said. A few minutes later they reached the hotel where they unfortunately saw dozens of trainers in the lobby.
"That's not encouraging" Ash said. They went to the front desk there they saw a young woman writing on a piece of paper and a Fletchling sleeping next to her paper.
"Welcome to the Franklore in, I'm sorry but we're all booked up for the next few days" the young woman said.
"Awe come on, first the pokemon center now here. Is there any other place in town that we could stay, anywhere?" Ash said.
"I'm sorry but we're the only hotel in town and if the pokemon center is filled up then I can't think of anywhere else".
Ash and Serena both sighed. They walked out of the hotel and back towards the pokemon center.
" What are we going to do? We have no where to stay" Serena said.
"I'm not sure. But maybe if we" Ash started when a man bumped into him. Ash and Serena turned and saw he was a tall and muscular looking man with black hair.
"I'm sorry about that young man, I didn't see you there" He said.
"It's alright" Ash said. The man looked at the two and saw how upset they looked.
"Are you two alright? You look upset".
"We're fine, it's just we have things going on here and no place to stay" Ash said.
"Well that's ashamed , have you checked with the pokemon center?".
"Yes, they're all booked up" Serena said.
"H'mm that's too bad" The man said. Ash couldn't help but feel there something about the man. His aura felt very strong and he could feel a familiar energy.
"Well we should" Serena said before she realized the man was gone.
"Huh?" She said as they looked around.
"Where did he go?" Serena said.
"I don't know I've only seen aura guardians disappear that fast" Ash said.
"Well we better find the others and tell them the bad news" Serena said. The two started towards the Pokemon center not knowing that there was a man standing on top of a building with his hood up watching them.
When Ash and Serena got back to the pokemon center they saw the others with the pokeballs at a table.
"Hey there you guys are, any luck?" Clemont said as Pikachu went over and climbed onto Ash's shoulder.
"Sorry but no luck" Ash said.
"Dam it, what do we do?" Red said.
" I suppose we could camp out just outside of town" Korrina said.
"Well we'll need to get a good view of the surrounding area. Maybe if we scale the battle chateau" Red said.
"Good idea" Ash said.
"Wait Ash can't Korrina and Red go" Serena said as she grabbed his arm.
"Come on Serena there's a work out room in the pokemon center. We can practice your sparing and then get your pokemon ready for the tournament" Korrina said.
Serena sighed.
"Alright".
"I"ll be back as soon as I can. I promise" Ash said before he gave her a short kiss on the cheek.
A few minutes later Ash and Red found the battle chateau castle. It looked similar to the others only with slightly taller towers.
"Those towers will certainly help" Red said.
"I'll race you to the top!" Ash said.
"You're on" Red said. The two brothers began using their parkour to scale the sides of the castle. After a minute they reached the top of the tower. From the tower they could see the entire snow covered city.
"Alright now let's synchronize" Red said. The two closed their eyes and used their aura vision to look around the area. To their disappointment the snow around the city didn't end for miles. Meaning they would have to camp out quite a ways from the city that night.
"Oh great" Ash said.
"Well I guess that means we won't be staying out late tonight" Red said. They were about to get down when Ash noticed there was another aura presence near them.
"Huh" Ash said as he looked closer with his aura vision. He saw a familiar aura and noticed there was a man standing on another tower looking at the street below.
"Woah Red look there's someone else on the tower" Ash said. Red looked over and saw the man.
"Woah, who is that?" Red said. Not a moment later the man leapt from the tower edge and caught himself on a ledge a few yards down. He then leg go and caught himself again on another ledge.
"Let's follow him" Ash said. The two made their way across the towers and began parkouring down the towers until they were directly above the ledge the man was resting on.
It was then they saw another man walking below them wearing a black suit and black shades. Using their aura vision Ash and Red could tell that whoever the man in the suit was, he seemed very nefarious and was not a good person.
As the man in the suit walked directly under the man on the ledge, he leapt down and landed on top of the man in the suit.
"Yahh!" The man in the suit shouted as he saw the other man over him.
"Surprise". The man in the suit reached into his jacked only to have the man on him hold his palm over his face as a blade came out.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you".
"Woah a hidden blade, Ash he's a guardian" Red said. The aura guardian reached into the man's jacket and pulled out a gun.
"You're coming with me" The guardian said. Moments later Ash and Red leapt down behind the aura guardian. The guardian heard this and turned around.
"Uh boys I know what this looks like but I" The man said nervously.
"Relax we know what you are. We're the same" Red said as he showed the guardian his hidden blades.
"Oh great more of you" The man in the suit said.
"Shut up" The guardian said before he knocked the man out and got up.
"So you two are guardians as well? Wait aren't you that boy I met earlier" The guardian said as he lowered his hood. Ash soon realized it was the man from earlier.
"Hey it is you" Ash said.
"My name's Red, this is my brother Ash".
"Pleasure to meet you" Ash said as shook the man's hand.
"Nice to meet you I am Belloc".
"So who was the man you just knocked out?" Ash said.
"He would be an agent of team Flare".
"What's he doing here?" Red said.
"Apparently some guardians nearby found out that team Flare is after something inside this battle Chateau and they sent an agent to infiltrate the staff during the tournament".
"What is he after?" Ash said.
"Something very important. Wait you said you had no where to stay right?" Belloc said.
"That's right" Ash said.
"Well if you'd like you and your friends can stay at my house while your here" Belloc said.
"Really" Red said.
"You're members of the brotherhood, we stick together" Belloc said.
"Alright thanks Belloc" Ash said. Meanwhile at the pokemon center Serena's Zorua was was facing off against Korrina's Meinfoo.
"Meinfoo use draining punch!". Meinfoo sprinted towards Zorua when the smaller black fox transformed him Meinfoo.
"Agility!" Zorua as Meinfoo quickly increased his evasiveness and narrowly avoided Meinfoo's strike.
"Swift keep the pressure on him!" not a moment after Meinfoo missed , she unleashed a furry of spiked stars at Zorua.
"Use Agility with Leer!". Zorua used his evasiveness to avoid most of the stars but was raked by 3 of the stars. Despite this Zorua as Meinfoo's eyes glowed blue as he blasted Meinfoo and lowered her defenses.
"Bounce!" Meinfoo leapt as high into the air as high as she could leaving Zorua as Meinfoo on the ground trying to figure out where she would land.
"Double team with Leer!" Zorua as Meinfoo made a dozen copies of himself. Meinfoo came down at one as all the Zoruas' eyes began glowing blue.
Meinfoo felt her defenses lower as she came down lower and landed on one of the copies.
"Scratch!" The real Zorua Meinfoo rushed forward and Meinfoo across the back hurling her forward.
"Great work Zorua" Serena said.
"Alright good work you two" Korrina said as she helped her Meinfoo get up.
"I think Zorua is more than ready for this tournament Serena" Korrina said.
"I think so too" Serena said as Zorua turned back into himself. Meanwhile Serena's other pokemon were watching. Delphox in particular was very impressed with Zorua's skills.
That was when Korrina noticed Ash and Red enter the room with another man behind them.
"Who is that?" Serena said.
"Guys this is Belloc" Red said.
"Hello" Belloc said.
"Nice to meet you?" Serena said a bit confused.
"Belloc is a member of the brotherhood" Ash said.
"Really you're an aura guardian" Korrina said.
"That's right" Belloc said showing his hidden blades and mega evolution stone.
"Belloc said we could stay with him while we're here" Red said.
"Really!" Serena said excited to hear they wouldn't have to camp out again.
"Thank you Belloc" Korrina said.
"It's no problem, I can always help members of the brotherhood" Belloc said. Later the group was at Belloc's house on top of a large hill. Belloc was showing them around his house.
"This is the guest room, two of you can stay in here".
"We'll take the guest room" Red said as he and Korrina walked in. Belloc lead the others to another room.
"This is my son's old room two of you can fit in here" Belloc said.
"Alright it looks smaller, Bonnie and I should take it" Clemont said. Belloc then lead Ash and Serena to the living room and to a coach.
This coach pulls out into a bed, it should be big enough for you both".
"Thank you Belloc" Ash said.
"It's no problem make yourselves at home. I actually need to bring that Flare agent I captured to another member of the brotherhood" Belloc said before he walked out of the room.
Red and Korrina walked in with the others.
"Alright now that we have a place to stay we can head to the gym and I can have my battle" Red said.
"Right let's go" Ash said. After setting all their stuff down Ash and the others made their way to the pokemon gym. The gym seemed to be built out of metal and ice.
"Interesting exterior design" Serena said as they walked in. The gym interior looked just as it did on the outside mostly made of ice and metal. There were a few trainers battling with ice type pokemon around the gym.
"There's his students but where is Wulfric?" Ash said. Just then they saw a very large man walk out of a front of a lower area and up onto a larger platform. The nab wore a white shirt with a blue cape draped over him.
"That's it my students, keep fighting" Wulfric said.
" It's Wulfric" Korrina said.
"Just as optimistic as ever" Clemont said. Wulfric kept watching over his students when he saw Ash and the others.
"What's this, challengers" Wulfrixc said before he slid down the side of the ice and landed in front of the group.
"Welcome all to the Snowbell gym. I am Wulfric and I, wait Korrina, Clemont, what are you two doing here?" Wulfric said.
"We're here for our friends. They want to challenge you" Clemont said.
"I'm Red, I'll be facing you today" Red said.
"Very well young man, I accept your challenge. Braxton, we need a battlefield ready for a gym challenge!" Wulfric shouted. One of Wulfric's students heard this and ran over to a battlefield with a snowrunt beside him.
"Alright Snowrunt use ice beam to smooth it out" the young man said. His Snowrunt unleashed a steady beam of ice around a flat area that smoothed it up and formed a good arena like area.
"Excellent, let's get to it then shall we" Wulfric said.
Red stood on one end of the battlefield while Wulfric stood on the other.
"The battle between gym leader Wulfric and challenger Red Ketchum is about to begin. Each trainer is allowed one pokemon, once that pokemon is knocked out the other trainer is the winner. Choose your pokemon!" Braxton said.
"Good luck Red!" Ash shouted.
"Beat him Red!" Korrina shouted.
"Time to go, I choose you Abomasnow!" Wulfric shouted as he hurled a white pokeball forward. A massive bipedal white pokemon with green arms and feet came out and roared.
"What is that?" Serena said opening her pokedex.
"Abomasnow the frost tree pokemon, Abomasnow appear when snow flowers bloom and return to places unknown when the petals fall.".
"Alright I choose you, Noivern!" Red's Noivern came out and roared at the snow pokemon.
"A dragon type against an Ice type? You're either very brave, or very arrogant young man" Wulfric said.
"I'm not arrogant" Red said.
"Either way Abomasnow use Blizzard!" . Abomasnow planted his feet into the ground and unleashed a furious wind filled with snow and ice.
"Good thing I bought that ™ for this . Just like we practiced Noivern Flamethrower with Steel wing !" Red shouted. Noivern flew into the air and unleashed a furious flamethrower at the same time he turned his wings metal and whipped the fired around him. The fire managed to keep the ice away from him as he flew closer to Abomasnow.
"Mist" Abomasnow unleashed a thick mist around him. As Noivern flew into the mist he found Abomasnow was gone.
Abomasnow revealed himself across the battlefield.
Solarbeam!" Abomasnow began gathering solar energy .
"Flamethrower!" Noivern turned and unleashed a massive jet of fire at Noivern. Moments later Abomasnow opened his mouth and unleashed Solarbeam. The two attacks kept each other at bay as the two pokemon tried to overpower the other.
"Noivern into the air try and hit him on the side!" Noivern continued the flamethrower as he lifted himself up and into the air.
"Icy wind!" Abomasnow opened his mouth and unleashed a powerful icy gust of wind. Noivern tried his best to avoid it, but the wind caught his wings and filled him ice power which he was very weak against.
"Oh no" Red said.
"Outstanding Abomasnow finnish him with Blizzard". Abomasnow opened his mouth and readied to blast Noivern.
"Red you have to do something!" Ash shouted.
"Thanks Ash!" Red said sarcastically.
"Alright Noivern I have an idea but you have to trust me" Red said through an aura message.
Noivern responded that he did trust Red.
"Alright bring your wings in and drop to the ground!" Red shouted.
"What?" Wulfric said. Despite how crazy it wounded Noivern brought his wings to his chest and fell straight towards the ground.
"Is he crazy!" Clemont shouted. As Noivern fell he noticed the dragon had fallen below the blizzard's area of effect.
"Just a little further" Red said as he saw Noivern get closer to the ground.
"Now! Bring your wings out and use Dragon Pulse!" Red screamed. Noivern brought his wings out just in time to keep himself from crashing and kept himself at an angle so that he flew at Abomasnow with incredible speed.
"That's it Red get him!" Korrina shouted.
"No you don't Mist!" Wulfric said.
Once again Abomasnow covered himself in a thick mist just before the Dragon Pulse could hit. When Red saw the flames go all the way through to the other side he realized they could not have hit Abomasnow.
"Dam I thought we had him" Red said.
"That's some skill your dragon has, but we won't be loosing today. Abomasnow use Icepunch" Wulfric said.
"Steelwing!" As Abomasnow leapt up and out of the Mist with his right fist covered in ice, Noivern covered his wings in metal and swiped them around himself. Just before Abomasnow could connect his fist to Noivern, the dragon's metal wings knocked the ice pokemon's fist out of the way and sent him back to the ground.
Abomasnow landed on his feet and slid back a bit across the ice.
"Quick use Flamethrower".
"Ingrain into the ground!". Abomasnow smashed his feet into the ground and started growing large roots over his legs and around him as Noivern opened his mouth and unleashed a powerful jet of fire. Just before the fire could hit Abomasnow, his ingrained had formed a wall of roots around him that was blown to pieces by the flamethrower. While the wall of roots was destroyed it did stop the Flamethrower from hitting Abomasnow.
"Mist!" Wulfric shouted. Once again Abomasnow covered himself with a thick veil of mist.
Noivern quickly looked around as the Mist below got thicker.
"He could launch an attack from any direction" Red said to himself as he tried to think of what he could do.
Noivern fly high into the air as Abomasnow watched from inside the mist.
"Solarbeam!", Abomasnow unleashed a powerful beam of solar energy up at the massive dragon pokemon.
"Noivern Dragon pulse, keep your wings close to your chest and spin as you fall" Red said. Noivern was a bit nervous, but did as his trainer said. Noivern brought his wings to his chest and spun as he fell and unleashed Dragon pulse.
The dragon energy spun around with Noivern and kept him safe from the incoming bursts of solar energy as they tried to impact the dragon.
"Now use Steel wing!" Red shouted. Once Noivern was past the solarbeam he burst his wings out and flew right at Abomasnow.
"Mist!".
"Dam it, he keeps doing that" Korrina said.
"Not this time, Noivern use Boom Burst and aim for the center".
Noivern roared as he unleashed a powerful burst of sonic energy into the mist. As the Boom Burst hit the ground it exploded and the resulting force caused Abomasnow to slide across the ice and out of the Mist.
"Oh no" Wulfric said.
"Now use Flamethrower!" Noivern raised his head and roared as he unleashed a massive jet of fire right at Abomasnow .
"Quick stop it with Icebeam!" Wulfric said. Abomasnow raised his head and opened his mouth but was too late. The fire engulfed Abomasnow and lit him up.
"Yeah he got him!" Korrina said.
"Abomasnow are you ok?" Wulfric said. When the flames cleared Abomasnow looked very hurt but slowly got onto his feet.
"He's still coming, Noivern Steel wing!". Noivern roared as he turned his wings metal and flew right at Abomasnow .
"Abomasnow stop him, use Blizzard" Abomasnow tried to unleash Blizzard but the Flamethrower had taken quite a toll on him. Abomasnow was about to unleash the attack when Noivern smashed his metal wings right into Abomasnow's chest.
Abomasnow was hurled back and landed on the ground hard with swirly eyes.
"That's it!" Korrina said. Ash was excited for a moment. But then the way Noivern smashed his wings into Abomasnow's chest gave him a flashback of the Flare grunt. PIkachu saw Ash's freaked out expression as he started to sweat.
"Pika" Pikachu said nudging his head against Ash's neck. Serena turned and saw Ash's freaked out expression.
"Ash are you ok?" Serena said. Ash started to stumble backwards a little and Serena grabbed his shoulders.
"Ash!" She said as she steadied him.
"Huh!" Ash said as he turned to her with sweat coming across his face.
"Ash you looked like you blacked out. What happened?"
"The way Abomasnow was hit, it reminded me of the Flare grunt" Ash said. Serena and Pikachu were now very worried about Ash. He was only getting worse.
"Abomasnow is unable to battle, the winner is the challenger" Braxton said.
"Alright we did it Noivern we got our 8th badge!" Red shouted. Noivern roared in victory as he flew down and landed in front of his trainer. He then licked Red across his entire chest and face.
Wulfric walked over to his Abomasnow and helped him get up.
"You fought valiantly my friend, don't let this get you down" Wulfric said before he returned him to his pokeball. Wulfric walked over to Red and Noivern with a content smile.
"Very impressive young man, you've earned this " Wulfric said as he opened his hand and revealed a snowflake shaped badge with what looked like an iceberg in the center.
"Our 8th badge" Red said. That was when Red and Wulfric noticed how freaked out Ash was.
"Oh no not again" Red said.
"Is your brother ok? He seems freaked out" Wulfric said.
"Not really" Red said. Later that night after a trip to the pokemon center the group was at Belloc's house. After Belloc made dinner he noticed that Ash hardly touched his and that he seemed very distressed.
After eating Belloc stopped Red in the hallway.
"Red something's bothering Ash, I can sense his aura is very troubled" Belloc said.
"Yeah he's been going through a pretty rough time after something that happened last week" Red said.
"What happened?" Belloc said.
Red sighed.
"Team Flare kidnapped Serena , Bonnie , and Pikachu. They tortured Pikachu and one was about to , well , do something very bad to Serena. When Ash saw this he killed the Flare grunt who was about to hurt her" Red said.
"Ahh yes, now I see. I know his pain, unfortunately I've had to take lives before" Belloc said.
"You've killed people?" Red said.
"3 in my entire life and I've dreaded each one. But I've regretted none of them, all 3 had to die they let me no choice. I suppose I could talk with Ash, but then again another aura guardian is coming here in a few days. I know him well and he would probably be able to help Ash more than me, he is a master after all" Belloc said.
"I think that would help Ash a lot" Red said. Later that night Ash was on the pullout bed with Pikachu asleep directly above his head and Serena next to him. Ash was staring at the ceiling as he tried to cope with what happened that day.
Ash thought that maybe he was starting to get over what he did , but after his blackouts Ash wasn't sure he'd ever truly be over it. Serena saw the expression on Ash's face and got more concerned.
Ash had seemed depressed about what he did before but now he was getting blackouts. Serena was not very afraid for her love.
"Ash are you still awake?" She said.
"Yeah" Ash said.
"Ash I'm getting really worried about you. You blacked out at the gym and Red told me that you blacked out again earlier. I can't take seeing you like this. I have to know you're going to be ok" Serena said.
"I know Serena, it's just."Sigh" I really wish Felix were here right now. I really wish I could talk with him. I feel so alone." Ash said.
"I'm always here for you Ash" Serena said.
"I know, thank you Serena" Ash said before he turned and kissed her.
Author's note:
Alright Red is eligible for the pokemon league and Ash is almost there, the next chapter will be on the tournament though not Ash's gym battle.
Now some of you are worried that Delphox and Charizard's relationship problem will pass on to Ash and Serena. I want to make this quite clear, Ash and Serena are in love with each other. They will stay in love with each other , I have no plans now, nor will I ever have plans for them to break up. Even temporarily. They are going to stay together I am an amourshipper.
As for Delphox and Charizard understand that everything I do in this story is for a reason , whether it before this story or the sequel , things like that have a purpose. Whether they stay together or not it has a reason. Also to reiterate whether they stay together or not will not effect Ash and Serena's relationship status.
The truth to the matter is that sometimes I make a decision in this story and later I find that there is a better option. Therefore I must do things to make the better option work. Sometimes the better option doesn't appear until later in the story. Sometimes not until the sequel. Just know that I'm not trying to make you guys upset.
Also note that while I am willing to suggestions if I think they will work, this is my story and I have to put my vision in place. But at the same time I do think you guys have good ideas and I do listen to them. I had Serena catch Zorua because someone asked me to. I had a chapter on Ash and Serena's anniversary and her birthday because someone asked me to.
I do listen.
So please try to stay calm with things like Delphox and Charizard and know that I have plans. And one more time ASH AND SERENA ARE NOT GOING TO BREAK UP IN THIS STORY OR ANY SEQUELS.
So until next time , please review ,comment, suggest, or ask.