Hello again everyone. I'm sorry that my last chapter was little late and I have no excuses. I just had a lot of tests and got lazy with this. I will try to make sure this never happens again. Anyway thanks for clicking on my story and I hope you enjoy.

Pure Gamer: Thank you for your kind words. I am trying to amend these awkward sentences and get everything I can correct. I hope I am doing a good job at it although it appears I have yet to eliminate all mistakes. I will look especially hard for any in this chapter and I hope you enjoy

Chapter 5: A Light in the Dark

It was probably a bad idea to get involved. In fact he knew it was a bad idea, but the reward might actually be worth it this time. It might be just wishful thinking though, Ash had the worst luck in the world. But all he was doing was catching a prisoner, how hard could that be for him? He had done a lot worse and come out alive, barley breathing, but alive.

He clicked his heals against the side of his Rapidash and sped away with the green haired prince and his guards just a few yards behind him. Pikachu sat in front of him, in between his legs, staring forward with a determined look on his face. Neither of them were looking forward to this job. They had been in the Dark Forest once and had no wish to do it again. But this was simpler than gong after Riley who had wanted a challenge at the time. All he had to do was catch a person who may or may not be dead. Fortunately this was the Dark Forest they were gong into so the person has either been running around and leaving a trail to follow, or is laying unconscious for maybe thirty minutes to an hour max.

Who was this poor bastard who decided to defy Giovanni though? Ash has no love for Giovanni, in fact if he got the chance to kill him, he would. But he wasn't stupid enough to charge Giovanni's palace swinging his sword around like an ass. Point is how did they escape? They would have had to plan it for a while to be able to it. Maybe he shouldn't take this as lightly as he should.

"Hey" he called out behind him "Who is this person to escape the inescapable prison of the king? Do they have any skills or background that I should know about before we go in?" Ash asked

"Nothing worth saying" Drew called from behind "This prisoner got out through an unfortunate set of circumstances, but she doesn't pose a threat at all. The forest does however."

Ash turned back around, you could see the beginning of the Dark Forest that lay just beyond the hill, making everything seem normal until you got over the hill. The drastic change in scenery had surprised Ash when he first saw it all those years ago, then he remembered their first obstacle. The bogs. They were very common on the outskirts of the forest but they would harm you much if you paid a little attention to the ground. It was not crossable by Rapidash though; it had to be crossed by a flying type, which would result in the local Pokemon shooting you down, or by foot. Which was what they were gong to do. A Houndoom sat waiting for them at the edge of the forest.

The bogs though, they were those grey pits of mud and quicksand. Everything in the Dark Forest had a black or grey coloring behind it. Including the Pokemon, it used to be known as Viridian Forest, but had been renamed after the Darkrai incident. Aparently some Sinnoh legendries had been fighting and the Darkrai had lost to two other giant looking Pokemon. One had been pinkish and white, the other blue and white. But the Darkrai was blown over here and corrupted all life in the forest that he made his home, supposedly turning thm all into dark types. The last part was unlikely and things were probably just evolving to the new environment that the Darkrai made. One thing Ash was familiar with however was the spore that was all around you. He didn't know what it was but it made you see things. He himself has seen his skin turn inside out and Pikachu melting like lava in from of him. Not something he was looking for. But it came from a certain mushroom that could be used for that if it was crushed or to help clot blood wounds.

The ride was over soon enough and Ash, known to them simply as the Ranger, stopped them all just in front of the bogs. "Is this the pace where the person went in?" Drew nodded in response "Alright everyone dismount now" Ash said. He walked over to the bog in front of them and crouched to look at the ground. He saw some skid marks a few feet before the bog and then they dropped off into the bog. "You sure your prisoner ain't dead?" Ask asked. Drew shook his saying "The men saw the prisnoer escaping into the woods and followed, only a few made it back". Ash nodded and stood up from where he had been crouching "Alright, follow my steps closely and keep your eyes on the ground for any bogs; once you fall in, we won't be able to pull you out, got it?"

They all nodded and he began to navigate his way through the bogs at the head of the line with Drew a few steps following and the Houndoom at the back. It really wasn't that difficult to navigate through the bogs. You had a few feet of spade between each bog which was plenty of room to walk around in. The real problem was the mud that you had to walk on through the bogs. There were rocks hidden under the mud, invisible without looking closely enough so if you took a wrong step on one you were as good as dead.

By slowly walking through though, they had no problems and emerged into the actual forest immediately after clearing the bogs. "That was the easy part, I don't suppose any of you brought masks like I did?" Ash asked

"Why would we need masks in this place?" Drew responded

"Because unless the poisonous mushrooms here have changed, then they still emit a gas when crushed that causes horrible hallucinations and if you breath too much of it over time, you will die. The first stage is coughing followed by said hallucinations, then you experience disorientation and dizziness and your motor skills will fail. After a minute or so you will fall unconscious and if you stay if manage to crush more of these mushrooms while you are on the last stage and breath in even more toxic fumes, then you will eventually die. Some of the Pokemon have the ability to produce this gas as well. Any Pokemon that can release poison power, sleep powder, stun spore, etc. can release the gas. I believe it's a mutation that came along with adapting to the new environment. That is why I have this mask with me" he said the last part bringing up the mask to cover his nose.

"How do you know so much about this place?" Drew asked, a little surprised on the Ranger's advanced knowledge of the forest. The only bounty hunters he had dealt with were big brutes that only knew how to swing a weapon. Never really one that was actually intelligent.

"Because the last time I was here I breathed in the gas thanks to a Gloom that was pissed at me. The person I was with had already stepped on the mushrooms so I knew about that." Ash said

"Is there anything else we should know about before we go in? Any more of these "killer plants" we should know about" Drew ended with the last part sarcastically

Ash turned away and muttered "asshole" under his breath. "No, the only thing that grows are the mushrooms. I don't remember seeing any other plant life growing in there. If there are no more questions lets go get the person and go back so I can get my money, got it cabbage?" Ash smirked at the last part

Drew's face grew red with rage at the comment "Well oh "valiant leader" please lead us to the prisoner now" Drew said with as much sarcasm as possible

Ash just chuckled and began to walk ahead, eyes on the group for any sign of the prisoner. The guards followed in suit, but Drew pulled two of them aside. "The second that we find her, kill him. He can't know who the prisoner that escaped is. Pass the message on to the others" he let the guards go and they begn to spread the word amongst the remaining four men.

Ash had ended up a good distance away from them. They were being noising behind him. Every step they took he heard a twig snap or something, even the Houndoom wasn't all that graceful. He was out of earshot to hear what they were saying, but Pikachu could hear them fine. So if they felt like gossiping he would know what they knew. They had been speaking in whispers a little bit ago, which Pikachu had failed to hear but talking in a regular voice was easy to hear. A fog had come from the direction they were headed in but he had sill managed to picked up a small trail of footprints in the dirt a little ways back. If there was one thing goos about the mud, it was that it didn't collapse back in to itself when pressure was applied. So you could see a faint trail of footprints. However the trail was fading as he followed. Maybe because the dense fog was getting the mud heavy enough with moisture to reform so the mud looked like it hadn't been walked on. He would have to find this person soon or he would be walking blind. You never wanted to be in the Dark Forest with no direction to go in. But wait, there was a small scuffled area up ahead.

-MAY'S POV-

She had woken up to the sound of heavy footsteps and a twig snapping. She brought her head up and looked around. She saw them, A dark clothed man was looking at the area she had been at earlier with the Paras. He and a bow and a quiver on his back and was around seventy five feet away, crouched down and with his index and middle finger in the dirt them moving around, as if drawing up what had happened. There was a yellow mouse close to him, sniffing the ground behind him. They were way ahead of everybody else though, because she could see the guards behind him. They were spread out in a misshapen line, looking around. And she saw HIM, he was walking with some of the men. A little but to the left of the one checking the area where she had fallen. He wasn't headed directly towards her, the other man was closer in fact, but one of his men was walking in almost a straight line towards her, stopping to check very tree that he passed.

She got up as quietly and as quickly as she could, keeping crouched as low as possibly without hindering movement and picked up the still unconscious Eevee. She began to move away from them a bit and darted behind a tree, but when she looked back she the dark clothed man heading directly towards her. At the pace she was going to be moving at, he would see her very soon. Fortunately this fog made her invisible at this distance, but his clothes she could see. She had to hide, fast. She ran a small ways to a large tree the had it roots digging into the ground but left a small opening to crawl into. She places Eevee in there and made her way in after and peeked out to see the man who would've seen her by now if she hadn't made her way into the tree's cover. He was just came around the tree she had originally been behind, the mouse still sniffing the ground where he and been. He crouched to the ground and as he did, the guards and Drew emerged from the smoke about twenty five feet behind him. He quickly stood though and began to make his way towards the tree she hid under at faster pace than before and passed by the tree. With a mask covering his face, she could only see his eyes wander back and forth. He was clearly searching for her and she held her breath as he passed, but he simply walked by without even a glance downwards. After a few seconds she let her breath out, but a hand grabbed her leg and she screamed as age was pulled roughly out.

-ASH'S POV-

He heard the person breath out, it was a stupid mistake on their part. He had almost been gone, but had paused when he saw another roughed up area right behind the tree which allowed him a moment to hear an exhale of breath coming from inside a small hole after the roughed up area. Ash smirked under his mask and reached in, grabbing the leg of the prisoner, and pulling them out. The second their entire body was out of the tree he grabbed the woman by the back of her shirt and pulled her up so her back was pressed against his chest and put his forearm around her neck and put both of his legs between hers so she couldn't kick him in any place he didn't want.

"Stop struggling or I'll knock you out and tie you up and drag your unconscious body body off the back of my horse back to Saffron" Ash whispered in her ear. That stopped her struggling almost immediately.

"Great work Ranger, I shouldn't have doubted you" Drew said with a smile "Hello dearest, did the big bad bounty hunter scare you?" he finished the last part in a baby voice.

"Shut up you asshole" May yelled. She's got some fight to her Ash thought. He nodded to Pikachu who came over and stood behind at his side

"Alright Ranger, if you would please hand her over to me we can go back and pay you" Drew said

"Wait! He's going to betray you" May yelled

"Be quiet" Ash said "But sorry Drew, I'm going to hold onto her till I get my money. We'll go back to the edge of the forest and you send one of your men to go to Saffron and get the money and come back while the rest of you stay here and make sure I don't do anything with the prisoner. Sound fair?"

"Well I'm sorry too Ranger, but you aren't getting your money. Houndoom flamethrower now!" Drew said. Suddenly, one of the guards pulled a crossbow from his back and and shot an arrow at Ash, aiming for his head. Ash saw the movement and spun around dodging the bolt, and while he was facing away from them he pushed May behind him and spun the remaining one hundred and eighty degrees, the entire thing done without pausing, to face the men again.

Pikachu had jumped to his left and was already engaged in a battle with the Houndoom. "Knew this was trouble" Ash muttered. He lunged at the closest guard, drawing his sword simultaneously, and sliced him across his chest immediately incapacitating him. He jumped back as another came down with his sword. He lunged again, aiming for the neck of the second guard only to be parried by a third. He took a step back and swung his sword horizontally in front of him, backing off any attackers and using the momentary step back of his opponents to stab one directly through the neck. Before he could retract his sword a guard tried to stab in his heart from his right, but only managed to give him a gash in the area because bent his chest back a little, his blade stopping right before Ash's left arm.

Ash jumped back and slapped the man's blade away. He paired and overhead from one guard and saw another coming in to stab him through the chest. These guts are pretty good Ash thought. He used his left hand and pulled out a dagger that used to deflect the sword off the flat of the blade causing the thrust to go past Ash and stopping only when the dagger blade reached the hilt. The guards face was a mere inches away from the dagger blade, he had put too much force behind the thrust and that put him too close to the knife. Ash lifted the blade up, letting it go for a moment, before readjusting his grip so that he could stab the guard through the neck.

After pulling the knife out of the guards neck and plunged it into the guard that was facing him's chest once, twice, then three times before allowing him to drop to the ground dead. He faced the last two that stood to protect Drew who sat and watched, his sword still sheathed and strapped to his belt. Ash went on the offensive and and slashed downward at the guard to the right of Drew resulting in a parry, and as expected the other guard used this opening to try and stab Ash through his heart only to have his blade pushed to the side by Ash's dagger and punched in the face by Ash's fist soon after. The guards disengaged and fell back again. The one he punched wiped his jaw with his free hand.

The guards rushed him simultaneously, one striking in s downwards arc, the other trying to slice across Ash's chest. He parried both, but with his chest wide open, he received a punch to the stomach and got pushed back. He looked back up after the punch and the guards were on him. One sliced to decapitate, the other trying to skewer him. He reacted fast, he threw his knife at the one trying to skewer him and barley managed to parry the one trying to cut hid head off. He watched the knife not even cut the man's face, the man was hit by the hilt and fell to the ground unconscious. That's one way to do it I guess Ash thought. He locked his sword in with the other and put his leg behind the guard's and pushed him over, right into a patch of mushrooms. He took his eyes off the guard who lay coughing on the ground and turned to Drew only to see green hair right in front of him. Holy shit he's fast Ash thought. HE ducked under the initial swing and parried the downward stroke. He pushed Drew back a little, and smiled for a moment.

"What are you looking at peasant?" Drew said, a smile also in his face.

Ash only held up a hand with three fingers raised and dropped one to make it two, then dropped another one leaving just his index finger extended, and finally he dropped the third making a closed fist. The second he did Drew began a coughing fit, he fell to his knees and dropped his sword. Drew began looking around with wild eyes and looked at his own hand and screamed, backing away from Ash and further in to the gas. Ash was reading to make the killing strike, but the gas was still around Drew, so he backed off and turned to see the girl running away.

"Pikachu disengage now!" Ash yelled. Pikachu let out one last thunderbolt that was dodged and jumped to his partner's side. "Let's move now!" Ash yelled and they turned and ran after the girl

-MAY'S POV-

She ran away after the first kill, what reason sis she have to stick around. She ran and pulled Eevee out of the tree then heard a man yelling and then she recognized Drew's screams. She didn't turn back though. She ran and ran till she could barley breath and eventually stopped at a fallen tree and put her arm on it, trying to catch her breath. She felt a hand go around he mouth and gasped slightly but it was muffled into the man's hand.

"Do not make a sound and we'll both be fine. If you understand nod your head" She nodded slightly and felt the hand around her mouth retract. She turned around to see the masked face of the bounty hunter. He turned to his partner and said "Pikachu are you okay?" the second his face was turned she grabbed the hilt of one of his knives and brought it up and eld it with both hands, pointing it shakily at him.

"D-don't come any c-closer. I don't want to h-hurt you, but I will if y-you f-force me" the man just looked at her with a bored gaze.

"Really?" he asked in a bored tone. "You know what, whatever. Pikachu lets go home. Rapidash knows to go home if we don't come back after and few hours". He turned and vaulted over the log with the Pikachu in pursuit.

"Wait! Where are you going?" May called out. He turned around sharply, "Shhhhh!" he said and looked in the direction they had come from "I'm going away from you. You're nothing but trouble."

"Wait" she whispered and ran around the log, "Can you take me to King Norman's castle?"

"Why in the fucking world would take you there?"

"I can pay you, I don't have it on me, but the second we get there I promise that you'll get what you want. How much would it cost?"

"Ash hefted his sword for a moment "It'd have to be at least forty gold pieces" he said, trying to get more out of this than he already was going to.

"One hundred gold pieces" May said "Guaranteed"

Pikachu's ears perked up at that, but Ash's eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. "Who are you?" he asked, suspicion laced heavily in his voice

"Why do you care? You're getting gold out of it" May answered

He took another step forward so he was right in front of her "I don't trust you"

"I gave you my word"

"I still don't trust you...But you have a deal" he said, putting his hand out for a shake.

May looked at the hand for a moment before hesitantly reaching out and shaking it. Ash retracted his hand and gave her a once over before turning around, alright then follow me"

And thus ends Chapter 5: A Light in the Dark. Thank you to all who clicked on the story and I hope you enjoyed. Please leave leave any suggestions, corrections, compliments, hate, and anything else you want. Thanks again and I hope you have a beautiful day.

-novaking2832