Hey guys, I back to give you chapter 12. I hope you enjoyed the story up to this point. I accidentally cut myself on the palm of my right hand while I was making myself dinner today. So I started typing this with both hands but I reopened the wound and almost bled all over my computer. So now I'm typing with inly my left hand. Fortunately I'm ambidextrous so I am moderately good at typing with only my left hand, but it is still annoying. I write with my write hand too so I guess I'm going lefty tomorrow at school. Oh well, I'll suffer. I hope you have enjoyed the story up to this point and I hope you enjoy the rest of it as well.
jojo298: My pleasure, I hope you liked it
Fallingarcher22: I'm glad you did, I tired to make them appear as something resembling the Navy Seals or the SAS. I hope I did a good job
Moon Sun and Thunder: Yeah, you're right I did follow that storyline. Guest pointed that out to me thankfully though, I didn't really mean to but that's where i got the idea. I'm glad you're enjoying it and I hope you like the rest of it as much as you've liked the beginning. I hope you get to this response soon though.
Sailor Taichichi Vegeta: No, that'd be cool though. I meant that he fires them off so fast it's like there is no interval between each arrow. Yeah she did, but I may make it so she ends up with another. I've gotten some Pms with requests and I'm trying to make as many happen as I can.
Chapter 12: ...Then you aren't in Love
"You did all this, by yourselves, just the seven of you" Norman said, more as a statement than a question. Ruby stood next to him and nodded. Besides the two, Ash, May, Dawn, Max, Caroline, Johanna, and Archie plus his generals stood looking over the outpost that had been annihilated more than a week ago. An Aqua Guard troop of the best they had to offer stood at attention behind slightly, looking for any potential threats.
The bodies were still strewn everywhere, either they hadn't been discovered yet or the more likely reason is that this outpost had been found with all the dead soldiers and simply abandoned. Maybe they were in the middle of sending a replacement platoon, but either way the scouts told Norman that this would be the best time to check out the Magma Core's handiwork. He had been wanting to get out and see ever since Ruby gave him his report but had yet to get a prime chance. His family came with him, them being no strangers to death and war and the Sinnoh royal family had also joined.
"Tell me, in detail, what you did to take out this post" Norman asked, his eyes never leaving the outpost.
"We had three archers set up in trees, positioned so they could view all defense towers and take out the soldiers accordingly. We had two men at the gate as to prevent any messenger from leaving and sending word to the enemy camp and two more inside that were stealthily dealing with the enemy. One tower guard didn't die from his wound and sounded the alarm to the men below. Everyone except our archer ran through the gate and began making our way to wards the men already inside who were, at the time, cornered. Once their safety had been guaranteed we simply began eradicating all enemy forces till the was no one left alive. Once we were finished we retrieved the Princess and began to make our way to the castle and, you know the rest.
"Wow! You took out an entire platoon with only seven people. That seems almost impossible, you must be amazing to do something like that" Max said.
Ruby smiled at the praise "Well I didn't do all this on my own or anything. Ash came up with the plan and took command of the attack. If anything you should be praising him"
Ash wasn't paying attention to all the looks he got until he turned to see most of the people looking at him "Ruby, why is everyone looking at me again?" he asked. Ruby started to laugh and May's face turned red and she looked away. "Seriously? What happened, what did I do?" Pikachu just sighed from Ash's shoulder. "You know what fine. Don't tell me, I'll figure it out sooner or later" Ash said with a frown
Ruby stopped his laughing and walked over to Ash before whispering something in his ear. "I did what?" Ash said with a blank stare at Ruby who just nodded with a grin on his face. "Your joking right? I don't. I never. She's just. It's not my fault" Ash finished lamely.
"The Black Death of Kanto is stumbling over his own words, never thought I'd see the day" Ruby said. Ash just sighed at turned to looked back at the carnage he's helped cause. "So how do we move from here?" he asked
"We wait" Green said. "Right now we can't make any sort of move with the numbers we have. Plus Sir Aaron and Sir Riley should be bringing in any survivors from all the regions. They were supposed to be here three days ago but the appear to be running late. We wouldn't want to endanger them by attacking"
"I thought the Aura Guardians were neutral in this conflict" May said.
"They are. However it also makes it perfect for them to do anything that peacefully resists Kanto, like they are doing now. They can bring in survivors and rebels by a convoy and the Kanto soldiers can't attack them without causing war to erupt between them. So they bring in people and supplies to us without anyone having to leave the castle" Ash said
"You sure know a lot" Max said
"I've had more than enough experience with Aura Guardians to know how they do things" Ash said with a smile
"You know Aura Guardians? That's awesome, have you ever met Sir Aaron? I have once, he looked so heroic in his uniform and he was so powerful too" Max began going on about Sir Aaron and all these facts about Aura Guardians in general. How old was the kid? Sixteen? He acted a little childish, especially for someone who grew up with people dying all around him.
"Yeah? Well, they ain't all too special. You meet one you meet them all, it's just a matter of power difference" Ash said
"What do you mean?" Max asked curiously
"I mean that Aura Guardians act the same. It's always their duty before anything else and as a result lives are lost. They have a cold way of thinking and only care about each other and the balance in the world. If you invaded all the other nations instead of Giovanni than they would be your enemies right now. They don't really care about you, they care about the balance that will be lost if you die off" Ash said
"That can't be true. They care about what happens to the people or they wouldn't be helping them would they?" Max said
"And how many Aura Guardians do you see helping? I've only heard of five, maybe six out of the entire organization made up of hundreds willingly helping out others. I bet if you think about it you will only remember the same couple of Guardians taking people back" Ash said
Max paused at that "You see? They aren't the greatest people in the world. The only people you can rely on are your friends, family, and comrades. Not some people cowering off on an island somewhere" Ash said
"That's a bleak way of observing the situation" Green commented
"Well you'll find that things like kindness and trust are far and few in-between. I once did a job where a wife wanted me to steal everything from her mother's house and sell it and give her the money. I declined"
Green raised an eyebrow at that "Really? That sounds like it would have paid well"
"I may be a mercenary, I may be lower than the worms in the dirt, but even I have standards of cruelty and betrayal. There's no way in hell I'd accept a job where I rob a family members house"
"So you wouldn't rob your parents' place?" Green said
Ash grinned at that "You're asking the wrong person for that question. Hell yes I'd rob my parent's place"
"But you just said you wouldn't"
"Clearly you've never heard my life's story, a story that you'll hopefully never hear" Ash said, saying the part with a glare at Ruby who just raised his hands as if saying "wouldn't dream of it". "But I'd happily rob my father's place if I was asked to. He isn't exactly a model parent, someone of that title belongs to King Norman, who hadn't given up on his daughter even though he hadn't seen her in over a decade"
"Well, how could I give up on family?" Norman said with a smile. Caroline smiled and walked over and gave her husband a hug. "Group hug!" Max yelled before jumping in, with May following soon after. Everyone couldn't help but smile at the seen of a happy family, something uncommon in this day and age. Yes, all but but one smiled. Ash watched with sadness in his eyes, left wondering what it would be like to have a mother, to have a real father, maybe even a sibling.
Such desires were out of his reach, they always would be
"I apologize for being the one who is interrupting a touching moment, but the time has come to leave before the next patrol makes its round" Green said. Blue slapped him on the shoulder "Of course you're the one who breaks up such a happy scene"
"Pesky girl" Green muttered under his breath while walking back towards the castle
"DID YOU SAY WHAT I THINK YOU SAID?!" Blue yelled at him while sprinting to catch up
They all began walking back with Max asking about Ash's adventures and Norman, Caroline, and May listening. Leaving the two rock named people awkwardly walking next to each other
"Your hand is a little too tense" Ruby said out of nowhere, trying to alleviate the tension in-between them. Sapphire turned to him with a confused expression on her face. "When you lunge. Your hand tenses as you begin your strike. Keep it relaxed, that way if they move to dodge you can flex your hand and then drive it at the enemy. Your hand is already gripping your sword hilt leaving no room for adjustment. You would have beaten Ms. Blue faster if you could have adjusted when she dodged your lunges"
"Ms. Blue?" Sapphire questioned. Ruby nodded, keeping his eyes forward the entire time. "That is the proper term for a lady, is it not?"
"Well ya never called me Ms. Sapphire"
"You're right, I called you barbarian. And if my memory served me correctly, I was "prissy boy" correct?" Ruby said with a smirk
"I suppose I can't call ya prissy boy anymore can I?" Sapphire said while staring at the former neat freak and battle hater. "I think you lost that right the second I became a Magma Core member". Sapphire just nodded, a little sad that she lost a nickname for her old friend
"Do you know how my parents are doing?" Ruby asked, his eyes still looking straight at the laughing royal family, probably enjoying some joke Ash made or some funny story he told. "Yeah, they're doin' well. Your dad tried to rejoin the army with his normal types but they wouldn't let him back in". Ruby smiled at that "Your mom is always in the town, shoppin' and helpin' out in anyway she can. How have you not seen her yet?"
"Oh I've seen her there, I've just avoided her"
"What?! Why?!" Sapphire exclaimed
"Because she'd disown me the second she hears about the things I've done"
"Hey!" Sapphire said while jumping in front of him, blocking his path and successfully stopping him "Don't sell yourself short. Ya parents love you and they stayed in their house for a month when news came back about your "death". Everyone was grievin' for you" Sapphire said
"Even you?" Ruby said, finally looking at her directly in the eye
Sapphire paused "Of course I did" she murmured softly
They stared into each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Red clashing with blue but making a beautiful mix. Before she knew what she was doing Sapphire was on her toes with her eyes closed slowly leaning towards Ruby's face.
Ruby's mind went into instinct mode, he closed his eyes and began to to lean towards her, their lips just inches apart.
Then he saw an image flash before his eyes. Her back was turned to him, while running away hand in hand with that Aqua Guard soldier. He turned his head to the side and stepped around her. "We should catch up to the others" Ruby said while walking away from her.
But as he walked away, Sapphire stood frozen to the spot. Her head was down, covering her eyes with shadows. A streak of water coming down the side of her cheek.
-Ash's POV-
"So the two Guardians could go and do something at the Tree of Beginning while I held off the bandits. It wasn't easy at all, one had broke my arm but they came back just in time to save my ass. I was out of commission for a few weeks though, and it was there f aunt for getting me involved in the first place" Ash said
"You fought with them? How was it? Did it feel awesome that you fought alongside them?" Max blabbed out
"What kind of questions are those? It wasn't fun kid, I was fighting for my life with a broken arm. I still don't know how I'm alive right now. Have you even experienced real combat? When you have actually had to fight or die. The way you talk about battles makes it seem like you only read them in books" Ash said
"Well no, I haven't even practiced with a sword. But I watch Sir Aaron train all the time and he looks so cool when he's sparring with Archie, especially when Maxie was still alive. They brought in crowds to see them face off against each other" Max said
"Hn, no surprise there. Met Maxie once and he flattened me in just a few moves"
"Yeah, Maxie was so cool"
"Where did you meet my old general?" Norman asked
"At the Magma Core training grounds. That's where I met Ruby actually... he where'd he go? Whatever, he had shaved a tree of its bark in the middle of the night, I wanted a sparring partner so I challenged him. But Maxie had been watching Ruby the every night and so he saw me too and, well... I told what happened after that" Ash explained, looking back at the beginning of the explanation to call Ruby forward to get his side of the story too.
"You sure have met a lot of powerful people" Dawn said
"Well, I get around a lot. But I really want a piece of Giovanni. That piece of shit has been begging me to kill him since the day I was born"
"I know he's a bad guy, but that sounds personal" Blue said
"That's because it is. I can't openly rebel like you guys, but if he's making a public address to the people you can bet that I'm going to be on a rooftop somewhere with an arrow notched in my bow" Ash said
"Hey guys check it out, there's Sir Riley and Sir Aaron, and Sir Riley is running this way!" Max said while excitedly pointing towards the approaching Riley
Just as Riley got within fifteen feet Max ran towards him called out "Hey Sir Riley!". But Riley kept sprinting and blew right past Max and both royal families and ran directly towards Ash who (unnoticed by everyone) had stopped the second Max had pointed out Riley and had Pikachu on guard to the side. And threw a punch directly at Ash's face. Ash moved his head to the left before pushing Riley's outstretched arm to the side and threw a punch at Riley's gut but he rolled to the side to dodge.
A Lucario appeared out of nowhere and launched an aura sphere at Pikachu who jumped backwards to dodge before launching a thunderbolt at the steel/fighting type. Lucario dodged using extreme speed and used extreme speed again to lunge towards Pikachu and activated bone rush. Pikachu used agility to dodge the lunge and iron tail to block the initial swipe with bone rush.
The second Riley stood up he formed an aura sphere in his hand and began launching them at Ash rapid fire. As immediately took action and ducked under the first and slid to the right to avoid the second. He began to dodge all that came his way by rolling and maneuvering around them till he was right in front of Riley. He grabbed Riley's arm as it was charging up an aura sphere before flipping him over his back and onto the ground and immediately kneeled on top of him with one knee at his throat slowly choking him. He tried to use extreme speed to help his master but was cut of by Pikachu and the two began another duel of bone rush and iron tail
Pikachu swiped at the dirt with iron tail making a dust cloud and used agility to kick up dirt all around him, Lucario began swiping wildly with his bone rush to try and get a lucky hit but failed. Lucario closed his eyes and a blue hue began to glow around him before his eye snapped open and he jumped back to avoid an electro ball. The second his feet touched the ground however he was met with an iron tail directly to the head. He hit the ground with a loud thud but recovered and rolled to avoid a second iron tail. He quickly got up before noticing behind Pikachu that Ash had Riley pinned to the ground.
Riley's vision was turning black. Spots swam everywhere but he wasn't about to give up. He tired to launch an aura sphere at Ash but Ash batted away his hand so the aura sphere went somewhere to the left. Riley brought up his hand one more time, just as his vision went completely black before tapping on Ash's arm twice. Ash instantly stood up off of Riley who began coughing. "Mew, you didn't have to try and kill me" Riley said with a grin after his coughing fit.
"Said the guy who was launching highly deadly projectiles that could make a hole through me" Ash said sarcastically. Riley looked behind Ash at the battling Pokemon. "Lucario we lost this round, again. I already tapped out" Riley called out to his partner. The Lucario immediately stopped fighting and moved to his master's side. Pikachu jumped onto Riley's shoulder and said "Pika pikachu".
"Hello to you too Pikachu. Hey! That rhymed" Riley exclaimed. Ash proceeded to slap himself in the forehead and groan. Riley just laughed at Ash's reaction but he turned to see a aqua of Aqua Guard members with their weapons drawn running toward them. "Hey Ash, do they think that we were actually fighting?"
Ash removed his hand from his face to look at the soldiers. "Looks that way. Great now we have to explain this. You're a real pain in my ass you know that" Ash said
"Love you too buddy" Riley said. Ash rolled his eyes and they both began to walk towards the approaching soldiers.