Hello guys, thank you for all the support thus far. I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story.
In conversations unless otherwise stated this is how you can tell what kind of speech is being used.
'- Poké Speech
"- Human speech
"- Aura/Telepathy
Without further ado let the chapter begin!
The remainder of the drive was spent in silence, Scott was really taken aback by Ash's last statement and was still trying to figure out how to get through to him. He didn't think Ash would have so much disdain for practically everyone but then again, he had been betrayed by the people closest to him immediately after having his mother die in his arms. Scott couldn't even begin to imagine how that must have felt, to lose almost everything you cared about in the blink of an eye. A few minutes later the car came to a stop and Scott got out of the vehicle followed by Ash and Paige. Scott led the siblings into the building and up the stairs to a conference room, he stopped outside the room and faced Ash and Paige worried that the pair could provoke someone.
"We're here, please try not to start any fights with the people here. I'd rather not have to worry about an incident breaking out."
"No promises Scott, if someone starts something we'll finish it." Paige replied.
Scott looked to Ash hoping that he'd be reasonable about this and see the problems they could cause by making a commotion.
"What she said."
Scott sighed and shook his head, he should have known that that would be Ash's response, he briefly considered telling the pair that he'd had a charge of heart and they could go home but decided to just let things happen. He opened the door and led them into the room. The moment they walked through the door Sabrina's eyes immediately snapped to them, she was not interested in Scott's arrival since that meant that this pointless meeting would start soon. What intrigued her was the man next to Scott, his face was shrouded by his hood and he was scanning around the room until he final met her gaze. What shocked her was there appeared to be no intimidation in the man's eyes which was strange to say the least.
Sabrina suddenly an unusual presence pressing against her mentally barrier and quickly repulsed it, she glared at the man knowing that he must have been the presence she felt presumably trying to read her mind. She felt the presence remaining just outside of her barrier and it was wide open meaning he either couldn't control his powers or he was inviting her to converse, she immediately sent a mental message to the man offended that he had tried something.
"If I were you I would not try that again, maybe you are not aware of the powers i have at my command." Sabrina said.
"I am fully aware of what you can do and I was just curious to see how powerful the mighty Sabrina is and I have to admit I'm impressed. I have never met another being with so much power at their disposal. You need not worry about me I no quarrel with you, as long as you are not a threat to the people I care about."
The presence was suddenly gone before Sabrina could respond to his comment, she mulled over the rather short conversation and was sure that the man's voice and presence was familiar but she couldn't quite place it. She decided that she would investigate this more at a later date since this man clearly had to be watched carefully. That was something she would attend to later though as right now she had a boring meeting to sit through and it would take all her power to focus on that as well as making sure the hooded man doesn't try anything.
She kept her gaze focused on the new arrival and while the man was a mystery right now, there was one thing she was certain of though and that was that the man is powerful indeed. She couldn't feel the pull of a Psychic presence which could only mean one thing, that he must be one of the few remaining Aura wielders in the world. This put her on edge and she knew that she'd have to be careful around him because with power like that he could be dangerous. Then again was she right to judge someone else considering what she had done in the past.
"Good morning Scott, who are those two?" Lance asked pulling Sabrina out of her thoughts.
"This is Thanatos and his sister Nemesis."
Several pairs of eyes widened in shock as they finally met the man that Scott had been raving about for the past few years. A man that most of them had expected to never see and some even believe to be a myth fabricated by Scott.
"So that is the Thanatos you've been telling us so much about? The one I've been searching for over the past year." Lance asked.
"Yes Lance, yes it is." Scott said with a smug tone.
Scott smirked at Lance as he saw the frustration in the Dragon Tamer's eyes, ever since the Kanto Champion had heard of what Thanatos had accomplished he'd been searching for him even when others told him it was futile. To this day no one was sure why Lance had been so determined to find the man, whether it was to test his strength, recruit into the G-Men or something else. All they knew was that Lance had been determined to find Thanatos and had spent a lot of time and money in trying to to do so. Lance slammed his fist down on the table angrily as he glared at Scott's smug face, he couldn't believe that Scott had so easily found Thanatos.
"How the hell did you find him? He's like a damn phantom! And the even bigger question how did you get this guy to compete in the tournament?!"
"Well I had a lot of luck when it came to finding him and I guess the prospect of this tournament was too much for Thanatos to resist."
Ash tuned out Scott after this and while Scott continued to introduce him to everyone, Ash looked around the room again this time having a much closer look at everyone and saw that many of the same faces he'd first encountered over ten years ago still looked pretty much the same. He then saw the new faces though that he'd heard about and wasn't impressed by what he saw. The first was a man who had replaced Giovanni as the final gym leader and it was obvious that he had neither the stature nor the power of his predecessor. The second was an older woman who had become Saffron City's Gym Leader when Sabrina was elevated to the Elite 4 and by the way she flinched when his gaze focused on her it was clear that she wasn't a patch on Sabrina. He didn't really care about either of them though, from he'd heard they were weak compared to the people they'd replaced which was blatantly obvious.
Ash kept studying everyone in the room when he spotted two of his once best friends, Brock and Misty sitting together. He immediately felt his blood boil at the two people who had known better than almost anyone yet had still betrayed him so easily. He suddenly felt one of Paige's small hands grab his, he looked down at Paige and saw her smiling at him which was more than enough to calm him. Ash let out a deep breath and smiled at Paige and gave her hand a squeeze showing his sister just how grateful he was to have her here supporting him.
"Thank you, I'm glad you are here Paige. I love you."
"I love you too Ash and I will always be here to support you."
"All I'll always be here for you."
Ash smiled down at his sister again and then glanced around the room once again studying those present, his eyes once again fell on a woman who had always fascinated him… Sabrina. Although their first meeting ten years ago hadn't gone exactly well he could still remember how beautiful she looked when she laughed at Haunter's prank. He briefly wondered how she was now that Haunter was no longer with her but then brushed the thought aside since it was of no real concern to him unless she put Paige in danger.
"It appears Sabrina has grown considerably more powerful since our last meeting if that warning I got is anything to go by. I'm just amazed that she's also grown even more beautiful." Ash thought
Ash mentally slapped himself wondering where that thought had come from, quickly putting it down to memories of her being one of his teenage crushes. He then took a seat at the table with Paige quickly sitting next to him. A few people tried to sit either side of them but were quickly stopped by Pikachu, Froslass and Riolu jumping off Ash and Paige's shoulders, landing on to the chairs next to them and giving the people a warning glare. The message was clearly received as everyone made sure not to get too close to them. Scott was already starting to regret bringing Ash to the very first meeting but it was too late to go back now.
"Well now that we're all here let's get this meeting started."
Everyone gradually took a seat at the table occasionally glancing at the hooded people but making sure not to stare for too long. They snapped their gaze to Scott when he placed a massive stack of papers on the table and started going over the basic information on the tournament. Ash and Paige exchanged a look of boredom at they listened to Scott yammer on about the tournament.
"This is going to be a long two hours." Ash said.
"You can say that again." Paige replied.
(Three hours later)
Scott placed his stack of papers down on the table and let out a sigh of relief that the main part of the meeting was over. It had taken a lot longer due to some of the people asking questions while he explained the details about the tournament. He didn't need to look at Ash and Paige to know that they were annoyed that the meeting had taken so long, he could literally feel the irritation radiating from the two of them and knew that he needed to end this meeting as quickly as possible.
"So, are there any last questions?" Scott asked.
The room stayed silent much to Scott's relief, he was on the verge of ending the meeting when Ash voice a question.
"Yeah, I have one but not about the tournament, my question is for Miss Waterflower. She's been staring at me ever since I walked in the room and would like to know why." Ash growled.
The question came as a major surprise to Misty, she couldn't believe that the hooded man had caught her staring since he had been focussed on his sister for almost the entire meeting. She was extremely embarrassed that she had been caught though so she immediately looked away from the man who she could tell had clearly been angered by her staring.
"Oh, I'm sorry, you just remind me of someone I used to know. Someone who deserved a better friend than me." Misty murmured sadly.
"Misty you've got to stop being so hard on yourself, you're not the only who is to blame." Brock said.
"But I'm more to blame than most! I knew him for longer than almost anyone else and I didn't even give him a chance." Misty yelled angrily.
Misty then remembered that she was in a room full of people some of whom believed in Ash and some who didn't. She looked around the room at everyone seeing them all staring at her, some with glares while some of them were wearing sad expressions, she let out a sad sigh and stood up.
"Excuse me everyone."
With that Misty walked out of the room with her shoulders slumped, Ash felt a small amount of satisfaction as he watched her slink out of the room but he quickly disregarded the feeling. He was here to win a tournament not dwell on the past and those who had abandoned him. He turned his gaze to Brock who was watching Misty leave the room with a heartbroken look on his face. As he watched Brock; Ash suddenly realised that maybe he could just take one dig at Brock. It wouldn't be too bad if he just let go once and made the traitor feel guilt for his actions, he glanced at Paige and saw a smirk on her face.
"So, what was that about Brock?" Ash asked feigning ignorance.
"It was about an old friend that we foolishly lost. He died two years ago and she's blamed herself for it every day." Brock replied.
"Good, that bitch deserves to be miserable after what she did." Paige said.
"She does indeed."
"Are you going to say anything?"
"I promised myself on the way here that I would do anything in my power to avoid them and anything else to do with my past. However, with Brock right here I can't help but feel like I should get a little retribution."
"I agree one hundred percent."
Ash and Paige smirked at one another a look that was missed by everyone apart from Scott who could tell that something bad was about to happen. Ash turned his gaze from Paige to Brock who was still watching the door Misty had just walked through.
"Oh, you mean Ash Ketchum, yes I know all about him. I believe you and Miss Waterflower were his closest friends and had travelled together for a long time. The two of you turning on him must have really crushed him. With friends like you who needs enemies right? Although i seriously doubt the two of actually cared about him considering how quick you were to betray him. Considering the lack of support shown to him in the media I think it's pretty clear that none of his so called friends cared."
"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Brock yelled.
Ash and Paige smirked again as Brock's expression changed from sorrow to rage. He quickly stood up, knocking his chair over in the process and he stormed towards the entrance throwing a quick glare at the hooded man before he opened the door and left the room. As the door closed behind Brock, Scott could practically feel the smugness radiating from Ash and Paige, he knew that the siblings had enjoyed that far more than they should have done.
Scott shook his head cursing himself for bringing Ash to the first meeting rather than waiting a while and trying to talk some sense into him. He should have known that Ash would use any opportunity to take a hit at his old friends for what they had done. Scott stared sadly at Ash, it was hard to believe that the kind boy he met years ago was now the man sat in front of him.
"He's changed more than I thought, as awful as this sounds I'm glad I didn't bring him to the Frontier Brain meeting first. I know for a fact that he'd have broken Anabel's heart with a single sentence and Arceus knows she's been through enough already." Scott thought.
"So why do the two of you wear those cloaks?" Lance inquired desperate to change the subject.
"We simply wish to remain anonymous." Ash replied.
"Yes but why? After everything you've done I'd have though you'd want some recognition." Lance queried.
"The things we did were done because they were the right thing to do not because we wanted fame and fortune for it." Ash replied calmly.
"Well I understand that, I am the leader of the G-Men but still..." Lance didn't get a chance to finish as Paige stood up and glared at him.
"Shut up Lance, it's none of your damn business." Paige snapped.
Agatha was quick to stand up and wagged her finger at the girl who had blatantly disrespected Lance.
"Hey, that was very rude. You, young lady need to learn some respect for your elders." Agatha scolded.
While the rational part of Ash's mind could see and understand why Agatha had reacted that way, his desire to protect Paige overwhelmed that and he stood up glaring at the former member of Kanto's Elite Four.
"Don't talk to my sister like that you retired old hag." Ash growled.
The old woman turned her gaze to the hooded man and shook her head in disappointment.
"Well with a role model like you it's no surprise she's a rude little girl."
"Hey, don't disrespect my brother like that, he's a better person than any of you could ever wish to be!"
Paige glared at Agatha and was on the verge of storming over to the woman, Ash knew that Paige could do something rash if she wasn't calmed soon so he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down Nemesis, let me handle this." Ash said calmly.
Paige looked at Ash knowing that he was more than capable of dealing with situation so she calmed herself down and nodded. She saw the smirk that had appeared on Ash's face and knew what he had in mind, she couldn't wait to watch what was about to happen. Ash smiled at his sister as he saw she had already figured out what he planned and then glared at Agatha, he may have respected the woman but no one got away with talking to his sister like that.
"You've insulted me and my sister, so Agatha I challenge you to a battle."
"I accept your challenge boy, just tell me why you want to battle." Agatha replied.
"So that I can humiliate you in front of all these people. Now what do you say we make this interesting? If you somehow win, we will admit that you are right and apologise to you and the rest of the people in this room but when I win you all agree to leave us alone."
"Alright kid, I agree to your terms. I'll show you how to battle and I'll teach you some manner's."
"Well you can certainly try Agatha, I'll see you outside on the battlefield in five minutes' time."
Before anyone could respond Ash and Paige left the room leaving everyone inside stunned that anyone would dare to not only talk to Agatha like that but challenge her to a battle and sound so cocky. Even the members of The Elite 4 wouldn't challenge Agatha in such an overconfident way. Agatha ignored everything else in the room and walked out intent on showing this punk that no one disrespects her. As soon as Agatha left the room everyone else quickly filed out of the room and headed down towards the battlefield all waiting to see if this Thanatos is as good as they've heard.
Ash and Paige were stood at the battlefield waiting for Agatha to join them, Pikachu had already nominated himself as the one to battle which had disappointed Froslass but when she heard that Pikachu wanted revenge for a loss he suffered to Agatha she was happy to let him destroy the old hag. Eventually Agatha walked out of the building and stood opposite the siblings, she took a Pokéball out of her bag and held it at her side.
"So, you decided to show up, you were taking so long that I was beginning to think you weren't coming." Ash taunted.
"I wouldn't miss the opportunity so show a punk like you some respect. Gengar let's show him why you should respect elders."
Gengar burst out of the Pokéball in Agatha's hand and stood on the battlefield carefully studying the Pikachu opposite him, he didn't know what it was but something about the Pikachu seemed familiar. The two Pokémon stared each other down, focussed entirely on their opponent they didn't even flinch when the door to the building slammed open and several of the gym leaders and Elite 4 piled outside to watch the battle.
"Alright Thanatos you can have the first move."
"If you insist Agatha, Pikachu use Quick Attack."
"Well it looks like Scott was lying when he spoke of your skill boy considering you're making such an amateur mistake. Gengar just let him try hit his little Quick Attack."
Pikachu shot off and all you could see was a blur as he charged towards Gengar. When he was near the ghost type Pikachu leapt at him and passed straight through Gengar as everyone expected, Agatha and Gengar smirked at the foolish move while everyone watching was surprised that Thanatos would make such a basic error. Everyone was taken aback though when they saw Thanatos and Nemesis smirking.
"You made a big mistake Agatha, Pikachu use Lightning Tail!"
Pikachu's tail suddenly took a metallic sheen and had sparks of electricity crackling from it, he then slammed his tail into Gengar's back which made him let out a pained cry and it sent the ghost type flying into the air. Ash and Pikachu turned their gaze from Gengar to Agatha and saw a shocked look on her face, they smirked as they knew that she realised she had sorely underestimated them.
"So, who's the amateur now?"
Agatha collected herself and looked at Thanatos, she hated to admit it but she was impressed by the move and at the same annoyed at her own failure.
"That was a smart move boy but you'll need more than that to beat me. Gengar turn around and use Shadow Ball."
"Counter it with Electro Ball."
Gengar quickly regathered himself in the air and turned around to face Pikachu, he formed an orb of black energy between his hands and launched it at Pikachu. At the same time, Pikachu formed a ball of electricity at the end of his tail and it shot straight towards Gengar's Shadow Ball, what many failed to see was that an aura of electric energy was still surrounding Pikachu's tail. Up in the air the attacks clashed and a power struggled began where neither attack seemed able to overpower the other one and sparks of electricity and black energy were shooting off from the attacks.
"I hate to admit it boy but I'm impressed, not many Pokémon can match Gengar's Shadow Ball."
"Trust me Agatha your Gengar's Shadow Ball is nowhere near a match for Pikachu's Electro Ball. Pikachu stop playing around."
Pikachu nodded and spun around flinging the electricity that had been surrounding his tail at his Electro Ball which made the attack grow significantly larger. The now far more powerful Electro Ball easily brushed aside the Shadow Ball and rammed into Gengar, shocking the ghost sending him flying away once again. Gengar once again regathered himself and glared down at Pikachu who was wearing a cocky smirk.
"Well you overpowered one Shadow Ball, let's see you do the same to several. Rapid Fire Shadow Ball."
"I don't need to match them, Pikachu jump on them then use Discharge when you get close."
Gengar quickly formed several smaller Shadow Balls and launched them at Pikachu, the mouse watched the orbs headed his way and ran straight towards them. The spectators looked on thinking they were about to see Pikachu get pummelled into the earth but were shocked to see Pikachu at the last second leap over the first Shadow Ball which crashed into the ground making a giant crater. Pikachu continued jumping to Shadow Balls until he was in range of Gengar, he leapt one more time and landed on Gengar. The ghost looked at Pikachu with a fearful look on his face.
'Say goodnight Casper.'
Before Gengar could respond Pikachu released a massive wave of electricity which due to Pikachu being right next to Gengar was absolutely devastating to the ghost type. Everyone watched in awe as electricity filled the sky, they heard Gengar letting out an agonised cry, the Discharge ended moments later and Gengar started plummeting towards the ground with smoke billowing from his body.
Ash sighed in disappointment as he watched Gengar plummet completely helpless towards the ground, he had honestly expected Agatha to put up more of a fight. Part of him was tempted to leave it at that but he really wanted to make a statement here and ensure that people knew that staying away from them was the best course of action.
"I'm tired of this, Pikachu finish this with Volt Tackle."
Pikachu nodded, a yellow aura surrounded him and he aimed himself straight at Gengar. He didn't want to hurt Gengar any more than necessary so he toned down the power on his Volt Tackle just to be safe. Moments later Pikachu rammed into Gengar sending the ghost Pokémon flying into the ground in front of the spectators, a huge dust cloud was raised temporarily blinding everyone. When the dust settled, everyone saw that Gengar was to the surprise of everyone apart from Ash, Paige and their Pokémon unconscious. Agatha pointed her Pokéball at Gengar and recalled the ghost Pokémon.
"You fought bravely Gengar, thank you."
"I'm disappointed Agatha, you lost this match the moment you treated me and Pikachu like a couple of amateur's. It's a shame really, you were once so powerful but now you've gotten weak in your retirement. Now I expect all of you to honour our deal and leave us alone, come on Nemesis, we've wasted enough time here."
Paige nodded and followed Ash towards the path that would lead them to their temporary home, Pikachu caught up to the siblings and took his place on Ash's shoulder. Ash gave the mouse a scratch behind the ear and then stopped next to Scott smirking at the astonished look on his face.
"Same time tomorrow Scott?"
Scott quickly scribbled down a number on a piece of paper and gave it to Ash.
"Thanatos this is my Pokénav number, call me later and I'll tell when the next meeting you'll need to attend is taking place." Scott replied.
Ash nodded and walked away quickly followed by Paige, when they were far enough away all five of them started laughing at the looks on everyone's faces when they saw how easily he had beaten Agatha.
"Nice job back there Thanatos, I loved the overkill."
"Thanks Nemesis, I can't believe how weak she's gotten since she retired. I was thinking of taking it easy on her out of respect but that amateur comment got to me."
'Me too, the old hag got what she deserved for disrespecting us.' Pikachu added.
"Well I seriously doubt that many people will talk to us after today, the other regions are going to find out what happened to Agatha and in all likelihood the majority of people won't want to provoke us again."
"Aw but I want to see you annihilate more people, it was fun watching you crush her." Paige whined.
"I have to admit it was a lot of fun beating Agatha and getting revenge for my loss to her all those years ago. However, what I said to Brock will cause problems when we go to the Sinnoh meeting."
"Why do you think that will be a problem?"
"Well Cynthia is still the Champion of Sinnoh so she'll be at the meeting."
"I still don't see the problem."
"Well part of me believes Scott when he said that people thought I was innocent and searched for me. Although he didn't specify who I think it's safe to say that Cynthia is one of the ones who would have done that. She'll hear about what happened today with Agatha and what I said to Brock and I don't think she'll be my biggest fan."
"Would it really make her react that badly?"
"I think it would do, the two of us got rather close after I lost to Tobias in the Sinnoh League. She took me under her wing and helped me train for the Unova League, without her it would have been a lot harder for me to win that league."
"Come on Thanatos, so what if she does get mad, you crushed Agatha and I know you'll do the same to Cynthia."
"While I appreciate the praise believe me when I say that it won't be that easy Nemesis, Cynthia's powerful, far more powerful than anyone I have ever faced. I know I'd have to go all out to have a chance of beating her and I'd rather not show off my full power as well some of my top strategies in a non-tournament match."
"I suppose you're right, now that i think about it won't you have the same problem with the Battle Frontier meeting then since Anabel was close to you."
Ash hadn't really thought about that, he hadn't really considered the Frontier Brains at first but it was a fair point. He had gotten close to Anabel during the short time they'd spent together and she was one of the first to congratulate him on his performance in the Unova League. he could still remember his heart beat quickening when Anabel hugged him. he shook away the memory and smiled at Paige.
"I'm not sure what will happen with them, unlike Cynthia I don't think Anabel would start a fight, she'd be more likely to avoid the meeting so she wouldn't have to be in the same room as me. The rest of the Brains on the other hand could be a problem, from what I've heard they are very protective of Anabel. I believe that most of them would be simple to deal with but Brandon has the three Hoenn Golem's and may have access to Regigigas as well."
"We could take those old Golem's" Celebi declared.
"Yeah, just leave them to us. We'll show them what real Legendary Pokémon can do." Diancie added.
"I know you could beat them but I don't want you risking revealing yourselves just so we can deal with an angry guy and his Regi's."
"Ash, we know what we're doing, if it comes to a battle against the Regi's we want to fight for you."
"Like Celebi said we know what we're doing Ash, we are not afraid of revealing ourselves so please let us do this for you."
"Well if you two are sure then if Brandon challenges us I'll let you both battle."
An excited grin formed on Paige's face, she'd never seen Celebi and Diancie fight a proper battle only sparring matches with Ash's other Pokémon so she was really hoping that Brandon would be dumb enough to challenge her brother. Ash saw the look on Paige's face and knew she wanted to see the battle, even though he wanted to keep a low profile to keep attention away from them he would do anything to make Paige happy. With that in mind he started to think of ways to provoke Brandon enough to make him want to battle.
"I really hope he wants to battle with you." Paige said.
"So, do I Nemesis, so do I. Right let's go back to our temporary home and see how everyone's training is going. Celebi can you teleport us out of here please?"
"Of course, Ash."
In a flash of light Ash and Paige were instantly teleported to Scott's private home.
Notes
Thank you all for reading this chapter, please leave a review below telling me what you liked and what I could improve on. I'm also willing to use any ideas you may have.
This chapter has seen the most change, originally Ash provoked Brock by saying about how he was a murderer and the world was better off without him. I changed it to Ash taking shots at anyone claiming to be his friends instead simply because it feels more like a direct shot at them. Plus it felt weird to have Ash basically do a 180 on his opinion just to take a shot at Brock.