A/N: I hope you will enjoy the chapter!

*Obligatory disclaimer here*

"To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chapter 4: Thunderous Encounter

Ash walked though the side of the mountain, slightly dazed. He realized that using an aura hotspot was him moving as aura from point A to point B. The longer the distance, the more aura he needed to get somewhere. Johto and Sinnoh were further apart than he realized. He noticed Lucario and Pikachu felt just as tired as him and decided that now would be a good time to take a break. They had all day to find Ash's last partner.

Ash looked around his surroundings. He was on the outside of the mountain. There were mostly dense woods and very few grasslands. He noticed how the mountain's entrance was a little near the middle of a forest clearing. Though he found that odd, he decided to use the clearing as a place to rest and feed his partners.

Once at the clearing, Ash went into his bag and took out a blanket. He placed several bowls on the blanket and poured Pokémon food for all five Pokémon in his party. He then sent them all out. Ash sent out Bulbasaur, Charizard and Greninja since Pikachu and Lucario were out. He gestured everyone to eat. Everyone happily obliged.

Ash sat against a tree and began to munch on a Sitrus berry. He felt content after eating the granola bar from earlier. He didn't know why he loved that treat so much, but he knew that Aurora made it both with healthy and self-sustaining intent. He knew that they were made specifically as a way for him to keep going without needing to rest. The berries and ingredients played into how Ketchums were naturally like: wild, Pokémon-like and adventurous.

Ash glazed his eyes over with content. He watched as his Pokémon started to interact with the newly caught Lucario. Lucario had moved away from everyone, being slightly too timid to interact with everyone. He noticed that Bulbasaur stopped eating and tried to make her feel welcome. He put out a vine for Lucario to take. Lucario looked hesitant to do anything. Then, Bulbasaur decided to move his bowl to be beside hers and started to eat by her. Lucario looked at the grass type with surprise. Then, a small smile.

Pikachu noticed Bulbasaur had moved over to make Lucario comfortable. The mouse picked his bowl and brought it by Bulbasaur and Lucario. Bulbasaur smiled at the electric mouse. Lucario seemed surprised. Then, she saw Charizard and Greninja do the same thing. Lucario didn't know what to say, but she was appreciative of everyone's efforts to make her feel comfortable.

Ash's heart became fuzzy seeing all that. He was happy to see his Pokémon get along so well. He also noticed that Greninja and Charizard were the first to be done eating and looked at each other competitively. They immediately sized each other up and looked impressed with each other's potential. Ash smirked and thought about all the training he would do once he found the little Larvitar. Once everyone was done eating, he put all the bowls back in his bag and looked at everyone. All of his partners gave him their undivided attention.

"Guys, I feel happy that you all are my partners and I looked forward to getting stronger with all of you. Before we can, we need to find the last member of our family. I'm not sure if Larvitar is still a Larvitar, but I sense his aura nearby. When I catch him, let's get stronger together!" Ash said.

"(Yeah!)" Ash's Pokémon cheered.

"Thank you for being my friends. Now, let's find…" Ash would have continued, but he noticed something suspicious deeper in the woods. Was that some cages? Ash's demeanor turned more serious as he said, "I'm going to check out something. Return everyone!"

Ash immediately returned Lucario, Greninja, Charizard and Bulbasaur in their capsules. Pikachu jumped on Ash's shoulder with a grim expression. They nodded at each other before Ash went deeper in the area. Ash noticed that as he got closer, he did see cages of wild Pokémon trapped. Ash grew appalled. He rushed over and noticed a few Pokémon in cages like Dodrio, Rapidash and even rarer ones like Dragonair. They all looked scared and miserable.

Ash looked a closer look and noticed that all of these Pokémon were wounded in some way. It didn't look like a Pokémon wounded them, either. Ash's got a shiver down his spine.

Ash felt himself getting angry. He noticed that there were no humans near them so he figured that he would have enough time to break the cages. Ash walked in front of the Pokémon and made a placating gesture to the Pokémon to let him know he would not harm them. They all looked pitiful, but hopeful when the boy made no aggressive moves. Before he could do much else, he heard someone say, "Don't take another step, kid."

He turned around and met who he assumed did this. The woman's voice was coarse and she herself looked rugged. The woman had a blue and white stripped long-sleeved shirt and blue baggy pants. Her brown eyes looked cruel and her brown hair looked spiky. Pikachu's cheeks began to spark in disgust. Ash sweatdropped. She was pointing a gun at him.

"I don't know how someone like you got access to this area, but I know no one else should be here. Those Pokémon are none of your concern." The woman narrowed her eyes at him.

"Were you the one who caged them up?" Ash growled.

"Why ask such a dumb question?" The lady laughed. Pikachu got even more angry. Pikachu's cheeks began to spark even more wildly. The lady took note, "You better tell your electric rat to cool the jets. I'm not afraid of shooting you both down."

Ash took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Once he opened his eyes, they turned red. He narrowed them at the lady. The woman gasped and stepped back in shock. Ashton smirked sadistically and said, "Pikachu, get off my shoulder. I don't want to get you hurt. I got this."

Pikachu shook his head vehemently and clung on Ashton's shoulder tighter. Ashton sighed, but expected it. He glared at the woman. The lady didn't know what this boy was, so she shot at him, terrified by the eye color change. However, before she could shoot, Ashton had already come up behind her. He said with a chilling tone, "You sure you want to do that?"

"Wh-what are you?" The lady rasped.

"Someone who won't hesitate to kill you if you try something like that again." Ashton whispered from behind her. The lady jumped back and turned around in surprise. She got a shiver got her spine just hearing this kid talk. The deeper voice wasn't helping things. Ashton's red eyes were glowering. He demanded, "Release those Pokémon or else I will do to you much worse than you just tried doing to me."

"I don't care if you have inhuman speed or changing red eyes… you won't stop me from doing my job. Mt. Silver Pokémon turn up a nasty profit in the black market and I gotta get money somehow." The lady hissed and began shooting at Ashton.

Ashton frowned as he dodged each shot with ease. The lady began to scream as she fired at a higher rate. Ashton dodged them all effortlessly. Pikachu found himself struggling to hold on to his trainer from how fast he was moving. Eventually, the lady ran out of bullets and looked terrified at the red-eyed teen. Ashton cracked his knuckles and smirked. The lady then tried to throw her gun at the boy's head, but Ashton proved much too quick. He knocked it away before it could hit him.

Ashton had a feeling this lady didn't have any Pokémon on her own, otherwise she would have sent one out by now. Ashton wasn't complaining. A human with a gun was much easier to deal with than a Pokémon under the ownership of a bad person.

"My turn…" Ashton quickly approached the terrified poacher. His hands began to spark wildly with power. The lady grew blue in terror. She stepped back until she was against a tree. Ashton was inches away from electrocuting her. His red eyes held no mercy.

"Please… d-don't hurt me… I'll…" The lady scrambled to think of something to appease the boy. Ashton didn't care. He touched her shoulder with his electrified aura induced hand. The woman screamed out in agony.

"You'll what?" Ashton said in a slightly disinterested tone.

"Ahhhhh! I'll… I'll… tell you what you want! Stop! Please!" The lady begged. Ashton raised an eyebrow and let go. However, he still forced her near the tree. The lady was too petrified to move from her spot. She was glad he was not shocking her anymore.

Ashton made his hands return to normal. He narrowed his eyes at the lady and growled, "Spill."

"I'm… not the only person here. My group and I were sent here to obtain the Tyrant of the Mountain, a powerful Pokémon said to be on par with legendaries in strength. Our client wants that power for himself. I decided to try and make some extra money got capturing these Pokémon here. More Pokémon meant more profit." The lady explained.

"The Tyrant of the Mountain? Why do I get the feeling….?" Ashton shook his head and cut his thought short. Ashton immediately pinched a specific point in the lady's neck upon gaining what he wanted. She hissed in pain, then fell asleep. Pikachu looked at his trainer, somewhat appalled, but not surprised. Ashton gave an apologetic look at the mouse as he said, "You saw that she was going to kill us, right?"

"(Yeah, but still. It… just doesn't feel right seeing you act like this when I know you're a nice person. I'm not used to the counterbalance thing yet.)" Pikachu admitted.

"That's understandable. I'm not used to our dynamic yet, either. I just feel sad that I acted like an idiot in my introduction to you. However, I'm happy with how far we've both come since then. I only hope our bond gets even tighter in the future, Pikachu." Ashton said in response. Pikachu chuckled and began to nuzzle his cheek against Ashton in affection. Ashton laughed in response. The mouse was tickling him.

"(Ashton, our bond is already tight. Ash is you and you are Ash. I trust you completely and would fight for you until the bitter end... no matter what side of you is out.)" Pikachu gazed at him confidently.

"That's comforting to hear." Ashton made a small smile. His expression suddenly turned pensive, "I get the strangest feeling hearing a Pokémon dubbed, 'The Tyrant of the Mountain'. I would bet five Pokebucks that the tyrant is Larvitar as a Tyranitar."

"(I wouldn't be surprised. I hope he'll recognize you, though. He was a baby when we found him.)" Pikachu noted.

"Hmm… I think he will. We will see what happens when we meet up with him." Ashton responded. Ashton stepped back in surprise when he looked up at the sky. Ashton noticed a powerful Hyper Beam in the distance to his north. It looked like it was toward the edge of the mountain. Ashton's eyes turned back to brown. He looked at Pikachu as he said, "We have to hurry. Before we go, use Iron Tail to break all of these cages."

Pikachu jumped from Ash's shoulder and made his tail glow a steely gray. One by one, Pikachu broke the locks on each of the cages. The Pokémon looked at the mouse, grateful, but they all were still in pain. Ash found himself sick to his stomach seeing all this, but did not visibly show it.

Ash then began to feed each Pokémon the type of berry he felt like would help speed up their recovery. He wanted to do more, he was also aware that more Pokémon might become endangered should Tyranitar succumb to this mysterious group's control. Suddenly, Lucario released herself from her capsule. With her aura sensors on the back of her head, she sensed all the Pokémon's pain. It overwhelmed her enough to do something about it.

Lucario aided Ash in healing the Pokémon by using Heal Pulse on them. Ash was surprised she knew this move, but was grateful. With their combined efforts, they managed to heal each Pokémon completely. The Pokémon looked thankful before going back to their normal lives.

Ash was about to return Lucario, but the jackal dodged the suctioning red light and shook her head. She argued, "(Some terrible humans did this and I wouldn't be able to stand myself if I just stayed in my ball and did nothing. I'm staying out with you whether you like it or not.)"

"Lucario…" Considering Lucario was known to be slightly timid, but polite, hearing Lucario speak in a forceful tone shocked Ash.

"(Tyrantiar is being poached like I was. I can't let some other Pokémon go through what I did.)" Lucario continued. Ash laughed and made a reassuring look.

"No need to say more, Lucario. I saw a powerful attack that way. Let's go." Ash immediately headed north toward the mountain edge. Lucario was surprised to see him submit so easily. She was used to her superior, Sensei, telling her what to do and her not having any choice in the matter. Then, she remembered the type of boy she had made her partner. Though Lucario wasn't used to having more freedom, she was happy. Lucario nodded eagerly and followed him.

Ash eventually found herself out of the forest and more on rocky terrain. He noticed the Hyper Beams becoming more ferocious and took out Charizard as he was running. Charizard looked at his trainer and gestured him to get on. Ash, Pikachu and Lucario all jumped on Charizard's back. Charizard immediately took to the skies and went toward the Hyper Beams.

As they all got closer, they could hear pained, but terrible roars. Ash clenched his teeth as what he was seeing.

He saw three different people trying to restrain a rather large Tyranitar in an electrical capturing net, but it was resisting their efforts. Each person was using a Houndoom to bite and weaken the Tyrantiar. Ash noticed there were two men and one lady. All of them worse varying attire, but they all looked equipped to capture Pokémon. The man was wearing a full body black suit with gadgets attached to her waist. The other man was wearing the same thing her partner was wearing, but grey. The woman was the most causal of the group, wearing cameo shorts and a green shirt.

It looked like they had been struggling to restrain Tyrantiar for some time since they all were tired. Tyranitar's eyes were glowing red as he was resisting the group's control. His face looked dangerously murderous. In addition to the electrical net shocking Tyrantiar, there were several odd devices surrounding them. They looked like satellites. Upon seeing all of his Pokémon react negatively to some sort of sound they were hearing, Ash knew he needed to act fast before they were like Tyranitar.

The group looked like they were trying to load Tyranitar in the bad of a truck and had just weakened it to where he could move much. The electrical net was constantly draining his energy.

Ash's face looked disgusted. Ash commanded, "Charizard, use Flamethrower! Lucario, Aura Sphere! Pikachu, Thunderbolt! Destroy of the machines surrounding Tyrantiar!"

"What the?" The woman said in surprise as he noticed a teen on a Charizard charging straight for them. She rolled his eyes at what she saw as an annoying distraction from the main prize.

Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and surrounded himself in electrical energy. Charizard charged fire in his mouth. Lucario narrowed her eyes as she stayed on Charizard, but took aim. All three of them attacked the strange metal devices. Lucario made each of her aura sphere curve toward the machines. All of their attacks landed and caused an explosion. The three humans and Tyranitar was knocked back from the blast. The electrical net hadn't been disabled and still shocked the snared Tyranitar.

Ash jumped off of Charizard and landed on his feet beside Pikachu. Charizard landed beside him and Lucario jumped off of Charizard. All of for of them looked ready to rumble.

"I don't know who you are, but I know you're in a lot of trouble." The woman spat at Ash.

"…" Ash narrowed his eyes in response.

"Houndoom Squad, Triple Flamethrower!" The woman commanded.

"Charizard, stop all their attacks with your own Flamethrower!" Ash brought out his hand.

All three Houndooms focused their attack on Ash. Each one spat out fire toward Ash and his Pokémon. Charizard once again charge fire in his mouth and fired it at the dark types. The fire collided with each other and caused an explosion. The attacks clashed evenly with each other.

"What the…? Just how strong is this kid?!" One of the men moved back in shock.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt! Lucario, Aura Sphere! Knock out all of those Houndooms!" Ash said.

Pikachu immediately surrounded himself full of electrical energy. Lucario's eyes turned sharp as she brought out her paws and formed a ball full of aura. Pikachu attacked the Houndooms with all his might. The dark types howled in agony. While they were stunned from the electivity, Lucario took aim. She shot each aura sphere one by one, hitting each Houndoom. After being struck, each Houndoom had swiggly lines for eyes.

"He defeated each of us so easily. What are you?" The other man said, slightly impressed, but mostly terrified.

"I've only recently started to tap into my true potential. If you think I'm strong now, you haven't seen anything yet." Ash frowned. He was about to focus his attention on Tyranitar when his heart dropped. The woman, who Ash assumed to be in charge of the group, had a gun pointed at Tyranitar's blue crest. Her finger was close to pulling the trigger. It was like she knew the most vulnerable part of the rock and dark type Pokémon. The woman watched Ash's every move with calculated eyes.

"Don't come any closer." She said in a deadly voice.

"…" Ash merely stared her down. So did his three partners.

"Yeah… that's right. One more move and your little buddy will get hurt. I don't care how hurt this beast gets as long as it is kept alive for my client. I know you're way more sensitive towards its health than I am. It'll take only a few shots to subdue it further." The lady laughed wickedly.

"Tch." Ash sucked his teeth and looked at Tyranitar with saddened eyes. He didn't want to show any act of aggression to provoke the leader, but also wanted to help. The woman grinned cruelly as she knew she had the young teen where she wanted him.

A/N: Once again, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Ashton doesn't like to mess around, does he? He makes the interesting contrast to Ash... I wonder how their dynamic will work?

I decided to release this chapter every other Sunday some point in the afternoon EST. My next semester is starting very soon, so I hope to complete another pre-written chapter before things get too heavy. See you in two weeks!

Next Chapter: Overcoming Your Worst

~SPG123~