Chapter 24
"Tera Blast,"
Ash had no idea what the attack was, but as soon as he felt the blast of fairy-type energy heading towards him, he instinctively swerved to the side. Ho-oh may be a fairy-type now, and he may have no idea how it happened, but nothing was going to stop him from winning this battle. He thought for a moment. Psychic attacks? No, Latios already proved those didn't work. Dragon? They did nothing to Fairy-types, thank Arceus for his training with Skye; using Dragon Claw would have been a big mistake. Then he remembered; that energy he had felt earlier, allowing him to use attacks he didn't know. Could he do that again? He gulped. Only one way to find out.
Ash charged at Ho-oh. He knew this was a risky move, but figured that, even if he wasn't able to use that mysterious energy, at least Tackle would do something.
"Toxic,"
Too late to dodge. Ash charged through the toxic gas like it was nothing and continued on toward Ho-oh. If he got poisoned… well that didn't matter right now. He was 10 meters from Ho-oh when a surge of energy flowed through him.
8 meters. What was this? The attack building up was one completely unfamiliar to him.
6 meters. No time to think about it, all that mattered was getting to Ho-oh.
4 meters. Almost there.
2 meters. Another second and…
His body surging with energy, Ash froze in horror, inches away from Ho-oh. Why now? Why the paralysis now?
Nigel gave an evil grin. "Finish this. Sheer Cold."
Ash braced himself for what he knew was a guaranteed knockout. So this was it. All his effort, all his Pokemon's effort. Just to lose it all. This was all his fault, if he had just been a bit stronger, a better trainer, he could have saved more of his Pokemon.
Ash prepared for the worst. He tried to move, but his paralysis wouldn't let him.
Nothing. Ash opened his eyes. To his amazement, he found a giant web of electricity floating in mid-air, struggling to keep back the ice-type move. Ash knew it wouldn't hold for long, but it was long enough. Ash's paralysis subsided and he flew out of the way. And not a moment too soon. Within milliseconds, the Electro Web broke, sending the Sheer Cold raining down right where Ash had been. But where had it come from? Ash knew the Electro Web was leftover from when Pikachu fought Dugtrio. But how had it gotten up here?
"Dragon Darts,"
To time to think. Ash gathered what remained of his earlier attack and launched it at Ho-oh, colliding with the Dragon Darts. To his amazement, his attack broke through, scoring a direct hit on the Rainbow Pokemon and… making it blink out of existence? That couldn't be right.
"Phantom Force."
Ash realized his mistake too late as he was rammed by Ho-oh, sending him crashing into a wall. The other had been a substitute. As his eyelids drooped from exhaustion and pain, however, he suddenly heard voices in his head.
"Come on Ash, you can win this!" Pikachu.
"Crush those evil dudes!" Skye.
"I trust you, Ash. You can win." Latios.
"We all believe in you!" Latias.
"Ash, don't give up now!" Misty.
"You can do it!" Brock.
"Keep going!" Professor Birch.
"The battle is yours, Ash!" Professor Oak.
"You got this twerp!" Meowth.
"We know you can do it!" James.
"Just fight a bit longer!" Jessie.
As Ho-oh prepared the finishing blow. One final blast of energy empowered Ash. This wasn't about winning or losing, it was about freeing the Dark Pokemon from Nigel's grasp. This wasn't just another battle against another opponent. This was good against evil. Light against the darkness. He understood why Arceus hadn't told him how to free the Dark Pokemon; he had to learn by himself. It was the only true way to defeat Nigel.
Ash shot a beam of blinding energy at Ho-oh. Instead of hitting the Pokemon, however, it wrapped itself around the Rainbow Pokemon, covering it in sheets of light. Ash's mind was screaming in pain, but he kept pushing the attack until it gave off a final blast of light, forcing Ash and Nigel to shield their eyes.
The attack faded, leaving Ho-oh on the ground. Just Ho-oh. No crystal heart, and, more importantly, no darkness.
That was it. He had done it! Ash would have flown around in excitement, but he was way too exhausted. As the orange Eon watched Nigel return Ho-oh, he noticed that what he returned to wasn't a dark ball anymore. Instead, a regular Pokeball was in its place.
"Looks like I win," Ash paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Now, free your Pokemon from those Dark Balls."
"You think I would let you win that easily?" asked Nigel, "Don't you realize you've been fighting for nothing? You've fallen right into my trap."
Before Ash could react, Nigel tossed a Dark Ball at him and everything went black.
"That… he just…" stuttered Meowth.
"Caught the twerp," finished James, "what do we do Jess?"
"We act now!" said Jessie, "Meowth, James, you know what to do!"
They saluted. "Right away!"
Nigel picked up the Dark Ball. 'At last,' he thought, 'finally, I can rule the world in peace.'
He stowed the ball in his pocket. 'Better take those Pokeballs,' He glanced over to the side of the battlefield. 'And that Pikachu too.'
Before he could, however, a large cloud of smoke filled the battlefield.
"Don't think you'll get away that easily!" a red-haired woman said.
"You can't do something like that and get away with it!" said a blue-haired man.
"Yeah, give back da twerp!" said… a talking Meowth?
Nigel sighed in exasperation. These must be the idiots from before. Right now, though, he didn't feel like dealing with them. "Look, there's no way you three weaklings are going to defeat me. I'll give you one chance, go now, and I'll let you leave without hurting you."
"Hear that Jess? He wants us to leave," said James.
"We'll show him a thing or two," replied Jessie.
"Yeah, let's tell him who we are!" said Meowth.
"Prepare for trouble,"
"And make it double!"
"To protect the world from people like you,"
"To unite all peoples, that's what we do!"
"To denounce the evils of taking the twerp,"
"To extend our reach and make you burp!"
"Burp?"
"Just finish the motto,"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket, fighting the void at the speed of light,"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth, that's right!"
"Woobefett!"
Nigel rolled his eyes and pulled out the ball containing Ash. "Luster Purge. Get rid of them."
The Team Rocket trio gasped as they saw Ash. He looked exactly like all the other Dark Pokemon, emotionless. Desperately, Mewoth pressed a button firing a volley of nets and bombs. Ash, however, simply stopped them in mid-air and flung them back at the trio, causing a huge explosion.
Team Rocket was blasted off their feet and launched out of the cave, creating a large hole leading up to the surface as they went. Nigel sighed. He could fix that later. He turned around and gestured for the orange Latios to follow him.
"We worked so hard setting up those things!" complained Jessie.
"And now Nigel has the twerp," said Meowth.
"Guess we won't be heroes after all," sighed James.
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
Pikachu was horrified. How dare that man do something like that to his trainer! He wanted to charge in there and give Nigel a taste of his Thunderbolt. But… he was still tired from the battle and he knew it would only get him captured as well.
Thanks to Team Rocket's distraction, he was able to get up, grab Ash's Pokeballs, and get out of the room before Nigel noticed. First things first, he needed to get, Latios, Latias, and Skye healed. He needed to be healed as well, come to think of it. The electric mouse was still covered with aces and bruises from the battle and he didn't know how much longer he could keep going. If he managed to get all of them healed, they could think of something to save Ash. If only he knew where to find some revives…
And done!
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
If you did, be sure to leave a review and consider joining my discord server, we have a growing community of fanfiction readers and writers alike!
discord . gg/eX4k3bV2au (Check my profile page for one if it doesn't work)
