Ron the True Fan: Johto. Pain. (Downs enough pills to drown a small child)
Takeshi Yamato: That cannot be healthy. (Has an army of electric-types on standby for defibrilation purposes)
Blackthorn City - 1249 hours - Day 734 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
Ash had to beg for more alcohol. Either that, or they picked it up the next day. Gaffery chose the alcohol.
"The gunfight." Gaffery said, his glass sitting on the table out of his immediate reach as Ash nursed his. "How'd it start?"
"I fucked up." Ash said.
"You did not-"
"I FUCKED UP!" Ash shouted. "I didn't think it through and started a fight that eventually…" Ash paused, his voice breaking. "All those people…"
Gaffery watched silently. "Given what happened, I'm going to forgive that outburst." he said after a moment. "You have every right to be upset, given your goal was to keep casualties to single digits."
Ash was silent.
"But I need to know what exactly happened, in your own words." Gaffery added. "Talk to me."
Ash took in a breath. "I followed Latias."
"You didn't pick up on them arriving in Altomere." Serena said to the pinkette spymistress formally known as Lovrina.
"Altomere is technically a Hoennic city. I don't have much, if any, jurisdiction to operate there." Lacus said before sighing. "Would've helped. So, what happened? I heard you were in the shootout."
Serena smiled proudly. Like a warrior queen, standing with her king. But not at first.
Altomere - Day 730 - 1320 hours local
Serena stormed after Ash. Sure, she knew it was illogical, but emotion vs logic. Who wins?
"-ut we were just giving her some fashion advise!" said a somewhat airbrained voice.
"I'm going to make this abundantly clear." Ash's voice came before she heard the racking of his handgun. "Leave Latias alone. NOW. Or I MAKE you."
'He's on a mission and nothing's stopping him!' cried Asuka, all the personalities uniting in the cause to help him, drawing the torque bow and loading in a normal bolt into it in one fluid motion.
"No explosives?" Lacus asked.
"Ash would've been at risk." Serena said with a faint smile. "Wasn't going to put him in danger. So I shot the gray haired one in the arm."
"They wanted to drag her into the boat." Ash said. "I protested."
Gaffery snorted with amusement. "With 45 caliber rounds." he said dryly.
"Still a form of protest."
Ash fired on the two, making both draw their own machine pistols and ordering their Pokemon to attack Ash.
Ash took cover as they fired, drawing the Pokeballs for Charizard and Sceptile, then opening them to deal with the Eeveelution and the arachnid.
The looks on their faces were priceless as they realized who they were screwing with. But they fired anyways, emptying their weapons before Annie took a massive crossbow bolt to the arm, going through flesh and bone with a sickening snapping sound, pinning the blonde to the boat and making her WAIL.
"THAT'S FOR SHOOTING AT ASH!" Serena declared, quickly reloading and ratcheting the bowstring back, Oakley roaring in rage as she tried to pull out another gun, only for two rounds from Ash's pistol to hit her in the gut.
Which is arguably the WORST place to get shot. Arms and legs, while painful, are survivable. The head, it's a crapshoot on if you die instantly or survive through insane odds.
But the chest? So many ways to get infections and things that are NOT meant to be in other areas of the body can end up killing you. Thus why bulletproof vests only covered the chest.
It was a slow death. The spies boated off, retreating from the area with all due haste. The brunette finally got out of the webbing she was trapped in before Ash holstered the gun and turned to her with a nod of respect.
"Hello, Latias." he said, smiling gently at her. "We should talk."
"Everything went downhill from there." Ash said bluntly as Gaffery looked at the reports.
"According to the autopsy reports, Annie lost her arm to Serena's crossbow and both of them were septic and didn't have long to live anyways thanks to the gunshot wounds." the doctor recited.
"Part of the point was either getting them to leave or making sure they weren't a threat, EVER." Ash retorted with some heat. He then sighed. "Bit me in the ass."
"I wouldn't say that." Gaffery said reassuringly.
Ash snorted.
"You brought the nuclear option to make sure they were safe." the psychiatrist continued. "You even went so far as to talk to them."
Latios was not stupid enough to think he could fight the Chosen of Arceus. One timeline ago, sure.
Now? He saw an experienced warrior who was not afraid to hand him his levitating ass if need be.
Fortunately, Ash was more interested in making sure the Soul Dew was safe and secure.
"Those two aren't getting to that if I can help it." he said bluntly, Pikachu's ears flicking to the direction of the roof before starter and trainer reacted, one electrocuting the robot, one blasting it with a gun.
A mechanical twitch was ended by a crossbow bolt, revealing Serena had followed him, not looking happy. With Latias.
"Drop the disguise." she demanded of the legendary, who turned from a copy of Bianca to her true self. She was naturally a TAD bit mad due to Latias' little smooch in the old timeline.
"Why did you attack those two, outside of protecting Latias?" Bianca asked, tolerating Ash and Serena's presence for one reason: they meant no harm and forcing them out was pointless as Ash clearly knew where he was going to get there.
"They want that." Ash said, pointing at the Soul Dew in the pond. "Don't know why. Don't care why. They're not getting it."
The laptop played the video, Whitney wincing at the sight of Oakley amputating her sister's arm.
"WHY?!" screamed the blonde before the pinkette puked into a bag.
"Serena screwed her up good." Lance said bluntly. "EXTRA barbs to make sure the bone was unsalvageable."
"No wonder those idiots died." Ryo said as he watched the VERY crude surgeries. "Even field hospitals are better than that." He then cringed at the sound of a torch being lit out of frame. "Oh, that's a death sentence."
"They DROWNED." Sabrina said bluntly. "Ash kinda made sure of that. REALLY made sure."
"Kinda disturbing?" Ryo asked, less horrified and more curious.
He was a little kill-happy, after all.
"Eventually, Bianca's grandpa made them leave." Misty said, reporting to Janine. "Idiots. If Ash stayed, those two wouldn't've gotten their hands on the Soul Dew."
"Serena took off one of their arms and the bullets from Ash's gun were covered in dirty water and sand." the kunoichi replied. "Septicemia is no joke. Even Ash, with his limited knowledge on medicine, is aware of the dangers of blood poisoning."
The swimmer snorted. "It didn't stop them." she said sadly. "But Ash knew that. That's why he brought Mewtwo."
"Was that a good idea?" Gaffery asked. "He looked into your mind and saw what haunts you every night."
"Mewtwo insisted." Ash said. "He said he was ready to make up for what happened. And after everything I've been through, I learned the need for contingency plans."
Ash wasn't an idiot. Rushing in like the old days would get Latios killed again. So he had plans to avoid the self-sacrifice.
He pulled a Skyla and assumed he would win. To be fair to him, he had reasons to think he would: experience with the enemy, a larger team, even the help of the most powerful Pokemon on this plane of existence. (the Creation Trio didn't count. Even Mewtwo would have ISSUES with time bullshit, gravitational manipulation and GIRATINA)
But one man from northern Kalos said it best.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Ron the True Fan: No. It does not.
Takeshi Yamato: True enough. But yeah, Ash went maximum firepower on them… but if he'd made sure they were dead, that probably would have ended it there. Instead, he assumed they were out of the picture.
Ron the True Fan: Well, people die from wounds like that all the time without proper treatment. And who was going to give THEM treatment other than each other? They were dead women walking. Ash planned for EVERYTHING. But as Claustwitz said, plans do not survive contact with the enemy.
Takeshi Yamato: Fair enough. And so… Things Get Worse. Much worse.
Ron the True Fan: Guess how.
Ja Ne!