Ron the True Fan: Pain….SO MUCH PAIN…

Blackthorn City - 1549 hours - Day 734 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey

"You planned for everything." Gaffery started. "You planned for them. You planned for Latios. You even planned for the worst case scenario."

"I overthought it." Ash said bluntly. "Instead of making a broad strokes plan and going with my gut, I overplanned."

"But Latias asked for help." Gaffery added. "…in a roundabout way."

Ash snorted despite himself. "Yeah, showing up in her Bianca disguise didn't help." he said.

Day 730 - 2230 hours local time- Altomere

Becca looked at the cloaked legendary with confusion. "This can't be a Pokemon." she said.

"She is." said ALL the veterans, Ash busying himself by slamming his head against a wall, right before grabbing the bag filled with Pokeballs.

"That's it. That is IT." he said, sounding more then a LITTLE insane. "No more mercy, no more second chances, no more letting stupid greedy people ruin peoples' lives. Those two die and they DIE NOW."

Everyone looked at Ash with some concern, but it was Mei who spoke up.

"These heretics dare to steal something granted to the legendaries of this city by Arceus' will." she said, eager for one thing and one thing only: putting idiots to the flame for insulting the Creator. "The only option for their redemption is to be cleansed by the Distortion Realm."

Then bars came over one of the windows.

"The Defense System." Ash growled, going through the window on the balcony, followed by Latias, Mei and Serena shortly before it was closed off.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Kyoji exclaimed.

"Kyoji's Natu was KINDA mad." Misty said, remembering the ANGRY parrot glaring at the walls of the building they were in. "The entire city was made of teleport dampening stone."

"Then how did you get out of there?" Janine asked.

Misty chuckled. "Brute force." she said.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Kyoji cried before Becca unleashed STEELIX of all Pokemon, the large size of the steel-coated rock snake causing issues as everyone ducked for cover.

It got worse.

"Shellshocker, give Steelix a hand!" Neesha exclaimed.

"SERIOUSLY?!" Red demanded as the Blastoise, which barely fit in the room to begin with, opened fire and knocked the walls down.

And drenched all of them.

"After Ash! The DMA will revive those fossil Pokemon and we need to cover him!" Misty said before they saw a Kabotops running after Ash. And nearly taking his head off.

She saw red. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AGAIN!" she roared, releasing Gyarados and getting on.

"I… Lost my temper…" Serena said sheepishly, Lacus looking her in the face.

"From the reports from the go-team, your Delphox BLAST BURNED everything in sight." the pinkette said. "We thought it was his Charizard at first!"

Serena waved that off. "He was busy beating the crap out of that Aerodactyl." she said somewhat flippantly, pride in her starter lacing her statement.

No wonder intel classified her as the most dangerous of Ash's lovers.

Pillars melted, stone turned to cinder and water slowly boiled away.

Delphox fed off of Serena's anger to fuel her own psionic powers, burning every part of the Atlomere Defense Mechanism.

Eventually, the water column was too unstable, dropping Ash, Pikachu and Latias to the ground, coughing.

The Pallet trainer got to his feet. "No more Mr Nice Guy." he snarled, retrieving a specially marked Pokeball.

Ash promised he would never do this. But he volunteered.

"Alright, Mewtwo." he said, releasing the Genetic Pokemon. "Bring down the house."

"You DROPPED A BUILDING on them?" Gaffery asked.

"Bianca and her grandpa were fine." Ash said somewhat dismissively. "Them and Latios were the only ones whose safety I cared about."

Gaffery decided to stress the point. "Ash…you DROPPED A BUILDING on them." he said. "That is gross overkill."

Ash leveled a look at him. "The Defense System tipped the odds in their favor. I leveled the playing field by getting rid of it." he said. "I prefer fair play."

Bianca and Lorenzo gaped at Ash as he walked over the ruins of the museum, the roof having BARELY missed their heads.

"They had control of the DMA." Ash said bluntly. "As long as they had that, they had the edge."

"BASTARD!" yelled Oakley, trapped inside the control pod, which was ajar and…her arm was clamped by the door. And was hanging from an awkward angle-OOOH, yeah, it was broken. "YOU MURDERED MY SISTER!"

Ash's eyes found a foot under a large piece of debris. He imagined for a second that the boot moved, but he couldn't be sure.

Regardless, he felt no guilt. Why?

"I didn't kill her. YOU killed her." Ash snapped. "You could've left. You could've lived and let lived, forgotten about the Soul Dew and gone somewhere else. Instead, you stayed. You escalated! YOUR SISTER WOULD BE ALIVE IF YOU JUST FUCKING LEFT! THIS!" he gestured at the supposed corpse of Annie. "THIS IS YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"

Oakley roared in the pod, unable to get to her gun and shoot him due to… well, her gun arm being literally crushed. Ash felt no pity.

After all, they could've left the moment he told them to leave Latias alone. What did they even WANT with the Soul Dew?

On that subject… Ash rushed over to the pond, Latias checking on her brother before Ash saw the Dew in the container, turning black.

"I have to get the Dew back to the pond!" he said, subconsciously pouring his Aura into it to stabilize it, remembering what happened LAST time someone tried to remove the damn thing from the DMA.

It seemed to work as he removed it from the pool, but then again the machine was… kinda fucked.

In a panic, he rushed from the museum to the secret way leading to the grove, Ash frantically finding the pool and gently placing it back in.

He did it. He won. He WON! He saved Latios! He began laughing maniacally in triumph, having FINALLY undone his greatest failure!

'Ash, there is a tidal wave approaching the city.' Mewtwo 'pathed at him. 'I… I am not at full strength. I do not think I can stop the wave, only delay it.'

Glee left his features and was replaced with dread. "No." he said before repeating it in rapid succession. "No no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO! This isn't happening! I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!" he kneeled before the pool containing the Soul Dew. "CALM THE WATERS! WHAT, DO YOU WANT A PRICE FOR IT?! TAKE ME!" Tears began to blur his vision as he began to beg.

"SPARE THE LATIS! MY LIFE FOR THEIRS! IT SHOULD BE A PERFECT BALANCE! TAKE ME, DAMN YOU! TAKE ME!"

He heard yelling back in the ruins, Latias pleading with her brother. Ash ran, insane with guilt as Latios weakly hovered.

No. Nononononononononononono. This wasn't happening. THIS WAS NOT HAPPENING. On instinct alone, his hand reached for an Ultra Ball.

And he threw it. Latios didn't have the strength to resist, locking and teleporting out instantly.

Latias blinked, then tried to take her brother's place. Without thinking, another Ultra Ball flew and smacked her in the left wing, turning her into energy and sucking her into the ball.

It shook four times. Then it clicked shut and teleported out.

The two locals turned to yell at him… only to see the look of horror on his face, his pupils almost invisible they were so small.

"What have I done?" he asked, so quiet that it was barely heard.

"You made the right call." Gaffery said after a moment.

"I KILLED A CITY!" Ash snapped, guilt and alcohol loosening his inhibitions making him unable to restrain himself. "NEARLY A MILLION PEOPLE LIVED IN ALTOMERE AND I KILLED THEM ALL!"

Gaffery was like a rock in a storm. "They're still recovering survivors." he said simply. "They were prepared for tsunamis and they knew all too well that their city could be destroyed at any time. You. Did. Nothing. Wrong."

He amended that after a moment. "ALMOST nothing."

"We need to warn everyone about the wave!" Lorenzo said, seeing the MASSIVE wave of water in the distance. "We can take shelter!"

"I'll go." Ash said shakily. "I caused this."

"You caused NOTHING." Lorenzo snapped back. "Those two Rocket whores caused this. You did everything to stop them. I will warn them."

"I'm faster and Bianca needs her grandfather!" Ash shouted, walking up to the old man. Who then punched him in the gut so hard he started blacking out.

"No one knows you and I'm not letting you kill yourself out of misplaced guilt." the gondola maker said bluntly before Serena rushed over, the others in the group looking for other survivors.

Though Misty was more focused on wanting to cut Oakley's arm off. Revenge WAS a bitch.

"There's a high-pressure tank in the back with room for everyone!" Bianca yelled, pointing at a door labelled 'EMERGENCY ROOM'. "Come on!"

"If I did nothing wrong-" Ash started.

"Boy." Gaffery cut off, none too gently. "There is no getting around this. You tried to kill yourself."

The water receded enough for them to get out, though they wouldn't've been able to get out before that point anyways due to the sheer weight of water on the pressure tank.

Everyone was horrified by the level of destruction wrought on Altomere. No building was left untouched.

"I did this." Ash said chokingly. "I did this." His hand reached for his handgun. It cleared the holster before hands gripped his arm.

"NO!" Bianca yelled, making the gun clatter to the ground, getting the attention of the others.

Ash stared at the ruins, his mind unable to take the weight.

His scream echoed in the early dawn light.

Pallet Town - Day 793 - 1824 hours local

Tents as far as the eye could see. Pallet Town had opened itself to the refugees (Delia said it was the least they could do) and thousands were settling in as the fledgling reunified government did what it could to deal with the new crisis.

And Bell was watching as Ash's Pokemon helped. Kept them away from HER.

"Lots of new faces." Bell turned around to find… Asuka. With Yellow on her shoulders.

"What the-" Bell started before Asuka giggled.

"I figured I'd give my sister-in-law to be a piggyback ride." said the busty Ranseian kunoichi. "Faster to get here, too."

"Helps that I serve as a counterbalance to those giant jugs hanging from your chest." Yellow said dryly, making both of them look up at her in shock. "What? They're huge."

Bell snorted and gestured at herself. "You're looking at your future, sis." she said bluntly, as Bell, while not as well-endowed as Asuka, was still rather buxom.

Yellow's amusement turned to a level of horror as she imagined her adult self for a second.

"Turnabout's fair play." Bell said before a familiar fin sharked up to her, but instead of going for a chomp, he had a pokeball in his maw, which he spat at Bell, who caught it with practiced ease.

She WAS a Pokemon Trainer, after all.

"Mewtwo's in the ball, is he?" she asked the land shark, who nodded before sharking off to give someone else a chomp. "Pulled out all the stops."

"How are my little brothers?" Asuka asked, given her soon-to-be married status.

"Red's fine." Bell said, pausing for a bit before adding. "…Ash tried to shoot himself."

Asuka facepalmed. "Goddamn it." she muttered.

"There is only one solution to this." Yellow started sagely. "He needs more girlfriends."

Bell and Asuka both looked at the youngest Ketchum sibling, their faces basically screaming 'WHAT THE FUCK?!'.

Blackthorn City - 1527 hours local

"He needs more sleep and to be AGGRESSIVELY weaned off the caffeine." Gaffery said. "But this appears to be a one-off incident induced by higher then usual amounts of stress-"

"USUAL?" Kyoji asked incredulously.

"Intense feelings of guilt and sleep deprivation." the psychologist finished. "I take it he still gets up earlier then all of you?"

"Two or three in the freaking morning unless someone else is up earlier." Kyoji said.

"Get him decaf." the old Elite said bluntly. "A few tweaks will make it taste like the normal stuff."

Ron the True Fan: And there we go. Altomere is done.

Takeshi Yamato: AotP turned this into a victory. Ash's greatest failure, turned into a triumph.

We have no idea how PRB will handle it. Haven't gotten there yet.

Ron… Ron does not DO easy turnarounds. He is as much a sadist as he is a masochist. …And given how much trauma he puts AVATARS OF HIMSELF through, he is quite the masochist.

Ron the True Fan: To be fair, Ash thought if the two spy ladies were neutralized in any way (crippled or driven off) they'd give up. Sadly, greed is a powerful and very stupefying thing. Ash isn't greedy. He doesn't fully understand greed and how it makes you very, very stupid.

Takeshi Yamato: Fair enough. But yeah, that's Altomere done. Next is Blackthorn, then Larvitar, then the League. Ron's going to knock those goalposts down as fast as possible, then it's off to Hoenn.

Ron the True Fan: HOENN. BLESSED FUCKING HOENN!

Ja Ne!