Here's the second half of Ash's fights. Now, he's turned on May. Now, you may be reading this on Sunday, and I'm sorry about that. This is probably because I'm almost finished Persona 3, and will probably be taking several breaks from this to play that. But I'll try to get it out on Saturday, so here's hoping I do. But enough about my terrible time management skills, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 49:
Aura Surge Part 2: Ash Vs May
May begins to panic. Ash is staring at her without a hint of recognition in his eyes. He roars at her, then charges. May ducks, then runs away from the rock she was hiding behind, only to cower behind another one. Ash destroys that rock, then begins searching for her. May decides that she should stay hidden until he calms down again. But at that moment, the sound of a rock being kicked draws Ash's attention. He hurls an Aura Sphere in that direction, but there's nothing there. Ash continues to search around for someone. May thinks about sneaking away, when her phone rings. Fortunately for her she put it on silent before coming here, in order to aid in their sneaking. Silently thanking Arceus for her foresight, she answers it and hears Brendan whispering to her.
"May," he says, "I'm sorry, but I need you to distract him for me." "What!?" May almost shouts, before remembering she's supposed to be hiding. "I need you to keep him busy," Brendan explains. "I need to shut down the machine, but I can't do that if he's going berserk like that. Please May, just distract him long enough for me to shut this off! Otherwise a lot of Hoenn will be destroyed by this eruption!" May sighs, then looks around. By this time, rocks have begun to blow off of the mountain, crashing down onto the rest of Hoenn. It won't be long before the lava starts to flow, then it will be unstoppable. She looks back at Ash, who's still looking for someone to throttle. "Alright," she says. "I'll do it." "Thanks, I owe you," he replies. "Please be careful," May promises she will, then hangs up the phone. Then, she pulls out her Blaziken Mask and puts it on. She crops her t-shirt, then releases Blaziken and Mega Evolves him. "It's time buddy," she says. "This, time, we're going to make it work!" Blaziken roars with approval, which alerts Ash to their presence. He roars back and charges at them.
Both May and Blaziken scatter, then regroup behind Ash. "Don't hit him Blaziken," May tells him. "Leave that to me! Just copy my moves!" Blaziken nods, then the two of them throw a punch at the same time. May's fist collides with Ash's back, but it doesn't ignite. All it does is knock him back a bit, and piss him off. Ash wheels around, then punches her in the gut. This sends her flying backwards, but Blaziken catches her before she can hit a rock. "Thanks, Blaziken," she says. "But why can't we do this!?" She runs in again with Blaziken by her side, and tries to throw another punch, but still her fist won't ignite. All that happens is Ash catches it, then throws her over his shoulder. She crashes back down to the ground, then has to roll out of the way to avoid being hit with the energy pole that Ash summoned. He goes for another swing, but May dodges that as well.
"Come on you stupid Blaziken Mask powers!" she complains. "Work for me! I'm in a life and death situation here!" She tries one more time, but still nothing happens. Ash ducks under her fist, before spinning around and kicking her in the gut, causing her to crash into a rock. Blaziken kicks up some dust, then grabs May and pulls her behind another rock. Ash goes back to searching, this time throwing Aura Spheres around to try and find her. "What do we do?" she asks Blaziken. "We don't stand a chance against him if we can't get these stupid powers to work! How did we do it before!?" At this, Blaziken takes her hand, closes her fist, then bumps his with hers. His meaning is clear, "Together." May is about to argue how that doesn't make sense, when she stops and thinks about it. Both times that she'd activated her abilities was when a friend was in danger. Both times, she and Blaziken shared a common goal. Their desires and wishes became the same, and as a result, they managed to get in sync. "I get it," she says. "Blaziken, we both want to save Ash right?" she asks. Blaziken nods. "Then, instead of focusing on copying our moves, let's focus on that!" Blaziken nods again, then the two turn to face Ash.
I recommend you play Awake and Alive by Skillet during this fight.
May steps out from behind the rock and calls Ash's name. Ash turns to face her, then roars. He summons Aura Spheres into his hands and begins throwing them at her. She and Blaziken dodge around them, trying to get closer to him. Before she can reach him, he leaps back, summons the staff again, and charges in. May has to dodge around this too, unable to land a good hit. Eventually, she decides to try jumping out of the way. She locks eyes with Blaziken, then both of them jump. Instantly, May's legs are covered in fire as she flies over Ash's head. She spins around in the air and lands on her feet, cracking the ground as she does. Ash is momentarily stunned by this, giving her the opportunity to rush forth. She and Blaziken both punch at the same time, and this time, May's fist ignites. She strikes Ash across the face, sending him flying back a few metres. "I did it!" she shouts happily. "I DID IT! YEAH BABY!" But she doesn't have too long to celebrate, as Ash gets to his feet, roars, and runs in again.
He tries punching her, but May is quick to block the attacks, keeping in sync with Blaziken. Despite this, Ash still manages to get a few hits in, but May is able to throw some back. After a bit more time, Ash gets fed up and backs off, before hurling a big Aura Sphere at her. May tries blocking it, but it sends her flying backwards. She lies on the ground, dazed, and at the last second sees Ash flying towards her with his fist raised. She rolls out of the way, allowing Ash's fist to make contact with the ground. Then, she shoots her leg out, igniting it and knocking Ash over. She tries to punch him, but he summons the staff again and knocks her in the face. The world spins for a few seconds before she recovers and just about blocks the next attack. Still, the taste of blood fills her mouth, and she's fairly certain he may have knocked a tooth loose.
May pushes against the staff, then switches tactics and kicks Ash in the gut, causing him to fall backwards. "If only my fire powers had the same knockback as Ash's," she complains to herself. By this time, Brendan has finally made it to the machine. As Ash gets back up and starts trading punches with May, she can see Brendan fiddling around with the controls. After almost a minute of this, he swears loudly. "May!" he calls. "They've removed the off switch! I can't shut it down!" Ash turns to Brendan, then stops his fight with May and charges over to him. may leaps after him and intercepts. "Well figure something out!" she shouts. "I'm kind of busy here!" Brendan nods, then begins messing with the controls, hoping to do something to shut the machine down. By this time, lava has started pouring from the mountain, and has started flowing around the base they're standing on, trapping them on it.
Ash and May continue their back and forward for a bit, before Ash kicks May away and throws her across the base again. This time however, May is able to catch herself by kicking out a jet of fire, righting herself and landing on her feet. By this time, she's beginning to tire out, so she needs to end this quickly. She and Blaziken rush forwards again, and she and Ash clash, grabbing onto each other's arms. Then, May leaps into the air, using her Blaziken Mask powers to get some air. Ash struggles against her grip, but she's holding him too firmly. "I have a younger brother who likes to wander off Ash," she tells him. "I've long since learned how to keep a firm grip on something." Then, she lets go of him and kicks him down into the ground. She begins to fall back down to the ground, using slight kicks to slow her rate of descent. "Glad that's over," she thinks to herself.
But at that moment, more Aura Spheres come flying out of the dust cloud where Ash landed, and some of them manage to hit May. She speeds up her fall and lands on shaky feet. Before she can properly get her bearings, Ash comes charging out of the cloud, staff in one hand, Aura Sphere in the other. Before May can do anything to defend herself, she's hit in the chest by the Sphere, before being smacked across the arena by the staff. She bounces a few times before coming to a stop, spitting out a tooth in the process. "Ok," she says to herself, "he definitely knocked a tooth out." Blaziken suddenly calls out behind her, and she instinctively dodged. Where she was only 2 seconds before, Ash's fist has shattered it. May backs away, trying to think of someway to beat him. Then, as she looks at him, she realises something. He's growing tired too. Now with renewed hope, she comes up with a plan.
She leads Ash away from the rocks and to the centre of the arena. Then, she calls Blaziken over to her. Ash, not knowing what she's planning, starts throwing more Aura Spheres at her. She dodges around them as she and Blaziken get ready. Once they are, they start to run in a circle around Ash. He starts growling in frustration, and throwing more spheres. But by this time, their run is so in sync that their arms and legs ignite. Soon, they're little mora than a ring of fire around Ash. May manages to dodge or punch away the spheres as she charges up this final attack. Then, with a last great effort, she breaks the ring. She charges at Ash with near blinding speed, before leaping into the air. She spins around and launches a kick at the back of Ash's neck. Ash gets struck by the kick and falls to his knees. Then, his eyes fall shut and he hits the ground unconscious.
Stop music here.
May slumps a bit at this, relieved that the fight is over. But she's reminded of the other imminent danger by the rumbling of the ground at her feet. She begins to run over to Brendan, but before she can, the ground stops shaking. "GOT IT!" Brendan yells. "I FUCKING GOT IT!" He slumps in the seat of the cockpit. "The Tremors are no more." He sighs happily at this, before summoning his Swampert and Mega Evolving it. "I need you to put a stop to the lava before it hits any cities," he tells it. It nods, them begins spraying a lot of water on the lava. May releases her Blastoise and has him do the same, before fishing through Ash's pokéballs. She pulls out Glalie's ball, then has Pikachu explain to him what needs to be done. While those three pokémon get to work trying to stem the flow of the lava, Brendan and May turn their attention to Admin Brodie, who's still lying unconscious from his fight with Ash.
As they walk over to him, Brendan stares at May. "What?" she asks. "I'm sorry," he says, incredulously, "but what the fuck was that!?" "What?" May asks. Brendan looks like he just watched May swallow a bit of the lava and all it tasty. "Firstly," he says, "what the Mirror World happened to Ash?! He just went berserk and got covered in blue energy! Secondly, why are you suddenly able to go on fire!?" May removes her mask and fixes her shirt, then explains everything. Well, everything that she knows at least, about Blaziken Masks and Aura Guardians. By the time she's finished, the two have arrived at Brodie's unconscious form and have hoisted him onto their shoulders. That's when they notice something about him. His form seems to shift slightly. As they watch, his face melts away, revealing the face of Sub-Admin R.
"What!?" Brendan exclaims. "What happened!?" May swears at this. "Brodie uses illusions," she realises. "He must've put an illusion on R's body to make him look like him, so he can escape." Brendan lets go of R and runs to the edge of the base, which is still floating slightly above the mountain, and screams with rage. When he's calmed down, he turns back to May. "Ok," he says. "We'll take him to Larousse for questioning, then go back to your family and let them know that we're alright." May shakes her head at this. "You do that," she says. "Ash and I will stay here." Brendan looks utterly bewildered at this. "What? Why?" he asks. "Because what if we bring Ash with us to Larousse, or Petalburg, and he wakes up still in that crazed state?" she asks. "What do you think will happen?" Brendan pales at the thought of that. "But how will you get down?" Brendan asks. "My brother's Gallade," she replies. "He'll teleport us back to Petalburg as soon as we're sure Ash is back to normal." Brendan nods, then picks up Sub-Admin R. Then, he pulls out his Flygon. "See you in a bit then?" he asks, as he throws R onto Flygon's back. May nods, then watches as Brendan flies off. When he's gone, she collapses to the ground, exhausted. Then, she gabs a nearby branch and sits next to Ash, holding it at the ready for when he wakes up.
When Ash stirs, he finds that his memory of recent events is hazy. As he tries to think about what happened to him, he sits up. When he does, he feels a sharp pain on his back. "Stay where you are!" May voice shouts to him. "Don't move!" Ash turns his head to look at her. She looks awful. Dirty and ragged, and very tired. "May?" he asks, what's going-" May smacks a stick in front of his face, and Pikachu seems ready to zap him. Ash immediately leaps to his feet and backwards a few metres. "What the Mirror World are you doing?!" he exclaims. "Checking something," May replies. "Making sure you aren't going to go berserk on us again." Ash feels like a weight has just been dropped inside inside chest. "Wait, again?" he asks. "What do you mean again?!" May lowers the stick. "You don't remember?" she asks. Ash shakes his head.
So, May describes what happened to them. When she's finished, Ash sits down again, his head in his hands. "What was that?" May asks. "Why did you go blue like that?" Ash sighs. "It's called an Aura Surge," he explains. "It's what happens when an Aura Guardian loses control of their power. We become like wild animals, and can't tell friend from foe. We attack anyone we seem without hesitation until we're stopped." At this, he kicks a few rocks away. "This is why I don't want to use my power!" he exclaims. "It only makes things worse!" "Actually," comes a voice from behind them. "You not using your power was what caused this to happen in the first place." Both Ash and May wheel around, and see the Ghost of Sir Aaron approaching them. Ash immediately glares at him. "What are you doing here!?" he demands. "I'm here to help you," he says. "Your pendant summoned me." At this, Ash pulls out the pendant from under his shirt. Then he glares at it, before fixing his glare on Aaron.
"And why didn't you come to me before this!?" he demands. "You could've stopped all of this from happening!" Tears begin to well in his eyes at this. "Would you have listened to me if I did?" Aaron asks. Ash doesn't say anything to this. "I can only speak to you once before my essence leaves that crystal. If I spoke to you sooner, would you have heeded my warnings, or would you have snapped at me, and brushed me off, like you did with all of your friends!?" At this, Ash's gut twists with guilt. Aaron notices this and smiles slightly. "See?" he says. "If I had come to you sooner, you would've brushed me off, and this would've happened anyway. But now, I am here to ensure it doesn't happen again." Ash looks at him with a bit of hope. "Are you able to take my powers from me?" he asks. Aaron shakes his head at this. "I cannot," he says. "But what I can do, is tell you that this is what happens when you shut your power down. Aura must be released, it must be used. If not, it bursts out the way it did earlier. If it keeps bursting out like that, it will eventually kill you."
Both Ash and May's eyes widen. "How?" Ash asks. "The same way that it would if you overused your power," Aaron explains. "The Aura will consume you, and you will fade away, just like I did in the Tree of Life. But surely you also noticed the damage it was doing to your psyche?" Ash nods. I've been a terrible person lately," he admits, his voice quivering. "I started pushing my friends away unwittingly. Arceus, Serena must hate me now." "No she doesn't!" May argues. "She loves you dearly! But you were scaring her, so now's your chance to make up for it by apologising to her and using your Aura again!" "Your friend makes an excellent point," Aaron says. "If you wish to fix your friendships, you must use your Aura again." "But what if I kill someone again?" Ash asks. Aaron shakes his head. "That will be unavoidable," he says. "But if you don't use it, and continue to suppress it the way you have been, you will trigger more Surges, and you will kill others. Including your friends."
Ash becomes filled with horror at this. "I can't let that happen," he says. "Then you must start using your Aura," Aaron replies. "Let go of what you did in Kalos. That is in the past. What matters now is how you use your powers in the future. Use them for good. Your friends have all forgiven you for that crime. It is time for you to do the same." Ash nods, finally coming to terms with what he's done. "Thank you Master Aaron," he says, bowing as he does. Aaron bows back, then fades away. As he does, he calls out one last thing. "Remember Ash, it is not your powers or knowledge that make you a good or bad person, but what you do with it." Then, he vanishes. Ash watches him go, then sits back down on the ground. Pikachu approaches him cautiously. "How do you feel?" he asks. Ash smiles at him. "Better than I have for the past 6 months," he replies. Then, he bursts into tears and hugs his partner tightly. "I'm sorry Pikachu," he wails. "I'm sorry about everything!" As Ash cries his eyes out and lets go of the pain he's felt over the past six months, may watches this happen, glad to see the old Ash Ketchum return.
And that brings us to the end of Part one of Hoenn! Now, I will be taking a week off because I have allowed my college work to pile up and if I don't get started on that I may fail this term. Plus, I've been working on this thing for the better part of 4 months, so I need a small break. But, in 2 weeks time, I'll be back with the second half of this Volume. I hope you liked those two fights, because there will be more of those to come throughout the series. Any feedback on the two of them will be greatly appreciated. See you in two weeks for the next part of this story!