Hey everyone. Time for a new chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Also on a slightly unrelated note I've started to write a Percy Jackson fic. I'm not sure when I'll start releasing it because I'd like to get some of the chapters written.
Also has anyone heard of EPIC The Musical, it's by Jorge Rivera-Herrans and some others and pretty much all of this chapter was written whilst I was listening to some of the songs. I love the Hermes songs, can't stop singing along to them.
Her eyes were locked onto the Aura Guardian, staring at him as he sat quietly in the restaurant. He didn't seem to notice a thing around. He'd only walked in asked for a table and ordered, politely thanking the waiter who had brought his food.
The Pikachu that sat with him reflected his sadness, although a plate of Pokémon food sat in front of him, it busied itself with the bottle of ketchup that sat on the table, occasionally opening it, squirting a small amount onto his hand and eating it, frowning slightly and shutting it before repeating this over and over again.
He picked at his food slowly, finishing after half an hour, his Pikachu had noticed that he was almost done and dove into its own food, the duo finishing at the same time.
He stood and paid for his food, his Pikachu jumping from shoulder to shoulder before deciding to just walk beside Red.
She quickly followed Red's example, getting up, Sylveon and Delphox getting up with her and the rest of her Pokémon returning to their Pokéballs. She had paid beforehand so thanked the staff as she left for their service.
"Pika Pi", a quiet voice said from beside him.
He gave his starter a quick glance, its face full of concern for it's trainer. 'No.', he thought, 'Trainer didn't feel right. His friend. That was much better.'
He offered his hand down to Pikachu, who gingerly walked up his arm to his shoulder, settling into its familiar position.
"Don't worry buddy. I'll be alright. How about we get out of the city, feed the others. We'll visit there later"
"Pi-ka-chu", the Pokémon said in agreement.
She was confused. Why would they go into a store, much less buy that much food?
She tailed them for a while, through Lumiose City's busy streets.
She'd lost them momentarily, having to backtrack for around 5 minutes before seeing them leave a store that sold flavouring for Pokémon food.
Then they'd took one of the paths off from the North Boulevard onto Route 16. She shared a confused look with Delphox, who'd picked up on her indecision.
'Do not worry Serena, there will be some reason for his strange actions'
'I hope so. No one just buys that much without some reason.'
He could feel his mood improving,though not by much as he walked further from the city, deeper into the woods of Route 15, the area becoming more and more wild as they went where less and less people did.
Pikachu grew more and more restless alongside him, the mouse Pokémon, now jumping occasionally into the trees before landing back onto his shoulder.
He approached a small clearing, the same one he'd used a couple of times to do the same thing. He reached into his cloak, pulling out all of his Pokéballs and releasing his Pokémon in waves, giving them time to get out of the way before releasing more.
It took him a few minutes to release them all, but smiled at their excitement as they ran around, all glad to be able to see the sun after being confined for so long.
Serperior and Charizard stayed at his side, waiting as he pulled out a small cooking set, with some pots and pans and begin to cook the Pokémon food, Charizard lighting the fire and Serperior releasing Sweet Scents into the food, to make it taste better.
He could see Snorlax laying down next to a tree, with Leavanny and Torterra rushing to hold up and secure the tree when it groaned under his weight. Snorlax closed one eye, ignoring the panicking grass types and keeping his other eye locked onto him, as if waiting for his food to be ready.
He made a start on the normal type Pokémon food, as Snorlax progressively became more and more hangry, as a small sign of his incoming attack.
Some of his other Pokémon had fallen into a pattern of battles, occasionally colliding and forming a double battle, before one of the Pokémon drew it's opponent away.
In the chaos, only one Pokémon sensed the hiding Psychic and her Pokémon, frowning as he detected the familiar presences.
He wordlessly approached it, sending a quick mental message to Ash that he was going to go into the forest, who sent one back telling him to be safe.
He snuck around the side of the unknown beings, seeing them as the Psychic girl and her Pokémon, 'Y'.
He quietly walked up to them, pulling out a Night Slash that he levelled across the shoulder of the Delphox and heard the sharp inhale of the girl as he faced a second one to her.
"Go forward, now,", he commanded, gesturing to where Ash had stopped cooking, looking around with a small amount of concern.
Although she couldn't understand him the girl understood his message and reassured her Delphox, beginning to walk into the clearing, which caused the Pokémon to reluctantly follow.
They'd only managed to make it a few steps before the two shared a small nod.
He sensed something else behind him, but got hit by a sharp attack in the back, causing him to cry out in pain.
He rolled sideways as he felt another attack fly past his head, barely missing.
Based on the attacks strength and appearance he suspected it was a Fairy Wind from a fairy type and swirled around and used Gunk shot at what he now sensed.
He heard the attack hit and in the moment of pain his opponent felt he sent out an urgent scream to Ash, who's head shot back up.
He heard Ash shout out and saw the shadow of a Pokémon above him as Lycanroc intercepted another incoming Fairy Wind.
Lycanroc roared at the Fairy, which he saw was a Sylveon and shot towards it, an Iron Head prepared.
He turned back to the girl who had called out a Mawile and Absol and was gripping two other Pokéballs and prepared two more Night Slashes.
The Mawile and Absol formed a protective wall between him and the girl and he frowned.
He then saw Talonflame rushing to his aid a Flame Charge ready. He ran straight at the girl, catching both the Pokémon off guard.
As he reached them Talonflame collided with Mawile who cried out, allowing him to slash at a distracted Absol and knock it out of the way.
He stopped infront of the Delphox, Night Slashes prepared and was met by a Dazzling Gleam, which was much weaker than the Fairy Wind had been.
As he was about to slash at Delphox, he felt a chill run down his spine and turned to where Ash had been, to see Snorlax stood up, a Hyper Beam charged.
He quickly retreated, the Delphox taking his lead, as the beam of destruction shot into the spot where the two had just been stood.
As he turned to Snorlax, prepared to berate him, a warm melody filled the area.
He saw Ash, sat down next to the pots, the food inside laying forgotten, with the Black Flute in his mouth as he played a new tune, that made him feel closer Ash than he did even when they were bonded, and it filled his mind with thoughts of the amazing times he had had with Ash, from his first Team Rocket blast off to his spectacular battle with Alain's Charizard.
He saw it had affected all of Ash's Pokémon similarly, Lycanroc, had stopped his aggressive attacks and now stood defensively facing the Sylveon, the Iron Head fading. He also noticed some of Ash's smaller Pokémon approach him, forming a small protective barrier and Garchomp began to lightly to gnaw on Ash's head, a habit that had died since his Evolutions.
In confusion he saw Y's Pokémon drop their guard.
When he noticed the battle had died down he stopped playing the flute, quickly beginning to stir the Pokémon food before getting up and heading towards Y.
"So.", he said finally breaking the silence, "What brings you here?"
At the sound of his voice everyone was shook out of a trance.
"Well I saw you in the area and was curious. What would a great Aura Guardian be doing all the way out here?", she replied, slightly sarcastically.
Ash shrugged, "Hopefully something similar to what you'd be doing. Though from the things I've heard about some Psychics doing I wouldn't be suprised if it was the opposite. Most Psychics I've met have been decent. At least one of them has to be where the stories came from."
He could see the momentary confusion in the girls face, which quickly turned into anger as she realized what his trainer was accusing her of.
"I shouldn't be suprised that one of your kind would be working alongside them. Which one is it. You working towards a new world with others like you. Has that what they've promised you?", she shot back accusingly.
He could feel the obliviousness from Ash from over here as he completely misunderstood what she was saying.
"We don't need anyone's promises or help to achieve our goals. We all work as a team to get what we want. Isn't that right guys?"
All of the other Pokémon gave a cheer in agreement, even the Mawile begun to before the Absol stood beside it launched a foot into it, quickly silencing it.
"Well we won't let you help them, the Master balls can't fall into their hands.", she said.
That statement made him shoot a look of disbelief at the girl, which was returned by the Delphox who's face showed her returning confusion.
He studied the Delphox closely, as it studied him back. There was something painfully familiar about it but he couldn't place it and judging from the uncertain expression it was wearing he could tell that the Delphox at least recognised him back.
"Wait you think we're working for someone?", he turned to Pikachu who shared the puzzled expression, "Are we working for someone?"
Pikachu only gave a shrug and Ash turned to him and opened his mouth.
"Don't you even dare ask.", he said in annoyance to his trainer.
"Nope. I don't think we're working for anyone. If anything we're also stopping someone from getting the Master Balls, amongst other things of course.", Ash told the girl, grinning.
The girl simply stared in disbelief at him.
He facepalmed.
Snorlax picked up the pot of Pokémon food and began to dig in.
"Want something to eat?", Ash offered, holding out a bowl of food, that had finished cooking in a pan next to the pot.
"Oh no you don't", she said, approaching Ash and beginning to poke him in the chest, "I have just accused you of working alongside terrorists and you shrug it off and then offer us food."
Ash looked exasperated and opened and closed mouth multiple times.
He finally settled on muttering something under his breath. "If you knew my history with them you'd not be questioning me".
Based on the lack of reaction he guessed she hadn't heard Ash.
Serena stood there in disbelief.
She'd been caught, not to be suprised after she'd seen how many Pokémon he'd released.
He'd stopped the ensuing fight by playing a strangely relaxing melody on an awfully familiar looking instrument.
Then when she'd questioned him on his motives and accused him of working with a villainous organisation he'd completely misunderstood her and had had to get confirmation of working alone from a Pikachu.
Could this guy get any denser?
As it turns out, yes. The guy then proceeded to offer her some food, as if he couldn't understand how much she had displayed her dislike for him.
She wasn't the only one, as the Greninja that had caught them looked like he was seconds away from snapping.
She sat down, accepting the food with a quiet thanks and began to eat.
She only realised what had happened when he asked her if Delphox preferred Pokémon with Fire type or Psychic type flavouring.
"Hold up a second. I seriously didn't just eat that", she shouted, causing Red to step back, and trip over Charizard's tail, which was swinging around as the fire type dug into its food.
Red quickly scrambled back up, "Sorry, you weren't complaining so I thought it was nice. It's been a while since I've fed someone who's not a Pokémon."
"Have you… uh actually talked to anyone during that time?"
"Nah. Why would I when I've got these guys", he said gesturing to his Pokémon, who all beamed back at him
"Oh. Uh. Okay then.", she said, sitting back down and continuing to eat. "It's actually really nice and Delphox prefers Fire type flavouring please."
Sorry that its going to be changing a bit. Someone on AO3 told me about the formatting issues over there and I thought I'd check how they were over here. Didn't realise I forgot line breaks so I'm glad it was pointed out before I posted this. It would've been a pain otherwise