Auraball (Part 2 of 3)
***To better understand this part, read part one called "2 Fathers, 1 Son (Part 1 of 3). It will make a lot more sense that way.***
(Just to be clear, this is now back when the meeting began starting. I just wanted to flip-flop between the two showing they are at the same time. You will know when it is lined up with the meeting when Dante comes down with Ashley.)
"Ok, now the rules of Auraball are simple. It is basically baseball for Lucarios, but it can be changed for other pokemon as well. We use bones, or whatever else you decide is close enough to use as a bat, and the ball is any move that can be diminished into a ball. Us Lucarios use Aura spheres, but you can use something else, like Dante's fireball. Here, you can all use my bone." Ajay instructed the rules. He keyed into his inner aura and constructed a bone out of pure aura. "What is that move daddy?" Vair asked, unsure of his chances of learning it. "The move is called Bone Rush, you usually use it to club a target, like a Cubone uses a bone. To understand it, you have to develop a feel for aura. I will explain that to you another day Vair;" Ajay looked over at Ash as he continued on, "you can't teach that on the spur of the moment or out of an emotion." Ash ignored this and tried to listen to the rest of Ajay's rules of Auraball. "Other than that, it is regular American baseball. O, one last thing, we don't use gloves in this game, just our hands. Kind of like hot potato. So now that you know all the rules, let's get this game started. Ok, we'll split up teams like this, I will be captain of one team and Ash will be the other team captain. Ash, do you want batting first or pick first." Ajay questioned.
"I'll take pick first, I choose Vair." Ash picked his son first, obviously picking him for some more father-son moments. "Ok then, I'll pick Jade." Ajay chose carefully, keeping the next strongest pokemon on his team, and not only that, but to spend more time with her. A Marowak came out of the forest into the clearing and checked to see what all the commotion was about. He hid back in the forest, observing the events from afar until he knew what was going on. "Next... I pick... Claire." Ash said, pointing at Claire. "YES! I mean, yay." Claire mellowed out after screaming 'yes' in pure excitement.
Claire was trapped between a rock and a hard place. (And no, this isn't sexual. God, you're all perverts. But seriously, who else would be reading this story? Ok, I'm sorry to call you perverts out, go on and think of it however you want, it is none of my business.) On one hand, there was Brock who already was going out with her and loved her deeply. On the other hand, there was Ash. She felted attracted to him in a way she couldn't describe. She knew he would never even think of Claire and him together, but she couldn't help her feelings.
Claire walked over to her team's side as Ajay was caught up in trying to decide who to pick. Ajay looked around, and rested his eyes on two people, either Brock or Pikachu.
"Brock, I choose you." (No, he isn't popping out of a pokeball. This happened on accident. I know I say that a lot, but I notice these things only after I type them.) Brock felt sad about not being on Claire's team, he wanted to do everything with her. "Ok, Pikachu, get over here." Ash said as he motioned for his best friend to come to his side. "Well, I guess I choose Lopunny." The pokemon hoped over to Ajay's team, just happy she was playing. "Hmm, tough choice, I choose... Piplup." Piplup was extremely happy, making her way over to Ash's team. "Ok then, I pick..." Before Ajay could choose someone, Dante, Akuti, and Staravia came out with Ashley in Dante's mouth. Akuti and Staravia were calling for Ash, waving their arms frantically trying to get his attention. Ash, instead of growing anxious to see what they wanted to tell him, grew angry at the fact that Ashley was now dangling from Dante's mouth, being held by the back of her neck.
"What are you doing with Ashley?" Ash asked, keeping quite a calm tone. However, you still could hear the anger in his voice. "Ash. ASH!" Ashley screamed out, reaching and flailing her arms out to hug him. "Did... Did she just..." Ash stuttered, but before he could finish his sentence, Jade burst past him and lifted Ashley away from Dante into the air. "My little darling, you said your first word. Can you say, Jade?" Jade asked, eager to see what else she could say. "Ash." Ashley replied, once again reaching for her dad. Jade ignored this fact and kept going: "Can you say mommy?" "Daddy." Ashley answered, reaching for Ash one more time. (Denied!) Jade reluctantly handed over Ashley to her dad. Jealousy grew in her, which is totally not Jade. She was never the jealous type, but I guess anyone would be jealous if their own child doesn't want them, but someone else. "Awww, Ashley, you are so beautiful. Do you want to be daddy's cheerleader?" Ash asked, kidding of course. She nodded her head violently.
"Ok then, let's get started. I believe it was your pick Ajay. Wait, are you three playing?" Ash asked. "Yeah, we'll play. I love Auraball." Dante responded, getting in line with the others. "Then I pick Akuti." Akuti sighed as she too reluctantly walked over to Ajay's team, all the time staring at Ash. "Nice choice, I'll pick..." Ash thought as he examined the remaining players. "Hey Ash, pssst, Ash, pick Espeon." Pikachu whispered into Ash's ear. "Ok then, I pick Espeon." Espeon yipped as she hopped over and landed on Pikachu. "Whoa there Espeon, we haven't even started yet. I don't want anybody being hurt." Ash teased as Ajay began to pick. "Hmmm, I pick Staravia." Staravia now floated over to Ajay's team the same way Akuti had. "Great, I pick Dante." Ash quickly chose, hoping Ajay wouldn't pick him. "Ok, I guess I have Dawn. Com'on over here to the winning team." Ajay said as he stared down Ash. Dawn was a little bummed she was being picked last. "Ok then, I since you got first pick, we get to bat first." Ajay told Ash as he was already running out to the outfield. "Ok then, if you-" Before he could finish, he noticed a Marowak watching them in the trees.
The Marowak saw Ash looking up at him and tried to hide himself behind the tree stump, but slipped and went tumbling down the tree, hitting and breaking numerous branches. He tried to get a hold of them, but he couldn't grab any of them. Ash acted quickly and ran as fast as he could, making a b-line for the tree. (I could make a Dane Cook reference here, but I think I did enough of that on my other story.) It was a good thing this was a pretty tall tree because just as the Marowak was about to fall on the ground, Ash got under the pokemon and caught the Marowak mid-air. The force of gravity acting on the Marowak transferred over to Ash as Ash fell to the ground, keeping the Marowak into his chest in case something would have happened. The Marowak shivered as he opened his eyes and saw nothing but Ash's soft clothing. "Aww, its ok now, you are safe. Now what were you doing in such a high tree?" The Marowak looked up now and saw his hero's face. "Thank you so much for saving my life. I am forever grateful to you. I know you can't understand me, so I will use your pokemon as a medium for you to understand." The Marowak had a semi-deep voice, certainly belonging to that of a male. He began to walk over to Pikachu before he was stopped by Ash grabbing his arm, not in an overpowering way, but just enough power to cause him to stop. "Don't worry Marowak; I can understand you just fine. Now, do you want to play with us? An extra person is always welcome." The Marowak jumped a little as he heard Ash's remarks about him understanding him. "You... you understand me. How?" "Well, Professor Oak gave me this little device in my ear, allowing me to hear most every pokemon. So, how about it, want to play?" Ash asked politely. "Well, sure, I wanted to play, but I didn't want to intrude. So I was just going to watch from afar." Ash and Marowak began walking over as they talked about the device and its ability to understand pokemon. Marowak was really happy about this and he didn't hide it well. Multiple times he asked to see the device and hold it. He examined the breakthrough device and held it up to his ear while talking into it. "WOW! That is amazing." They continuously walked slower and slower to the game that hadn't even started.
Ajay was growing angry and Claire, Dante, Staravia, and Akuti were becoming jealous. (They seemed to be jealous a lot.) Jade had nothing to worry about, or at least she thought. After waiting what seemed like forever, Ajay stomped over to the two slow-pokes. (Not the pokemon slowpoke, Ash and the Marowak. Question: Do I need to stop talking? Answer: HELL YEAH!) "Hey, what is up Ash?" Ajay asked nicely, trying not to seem too agitated. "Well, this Marowak was in trouble and I saved him. I asked if he wanted to play and he agreed. So let's get started. What are the bases?" Ash asked Vair who had already mapped them out. "Wait a sec. That makes uneven teams, whose team is he going to be on?" Ajay fumed. Out from the tree-line came yet another pokemon, this time a Bellossom. "Did I hear you needed another player?" Ash easily recognizing her. "Penelope, is that you?" "Yep, it sure is, and by the looks of it, you could use another player. So how about it, can I play?" She asked, staring at Ash with those eyes almost as to say 'Pleeeasee?' "Sure you can, Bellossom can be on my team and Marowak on Ajay's team." Ash thought up that instant. But, Ash looked down at the Marowak and saw him grabbing on to Ash's leg. "I.. I want to be on your team. Is that ok?" He looked over at Ajay who was now staring at him. The Marowak reacted by jumping behind Ash's legs and cowering away from the world. "It's ok Marowak; you can be on my team. Is that alright with you Penelope?" He switched his attention from Marowak to Penelope, seeing if it was ok with her. "Yeah... of course it would." She said disappointed about the recent change in teams.
"Ok, first base is that small stump right there." Vair instructed, pointing to the obvious stump sticking out of the ground. "Second base is that spot of dead grass over there in the back and third base is the big rock over there." Vair once again pointed at both bases. "The home plate will be this dirt spot. I found this political campaign sign on the way over and we are going to use that as the home run line. Anything that hits the ground behind it is a home run. Anything that rolls behind it is still in play. Everybody got that?" Vair didn't even give them time to answer before he shouted. "Good, now let's PLAY BALL!"
With that, Ash and his team hit the outfield while Ajay's team went up to bat. Playing first was Dante, playing second/shortstop was Vair and guarding third base was Claire. Out in the outfield were Marowak, Pikachu, and Piplup. Ash took place of home plate and the pitcher was Espeon. "First up: Akuti. Batter up." Ash yelled from behind home plate, or what they called home plate. Akuti stepped up to the plate with the bone Ajay had given her. She dug her feet into the ground she gripped her bat tight. The flames around her ankles and wrists were now flaming brightly as Ash had to take a couple steps back to avoid the massive heat. (Ok, from now on, I'll let you catch my puns so I don't have to break the action every 5 minutes. Just to let you know, that last sentence was one.) Espeon inhaled deeply as she gathered energy before sending a fast shadow ball coming right over home plate. Akuti gritted her teeth as she swung, missing the ball entirely. "Strike one." Ash called out. Akuti was not about to be shown up in front of Ash. She once again gripped her bone tightly and got down in her stance. Espeon, once again, went through her pitching routine before firing another shadow ball. This time, Akuti saw the ball coming and swung at where the ball was supposedly. The thing is, before Akuti could notice anything, the ball curved downwards and went right underneath Akuti's bat. Akuti was mad now and it showed as her flame rings went out even farther, making Ash step back again so that he wasn't toasted. Akuti got back in her stance and Espeon swallowed deeply, gathering all that sweet energy and shooting it back at Akuti. The ball seemed to be crazy before it was too much and the shadow ball exploded all over Akuti's face.
Akuti fell, doubled over on the ground, face down, she blacked out before she could do anything else. Ash was the first one to get to her and threw her over, now face up. He looked for a breath and was shocked when he couldn't find any. He went into action as he pounded her chest, remembering the CPR he learned back before he set out on his journey. Still getting nothing, he brought his mouth to hers and began mouth to mouth recessitation. He kept switching back and forth, trying to get a breath out of her. After the fifth or sixth try, Akuti woke up with Ash breathing into her mouth. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious. Ash kept going as Akuti lost herself in his lips, his warm air going in and out of her. (Geez, I am making a lot of puns here. Dangit, I said I wasn't going to comment on these things. Sorry.) After she got her fill, she pretended to cough and opened her eyes. "Are you okay?" Ash asked, in a complete panic. She was surprised by his reaction, not knowing how much he cared for her. "Th.. thank you Ash." Ash held his hand out to help Akuti up. "Hey guys, do you still want to play after what just happened. I don't want anyone else to get hurt." Ash concerningly asked, not wanting to see anybody else get hurt like that. "We can't stop now, we have barely started. Just slow down the speed of the pitches, like slow-pitch softball. And don't try to curve it or anything, just a normal pitch. Now let's play some ball!" Ajay told Ash.
So the game continued and the injuries were kept to a minimum. Ash's team was up 6 to 4 and Ajay's team was up to bat in the top of the 9th inning. Ash's team started off with a 1-0 lead when Claire hit a walk-off home run. Vair and Ash got on base, but Espeon struck out (trying to balance the bone in her mouth) and Piplup hit into a double-play. So after 3 innings of trailing Ash's team by one, Ajay hit a home run with Staravia and Akuti on base, making it 3-1 Ajay. In the forth inning, Ajay scored a run in the top of the inning by a double from Brock. Espeon, getting tired and having given up 4 runs, switched with Dante at first base. Dante used his fireball to pitch and it seemed to work just as well as Espeon's shadow ball. Ajay pitched on the other team, using an aura sphere every time. But, Ash's team struck back in the bottom of the same inning (4th) with a sacrifice bunt from Ash leading to one run, and 2 back-to-back single home runs from Dante, (it was hard for Dante to bat because he couldn't hold it in his paws, so he held the bone in his mouth and swung away, actually doing rather well,) and Pikachu. Now with the score being 4-4, Ajay's team was fired up to score. However, they always seemed to get in a jam. Bases loaded with 2 outs, Jade grounded out. Next inning, with people in scoring positions and no outs, the three batters grounded out to the first baseman, the exact same way every time. Ajay was getting mad now and was arguing about every other call. Even if he knew he was wrong, he just wanted to yell at someone.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Ash's team had a runner on third and the Marowak was up. "Com'on Marowak, you can do it. Hey, wait a minute, what is your name? I can't believe I haven't asked you that yet." Ash asked, trying to get his attention away from the pressure. "Well, my name was Charles, but I changed it to Bradley. I mostly go by Brad now." Bradley explained as he got ready to bat. As Ajay pitched, Bradley watched the ball as it came barreling down. He cocked his bone, not Ajay's but his own, and swung for the fences. He drilled the ball and sent it flying up in the air. Jade rushed to try and catch the ball, but wasn't fast enough to reach it in time. The ball came falling down and crashed right through the sign which held the home-run line. As Bradley jogged around the bases, everyone began to cheer for him, everyone except for Ajay who was now really mad that he was now down with only one inning to go. "Hey Brad, that was awesome." Vair yelled as everyone gathered around him and examined his bone. Dude, we should call you B-rad, because you are totally rad." Dante commented on Bradley's coolness. B-rad felt a surge of happiness flow through him as he knew he accomplished something great.
The 9th inning, the last inning Ajay's team could do something. Ajay's back was against the wall and he had to win, to prove once and for all he was better than Ash. He wanted to prove to Vair he was the better choice for a father. Ajay took his place in the batters box and dug himself in. Swing after swing, ball after ball, he swung deep and hard until he got a full-count, hitting almost every ball foul. Dante wanted to end this game quickly so he could hang out with Ash more, so every pitch became faster and faster, trying to strike out Ajay. "Hey Dante, slow it down a little bit, this is too fast." Ash told him, not wanting another injury to occur. "Ok, let's just hurry this up." Ajay snarled, extremely angry about their lead depleting to nothing and less than nothing. Dante totally agreed and as soon as Ajay got in the batters box, he pitched the ball again. Ajay was ready for this and swung as hard as he could connecting with the ball and shattering it into thousands of tiny pieces, flying off his bone like fireworks. They all stared up at the lights, shining and being all pretty like. After the display died out, Ajay asked: "So what is the ruling?" Ash thought about it and gave this response: "Well, I say that if you could hit a fireball into millions of miniature pieces, you would of hit a home run, so I say a home-run!" Ash had to be unbiased with his rulings, even though he wanted to win just as much as Ajay. Ash had always been very competitive, just like Ajay. Ash was always trying to beat his arch-rival Gary while Ajay was always trying to impress his mother. As Ajay jogged around the bases, he flexed his muscles, showing off his 'skills'. Everyone glared with anger at his arrogance, thinking he was better than everyone else for hitting a home-run.
Up next, Jade came up to bat. She hadn't gotten a hit the whole game and only seemed to be hurting the team rather than helping it. After three pitches, she connected with the ball and sent it barely over the head of Vair. She was so shocked she actually hit it that she just stood there, watching the ball. "Jade, GO!" Ajay and Ash yelled at the same time, but there was a difference in each others tones of voices. While Ash's was just to tell her to go to first base so she could say she got a real hit and got on base, Ajay's was more of a 'I'm not losing this game' type of voice. Either way, she realized this and bolted for first base, barely making it in time.
Next came Brock and he wanted to show to Claire just how strong he really was. However, he never was that good with regular baseball. The first pitch was too far right, about a foot out of the strike zone and Brock still stepped into it and leaned into hitting it. He hit the ball cleanly, except the ball went down the first base line and at the last second it curved right into foul territory. Brock felt a little better and loosened up at the plate, knowing he was able to hit the ball now. The next pitch came way too high and Brock, overconfident now, swung at it making the bone perfectly vertical. This time though, he missed the ball entirely. "One more Dante and then we will be back at the top of the order, com'on, you can do it." Ash encouraged him from his catcher position. Dante's heart leaped as he heard his secret admirer tell him this. He took a deep swig of air and fired another fireball right over the plate and down the middle. Brock gripped the bone tighter and swung full swing as he completely whiffed and the ball went right by him. "Strike three, you're out." (HOLY CRAP, I WROTE 10,000 WORDS ON THIS! I can understand me writing this much on an important chapter, like the one coming up, but you'll see that one later.) Brock droopily walked out of the batters box over to the line of his team's players.
"One down, two more to go." Ash chanted as he got ready for Akuti to bat next. She looked down to see Ash crouching down, happily waiting to win. She wasn't about to take that away from him. She swung at every pitch, even one that hit the ground before it came to the plate. Pretending to be mad about her strike out, she stomped over to the end of the line, waiting for the game to come to a close.
"You can do it Dante, just one more." Ash now yelled as his team was only one out away from winning this game. Now it was Penelope's turn to go. She didn't realize that this was the nearly the end of the game and she too wanted to show Ash how strong she was. Dante's first pitch was on the outside corner of the strike zone. Penelope concentrated hard and swung hard, hitting the ball and sending a fast, low ball rocketing over Espeon at first base. The ball hit down a few feet in front of the home run line, but kept rolling into the trees. Pikachu used quick attack to try and find the ball. He looked around for a little bit, but this led to no avail. After Penelope rounded second, Vair couldn't help it and looked hard, trying to find the ball in the mess of trees.
Suddenly, all the trees disappeared and Vair could easily see the ball of energy resting on the ground. He snapped out of his vision and without thinking, burst into his extreme-speed mode, running right at where the ball was. He flew right by Pikachu and grabbed the ball. He then made a mad dash for the game and threw the ball as hard as he could at Ash. Ash set his feet in the ground to stop the ball which was hurdling towards him at massive speeds. When the ball reached him, Ash grabbed it and didn't let go. The ball kept its momentum going as Ash slid back until he crashed into Penelope who was only a few feet from the plate. Penelope and Ash toppled onto the ground and the ball was sent over near first base. After they stopped rolling, Penelope opened her eyes to see Ash lying on top of her, looking into her eyes as he asked: "Are you alright. I didn't mean to hit you, honest." She blushed, and threw her hands over her face, trying to hide it. Ash didn't see her blushing and instead mistook this as her face being hurt. "What happened? Here, let me look." He asked as he moved her hands aside to see her beautiful face blushing back at him. "Cute... you... are." He stuttered as he couldn't help but remark at her gorgeous face. He cleared his throat as he corrected himself. "I mean, you seem alright, now here, take my hand." He now helped her up the same way he helped Akuti up. Staravia looked on as she could see Penelope blushing the whole time. "Does she like Ash too?" Staravia quietly muttered to herself.
Espeon scooped up the ball in her mouth as she ran over to Penelope. She was the only one who was still playing, wanting to end the inning fast. She tapped Penelope on the shoulder as Penelope came to the quick realization that the play wasn't over. "O well, I guess I'm out." Ash's team began to celebrate before Ajay interrupted them. "Hey, wait a minute. You guys haven't won yet. Jade scored so now the score is 6-6, tie game. This is the bottom of the 9th so if you don't score, we have to go into extra innings." Ajay explained as he got ready on the pitcher's mound, rather pitcher's square because there was no mound to speak of. Ash counted up the scores one more time as he too landed at 6-6.
First up, Dante. He held the bone in his mouth seeing as he couldn't hold it anywhere else. Ajay gathered all the energy into his hands and exploded with an aura sphere going at Dante. Dante tried to duck out of the way, but it was going too fast and he couldn't avoid it. The ball hit him in the tail and Dante winced in pain as his tail's flame almost disappeared entirely. "Ajay! Why did you do that? This is slow-pitch. Why would you do that to Dante? Just because you wanted to win? That's it, game over. You win Ajay, you happy?" Ash fumed as he yelled at Ajay. He couldn't fathom (HA! I know what that word means.) how someone could be so competitive as to hurt one of his friends. "I don't care who you are, you aren't going to hurt my friends." Ash continued to yell as he tried to help Dante.
Ajay was distraught now, realizing just how far his competitiveness had taken him. "I...I don't know what came over me. Here, someone else be the pitcher, I don't want to hurt anyone else." Ajay told Ash. He turned to Jade and asked if she would switch with him. "What, me? I can't. I haven't used my powers in a while, what if I hurt someone?" She asked him. "Well, who else can do it? Please Jade, just for get us out of the inning and I'll calm down by next inning." He lightly pushed Jade over to the pitcher's square, taking her spot in the field. Jade practiced throwing to Akuti, the catcher, which she actually did pretty well. Ash seemed to be ok with Jade pitching and he was determined to end the game here and now so that Ajay wouldn't have a chance to pitch next inning.
Pikachu was now up at bat and with Jade pitching, it was really easy for him to get on base. So now, Pikachu and Dante were on base, second and first to be precise, with Ash up. Ash, no matter who was pitching, was going to end this game right now. Jade pitched the ball perfectly right down the middle, purposely of course. Ash used the bone to belt the ball all the way into the outfield. The only person who had a chance at grabbing the ball was Staravia. She flew up to pretend like she was actually trying to catch the ball, and then missed the ball, letting it sail past her over the home run line, thus ending the game. Ash cheered as he ran around the bases and when he got on home plate/dirt patch, he lifted his son off the ground and swung him in the air yelling "We won! We won!" Ajay seemed to be the only person on the other team to be disappointed by the loss. Everyone crowded around Ash as they cheered and lifted him up on their shoulders, everyone except Ajay. He clumsily began to walk over to the hotel, his head staring at the ground as he didn't want to see the other team's excitement. Ash caught up to him and tried to shake his hand. "Good game, no hard feelings?" Ash asked. "Nah, good game, I'll see you at the hotel." Ajay responded as he walked away, not even noticing Ash's hand.Chapter End Notes:And only one more part to go, hope you have enjoyed it so far. Don't forget to review
(Just to be clear, this is now back when the meeting began starting. I just wanted to flip-flop between the two showing they are at the same time. You will know when it is lined up with the meeting when Dante comes down with Ashley.)
"Ok, now the rules of Auraball are simple. It is basically baseball for Lucarios, but it can be changed for other pokemon as well. We use bones, or whatever else you decide is close enough to use as a bat, and the ball is any move that can be diminished into a ball. Us Lucarios use Aura spheres, but you can use something else, like Dante's fireball. Here, you can all use my bone." Ajay instructed the rules. He keyed into his inner aura and constructed a bone out of pure aura. "What is that move daddy?" Vair asked, unsure of his chances of learning it. "The move is called Bone Rush, you usually use it to club a target, like a Cubone uses a bone. To understand it, you have to develop a feel for aura. I will explain that to you another day Vair;" Ajay looked over at Ash as he continued on, "you can't teach that on the spur of the moment or out of an emotion." Ash ignored this and tried to listen to the rest of Ajay's rules of Auraball. "Other than that, it is regular American baseball. O, one last thing, we don't use gloves in this game, just our hands. Kind of like hot potato. So now that you know all the rules, let's get this game started. Ok, we'll split up teams like this, I will be captain of one team and Ash will be the other team captain. Ash, do you want batting first or pick first." Ajay questioned.
"I'll take pick first, I choose Vair." Ash picked his son first, obviously picking him for some more father-son moments. "Ok then, I'll pick Jade." Ajay chose carefully, keeping the next strongest pokemon on his team, and not only that, but to spend more time with her. A Marowak came out of the forest into the clearing and checked to see what all the commotion was about. He hid back in the forest, observing the events from afar until he knew what was going on. "Next... I pick... Claire." Ash said, pointing at Claire. "YES! I mean, yay." Claire mellowed out after screaming 'yes' in pure excitement.
Claire was trapped between a rock and a hard place. (And no, this isn't sexual. God, you're all perverts. But seriously, who else would be reading this story? Ok, I'm sorry to call you perverts out, go on and think of it however you want, it is none of my business.) On one hand, there was Brock who already was going out with her and loved her deeply. On the other hand, there was Ash. She felted attracted to him in a way she couldn't describe. She knew he would never even think of Claire and him together, but she couldn't help her feelings.
Claire walked over to her team's side as Ajay was caught up in trying to decide who to pick. Ajay looked around, and rested his eyes on two people, either Brock or Pikachu.
"Brock, I choose you." (No, he isn't popping out of a pokeball. This happened on accident. I know I say that a lot, but I notice these things only after I type them.) Brock felt sad about not being on Claire's team, he wanted to do everything with her. "Ok, Pikachu, get over here." Ash said as he motioned for his best friend to come to his side. "Well, I guess I choose Lopunny." The pokemon hoped over to Ajay's team, just happy she was playing. "Hmm, tough choice, I choose... Piplup." Piplup was extremely happy, making her way over to Ash's team. "Ok then, I pick..." Before Ajay could choose someone, Dante, Akuti, and Staravia came out with Ashley in Dante's mouth. Akuti and Staravia were calling for Ash, waving their arms frantically trying to get his attention. Ash, instead of growing anxious to see what they wanted to tell him, grew angry at the fact that Ashley was now dangling from Dante's mouth, being held by the back of her neck.
"What are you doing with Ashley?" Ash asked, keeping quite a calm tone. However, you still could hear the anger in his voice. "Ash. ASH!" Ashley screamed out, reaching and flailing her arms out to hug him. "Did... Did she just..." Ash stuttered, but before he could finish his sentence, Jade burst past him and lifted Ashley away from Dante into the air. "My little darling, you said your first word. Can you say, Jade?" Jade asked, eager to see what else she could say. "Ash." Ashley replied, once again reaching for her dad. Jade ignored this fact and kept going: "Can you say mommy?" "Daddy." Ashley answered, reaching for Ash one more time. (Denied!) Jade reluctantly handed over Ashley to her dad. Jealousy grew in her, which is totally not Jade. She was never the jealous type, but I guess anyone would be jealous if their own child doesn't want them, but someone else. "Awww, Ashley, you are so beautiful. Do you want to be daddy's cheerleader?" Ash asked, kidding of course. She nodded her head violently.
"Ok then, let's get started. I believe it was your pick Ajay. Wait, are you three playing?" Ash asked. "Yeah, we'll play. I love Auraball." Dante responded, getting in line with the others. "Then I pick Akuti." Akuti sighed as she too reluctantly walked over to Ajay's team, all the time staring at Ash. "Nice choice, I'll pick..." Ash thought as he examined the remaining players. "Hey Ash, pssst, Ash, pick Espeon." Pikachu whispered into Ash's ear. "Ok then, I pick Espeon." Espeon yipped as she hopped over and landed on Pikachu. "Whoa there Espeon, we haven't even started yet. I don't want anybody being hurt." Ash teased as Ajay began to pick. "Hmmm, I pick Staravia." Staravia now floated over to Ajay's team the same way Akuti had. "Great, I pick Dante." Ash quickly chose, hoping Ajay wouldn't pick him. "Ok, I guess I have Dawn. Com'on over here to the winning team." Ajay said as he stared down Ash. Dawn was a little bummed she was being picked last. "Ok then, I since you got first pick, we get to bat first." Ajay told Ash as he was already running out to the outfield. "Ok then, if you-" Before he could finish, he noticed a Marowak watching them in the trees.
The Marowak saw Ash looking up at him and tried to hide himself behind the tree stump, but slipped and went tumbling down the tree, hitting and breaking numerous branches. He tried to get a hold of them, but he couldn't grab any of them. Ash acted quickly and ran as fast as he could, making a b-line for the tree. (I could make a Dane Cook reference here, but I think I did enough of that on my other story.) It was a good thing this was a pretty tall tree because just as the Marowak was about to fall on the ground, Ash got under the pokemon and caught the Marowak mid-air. The force of gravity acting on the Marowak transferred over to Ash as Ash fell to the ground, keeping the Marowak into his chest in case something would have happened. The Marowak shivered as he opened his eyes and saw nothing but Ash's soft clothing. "Aww, its ok now, you are safe. Now what were you doing in such a high tree?" The Marowak looked up now and saw his hero's face. "Thank you so much for saving my life. I am forever grateful to you. I know you can't understand me, so I will use your pokemon as a medium for you to understand." The Marowak had a semi-deep voice, certainly belonging to that of a male. He began to walk over to Pikachu before he was stopped by Ash grabbing his arm, not in an overpowering way, but just enough power to cause him to stop. "Don't worry Marowak; I can understand you just fine. Now, do you want to play with us? An extra person is always welcome." The Marowak jumped a little as he heard Ash's remarks about him understanding him. "You... you understand me. How?" "Well, Professor Oak gave me this little device in my ear, allowing me to hear most every pokemon. So, how about it, want to play?" Ash asked politely. "Well, sure, I wanted to play, but I didn't want to intrude. So I was just going to watch from afar." Ash and Marowak began walking over as they talked about the device and its ability to understand pokemon. Marowak was really happy about this and he didn't hide it well. Multiple times he asked to see the device and hold it. He examined the breakthrough device and held it up to his ear while talking into it. "WOW! That is amazing." They continuously walked slower and slower to the game that hadn't even started.
Ajay was growing angry and Claire, Dante, Staravia, and Akuti were becoming jealous. (They seemed to be jealous a lot.) Jade had nothing to worry about, or at least she thought. After waiting what seemed like forever, Ajay stomped over to the two slow-pokes. (Not the pokemon slowpoke, Ash and the Marowak. Question: Do I need to stop talking? Answer: HELL YEAH!) "Hey, what is up Ash?" Ajay asked nicely, trying not to seem too agitated. "Well, this Marowak was in trouble and I saved him. I asked if he wanted to play and he agreed. So let's get started. What are the bases?" Ash asked Vair who had already mapped them out. "Wait a sec. That makes uneven teams, whose team is he going to be on?" Ajay fumed. Out from the tree-line came yet another pokemon, this time a Bellossom. "Did I hear you needed another player?" Ash easily recognizing her. "Penelope, is that you?" "Yep, it sure is, and by the looks of it, you could use another player. So how about it, can I play?" She asked, staring at Ash with those eyes almost as to say 'Pleeeasee?' "Sure you can, Bellossom can be on my team and Marowak on Ajay's team." Ash thought up that instant. But, Ash looked down at the Marowak and saw him grabbing on to Ash's leg. "I.. I want to be on your team. Is that ok?" He looked over at Ajay who was now staring at him. The Marowak reacted by jumping behind Ash's legs and cowering away from the world. "It's ok Marowak; you can be on my team. Is that alright with you Penelope?" He switched his attention from Marowak to Penelope, seeing if it was ok with her. "Yeah... of course it would." She said disappointed about the recent change in teams.
"Ok, first base is that small stump right there." Vair instructed, pointing to the obvious stump sticking out of the ground. "Second base is that spot of dead grass over there in the back and third base is the big rock over there." Vair once again pointed at both bases. "The home plate will be this dirt spot. I found this political campaign sign on the way over and we are going to use that as the home run line. Anything that hits the ground behind it is a home run. Anything that rolls behind it is still in play. Everybody got that?" Vair didn't even give them time to answer before he shouted. "Good, now let's PLAY BALL!"
With that, Ash and his team hit the outfield while Ajay's team went up to bat. Playing first was Dante, playing second/shortstop was Vair and guarding third base was Claire. Out in the outfield were Marowak, Pikachu, and Piplup. Ash took place of home plate and the pitcher was Espeon. "First up: Akuti. Batter up." Ash yelled from behind home plate, or what they called home plate. Akuti stepped up to the plate with the bone Ajay had given her. She dug her feet into the ground she gripped her bat tight. The flames around her ankles and wrists were now flaming brightly as Ash had to take a couple steps back to avoid the massive heat. (Ok, from now on, I'll let you catch my puns so I don't have to break the action every 5 minutes. Just to let you know, that last sentence was one.) Espeon inhaled deeply as she gathered energy before sending a fast shadow ball coming right over home plate. Akuti gritted her teeth as she swung, missing the ball entirely. "Strike one." Ash called out. Akuti was not about to be shown up in front of Ash. She once again gripped her bone tightly and got down in her stance. Espeon, once again, went through her pitching routine before firing another shadow ball. This time, Akuti saw the ball coming and swung at where the ball was supposedly. The thing is, before Akuti could notice anything, the ball curved downwards and went right underneath Akuti's bat. Akuti was mad now and it showed as her flame rings went out even farther, making Ash step back again so that he wasn't toasted. Akuti got back in her stance and Espeon swallowed deeply, gathering all that sweet energy and shooting it back at Akuti. The ball seemed to be crazy before it was too much and the shadow ball exploded all over Akuti's face.
Akuti fell, doubled over on the ground, face down, she blacked out before she could do anything else. Ash was the first one to get to her and threw her over, now face up. He looked for a breath and was shocked when he couldn't find any. He went into action as he pounded her chest, remembering the CPR he learned back before he set out on his journey. Still getting nothing, he brought his mouth to hers and began mouth to mouth recessitation. He kept switching back and forth, trying to get a breath out of her. After the fifth or sixth try, Akuti woke up with Ash breathing into her mouth. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious. Ash kept going as Akuti lost herself in his lips, his warm air going in and out of her. (Geez, I am making a lot of puns here. Dangit, I said I wasn't going to comment on these things. Sorry.) After she got her fill, she pretended to cough and opened her eyes. "Are you okay?" Ash asked, in a complete panic. She was surprised by his reaction, not knowing how much he cared for her. "Th.. thank you Ash." Ash held his hand out to help Akuti up. "Hey guys, do you still want to play after what just happened. I don't want anyone else to get hurt." Ash concerningly asked, not wanting to see anybody else get hurt like that. "We can't stop now, we have barely started. Just slow down the speed of the pitches, like slow-pitch softball. And don't try to curve it or anything, just a normal pitch. Now let's play some ball!" Ajay told Ash.
So the game continued and the injuries were kept to a minimum. Ash's team was up 6 to 4 and Ajay's team was up to bat in the top of the 9th inning. Ash's team started off with a 1-0 lead when Claire hit a walk-off home run. Vair and Ash got on base, but Espeon struck out (trying to balance the bone in her mouth) and Piplup hit into a double-play. So after 3 innings of trailing Ash's team by one, Ajay hit a home run with Staravia and Akuti on base, making it 3-1 Ajay. In the forth inning, Ajay scored a run in the top of the inning by a double from Brock. Espeon, getting tired and having given up 4 runs, switched with Dante at first base. Dante used his fireball to pitch and it seemed to work just as well as Espeon's shadow ball. Ajay pitched on the other team, using an aura sphere every time. But, Ash's team struck back in the bottom of the same inning (4th) with a sacrifice bunt from Ash leading to one run, and 2 back-to-back single home runs from Dante, (it was hard for Dante to bat because he couldn't hold it in his paws, so he held the bone in his mouth and swung away, actually doing rather well,) and Pikachu. Now with the score being 4-4, Ajay's team was fired up to score. However, they always seemed to get in a jam. Bases loaded with 2 outs, Jade grounded out. Next inning, with people in scoring positions and no outs, the three batters grounded out to the first baseman, the exact same way every time. Ajay was getting mad now and was arguing about every other call. Even if he knew he was wrong, he just wanted to yell at someone.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Ash's team had a runner on third and the Marowak was up. "Com'on Marowak, you can do it. Hey, wait a minute, what is your name? I can't believe I haven't asked you that yet." Ash asked, trying to get his attention away from the pressure. "Well, my name was Charles, but I changed it to Bradley. I mostly go by Brad now." Bradley explained as he got ready to bat. As Ajay pitched, Bradley watched the ball as it came barreling down. He cocked his bone, not Ajay's but his own, and swung for the fences. He drilled the ball and sent it flying up in the air. Jade rushed to try and catch the ball, but wasn't fast enough to reach it in time. The ball came falling down and crashed right through the sign which held the home-run line. As Bradley jogged around the bases, everyone began to cheer for him, everyone except for Ajay who was now really mad that he was now down with only one inning to go. "Hey Brad, that was awesome." Vair yelled as everyone gathered around him and examined his bone. Dude, we should call you B-rad, because you are totally rad." Dante commented on Bradley's coolness. B-rad felt a surge of happiness flow through him as he knew he accomplished something great.
The 9th inning, the last inning Ajay's team could do something. Ajay's back was against the wall and he had to win, to prove once and for all he was better than Ash. He wanted to prove to Vair he was the better choice for a father. Ajay took his place in the batters box and dug himself in. Swing after swing, ball after ball, he swung deep and hard until he got a full-count, hitting almost every ball foul. Dante wanted to end this game quickly so he could hang out with Ash more, so every pitch became faster and faster, trying to strike out Ajay. "Hey Dante, slow it down a little bit, this is too fast." Ash told him, not wanting another injury to occur. "Ok, let's just hurry this up." Ajay snarled, extremely angry about their lead depleting to nothing and less than nothing. Dante totally agreed and as soon as Ajay got in the batters box, he pitched the ball again. Ajay was ready for this and swung as hard as he could connecting with the ball and shattering it into thousands of tiny pieces, flying off his bone like fireworks. They all stared up at the lights, shining and being all pretty like. After the display died out, Ajay asked: "So what is the ruling?" Ash thought about it and gave this response: "Well, I say that if you could hit a fireball into millions of miniature pieces, you would of hit a home run, so I say a home-run!" Ash had to be unbiased with his rulings, even though he wanted to win just as much as Ajay. Ash had always been very competitive, just like Ajay. Ash was always trying to beat his arch-rival Gary while Ajay was always trying to impress his mother. As Ajay jogged around the bases, he flexed his muscles, showing off his 'skills'. Everyone glared with anger at his arrogance, thinking he was better than everyone else for hitting a home-run.
Up next, Jade came up to bat. She hadn't gotten a hit the whole game and only seemed to be hurting the team rather than helping it. After three pitches, she connected with the ball and sent it barely over the head of Vair. She was so shocked she actually hit it that she just stood there, watching the ball. "Jade, GO!" Ajay and Ash yelled at the same time, but there was a difference in each others tones of voices. While Ash's was just to tell her to go to first base so she could say she got a real hit and got on base, Ajay's was more of a 'I'm not losing this game' type of voice. Either way, she realized this and bolted for first base, barely making it in time.
Next came Brock and he wanted to show to Claire just how strong he really was. However, he never was that good with regular baseball. The first pitch was too far right, about a foot out of the strike zone and Brock still stepped into it and leaned into hitting it. He hit the ball cleanly, except the ball went down the first base line and at the last second it curved right into foul territory. Brock felt a little better and loosened up at the plate, knowing he was able to hit the ball now. The next pitch came way too high and Brock, overconfident now, swung at it making the bone perfectly vertical. This time though, he missed the ball entirely. "One more Dante and then we will be back at the top of the order, com'on, you can do it." Ash encouraged him from his catcher position. Dante's heart leaped as he heard his secret admirer tell him this. He took a deep swig of air and fired another fireball right over the plate and down the middle. Brock gripped the bone tighter and swung full swing as he completely whiffed and the ball went right by him. "Strike three, you're out." (HOLY CRAP, I WROTE 10,000 WORDS ON THIS! I can understand me writing this much on an important chapter, like the one coming up, but you'll see that one later.) Brock droopily walked out of the batters box over to the line of his team's players.
"One down, two more to go." Ash chanted as he got ready for Akuti to bat next. She looked down to see Ash crouching down, happily waiting to win. She wasn't about to take that away from him. She swung at every pitch, even one that hit the ground before it came to the plate. Pretending to be mad about her strike out, she stomped over to the end of the line, waiting for the game to come to a close.
"You can do it Dante, just one more." Ash now yelled as his team was only one out away from winning this game. Now it was Penelope's turn to go. She didn't realize that this was the nearly the end of the game and she too wanted to show Ash how strong she was. Dante's first pitch was on the outside corner of the strike zone. Penelope concentrated hard and swung hard, hitting the ball and sending a fast, low ball rocketing over Espeon at first base. The ball hit down a few feet in front of the home run line, but kept rolling into the trees. Pikachu used quick attack to try and find the ball. He looked around for a little bit, but this led to no avail. After Penelope rounded second, Vair couldn't help it and looked hard, trying to find the ball in the mess of trees.
Suddenly, all the trees disappeared and Vair could easily see the ball of energy resting on the ground. He snapped out of his vision and without thinking, burst into his extreme-speed mode, running right at where the ball was. He flew right by Pikachu and grabbed the ball. He then made a mad dash for the game and threw the ball as hard as he could at Ash. Ash set his feet in the ground to stop the ball which was hurdling towards him at massive speeds. When the ball reached him, Ash grabbed it and didn't let go. The ball kept its momentum going as Ash slid back until he crashed into Penelope who was only a few feet from the plate. Penelope and Ash toppled onto the ground and the ball was sent over near first base. After they stopped rolling, Penelope opened her eyes to see Ash lying on top of her, looking into her eyes as he asked: "Are you alright. I didn't mean to hit you, honest." She blushed, and threw her hands over her face, trying to hide it. Ash didn't see her blushing and instead mistook this as her face being hurt. "What happened? Here, let me look." He asked as he moved her hands aside to see her beautiful face blushing back at him. "Cute... you... are." He stuttered as he couldn't help but remark at her gorgeous face. He cleared his throat as he corrected himself. "I mean, you seem alright, now here, take my hand." He now helped her up the same way he helped Akuti up. Staravia looked on as she could see Penelope blushing the whole time. "Does she like Ash too?" Staravia quietly muttered to herself.
Espeon scooped up the ball in her mouth as she ran over to Penelope. She was the only one who was still playing, wanting to end the inning fast. She tapped Penelope on the shoulder as Penelope came to the quick realization that the play wasn't over. "O well, I guess I'm out." Ash's team began to celebrate before Ajay interrupted them. "Hey, wait a minute. You guys haven't won yet. Jade scored so now the score is 6-6, tie game. This is the bottom of the 9th so if you don't score, we have to go into extra innings." Ajay explained as he got ready on the pitcher's mound, rather pitcher's square because there was no mound to speak of. Ash counted up the scores one more time as he too landed at 6-6.
First up, Dante. He held the bone in his mouth seeing as he couldn't hold it anywhere else. Ajay gathered all the energy into his hands and exploded with an aura sphere going at Dante. Dante tried to duck out of the way, but it was going too fast and he couldn't avoid it. The ball hit him in the tail and Dante winced in pain as his tail's flame almost disappeared entirely. "Ajay! Why did you do that? This is slow-pitch. Why would you do that to Dante? Just because you wanted to win? That's it, game over. You win Ajay, you happy?" Ash fumed as he yelled at Ajay. He couldn't fathom (HA! I know what that word means.) how someone could be so competitive as to hurt one of his friends. "I don't care who you are, you aren't going to hurt my friends." Ash continued to yell as he tried to help Dante.
Ajay was distraught now, realizing just how far his competitiveness had taken him. "I...I don't know what came over me. Here, someone else be the pitcher, I don't want to hurt anyone else." Ajay told Ash. He turned to Jade and asked if she would switch with him. "What, me? I can't. I haven't used my powers in a while, what if I hurt someone?" She asked him. "Well, who else can do it? Please Jade, just for get us out of the inning and I'll calm down by next inning." He lightly pushed Jade over to the pitcher's square, taking her spot in the field. Jade practiced throwing to Akuti, the catcher, which she actually did pretty well. Ash seemed to be ok with Jade pitching and he was determined to end the game here and now so that Ajay wouldn't have a chance to pitch next inning.
Pikachu was now up at bat and with Jade pitching, it was really easy for him to get on base. So now, Pikachu and Dante were on base, second and first to be precise, with Ash up. Ash, no matter who was pitching, was going to end this game right now. Jade pitched the ball perfectly right down the middle, purposely of course. Ash used the bone to belt the ball all the way into the outfield. The only person who had a chance at grabbing the ball was Staravia. She flew up to pretend like she was actually trying to catch the ball, and then missed the ball, letting it sail past her over the home run line, thus ending the game. Ash cheered as he ran around the bases and when he got on home plate/dirt patch, he lifted his son off the ground and swung him in the air yelling "We won! We won!" Ajay seemed to be the only person on the other team to be disappointed by the loss. Everyone crowded around Ash as they cheered and lifted him up on their shoulders, everyone except Ajay. He clumsily began to walk over to the hotel, his head staring at the ground as he didn't want to see the other team's excitement. Ash caught up to him and tried to shake his hand. "Good game, no hard feelings?" Ash asked. "Nah, good game, I'll see you at the hotel." Ajay responded as he walked away, not even noticing Ash's hand.Chapter End Notes:And only one more part to go, hope you have enjoyed it so far. Don't forget to review