"Normal Speech"

'Thought'

'Telepathy'

Chapter 8

"Ugh, what time is it?" Ash asked, the dream still playing back in his head. Ash looked at the clock beside him. It was 1pm. "Damn, didn't think i'd sleep in so late." Ash muttered but was still caught by Scott.

"Don't worry about that. Anyway your challenger said he'll give you some time to get ready as he had some errands to run. You have about three hours until he's back so I suggest getting whatever you need done out of the way." Scott said as he gave a wave before leaving Ash's room.

'What a time for me to get a challenger. Oh well, it was bound to happen.' Ash thought as he made his way to the washroom to get his morning rituals out of the way. He thought back to his dream again. He felt several emotions running through him at once. The ones he felt most were anger and sadness. Sadness at the thought of being betrayed again and anger for not being strong enough again. Watching his starter get beat like that was the result of him not being good enough to have such strong pokemon by his side and not being able to use them to their fullest potential. Anger at not being strong enough despite all the work he put in. He thought to himself for a moment, before continuing to the washroom. 'I'll show them all my power.' He thought as he shut the door behind him.

Meanwhile…

Scott was walking down the halls of the battle colosseum. 'What caused Ash to look like that. He just got up, so from that it must of been something he was dreaming about.' Scott was in such deep thought that he didn't notice a certain blonde headed towards him.

"Scott." Said man was broken out of his thoughts as the Sinnoh Champion caught his attention. "Do you remember what room Ash was in? He told me yesterday but i forgot, he was also gonna show me around the Battle Colosseum today." Her features seemed to brightened at mentioning Ash. Scott was thinking about acknowledging her request, but the look Ash had when he saw him made him think otherwise. "Well..?" Deciding to not keep Cynthia waiting any longer decided to answer her question.

"I was just in his room a little while ago. His room as at the end of the hall. He should be in there right now. He seemed to be out of it when i walked in, hopefully the battle coming soon will clear his thoughts." Scott said thoughtfully.
"Hmm, alright. I guess he should worry about his battle, i can explore a little before watching his battle, when is it?"

"At 4pm, so that gives you three hours to do what you want before his battle starts. It should be a good one. From what I heard the challengers battles were something else. Anyway i have some things i need done so if you need anything don't hesitate to ask." With that Scott walked away leaving Cynthia to her thoughts.

'Awww, I was really hoping he'd take me around the colosseum.' Cynthia let a out a loud sigh. 'Oh well, guess it can't be helped. Might as well see if he wants to have a late lunch before he gets ready.' Cynthia thought as she made her way towards Ash's room. 'I wonder what pokemon he'll use. I haven't seen him in an official battle since Unova so i'm sure he's improved a lot.' She had made it to Ash's room... At least she hope she did. Taking a look a around just to be sure this was the end of the hall. 'Hopefully he'll say yes.' She thought as she turned the knob on the door. What awaited her inside was not was she was expecting. What was revealed to her was a half naked Ash only covered by a towel. From the looks of it he was just about to take the towel off. "Umm… Uh… I…" All she could do was stand there shocked, looking over at Ash. 'Wow that training he did worked wonders.' Cynthia thought looking over Ash's body, a bit of a nose bleed beginning to make itself known. "Sorry!" She yelled as she slammed the door and ran like her life depended on it. Minutes later she found herself leaning against the wall trying to calm herself down from the predicament she had put herself through. 'As much as I enjoyed that, I should apologize for just barging in there like there. After all, if he did that to me his life would of ended at that point...' Cynthia thought. 'Hope he's not mad.'

Ash just looked towards the door blinking a few times before getting dressed. It's not like he wasn't embarrassed, but he was too focused on his battle coming up that he didn't really care about the situation that had just occurred. 'Hope things don't get awkward from this.' Ash though slipping his jacket on. 'I still need to show her around the colosseum after all. I wonder what kind of challenge my opponent will bring.' His mind wandered to his dream, being thrown away again. Ash's eyes darkened at the thought. He'll show them his power. And nothing is going to stop him from destroying his opponent, that he will guarantee. His thoughts became darker and darker but was eventually broken by a pokemon materializing beside him. His Gardevoir made her presence known.

'Master, please calm down.' The embrace pokemon put both her hands on Ash's head. They began glowing a soft blue color as Ash's breathing began to slow down. Ash's eye locked with Gardevoir before he came her a small smile.

"Thank you, I don't know what i'd do without you sometimes." Ash said returning Gardevoir to her ball before continuing to go meet with his pokemon. 'I should introduce the new pokemon I got. I almost forgot about them. Maybe with a bit of work I could use one or two of them in my battle coming up.' Ash pulled a piece of paper that was in his pocket. It was the list of pokemon traded to him.

Absol, Flygon, Altaria (Shiny), Milotic (Shiny), Scizor, Aggron, Kadabra, Shinx, Dragonair, Lucario (Shiny), Espeon, Umbreon, Salamence, Houndour, Tyrantrum, Fraxure, Hydreigon, Froslass, Chandelure, Luxray, Gengar, Gyarados, Electivire, Magmortar, Rhyperior, Skarmory, Roserade (Shiny), Metang, Braviary, Mismagius.

"Wow, that's an impressive list." Ash said to himself. 'Maybe I can use Salamence and Umbreon then have some of the other more experienced pokemon as back up.' Ash had a lot of experienced pokemon under his belt so choosing which ones would be tough. At the Battle Colosseum challengers get to decide the type of battling format. Whether that be one on one, two on two, etc. They can also decide if the battle is single, double or triple. 'Maybe I shouldn't get too overconfident and use pokemon i haven't trained yet. I mean I do have three hours so I could see which ones i'd be able to use.'

Ash looked up and saw that he'd already made it to the ranch that held his pokemon. "Pikachu, round up the others. Were going to introduce everyone." With a nod the little mouse pokemon shot a thunderbolt into the sky. Within a couple minutes all his pokemon were now in front of him, excited to hear what their trainer had to say. "Okay guys, we have some new members so give them a nice welcoming. Various noises in agreement were heard as Ash released all that pokemon he had gotten. Ash turned to his new pokemon. "Okay guys, I'm Ash and this is your new home. Don't be afraid to introduce yourselves to the others. We'll get to know each other for a bit before we start training. I've got a challenger, so I've decided that if any of you meet my expectations you may be able to battle." He then turned to the others. "Don't worry if you don't get to battle today, when the tournament comes, i'll be sure to try and make sure each of you battles." Various cries and roars were heard in response. "Good, i'll be getting to know the others. If you feel that you want to start training now, you can but make sure you greet everyone first." And with that Ash started interacting with his new pokemon.

About an hour later, Ash had been able to get a talk with each of his new pokemon. He was really disappointed with some of the stories his new pokemon told him. How some of them were abused and how others didn't like their previous trainer. 'How come trainers never think about how the pokemon feel. Trading the pokemon away isn't the answer to everything.' Ash let out a sigh, he'll have to have a deeper talk with some of the pokemon after the battle. His thoughts were cut his he felt like he was being examined. He turned his attention to his newly acquired Lucario. Both trainer and pokemon's eyes were locked with each other. After a few minutes Lucario decided to break the silence.

'Your aura, is very powerful. I've never felt one so strong. Did you know of your ability to use it?'

Taking a moment to think, Ash thought it would be a good idea to tell Lucario everything he knew.
'Yes, I've known of my powers for a while but didn't think it'd be such a big deal let alone so strong.'

'I see.' Lucario examined Ash for a moment before looking him in the eyes again. 'If I may just make a request master.'

'Of course and Lucario i'm your friend and partner, not your master.' Ash said smiling.

'Thank you master, your work truly enlightens me.'

'Lucario… My name is Ash.'

'Thank you, Master Ash.'

'...' Ash gave his pokemon a deadpan look while Pikachu just laughed at his friend, clearly amused by what's happening. 'Anyway what's your request Lucario.'

'I'd to help you control your aura.' Lucario gave Ash a serious look before continuing. 'Your aura is far too strong, not having any control of your aura can be catastrophic. I got a feel of your aura and it fluctuates quite often. I could be wrong but did something traumatic happen to you master?' Thinking back to when his friends betrayed him, Ash's body took started to glow a reddish aura. Lucario's eyes widened at seeing his trainer in such a state. He quickly began to create an aura sphere. Pikachu's cheeks began to spark at seeing the attack begin to charge.

'Don't get in the way, that aura around him is very dangerous. I do not wish to harm him. I will take care of this.' Pikachu began to calm down as he took a look at his trainer. His Pikapi's aura was a very light shade of red and he didn't have his usual facial expression. Standing before him was a completely different person. But before he had anytime to think his trainer, Lucario slammed the sphere into Ash's abdomen. The sphere was colorless, just a transparent ball being slammed into Ash. You can see the red aura being forcibly pushed out of his body. Ash's body began falling to the ground, fortunately Lucario caught him. 'You need to start training your mind so you can control your aura. Has this happened to you a lot?'

'I'm not sure, i just thought back to when my friends betrayed me and it was the only thing i could think of. Next thing i know, i feel my energy being drained from my body.' Ash said now standing on his own.

'If you don't mind i'd like to be out of my ball to monitor you in case something like that happens again.' Ash gave him a nod. 'Thank you master, I swear i'll do everything i can to help.' Ash's body twitched at being called master again, but thanked him nevertheless.

'I think it's about time I meet my opponent.' Ash then started to make his way to the arena.

'Man, that was intense. You okay Lucario, Pikachu?' Both his pokemon gave him a nod. 'Good, because i'd like both of you to be 100 percent when this battle starts.

'Wait, master are you allowing me to battle? I mean after all we haven't done much training yet.' Lucario asked surprised that his trainer is letting him battle and in an official one no less.

'Of course, I believe i can trust your skills and that it's only fair since you helped me out. And what did I say about calling me master.' Ash said with a smile on his face.

Lucario was speechless, he didn't think he'd be battling so soon. But now that he is, he will not let his master down. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a new voice.

'I'm surprised that you'd be late for your own battle, then again I guess it's you after all…'

Ash looked up, His eyes widened looking at the person in front of him. It's been quite long since he's seen him 'Ahh, Ash. Don't worry about being late. Just make sure it doesn't keep happening. Anyway Ash this will be your opponent.' Scott said. A big smile on his face. Ash's smile had begun to make it's presence known, he couldn't wait to see how much he's improved.

"It's been a while… Paul"

Hey friends, it's been a while. I've been doing some stuff and didn't really find any time to write this. Working full time and stuff like that, so this story was quite low on the priority list. Anyways not sure how much time i'm going to be putting into this story. It is fun to write every now and then. Hope my grammar isn't too bad but bare with me on that one. Even though I haven't been writing too much I appreciate a lot of the comments i've received and hopefully I won't keep you guys waiting too long this time. But again things happen. I'll try to make the next chapter more fast pace for you guys. Thanks for all the support 3