Anabel's eyes shot open. She was lying on her dorm bed. She momentarily closed her eyes to reminisce what had happened. She tried to get up but immediately felt pain in her newly bandaged forehead.
"Don't push yourself."
A concerned and calm voice said as Anabel looked relief when Ash came to her side, with a bowl of soup in his hand.
He placed it on the side and sat on the edge of her bed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked calmly.
"I ----"
"Espi? Espeon!" Before she could say anything, an Espeon jumped to the bed and started licking her face, happy to see her trainer awake.
"Hey stop," Anabel giggled, "I am fine Espeon. Sorry for making you worried," she apologised as the Sun pokemon nuzzled against her. Anabel started petting her before she asked, "What happened?"
Ash looked a bit tensed.
"Well, one of the hunters hit you on the head, resulting that injury," he said gesturing towards her head.
"Thankfully, I was able to.... stop him before he could hit you again," he said choosing his words carefully. He thought telling her that he killed the man right on the spot wouldn't be a wise thing to do.
Anabel frowned a bit but didn't say anything.
"Sooo... yeah, I told my Gardevoir to teleport us here. Then she used Heal Pulse on your head while I did some bandaging and stuff. Now here we are," he concluded.
Anabel was grateful but still decided to ask something.
"Why didn't you take me to a hospital instead?"
Ash considered. "The hospital was far from the place we were, which was impossible to teleport. An injury like that should be treated right away. So I did what my conscious told me to do. And besides...."
Anabel looked at him.
"It's my fault you got hurt, so I am sorry," Ash muttered, completely surprising the girl.
"Hey don't apologise Ash. I should thank you instead for taking care of me. You couldn't have anticipated what was going to happen,right?" she said reassuringly and thankfully, considering the reason Ash apologised to her for.
Ash smiled and chuckled, "I guess not."
Anabel smiled. "There, keep smiling like that. It looks cute on you," she said and immediately regretted it. Ash turned red and looked away with a fake cough.
"I-I mean i-it lo-looks great, yeah that's it," the Salon Maiden tried to correct her previous sentence.
"Ye-yeah thanks," Ash muttered. He then noticed the soup and changed the topic immediately.
"Hey you should drink it before it gets cold," Ash said as Anabel glanced to her side. She grabbed it and took a sip of the tasty soup.
"You made this Ash? Wow," she said with an impressed look.
"Honestly, I doubted if you could even boil a pot of water," she further added with a giggle.
"That's rude," Ash pouted as Pikachu and Espeon laughed at the statement.
Ash then took a glance at the clock. It was quarter past 7 already.
"Take some rest Anabel. I will check up on you later," that being said the trainer got up from the bed and started to leave.
"Thank you again Ash," Anabel said with a smile.
Ash looked at her. He had a jolly feeling inside him all of a sudden. He didn't know what he was doing as he started closing up to the girl.
Ash got near her and leaned down. He gently touched her cheek and kissed her forehead.
"Get well soon," he whispered and quickly went out, closing the door behind him.
Anabel looked paralysed. She was taking time to process what the heck just happened. She put a hand on her chest, where her heart was beating faster and faster as she thought something.
'Is there any chance he feels the same way?'
***
Ash stood outside, lost for a moment.
"Pikapi chu pi?" asked the rodent.
"Why did I do that you say?" Ash translated and thought about it before replying, "I honestly don't know either. Maybe it felt... right? Or comforting?" he was confused too with a noticeable blush on his face.
"Pika pika chuu," the rodent made a familiar comment.
Ash shrugged it off, not bothering to ask the rodent what it meant by 'No. 3', as the two of them started walking towards their room.
***
Somewhere in Kalos
"What are the reports?" a commanding female voice asked. She had white short hair, cold grey eyes and was wearing an uniform black as night.
"The hunters we recruited for the task were defeated and captured," a male voice replied in a robotic tone. He was wearing the same uniform as well.
"Details."
"Yes Ma'am ," the voice replied as he pulled out a pendrive and connected it to a computer. Soon a clip started playing on the big projector in front of them.
Some hunters were seen capturing pokemons and putting them in a cage. They were talking about something relating to electrocuted bars and repairing truck.
Moments later there was a huge yellow flash and the screen turned totally white so that no one could see anything. When the light faded, the area looked like someone dropped a nuclear bomb from the sky.
Medea's eyes, the feminine voice from earlier, widened in shock. She gave a look at the grunt who played the clip, to explain to her what just happened.
"It was a powerful thunder from the sky," the grunt explained quickly.
She again looked at the clip. A girl with an Espeon could be seen running towards the cages, freeing all the pokemon. Another boy came out in view, face hidden by his cap with a Pikachu by his side.
Seeing that Pikachu, Medea tried to put two and two together. She soon realized the thunder was from that small mouse itself.
"Incredible," she murmured unintendedly.
The clip played further as she saw one of the hunters hit the girl with something as she fell to the ground. The guy was about to do it again when suddenly, the boy from earlier appeared behind him out of nowhere. He snatched the rod and smashed it against the guy's head as he fell down to the ground. He picked up the girl and teleported away from their with his Gardevoir's help. The clip ended.
Medea spoke.
"Why did it end there and why is there no sound for the rest of the clip?" she asked demandedly with a strict and cold tone.
The grunt got nervous. Before he spoke another grunt interrupted.
"Ma'am," he politely said to get her attention. Medea looked at him.
"To answer your first question, that lightning attack disabled the microphone function of our device. And the reason that clip ended there, its because the KDA forces arrived their soon enough. So our spy had to retreat," he explained not missing any detail.
The chief commander looked lost for a moment. She tried to make sense of everything until a voice interrupted them from behind.
"The Champion isn't a joke to be messed with, that's for sure."
They turned around to see a tall muscular man coming entering the room. He wore a black uniform just like the others with the letter C in the middle. He had some gadgets attached to his belt.
"Sir!" the two grunts saluted quickly to show respect as the elite member of the organisation entered.
Medea looked at him incredulously.
"Agent Black?" she started, "Did you just say Champion?"
He gave a nod.
"Yes, that guy in the clip is the current Kanto, Alola and the World Champion," he said to which Medea looked shocked again as she looked back at the projector.
'So that's Ash Ketchum.' she thought.
"As you know I used to work in Team Rocket," he said as the women nodded.
"Until that guy came and destroyed the entire base all by himself," Black said pointing towards the screen,"He disbanded the once powerful criminal organisation and sent Giovanni behind the bars with a life sentence." He sighed as he continued, "Some members managed to escape from his wrath and secluded themselves. I was one of them too."
"But you decided to work with us anyway," said Medea raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. This organisation works very secretly, it's not so easy to track us down," said Black.
He then remembered the topic they were discussing about.
"Anyways, why did you send those hunters on that reckless mission?" Black asked Medea.
"That was my idea actually," a voice said from behind Black as he turned around to see another elite member.
"Damon?" asked Black.
A tall and handsome man entered. He had jet black hair and pitch black eyes. The grunts saluted once again. He had a small smile on his face.
"To answer your question, I send those hunters as our distraction," Damon said.
"How is that Sir?" asked one of the grunts.
He just laughed.
"You should be more attentive," he remarked. "The hunters didn't even set their foot near the academy for a minute and look at what happened to them. Two captured and one dead," he said to which they gasped and looked shocked.
Damon rewinded the clip on the projector. The other members came there as well to watch it. They saw how the hunters were taken down easily in mere moments.
Damon paused and zoomed the footage before locking it on Ash.
"This guy..." he started as everyone listened attentively. "He is the head member of KDA, a powerful trainer, maybe even the strongest among the Champions. With him inside the academy, we will be taken down easily no matter what we do," he started to say before Medea interrupted.
"You might have forgotten, but our scientists are working on the pokeball disable devices making them more powerful. He, along with the others can't do a thing if their pokemons can't come out of their pokeballs," she stated in an obvious tone.
"I am well aware of that Medea," Damon said irritatedly. "I certainly hope you have noticed how severe of a damage was caused to that area from only his Pikachu," Damon said as Black chuckled a bit.
"That Pikachu might be strong, but are you telling us that only a mouse will be able to stand against our army of pokemons?" he said as some of the grunts smirked.
"We don't know what other tricks he might have up his sleeve, so I don't want to take any risks. Besides, I've heard rumors about him summoning legendaries before," Damon said as the small smirks and laughs were instantly wiped off.
"So? What should we do? He's still inside the academy. Got any plan for that?" Medea asked bluntly.
Damon smirked, "Fortunately, yes, I do have a plan and it is already in action."
The grunts smirked and some laughed, excited to execute and show what real power is like.
"Don't worry about that for now," Damon said as he walked back to his chamber.
"Prepare for our attack on World Academy of Elites."
***
Ash walked to the cafeteria for dinner before going back to his dorm. Pikachu agreed as it was hungry too.
They entered the cafe. By this time, everyone started to get used to the fact of Ash being around them. He was crowded around less than before, but still always had attention more or less.
He grabbed his food and looked for a table. He spotted one at the corner where Serena, May, Clemont, Bonnie, Lana, Sophocles and Cilan were talking with each other. Ash went there and took a seat.
"Hey Ash!!" Serena and May said in unison before giving each other a glare.
"Hello Ash," Clemont and Cilan greeted him politely.
The others did the same.
"Hey guys," Ash said letting out a huge sigh, which they noticed it.
"You ok darli... A-ash?" Serena asked, almost slipping up as she sat on Ash's left side, close to him.
"Yeah are you feeling alright?" asked May, as she sat on Ash's right side placing a hand on his forehead.
Bonnie noticed how the two girls were trying to get the boy's attention and smirked at the scene.
If Ash was feeling well just a while ago, he definitely wasn't now as the boy was blushing and sweating from the attention of two hotties. Not to mention the physical contact of them being so close to him.
"I-I am fine. Don't worry," Ash managed to say as he started to eat his food, hoping that filling his stomach will calm his nerves.
Pikachu, who was under the table, was laughing hard seeing Ash's situation right now.
"You should learn something from him," Bonnie whispered in Clemont's ears as the said boy went red and shushed his little sister.
Ash was feeling awkward how the girls were staring at him before he noticed something.
"Hey where's Dawn?"
Serena and May looked at each other before shrugging.
"Can't tell. She said she had some shopping to do," said May remembering.
"Yeah, she said she will be back before the dark. But it's quite late, isn't it?" Serena said thoughtfully.
Ash couldn't help but feel nauseous. Inside, he had a bad feeling about Dawn being late than she estimated. Then again, there could have been some other reason for that. But still, considering what happened today, he couldn't risk the safety of his best friend. Pikachu knew what Ash was thinking, as it got up on his shoulder.
Ash didn't finish his food as he got up as well. Everyone looked at him.
"I just remembered something important to do, see you guys later," with that he stormed out of the cafe, not waiting for any reply.
"Ash wait!" Serena and May yelled but the boy was already gone.
"What's gotten into him?" Bonnie asked confused.
Cilan thought about the situation for a moment before he spoke.
"Could it be he got worried of Dawn's late arrival and went to check if she's alright?" he asked analysing perfectly.
"It could be. He is always like that. Thinking about others before himself," Clemont said with a smile as Lana nodded.
May and Serena looked sad as their guy ditched them like that. But if it was for the reason Cilan stated, they had no complaints as they too, were worried for their friend.
'So Dawn too huh?' Bonnie thought with a sinister grin on her face.