Baffled Hearts - a Brock x Ash (Pokemon) fanfic

Chapter 4

The night was still asleep with darkness and the sun had barely lit up a golden thread of tomorrow at the eastern horizon when the Pokémon centre was suddenly thrown in chaos. Ash awoke to the sound of Nurse Joy and Chansey shouting outside, he jumped out of bed immediately, beside him Brock got up as well, they nodded at each other and ran out of the room. In the corridor they ran into May and Max and together they headed towards the sound of the commotion.

In the reception, they saw Nurse Joy and Chansey hastily moving medical equipment around.

'Nurse Joy! What's the matter?' May asked.

'There's been a power cut! The gangs were fighting around here a few moments ago and they damaged the power supply, even the backup one! We don't have many Pokémons here but there are a few that's in critical condition and need intensive care!' Nurse Joy said, visibly distressed.

'What can we do to help, Nurse Joy?' Ash asked.

'Hmm, the power plant has many backup batteries, if you can bring one from there... oh, but it's all the way on the other side of the town!' Nurse Joy said despairingly.

'Don't worry about it, we will definitely bring the batteries back so the Pokémons can continue their treatment!' Ash promised and the four of them set off for the power plant.

Outside, the fight had already ended, leaving behind rubbles and debris all over the place. They checked around, and, finding no one injured, set off to the power plant with Max guiding the way using the digit map. The Pokémon centre in Songria was on the eastern outskirt of the town, and the power plant was exactly at the other end of the town – the western outskirt. To get there, they would have to make a straight line across the town, or that was the plan, until they realised, once they set foot in town, that the gang war had ungraded to the entire town. Everywhere was rippled with explosions and Pokémons battling each other. What was supposed to be a simple journey across town turned into a complicated hide and seek, because Ash, being the righteous hothead he was, tried to battle off every gang member he saw, while the rest of the group had to drag him back and keep on reminding him the more important business at hand. The day went by like that and now as the sun was slowly easing its way down the western horizon the group was finally closing in on the power plant.

'Guys we need to hurry, we haven't got much time left!' Ash called as he dashed for the power plant.

The group ran towards it. But suddenly, a powerful blast shook the ground and sent them crumbling on their knees.

'Oh God, what happened?' May asked lifting her head up to look for the source of the offence.

Through the smoke (from the explosion), a burly man in ragged leather jacket appeared.

'Seems like some small pawns are trying to get to the elixir as well. How cute.' He said, chuckling.

'Who are you and why did you attack us?!' Ash asked, getting ready to fight the man.

'I have no responsibility to answer any of your questions.' The man said. He then took out a pokeball and yelled, 'Gengar, finish them!' as him tossed the pokeball out.

A menacing Gengar jumped out. The man yelled, 'Gengar, confused ray!'

The ghost type Pokémon threw out a powerful ray of light which was about to hit the group head on when suddenly, a stern feminine voice called out from behind, 'Growlithe, fire wheel!'

a dash of orange appeared before the group and shot out a beam of blasting fire, successfully blocking Gengar's confused ray from hitting them.

'You guys, are you alright?' Police Jenny asked.

'Police Jenny!' the group called in unison.

'Why are you out here in the middle of a gang war? Don't you know that's very dangerous?' She scolded Ash, Brock, May and Max, then she turned to the man who attacked them and said angrily, 'you lawless gangsters, stop causing trouble for the people living in Songria, it was such a lovely town and look what you've done to it!'

The man looked evidently annoyed, he reached for his pocket, pulled out something black and circular, and quickly tossed it towards the group.

'What –'

Ash was about to ask what that was, but he was disrupted by police Jenny's distressed yell, 'Watch out! That's a hand grenade!' she dived towards the group, pushing Ash, Brock, May and Max away just in time to avoid direct impact from the blast.

The air around was suspended in a deafening ring for a few minutes and smoke cloaked the scene. Slowly recovering from the impact, the group finally got up their feet as they coughed and wheezed, trying to expel the smoke from their lungs.

'Is everyone alright?!' Ash called out, receiving confirmations in coughs from the rest of the group.

'Where's that man! How could he do such a terrible thing, gotta teach him a lesson.' Ash said, looking left and right for the gangster. But the man was nowhere to be found.

'Oh my! Police Jenny! Are you alright?' Brock asked in anguish.

'Ash, Ash! Come back, Police Jenny is badly hurt!' May called after Ash.

Ash ran back to everyone and saw that Police Jenny was completely limp on the ground, she had multiple cuts across her body, and, if not for the terrible grimace on her face, one would think she was unconscious already. Ash was about to dash to her to help when Brock quickly knelt beside her and gently cradled her into his arms. He leaned down to check her breathing and heartbeat. After making sure that Police Jenny is still breathing alright, he began checking her injuries while urgently but softly calling out her name, again and again. Close, too close. Ash should know better than to be having these thoughts now – there was a dangerous gang war happening in this town, they were on an urgent mission to bring power back to the Pokémon centre, and Police Jenny just sacrificed herself to save them. He should be grateful. Yet, all Ash could think of was how close Brock and Police Jenny were, their bodies leaning on each other, their faces so close that their breaths mingled. Ash suddenly felt pathetic and feeble at the sight before him; he thought that powerful and protective embrace belonged to him and him alone. But how naïve was that? Brock was straight, the way he fawned and swooned over beautiful women – ask any idiot and even they can tell. Yet, Ash still stupidly kept his hopes up, what the hell was he thinking? That he can somehow magic Brock into liking him instead? The more Ash thought about it the angrier he became, and the sense of hopelessness he felt suddenly turned into heated exasperation.

'Oh yeah? Well, you can vainly swoon over all the women you want while I am going to go to the power plant, get the battery, and save the day!' Ash broke out yelling, he then turned away and ran towards the power plant.

'Ash!' the group called after him.

'Why did he say something like that? This isn't like the Ash we know at all!' Max said.

'He is definitely acting really weird. We can't leave Police Jenny alone, but we can't let Ash run in there alone either. Brock, what should we do?' May turned to Brock and asked.

Brock looked at the direction Ash went, then looked down at Police Jenny, whom he's still cradling, and said, 'I've examined the injuries on Police Jenny already, there are a lot of cuts but thankfully none of them are critical, most of the impact probably came from the shock of the explosion.' Brock looked up at where Ash went again, and continued, 'May, Max, take Police Jenny back to Pokémon centre so Nurse Joy can attend to her. I'll go after Ash.'

May and Max nodded, and taking Police Jenny, setoff for the Pokémon centre. Once they were out of sight, Brock ran towards thepower plant.