Journey Of The Chosen One

Chapter 16

"Arielle!" Ash shouted as the toddler ran towards the vacuum.

The girl did not seem to hear him or she just ignored him.

'Crap' Ash as he ran after her.

Arielle was getting closer and closer to the vacuum but Ash was quickly catching up due to his unexpectedly strong legs.

The people controlling the vacuum raised the power on it and Ash had to grab a tree nearby to avoid getting sucked in. Arielle however, did not act fast enough as she went in the truck.

Seeing this, without any possible way of saving her, Ash himself goes.

The truck was bigger than it seemed as it could fit over twenty Pokémon (and more coming in) and two humans.

Ash pushed himself up and rushed over to Arielle.

"What were you thinking!? You scared years off of me!"

"I'm sorry but I had to save them!"

"And how were you going to do that with a newborn Cleffa and nothing else?" Ash bends down to look at her sternly.

"I was going to- I was going to... um..." the girl fidgeted with her fingers as she realized that she didn't have a plan at all.

"*Sigh* let's talk about it later. Getting out takes priority."

He stood up and looked around.

The storage of the vacuum was a rectangular prism made out of a metal that Ash couldn't quite name. The pokemon were bundled up in the corners of the space. He recognized a few of them he saw earlier.

The teen walked around the space as he touched and knocked on the walls to find any weaknesses. On one of the long sides of the prism, he discovered that it was more hollow than the other sides.

Ash didn't think that his pokemon could break out at the moment. So, he took a survival knife out of his bag inside the storage system of his Nanodex and jabbed it in the middle of the wall. After a few tries, he made a small vertical slit in the metal. He continued to cut at it and then he used the handle to make the hole even bigger.

Eventually, the hole got to a diameter of 3 centimeters.

Ash approached the Bulbasaur from earlier "Hello, I'm Ash and I'm sure you remember me. I need your help."

The Bulbasaur snarled at him in response.

"Look I know that we are not on the greatest term right now but we all want to get out so please work with me."

'I'll hear you out.' is what the look it gave him seemed to say.

"You see the hole that I made a moment ago? I need you to continuously cut it with razor leaf."

It looked at the hole, brought his gaze back at Ash and nodded.

Bulba!~

Multiple small sharp leaves launched out of the bulb and started cutting.

The reason Ash asked Bulbasaur instead of the Rhyhorn that was somehow sucked in was that the ramming would make too much noise and it would probably alert the people outside. Even though Razor leaf still made noise, it won't be heard over the sound of the vacuum.

The grass-type pokemon kept going at it, producing leaf after leaf. Eventually, it was at least over 3 feet tall. Still a bit small but big enough for Ash to go through. But, the Bulbasaur kept going at it so that the bigger Pokémons can get through.

Ash went out first. He looked around and no enemies were visible. So, he made a motion for Arielle and the other Pokemon to come out.

Arielle came out first after Ash followed by the Bulbasaur. The other Pokemon were hesitant, however, but they eventually relented.

They made their way down the 'hall' of the truck. On the side, there was a large door.

Ash faced them.
"There will probably be enemies outside so either run or fight and be careful."

After a moment grabbed Arielle and put his hand on the handle. He took a deep breath and opened the door swiftly. He ran as fast as he could with Arielle in his arms towards the forest, crossing his fingers that the people didn't see him.

Without stopping to look back, he ran for a good minute deep in the lush forest. Coincidentally, he saw his friends near where he was. He called out to them while rushing tiredly towards them, the adrenaline just running out.

He stumbled a bit but luckily they were there to catch him.

"We already called the police. There should be some officers or Rangers coming soon." Brock informed them.

"Speaks of the devil, here there they are."
Gary spoke as a group of ten people arrived.

They asked them to lead them to the place. So, the people went there with Gary leading the way While Ash, Brock and Arielle stayed behind with an officer.

They asked them some basic questions, more to Certified Pokémon trainers than the younger girl

After that, they were all bandaged up, and the group -Gary were brought back to the cabin to be monitored.

An hour or two passed before the officers and rangers finished investigating the scene.

Each one of them received a 'panic button' although they didn't seem like it since they were disguised as other objects such as a hairpin, a necklace, an arm strap and an anklet. Arielle received the hairpin, Gary the necklace, Brock the arm strap and Ash got the anklet.

One of the rangers explained that if the hidden button is hit on either of the accessories, it would notify the nearest police or ranger station of their location. But it won't track their location it is hit.

They got one last check-up before they were sent on their way.

"I'm never going to question your instincts again." Brock swore.

"You better not." Ash replied with no specific emotion displayed on his face.

A few minutes of silence ensued during that short interaction.

Arielle tugged his forearm.
"Ashy?"

"Hm?"

"Are you angry at me?"

Ash sighed as he bent down.
"In reality, yes I'm a bit angry. Your life should matter the most to you and not the ones of other people. Don't die for them. Living is the best, you got it?"

Arielle nodded.

The silence was considerably less uncomfortable.

*******
Um... hello, it's been been a while.

First of all, I'm sorry to have neglected this story for like two months and more. I've been very distracted by other activities such as Genshin impact and 'finishing' a novel called Trash of the count's family (TOTCF).

To those who know the novel, you might've noticed the little reference at the end. ;)

Thank you for being patient!
Thank you for reading!