The Aura is With Us

Chapter 38: Strike Me Down, See What Will Happen

The air was heavy with the smell of smoke, sweat and sin. It made her hair heavy and stick to her face. Thin fingers clung to the powered railing, cold to the touch. Amanda bit her lip as she stared at the battle arena below, lit with bright flickering strobe lights. She had to admit the constant flashing hid the bloodstains well.

I am uncertain about this.

Goh scoffed, "Ash can handle anything Bella dishes out."

Amanda resisted rolling her eyes at their nativity. She wouldn't say anything. Correcting them will be redundant with everything that was about to go down. They'll learn. They'll learn. They'll learn that not all Pokémon battles are these clean spectacles of power and love. Down here the players didn't fight fair. Not giving them an outlet in the city, made them slink into the shadows, fall into a place where no rules can be broken, since they're already breaking all of them.

Ash wasn't ready for this. That was just a plain fact. Amanda wasn't a fool she knew her cousin had incredible skill in the ring. But skill didn't win the battles in this place. It was cunning, and how far you were willing to go to win. Fatal hits, no refs, battle enhancing drugs, everything was allowed in this hellhole of an arena.

"You don't like this," Uncle Aaron whispered.

Amanda shook her head, "This isn't going to work."

"There's always a chance Ash will succeed."

"Even if he does, Bella won't hand that necklace over."

"Even if he wins."

"Even if Ash wins...Bella never loses."

"Why can't I be on the field with Pikachu?" Ash asked the weird human in front of him with far too many rings in their nose.

They looked at Ash with a very confused expression, "Do you have a death wish?"

Ash's brows furrowed, "What no?"

"Then stand where we tell you to stand. Humans stay out of the kill zone," They said in a tone as if Ash were child, and then walked out of the small chained interior pocket Ash stood in.

Okay this a definitely on the weirder battle fields Ash had been on, and he's had to deal with a lot of weird battle fields. The illegal battlefield was a round ring, with two chain link fences topped off with barbed wire, that made a little track around the field's edges. There weren't places for the trainers to stand. No lines marked the gravel arena bed. Behind him he could feel the hot breath, and throbbing souls, of spectators pressing up against the other fence. It definitely felt unofficial.

Ash looked at Pikachu and Riolu, his Pokémon giving him determined expressions. They were ready to win.

"Let's do this," Ash said.

Pikachu leapt from his shoulder into the starting position, Riolu standing next to the mouse, the door on the inner fence just ahead of them. Bella decided on a double battle, last Pokémon standing give the trainer the win. Michal had showed him how the arena worked, when the announcer called the door would be opened via a remote electrical lock and piston hinge. Riolu and Pikachu would enter alone, while Ash stayed in the space between the two fence rings.

The music stopped, and the strobes shifted in color from red to white.

"We have a very special battle for you ladies and gents," A man mic-ed up on the DJ stand said in the middle of his crowd of loudred, "We have a challenge to the throne!"