Red Eyed Master

Chapter 18

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I DO NOT OWN POKÉMON.

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"Hello" - Speech

'Hello' - Thoughts

"Hello" - Pokémon speech/Aura/Psychic communication

'Hello' - Pokémon thoughts

[Hello] - Pokédex Entries

..::..

Flashes.

Flashes of pain echoed in his mind.

Visions of a tank. Memories that weren't his own swam freely in his mind.

It was ... chaos. His mind was in turmoil as these foreign images and feelings clashed with what he knew was real and genuine to him. The confusion and dissention it forcibly pushed onto him was ... unfathomable, and his original thoughts, feelings and memories struggled to sort through the invading chaos - to combat the invader.

Ash gasped and sat up in a single fluid motion. He grasped his head as whatever had occurred had created a throbbing in the deepest parts of his mind.

"W-What was that?" he asked himself through gritted teeth. He shook off the shiver that traversed down his back, despite the pleasantly warm, if not slightly humid weather of the wilderness that surrounded him.

Ash concentrated on clearing his mind using his Aura, but all he achieved was to create more throbbing. He felt like his mind was being dragged through a cloudy mess. Grunting in effort, he stood to move to the small stream of fresh water to wash his face ... only to fall to his knees.

His body felt slow ... sluggish and heavy.

'It has to be from overexerting my body and Aura yesterday,' Ash thought, though even to his mind, he knew it was a lie. He didn't understand why he felt the way that he did - and it was frustrating. In fact, he felt a kind of ... disconnection with his Aura. He took a deep breath to centre himself and brought himself up to his full height on shaky legs. He managed to make it to the stream and gathered some of the cool water to wash his face.

'I have to get to the Pokémon Centre as soon as possible,' Ash thought tiredly.

Ash struggled, but managed to feed his pokémon and then pack up camp. He ignored the contemplative look shot at him from Mismagius and returned his pokémon as soon as they were ready to depart.

It irritated him to no end as his progress was very slow. Every step was as if he was wading through thick mud.

He still didn't notice that the same Slowbro was trudging after him.

..::..

Ash barely managed to hand his team over to Nurse Joy before he was collapsing from the effort of his journey. Instead of hitting the cold floor however, he found himself being caught by a pair of sturdy arms. Glancing to his left with blurry eyes, he spotted Brock looking at him with equal parts anger and relief as he held Ash.

"We will be talking about what happened," Brock bit out - his fury temporarily held back by the state of which Ash appeared.

Ash sighed. He figured that he'd have to explain himself to his two companions/friends ... it was still an odd concept to him, after all. Brock never got the chance to continue his statement as Ash passed out completely.

It was a tense two days later that he woke. Misty was the sight that greeted him once he could make out the blurs.

"You had a fever," Misty simply informed. "Brock and Nurse Joy think that you may have eaten something toxic, but I know that you're better than that ... to eat something poisonous is not something that you'd deliberately do."