A Journey's Link

Chapter 65 - Aftermath

Aaron watched in horror as the attacks made their way toward him and Greninja at high speeds. Before he had time to think, he jumped right in front of Greninja and shielded him from the attacks, something that Greninja seemed shocked about.

Greninja covered his face as the attack made contact with Aaron, sending him back and causing him to curl up into a defensive position. Greninja had no idea why Aaron had jumped in front to take the attack but was more worried about what had happened to Aaron upon getting it.

The debris was brought up around Greninja as the force from the attacks was transferred. Landing hard on the ground, Greninja frantically tried getting up in an attempt to try to save anyone from the impact of the attack, knowing that it must've done a lot of damage to the surrounding area.

The dust settled, allowing Greninja to sit and glance around at the state of everyone around him. He looked back at the group of people standing behind him, his eyes resting on one individual with raven hair. His eyes widened as he realized Ash had been knocked back and knocked unconscious, alongside everyone else.

He quickly snapped his head back towards where Aaron was and was upset to find that the same fate had occurred to Ash's father, only much worse. Aaron was profoundly injured all over his body, and Greninja noticed that his legs were facing directions that they weren't supposed to normally be facing, indicating that his injuries were quite serious.

Greninja crawled over to Aaron in an attempt to rescue him from directly in front of Giovanni, who was still trying to see beyond the dust. Greninja reached his arm out and tried to grab Aaron's arm, before hearing Giovanni command, "Rhyperior, Earthquake." Greninja looked at the ground and watched as it began trembling in an unstable manner.

Giving one last try to grab Aaron's arm, Greninja was shocked as he was flung into the air as a result of the ground being flung upwards. Soaring high in the air, Greninja was able to see the catastrophic damage that was occurring to the Ninja Village. More Team Rocket Grunts had shown up and began forcing the villagers out of their homes and onto the streets.

The worst part for Greninja was seeing everyone, especially Ash, blacked out on the ground and injured. He quickly understood that he was going to end up like them if he didn't something about it, so without hesitation, he positioned his tongue which was usually wrapped around his mouth so that he would land on it softly.

Unfortunately, Giovanni saw his plan to protect himself and whispered, "Oh no, you don't," in a chilling voice. "Mewtwo, use Shadow Ball," he commanded quietly. Mewtwo's eyes glowed as it held out its hands and formed a large ball of dark energy. Greninja looked out of the corner of his eye at Mewtwo and stared directly at its eye, attempting to break through into Mewtwo's subconscious.

For a moment, Greninja thought he saw a moment of hesitation from Mewtwo as the ball made its way towards him and made an impact, causing him to come crashing down to the ground at high speeds. It might've been his imagination, but as he was knocked unconscious, he recognized that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

[-]

It's really quiet. That means they're gone. We need to find them.

Ash opened his eyes and looked up, only to see an empty sky with no clouds. Whose voice was that? He thought to himself, trying to sit up. He instantly fell back to the ground once he felt an immense pain run through his arm, so he instinctively grabbed it as he lay back down on the ground.

How long have I been laying here? Ash knew what had just occurred that had caused him to be in this state, but he had no idea how long ago that was. For all I know, Giovanni has the Zygarde Core. He heard some rustling from behind him and tried slowly getting up while supporting his arm to see who was causing the noise.