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Ash feels himself grin, as Chad was bombarded endlessly with Water Shuriken. She wasn't even trying to dodge anymore, taking each shuriken with a defiant, angry look in her eye, as she gets even more irrate, and attempts to beat the ground around her in sheer defiance. Attempting to rush the frog, she comes in with another RAGE FIST, throwing it at the Greninja with white-hot-fury within her gaze. Her veins were positively POPPING.[break][break]

"I suppose. After making him sushi, I wanted to see him again. So I asked him out to trick or treat, and I woo'd him. Suddenly, we're at my place, and the rest is history. I was down bad." He goes on to explain. No need for gratuitous saucy detail.[break][break]

He remembers so easily. The southern Unovan dialect, knowing the people around. The first kiss in the streets of Slateport. It's cheesy, but Sharpe isn't wrong. Like a movie almost.[break][break]

Course, as Milo goes on about it being Mint, Ash's eyes widen. "Damn. He's more dangerous than I gave him credit for... first met him last summer when we had a butt battle on a float."[break][break]

And he did not elaborate further.[break][break]

The idea of family they get to choose rung so true. "Try to befriend them while you can. Things in Rocket get muddied real quick. Better to have that family on your side than let them have a reason to let you die." He smirks to Milo.[break][break]

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Once you rest up, that is."

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There's a few ways to take this whole situation. The first is perhaps the best choice; to accept Ashley's words, that he was doing it. Feed into the lie, and let him fall further as someone who believed he was attempting to do it for their own good. The Walter White approach, where the lie became their reality, and thus it enabled him to do terrible, awful things for others.[break][break]

Then there was the way Isaac responds.[break][break]

And Ashley wipes at his eyes, as the caravan leaves them. His gaze is thousands of yards forward, into the ultra deep blue, and everything in-between. His mind was running a thousand paces a second, his heart breaking. He could only see the body left behind. Another added to the list. People he's killed. People he's sentenced to die. Dead men that would follow him. Another ton weight to carry along.[break][break]

The gun doesn't drop. He just turns the safety on and holsters it.[break][break]

Isaac pleaded on. Was this what he wanted? To add fuel to the fire? Peace was only achieved when both sides sheathe their blades. Yet here he is. Another body to the pile. Another sin to the shoulders of a good person. He was still cognizant. He was still here. Conscious. Isaac brought out what humanity was left in him, and salvaged it. Some people did see the shiny golden retriever underneath.[break][break]

But it was getting further buried down to Sawyer, the Rocket Elite. The face of the man who stared at him in the mirror last night. Alien.[break][break]

"..." What can he say? To a good Rocket? To someone he wants to save... he smiles. It's not happy. It's bittersweet and sheepish. But it is genuine. "Thanks for snapping me out of it. For not trying to make me feel like it was necessary." He looks down at his hands.[break][break]

Will the blood ever be cleaned?[break][break]

"You're wrong though. It won't be this way forever." He takes a moment to look onwards. With a deep breath, he finally comes to his own conclusion. "I think it's naïve to tell you that we won't always be at war. So long as Rocket exists, the League will fight. So long as the League fails, Rocket or other groups will rise again and again. The cycle of conflict continues unabated. If not me, someone else will. But..." His smile tries to widen itself.[break][break]

"I still don't believe I am a good person. But you believe in me. So that's enough. I can promise to try."[break][break]

He pulls out that same familiar switchblade, and digs it into his hand, wincing as he draws the blood. And with a handover, he says it.[break][break]

"Blood oath."[break][break]

Just because he has the ability to kill, doesn't mean he has to kill.

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Trying to enjoy the sassy conversation of real estate, he smiles towards Kepler and Isaac both. Real estate here would be lovely! Aside from the murder ghosts, murder birds, murder river, murder trees, and the like, it would be a great place for a Mickey D's. Hell, better with Wally's World. He's laughing at the joke. It's a jovial time, and a much better experience than their first.[break][break]

He lovingly links a pinky with Kep, and feels himself eye him.[break][break]

While Isaac does split the math a little more evenly, Ashley thinks a bit more and shrugs. "Alright man, but it might get weird when we start making out spontaneously." Or worse. But he holds on the worse for a moment. Four. Means one for him, one for Kep, one for Isaac, one for both of them. Does mean Isaac gets to have some alone time, but Ashley considers an alternative. "It'll be awfully boring though. How about... Kep and I, you two, Isaac and I, and then be done with it? If we split it in three hours a piece, that means we each at least get three hours, and we can keep the other up." He's thinking of Isaac being alone. "Regardless, I take first."[break][break]

It's not flawless, and less efficient, but it's a lot better in case one of them gets tired. Not perfect, but manageable.[break][break]

Geting the camp ready, the barriers prepared, and the anti-ghost mechanisms, Ashley looks troubled. Each one he looks over meticulously. Once over, twice over, a third time and a fourth. Each seal around camp, each little trail of salt. Not doing so would spell another possession. And if another possession happens, he'll-[break][break]

He jumps a little, turning towards Kep who seemed to appear out of nowhere. "I'm okay. I'm just a little freaked out is all. This place... Mt. Pyre still holds a lot over me. Don't worry, baby. I'm sure it's nothing." He swears, he can feel an Alolan Raichu watching from the distance. Protecting them. He sighs.[break][break]

"Ready?"

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The man struggled for a moment. The knife was dropped. And Ashley waited. He waited a few seconds. Until he heard Isaac's whisper, and he snapped back. Stops for a moment, looking at the pistol in his hand, and stares.[break][break]

The first two workers would have trouble walking. But they would have a chance. They were assurance. That last one though. He looks at the pistol again.[break][break]

He can't look weak now. But he found himself coldly uncaring. What had Zev Harcourt done to him? No... he can't blame Zev here.[break][break]

What had he done to himself?[break][break]

The caravaneers listen to Isaac, though it is by way of fear of Ashley. They quickly pull the two with shot out kneecaps up. As Holy Diver continues placing supplies on the ground nearby, they load the other man up.[break][break]

Then came the revelation.[break][break]

The man was dead.[break][break]

Ashley had shot him in the aorta. It was by chance. The moment it was spoken into existence, Ashley's face grew deathly pale. His silvers looked gruesomely depressed. The bags under his eyes were plain to see. He had killed a heroic man.[break][break]

"I was just trying to protect you."[break][break]

Thousand yard stare. He leans against a wall. Pupils shrunken. Panic beginning to tighten his chest, tighten his breathing. What had he done? As the caravaneers threw everything out of the cart, he would look at the pistol. He was right to use it, and yet... he felt colder still.

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The teeth never come. Instead, a cold ice pack is pressed upon her forehead, in the form of a Maple. It might be refreshing, but with a quiet mew, limping onto the scene is Ashley... wide-eyed and panicking. "Oh shit, Sunshine. You look worse than I do."[break][break]

Hello pot, have you met kettle?[break][break]

Quickly pulling off his jacket, he rips a sleeve of it off. It wasn't even one of his favorites, so it was worth the tear. "Maple, douse it." And wtih a nod, she utilizes CHILLING WATER on the sleeve, as she holds it out for Cygne to wipe herself off a little.[break][break]

"What happened to you?" He tries to laugh, knowing the question was likely about to go around and come back around, as he tries, for a moment, to look tough... only to buckle under the weight of his own body.[break][break]

On his knees now, he feels ready to kill over any second.[break][break]

He sulkily looks to the ground. He'll have to remember... but he makes a smile. Sadness does take him a moment, but he isn't about to let that stop him. He tries his communicator again. Knowing it's busted. "Isaac? Come on you piece of shit, work with me. Can you hear me?"[break][break]

Nada. He lets the communicator fall to his side.

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With the gas bursting, igniting quickly and sparking away, Theo's Banette is blasted with a quick Shadow Ball, and before the Salazzle can see it coming, she's thrown towards a pillar going the direction of where Ashley is walking. The Salazzle was still standing.[break][break]

The same cannot be said for the man that Theo, and Zev's Hatterene attack. While the Scolipede and Gabite only take minor wounds, the same cannot be said for the pleading man, who has a bullet and a brutal tentacle swing hit him. The first, Theo's bullet, embeds itself into the chest, as he cries out for the door to open. Guy was already bleeding out, begging about how he'll pay them any amount of money to open it. He was pale. The Hatterene's Brutal Swing makes for a sickening crunch, and another body hits the floor. That laughter...[break][break]

It had both the Gabite and Scolipede come in with a DRAGON RUSH and a POISON TAIL at the Hatterene, but definitely with less power. Their fear had them shaken.[break][break]

Zev, on the other hand, shoots the man with the Salazzle with ease. The blast hits him in the shoulder dead on, as he grips to his wound, as Ashley walks on, bitter anger ruling his mind. The man screams, yelling out, as he leans against a pedestal, trying to gain his footing. His Salazzle attempts to help, but he screams at her to "DON'T HELP ME, ATTACK! PROTECT US!" In turn, the Salazzle attempts to fire a FLAMETHROWER towards Zev's direction, panicked now. Sloppy. These aren't battle-ready Pokemon. They were more pets.[break][break]

Gavin's Cryogonal guards the Dragon Clawing Haxorus, who attempts a slice downwards to no avail, with Faolan making an Aura Sphere on the Trainer. And out of a showing of love for his trainer, the Haxorus turns to see it, and races to take the blast head on. A critical hit. The Haxorus is hardly up as it is. He won't let his Trainer die that easy. Not on... his...[break][break]

The Haxorus hits the ground. Unconscious. Leaving the man defenseless.[break][break]

It's a lucky thing too, that Isaac happened to be String Shotting the windows, because onf of the men, seeing all the bloodshed, began running for the windows, the one extra hurt by that first Brutal Swing, only to slam into the net of a string shot., stopping him, and sticking him in place. The other man that hadn't taken too nasty a strike quickly makes his way towards Mr. Byron.[break][break]

"WE NEED TO GET OUT." He orders, eyes looking rather fearful, as Ashley continues to round the corner.[break][break]

Mr. Byron, however, leans back, and looks at the man as if he was a moron. "Where?" is all he has to say, for the man to say nothing. With that, the hopelessness of the situation weighs down on them.[break][break]

The man by Mr. Byron gets on his knees, and places his hands together. "I'll give you money! As much as you want! Please, please don't do this. I have a wife, and two little girls!" he begs, and pleads to the men on the mission.[break][break]

Ashley keeps moving, his eyes never once leaving Mr. Byron. His father eyes him in turn. Fury is building upon Ashley's back. Anger. Every negative emotion swarming his soul.

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All it takes is one hero.[break][break]

The 'rule-by-fear' approach mostly worked for the duo. The caravan workers backed off, and Ashley would nod towards Isaac with a blank expression on his face. Silver eyes, dead and lifeless, as Holy Diver went to take a small crate away of supplies, running away.[break][break]

But in an act of defiance... a knife was drawn. Racing towards Isaac, one of the workers had the idea to run down the guy without a weapon. Because if they could take Isaac as a hostage, they could get the duo to back off.[break][break]

13.[break][break]

Like a mousetrap, Ashley snaps, pistol pointed to the side and a shot to the man before he got close enough, the recoil popping his hand up a single moment. A bullet pierces his chest. And the man grabs for it, collapsing towards the ground. He was bleeding out already...[break][break]

"What did we just fucking say?"[break][break]

Though angry grumbles, it was clear that being a hero would spell disaster, and as he continues holding the pistol out. Silver eyes looking irritated and filled with hate. The workers would nod, cowering away though angered all the same. A chaotic swirl of madness, all due to a shift in perspective.[break][break]

Fear was a great motivator.[break][break]

What happened to you, Ash?

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Too deep, too soon.[break][break]

Now the Rocket tar pit permeated all around him, and all he had to show for it was his own regret. He grabs towards his face. "Yeah. I know." He knew that the man he saw as a good mentor was right, after all, Ashley listened to him. But then he didn't heed the warning.[break][break]

He wipes his sweat away.[break][break]

"He's not. But I'm supposed to feel better after it, right? Like... I did good. Right? Why do I feel so cold then?" He looks down at himself. The answer, that didn't come so easy. He felt empty. Like he just ended a curse that had been with him, but he missed it. Relished in it.[break][break]

He hates himself for that now. He does.[break][break]

He grabs towards himself. "When I look in a mirror now... I see someone else. But I know it's still me." He can't even look Gavin in the eyes. He just keeps staring at that small puddle. The man in the reflection.

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After one of the friendlier fight against what would one day be his junior, and somewhat re-energized by the endeavor with a new powerful Primeape at his side, he would begin to limp on. Looking at his busted communicator and quietly contemplated his next action carefully.[break][break]

This entire day could go straight to hell.[break][break]

His eyes readjusted. His face hurt, and yet epiphany washes over him. Wait. Wasn't... "Eris." He limps against the wall now. Most of his Pokemon were down and out. His only one left, really, was Sunny. And as he releases the Scorbunny, he would proceed. The Scorbunny concerned about Ash, holds onto his head, as he continues his way through the labyrinth that was the Ultra Sea.[break][break]

Where the hell can one little girl be in here? Come on. Legs, don't fail me now. I need you to get me wherever she is. I'll do the rest.[break][break]

After today, he was gonna take some much needed paid time off. Hell, he was going to request a promotion for the work he's done. Elite isn't paying the bills as much as it should.[break][break]

It didn't take long to find two grunts, wasted on the ground as his silver eye, the only one that could open far enough, widened considerably. "Oh my Arceus." His eyes trailed upwards. He lets go of the wall he was limping against, and practically slammed onto his butt, jaw on the floor.

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It was sometime after Landon had damn near killed him. Ashley was bandaged up and cared for by Jayden, and once Jayden left, he was here, leaned against the wall. Forcing himself to his feet now, he resembled someone from Fight Club on the losing side: a busted lip, a half-lidded eye, bandages around the head.[break][break]

He was in no state to continue, but Maple kept trying his best to stay by his side and help cool him off, Ashley would mess with his communicator. "Anyone there?" He tries to message whoever would listen. "It's Ash. If there's anything I can do now, I-" He winces. He can hear nothing from it.[break][break]

Maple sulkily looks on ahead, walking quietly forward, and constantly looking back. He was tired too, but his Trainer just went through a hellish fight.[break][break]

"Isaac? Cyg? Eris? Gavin? ... Kep?" He didn't know if his words were being jammed right now. Or if it was busted.[break][break]

No answer.[break][break]

"Dammit." He keeps limping forward. His vision is shaky. Unknown to him at the moment, he was making his way towards a familiar face. "Hello?" Maple is first to come over, rushing towards her, and immediately providing a cool breeze of air. He just wanted to help, bless the little ice Eeveelution's heart.

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Ashley was not doing too hot. After an escape from the fight against Greyson, he found himself in another leaked interdream, and instead of a burned field where Kanto once stood, this time he found himself glaring daggers at the comfy little home. The comfy white picket fence all around this lovely dozen acres of land. Silver eyes could not stare harder daggers into the homestead. Ashley had his pistol out as he approached.[break][break]

"God dammit." He curses, quietly approaching up that hill, to the home that once took him in. The first time he rolled the dice, and the first time he ever rolled a three total on those two six-siders.[break][break]

He kicks the door down without any effort, pistol at the ready, as he aims it inside, moving quickly side to side, aiming at the various parts... the foyer was exactly as he remembered. The stairwell carpeted lovely, a living room with a leathery black couch, and the head of a Bagon mounted above a hearth. The kitchen to his left with a dining room meant for a few foster kids and the parents.[break][break]

The first chance of redemption for a broken system. And he scoffs, anger boiling as he releases Bongo. The gorilla looking about, and sensing the vicious aura from Ashley. "Pan out. I'm sending an emergency signal out." He does so... when one of the walls collapses nearby, bursting out not one, but two mecha. Green and standing tall, scanning the area, and Ashley's eyes widen.[break][break]

"Shit."[break][break] As they detect him.

Both Iron Thorns were coming at him now. Two STONE EDGES meant for Ashley are blocked and broken by Bongo, getting in the gorilla stance. Ready for combat.[break][break]

Ashley didn't have time for this.

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He chuckles again. "Don't I know it." He's laughing again, all while Chad helps the dragon up, and pats it of the dust all over them. At the very least, the two-headed dragon was gonna be treated nicely by Chad, who just wanted to fight more. And once the Greninja came out, she bounces, only to get hit with Extrasensory. And it has her writhing on the ground, beating her head into it. Psychic shit? Not good for Chad.[break][break]

Ash quietly looks up. "Met my boyfriend on a day I was going to eat lunch with another friend. Unrelated. They ditched. Found him and my best friend buying groceries and decided to cook them sushi. I guess I was really into him, because yeah. I was originally out to meet my friend. Instead, found out I was smitten with this sassy guy. It was like everything made sense. So I feel you." His memories of kepler brueshaber are fond, and he just hopes the boy can hear him say it all. To let him know he was okay, after his inning with Landon (paxton concordas ).[break][break]

He didn't find it necessary to go into detail about the trick or treat date that led back to his place on the couch. Both of their lips were kind of sealed that night.[break][break]

Milo really was a newbie, so at least he could help inform. "Ever hear of Meteno? Big doomsday meteor. Mt. Pyre was a warzone." War never changed. Neither did PTSD. As Chad goes in for a THUNDER PUNCH again, the monkey making snarling noises to punch this frog in the face, Ashley just listens.[break][break]

He leaves the part out of the Leaguers that are more humane. It was easier that way to fight them. If they aren't his friend, they'd be easier to fight. But that was such a lonely way of living.[break][break]

Better than being subject to Walsh's wrath.[break][break]

His comment on ruining his life for a girl has him snicker, but hearing the guy speak about being blackmailed leaves a bad taste in his mouth. "Ah." He looks away. "Which one? Actually... don't answer that. If you've found kindred spirits like I did, you're probably in for the long haul regardless." He leans back a bit, and pulls his mask down. "Guess you found another. Foster kid, and boy did I let everyone around me know it till I joined Rocket as a teenager. Then I left, nearly got killed for being a traitor, and came back."

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