Ash's POV:

Red just charged at me, and the second his fist connected with my chest, sending me a few steps back, finding it difficult to breathe, but that moment was more than enough for him to smash his knee to my abdomen, and his fist to my chest once more, forcing me towards the other side of the arena, and I hit my head on the wall rather hard.

Three hits...three...simple...hits. That was all it took for Red to drive me into a state of concussion, and I could make out a blurred form of the powerful brute walking towards me slowly.

"Not much on the fists, son?", he asked me, but I was too dizzy to give him an answer. I braced myself for more hits, and possibly death, but he didn't raise a finger on me. He just chuckled at my downed form.

"Irrespective of  whether I kill you, or leave you, I am going to die, or I'm going to jail. I'm going with the former option - I'm going to kill you, and it wouldn't take more than three days for your mother to come and slit my neck", he told me sitting cross legged in front of me, and slowly, my vision improved.

"Want some water?", he asked me, but I couldn't comprehend whether he was genuinely asking me, or if he was sarcastic.

I was skeptical of the man who was trying to kill me 30 seconds back, but was now behaving like my best friend.

"No, thanks", I told him and got up back on my feet, and he whistled slowly.

"I'm impressed, son. I thought you'd give up after those three hits", he told me and charged at me once more. But this time, I sidestepped his fist. Unfortunately, I didn't see that he was simultaneously able to move his right foot to the side, and tripped me.

A second later, he jumped and dropkicked me on my back sending me skidding down on my knees.

"I've been doing this ever since I was eight. You don't stand a chance against me, young man", he taunted before charging once more and was about to jump on my back, in an attempt to rip my spine into two parts, but I rolled out of the way, a millisecond before impact, and sighed in relief, which was a tad bit early of a celebration, as the very next second, he pummeled me by his fists once again.

I was bleeding heavily, I wasn't able to feel my right leg, my knees were literally Jello, and to make matters worse, I still had the double vision problem.

"I thought you'd give me a better challenge. You haven't inherited anything except for my looks", he scoffed and I stood up yet again.

"Standing up again and again, doesn't make you a hero, young man. A wise person is one who accepts defeat with honour. You are not worthy of my time", he scoffed and walked away, while I was standing hopelessly at the other side, yelling out in disappointment and anger at myself.

"Lysandre would be a better alternative, don't you think?", he asked me with a smirk, and suddenly, the orange haired devil came out breathing in deeply.

"The first breath when you step out of prison. It's....a new feeling, Ketchum", he told me, and Red just walked back shaking his head.

"Always the same old behaviour, Monferno face", he mocked Lysandre and began to walk out of the room chuckling to himself, while Lysandre just smirked.

"You're a disappointment, Ash. You're a mistake", he spat before walking out with a huff.

"Get yourself armed, kid. It's been a while since I've had a good challenge, and if you've taken down your sister single handedly, you'd be a good challenge", he told me throwing out a Pyroar.

"Not your usual battle, kid. I'm gonna cut down on the chase. I'm just the distraction. Red is somewhere else preparing his escape, and he'll come back when he's got the resources to stand up on his own legs once again. Don't bother trying to inform your friends. There is a jammer here, and obviously, you have no sorts of external communication", he told me a sickly sweet smile and I sighed in defeat.

"What do you want me to do?", I asked him and he just grinned.

"That's a good boy. There is only one rule - try not to die", he told me and yelled loudly, and within a jiffy, his Pyroar began to spew fire all over the battle arena. Finally, the Pyroar spewed fire straight onto my face, which I missed, but my left foot wasn't so lucky, as I had literally stepped into boiling lava for a solid second, and I yelled out in searing pain, completely unable to walk.

"That's too bad. I thought you'd be a better challenge", he scoffed and snapped his fingers, causing Pyroar to yell and charge at me.

I felt my end charging at me, but an instinct overtook me and I realised that I still had the Hello Skitty GPS device in my pocket, and threw it at such an angle, that the device went at the trajectory of a boomerang and got stuck in Pyroar's left ear, and began to blare out that overly annoying tone which would always put a frown upon my face, and Pyroar didn't fare any better due to the same reason, and accidentally ran headfirst towards Lysandre, and in spite of the leader of Team Flare's words, Pyroar crashed into him, sending him scurrying across the floor, and fell partially into the lava, burning his suit, and giving him a second degree burn.

"Thank your suit it wasn't a bigger degree burn, Lysandre. Do I seem like a better challenge now?", I asked him with a small smirk and that was more than enough to rile him up.

"Dream on!", he yelled and returned his Pyroar, and charged at me, his voice screaming out a battle cry.

I expected him to be a total rookie at hand to hand combat, considering the fact that he was always surrounded by a dozen bodyguards and grunts armed to the teeth, but he could hit as hard as a professional boxer. His first punch connected with the side of my head, and the world seemed to dance around on its own, and Lysandre seemed to replicate himself.

"Just a minor setback from my side, won't give you the upper hand. Your father was right, you know? You really can't handle yourself in tense situations", he sneered before charging at me prepping himself for another set of punches.

This time however, I sidestepped one and I got lucky. His fist connected with a pipeline BENDING the alloy, but in addition to my luck, his fist was stuck in the tough grip of the alloy, giving me some time to recover.

"Slick as a Magikarp, eh?", he asked me, but within a second, he pulled his fist away, breaking the pipeline, and allowing the contents of the pipeline to mix with the air, and when he breathed the air, he began to cough heavily, and I used the moment to push him by grabbing the large man by his waist.

He just laughed heartily, and with one huff and a push, I was suddenly a solid ten metres away from him.

"You are strong...but you are WAY too young, kid. Your father and I...we have been doing this ever since we were eight. I think he would have told you about it, didn't he?", he asked me rubbing his bloody fist.

Then, within the blink of an eye, he pulled out a rope from under a rock, and threw it around my neck. It was a weak loop, but before I could mentally register the gravity of the situation, I was already being dragged down to the ground, and the time was more than enough for him to make a strong loop, and he pulled me up by the collar of my shirt.

My throat was parched, my vision was blurry, and the only sound I heard was the sound of my insides rattling up with each punch he landed on my abdomen, but after a few minutes, he stopped punching me, and I spat out some blood, and dropped down to the floor.

Lysandre was sighing and breathing heavily due to exhaustion, and rubbed the beads of sweat from his forehead by his cuff. Few moments later, he brought out a pistol.

"Let me cut it short. Red doesn't have the heart to kill you, so he asked me to do the deed. Don't worry, I'll make it as painless as possible. It'll only hurt for a second", he told me and placed the pistol in my mouth. The metallic object was as cold as Glalie's skin, sending shivers down my spine.

"Rest in peace, Ash Ketchum", he told me and I began to laugh as loud as I could, and his eyes widened.

"What the heck are you laughing for?", he asked me and I brought out a small circular object from my pocket.

"W...what is that?", he asked me and his hands began to tremble, causing the metallic object in his hand to follow suit.

I threw the object down on the ground, and his eyes widened yet again, and he gasped when it began to glow a bright shade of green.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1...", the female voice spoke from the speaker in the device, and Lysandre bolted away from the area, and jumped out of the window.

What the fool didn't stop to think was that we were on the sixth floor, and it was a one way ticket to Darkrai's realm. The last thing I heard was his guttural scream when he realised that he was doomed to a rather painful death.

"Good job, honey. Who enjoyed it? Who did? Huh? Did my little Ashy like it? Now shall we learn the alphabets in reverse? Z, Y, X...", Mom's silky voice vibrated from the recording device, which I always carried in my pocket for some reason, but I had no idea that it would actually help me in a situation.

I peeped out of the window and looked at the mangled body of Lysandre, who was surrounded by Flare grunts whispering to each other, and I expected Red to barge inside, hoping to find my corpse. So, I did the one thing he'd expect Lysandre to do - fire the gun.

As expected, Red came in looking at all the debris, and skipped his way past the remnants of lava lying around.

"I hope the deed is done", he asked me and his eyes nearly bulged out looking at me - alive and kicking.

"Am I still a disappointment?", I asked him with a small sneer and his jaws tightened.

"I underestimated you. It will not happen again. Not many people have the gift of dying at their father's hands. Consider yourself gifted, young man", he smirked and charged at me, but a loud explosion broke up our fight, and revealed a VERY well known woman.

To be continued....