Just Another Pawn
Edited as of 3/26/2018
Chapter One: Confrontation
The world is an unreliable narrator. It is only perceived through a thin veil that masks its inner workings. Beyond this veil lies the ones who control perception; the ones who change the world on a whim.
But me...I was just another pawn. That may even be why I won. Because although the pawn doesn't have much strength in the beginning, it has the ability to become the strongest piece on the board.
o0O-O0o
"Ash, wake up!" my mom yelled.
My tenth birthday had finally come. Just five more years until I could go on my pokemon journey. I would have been ecstatic to go at ten, but that was illegal. Who sends a ten year old on a journey throughout the continent?
I ran out of my room in my pokemon pajamas, past the grandfather clock, and dashed to the stairs to greet my mom. Before I could get very far, I was halted by the aroma of pancakes filling my nose. With a toothy grin, I renewed my run with vigor, letting my hand slide down the railing.
I ran to the entrance of the kitchen to find five pancakes stacked on a plate. There was a square of butter on the center with maple syrup running down the edges. The thought of a surprise in the center crept into my mind, giving me a flurry of thoughts.
Oh! Maybe they have chocolate chips! Or M&M's! Butterscotch?! Caramel?! Maybe syrup!
I stopped.
Before I could run to the table, a cold shiver made its way down my spine. I closed my eyes, letting the uncomfortable sensation pass by. Reopening my eyes, I turned to see my mom. She was walking toward me, but her movements were slow and sluggish, as though she was emulating the viscous nature of the syrup.
"Mom?" I asked, "Are you okay?"
Confused, I looked around the room. I noticed a faint blue hue before turning back to her.
"Mom?" I asked again, fear and urgency rising in my voice.
She ignored me as she slowed to a stop, completely frozen.
I rushed over to her, "Mom!"
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently, "Mom! What's wrong?!"
My eyes darted around. The blue hue was getting stronger and more prominent. My ears were ringing. My sight was blurry. I wanted to faint. A dark chuckle sounded behind me. I turned sharply to see a man in a dark cloak standing where I had stood before.
"What did you do to my mom?!" I shouted, assuming him to be the culprit.
He chuckled again, and spoke in a deep, gravelly voice, "I remember when I was your age. Not a care in the world, waiting to go on my pokemon journey. And when I finally went, everything was like a fantasy. Like in the stories I was told growing up. Then one day, my friend was killed in his sleep by a particularly wild Raticate." He moved to sit in a chair, "I was mortified, of course, but what surprised me the most was when people dressed in full black jumped out of the forest, picked up his dead body, and vanished. It was then I realized that being a pokemon trainer wasn't living a dream; it was believing a lie."
A lie? What does that mean? Who is he?! What's going on?!
"Look kid, you're special. You may be the only person able to fix this hell hole we call earth. But for that to happen, you need to start training. Hard. I'll see you again when you're older. And when I do, I'll test you. You'd better be ready."
And just like that, he vanished.
"Honey? When did you get there?"
I sharply spun on my heels to see my mom, unfrozen, none-the-wiser of the visitor we'd just had.
What just happened?! Who was he?! Where'd he go?!
I turned rapidly, looking everywhere for any signs of him. Anything! Alas, my body couldn't handle the stress. I fainted.
o0O-O0o
"Ash, wake up!" my mom yelled.
My eyes slowly blinked opened, but quickly widened as memories of the man surfaced to my thoughts. I turned to my clock. 8:00am.
...was it a dream?
Confused, I got up to check my mother. I walked down the stairs, smelling the pancakes again, then reached the floor. I saw my mom standing near the counter like before. She seemed...fine.
"Happy birthday, honey!" she greeted me.
This didn't make any sense. It was as if the previous occurrence had never happened. There were no blue hues, no loud ringing, and no man. Nothing.
Was it a dream? I mean, everything's the same, so maybe not?
Okay, I'll assume it wasn't a dream. Let's see...when mom woke me up, her voice was at a normal pace. That means the...thing...happened after I woke up. When I got downstairs, she was stopping slowly, not abruptly. That means however time stopped, it didn't happen instantly. The man said he's going to test me at some point. He'll probably freeze time again if that happens. I think I'll to need know how to stop it, so I need to know theamountof time it took to happen. And how he did it in the first place.
I closed my eyes and let my memory drift to when I exited my room. In my peripheral vision, I saw our grandfather clock at eight hours and twenty four seconds. I started counting the number of ticks until I noticed the time between each tick getting longer.
16 ticks from when I saw the clock, to when I saw my mom. The ticks started slowing down at about 10 ticks and it took my mom about 4 ticks to completely freeze from when I saw her. That means it took roughly 10 seconds for time to freeze. Wait, but if time was slowing down, wouldn't that be unreliable? Eh, whatever.
Well, that gives a time range, but what caused the time to freeze? Hmm. There was a ringing in my ears, a blue hue, and a man concealed in a black cloak. Was he in a cloak to hide his identity? Then me knowing who he is might be useful. What would happen if I found him? If he can freeze time, he probably isn't worried about me confronting him. I mean, he's probably way stronger. Maybe because it would hint at how he froze time? If I know who he is, maybe I can figure it out! He mentioned a group of people taking away his friend's corpse, so maybe he's a part of a smaller group that needs help? If that's the case-
"Ash? Are you okay?"
I was brought back to reality. I was so caught up in figuring out what had happened, I had forgotten about my mom.
I punched my fist in the air, "Of course mom! It's my birthday!"
I prefered her to be unaware of what had happened. If she knew, she would probably just worry. I had no doubts my mom would notice if I got lost in thought again, so I opted to just sit down and eat my pancakes. I would have to go to Prof. Oak's library for information.
o0O-O0o
*Ding dong*
The doorbell rang. I was at Prof. Oak's ranch under the guise of wanting to read a story about pokemon. All things considered, it wasn't an outright lie; I was legitimately interested in pokemon.
The door opened, "Ah, Ash, what brings you here?"
I gathered all of the peppiness and excitement I could muster, "I'm getting ready for my pokemon journey!" I tilted my head, "I was wondering if I could use your library."
He laughed a bit, "It's quite rare to see such a young man take so much responsibility. Of course you can, Ash! If you ever want to access it again, don't bother asking!"
"Thanks, professor!"
I eagerly ran past him, leaving the smiling man in my wake. Without me noticing, the excitement I had forced quickly became real.
After browsing the library for a while, I came across a book, "Legend of the Aura". I saw a ball of blue light in the character's hand on the cover that struck me as very familiar to the blue hue. My curiosity peaked, I started to read. Despite the cheesiness of the title, it was surprisingly interesting! The story talked about these aura guardians - mythical heroes who defended the peace in secret. There were many tales of their accomplishments, but they didn't seem to possess enough power to freeze time.
Maybe it's not aura? Or maybe aura's just a part of it! Yeah!
Surprisingly, my childish naivety was right about the relation.
After reading about half of one of the stories in the book, I asked the professor if I could borrow it. Though the book didn't contain pokemon, he let me take it without a second thought. He'd probably expected me to get distracted by a fantastical story in the first place.
The book explained aura as the energy that flows through all living things. Theoretically, anyone could control it, but it took a great deal of concentration to do so, much more than an average human being could muster. This was the first lead I'd found in the library, and my patience didn't want me to look for anything else, so I decided to study the book without another source.
It was very vague about how to control aura. The characters only had to meditate for a few days before demonstrating control, and they were rarely shown to train anymore for it. Apparently it "felt natural" to them. Sounds more like a lazy author to me.
I tried out the meditation. Every morning and night, I would sit down, and meditate. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right. It felt like trying to go to sleep, while trying to stay awake at the same time. It didn't really help that the book never actually explained what meditation is. Though, I guess it did give me time to think about what had happened.
o0O-O0o
By the time the two weeks had passed, I began to feel something. I found that, while meditating, I could feel something if I focused hard enough. If I focused on my hand, it would start to feel...tingly. I didn't know if that was aura, but it was definitely something.
This discovery made me really excited, so I decided I would try to meditate outside, to see if it did anything new. The book explained it as being a part of nature, so it was worth a shot.
o0O-O0o
Another 2 weeks passed. Meditating outside didn't do shit, which was a bit disappointing. Aside from that failure, I could make the tingly sensation happen without meditating now. It had another feeling though, heat. Whenever I focused on my hand, it would feel a little warmer. I tried measuring it with a thermometer, but it never picked up anything. It was probably just in my head.
I'd also found that thinking seemed to be easier. I felt smarter than I did before. I was analyzing situations instinctively, instead of just winging it. It felt weird at first, but I quickly found myself enjoying planning ahead.
o0O-O0o
Four months passed since I found the book. The sensations felt much stronger. It could have just been my brain not wanting to be wrong, but if that was the case, it was really good at tricking me.
I was meditating, focusing on my hand. Despite my intense concentration, I felt strangely relaxed. I guess meditation really does do something. I kept focusing, allowing a bead of sweat drop down my cheek. My hand felt more and more energized.
And then, it happened.
It felt...different. As if previously what had been trying to escape, had finally broken through its barrier. I slowly opened my eyes to see a faint glow around my hand.
Man, I really hope this isn't just my brain tricking me.