"Noivern, Sonicboom!"
The huge Dragon typed Bat Pokemon seemed to inhale, before expelling that air, disrupting the sound waves int he air, and turning it into a heavily concentrated attack. The watching audience, filled with children, from ages 6 - 10, covered their ears at the loud noise. The attack rippled through the air, completely obliterating the wooden targets set up for it, lost into a billow of dust and smoke. One shard of wood flew back towards the trainers foot. The black raven haired trainer picked up the wood, and tossed it into the air, and caught it on its way down. He then held it up for his audience to see - It had been a totally clean strike, the wood was practically perfectly cut into a diamond like shard. The trainer grinned as he showed the children the perfect clean cut, their faces captivated. The trainers name was Ash.
"See, this is the type of power a Pokemon can achieve, and this is barely the tip of the iceberg." Ash told them. At this point, his Noivern landed next to him, smiling at his trainers praise, even if it was indirect. Ash patted his Dragon in the head. "I had Noivern hold back quite a bit. If he was going full blast, there's no doubt he could knock down an entire building if he wanted to."
"Is that because Noivern is super big?" One kid asked, wide eyed in admiration.
"Not necessarily." Ash told the kid. "The Pokemons size isn't always representative of their abilities." Ash nodded to two assistants behind the crowd, who then ran off to set up new targets. "Pikachu?"
Pikachu had been sat with the audience while his trainer had demonstrated with his Noivern, mostly because Pikachu was a very small and friendly Pokemon, so Ash figured it might be fun for the kids to get to be near a Pokemon like Pikachu. Pikachu hopped up next to its trainer, as Ash recalled Noivern to its Pokeball. Pikachu leapt up his trainers shoulder, where he was usually perched.
"Pikachu here was my very first Pokemon, and I've never seen a more powerful Pokemon in my life." Ash said, with a proud grin. "Pikachu, ready to show 'em?" His partner Pokemon grinned, and jumped down, ready to display a feat of power. Electrical sparks discharged from Pikachu's red pouches. The targets had been set up. Now was the time.
"Pikachu, Electro Ball!" Ash commanded with a grin.
Pikachu formed a ball made of sheer electricity around its tail, and leapt up into the air. Surrounding it, Sparks and static made a small light show, as the ball was barely able to contain the power. Pikachu had leapt up to gain the most air, and would fall faster, increasing the speed and therefore, overall power of the attack. Pikachu made a quick calculation. Three targets. The centre target would cause the most damage and largest explosion. Quickly taking aim, and, with pinpoint accuracy, launched the attack, it immediately reaching its terminal velocity within a matter of seconds. The resulting explosion towered above the entire audience, blasting off hats and loosely held items. The explosion towered over any houses nearby. Given the fact there hadn't been a conductor of any sort, no fuel or anything, to help spark such an explosion, spoke volumes in itself. Most of the audience quickly shielded their eyes from any flying debris, but it never came. The attack had been so concentrated and powerful, any and all debris had just essentially evaporated into the blast before they could even start escaping the explosion.
Ash stood with his hands in his pockets, and grinned at the sight of the explosion. When Pikachu fell back to earth, landing on his trainers shoulder, Ash gently petted Pikachu's head. Pikachu's strength had improved phenomenally over the past two years, the result of vigorous training in the time skip. Despite not traveling in these past two years, he had more than made up for it with immense training. Even though it had bored him somewhat, he hadn't given it up.
The audience, Ash noticed, refocusing his attention, were eye wide, jaws dropped, gaping in awe at the sheer power that came from the tiny electric mouse Pokemon. It had easily been the strongest attack they had seen all day, if not in their entire lives. The display had been so intense, that even when it had dispersed, leaving a crater where the targets were, in a perfect semi - spherical radius into the ground, many of the onlookers continued watching in awe.
Ash collapsed onto a couch in Professor Oaks lab, throwing his shoes off, and letting out a loud sigh. Since residing in Pallet town for a couple of years, he had been employed, essentially, by professor Oak to help him with his research. It was a task Ash didn't really enjoy, but he found it interesting. The work was dull, but the subject matter was interesting. If it was boring, Ash would have made an excuse to not do this. Looking in the bright side, he did suppose it gave him the chance to train his Pokemon further, but that was little constellation for the time he had lost.
"Hey, Professor, how much longer are these tests gonna last?..." Ash asked, glancing to the side, seeing the professor as usual, dabbling with a computer and a gadget to the side. To his left, which he was using as a frame of reference, was a mega stone, specifically Swampertite.
"Well Ash, if my theory is correct..." Professor Oak said, holding up the Swampertite to the light, allowing the light to reflect through it, causing it to sparkle in his hands. "...Then it could change the way starter Pokemon are handed out to new trainers. The discovery of more mega stones, and your own Greninja, are examples of my research. Your Greninja especially. It's why I asked you to help me here."
"Pretty sure Greninja's sick of running tests too." Ash muttered under his breath, so Oak couldn't hear him.
"For some reason, the starter Pokemon that are handed out region wise have gained an inexplicable ability to mega evolve. Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur from Kanto all possess the ability, and Charizard possess two. Why? Was it pure chance? Or is there some sort of influence we humans are causing in these Pokemon that give them these abilities? But if that's the case, why have we observed mega evolutions in the wild? It's a long and interesting topic, you know that, right?"
Ash nodded. "Yeah, I know. But I don't see how it relates to how much longer it's gonna take."
"I'm getting to that." Oak said. "I thought your Greninja would be able to help shed some light on the subject, but it hasn't worked too well. I was hoping to get some sort of reading, but no, nothing like that has happened. To be honest with you Ash, between your teaching the summer camp this year, and helping with my research, I think you've done all you can here."
"So, was the research a failure?" Ash asked, gloomily. He has spent two years helping with this. Despite his general disdain for research right about now, he didn't want to hear that it had all been for nothing.
"Not so much a failure." Oak said. "See, I have gained some new information from your Greninja. It seems to be able to go into some sort of form on its own that resembles mega evolution, but not quite. Its symbolic of the Primal forms Groudon and Kyogre can take. It's halfway between the two. So I've managed to come to a conclusion at least. A mega stone isn't always necessary for mega evolution, but only in exceptional circumstances. My next topic will look into this subject matter in itself. "
Ash grinned. "I didn't think you'd stay down for long, Professor."
"I do have one final favour to ask." Oak said, looking sheepishly at Ash, feeling guilty for asking him for favours like this constantly.
"What is it?"
Oak grabbed a folder full of his research, photocopied of course, that was as thick as a brick, and weighed roughly the same as one too. It was all on A4 sheets, and Ash estimated there had to be hundreds of pages to it, all chock full of information that, if he tried to interpret, would almost certainly make his head explode.
"I want to send a physical copy of my research to the leading researcher in mega evolution..."
Ash nodded. "Professor Sycamore, right? Back in Kalos."
"I'm sorry to ask this of you. I imagine you'd want to go out and explore this Igneous region you've been reading about." Oak said, with a pang of guilt in his voice.
"No worries, Professor." Ash said, taking hold of the folder, and nearly dropping it immediately due to its weight. "It's been a while since I saw Serena, Clemont and Bonnie. Maybe I'll get to see them before heading to Igneous." Ash tucked the folder under his arm and grabbed his bag. "So, I'm done here?"
"For my research, yes. I'm terribly sorry to have asked so much of you for so long."
"No need to worry about that." Ash said. "I got some serious training done while I was here, with all my Pokemon. That makes it worth it to me."
"I'll book your tickets for Kalos tonight."
"Thanks, Professor." Ash said, turning heel, slipping back on his shoes, and walking out the door.
Ash walked along the path to his house with a sort of melancholy feeling about the news. Two years of his life had been spent, and there hadn't been a definite conclusion with Oaks research. Despite the occasional dull times, he did genuinely care for the end result.
On the bright side, he was ecstatic about being able to travel once more. Anxious to get back out into the world and begin training, capturing, and battling once again. He grinned at the thought. The Igneous region. He had read up that it contained a lot of unique Ground and Fire type Pokemon. It sounded like a good challenge for him. Having said that...
He did miss his friends, particularly those from the Kalos region. It was a strange thing to say, he knew, but he felt like he had had more fun there than he had before, even if he had lost the league. He had kept in touch with them all. Serena was traveling with Miette, which had come as a bit of a surprise, and Clemont had returned to his gym leader duties. The two had moved on since their Kalos journeys, yet they had all said they'd love to get the old group together again if they could. Ash smiled at the thought.
"Pika?" Ash heard his partner Pokemons voice in his left ear. It snapped him back into reality.
"Sorry, Pikachu. I'm back. Sorry, I just kinda drifted off in thought for a moment." Ash said, embarrassed.
Ash looked up, towards the moon, in a star light sky. He wondered, what was everyone doing, everywhere? What was Misty doing in Cerulean? Or Max over in Hoenn? Or Serena in Kalos...
"You know, Pikachu?" Ash said, not altering his gaze from the moon. "I've been thinking... I feel like we missed a lotta stuff over in Kalos..." Ash looked higher, into the sky, and the stars. "I... Kinda want to go back and finish what we started there. I want to finish exploring Kalos, and see everything it has to offer before we go to Igneous."
Pikachu looked into the sky for a moment, before voicing it's agreement in the form of a high pitch squeal.
Ash grinned. "I guess it's a plan then." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. Scrolling down, he found his first contact.
Serena.
So ends chapter 3 of Loyalty guys. I hope you liked this chapter. I want to keep this story going for a long time, longer than One Day Off if possible. It's a story that means a lot to me, so let's get it up there at the top of googles search engine for Amourshipping.
I once got a question from someone asking me why I do my end segments like this, when I tell you what's been going on. It's simple really - I enjoy talking to you guys about things that go on in my life. I kinda treat it a bit like a diary in a way, but I think it helps you guys get to know me a lot better. Some of you guys have said you like reading this part of the chapters, so I'll keep doing it for those of you who like it.
I'm so sorry about the wait in this one. College is a bastard when it comes to keeping on top of my work, plus, I've been surprisingly into DS games lately, particularly the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. There's something sort of psychotically therapeutic about collecting all the Pokemon and filling up friend zones and building up Paradise in the games. I don't have Super Mystery Dungeon yet because apparently Nintendo hates us Europeans, even though I live in England and America has the game, so I'm a little perplexed as to why it hasn't arrived in the other major English speaking country, especially the one that made the language, but whatever. Gotta wait until February 19th, which is gonna be hell. Mystery dungeon is a game that always makes me cry, no matter how many times I play through it, which reflects great game design, which is why I'm jealous of all you 'muricans who already have the game :-:
I've finally caved into the hype, and started watching One Punch Man as well, and it's become my anime of the year, for one reason - Characters. Each character has a personality and design that compliments one another, and the designs for the characters in this series are amazing. I speak as a character designer, creator and developer when I say One Punch Man has some of the Best character designs I've seen all year, although, no, I refuse to accept Tornado is 28. No way, she's genuinley the cutest girl in the series, and she's 28. It's just weird to me '-'
I've also been working in a new YouTube series called ERAAG - Empire Reveiws Anime and Games. First video I'm doing is on a retrospective on 2015 on the entertainment industry over the past years, so be sure to check out my channel if that interests you - I'll leave a link to my YouTube on my profile, updated, in case you subscribed to one of my old ones.
To reply to all your reviews, guys, you really give me far too much credit. I got some people comparing me to some of the fan proclaimed "Kings of Amourshipping", and that's not really something you'd say lightly. I'm honoured, I am, but I kinda doubt I'm that good. But still, thanks so much for your kind words, I'll keep doing these as long as you all keep reading and enjoying them. Hopefully one day, I'll be able to publish something for everyone to read in the form of an actual book or manga. That's one of my dreams, and I love writing this like I do for you all. It's great fun, and I'm glad you all enjoy it so much. You guys are really awesome. 2016 is going to be my yefar of creativity on all platforms, and I'll do my very best to provide entertaining and amusing content for each and every one of you.
So, that's it for my ramblings. If you read all of that then, props to you, basically. I'll try and get back into my regular updating schedule for you all, and as always, hope you enjoyed, and will see you next time!