Kanto Saga

Chapter 9: The Psychic Master's Trial

Charonus sleeps well following his last training session, knowing that he has proven himself well to Mewtwo. As he sleeps, he stands in his dreamscape and sees his subconscious self smiling. "We managed to do it. We have made it through Mewtwo's training." "Yes, but remember, we still have a long road ahead of us. We must complete all of our training with the other legends to hopefully get the Pokecores of Mom and Dad back from Shadow Mewtwo," Charonus says back. "I know...I just hope that he isn't causing evil with their powers," Charonus' subconscious says back. As Charonus sleeps, Mewtwo is preparing himself mentally, making sure he is ready to instruct the young Charmander in the use of his psychic abilities.

The following morning, both Charonus and Mewtwo meet up out at the training field. The others, not wanting to miss seeing Mewtwo instruct someone, come out and take seats nearby. "This is it young one, if you are successful in your training, you will learn powerful techniques that shall help you in your quest. There are things I will warn you of before hand though. Seeing as these moves are not normally native to your species, they will cause considerable drain on you when you use them, but with your attributes in proper balance, I have a feeling that you will know when the time is right to use them." As Mewtwo says this, Charonus nods in understanding. "This training will help unlock within you a portion of the ability that all Pokemon have inherited from the great ancestor to all Pokemon." Charonus breaths deeply, "I'm ready to learn Mewtwo." Mewtwo smiles and instructs Charonus to close his eyes and bring himself to his dreamscape while remaining awake. "This is a test as much for your subconscious as it is for your waking self, but there is also more young one, but first try to bring yourself to your dreamscape." Charonus concentrates, but he finds it difficult to bring himself to his dreamscape in a waking state. "Try to empty your thoughts, bring a calm stillness to your mind, then focus on aligning your soul, once that is achieved, bring it forth to the waking world and through your body." Charonus listens to Mewtwo's words and tries to put the advice into action.

"Empty my thoughts...easier said than done." Charonus thinks to himself. Charonus keeps trying to reach his dreamscape with Mewtwo monitoring his progress. Charonus starts to hit a deeper calm to his mind, his aura slowly coming out and wrapping itself around him. Mewtwo smiles at this knowing that Charonus is achieving the first step in bringing his dreamscape out while awake. Charonus continues as his soul aligns with the same calm as his mind. Charonus' aura begins to separate from his body and begins to warp strangely, a thin wisp still connecting to him at his chest. Draco's group looks on, not believing what they are seeing. "What is going on with his aura?" Draco whispers to Cynder. "I'm not sure, this seems strange to me, like a strange out of body experience," Cynder whispers back. Mewtwo continues to monitor the situation as the aura coalesces into the form of a Charizard. "Good, Charonus seems to be almost ready. Charonus continues to reach a state of extreme calm, but he is still able to percieve the world around him, He eventually pushes his calm out to his body, and once he does, he feels himself travel along the wisp of aura and enter the Charizard on the other side. The Charizard shaped aura solidifies into that of a full Charizard. It opens its eyes and looks around, eventually looking down at the small Charmander beside him. "H-huh? what is going on."

Mewtwo looks at the Charizard, seeing that the aura wisp is still connecting the pair. "Excellent, you have achieved a form of pure balance young one." Draco and his group are astonished that such a thing has happened. "I don't understand this. What is going on with Charonus?" Bowser calls out to Mewtwo. "I have instructed Charonus to bring his inner self out to better facilitate the learning of these techniques of mine. While a Charmander can use these techniques once learned, it takes a full fledged evolution to actually learn them, thus I had to help Charonus bring his subconscious to the front, but also have him take control of it. For the time being, Charonus is a Charizard and his subconscious self is in his Charmander body for safe keeping." Bowser scratches the back of his head, still not quite understanding all of this. Charonus looks over his temporary body, from his wings and orange scales, to the powerful tailflame he has. "This is quite strange to me...I don't know if I will ever get used to this once back to normal." Mewtwo looks at Charonus, "As long as you train to learn the techniques I will teach to you, you will rely on this form, but doing this will drain your energy, so you will only be able to train for about an hour tops each time you train, any more and you do risk serious side effects and possibly losing your sense of self." "I understand, and I am willing to go through with this," Charonus says.

Mewtwo gathers up some psychic energy, "The first technique I will impart to you is a shield of psychic force that protects from physical attacks, known as Reflect." Mewtwo shows the move to Charonus, being able to produce it with no effort at all. Charonus watches as Mewtwo conjures Reflect, keeping careful watch on his movements and energy. "I think I got it," Charonus says as he tries to produce a Reflect of his own. Energy gathers around Charonus' clawed fingers as he tries to replicate Mewtwo's movements, and as he finishes the move the energies release, but nothing happens. "Good for a first try Charonus. Do not get discouraged if you don't get it right away. As I have mentioned before, this is not a move that is native to the Charmander line." Charonus looks over at Mewtwo, "I can feel the energies, but I seem to lose them in the last step." "That is alright, if you keep at it, it will come to you in time." Charonus continues to train in trying to bring a Reflect forth, eventually being able to bring a small Reflect up before his hour ends. Mewtwo then instructs Charonus on how to reverse the process that he has gone through to bring his subconscious' body to the real world. Charonus feels himself pulled back into his own body, and as the Charizard body returns to it's aura form and re enters Charonus' body, he slowly opens his eyes. "T-that...was quite weird." Draco comes over to Charonus, "You said it, I have never seen any technique like that before." Charonus yawns, "Mewtwo is right though...it really takes a lot out of me..." Charonus slowly stands up and makes his way to the house to rest.

As Charonus sleeps that night, he meets up with his subconscious, "That...was quite the experience. Having the waking mind take control of the dream body is very strange indeed." Charonus responds, "It sure is, but being able to bring the dream body forth and make it real for this training is helpful, yet draining." Charonus' subconscious sighs a little, "Just don't go overboard. As Mewtwo said, there is a possibility of losing yourself." Charonus nods, "I will take care and stick to Mewtwo's guidelines. Also if I'm not feeling good sometime, then I won't train that day, I promise you that." Charonus' subconscious smiles as he returns to the waking world to train some more. Charonus continues to practice in his Charizard form every day, eventually getting quite good at Reflect. "Very good Charonus, I am impressed with your continued effort, now I will impart another technique to you. It is the sister shield that protects against things like Flamethrower and skills like that. It is called Light Screen." Once again Mewtwo displays the move to Charonus, but instead of Reflect being produced, a Light Screen is instead made. "In order to do this, you must change the energies before bringing them out. If you can master changing energies, then it will be easier for other training down the line as well." "I will try, hope I can get used to this too," Charonus says. "I have faith in you Charonus, just as you have learned Reflect in a relatively short time, I believe you can learn this quickly as well. Master this then I will instruct you in one last technique, an attack technique that will leave you drained, but is powerful against your enemies for a desparation hit. My hope is that you will never have to use it though." Charonus responds, "I understand that well Mewtwo...I will try to adhere to balance and use the three attributes to find the best way out of any problem." Mewtwo smiles, "I'm glad to hear you say that. We both have had troubles in our past. Let us strive to make this world better."

Charonus continues to practice on learning to control and change energies to make a Light Screen. Several days pass and every day Draco and his group watch as the Charmander before them learns and grows, eventually making a pretty respectable Light Screen. "Well done little guy...well, not so little right now," Bowser says as he comes closer to Charonus. "I think I have the hang of this now, I just hope I can learn the last thing Mewtwo wants to teach me," Charonus says back as he prepares to return to his own body. "I'm sure you will young one," Mewtwo says as he comes over to the Charizard, "You have done well so far, so I have no doubt that you will learn my final tech that I will impart to you." As Charonus returns to his Charmander frame, the group prepares to return to the house.

Charonus sleeps well that night, dreaming about future adventures once his training is done with Mewtwo. As he dreams more, he sees more clearly the immediate areas that Mewtwo has told him about. He walks around the Cerulean Power Plant in his dream, trying to peer inside. Charonus manages to find an area that has a large window,. He gets up and takes a look. Inside he sees quite a lot of lightning, and in the center of the lightning storm, he sees a yellow bird with a long beak. It's feathers along it's body charged with electric energy. It stares towards the window, right at Charonus and makes a pleased face, as if knowing that soon it will train him. Charonus wakes up after this, wondering why the bird would be pleased like that. He heads down and meets up with Mewtwo for his final training. "Ah, there you are. I hope you are ready for me to impart to you my final tech." Charonus smiles, but keeps a seriousness about himself, "Yes, I am ready Mewtwo." Charonus once again readies himself by calming his mind, body and soul and once again bringing his inner Charizard self out. "Now, you have learned to control the energy deep within you to use for these abilities, as well as being able to change the energy, today you will learn how to project the energy into an attack." Mewtwo demonstrates by setting a Substitute doll in the center of the training field. "Bring the energies forward and project them into a sphere around your target. Within the sphere of energy, concentrate it into points that surround the target, then control those points inward." As Mewtwo explains this, his psychic energy surrounds the Substitute doll, forming psychic rocks around it. Then the rocks collapse inward, slamming into the doll with great power. "This move, Psystrike, will cause considerable drain upon your being so only use it when you must. As it will cause quite a bit of drain, you will only be able to train for 20 minutes a day while trying to learn this move." Charonus sighs a bit, "I understand, and I will try to not push myself too hard."

Charonus spends the next 2 weeks, training everyday trying to learn Psystrike. Everyday he manages to get better, but Draco's group, as well as Mewtwo and Amber can tell it is taking a toll on him. Charonus' time in his Charizard state starts to weaken in duration by the end, but he eventually succeeds. As he completes the move, he slowly loses his Charizard form and returns to his Charmander body. "T-there...all done..." Charonus collapses on the spot, snoring a little as he sleeps from exhaustion. Mewtwo takes him back to his room to rest. "He has done quite well, but this last move has shown me that he could use a little more balance. Despite telling me he wouldn't, he did push himself a little too hard." Draco frowns a little, "Bravery is a powerful thing, isn't it," he asks Mewtwo. "Yes, it can be a major driving force in many decisions...but it has to be in balance, otherwise it can result in situations like at Cinnabar." The group continues to converse with Mewtwo throughout the rest of the day while Charonus sleeps.

While Charonus sleeps, he has the same dream about the Cerulean Power Plant, only this time the lightning bird gets closer to the window. "I will be waiting for you young Charmander. You will learn the ways of electricity from me." As the lightning bird finishes speaking, Charonus wakes up. He sees all his friends around him and he smiles.