Chapter Twenty Six:

Ash stood on a beach on Aeolus Island, Pikachu in front of him, staring down Max and Drew who looked far too amused by the scenario. And the fact they were standing with fake guns which shot foam bullets at will. Nixie was sitting on a large boulder, a grin set on her face; this had been her idea to train Pikachu's Iron Tail.

'Now what Max and Drew are holding are rapid firing nerf guns. There was a strange mix up and instead of delivering some souvenirs we had ordered, instead a plane brought about two thousand nerf bullets, but instead of sending them back the Carinthia's decided to put them to a different use.'

'Does it matter if Pikachu breaks them?' Ash questioned.

'No, no, no that's part of the idea, we have about a hundred bullets with us, and as the number increases bit by bit it shows how much Pikachu's accuracy has improved. And as long as they aren't too mangled than the bullets can be put back in the gun.'

'Okay…I think I understand,' Ash said, 'What about you buddy?'

'Pika!' it said, filled with determination.

'Okay, we're ready to go-'

'Rapid fire time boys!' Nixie yelled instantly.

'I'm glad I got out of bed this morning,' Drew announced before pulling the trigger.

There was a smattering of foam bullets from both Max and Drew, who were both laughing their heads off. Pikachu started to move very quickly, tail aglow with power slashing at the foam bullets, trying to hit as many as it could as it possibly could as each one flew towards it. And as both boys ran out of darts, Pikachu landed back on the ground, panting like mad, hoping it had done well.

'Okay Pikachu, let's see how many you managed to hit,' Nixie said clambering down off the rock, 'Boys, collect as many as you can find, if they're intact still, put them in this box, if they're not, put them in this one, and we'll count up how many Pikachu hit through that.'

It took nearly twenty minutes till they were sure they had all of the fragments of the foam bullets, 'Okay, we still have about sixty intact, but that's still really good for a first time. Pikachu, you still hit about forty, which is impressive, in about two minutes. So now we're going to reload them into the guns, the ones that are still whole first so you have time to hit the big ones before focusing on the little ones.'

'Pika, Pikachu!'

'Alright boys, time to go to work.'

…

'That was one of the most creative, yet oddly intense training sessions I've had in a long time,' Ash commented.

'Well the stranger a way you can find to train the more unique it is, that was your style becomes more pronounced and different from anyone else,' Nixie shrugged, 'They say the reason the Carinthia's are so powerful just doesn't stem from genetics, it has a lot to do with the fact they had to find their own way to train because they grew up in such isolation. They didn't have any external influences telling them there was any particular way to train their Pokémon.'

'You know a lot about the Carinthia Family,' Max laughed.

'I was one of their first employees; I've been here since they opened the league two and a half years ago,' Nixie laughed, no one realising for a second how easily she was lying to them, 'I've gotten pretty close to the family and-'

'Nixie!'

A voice yelled across the room, sounding positively alarmed, and everyone looked around to see a surprising sight. On the couches in the middle of the communal area of the Pokémon Centre they'd only just entered, the remainder of their travelling group sat. But there was a surprising guest in Aura who was sitting there, crying her eyes out into her hands. Misty, May, Dawn and Brock, looked like they'd been sitting here for quite a while trying to comfort her, but she seemed completely unresponsive.

Nixie's face was filled with shock, concern and anger all in the space of a split second as she registered the gym leader and what was going on. She raced to her side, forcing Dawn to scramble out of the way as Nixie sat down next to Aura. She pulled an arm around the younger girl's shoulders, shushing her gently, rocking with her back and forth as Aura like a mother would with a small child.

'Hey, hey sweetie, it's okay, tell me what happened,' she said soothingly, but Aura shook her head, continuing to cry, sucking in air like it was hard to breathe, 'Tell me who did this to you so I can destroy them Aura.'

There was a vague tearful laugh at this as Aura pulled her hands down from her face, hugging Nixie tightly, in the most emotional display they'd ever seen from the gym leader. The group watched amazed as Nixie relaxed Aura with the ease of a sister or a parent. Aura eventually calmed down and pushed a fragment of her silver hair out of her dove eyes.

'Sweetie, what happened?' Nixie asked, now that Aura had stopped sobbing.

'...I don't know if Tien told you about a trainer, named Trip?' she asked barely above a whisper.

'So it's him I'm killing, what did he do?'

'I couldn't battle him yesterday when he arrived at the gym because of how my Pokémon were injured in the battle with Ash. But he came back this morning to battle me and... and...' Aura completely broke off.

'How bad was it Aura?' Nixie asked gently.

'I only took out two of his Pokémon, two, he practically destroyed me and Altaria…' Aura trailed off again before saying, 'Nurse Joy says it'll be at least a week before it's in any condition to leave the centre, let alone battle.'

A small sob escaped the girl, reminding them for the first time how young she actually was. Nixie motioned for them to give her some space before pulling the smaller girl into her arms and letting her cry some more. The others moved away and eventually Aura stopped and looked at Nixie.

'What am I supposed to do sis?' she whispered.

'This is not your fault Aura; Trip is a brutal trainer by anyone's standards. He doesn't care about sportsmanship; he doesn't care about anyone's feelings but his own. He's selfish, and is determined to be powerful in order to overcome all his shortcomings. There is no reason for you to feel bad just because someone else is a savage who wasn't hugged enough as a child.'

Aura giggled slightly wiping away a tear, 'Thanks, I needed to hear that.'

'Don't forget I practically raised you Aura, I know how to make you feel better and I don't need to lie to you to do it,' Nixie said, gripping her hand.

'How could I forget, no one who knows anything about our family can stop going on about how such a powerful trainer, a member of the top five none the less, is such a ridiculous mothering entity.'

'Quiet Aura, they'll hear you... Look I know I'm ridiculously mothering; someone had to be when our parents disappeared. But don't for a second forget that I'm a mama spider, most of the time harmless, but if someone threatens their young they become the fiercest things in existence. I'm not going to let anyone get away with hurting you.'

Aura's face sank into a true smile as she asked, 'so what do I do now?'

'Well I think this might be a good time to start training with your other Pokémon, make them as strong as you can rather than just focusing on Altaria. There's a big difference in strength between Altaria and the rest of your team, which was one of the things I couldn't help but notice in your battle. So distract yourself with your training, come visit Altaria a couple of times a day to make sure its recovering and send the message out to the others that you need them to suggest other islands than yours when they're helping travellers choose. It's all you can do really Aura.'

The younger girl nodded and squeezed her sister's hand, 'Thanks, you always know what to do.'

'And yet I make most of it up as I go along. Keep your faith strong Aura, your badge is the symbol of faith for a reason little one, you can get through this.'

Back once more, happy June everyone, and for all my Australian fans, happy upcoming Queen's Birthday Weekend, except for Western Australia, unfortunately you'll have to wait for September. And for the other nations looking at this authors note, yes, Australia, as a colony celebrates the Queen's Birthday with a long weekend, although, the funny thing is, her birthday is actually in April and has been for over eighty years, but we celebrate it months later!

So in this chapter I thought it would be fun to give Ash a few little things to train with, because I barely remember him training in the anime, except for a few stray episodes, plus the month or so he must have spent on Dewford Island. And seeing as I don't quite count battling and training as the same thing, I figured that this would be nice to see. Also we see that Trip's brutality as a trainer is higher than it probably was in the anime, reducing Aura to tears and hospitalizing her partner Pokémon. And as its Nixie to the rescue, we learn a thing or two about her past within the family.

Thanks to my lovely reviewers Pikachu0311 and White-Falcon-06 for their feedback, and hopefull I can fulfill your ideas and wishes in later chapters.

Can't help but wonder though where my other reviewers are gone though, so I'll send out another question, which many of you seem to like to weigh in on:

Within Ash's current group, who would you like to see him battle in the upcoming chapters?

Well my darlings, please review and I hope you enjoyed reading:

~Selina