Pokemon

Aura Adventure

Hi guys!

Just thought I'd point out in case you don't read my Dragon Ball X story, I just started my Christmas Holidays, so I'll be able to update a lot more. Trust me, I've got nothing else to do but write, so...yeah.

Oh yeah, if any of you are Digimon fans, I just started a Digimon fic, so be sure to read that. It's joined this and DBX as the only three stories that I'm going to update frequently.

By the way, this chapter is from Erik's point of view. We haven't seen him for a while, and he's going to be very important starting from this chapter on. Oh yeah, a quick fun fact about Erik: If he had of entered the Titanium Cup, he would have won. Erik is a lot stronger than he first appears, he was trained by Cole, don't forget.

000

The day was almost over, and the bright sun was beginning to fall beneath the horizon. All over Metrosan City, lights were flickering on, in buildings and on the streets. But outside the city, darkness was starting to arrive. Long shadows were stretching across the rocky plains, sprouting from the small boulders and trees surrounding the city. No one moved, apart from the occasional Sandshrew or Geodude, and a single lone figure traversing the wild terrain.

She looked around 17 years old, and stood tall, walking with a purpose. Dark brown hair covered her head, and spiked out to the back when it reached her ears, down to her shoulders. She had incredible amber coloured eyes, and long lashes. The girl wore a long, green, silk cloak, and a white shirt underneath. On her feet were brown sandals.

Up ahead was a ring of small rocks. Inside was a campfire, burning brightly on a pyre of wood and sticks. No one was in sight. The girl was alone. She walked into the middle of the ring and sat down cross-legged next to the fire, and bowed her head.

An hour passed. The girl didn't move once. All of a sudden she looked up, staring at a spot just inside the ring. A minute later, the air rippled, and a shape slowly materialised into being. It was an old woman, hunched over slightly. As she lifted her head, her pure white eyes came into view. It was the Blind Oracle.

"Greetings, my dear," she said.

"Hello Oracle. Good to see you again," stated the girl. Her voice was clear and pure.

"And you, child." In contrast, the Oracle's voice was wavery and frail.

"Now tell me, why did you call me out here?"

The Oracle smiled. "You know, of course, of the boy?"

The girl nodded. "Of course. I've had visions of him from the minute he arrived in this world."

"He is the Chosen One."

"Are you sure? Have you met him?"

This time, it was the Oracle who nodded. "There is no doubt. He is the one. I gave him the Life Pendant."

The girl was shocked. "You what? That Pendant is sacred, and you gave it to a boy on a whim?"

"It was no whim. He is the rightful owner. It belongs to him."

A frown found its way to the mouth of the girl. "What of Epsilon? If they were to capture him, the Pendan-"

"We have to risk it. If he doesn't hold that Pendant, he will hold no hope of fulfilling his purpose."

"I understand. What of the others you hold? Do they play a role in your visions?"

The Oracle nodded. "Of course." She gave a mysterious smile. "And so we come to the real reason that I called you here tonight."

The Oracle reached to her neck and pulled off three necklaces. From each one hung a wooden cross. One was embedded with a yellow jewel, one with a White jewel, and the third had a pink jewel. She extended her arm to the girl, the Pendants dangling from her fingers.

"My time is past. You must take them."

The girl was shocked. "What? No, I can't! You can't!"

"You can and you will. It's your job to pass on the Pendants now."

"But I cannot sense the true owners! How will I know who to give them too?"

"You can sense the true owners. When you meet the right person, you'll know."

"But it's not just that, Oracle! You've held the Pendants for centuries! Without their energy to sustain you, who knows what could happen to you?"

"Take them! My fate is not important."

The girl knew that the Oracle was right. Slowly, and against her better judgement, she reached out and wrapped her fingers around the Pendants, but did not take them.

"Do it!"

The Oracle let go. At once, she gasped, clenching her heart, and staggered backwards. The girl started forwards in alarm.

"Are you OK?"

The Oracle's was breathing heavily, her eyes closed. Sweat was pouring down the old woman's face. She didn't answer. The girl extended her arm and placed it on the Oracle's forehead. The hand glowed, and the girl's eyes slid out of focus as she transferred her energy to the frail body crouching in front of her.

The Oracle stood back, shaking but stable.

"Thank you, my child. You may have just saved my life."

"No problem," gasped the girl. She had given a lot of her stamina and vitality to the Oracle, and the effect was very draining on her. Quickly, she placed the three Pendants around her own neck, where they laid to rest against a fourth Pendant with a purple gem. Instantly, she felt stronger.

"Now, go," said the Oracle. "You'll know the owners when you meet them."

The girl nodded, and turned from the ring of rocks, vanishing into the darkness. The Oracle stared after her, and then looked at her hands. They were still shaking, and sweat still covered her face.

"Thank you...Almonie."

000

"There's nothing like the hustle and bustle of home," thought Erik, as he stood at the gates of Metrosan City. Located about 100 kilometres South-West of the Nuclear Canyon, Metrosan was the biggest city in Bronko, and the Capital of the region. Just like Celadon and Goldenrod, Metrosan City was the centre of communications and trading in Bronko. It was also Erik's hometown, and he had grown up here. On top of the gate sat a Chatot, unnoticed by Erik. It gave a loud call, and flew off, vanishing among the buildings..

Erik entered the city, looking around in wonder as he did so. Nostalgia hit him like a brick wall as he remembered all of the streets and corners, the building, the shops, and the houses. It was early morning. A boy around his age whizzed by on a skateboard. When he saw Erik, spun it around, and jumped off.

"Yo, Erik, wassup man? When did you get back?"

Erik grinned wildly. He had a lot of contacts and friends here in Metrosan. "Hey, Spazzo. Only about a minute ago, actually."

"Well, welcome back. Anyway I gotta roll, but I heard that Aquos was asking around if anyone had seen you."

"Huh? Aquos? Why?"

Spazzo shrugged his shoulders, and jumped back on his board. "I dunno, dude, but apparently it's pretty urgent."

He skated off, almost knocking over an elderly couple as he did so.

"You hooligan!" roared the old man, shaking his fist at Spazzo in the distance. "Don't make me call your mother!"

Erik hurried forwards to help the man's wife pick up her handbag, which she had dropped in shock as the skateboard almost collided with her. He deliberately covered his face surreptitiously with his arms as he bent down. After he handed it back to her, he exposed his face, and she recognised him.

"Erik! Oh my, you've grown so much! I haven't seen you since you set out on that Pokemon thing with that other boy, Cody, or something."

"Cole, you mean."

"Oh, that's the one. When was that, it must have been two, three years ago?"

"Almost four. Now, Mrs Kensington, I have to go, but tell Marty I said hi, alright?"

"I will, my dear."

The Kensington's walked off, and Erik was left alone again. Actually, he was quite surprised. Since setting off to train with Cole three years and ten months ago, he only returned to Metrosan a few times a year, and yet everybody still seemed to remember him quite well. He continued on to the Gym, where Aquos, the Gym Leader, was.

It had been a while, but he found that he remembered the way through the streets easily. To an outsider or a tourist, the massive twist of streets and dark alleyways was incredibly confusing, but he had been hanging around this city his whole life, and it was stuck fast in his memory.

Five minutes later, he reached the Gym. He was in luck; Aquos had just walked out the front door.

"Aquos!"

The Leader turned as he heard his name called. The man was tall, with dark black skin, and a short, number two haircut. He broke into a wide smile when he saw Erik.

"Erik, m' boy! Good to see you again. What have you been up to? Why, I haven't seen you since the last time you were here, what, three months ago? That's when you beat me, of course."

Erik grinned, and pulled out a badge case. Since beating Aquos, he had gathered the Iron Badge and the Insect Badge, bringing his collection up to six badges.

"Read 'em and weep, Aquos!"

"Man, you're better than I thought," laughed Aquos, showing off his white teeth. "You're half my age, but you're better than me already!"

"I was trained by Cole, I'm sure that counts for something."

"Yeah, but he's only a few years older than you! How he got to his rank, I'll never know. Now, there must be some reason that you came to see me as soon as you get back, spit it out."

"Spazzo told me that you were looking for me, what is it?"

"Yeah, I've gotten word. One of the guys swears that he saw a man dressed in an Epsilon outfit slipping into a building."

"When was this?" asked Erik, intrigued.

"Yesterday."

"Which building did the man go into?"

Aquos opened his mouth to answer, but hesitated. "I forgot," he said, turning red.

Erik rolled his eyes. Aquos was a popular leader, and a great trainer, but the man had the memory of a goldfish. "Well then, who was the guy who told you about him?"

"You know Skidd? Hangs out with those morons in the alley behind the Pokemart? It was him."

Erik grinned. "Skidd? Me and him used to be great mates when we were kids. I need to go check him out; I guess I'll see you around, Aquos."

"Wait!" said Aquos, and leaned in close. "I forgot to tell you. There's a rumour that Cole's back in town."

"You're joking!"

Aquos shook his head. "Nope. I haven't seen him for a year, but apparently he's back. You might want to ask around about that too."

Erik nodded. "I'll be sure to. See ya."

"Yeah, peace out, Erik."

Aquos turned back into the Gym. Erik waited until he shut the door, and then started walking so fast that he almost ran. The two bits of info that Aquos had given him were both phenomenal. And it would take him about ten minutes to find out all of the details. Erik knew every informant in Metrosan City, a network of spies, usually reporting to Aquos. In a city as big as Metrosan, there were a lot of petty criminals, but many were honourable, and willing to help out the Gym Leader. Erik was friends with most of them.

He turned into an alleyway. Down the back was a group of loud teenagers. They were all at least two years older than him, and a few were even smoking.

"Hey Skidd!" he called. One of the guys looked around as his name was called, and he slowly recognised the face supplying the sound.

"Erik? What the hell are you doing here?"

Skidd pulled Erik into a hug. Behind him, the rest of his mates kept on talking, a few glancing at the newcomer, before dismissing him as nothing. However, one of them looked annoyed.

"I'm here for information," said Erik. Aquos told me that you know something about an Epsilon going into a building. What can you tell me about it?"

Skidd thought back to the day before. "Oh yeah, I remember that. This guy kitted out in the uniform, looking all nervous. He goes up to this building, and gets this key out of his pocket. Then he opened the door and went in. He sure looked suspicious."

"What building?"

"That big one on the outskirts of the city. The abandoned one."

Erik drew in breath. "So, that's where they're hiding out! Alright, I'm gonna go check it out. Sorry I can't stay longer, but I gotta go."

Skidd nodded. "See you, then."

Erik turned to leave, but then heard a voice behind him.

"Oy, Skidd! Who is this little faggot?"

Erik looked back down the alleyway. The guy that had looked annoyed before was walking towards him. Skidd answered.

"This is Erik. He's an old mate, so back off, Kelvin, because his pokemon could kick your ass."

"This little squirt is a trainer? Yeah right! Alright, kid, let's battle."

Erik scrutinized him wearily. "I've got better things to do, but fine. One on one."

Kelvin grinned, and grabbed a pokeball. "Come on, Breloom!"

The mushroom fighter was answered with Erik's Blaziken, Blaze.

"Alright, Breloom, Dynamicpunch!"

Breloom ran at Blaze, raising its fist, but Blaze dodged and knocked it out cold with a Blaze Kick to the face. Kelvin was shocked.

"See you around, Skidd."

"Yeah, bye!"

Erik walked off, Blaze following behind him. Behind him, he could hear Skidd's mates taunting Kelvin about his quick defeat.

000

Erik stared at the heavy padlock on the door of the abandoned building. The building was old, but the door and the padlock were both fairly new. Erik frowned at this.

Sitting on a letterbox twenty metres away was the Chatot from earlier. When it saw Erik, its eyes bulged, and it flapped away quickly.

"Hamm, bust this door down," said Erik.

He released Hamm the Hariyama from its ball. It annihilated the door with a single massive punch, and Erik walked inside. Just as he suspected, everything inside was completely modern. A woman in Team Epsilon's black outfit ran into the hallway to find the source of the crash, and attacked him with a Phanpy. Hamm knocked it out with Vital Throw, hurling it against the far wall. It fainted. The woman screamed, and ran through a doorway.

Erik followed calmly, defeating several more henchmen as he travelled up through the floors. His superior pokemon could easily handle the much weaker pokemon of the grunts. Soon, there was only one more floor between him and the top floor. Barely even trying, Hamm, Blaze and his Crawdaunt, Lobman, knocked out a Raticate, a Golbat, a Stunky, a Quagsire and a Loudred. The grunts scattered, and Erik walked up the steps to the last floor.

He emerged into a big room. The only thing in it was a computer on the other side of the room. A woman was sitting at the computer, typing furiously. Her black hair hung down the back of the chair that she was sitting in. Erik drew in his breath. He knew that hair. It was Lady Delta.

Delta was an admin for Team Epsilon, and was utterly ruthless and powerful.

"Hello, Delta."

000

OK, I know that this chapter was a little rushed, and not very neat, but I wanted to get this done.

Anyway, so now we meet Delta! You might recall her name from when Ned and Kelly mention it when Sammy got the Knowledge Pendant. And who is this Almonie girl? Omega's already mentioned her once, but who exactly is she? Find out soon, in Pokemon Aura Adventure!

Bye for now. And don't forget to review. I've noticed that I tend to get more reviews if I specifically mention them, so keep them coming, I love reviews.