5:36 a.m., Saturday. February 1st

POV: Lux

I groan as I stretch in bed. I had woken up early again. I looked at my phone and sighed. Not even 6:00. I thought being a Lucario had fixed this. I guess that was correlation, not causation.

I rolled out of my bed and went through my morning routine. I had started adding showering to that list ever since Monday. I didn't get breakfast since I wasn't hungry at that moment. After I had done everything I needed to do, I pulled out my phone again and went through social media while I went through everything again in my head.

It's been about a couple of weeks since the transformation. The media attention had died down around Wednesday, when police had blocked reporters from entering school property. They weren't all gone, but a majority of them had left all of us alone. I was grateful for that, since it meant fewer migraines dealing with those people. I went through the local news channel every night to see what they little they knew about me. Since I was the only one that could communicate with them, the story focused almost entirely on me. They hadn't figured out my name yet, and they couldn't get anything on camera even if I answered their questions. Telepathy can't be recorded, and the people that had said that I can use it just make themselves look crazy on television.

With the media no longer being a concern, my thoughts shifted to my friends. I had Dan in my 1st period only. Penny was in my 1st and 5th, with Charlie and Abigail in 5th as well. I had gotten pretty used to talking with human and Pokémon friends at once. It was like I could talk over myself. We all hung out at lunch, but we were sort of split up on account of the language barrier. Charlie and Dan had tried to write messages to their human friends, but it was hard to keep a conversation like that. Abigail and Penny just had me translate things to their friends.

Speaking of my friends, Allen! I introduced him to my other friends at lunch on Tuesday. He was quiet and a little shy, but I made sure he couldn't walk away from the situation by making him contribute to every conversation. I directly asked him questions about what we're talking about, and he was able to tell us things we never even knew about the topic. He was very well informed on local events. Recently, there was talk about someone dying in the sewers and that It smelt god awful in the surface. Allen told us that police already investigated and saw several squirrel carcasses and a group of racoons munching away on a few of them. Once the gaze had ran away, the police looked around and saw birds, a few dogs, and hamsters along with the squirrels.

As the week went by, my Pokémon friends became more and more frustrated with how they can't directly speak with others. They were extremely eager to learn something from me, and were exited about the oncoming Saturday. I really didn't want to disappoint them, so I hoped the telepathy thing wasn't just a Lucario thing.

I had already exchanged contact information with all of my friends, so I texted Dan to tell the others to meet me at the Cliffside where I trained. I had invested in a stylist pen to navigate my phone. It was the best alternative to using the nubs on my paws. He'll see that when he wakes up.

I left another note to tell Jack and Mom where I'm going, then I used [Extreme Speed] to get to the cliffside. Once I made It there, I started carving away at the wall to get enough boulders ready for practice, doing it in just a way so that the cliff won't collapse on us. I wasn't sure If teaching them this kind of stuff was safe, so I wanted targets in case they needed to blow some energy. Besides, I needed some practice myself.

Once I had a good amount of boulders ready, I sat on one of them and activated my aura sense. I had practiced this everyday, even during class. Right now, I was able to see up to 30 feet away. I spent about an hour on the rock boosting my new aura sense range to 35 feet.

Now that I've done some aura training, I moved over to move training. I still wanted to get [Bone Rush] and [Aura Sphere] down on my move list before I tried any dangerous combos. One wrong step and I could seriously Injure myself. I've got [Life Dew] and [Heal Pulse] to heal injuries, but I don't want to rush things.

I still needed to figure out how to mold the aura around me to form shapes. It was essential to do that before I could use a bone staff or an off brand rasengan from Naruto. I started simple. I put my hands together and started bringing aura in the air into the pads of my paws. If I wanted to use any of the two moves, I'd had to either bring aura out from me onto my paws, or I can take in aura from the air to do it. I've learnt that the former was faster, but the latter was much less exhausting to do. For the next two hours, I had been bringing aura to my paw pads, trying to shape something, before letting it go when it started to hurt.

Cliffside

I spent ten minutes afterward walking around doing nothing but thinking, waiting for everyone else to get here. I had been thinking of methods of teaching aura, but I don't know If they would even work. I was getting a bit nervous, but I had just then sensed individuals coming into my aura sense range. Turning around, I spot four familiar Pokémon walking over to me while talking amongst themselves. Oh god, day 1 of aura training and I don't know how to train them. I sat down and rested my face on my paws. In frustration, I slid them over my eyes and buried my face.

It was as If god had come in to save the day. That, or a major coincidence. When I closed my eyes, I saw more than I thought I would with my aura vision. I not only saw aura, but I saw their life energies were focused in different parts of their bodies. With this new information, I had believed that I actually could give them some pointers in aura training.

I got up and waved to them before heading over. 'Hey guys, how's everything?'

'I'm doing great, Lux!' Dan said with the ever so present excitement in his voice.

'Me too!' Penny said.

'Same. I didn't burn something in my sleep, so I feel awesome' Charlie said. Oh yeah, I thought. Fire types are practically living flamethrowers.

'I'm doing just great' Abigail said with sarcasm laced in her voice. 'What are we even doing out here so early in the morning?'

I gave her a confused look. 'uh, did you forget what we're here for?'

'I remember, but why so early?' She complained. I guess she's not a morning person. 'Couldn't we just set this aside for later?'

'Not really,' I responded. 'I'm not sure what directions to give for aura training. I think it'll take a while until you get the telepathy I use down.'

She groaned at my response. Now that she had settled down, I started explaining to them what we'd be doing. 'Alright, So far I've noticed that you guys have a sort of concentration of aura in your bodies' I had a few raised non-existent eyebrows at this, so I explained. 'Aura is basically life energy, your chi, spirit, chakra, battery, soul juice, whatever you call it'.

'When I focus on you with my eyes closed, I can see the aura flowing throughout your body. And there are dense concentrations of aura in certain areas, and they're different for each of you. For simplicities' sake, I'm calling them your "focus points". Is that a good enough explanation?' I received nods and I continued. 'I don't know if focus points have anything to do with using moves, so we'll be hanging around these boulders I had dug up just in case you need to blow off an attack' I turned their attention to the boulders to my left.

'Wait, we can use moves? Like, in the games?' Penny asked.

'Yeah. More on that, we can learn as many moves as we want. There's no 4 limit move cap. The only drawback is that the stronger moves are more exhausting to keep up'.

'What moves do you know, Lux?' Charlie asked.

'I know the weaker ones, and I'm having trouble with [Aura Sphere] and [Bone Rush]. I've mainly taught myself utility and healing moves with the guide of a website on Lucario'.

Charlie seemed satisfied with this information, but that last part caught his attention. 'What? The pokedex stuff is accurate?'

'I guess, or they're right to a degree. I just looked at the move set and game entries to figure out what I can learn. I've spent the last two weeks figuring that stuff out'.

Everyone seemed to have no more questions, so I had moved to the next part of the plan formulating in my head. 'Alright, I think it's time to get this started. First, the focus points'. I pointed to various spots on the group's bodies. 'Dan, You have your focus point in the lightning thing at the end of your tail. Penny, yours is in your left paw. Abigail, yours is in your head. Charlie, Your focus point is right at your heart'.

They had looked or felt the areas that I had listed. 'Now, I want each of you to concentrate on those points. Tell me If you can feel the focus points, or If you can manipulate It in any way'.

I kept my aura vision up so that I can watch any progress being made. They were all moving aura from the focus point to other parts in their bodies, but they hadn't done anything too crazy yet. As they moved aura, the focus point looked relatively unchanged, telling me that the focus point was a kind of storage for Aura. Now that I saw how aura worked on other Pokémon, I looked back at myself to see the difference with Lucario.

The flow of Aura was even throughout my body, unless I made an effort to focus it somewhere. It looked like Lucario had no Focus point. Rather, It was spread out evenly everywhere. Is this another perk of being the aura Pokémon?

8:00 a.m.

It's been about an hour now, and now the group has all gotten capable of spreading aura to any part of their body. Throughout the process, I gave them pointers on what It should feel like so that they wouldn't hurt themselves. Sometimes, they had accidentally used moves while I was explaining how they shouldn't be feeling hot, or mad, or jumpy, when they moved aura. So far, Charlie had used an [Ember] and burned the tip of my tail while I was guiding Penny. Dan had shocked me with [Thunder Wave], which had lasted for a good five minutes, even if it was an accident. Penny had accidently thrown [swift] and another [Thunder Wave]. Abigail had accidently cut me up with [Slash] while I was using [Life Dew] to recover from the waves of torment I had endured. Thankfully, they hadn't been attacking at 100% so I didn't sustain any injuries I couldn't heal myself. I got a lot of 'Sorry!' and 'it won't happen again!' 's from the others, so I'm not angry at them.

They hadn't accidentally used any moves for a whole fifteen minutes, so I decided to move to some actual communication training. 'Alright, let's move to the next step. You'll need to push out some aura, use that aura to manipulate surrounding aura into a message, and send that message into each persons' head. You guys should just talk amongst yourselves to practice while I run back to my house to get some breakfast'. It sounds like a dick move, but I neglected my growling stomach for long enough. After my stomach growled some more, I couldn't take standing there doing basically nothing anymore. 'Don't worry, I'll only be gone for like five minutes. Don't kill each other while I'm gone, okay?'. I dash off to my house using [Extreme Speed], something I've grown accustomed to now that I do it so frequently.

POV: Third Person

'Did he just ditch us?' Penny asked the group.

'Well he did say it wouldn't take five minutes' Dan said.

'He did, but still. Lux is the only one who knows how to use telepathy right now' Abigail said as she walked towards the group.

'Let's just focus on what he told us to do' Charlie brought back their attention to what they came to the cliffside for in the first place, that being talking to people.

'Yeah...' Abigail trailed off. 'But, How do we bring that aura stuff out of our bodies? We can barely move it inside of it'.

'Well, y'know what they say; practice makes perfection'.

Around thirty minutes later, they had made solid progress. They couldn't send any whole messages yet, but had just been able to send simpler feelings to one another like happiness or sadness. Though, they felt as if they could have mastered telepathy if Lux could get here sometime soon.

After another 5 minutes passed, Lux wasn't anywhere in sight and Dan groaned out loud. 'Ugh, this is taking forever! Lux isn't even here yet'. Dan had been the most vocal about his frustrations.

'I'm sure he was exaggerating when he said five minutes' Penny told him.

'You guys don't get it. I've seen how fast Lux is. He can run across the whole length of the beach in a few seconds if he tried hard enough!'

'Wait, he's really that fast?' Abigail asked.

'Yeah! He saved me from a hoard of reporters about two weeks ago like that. Hell, that's partially why he chose this spot to train'.

'If he's really that fast, then maybe there's something holding him up'. She seemed to come to that conclusion relatively quickly.

'That sounds about right' Charlie said. 'Question is; What could possibly stop someone like him?'. Charlie was somewhat wary of Lux. He could tell that Lux could be a force to be reckoned with after he told Abigail and Charlie his story at the shooting. Not to say he didn't trust him, he just wanted to avoid getting Lux too angry. Now that he was a Lucario, Charlie was sure that nothing small could have stopped him.

'I hope it's nothing too serious. It'd suck if the only one that could teach us telepathy got seriously injured' Abigail said. 'Though, It probably is something big if it's taken him an extra half an hour'.

They had spent some more time brainstorming what Lux could have gone through. Thankfully, Lux had appeared in the distance with a bag in his paw. The others ran over to him to demand answers and help on training. When they got closer, they all paused a good distance away to examine him.

He body had cuts all over it. Fur had clumped together in a mix of dirt and blood. He had a slight limp and he had his free paw on his arm. When he noticed the group examining him, he did his best to hide his limp but he knew it didn't matter.

They had run up to him and with worried concerns. Charlie had asked the first question. 'Dude! What the hell happened?'

'Well I was trying to get food for all of us,' Lux held up the bag. 'But then I ran into some trouble'.

'Niiiice bagel sandwiches' Dan said as he grabbed one from the bag. 'But what kind of trouble could have left you looking like a bloody dish rag?' He started handing food out to everyone.

'The Pokémon kind' Lux said. He got four shocked expressions, so he continued. 'It's some Nidoking named Max...'

Twenty minutes ago

Downtown

POV: Lux

Sweet Jesus, finally! I had just gotten out of the bagel shop. There's always a huge line for this place, spanning half the plaza and sometimes down the hill it was built on. No one really minded, since the bagels were to die for. I had gotten about ten different sandwiches, since I was sharing with four other Pokémon. I didn't know If they needed normal portions or more or less, so I bought a lot. I was about to walk back to the cliffside when someone had bumped into me. Obviously not paying attention, I fell to the ground rather easily.

As I got back up, I noticed the purple figure staring right at me. Big ears, a horn, big teeth, grey and purple plates on the body, and a long tail. The Nidoking had pushed me to the ground and had been watching me bringing myself up with a grin on his face. Eventually, I spoke up. 'Hey, what's your deal man?'

The grin vanished and was replaced with a frown. 'You're supposed to say sorry, mut'.

I cocked a brow at this, ignoring that last part. At least for now. 'You're the one who rammed into me like an idiot, why would I have to say sorry?'

'For being here, for bothering me, for being pathetic'

I paused at his answer. Geez, Is he alright up there or does he have some kind of superiority complex. 'You're the one being pathetic, expecting an apology. Now, I'll be on my way if you're done bothering everyone here' I gestured to the long line next to us. Cameras were up, kids hiding behind their parents. It's like they think we're gonna fight.

I stupidly turn my back on him and started to walk away. Next second, I felt him shove me again. This time with much more force. I felt myself fly about ten feet away before I brought myself up again. I felt a slight pain forming in my back, but I had to ignore it. 'The fuck, man!'

'Apologize, dog!' He charged me again, pulling his fist back into what I knew was a right hook.

Naturally, I didn't want to take a punch from a Nidoking. Thinking quickly, I jumped as high as I could and landed far behind him. If I had more control over myself, I could have stopped myself from stumbling and hitting the ground again. Note to self, learn control over this body.

At this point, I realized that the spectators were not at all safe from this guy's wrath. I broadcast a message to everyone in the plaza. "Please get inside or run away! This guy's insane or something!"

'No one calls "Man of the Track Max" Insane and gets away with it!' the now Identified max said as he turned and ran to me again. I paused at that stupid title.

Okaaaaaay, so he's definitely the high and mighty kind of guy if he's proud of that name. But why is he so aggressive? 'What's wrong with you, man? Are you trying to hospitalize me or something? Over an apology you don't deserve?'. I really wanted to talk him out of this, I didn't want people to think we were super dangerous. Unfortunately, there was no pause in Max's charge. I dodged and he ran into a pillar. Thankfully, that pillar was decorative and was the only thing that got destroyed. The problem was that he pulverized that pillar without even a scratch on his arm.

At that point, everyone had gotten inside. Now that I had a good Idea of his strength, I formed an escape plan. I can't just leave him here. What if he blows some steam on other people? They could die! I should at least lead him somewhere using myself as bait... god fucking damnit not again. It was just like the rogue shooting, except I had tons more space to work with. It's the best option, the strength he's displaying could put anyone in a hospital or six feet under. I was still standing, and I was another Pokémon, meaning I'm the greatest candidate to settle this. While dodging blows, I kept backing up so that I can drag him to a place where I can fight without worrying about people or their property.

Fast forward ten minutes. he's got me a few times but I got him to an open field nearby. I don't know why he's so aggressive, but he was too angry to notice what I was doing. I dropped my bagels at the edge of the field so that I can block his blows more effectively. All that's left is to battle another Pokémon. Cue the music. Before I did anything, I noticed a group of kids around a few buildings. I figured they followed us and were recording the entire thing. If I fight back now, I can list it as self defense and whatever happens happens. Now...

As he swung another fist, I ducked and used [force palm] on his stomach. He stumbled back with a grunt. Now that I had some distance, I used [Life Dew] and got into a stance. I don't want max or anyone else following me to the cliffside. Five Pokémon in one place sounds like trouble and I don't want people to think we're more dangerous than we actually are.

He charges me doing nothing but throwing punches at me. They might be powerful, but they were too slow. Switch between Aura Sense and [Detect] to weave trough his wrath. As he begins to tire out, I begin to attack. I throw another [Force Palm] at his gut. He slides five feet back and I follow with a [Rock Smash]. He skids another five feet before coming to a halt. Max screams in anger, then goes back to attacking.

His punches hadn't gotten any weaker, so that means he hasn't tired himself out yet. Actually, it felt like his punches had gotten a bit stronger than before. I wasn't sure If he wanted to beat me down or actually kill me. It had gotten to the point where I couldn't block his attacks anymore, and I was barely dodging. I've been thrown several directions in just a few minutes. The only thing I've got going for me right now is the fact that he hasn't or isn't able to use moves.

I had been using [Detect] to get around blows that almost hit me. [Force Palm] did fuck all against him and I haven't gotten a clue how to beat him. Should I just leave? I tried my luck and used charged up a [Rock smash] in my paw and drove it right into Max's jaw. The only response to that was a heavy right hook right into my arm. After flying another 40 ft this time, I ran over to my bag of bagels. Alright, running away sounds good now.

Even thought I had been limping, I was still much faster than anyone If I used [Extreme Speed]. Before I left I told the kids to book it and that I planned to leave. Thankfully, they left. Now that everything was okay I left Max in the dust and dashed towards the Cliffside.

Present time

Cliffside

POV: Third Person

'And that about sums it up' Lux said as he downed a bagel. He had used [Life Dew] to heal most of his injuries. Everyone took a break from aura training to eat while listening to the encounter. 'He seemed to be extra pissed the entire time. Either I set him over the edge or he just wanted to blow off some steam. I'm assuming the latter right now, but what was it that angered him so much?'

'I think I know' Penny said, albeit quietly. 'He had been part of the track team, I heard he was kicked off because he's a Nidoking now'.

'Hmmm, that makes sense. But still, that's no reason to go into a raging fit in public like that!'

'Yeah, It's something to be concerned about. Especially if it put you in that kind of state' Abigail said. 'By the way, do you know him Penny?'

Penny gave a small nod. 'Yeah, I had been in track for a bit before I quit'.

'Wait, you quit. Like, before we turned? Why?' Dan asked.

She put her head down before answering. 'Max used to hit on me when I was in the team. I didn't like him and I made that clear, but he wouldn't leave me alone. Anytime I talked to friends he'd butt in and make all sorts of outrageous claims until they walked away. He even punched boys who were talking to me, even during class!'. She progressively got louder and louder as she went on. 'He's convinced himself that we were dating, even though I told him I didn't want anything to do with him! I told him why as well, but he won't even try to change himself. He's always been that self-centered asshole who thinks everything will work out just as he wanted'

Everyone's opinion of Max spiraled downward as she told her tale. Subconsciously, she forced a wave of anger onto the group before crying into Dan.

Lux was surprised. He could feel the anger as if it were his own. It wasn't complete telepathy, but really good progress. The others felt it too. Charlie and Abigail knew that this wasn't the kind of guy that could be reasoned with or redeemed. Lux experienced that first hand. Dan? Well, he'd been angrier than the wave Penny let out.

He was definitely pissed. Two of his friends had to deal with the metaphorical and letteral monster, and he couldn't do anything about it! He wanted so badly to teach Max a lesson, to get back at him for messing with his group. Right now, he had to calm Penny down. He hugged her, and Penny hugged back while crying into Dan's chest. 'I'm sorry I brought back bad memories, Penny. I didn't know that he messed with you that much.' He started stoking the fur on her back while she cried into him.

They stayed like that for a few minutes while the others were lost in thought. Charlie was ready to help when the group decided to teach Max a lesson. He had never heard of a more Dickish person in his life. Max was more "High School Bully" than the term "High School Bully". Abigail felt the same way, though she didn't want to fight unless he started it. She was afraid of the consequences and didn't want to hurt anyone, but she would hold her ground If it was for friends. Lux, now that he's heard of what Penny went through, felt determined to finish the fight Max had started.

Penny had started calming down, but she was still tearing up. Once she had finally stopped, she let go of Dan's tear soaked fur. She stayed close to Dan and fixed herself up before everyone went back to eating.

The group sat there in awkward silence, finishing the last of the bagels. Eventually, Lux couldn't take it anymore. 'Alrighty then. Now that all of that's happened, I think we should get back to training'. Again, he isn't the greatest with words. He didn't want to come off as a dick, but they really should get back to telepathy. Besides, Lux now felt obliged to teach the others more than just communication now...