Nine-year-old Ash Ketchum ran for his life in the woods on the outskirts of Pallet, his best friend Gary Oak besides him.
"You're gonna...be...in so much trouble," Gary huffed as the boys ran through a creek, not caring that their sneakers got wet.
"You will too!" Ash cried as they continued to dash through the shrubbery. "You came along with me!"
"Yeah!" Gary agreed as he continued to pump his legs as fast as they could go. "To keep you from doing something stupid!"
"And look how well that tur...Hey!"
"Shh!" Gary hushed his friend as he pulled the other boy into a large hollow log that had toppled long ago onto the forest floor.
A few seconds later they heard the rage filled cries of the Fearow Ash and Gary had accidentally stumbled upon as it flew above them. The angered mother had chased the boys the last half mile for daring to look upon her egg.
Ash's pulse raged, and he didn't take notice of his bleeding palms as they scraped against the jagged sides of the log they had taken shelter in. About a hundred yards in front of him the boy could just make out the edge of the forest that gave way to the grassy hilltop that led down to Pallet. Down to safety.
"We need to make a break for it," Ash whispered.
"Are you crazy!" Gary whispered back hoarsely as his eyes bulged. "As soon as that thing sees us, we're dead! The forest is the only cover we have!"
"We're also gonna die if we stay here. Fearow's gonna find us eventually and this tree isn't gonna keep it out. If we can just get over the edge of the hill maybe someone will see us."
"And get caught! You know we're really gonna be in a lot of trouble right?"
"I bet Viola will be in more though. I bet she knew there was a nesting Fearow in this part of the woods. She set a trap for us. There were never any mega stones around here."
"Of course there wasn't!" Gary whisper screamed at Ash, causing spittle to fly onto the other boy's face.
"You never know," Ash shrugged helplessly. "They show up in the weirdest places."
Gary conceded to that with an agitated huff. "If we're going down, we're bringing Viola down with us."
"To do that we need to get past that Fearow though," Ash said, a shaky smirk forming on his face.
"Ohwww, it's on," Gary said flashing Ash a similar look. For the moment the boys childish desire for revenge on their scheming classmate overwhelmed their fear of the apex predator.
"One," Ash counted while getting into a ready stance, trying to stop the shaking in his legs.
"Two," Gary strangled out; his eyes locked on the hilltop.
"Three!" The boys exclaimed together as they took off from their makeshift hiding spot at a dead sprint, not caring of the branches that slashed at their exposed skin.
The boys were almost to the tree line when they heard a fierce cry behind them. Ash glanced back just in time to see the Fearow dive at them but was forced back into the sky by the unforgivingly dense forest.
Ash and Gary soon broke through the tree line and started tumbling down the hill. A rush of relief swept through Ash when he saw a worried looking Professor Oak and a teary-eyed Ella, another one of the boy's classmates and Viola's best friend, making their way up the hill towards them. Ella had probably gone to get help as soon as she found out what Viola was up to. It was sorta her nonofficial job.
Ash was broken out of his musing as he heard a cry of alarm from the professor. He chanced a look behind him to see the horrifying sight of the Fearow closing in on Gary's back, with no trees to get in the way of her missing her target this time.
When asked about it later Ash wouldn't remember how he fell behind Gary. How he crossed his arms and tucked in his head, getting between his best friend and the large predator. None of it was conscious thought, just an instinctual desire to protect what was his.
What Ash would remember was the sudden burst of energy that flowed from the air around him to form a protective shield. He would remember how the deadly rage in the Fearow's eyes just mere feet from him turned to surprise too late. He would remember the feeling of getting the breath knocked out of him when he collided with the large bird. The Fearow hadn't touched him, but he still fell to the ground wheezing like he'd been sucker punched.
After a few seconds of gasping for breath on his back Ash managed to roll onto his stomach with a pained groan to look up the hill to find out what happened to his pursuer. To the boy's alarm the Fearow was starting to get back up from where it had crashed and looked angrier than ever. Thankfully, before the flying type could make a move a large orange blur descended upon it. Ash finally let himself collapse with exhaustion knowing he was safe now, there was no way the Fearow or anything else would be getting past Oak's Dragonite.
"Ash!"
Before the raven-haired child could form a response, Gary was on him. Yanking him up so he was supported by the other boy's body, his head coming to fall on his friend's shoulder.
"Don't ever do that again," Gary croaked. Through the numbness that had overtaken him Ash felt distant surprise when he realized the other boy was crying.
"O-okay."
"Ash?"
Ash looked up to see Professor Oak kneeling in front of him, the perfect picture of concern. Dragonite stood behind him, letting out a soft worried cry. The professor was holding a pokeball Ash assumed held a freshly caught Fearow.
So many questions then surged through Ash's head as the reality of what had occurred came crashing down on him. How was he alive? What did he just do? Was he psychic? Could he do it again?
"What just happened?" the young raven-haired boy asked as he stared wide eyed up at the professor.
To the young boys immense disappointment the professor refused to answer. Oak told Ash that it wasn't his place, that he would have to talk to his mother. The professor did send Ella home and checked the boys over for any injuries. Thankfully Gray's grandfather concluded that they had escaped their ordeal with only a few minor cuts and scrapes before finally escorting the boys back to the Ketchum residence.
On the way there Gary filled his grandfather in on what happened. The man wasn't surprised, Ella had already told the professor that and more. Oak let Ash and Gary know that Viola had indeed sent them gallivanting off to where she knew there was a nesting Fearow thanks to her mother's occupation as a forest surveyor. It was her idea of some cynical prank and the girl was in big trouble with both her parents and Oak.
That didn't mean Gary and Ash were off the hook though. They both knew never to go into the forest without an adult or Pokémon. Their punishment could wait until tomorrow after they had gotten over their shock, and it would be light seeing as how the professor thought their near-death experience was a lesson in and of itself.
Oak did praise them on their quick thinking. They probably should have realized that Ella had gone to get help as she always did when Violas pranks and dares turned dangerous or hurtful. The smartest thing to do would have been to hide and wait for an adult. But the boys had no way of knowing anyone was coming, and with the knowledge their scared nine-year old brains had they had acted in probably the best way they could.
Once they reached the Ketchum residence Oak had taken Delia aside to the kitchen to explain what happened while the boys trudged up the stairs to the bathroom to clean off. While Gary hopped into the shower first Ash fished two sets of clean clothes out of his room for them to change into.
Gary and Ash's friendship had been suffering lately. Gary's minor fame and wealth had been starting to go to his head, turning the boy arrogant and sometimes into a bit of a bully. While the brown-haired boy was traumatized and in shock now, later in life he would be thankful for the ordeal he had gone through with his best friend. They had almost died today. He could have lost Ash forever. The horror that thought brought on was quickly followed by a wave of shame.
But isn't that what I've been doing already, Gary thought as he scrubbed the mud and blood off. Driving Ash away? Is that really what I want?
No. No it wasn't. Gary now knew with absolute certainty that he didn't want to picture what his life would look like without Ash Ketchum in it.
Twenty minutes later the two boys made their way down the stairs to where their parents were waiting for them. The adults had made themselves comfortable on the recliners with steaming mugs in their hands and were chatting quietly. Ash didn't miss the slight misty look in his mother's eyes or the way her lip trembled.
"I think Gary and I will be going now," Oak said as he stood. "I'm sure you and Ash want to talk privately."
"No, no, it's alright," Delia assured with a small smile. "I'm sure whatever I tell Ash will get to Gary eventually. And we're practically family anyways. Make yourselves comfortable boys, this could be a long story and a bit of a shock."
It was true. Everyone in Pallet knew the Oak and Ketchum families might as well have been one. Delia and Samuel's daughter Leaf had been best friends growing up. Delia had spent most of her childhood at the lab because her parents often traveled for work. When the girls had turned 13 Delia had decided to stay at the lab and start an apprenticeship while Leaf began a Pokémon journey.
Things had started going downhill somewhere on the road when Leaf met Blue Okido. The two trainers developed an emotionally abusive on again off again relationship for many years until Blue took off for good after he found out Leaf was pregnant; they were both 19. Delia had been the one at her friends' side when she gave birth to Daisy Oak.
Five years later when Leaf decided she wanted to try to compete in the Indigo Conference again she had come home devastated and pregnant with Gary. She hadn't even made it passed qualifying rounds. Leaf never told anyone what happened other than that Blue was Gary's father. She died in childbirth.
A few years before Leaf got pregnant with Daisy, Delia had gone to watch her compete at the Silver League. That's where Delia met and fell in love with Red Knight. That was also the year Red became Champion. They married three years later, and Delia became pregnant with Ash five years after that.
Red died on a league mission a few months before Ash was born. No one knew what really happened. Red had apparently been in a huge rush when he left his office on his Charizard. His body was found on the Indigo Plateau doorstep three days later. His Pokémon are still missing to this day.
Devastated, Delia moved back to Pallet to be close to what family she had left. It also didn't hurt that Professor Oak was a former Champion who could protect her and her newborn son while still being close to the Indigo Plateau in case they needed backup. Foul play hadn't been ruled out in Red's death. She also gave Ash her maiden name, hoping to throw anyone who came looking for him off his tail.
Shortly after Red's death Lance Blackthorn, Red's student, swept the Indigo conference and Elite Four to become Champion. The man and his team were in a righteous anger after their mentor's death and were determined to find out what happened. In doing so Lance destroyed most criminal organizations in Kanto and Johto. The only one that has managed to escape him was Team Rocket, but not without fading into the shadows almost entirely.
Not finding who killed Red, Lance decided to honor his mentor and older brother figure by being the best Champion he could and taking care of Red's family. While Lance couldn't be around as much as he wanted, he became the closest thing Ash had to a father. He usually made the time to stop by at least one day a week to help out around the house and spend time with Ash.
Delia took a deep breath and began.
"Your father had a unique gift called Aura," Delia explained, her voice trembling as she spoke. "From what I understand it's similar to psychic power but instead of the power coming from the mind it comes from the soul. And it's much rarer. While psychic powers usually appear randomly Aura is passed down through a family. A fully mature Aura user is called an Aura Guardian. The ancestor you and your father inherited your power from was a woman named Erika, the sister of a very famous ancient Aura Guardian named Sir Aaron.
"Red kept his abilities a secret from the general public. It was his element of surprise that helped him take down Team Rocket. Of course, they never stayed down," Delia grumbled, looking unhappily out the window. It's no secret that Team Rocket inability to stay dead after all her husband had done infuriated the wife he had left behind to no end.
Ash stared at his hands, trying to will them to stop shaking. A weight that hadn't been there mere minutes ago settled on his young shoulders, suffocating him. What if he lost control of this Aura? Young psychics often hurt the people closest to them by accident. What if next time instead of saving Gary he was hurting him?
"Calm down Ash," Oak said, breaking the boy out of his downward spiral. The Professor could always tell what the boys were thinking causing Ash to often question if he was a secret psychic. "Aura comes from the soul, remember. That means it's pretty much impossible for you to hurt someone you don't mean or want to."
That didn't make Ash feel much better, but it did help. The weight wasn't crushing anymore, but it was still impossible to ignore.
"What can Ash do with Aura?" Gary asked, his fascination and curiosity completely opposed to his friend's nerves.
Ash perked up at that, no matter how scary this all was for him the idea of having superpowers would never not appeal to a nine-year-old child.
"Red never shared much with me to be honest," Delia admitted. "He tried his hardest to keep work and home separate. I do know that he had a limited ability to understand his Pokémon."
"Really!" Ash exploded. His favorite thing in the entire world was Pokémon. Being able to talk to them was his biggest wish come true. Even more so than becoming a Pokémon Master. The difference was that until a minute ago the former was the only feasible option.
"Really," Delia answered, a smile starting to form on her face. "To know more you're going to have to ask Lance. I know your dad tried to teach him before he died."
"Really! Can we call him now!"
"I'll call Lance tonight," Delia assured her son. "He's probably working now anyways. How about until then I cook dinner and you boys put on a movie?"
Ash spent the rest of the evening surrounded by his family. Gary begged to stay the night when his grandfather left, which Oak allowed. But he expected to see the boys at noon to paint a new fence around one of the pastures. Neither boy was off the hook for going into the woods alone.
While the two friends were blowing up an air mattress in the living room Delia brought Ash the phone.
"Ash?" Lance's voice came through the speaker.
"Lance!" Ash exclaimed, getting Gary's attention. The brown-haired boy hurried over, half tackling Ash in the process, trying to press his face as close as possible to the phone.
"Get off me!" Ash protested as he tried to push the other boys face away.
"I just want to hear," Gary begged, shoving himself further into Ash's personal space.
Ash didn't know why Gary always went complete fanboy over Lance. His own grandfather was a former Champion and the Dragon Master had been around his whole life. At least Gary was able to rein himself in when Lance visited after going completely gaga for a few minutes. Ash would then start to think Gary was over his weird obsession only for him to see one of Lance's battles on TV and the fanboying would begin anew.
It used to annoy Ash, but Lance had turned it into a bit of a joke between them. Lance's own best friend Steven Stone was quite like Gary in the way that he was 'A stick in the mud that you had to force to have any fun.' The Champion had told Ash to enjoy rare outbursts like these and never let them forget it.
"Yeah, but you don't need to be on top of me to do that!" Ash shouted indignantly, trying to wedge his knee in between them so he can shove the other boy off.
Laughter could be heard over the phone. "Gary, if you don't mind, I need to talk to Ash. I'll see you tomorrow though."
"You're coming over?" Ash beamed, finally getting Gary off him. The other boy dropped to the side, not bothering to hide his excitement either. "I thought you weren't coming until Friday?"
"Yeah, well, that was before you boys almost got yourselves killed, and you've had several big bombshells dropped on you today Ash. I'm coming tomorrow morning and staying through Friday. I should be there before you wake up."
"Really!" Ash shouted as he started to jump up and down, unable to contain his excited energy.
"Really," Lance answered, humor creeping into his tone. "You boys should get in bed. Your mom told me you and Gary have a long day ahead of you painting fences. I don't need to talk to you about how stupid it was to go into the forest alone do I?"
"No sir," Ash answered in a low voice. It didn't take a genius to work out the man was disappointed in him.
"Good, now off to bed. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Okay, night Lance."
"Goodnight Ash. Sleep well."
Ash put the phone back in its charging port and the boys crawled under the sheets of the newly made up bed.
"Tomorrow's gonna suck isn't it," Gary said as he reached up to the side table to switch off the lamp.
"Yeah," Ash answered as he got comfortable.
The two friends fell into a comfortable silence before Ash broke it a few minutes later.
"Hey Gary," the raven-haired boy asked.
"Huh," the other boy grunted, half asleep.
"You didn't need to come with me into the forest today. Thanks for not leaving me alone."
"Of course you idiot," Gary huffed out. "We're brothers, we stick together. I'm sorry I haven't been a good one lately. Now go to sleep, I need my beauty rest."
Ash let out a small laugh before turning over and finding a dent in the mattress to rest his head on. Surprisingly, he didn't dream.
Ash woke up the next morning to Gary's obnoxiously loud voice drifting from the kitchen.
The boy rubbed at his eyes to get the sleep out of them and stretched, letting out a pained moan. Everything was sore, and Ash meant everything. He felt like he had tried to fight a Tyranitar and by some miracle had lived to tell the tale.
Sooner rather than later the enticing smell of breakfast encouraged the raven-haired boy to pull himself off the mattress and stumble his way into the kitchen.
"Morning," Gary greeted cheerfully as Ash plopped himself into a chair beside him, the taller boys top lip covered in a chocolate milk stash.
"Morning," Ash grumbled back while burying his head in his arms.
"Ash honey, are you okay?" Delia asked, moving the bacon off the heat of the stove. Delia knelt in front of Ash, laying the back side of her hand across his forehead to gauge his temperature.
"Fine," Ash mumbled, "Just sore."
"I bet," said another voice making Ash jump, almost knocking his head into his mothers. Lance set his own glass of chocolate milk down on the counter he was leaning on with a huge smile spreading across his face.
"I was barely able to use Aura at all and that took a lot out of me. You somehow managed to put up a full-blown shield yesterday and were able to take a huge hit with it. Think of it as if you'd just ran a huge marathon without ever so much as jogging in your life before."
Ash nodded, that made a bit of sense. So, Aura was like a muscle. And he had pushed that muscle to the max yesterday and had sprained it like how he sprained his arm when he had tried to lift a huge bag of feed at the Oak Ranch.
Delia's worries averted, she moved to the fridge and pulled the egg carton out. "So, there's no way Aura ca- GET YOUR HANDS OFF THE BACON!"
Lance ducked when Delia threw a spoon at him, a piece of fried Slowpoke meat hanging from his mouth.
"It was getting cold," he argued back weakly.
On the other side of the room the boys were in fits of laughter, not bothering to try to hide it.
"Sit," Delia ordered, pointing at the table. "That way I don't have to keep an eye on you."
"But," before Lance could finish his body was outlined by a pink glow, psychic power forcing him into the chair. Even without turning away from the now cooking eggs Mr. Mime somehow managed to look very proud of himself.
"Thank you Mimey," Delia said with a fond smile. Mr. Mime turned from the stove for only a second to salute Delia with his spatula before getting back to work.
"Laugh it up now you two," Lance directed at the two boys as he pouted from his new prison. "We'll see who's laughing later."
"Me," Delia answered sounding smug. "Watching you muck out the barn today."
"What!" Lance exclaimed not being able to hide the horror in his voice.
"Someone has to keep an eye on Viola. She can't be in there by herself with that many Tauros. Plus, there's no way a little kid can get it done in one day by herself. Who else but the big brave noble Champion to help her?"
Lance sputtered back while trying to come up with some counter argument. Ash and Gary continued to laugh.
"They bicker worse than you and Daisy," Ash whispered to Gary.
"I know," the other boy said between laughs. "And that's saying something."
The next day found Ash and Lance sitting across from each other on the Ketchum lawn. Even though the boy was still hurting from crouching for hours on end to paint fences the previous day he was eager to start learning about Aura. Ever since he first used it two days ago, he felt something like an itch in the back of his mind that he couldn't scratch that had been becoming worse as time went on.
"Every person has the potential to learn to manipulate Aura," Lance explained. "Like Pokémon can learn moves of different types. Some people like you and your father have it a lot easier because you were born with Aura already inside you, like a Pokémon having a much easier time learning moves of its own type. The rest of us, once again using the example of a Pokémon using a move of a different type, has to learn to sense Aura around them, draw it to them, then manipulate it. That's why I never got far with it. The hardest part is already done for you. You already have Aura within; you don't need to draw it from other places."
"I suggest you start by actually meditating on the feelings you experienced when you created that shield. You've already felt it, so you should have an easier time replicating it. Other than that, I don't know how to help you sadly. This is as far as my training went. There's one other Aura Guardian I know that will probably be willing to teach you. I already reached out to him the night your mom called. He wants to meet you first but there shouldn't be any problems."
Ash nodded his understanding while his eyes widen, shocked. He already knew what Lance could teach him was limited but was surprised he had already managed to find a possible teacher for him.
"I'll leave you to it. Good luck. I'll be in the house if you need anything."
Ash took a deep breath, letting the world around him melt away. All that mattered was his breathing. Then he thought back to the moment he had stepped between Fearow and his friend. He discarded thoughts about the fear, saving Gary, the Fearow, or the impact. All that mattered was what the energy felt like.
It was like wind without the air currents. It felt like electricity without the static. It felt alive.
After Ash had a good idea of what he was looking for he slipped out of meditation. The next part was tricky, what Lance had described was not quite meditation.
Last year Professor Oak had taught him and Gary to meditate. He said it was a good way to reflect and work out problems. It was a practice that took place in the mind. What he was trying to do next was with his soul.
Ash placed one of his hands flat on the tree next to him. He felt the bark and then tried to imagine what was under it. The wood and the water. He imagined he could feel the leaves up high and the roots down below. Then Ash started looking for the energy in it, the Aura.
Ash didn't feel anything. And try as he might over the next few days he wasn't any more successful than he was on his first try.
But Ash didn't give up. He only stopped when someone forced him inside to eat or sleep. Delia and Lance were starting to get concerned that Ash was getting obsessed but didn't stop him just yet. This was Ash's journey, and as aggravating as it was, they couldn't help him. Ash tried to explain it to them. It was like some part of him he didn't know was there was missing, and now that he was aware of it, he desperately needed it back.
Friday finally rolled around, and Ash still hadn't made any progress. He was still sitting beside the stupid tree and the stupid energy was still eluding him. Lance was due to leave in a few hours and Ash knew he should probably be spending time with him, but he just couldn't. He needed to get his Aura back. The longer it went on the more and more the feeling of a hand closing around his throat got worse.
"You need to give. It's your own walls that are blocking the Aura out."
Ash startled and whipped his head around to face the newcomer. The man before him wore black pants and a blue blazer trimmed with black. Under the blazer was a black shirt with strange gold markings. What really stole Ash's attention though was the flamboyant hat on his head. It looked like some weird spiked fedora that matched his blazers color. The man looked down on him with kind blue eyes but other than that it was hard to tell what his face looked like. The man's fluffy black hair and his hat covered most of it.
"What?" Ash blurted out, thoroughly confused.
"The tree," the man said. He knelt down next to Ash and placed his own hand on the tree. "Its Aura has been trying to reach for you. Can you feel it?"
"No," Ash answered, figuring that this must be his potential teacher Lance sent for. "I can't feel anything. Why? What am I doing wrong?"
"Aura is mostly about connection. Your connection to your own Aura and others. Everything has Aura, living and nonliving. The air, the flowers, the rocks, the moon, Pokémon, you, me, the tree. For you to sense the tree's Aura you have to connect with it. The tree's Aura is responding to you, but you haven't responded back because you can't feel it. Until you can unlock your own Aura you can't connect with it."
Seeing Ash's confused face, the man elaborated.
"The tree has extended its hand to you, now you just need to reach and take it. But you are a blind and deaf man chained to a wall. To be able to reach out with your Aura you first need to unlock it first. A few days ago, your desperation broke into your Aura reservoir, but you didn't know what was going on and didn't accept it. So, your Aura locked itself away again. But it's lock is cracked and fragile now, it should be easy for you to get in again."
"But if it's locked how did I reach it before?" Ash asked.
"Think as if your Aura is trapped in a little ball in your chest. Unable to move or grow. Once you unlock it the Aura will encompass your whole body, reaching out through it, taking forms, and growing stronger with exercise. Like a muscle. Sometimes in moments of distress though that little ball temporally bursts to keep you safe."
"Pokémon are born with their energy unlocked. It's believed a human's body isn't strong enough in their infancy to handle psychic powers or Aura, so the energy locks itself away until we're ready. Psychic's usually come into their power around seven or eight years of age and so do Aura Guardians."
"The difference is Psychics will have access to their power right away, it will unlock itself. It will start to show itself in the midst of any heighten emotion the child may have. An Aura Guardians energy stays locked until we reach for it, only showing itself in life threatening situations. Some people have gone their whole life without knowing they had it. But mostly Aura is passed down through families, and with it the knowledge of how to use Aura."
"Ha," the man broke off suddenly, seemingly sheepish. "I'm rambling aren't I."
"It's okay," Ash encouraged eagerly, his eyes bright. "Please don't stop!"
The more the mystery person talked the more things fell into place for Ash. Aura was finally starting to make some sense.
"All you need to do is reach for your own Aura like you were with the tree, acknowledge it, and accept it. Once you do that there is no going back."
"Now," the man said while standing. "I don't think I caught your name young man."
"I'm Ash," the boy said while also pulling himself to his feet, extending his hand.
"And I'm Riley," the man said with a smile while shaking Ash's hand.
"Now Ash," Riley said, "I have a very important question for you. Why do you want to become an Aura Guardian?"
"Mostly I want to be able to talk to Pokémon. Pokémon are the best things in the world! To be able to communicate with Pokémon, especially my own, would make me the happiest person on the planet! Plus, my dream is to be a Pokémon Master, and that usually takes the form of either an experienced Gym Leader, Elite Four member, or Champion. That means it will be my job to protect Pokémon, the people following me, and the public. Aura can help me do that; help me bring more people home to their families."
"Spoken like a true hero," Riley murmured to himself softly. "Alright! I expect to see you here 8:00 AM sharp tomorrow. Your real training starts then!"
"Really! Really, really, really!" Ash shouted, jumping up and down for joy.
"Yes, Now get outta of here before I change my mind. I think your parents want to see you," Riley teased, sending a side eye towards the twitching curtains in the window of the Ketchum house.
Ash thanked Riley one more time before dashing into the house, yelling the good news to Delia and Lance. The two congratulated him, relieved to see their son back to his old self.
Over the next few years Riley would visit for about a week once a month. Ash learned fast under him. He unlocked his Aura the very same day Riley started training him. Ash would describe it as the most freeing experience in his life. Like he'd just regained a missing limb he hadn't even known was missing. The Aura Guardian also taught Ash about the ways Aura was working in the world around him that he never realized before.
Turns out Mega Evolution was a trainers and Pokémon's Aura becoming one. Mega and key stones just picked up the frequency of the energy of the bond between trainers with no Aura and their Pokémon. That's why there were some rare cases of Pokémon that could mega evolve without a mega stone. Watching Riley and his Lucario mega evolve without a mega or key stone had been the coolest thing ever. Even Lance was amazed.
It was then Lance asked Riley if he would pick up his own training where Red had left off. Riley politely denied. He wanted to focus on Ash, but Ash in a year or two would most likely be experienced enough to pick up Lance's training himself.
And Ash had. A year and a half after he started training under Riley, Ash started to train Lance as well. Riley said it was the final test of his understanding of basic concepts, to be able to teach Aura to someone not naturally gifted with it. In the two and a half years since Lance was able to use a bleary form of Aura Sight but the man said it was becoming clearer every day. It had already saved lives on League missions because the champion could make out enough to spot things like bombs and count how many hostiles were in a building before entering.
Not that these missions happened often. Team Rocket was keeping a low profile for some reason the last few years and other criminal groups that sprung up were quickly shut down.
Ash also learned that Pokémon were born with the energy of their typing inside them like an Aura Guardian was born with Aura inside them. For example, a Squirtle was born with Water energy inside them so Water Type moves came easily to them. But they would have to learn how to sense and manipulate other energies around them to use moves of other types, and those moves would never be as good as moves of the Pokémon's type.
That's why a Dragonite's Flamethrower might be powerful, but it could never amount to that of a Charizard's of the same age and experience. Similar as to how a Charizard's Dragon Claw would never be on the same level of a Dragonite's that was also the same age and experience level.
Some energy types clashed though. That's where type advantage came from and why Pokémon could never learn to use some moves. Like say a water type could almost never learn a fire type move. Their base type and energy just clashed with the other too much, canceling it out.
Majority of trainers didn't know that. Their Pokémon learned to feel other types of energy through instinct, tough battles and evolution. Ash on the other hand did and would be able to train his Pokémon to unlock those other types much quicker.
Ash mastered Aura Sight and Protect (which he learned the shield he pulled up that fateful day was called). Riley had started teaching his pupil about healing, which to Ash's dismay would involve a lot of reading and studying about the body first before he could actually start learning the Aura techniques.
Along with teaching Ash Aura, Riley also began to start tutoring his student in martial arts. Something the boy loved and picked up on quickly. The raven-haired child also improved in school. While Ash would never be able to match students like Gary or Ella in the classroom his study habits did improve over the years and he rose to be one of the top students.
When Ash was eight, he was diagnosed with ADHD. After his Aura was unlocked, he was able to sit still and think a lot longer. It also helped with his focus. While Ash was in no way cured his ADHD was controllable now and no longer a hindrance when he needed to get things done. That said, he still let loose with other kids quite often and put all that extra energy to good use. He was still a child after all.
During the summer Delia and Lance took Ash and Gary out on camping trips to teach them how to survive in the wilderness and avoid dangerous wild Pokémon. Just because they had Pokémon when they left on their journeys didn't mean their little starters could stand up to a full grown Pidgeot they might come across on the way to Viridian City.
Lance also gifted Ash and Gary with upgraded pokenav's. He explained technically it was a gift from Steven who had heard a lot about the boys and vice versa even though they had never actually met. The pokenav's would let the boys make calls from anywhere, access things like the internet from anywhere, and most importantly in Lance's opinion, it had a built-in tracker and Smart Distress Signal.
The Smart Distress Signal, or SDS, was an AI that was built to listen to everything going on around the boys and send a call for help, the boys location, and a recording of whatever the AI heard it thought was a threat to the nearest gym leader, the Elite Four, Lance and Steven.
It would be stupid thinking the boys didn't have a target painted on their backs. Ash was the son of the former Champion and raised by the new one. Gary was also the grandson of a former Champion and the region's official professor. Anyone in Pallet could tell Lance cared about Gary, and Oak cared about Ash. The boy's guardians had tried to keep their existence low profile and had succeeded for the most part but anyone in Pallet could talk.
Daisy had been kidnapped and held for ransom when she first started her journey. She was able to get her Pokémon back and escape before authorities had a chance to make a move though. Since then she always traveled in other regions and kept little contact with her family. Professor Oak had been devastated.
Lance had gone ahead and preprogrammed the numbers of all the gym leaders and Elite Four in case of an emergency into the pokenav's. He put himself, Delia, Professor Oak, and Steven on speed dial.
Lance drilled into the boy's head that while he may spoil them, they were not to expect special treatment from the League. He trained them and got them fancy gadgets as a head start but it was with his own money and his own time.
Yes, the Kanto gym leaders and Elite Four were a makeshift family. And in the future said league officials may treat the boys however they wanted on their own time and with their own money. But NEVER on the League. Never would anyone show them any sort of official favoritism. The boys would have to earn their badges, train their Pokémon, and reach the top with as much struggle as any other trainer. They were just being set on the right path by people who cared about them that happened to be in positions to help. They were very lucky. And the boys knew it. They were also very, very grateful.
As many as you know already this is a rewrite. Since I first posted this story in 2017 I've taken a creative writing class and my writing has improved a lot. But mostly I've learned how to plan out a story a lot better and there were some things in these early chapters that I've come to regret. Major things that I can't just ignore in the present. Like how I set the kids up to travel with adult companions… While I still like the idea and still think it's the responsible thing to do, I've realized as I've written over the years it allows for little character growth.
I didn't change too much in this chapter. I fixed a lot of grammar issues and rewrote several paragraphs, but the information is mostly the same and comes off clearer. There were some interesting changes to how Aura works if you want to go read up on that.
Before posting these rewritten chapters, I've rewritten them all the way up to where we currently are in the story so you can be expecting regular updates every week until then! That's something that's never happened before. I guess we'll see if I can keep it up!
Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed reading! Let me know what you think in the comments!