Red's team:

Pikachu – Zeus

Munchlax – Atlas

Leaf's team:

Alolan Vulpix – Luna

Trapinch – Melody

Chapter 4

It was early in the morning when Red and Leaf, after restocking on food and other essentials, found themselves in Viridian Forrest.

"… Are they usually that big?" Red couldn't help but ask after seeing his first bug Pokemon, earning himself confused looks from Leaf and Zeus. "I… imagined them to be smaller, that's all."

And he really did; there was a difference between knowing that bugs were as big as dogs now and seeing bugs being about as tall as his Pikachu.

'What a surreal reality I find myself in.' He mused, observing the occasional Caterpie, Weedle or their respective evolutions moving within the trees. 'At least we haven't seen a swarm of Beedrill yet… maybe I shouldn't have challenged fate yesterday.'

Much to Red's combined relieve and – strangely enough – disappointment, they didn't stumble upon an angry swarm of fully evolved Bug Pokemon. But the morning was coming to an end, so they started setting up their camp.

If they walked at a brisk pace, it would still take them around two days to reach Pewter City. But they had decided to take it slow this time to prepare for the gym, so they would probably stay within the forest for a week.

Which would leave many more opportunities to run from a Beedrill swarm.

"By the way," Red said while building his tent. "Can I borrow Luna? I could use her help to train Atlas today."

"…Sure." Leaf only hesitated slightly. "I planned to focus on Melody today anyways, so that's okay. Just make sure she trains one of her ice moves; we need as much power as possible to take on Brock."

"Today's training is going to be different from yesterday." Red explained to the gathered audience, with Luna shyly standing a little further away from his team. "We're going to train nearly non-stop, so prepare yourself for an exhausting week."

He focused on Zeus first. "You are going to focus on increasing your stamina for now-"

"Really?" Zeus interrupted sceptically. "I may have said that I needed to work on my stamina but-"

"Oh, you won't just run!" Red interrupted him in return.

Grinning, he reached into his bag and took out specialized tail-weights that he bought before leaving Viridian City.

"We are going to be productive. You will carry this with your tail while you run; your tail needs to be a little stronger for [Iron Tail]. If you're exhausted, you use as many [Discharge] as you can before you run again."

He turned to Luna and Atlas, completely ignoring the suddenly quiet Zeus.

"Atlas, you will be teaming up with Luna." Red grimaced slightly; Atlas training was going into a completely different direction than Pikachu's. But for Atlas to reach his full potential, it was required for him to do this type of training. "Luna is going to use [Icy Wind] on you, but you are prohibited from dodging and are only allowed to use [Bulldoze] to retaliate."

This way, Atlas would be able to train both his special defence and learn [Bulldoze]. If possible, he planned to borrow Luna every second day for as long as Leaf was okay with it.

At least until he caught himself an ice or fire type himself. Atlas had the ability Thick Fat after all. It grants him resistance to ice and fire type attacks, enabling him to train longer while still yielding the same results.

On the days where he wasn't doing special-defence training, Atlas would mainly focus on his physical strength.

While roughly planning his trainings plan, Red was worried that Atlas wouldn't want to do it. But, much to his surprise, Luna looked more apprehensive than Atlas.

But then again, Atlas was a battle junky so he probably didn't mind enduring a little bit of pain to get stronger…

"… If you find ways to defend yourself from her attacks, go ahead." Red said after a moment of thought. With how fast he learned the 'Mega-moves' yesterday, he wouldn't be surprised if he learned [Endure] or [Protect].

"Oh, and Luna." He added as an afterthought. "Try to condense [Icy Wind], I think that's how you learn [Aurora Beam]."

"… Leaf already said that." She replied quietly, giving him a stink eye before abruptly getting dragged away by the cheerful Atlas.

Red just shrugged at her sass, seems like the shy fox Pokemon didn't like getting tips from him.

With his team occupied, he stretched before joining Zeus on his run.

Similarly, to his team, he had also made a trainings plan for himself, and running was probably one of his most valuable abilities.

Well, one of humanities most valuable abilities. Until he had some seriously powerful Pokemon by his side, getting away from aggressive wild Pokemon was always going to be a combination of slowing them down while running away.

But that wasn't the main reason why he joined Zeus with his stamina training.

While walking through the forest, he brainstormed for ways to possibly use his aura, and the first thing he wanted to do was to test for any actual effects of the 'aura-coating'.

So, while running, he grasped for his aura and, with a mental heave, he started to coat both his legs. Which, while hard, wasn't nearly as difficult as expected.

If his ability to control his aura continued to improve like this, he should be able to cover his entire body in a few days.

He grinned in anticipation; it was always great to have a few short term goals!

With one last push, his legs were covered… and he instantly tripped, unprepared for the sudden increase in speed.

"Are you alright?!" Leaf shouted from the distance, having heard his painful-sounding fall.

"Yea, I'm all right!" He shouted back, pushing himself up from the floor while blushing slightly at the distance cackling from his starter.

"So, maybe running wasn't the best idea…" Red mumbled, grasping for his internal aura again – his leg coating had dispersed with the loss of concentration that his fall caused.

This time, instead of running, he just stood there for a moment before taking a hesitant step.

With nothing unusual happening, he started walking.

And truly, he was a little faster! But that increase in speed was so minor, that it could have been his imagination as well.

So, determined to get greater results, he started to jog again and with the increased speed, he instantly felt the difference.

The moment he pushed himself off the ground, the aura coating seemed to 'help' his body. Without his conscious manipulation, it responded to his body's movements.

The more strength he put into running, the better did the aura respond and this time, he was prepared.

With an exited laugh, he rapidly started to pick up in speed. Within seconds he was catching up to Zeus's running pace, who instantly started to run faster to make sure his human trainer didn't pass him.

At this point, he had no doubt that he was faster than any human from earth had ever been.

But all things must come to an end, and the sudden speed rush died as quickly as it came.

For seemingly no reason – he had made sure to remain focused on maintaining the aura coating around his legs, his aura had started to deplete.

Until, around a minute after he started running, the aura-coating had completely disappeared and he fell over.

Only this time not from clumsiness, but from pure exhaustion.

He barely held back a groan while gasping for air. His entire body hurt and his pulse was through the roof. But, interestingly enough, his legs were completely fine.

'Rule nr.1 for aura usage; don't use it on only one area.' Red grit his teeth while trying to get his heartbeat under control.

His entire body was in pain, with his hips hurting the most.

During his run, he was too busy laughing and maintaining his aura to pay attention to his physical wellbeing, but he wouldn't be surprised if he pulled a few muscles.

'Wait.' He was suddenly hit with an idea. His legs were fine, so aura must have a healing or strengthening effect if directly applied.

With a possible solution on how to stop his muscles – and possibly bones, ligaments and tendons – from screaming at him, he internally felt for his aura.

But instead of the abundant aura he was used to, he barely had a quarter of the usual amount remaining.

'Rule nr. 2 for aura usage; aura is a limited resource and usage must be regulated accordingly.'

He grasped a good chunk of his remaining aura and covered his hips in it.

Much to his relieve, the direct aura coating helped greatly and the pain in his hips soothed quickly; while consuming nearly no aura at all!

'Rule nr. 3 for aura usage; covering and healing the body barely uses any aura.' He paused for a moment before added another rule. 'Rule nr. 4 for aura usage; using aura to increase physical performance consumes a lot of aura.'

With his hips no longer aching, he continued to move his aura around different places that had been overtaxed during his superhuman sprint.

Also, just to make sure there were no internal consequences for greatly overstraining his body, he also moved it around his organs, mainly his heart and lungs.

"What are you doing?" Zeus said, startling him into opening his eyes. "Are you alright? You've been laying there for like 5 minutes."

Red pushed himself up while looking around. Apparently, he had, while focused on running, left the clearing where they had set up their camp.

"I'm experimenting with my aura." He replied, stretching to loosen his stiff muscles. "I managed to give myself a speed boost, but it's draining."

"I can see that." Zeus replied dryly, looking over his sweat covered form before grinning. "Looks like you need to work on your stamina."

Red just grinned at his cheeky reply. "Which way was the clearing again?"

By the point they reached the camp, Red had managed to fully recover.

While Zeus returned to his training, Red grasped for his aura again. With great care – and illogically nervous – he moved it to his eyes.

After asking Leaf, he had learned that she wasn't able to see his aura at all, which created his hypotheses that him seeing his own aura was a passive effect similar to his ability to understand Pokemon.

Which gave birth to the question; what was going to happen if he directly coated his eyes in aura.

At first, nothing seemed to have changed. No change in his colour perception, no visible aura in the air – nothing.

At least, until he looked at Zeus.

Red was barely able to contain his mad laughter.

He was able to see the aura within Zeus; a bright yellow energy that was contained within his starter.

Moving closer to the other's occupying the clearing, he quickly understood on what the different aura meant.

Atlas was filled with a greyish aura, similar but darker and denser than his own.

Luna's aura was light blue, nearly snow-like, with pink sparks streaking through her.

Melody's aura was a light brown colour, unmoving and patient. Similar to Luna, another colour was present sporadically; hers was blueish purple.

Their aura symbolised both their current typing and, in the case of Luna and Melody, their future typing as well.

But surprisingly, it was Leaf that caught most of his attention.

Similar to his own, her aura was mostly white, but it wasn't as pure as his own. With a thin rope of aura, she was connected with both Luna and Melody.

A little amount of aura was slowly moving from her dormant aura source into her Pokemon, who; presumably unintentionally, send a little bit of their aura back to her, 'contaminating' her otherwise pure aura with their typing.

Her aura was changing into her team's typing.

'Is that why type specialists are so common?' He mused, attentively watching the ice and ground type aura clashing; mostly destroying each other before a remaining sliver of ice-type aura combined with Leaf's aura.

Tearing his eyes from the fascinating spectacle, he looked at himself and his Pokemon, searching for a similar rope between them.

And, indeed, he was also connected with his team.

But differently to Leaf, their 'aura bond' wasn't balanced.

With his aura awakened and because of the abundance of it – something Leaf didn't have; their connection was overwhelmed with his type-less aura.

It was one-sided, with him passively pushed a relatively 'thin' stream of aura towards both his teammates.

Said 'thin' stream was still easily double of the amount that Leaf was supplying her team.

Curious, he grasped most of his remaining aura and evenly pushed it towards the literal bonds he had with his Pokemon.

And he didn't have to wait for long to see their reaction.

Atlas, who had been standing on his last leg while enduring Luna's [Icy Wind], was suddenly rejuvenated. With his energy quickly returning, he started to stomp on the ground again, determined to used [Bulldoze], instead of 'just' enduring Luna's seemingly unending storm of ice.

But it was Zeus whose reaction caught his attention.

He had been running with extra weights on his tail for a while now, and was understandably exhausted. But the instant his aura reached him; he didn't only recover his lost energy.

No.

The moment he recovered; he surpassed his previous peak form – if only slightly. His tail wasn't drooping as low either, having seemingly gained muscles within seconds of getting the 'aura-infusion'.

"… I'm gonna abuse the hell out of this." He grinned, a little light-headed. Seems like overusing his aura had physical drawbacks. Good to know.

For the rest of the day, he observed how his initial 'aura-infusion' slowly integrated itself into his team's type-specific energy, permanently increasing the amount of aura they had.

Beside the initial boost, which would already be invaluable for training, the increase of their overall aura was what exited him the most.

It may have only increased by, maybe, five percent. But over time, this effect was going to add up.

All in all, comparing it to Luna's growth, it looked like they managed to shove a few days of advancement into one.

'Looks like I need to take Leaf's aura training more seriously.' He reflected; him helping her unlock her aura had been purely for the benefit of understanding Pokemon until now. But the increased growth rate his aura gave his team was a gamechanger. 'I can't have my rivals being much weaker than me; how are they going to push me to greater heights otherwise?!'

While fantasizing over his and his team's future, he fell asleep from aura-exhaustion.

Still, even in his sleep, Red had a smile on his face.

Truly, being the Protagonist was great.

The remaining week followed a simple routine.

Early in the morning, Red and Leaf walked through the forest until they found a suitable location to set up their camp. There, they trained for the rest of the day; and the results were showing.

On the third day, Zeus managed to learn [Iron Tail], a feat he boasted about at every opportunity. He did manage to learn his move before Atlas after all, an accomplishment that soothed his previously hurt pride.

Atlas was, surprisingly, the one who had struggled the most.

While he did manage to increase his physical strength, his tolerance to special moves and learn [Protect], he had surprising difficulties with [Bulldoze].

Or more specifically, morphing his natural normal-type aura into the required ground-type aura.

That discovery was thanks to Red's new hobby; observing everyone and everything with his aura-vision.

And while watching them, he discovered the 'secret' to Pokemon's potential to use moves from a different typing than their own.

Pokemon had the ability to change their natural aura-type into another for a limited period of time; enabling them to use moves from a different typing.

Zeus, for example, managed to instinctively changed the electric-type aura in his tail to steel-type aura, allowing him to use [Iron Tail].

While Atlas was scarily talented in using his normal-type aura, it was annoyingly hard for him to morph it into another typing… an 'disability' Red shared with him.

Only, for Red, it was literally impossible and not 'just' hard. Not that it bothered him much, his probably human-unique type-less aura had enough potential to satisfy him for a while.

That Atlas's only move from a different typing was [Curse] didn't help either; he was completely unable to feel the ghost-type aura after instinctively morphing his normal-type aura into it.

But his Pokemon weren't the only ones who had advanced in their training.

Luna managed to learn [Aurora Beam] and was now alternating between increasing her hit rate, which suffered from the limited area of effect the new attack had, and with polishing her [Powder Snow] move, which she had been neglecting as they didn't want to risk freezing Atlas while training.

But with Leaf mostly focused on Melody, it was understandable why the mostly silent Trapinch had the greatest progress of her team.

Melody didn't only learn [Sand Tomb], she also managed to naturally learn how to use [Sandstorm] and [Sand Attack] while she was at it.

Combined with her expertise in [Dig], Red predicted that she was going to be an annoying enemy to fight.

… Not that it stopped Atlas from repeatedly challenging her.

And now, while Red and Leaf were dismantling the camp for their last hike before reaching Pewter City, Atlas finally got what he wanted. After several days of annoying Melody, she finally caved in and accepted to fight him.

"Are both contestants ready?!" Zeus asked, relishing his new role as referee.

"YEA!" Atlas called back, while Melody simply nodded.

Truthfully, Zeus was a little afraid of her. Not only was she immune to nearly all of his moves, but she also wore a permanent poker-face, which, combined with the intense stare she had, unsettled him more than he would like to admit.

"Begin!"

His excitement for the battle died down quickly as he saw in which direction it was going.

Both Melody and Atlas where slow Pokemon with nothing but physical moves, so he had hoped they would just duke it out.

Instead, Melody set up a [Sandstorm] and quickly used [Dig] to disappear into the earth, leaving Atlas to boost himself up with [Curse].

In other words, it was going to be another battle of attrition; a battle that was theoretically impossible for Atlas to win now that he thought about it.

Melody just had to stay underground and let [Sandstorm] do all her work. And as long as she used [Sand Tomb] …

The moment Zeus thought about that possible strategy, Melody did exactly that.

Without emerging from the ground, Melody used her newly attained mastery of [Sand Tomb] to loosen up the earth under Atlas; turning the previously hard ground into a quicksand-like substance.

But, while sinking into the sand, Atlas suddenly yelped in pain before instinctually punching into the ground – a [Mega Punch] that was fully boosted up from [Curse].

For a moment, nothing happened – besides the continues raging of the [Sandstorm] and [Sand Tomb] combination at least, before a few meters away from Atlas, Melody emerged from the ground.

Zeus grimaced slightly. Melody seemed to be on her last leg, her entire right side bruised up. Seems like she got greedy and used [Bite] while beneath Atlas and got hit by his [Mega Punch].

Thinking about it, he was surprised that she was even conscious.

Getting hit by a [Curse] boosted Atlas was no fun; he had managed to knock over a tree a few days ago.

If Atlas wasn't so painfully slow, Zeus seriously doubted that there where many Pokemon that could take him on.

"Who do you think will win?" Luna seemingly appeared besides him, startling him.

"If she is smart about it, Melody should win." He answered, showing no faith in his teammate at all. "Had he learned [Bulldoze] before the battle, he might have had a chance. But Melody is smart, so no way is she going to take any more risks."

They didn't have to wait for long until she showed him that he was right.

Instead of closing the distance or going underground again, she renewed the [Sandstrom] and started to creep along the quicksand, using [Sand Attack] repeatedly to partly blind the still grinning Atlas.

"I think Atlas may still have a shot." Luna said, earning her a doubtful look from Zeus. "Atlas is extremely headstrong and can take a lot of punishment… I wouldn't be surprised if he casually learned a new move that would allow him to win."

While not agreeing fully, Zeus nodded anyways. Atlas might have had problems with [Bulldoze] lately, there was no ignoring the fact that he learned [Protect] nearly instantly after getting annoyed at getting hit by [Icy Winds].

He was pulled out of his musing by a sudden movement at the corner of his eye, prompting him to look into the unassuming woods. At first, he saw nothing, nearly making him think he imagined it.

But again, just as he was about to turn away, something moves. And this time, he saw it.

On one of the trees in the distance, hidden by the green leaves, hid a Spinarak.

… No, not one. Looking closer, the blood drained from his face. An entire swarm of Spinarak hid in the surrounding trees and all of them had something in common.

They glared at Melody, who's [Sandstorm] had hurled sand into their direction.

'They are just Spinarak…' He tried to stay calm, but the growing feeling of dread made it difficult. 'I should be able to knock most of them out with [Discharge]. Probably.'

Any confidence in being able to handle them disappeared completely as a group of pissed of Ariados emerged from the woods, openly creeping towards them – followed by the Spinarak who seemed to have waited for their leaders to make a move.

"SWARM!" Zeus shouted, prompting Melody and Atlas to stop fighting and look towards him. Luna, quicker on the uptake, instantly sprinted towards their trainers to warn them.

Melody, both injured and exhausted from their fight, reacted only moment after her. She instantly used [Dig] to escape, probably also leaving for the camp.

And just as Zeus was about to follow her example, he froze in horror.

Atlas wasn't only partly blind from the [Sand Attacks], preventing him from spotted the rapidly approaching swarm.

No, he was also unable to leave the quicksand he was trapped in; the move [Sand Tomb] wasn't able to be cancelled after its activation.

And even if he managed to escape after it died down, he was still under the effect of [Curse] and wouldn't be able to escape fast enough!

Gritting his teeth, he moved before his immobile teammate instead of escaping.

He didn't even try to negotiate with the approaching swarm; Bug Pokemon who both lived in a swarm and had the Swarm ability where infamous for their simpleminded brutality towards anything that managed to provoke their ire.

"Let's see how effective [Discharge] truly is…!" He growled, charging up his electricity. His task was simple; stall them until Red arrived with Atlas Pokeball and then get the hell away from here!

"Bring it on!"

It's amusing how the story partly writes itself. While I have planned pretty much most of the story by now, some things just appear in my head while writing that just fit too good to not write.

Anyways, feel free to leave a review and thank you for reading!