Chapter 17

Upon stepping outside onto the large patio overlooking the training yard behind the Pokemon Center, Diamond took in a deep breath of air and sighed contently. "Feels nice being back outside."

"You were only in there for two hours." Aura noted.

Diamond shrugged. "Well there wasn't much to do so I was getting bored, but now we can finally get back to training!" She pumped her fists and flashed a wide, toothy grin and quickly began scanning the yard for potential opponents.

Aura laughed with a slight sweat on his face. "Easy there, let's go meet up with Dan and the others first. They should be just down the patio." Aura ushered the girls to follow him along the polished deck where they soon regrouped with the others who sat under a shaded table eating a small bowl of fruits.

Stan quickly swallowed the oran berry he was eating and excitedly stood up to wave his paw. "Hey, Diamond! You ready to keep training?!" He asked loudly.

Diamond nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "Yep! All we need now is a good opponent!" She exclaimed.

Not even a second later, the group heard a panicked voice call out from the field. "Look out!" Diamond looked over and suddenly felt all her previous confidence drain away instantly as fear took over from the sight of an enormous jet of highly pressurized water shot straight towards them. Dan hastfully grabbed Missy and rushed to safety followed by Spyke and Nessa while Aura hurried to the opposite side followed by Prince and Stan, however Aura immediately stopped upon noticing Diamond stood frozen in fear.

The world seemed to slow down from Aura's perspective as he desperately ran back while calling Diamond's name. His eyes flashed and his entire body developed a blue glow as his aura vigorously flared to life. Within the blink of an eye, Aura suddenly appeared right between Diamond and the water jet and pushed his hands out as the water quickly drew near. The water immediately shined with a similar blue light and drastically lost its speed; while in one brisk motion, Aura threw his hands towards the sky which in turn completely redirected the blast of water straight into the air. Once the water had reached a reasonable altitude, Aura clenched his hands into fists with the water soon exploding out into a wide shower of tiny droplets which rained down across the yard.

Diamond felt her heart ready to leap from her chest as she could only stand there and watch Aura quickly turn to face her and drop to his knees. He put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she was all right. The vixen, still in total shock, only nodded in response before Aura glared over his shoulder and stood up. "Okay! Who the hell was responsible for that Hydro Pump?!"

Out of the crowd, a boy slightly shorter than Aura walked over, the sleeve of his large green hoodie slid down his tanned arm as he nervously raised his hand over his dark brown head of hair. Beside him stood a blue, otter-like Pokemon with white whiskers and a yellow scallop on each of its hips. The boy spoke with a shaky voice. "I-I'm the one… I-It was m-m-" Suddenly the Dewott beside him rolled its eyes and swatted the boy's knee with its scalchop. "IT'S MY FAULT!" He cried out hastily before rubbing the spot his Pokemon struck.

The boy sighed and walked closer. "I'm so sorry! Dewott just evolved yesterday and I thought it'd be ready to use Hydro Pump right away… but I guess we still need to keep practicing…"

Aura's fist tensed as an eerie purple hue tinted his iris. Diamond noticed her mate's anger and quickly grabbed his wrist. He looked down at her pleading gaze and immediately felt his muscles ease with his eyes returning to normal. Aura took a deep breath and sighed. "It's… It's fine… Just please be more careful…"

The boy was stunned and quickly bowed, nearly stumbling forward in the process. "Th-thank you, sir! I promise it'll never happen again!"

Dewott sighed and walked up to Diamond. It spoke in a soft feminine voice. "I should apologize as well. After my evolution we shouldn't have been so reckless to assume I could instantly master such a powerful move," she bowed her head gently, "I should have known better than to assume I would be able to control it."

Diamond pat Dewott's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I mean sure it was terrifying, but thankfully Aura made sure no one was hurt. So no harm done, right, Aura?" She grabbed her trainer's arm and smiled.

Aura looked down at her and smiled as well. "Yeah. Diamond's right." He knelt down to speak closer to Dewott and pat her head. "You don't need to be so hard on yourself. You said you only just evolved, so it is gonna take a bit of time for you to get the hang of controlling your new strength."

Dewott stared at the trainer in awe as he stood back up. "W-wait a second! Did you understand me?!"

Aura smirked. "Yep. I can naturally understand Pokemon speech patterns as if it were just another language." He paused for a moment then leaned forward and held his hand near his mouth. "The truth is, I'm actually a descendent of the Aura Guardians." Though it wasn't entirely false, Aura felt outright telling someone he just met that he wasn't just a descendent of the Guardians wouldn't be very smart, making him somewhat regret how open he'd been about it in the past.

Either way, Dewott and her trainer seemed convinced enough as they stared at him in absolute amazement. "S-so you're telling me that the Aura Guardians weren't just a myth?! They actually existed?!"

Aura scratched his nose. "Y-yes… but the truth is they actually still exist… just don't spread it around, okay? There's apparently some kinda threat towards them so they need to keep a low profile… you get me?"

The boy's face lit up and he furiously nodded his head. "I won't tell a soul! Oh man, the Aura Guardians really exist…" He suddenly stared at Aura with a much more serious expression. "P-please! Will you battle with me and Dewott?!"

Diamond watched Aura nervously step back and stutter his response. ("Pardon me, Master Aura?") Prince stepped forward and placed his paw on Aura's leg. ("Personally I would not mind battling these two. I can feel a great determination emanating from the trainer that I can't simply ignore.")

The trainer once again stared in awe, greatly impressed from experiencing telepathy first hand. However Dewott proceeded to cross her arms and huffed. "If only I could use telepathy…"

Before this could even be addressed, Stan quickly came over and started letting off sparks. "If we're gonna battle them then let me do it!"

Prince shook his head. "Apologies, Stan. But I can sense this trainer is still rather inexperienced so if we are to accept their challenge then I would be Master's only option for a truly fair battle. You are an electric type so you would have an unfair type advantage over Dewott, while Diamond would have a disadvantage due to being a fire type."

Stan sighed and sulked away. "Okay, fine. But next time it's my turn!" He huffed.

Aura looked at his Pokemon and chuckled. "Guess I can't argue with you. Alright, since Prince is so eager to accept, then I'll gladly take you on."

The trainer clenched his fists and jumped about excitedly. "Aw yeah! This is gonna be epic! Oh! My name's Matt by the way!" The boy finally introduced himself.

Aura extended a friendly hand which Matt hastily took. "Heh, and I'm Aura. Now let's find an open battlefield and get this underway, hm?"

Walking across the yard, the two were able to quickly find an available training field and hurried to either end while Daniel stood on the sidelines acting as their referee. "All right! This one on one match will be between Matt and Aura! Whenever you guys are ready… Battle begin!"

"Quick Attack!" Aura called immediately. Prince's body became coated in a very thin translucent white aura as he took off in a flash across the field tailed by a thin streak of white light. It was only shortly after he sped forward that Prince crashed his body into Dewott's and pinned her to the ground. Matt desperately cried for Dewott to get Prince off of it, but no matter how much she struggled, her wrists and legs were securely held against the turf. Prince smirked at his foe while awaiting Aura's next command.

"Since you're close enough, use Bite!" Opening his maw wide, Prince's fangs glowed with concentrated Dark energy before suddenly chomping down onto Dewott's shoulder, eliciting a shriek of pain from the Water Pokemon as a small amount of her blood dribbled from the wound. "Now send it flying!"

Prince very quickly removed his mouth from her shoulder and tightened his grip on her wrists. He somersaulted forward to flip Dewott over his head and slam her into the ground, stunning her long enough to swiftly adjust his grasp then suddenly pulling her while spinning around in place and using Dewott as a counterweight to quickly gain momentum. Eventually, once an appropriate rotational velocity was achieved, Prince let go of his opponent and tossed her high into the air.

Matt clearly displayed his inexperience in that moment as he was at a loss for words, only barely managing to call out a very shaky "Aqua Jet!" Dewott tightened her gaze upon Prince and attempted to reposition herself, encasing her entire body in a capsule of raging water that allowed her to suddenly shoot forward through the air like a guided missile. Aura surprised the trainer soon as he called for Prince to hold his ground and focus his power.

As expected, Prince did not avoid the attack and simply allowed Dewott to slam headfirst into him, although the Riolu held on firmly as he was pushed across the field with his legs tensed and planted strongly into the dirt to keep his balance. Matt scowled as he didn't understand why Aura would want Prince to take the direct hit and even keep hold as the rapidly gushing water no doubt dealt constant damage as it lashed against his body harshly.

The answer finally came to light as Aura grinned. "Hope you kept your focus! Cause now it's time to break through that shell and end this with a full power Force Palm!"

Suddenly, Prince's legs visibly tensed even more as both himself and Dewott came to an abrupt halt. Prince rigorously pressed his paws against Dewott's protective capsule of water until finally pushing through and completely evaporating it. Matt stood in shock as he never expected that to be possible, but his shock only grew as Prince's palms let off an orange light moments before he unleashed one of his most powerful attacks.

Massive amounts of highly concentrated energy instantly fired out from the jackal's paws, blasting Dewott directly at point blank range and inducing a large explosion that was able to completely cover the painful cries of the otter as she rolled across the field covered head to toe in burns and bruises.

Matt cried desperately for Dewott to get up as the heavily injured Pokemon struggled to its feet. "D-Dewott! U-use...uh… Use Water Gun!"

As Dewott weakly inhaled to prepare its attack, Aura smirked coyly at his foe. "Sorry, but this battle is already over. Once more! Force Palm!" Prince raised his paw with energy quickly flowing to his palm as the young jackal seemed to merely run forth at a jogging pace, all while Matt stared in horror as Dewott's attack suddenly stopped as she loudly coughed with faintly red tinted water splattered on the ground. As all seemed lost, Matt's arms dropped as he hung his head low in defeat. "Enough!" He heard Aura call, raising his head curiously to see Prince standing about a foot away from Dewott who could no longer stand and fell to her side breathing heavily.

"Wh-what?" Matt wondered as Aura walked forward.

"I told you, this battle is already over, actually, it was over before it even started." Matt looked at Aura curiously as he hurried to pick up his fallen partner. "You and Dewott put up a good fight, but sorry to say that it was your indecisiveness that cost you the battle. I can tell you care a lot for Dewott and it cares a lot for you, but I don't think there's enough understanding between you two yet to reach your maximum potential."

Matt tightened his grasp on Dewott and sighed. "So what do you mean? I'm not cut out to be a trainer?"

Aura shook his head. "No. I just think your nerves got the better of you. You both trust each other a lot, that much was obvious, but you still have to trust yourself just as well."

("Master Aura is correct. You must overcome your self doubt and trust yourself before you can effectively trust your partner.")

While Matt stood silently pondering their words, Diamond and the others hurried over to congratulate Aura and Prince on their victory.

"You're right." Matt affirmed as he returned Dewott to her Pokeball. "I wasn't confident in my ability as Dewott's trainer and that's why we lost. Dewott did its best in that fight but I was too focused on what all of my options were that I over thought it and we lost momentum… Guess that's why Dewott always took the lead in most of our fights before."

Dan nodded and crossed his arms. "Competing through battle is a big part of what makes Pokemon who they are. Sure not all Pokemon like to fight but it will always be a part of them. Since Dewott doesn't have a proper way to communicate to you its feelings, it must've been trying to show you this by trusting you enough to not do anything without your say."

Matt stared deeply at Dewott's Pokeball and sighed before clipping it to his belt. "Thanks. That clears up a lot of questions for me too. Like why it was so adamant about joining the tournament. It just wanted to show me what I was doing to myself." He smiled and nodded confidently. "Well then, once I get Dewott healed up we'll figure it out together and hopefully I can overcome this problem before the tournament." Without even giving them a chance to respond, Matt quickly waved goodbye and rushed inside.

Aura and Dan both sighed while slightly grinning to themselves. "I say we head back upstairs for a while and take a break." Aura affirmed as he started towards the back doors of the Center. "Who's hungry?"

As everyone followed behind, Diamond stood back for a moment in disbelief. "Wh-what about my training?!" She whined, jogging after them and continuing to ask until Aura finally laughed and assured her they could come back out later.

Upon entering the PokeCenter with a delicious meal on their minds and the possible training they could do after, a woman at the front desk suddenly turned and smiled at them. She had long, dark brown hair and vibrant blue eyes. But most notably, beside her trotted a very cheerful Growlithe. As the mysterious woman walked towards the group with a large suitcase in tow, Aura suddenly froze upon noticing who it really was.

"Mom?!"