AN- Thanks to my beta reader Flamewing98! If he weren't so good, this would be another few days late!
"Speech" 'thoughts' 'telepathy'
Please enjoy and review!
Chapter Ten
Ash grunted as he leaped to the side, a blindfold over his eyes as an aura sphere whizzed by his head. His brow furrowed in concentration, he sensed another projectile hurtling towards him and he jumped out of the way, only to get slammed to the ground by Red.
"Come on, Ash." Red put him in a double arm lock as Ash jumped up "You gotta do better than that."
Ash merely grunted again with focus, dropping to a crouch to lower his center of gravity. When Red tried to lift him back up, Ash shot his right foot behind Red's left and threw his hip violently to throw Red off of him. Red hit the ground hard, but not hard enough to keep him there. He jumped up and threw another aura sphere at at Ash while simultaneously throwing a large rock with his psychic powers. Ash back flipped to dodge the rocks and caught the aura sphere as he landed, sliding backwards because of the momentum. With a small frown, he managed to absorb the aura sphere with both hands and ran towards Red. Red threw a punch that Ash swatted aside, then grabbed his wrist. Ash hit his wrist off, then managed to jump behind Red, grabbing him and putting him in a choke hold, ready to snap his neck.
"Very good." Red gurgled "Now let me go."
Ash released Red, and as he fell to the ground gasping for air, took off the blindfold. "Thanks."
Ash fell down beside Red and they sat there, catching their breaths.
"Neat little trick with my aura sphere," Red commented "when did you learn that?"
"The other day." Ash replied "I used Lucario's aura to learn. It took a while, but after some major bruising, I finally got the hang of it. I'm just trying to be able to do it at an accelerated rate."
Red nodded thoughtfully. "That will come in handy if you get fast enough at it." He stood up, offering his hand to Ash "Want to go another round?"
"Not really," Ash took the hand and Red helped him up "I think five is enough. Let's go check on the Pokemon."
They walked out of the small arena and started towards the hot spring.
They were training in Red's secret spot: Mt. Silver. Ash and Red had fixed a small arena of sorts to train in; they cleared a small area about fifty yards in diameter, minus the odd scattered tree for training purposes. They tied a rope to one of the higher ones to work on upper body strength, and Red managed to find a weight set, though they hardly used it. They preferred hand to hand combat with each other and their Pokemon to the weights. On another tree, they built a small wooden platform encircling it about ten feet up. They used that to either jump up to or jump down from. The arena was only a short walk from the summit.
The hot spring wasn't far from their arena, and as they neared it, sounds of Pokemon fighting became clear.
Aggron was locked with Snorlax in a hand to hand struggle, while Red's Espeon was using her telepathy to block the attacks of both Pikachus, Glalie, and Sceptile. Lucario and Gallade were practicing various martial arts moves, and Charizard and Aerodactyl were engaged in aerial combat. Meowth was hitting a boulder with his head. The rest were lounging nearby, already finished with their training for the day.
Red let out a piercing whistle, and all of the Pokemon scrambled over to them.
"Okay guys." Ash told them "Finish what you're doing quickly, then go find some food and head back on over to camp. We're done for the day."
They all nodded, then ran off into the forest to gather berries. Everyone except the Pikachus, who knew their masters had their favorite condiments waiting for them at camp.
As they walked back to camp, Red gave a thoughtful grunt, "I think you're about ready, Ash."
Ash looked at him "Are you sure?"
"I think so. We'll try tomorrow, and if it doesn't work, then no harm done. Hopefully"
"Okay. You know, this seems as a good a time as any to say: you've never told me why you went berserk on me at that Galactic base."
"Really?" Red murmured "I guess I'd forgotten about it. Well, it's not something that trained aura users do. I didn't really have what I'm giving you; formal training. I managed to teach myself about aura from traveling, researching, and experimenting, but a lot of my raw power comes a lot from my anger. And of course, getting beaten in the face while immobile is pretty infuriating."
"Will this aura transfer help with your anger?" Ash interrupted.
"No." Red scratched the back of his head "My anger issues stem from my past. When I was younger, my father abused me and my mother. One day, he beat my mother much harder than usual, and I lost it. My aura flared up for the first time, and I ended up killing him. Once my mother recovered, she was horrified by me because of my aura, and abandoned me."
"Wait a second," Ash interrupted "Why are you telling me your life story? Sure, we've been training here for a few weeks, but I still don't fully trust you. It's not like we're that close."
Red rolled his eyes "Because I want you to trust me. You're looking at this the wrong way. It's not that we've only been training together for a few weeks. It's that, hey, we've been training together for a few weeks! That's a lot of time to spend basically one on one with someone. If you want to be all closed off and not trust me, fine, but I trust you well enough."
Ash nodded slowly with a small frown, still slightly unsure "If you say so. Might as well finish your story."
Red smiled "I lived on the streets for years, and I only survived because of my aura. That's why I have a hard time controlling my anger; it was what saved me, and that affected me on a subconscious level; it's kind of like a survival instinct. This whole training thing has done me a load of good though. I've worked on some discipline, so hopefully, it won't happen again."
"Wow." Ash was shocked. He had no idea what Red had gone through; he had never even hinted about his past before "Then what will this accomplish?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but from what I've gathered over the years is that it should allow me to grow my psychic powers beyond what I have now. I can only manipulate small amounts of matter, but this should unlock the rest of my potential, which would help put me on par with other aura users since my aura isn't as strong. Oh, I think I remember reading somewhere that the ancient red aura users could manipulate others minds to a point. That would be cool."
"So this won't really give you anything, just allow to to grow stronger and learn new things. And if you don't unlock it, your ability with aura and psychic power have a cap, so aura users would always be stronger than you."
"I think so. Theoretically, I wouldn't have a cap on my psychic powers, like you and your aura."
Ash nodded "Okay. This has gotten too deep. Let's just try and relax before tomorrow. No point in getting all worked up so we get no rest. The faster we get this done, the sooner we can save our Pokemon"
"Roger that."
The next morning, Ash woke up to a bucket of ice water to the face.
"Rise n' shine!"
Ash jumped out of bed, blindly throwing an aura sphere. Red jumped out of the way, tripping over the campfire he had set up, catching his cloak on fire.
"Ahhhh!" Red ran out of the cave their camp was in and jumped into a large snow bank, completely burying himself under the snow.
Ash rubbed his eyes, looking at Red with impatience, and sent him another aura sphere for good measure.
Their camp was in a pretty great spot. Nestled in a cave next to the hot springs, it was one of the warm places on Mt. Silver. Ash's bed was only a few feet from Red's which was next to a makeshift kitchen. Built into the cave wall. The entrance of the cave was blocked off by a reinforced wooden wall, designed to withstand the bitter weather of the mountain. He stretched as he got out of bed, then dropped to the ground to do some push ups to wake himself up faster.
A muffled voice from outside cried out "Hey Ash, it's not storming today. Nice." Red popped his head out from under the snow with a grin "Now hurry up and eat, I'm too excited to control myself. Literally. Just remember to not eat the yellow snow."
Ash just rolled his eyes and got up to get some berries for breakfast. He came back to find Red warming himself next to the fire. After Red finished, they started towards the top of the mountain.
The walk was a quiet one, which was nothing unusual. The Pokemon of the mountain had long ago gotten used to the fact that Ash and Red were the Alphas of the mountain. All it took was Red beating up a Skarmory with his bare hands while it was flying after it attacked him, then sending the unconscious bird into a lone Ursaring, which fell off of a small cliff into a herd of Stantler, knocking all of them out as well. After that, nothing bothered them or their Pokemon.
The summit was where Ash and Red battled their Pokemon. It was a huge open space, and also the flattest part of the whole mountain, but in the middle was a large stone; round, short, and flat, but a few yards long in diameter. There were also no wild Pokemon to bother them. It was a great spot to battle. And for Ash to cure Red of the curse.
They walked over to the stone and sat close to each other, each cross legged and facing the other.
"Okay," Red rolled his shoulders "let's try something like you did earlier. You form an aura ball, and put it near near my chest. Then I'll focus on it to get ready to accept it, then you shove it in my chest. After that, my body should become accustomed to your aura. Next, create another ball of aura, but this time, focus on it, make it bigger. You have to envelope me with it. I will then release some red aura in the ball, and if nothing explodes, that should do the trick."
Ash nodded and cracked his knuckles "Let's hope nothing explodes then."
Ash summoned an aura ball and held it close to Red as Red closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a moment of concentration, Red gave a thumbs up, and Ash shoved his arm forward, sinking the ball of aura into Red's chest. It went in smoothly, though not without pain, and Ash immediately formed a second as Red started to garner a light blue hue to his skin. Ash held both hands out this time, and his brows furrowed as he concentrated on the ball. It slowly started to enlarge, encasing Red's feet, then legs and arms. From there, it slowly began to envelope his whole body, until he was completely surrounded.
Red took several quick breaths before opening his eyes and holding out a hand, which briefly glowed purple. Nothing happened for a moment. Suddenly, the aura ball started glowing purple, and it emitted a force so strong, that it knocked Ash over and off of the rock. Ash recovered quickly and sprang up, but there was no point. His ball of aura was still over Red, but the aura/psychic matter was starting to flow into Red. He screamed in pain, and his eyes started shooting purple red light. After the ball was gone, Red stopped screaming and his eyes closed as he silently collapsed.
Ash rushed over to him and lifted his head "Red! Are you alright!?" He gently slapped his face as he seemed to stir "Red!"
Red squirmed and groaned "Ugh. That was the worst thing ever. Can it be your turn now?"
Ash sighed and ignored his question "Well, looked like nothing exploded. Do you think it worked?"
"I don't really know for sure." Red opened his eyes. Something was different. His eyes were no longer just red. One of his eyes kept their original red, while the other had adopted a dark purple. "Whoa, Red," Ash whistled "your eyes changed color. I guess that means it worked."
"What!?" Red jumped up while pulling his sunglasses out of his pocket to look at himself in "Not my eyes! They were so beautifully original! I can't believe this!" He threw his sunglasses off of the mountain "That was soo not worth it! I never would have agreed to this if I had known that my eyes would have changed color! What is wrong with you Arceu-"
Ash punched Red with an aura infused fist, knocking him out. As Red fell to the ground, Ash just looked at him with a bewildered look "Goodness. I guess he really liked his red eyes." He held his hand up to his mouth and let out a whistle. He heard a roar in response, and a few moments later, Ash could see Charizard flying up from camp. As he landed, he snorted in the direction of Red's unconscious body.
"Don't worry about him. Would you please take us back to camp?" Charizard roared again, picked up Red's body as Ash climbed onto his back, and they took off for the campsite.
Red woke up later in the evening. "Oh man." He rubbed his head "Ash, did you have to hit me so hard?"
Ash was lying down on his bed "Yes. You were kind of being an idiot."
"Meh, opinions. Anyway, I guess it worked, because my eyes changed colors."
"Good." Ash smiled as Pikachu jumped on his lap "So, what's next?"
Red chuckled and gave a smirk "Now it's time for some fun! We're going to get our Pokemon back."
A/N- Well, what can I say? Sorry for the long wait, but I've been super busy with school. Questions, comments, concerns? Please leave them in a review or PM me. Thanks for holding on with me!
See y'all later
DarkLucario98