Chapter 3

What to Work Towards

As the Mason twins were eating with Team JNPR at a cafe in Vale, Pyrrah sighed and said "I just can't get through to Yang..."

Nora and Ren nodded, they had noticed her shorter temper as well.

Kelly gave a sympathetic face and replied "you think that there is anything bothering her…"

The entirety of Team JNPR gave Kelly a facepalm-inducing look, only for Charlie to set down his lemonade and say "what my sister is trying to say is that maybe there's something we're missing? Have any of you noticed something off besides her concern for her sister, physically maybe?"

Jaune chimed in and replied, "yea, there is something I've noticed…one time when she was walking into my room, the carpet was steaming under here.."

"Not only that, but at one point, she was on fire…not just her hair glowing, as in physical fire was coming off of her," Pyrrha added.

Charlie and Kelly gave a look, and then Charlie replied "I may know what's wrong…but then again with maiden powers in play it could just be that"

"It's still crazy to think that magic exists…" Nora butted in.

"Actually it doesn't, Zander said that the maiden powers are just a supercharged version of aura" Pyrrha responded.

Kelly chuckled and said "oh magic exists..the maiden powers just don't fall under it"

The entirety of team JNPR gasped in unison with "WHAT?"

Charlie chuckled as he finished his lemonade and asked "you really think that in an infinite multiverse, every single crazy power falls under aura or a creature's natural energy?"

"There are powers that don't fall into those two categories, mystical stuff is just rarer. You should ask Nia's dad, he's actually done a lot of research about it" Kelly finished.

Out in Forever Fall, Zander was hovering in place, waiting for his father to arrive. Soon enough professor Malcolm arrived and said "What can I do for you?

"I've been having an odd issue over the past few weeks, mainly involving my eyes" Zander explained.

Malcolm paused for a moment, before asking "do you have brief periods where your vision blurs for a moment? Feeling a pressure within them?"

Zander nodded.

"Then it's time to teach you how to use your herd-centric abilities," Malcolm said as he shifted to his natural appearance, a green latios only slightly larger than his son.

"I thought you said it could skip a generation?" Zander asked.

"It could, but you are around the same age and seem to be experiencing the exact same symptoms as I did when my eyes began to awaken their abilities" Malcolm admitted.

"Ok, how do we start?" Zander questioned.

"First I need to unlock them, something that would be impossible had I not managed to master them. Otherwise, you would need months of psychic training to unlock them" Malcolm admitted before teleporting them out above the ocean, nothing but sea on all sides of them.

"Why here?" Zander questioned.

"Whenever you activate one of these abilities your psychic output spikes enormously, and releasing them for the first time makes quite a shockwave" Malcolm then activated his herd traits. One made his right eye completely black with a red swirl for the pupil, while the other was pure white with a black X for the pupil.

There was a shockwave that briefly caused a wave, and Zander could feel the psychic energy his father was outputting, physically affecting the environment, like a pressure against his body.

Zander felt his father beginning to tug at his mind, and allowed him into his head. While he was protected from any mental attacks, as with the Mason twins he had trained extensively in developing mental bearries, that didn't mean he couldn't allow someone in for mental conversations, or what his father was attempting.

"In the past those who unlocked the abilities special to the herd were tasked with helping the next generation…it means a lot to me that I can do it for you" Malcolm admitted.

Zander felt the energy within his eyes built up before finally releasing, there was a shockwave that caused a massive wave, the size of tsunami spreading out in every direction

Malcolm flew away for a moment and shattered the waves with his telekinesis, Zander cleared up the other one and they met back up.

Zander blinked a few times before his eyes returned to normal, and he asked "so what do they do?"

Malcolm then highlighted his right eye with a green aura and said "the Sinnoh heard's ability is Gale, controlling winds, tornados, and weather manipulation"

"And the white eye?" Zander asked.

"Kalos's ability is simply called Light, it can be used to heal your own wounds or the wounds of others. It can dispel any illusion or mental attack and perceive an opponent's weaknesses regardless of mental defenses to mind reading. With Darkrai in the mix, it's important you master this one" Malcolm explained.

Zander nodded, he and his dad had trained many times, even after he began his role as the watcher. This was the first time in quite a few years, however, and Zander knew that it wouldn't be easy…

"Well done" Damien admitted as the crystal was sent through the dimensional hole. The building-sized crystal had a hard light dust shield around it to keep it stable.

Watts gave a content look and said "i only wish I could see how you process the dust…"

The shadow collective's general smiled and replied "that actually is something I was planning to do, would you like to see it now?"

Watts realized what he was implying and gave a nod, and the two followed the crystal. After entering the dimensional hole, they came to a massive room akin to a hanger were the gravity crystal was being trollied towards a large tunnel. Watts gasped as he saw the containment field deactivate, but nothing happened, no massive explosion.

"The dust crystals react to the dimensional holes by not only stabilizing but increasing their output. Then we grind them to a powder, and.." Damien paused as the crystal was offloaded into the tunnel and crushed by a giant compactor. the power flowing up a massive tunnel into a tube where it began glowing even brighter.

Watts walked up to the monitors at the control panel in the center of the room. The guards nearby, who were clad entirely in black armor with red glowing visors started to move but Damien waved them off and they went back to their stationary positions.

"Incredible…the power output is almost tripled from the readings I took.." Watts realized as he pushed the two scientists at the console aside.

Damien gave a small smile as he said "this is why your dust is so valuable…and after Lupin told me what a capable scientist you are…I have another challenge for you?"

Watts turned and smirked. Damien pulled a chunk of silver metal out of his leather jacket. It was about the size of an apple.

"This is ultanium…the rarest metal in the multiverse..do you recall the high-frequency blades that you saw at the vytal festival?" Damien inquired.

Watts nodded and answered, "the ones that vibrate apart their target's molecular bonds?"

Damien handed him the ultanium and replied "this is the one thing that can't cut through at max power. The shadow collective believes that there is a way to make it…but our best scientists are preoccupied, including Ein and Faba"

"Who are they?" Watts asked as he studied the metal in his hand.

"Faba is the shadow collective's 3rd general, a brilliant man, but his arrogance can be very grading…however Ein is just as smart as him, if not smarter…The two have other responsibilities, but Ein believed there was a way to artificially make it…using a strong base metal and compressing it with a massive amount of energy" Damien explained.

Watts smiled and replied, "give me anything Ein had, and I'll begin the work!"

Author's note- Oh my, another side project for Watts...

1. Yea, magic exists as well, two older episodes of the anime made that abundantly clear in Pokemon

2. Zander's eyes are obviously inspired from Naruto, decided now was the time to introduce them

3. I have a significant buffer built up, so Mondays and Fridays are the days for new chapters.

4. I have seen SO many follows and favorites, please leave a review, even if you have nothing specific, I want to know what you like about my stories.

Next time-Oscar and Charlie begin his training while Yang is confronted by her friends...only for the talk to have a feathery interruption...