AN: Hello again all! Been a while.

K: At least it hasn't been two years again.

P: To be fair, that had a reason.

T: Not a great one, but a reason.

SV: Here's a longer chapter for you all!

Carefully, Ashley looked across the roadside, eyes flickering slightly as she used her Aura Sight.

"Something wrong, Ashley?" Brock asked her.

"No, no. Not that I can see, anyway." She smiled, the blue fading away. "I've just been looking around to see if there's anything interesting going on in the area, and maybe see if there're any clearings that would be a good place for practise." She raised her free shoulder slightly in a shrug. "It's better to have somewhere covered for Aura work, in my opinion. Less chance of being spotted, and less chance of being distracted by someone or something."

"I didn't think you were up for teaching anyone." The teen said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not, not really, but that doesn't mean I can't oversee my team as they learn." Ashley explained. "And I'd also like to talk with both Abilene and Nova, as well as get them introduced to the rest of the team properly."

"I suppose that makes sense." Misty nodded from Ashley's other side, walking slightly behind her. "Besides, I suppose seeing someone else using Aura would be helpful for us to learn."

"It was a little for me, yeah, but that might just be because we were both using pure Aura, rather than Typed Aura, so I could use that to learn what it should look like for me."

"Typed Aura?" Misty questioned. Screwing up her eyes in frustration, Ashley sighed a little.

"Right, I think there's a clearing somewhere nearby that we could use. Let's head there, then I'll get the team set up and we can talk in a bit more depth." She decided. "If we're having that chat now, I might as well find a place we could use to camp and train as well." Using Aura Sight again for a moment, she focused carefully on finding an area, then nodded. "Thought so. There's a decent enough place over there that we could use." Moving to the right, careful not to cut Misty off, she began leading the way towards the clearing, missing the glances her companions traded as she did so.

"Alright!" Ashley clapped a few minutes later, looking around the clearing she'd spotted in Aura Sight. "This should be fine. I'll set my team to work over there," she waved briefly towards the other side of the area, Volta using that moment to run down her arm and launch himself in that direction, making her smirk, "And we can talk over there." She nodded in the other direction, which held a stream and a number of well-placed rocks. Misty smiled slightly, while Brock shrugged.

"Sure." The Water user replied. "We'll wait for you to set up your team." Unclipping the rest of her Pokeballs from her belt, Ashley released the remainder of her Pokemon, smiling at them as they formed.

"Hi guys."

'Hey Ashley!' They greeted, stretching in various ways. Abilene looked a little shy still, while the newly caught Nova was looking around warily.

"Volta, you're on team leader duty again, alright? I need to talk with Brock and Misty first, after all."

'Why me…' He sighed jokingly.

"Experience bonus?" Ashley returned, amused. "Sorry, bud."

'Eh, it's ok.' He grinned.

"Abilene, Nova," she continued after a moment, catching the attention of the two named, "After Volta finishes explaining, the rest of the team is going to move on to Aura practises." She shot them all a look, making the four nod. "Those can be dangerous, not to mention the fact that I'm still a bit too drained after yesterday to be able to start teaching you. When he's done, I want both of you to leave them be. You can train a bit on your own if you want, or just lounge around." Volta shot her a look of betrayal, and she shrugged, laughing. "It's not their fault if they can't train, since I won't be able to help them. You guys don't really need the help, just to focus, so you'll be alright on your own while I talk."

'Righty-o, boss lady!' Vespine said sarcastically, with a little salute. 'Come on, gang, let's get to it!'

"Quit being snarky, Ves." Ashley told her with a laugh. "If you need me, I'll just be over there." She waved over at Misty and Brock, while her team nodded.

'We shouldn't take long, so things might start exploding soon.' Volta reminded her. 'Sorry if they do.'

"No problem, Volta." She grinned, heading over to her two human friends while the Pikachu began his short catch up explanation for the rest of the team, along with the now created welcome package that would be given to Nova about being on Ashley's journey with her. "Alright, here's my plan. I'll give you a brief history of Aura and what it all means, then I'll do my best to answer your questions. I may leave some things out when I do, and I'm sorry about that. Some things I actually don't know or can't tell you, because the knowledge itself is restricted to certain levels of Aura Adepts, while other things might be private." She sighed a little. "That said, I'll do my best to tell you everything I can."

Ashley breathed heavily. "I guess it'd be best to talk about the history of Aura first, just so that you know what's going on. So, Aura was something that came about a few thousand years ago, along with most Psychic abilities. No-one knows why, though a lot of people just assume it's because of some sort of unnoticed genetic mutation. Psychic abilities have split a little since they first came about, so you've got people like Melanie, who're empathic, and some people apparently got the ability to sense when others have an ability, but most people are either Aura Adepts or not. It's also a recessive ability, so it's a lot rarer than Psychic abilities."

"That Shaymin said the last known ones in Sinnoh died six years ago." Misty remembered. Ashley twitched slightly, then nodded.

"Yeah. There's very few people with genuine Aura abilities through birth, but anyway. There's quite a few legends about Aura, though I'll tell you some another time if you'd like, and a lot of them can be found in Rota. One of the most famous ones is based there, actually, and the kingdom celebrates the anniversary of the legend with a huge festival and a battling tournament."

"That sounds pretty interesting." Brock commented.

"It's apparently really extravagant, and a lot of fun even if you don't fight in the tournament." Ashley nodded. "It's over for the year now though. I think it was starting the same day we were in Pewter, Misty." The Water trainer nodded.

"Did you want to go?"

"No, it's alright. We wouldn't have had the time, unless I took Strike there, and it's normally a pretty high level challenge anyway. I don't think my team- the one at the time, anyway- would've done well there." She pursed her lips. And that's aside from the other reason I don't want to go there. Shaking it off, she continued, "Anyway, Aura tends to lean towards the males, but it does show up in females as well, hence my own gift for it. There's three stages, as it were, of Aura Adepts, too. Well… I guess you could argue there to be four, given that you can be an Adept who doesn't have any skill in Aura at all, like I was when I was a kid, but the Aura Guardians and the Lucario consider there to be three main ones. There's Practitioners, who've just started learning to use Aura, Knights, who've been learning for a while, and Guardians, who're considered to be masters with their Aura."

"What do you class as, Ashley?"

"Technically, I'm only a Practitioner."

"What?" Misty gaped. "But, you've been learning for ages, haven't you?"

"Since I was seven, yeah. But it's not just to do with how long you've been learning. The Lucario who taught me was only there for a month, so I pretty much got a crash course in everything about Aura during that time. To move from a Practitioner to a Knight, you need to be officially recognised by another Aura Knight or an Aura Guardian, and I've never gotten the chance to do that. The Lucario in the Lucario Kingdom can do it as well, but I haven't seen my teacher for a really long time. I've run into a few other Lucario at the ranch, but they don't count as Knights or Guardians, since for a Lucario to get that title, their Adept partner needs it as well, or they can be officially recognised by a Kingdom Lucario. So, until I run into one, I'll be a Practitioner."

"Is there something you need to do to become a Guardian as well?"

"Yeah." Ashley nodded. "For that rank, a full Aura Guardian needs to recognise your abilities- there's probably someone in the Kingdom that can do it as well- and you need to have trained a Riolu or Lucario of your own up to the status of Knight or Guardian. Most full Guardians tend to be pretty old because of that, since the test is so longwinded, but it's traditional. Even Aura Guardian Sir Aaron of Rota was promoted that way, and that was centuries ago."

"That's a long title." Misty observed. "Who's Sir Aaron?"

"He's the one the festival in Rota gets thrown for." Ashley told her. "I'll tell you the story later if you'd like."

"Sounds interesting." Brock put in.

"It is. Anyway, there's also two types of Aura- not types like Typed Aura, that's different. There's Adept, which is inherited Aura, and there's Taught. All my Pokemon count as Taught, since they've been taught by an Adept to use their Aura purposely, and not just for their attacks. If either of you got to use Aura, even just for understanding what other Pokemon are saying and nothing else, you'd count as Taught. It's a term that doesn't really get used, even by Adepts, since it was a really old term and the idea of teaching non-Adepts to use Aura fell out of practise for some reason that I'm not aware of a long time ago." Ashley shrugged. "I'm thinking of looking into that someday, maybe if I ever go to Rota properly and get to use the Adept library." She paused. "Actually, I think you might have to be a Knight to even go in there, so it'd probably have to wait a while even if I did go there."

"Huh." Misty said. "Could you maybe get in on some sort of special measure?"

"Probably not." Ashley returned. "Most Knights get given a badge of sorts, which probably opens the door. I don't know much about the library, though, or what the badge looks like. It's one of those 'you'll learn when you're ready' things, and I'm obviously not ready. I'd probably have to go to Sinnoh to get promoted, or get really lucky with meeting another Kingdom Lucario somewhere else."

"I see." Brock nodded.

"Mhm. Anyway, I know you wanted to know about Typed Aura, right Misty?"

"Please." Misty said.

"Ok. Essentially, Typed Aura is just what it sounds like, Aura with a type. Pure Aura is just blue, then each different type of Aura has a different colour… Hey Volta, could you come here?" Ashley called over her shoulder, suddenly having a thought.

'Just a sec,' the Pikachu ran over to her, jumping up to her lap. 'What's up?'

"Would you mind showing Misty and Brock an example of Typed Aura, please?"

'Sure, no problem.' He held out his paws, focusing for a moment, and a small sphere of yellow Aura floated above them unstably. 'There… you… go.'

"Thanks." Ashley pointed at the sphere, which the two others were watching with interest."So, Electric typed Aura looks yellow, while normal Aura is this teal…" Slowly, another ball of Aura appeared from her own hand, more stable than Volta's was but not as stable as she could normally manage, to let them compare it. "And all the other types have a colour as well. Thanks, Volta, you can stop now." She added, causing her orb to vanish as she did.

'Thanks, Ashley.' He smiled at them, then bounced away again and over to the team. Ashley could vaguely hear him talking to the others, and glanced behind her to see them spreading out to start practise, while Abilene and Nova wandered to the side of the clearing.

Nova seemed to be in some shock, she noted, and promised herself to talk to him when she was done here.

"The colours in the Aura let you know what type it is, and it can also tell you what type the Pokemon using it is. So Volta's a bright yellow, Nova's red, Abilene's green and purple. Zy's odd because his Aura's blank, kind of like an unTaught human's is. After you start learning, you'd end up with a blue Aura kind of like mine, maybe some tint to it because you're not naturally Adept."

"Is there a bonus for using Typed versus unTyped Aura?" Misty asked.

Simultaneously, Brock questioned, "Can Pokemon learn Aura types that they aren't naturally?"

"With Aura types, sort of. A Pokemon using typed Aura can make their own abilities stronger, like Volta's Thunderbolt- I'll explain passive and active stuff in a bit, please-" Ashley held up a hand, seeing the question, "Or they can use it as a form of attack, bursting it out of their hands or making spheres like you saw just to throw. That stuff's powerful, and hurts like hell to get hit by- don't ask. But unTyped Aura has no resistances, so it's a lot easier to hit things with. You can use it to hit Ghosts, assuming you don't try using it as a Force Palm or Aura Sphere, since that counts as a Fighting move, but just blasting Aura out of you, like in a beam, doesn't." Ashley shrugged. "And about your question, Brock, I have no idea. It might be possible, but I wouldn't want to try any time soon, just because none of my team are good enough with Aura yet to risk it. Maybe later on… one thing that's good about this entire thing is that I can have my team practise a lot more, and since this isn't a crash course on everything about Aura they might manage Typed Aura in a year or so, then we could experiment."

"That sounds interesting." Brock nodded. "What was that about passive and active Aura?"

"Basically, Aura has two types. Active is translations, slipstream- a sort of air purifying thing that lets me not be bothered by sandstorms and snow- and fighting. Passive boosts your speed and strength just because your Aura's activated and doing work, but it's not as big a bonus as when you do it actively. It's still useful, though. And theoretically, you can make translation a passive ability with enough effort and a bond, but that's because you start doing it automatically and have to focus on turning it off again, like I do. I've been translating for the bigger part of the last three years, so it's basically instinct now."

"And we could learn that?"

"I don't know if you could make it automatic, but you can learn to translate, yeah." She nodded at the redhead. "Anyway… last major thing is the Aura-Psychic reaction."

"The what?"

"It's a natural reaction between Aura Adepts and Psychics, I think it happens with Taught as well, and it's the reason I don't think I can teach Starmie or Staryu." Ashley shifted her weight slightly. "Basically, the two powers cancel each other out, and normally cause us to spark uncontrollably, like this." Lifting her hand, she focused and pushed a few sparks of Aura from her fingers, watching them drift to the floor. "We end up knowing about the other person pretty quick…"

"Man, Saffron's going to be bad for you, then." Ashley cocked her head, and Brock continued, "It's a Psychic type gym."

"Damn." Biting her lip, she mused quietly, "Yeah, that's not so good. Then again, I've worked with Psychic types before, and never had the trouble… it's weird, because I know it happens, Lucario told me… but he never had issues at the ranch either."

"Maybe it's something to do with proximity?"

"Maybe. I don't know, and I can't really test it." Ashley sighed, shrugging. "I'll have to just be really careful in Saffron and hope for the best." Behind her, something exploded, making her close her eyes and the others wince. "Alright, who blew up this time?"

'That's me.' Swiftstreak called, sounding embarrassed. 'Sorry.'

"No problem, it happens all the time, just remember that I can't heal you right now, so if you get hurt you'll need to live with it until morning or find some berries."

'We'll be careful.' He promised, quickly followed by the rest of the group. This was shortly followed by an explosion from Torna, who was still holding her Aura on her wings, a Normal-Flying mix, which had destabilised when she moved.

Ashley burst out laughing, setting the others off. Even Nova and Abilene, sitting off to the side and looking awkward, giggled a bit.

"Alright," she said, a few minutes later, "Brock, Misty, send out your Pokemon, I'll have a chat with them about wanting to learn Aura. Volta, team, go back to work, try and minimise the explosions. Once you can get things stable, I'll teach you how to separate your Auras out from each other, so you end up with two different types instead of a merged one, then I'll show you how to drain it into pure Aura. Ok?"

'Sure!' The team saluted, then spread out again as Misty and Brock let their six Pokemon out.

"Hello, everyone." Ashley greeted, kneeling down near the river to be closer to the Water types. "I'd like to talk with you all about something." The Adept had met their entire teams previously, and her own group had spent a lot of time talking to them as well.

'Sure. What's up?' Brock's Geodude asked, looking up. Speedily, Ashley summarised the entire conversation about Aura that she'd had with the two trainers, leaving them looking surprised and intrigued.

'You want to teach us to use Aura?' Goldeen said, eyes wide- wider than normal, that is.

"Basically. I don't think I can teach Starmie, because it's a Psychic type, and maybe not Staryu either if it wants to evolve…" Pursing her lips, she glanced down at her hands. "Then again, I'm not dealing with the normal reaction to being around Psychics, and to be honest I wouldn't mind trying anyway. The worst that could happen is that it doesn't work." Starmie and Staryu looked at each other for a minute, blinking rapidly in a pattern of signals that Ashley struggled to understand yet seemed familiar, before both looked up at her and mimicked a nod. "Fair enough. Now, I'll warn you, I can't start today because I'm still suffering from overdraw from yesterday's events with Nova over there, which sucks enormously, but I'll be able to work with you tomorrow and get everyone set off on what to do. Is that alright?"

'Sure.' Onix agreed, the others nodding along. 'No reason to hurt yourself trying to do something.'

"Thanks." She smiled. "If you want, you can watch the others working." She gestured over to the group, just as Volta's Electric Aura Sphere went off in his face and knocked him over. "And yes, expect things to explode a lot when we're doing it."

'That sounds… painful.' Zubat commented nervously.

"It can be, but once I'm better I can heal any problems we have, which is helpful." She told him. "And if you don't mind, Starmie, I'd like to have a chat before you go?" The starfish nodded, while the rest of the two teams drifted away to watch Ashley's own, Brock's team sitting next to Abilene and Nova and striking up a quiet conversation with them both. Staryu and Goldeen floated further down the stream, leaving Ashley with Starmie. "Now, something seemed familiar about the way you and Staryu were talking. Would you mind showing me how you'd say hello?" It nodded, then the core flashed slightly, bringing a sensation with it. Ashley focused on it, frowning. "Again, please?" It did so, and she listened to the ripples of power behind it. "Once more?" Once out, once in, twice out… "Oh."

"Is something up, Ashley?" The Adept startled, glancing up at the redhead, then back to Starmie.

"No, just… interesting." Carefully, she pulsed her own Aura in the same pattern, making Starmie bounce, looking enthused, and start firing signals rapidly. Ashley laughed. "Whoa, calm down, I'm not that good!" Two ripples out, the latter longer than the former- sorry. "No problem." Leaning back against a nearby rock, she looked at Misty with a grin. "It looks like I'm gonna be learning a lot more than I thought."

"How come?"

"Starmie and Staryu seem to use Aura signals to communicate." She told her. "It's sort of like Morse code, but with meaning pushed behind it. For example, one out, one in, two out is hello, and two out with the last one longer than the first is sorry, or an apology in general. There's meaning to it too, and while some of that comes from knowing the codes, you can do it even without that because the other user can push the meaning into the signals, so you don't have to memorise literally every signal."

"That's… cool." Misty mused, as Brock joined them. "So we could learn this as a secret way of talking?"

"Ye-es…" Ashley nodded, biting her lip. "But it's long winded, like Morse code, so it's actually easier to learn Aura-style telepathy, despite it being less draining and focus-heavy than that. Plus, I don't think Taught humans can pick up on it without using Aura Sight, since they aren't as connected to Aura as Adepts or Pokemon are." She paused. "Then again, maybe you can learn to do it passively. People haven't really been Taught for ages, pretty sure it was almost an extinct thing even in the time of Sir Aaron, so I have absolutely no idea about most of this."

"So we're the experiments." Brock said dryly.

"And anyone else that I might end up teaching, as unlikely as that seems, but yeah. I'll write it up and see if I can put it in the archives in Rota, or with the Kingdom, or something." Frowning in focus, she glanced down at Starmie and rippled out a message- two long out, one long in, one out, one in; thank you- and it sent a single outward acknowledgement before floating off. "But it'd be nice to have the tradition start up again. I've got no idea how many true Adepts are left, and I wouldn't want the talent to be just up to the Lucario. Heck, for all I know, Taught people might develop the talent properly further down the line, which would be nice."

"It must really suck, being the last Adept you know." Misty commiserated.

"I'm definitely the last in my family. My talent came from my mom. Aunt Delia's my aunt through my dad, as are my aunt and cousins in Sinnoh, so I know none of them can get the ability unless it's been dormant in their family. I like to think Mom would've noticed it, though, with all the time we spent around them. She was really good with Aura, though I never really watched her practise. I think she planned to teach me when I was a bit older than I was before I came here." Ashley sighed, melancholy, then pushed herself upright. "I'm gonna go chat to Nova quickly, then see if I can give the others some advice." Brock and Misty both nodded, watching her walk over to the gathering of Pokemon on the other side of the clearing.

Misty twisted to Brock, leaning forward. "I take it you just figured out who that Shaymin was talking about?"

"It was kind of obvious from her dodging the question earlier, but yeah." He agreed. "That's got to sting."

"I vote we leave her alone on it, though. She'll say if she's ready." Brock nodded, then glanced over at his team, who seemed to be talking with Abilene.

"It would be nice to know what they're saying."

"It will, yeah."

"Alright, Nova?" Ashley asked softly, sitting down with her new Charmander a little ways away. "I hope the team hasn't been too overwhelming for you."

'No, it's… it's been fine.' He said, curling his tail to his chest. 'It's a bit scary, yeah, but it's neat too.'

"Which part? The Aura, the Legends…"

'The eggs. It's really cool that you've got that trust.' He smiled a little, then added, 'I can't see Damien getting something like that.' For a moment, Ashley frowned.

"No. It's a very rare honour." She agreed. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you to promise me something."

'Oh?' Nova asked, looking shaky. She gently rested a hand on his head, rubbing soothing circles with her thumb.

"If anything gets too much for you, I want you to tell me." She told him firmly. "Whether it's training or something else, tell me. Even if we're in the middle of a League battle, if you can't keep going and it's too much, tell me. I don't care if I have to forfeit, I'll take you out of that battle and accept the loss."

'But- the League's important!' Nova burst, shocked. 'Volta told me all about what we were doing, and what you wanted out of it!'

"And none of that is worth hurting one of my Pokemon because I pushed them." Ashley smiled. "I'll be telling Abilene this too, she's shy, and the others already know, but I don't care. My Pokemon being safe and happy is more important than any League win." She lifted a shoulder. "Besides, I'm only ten. I'll be eleven by the time the League rolls around. I've got plenty of time in the future to take on the gym challenge again and win a League. It's not important that I win this Kanto one. Or the next one, or the one after that. It's more important that I know you all are happy. So, Nova, I'd like you to promise me that if you can't keep going, you tell me. Whether it's training, a gym battle, or the final round of the Pokemon League itself, I don't care, you tell me and I'll call you out." Gently, she put her other hand under his chin, lifting his head to look into his eyes. "Think you can do that for me, Nova?"

'I… yeah.' He nodded, slowly, then with more conviction. 'I think I can do that.'

"Good." She carefully picked him up, holding him steady. "Now, the other thing. I'm going to try and teach everyone Aura tomorrow. Would it make you uncomfortable to do it in front of the rest of the group?"

'A little.' Nova admitted. 'What if I can't do it?'

"Not everyone gets it right on the first go. Torna struggled a bit to find a memory she could link to it properly. I won't be disappointed if you can't manage it straight away, or even if you can't do it at all tomorrow, or the day after, or any day after, ok? If you're having trouble, we'll find a work around, and keep going until you get it. I'm not going to abandon you for failing at something, even if it's a beginner level. Aura's hard, it needs the right emotions, and if you don't have that it'll fall apart." Ashley gazed at him. "Would you rather I did the start of your training alone, or do you want to stay with the group?"

'I'll stay with the group.' He said immediately, looking panicked. Ashley caught that in his eyes, and forced away a frown as she nodded and put him down.

"I promise I won't leave you, or get mad if you can't do something." She swore softly. "Aura's really hard. I mean, look at Volta. He's been doing this for about a month now, and he still has trouble with it." As if to punctuate her words, Volta's Aura ball exploded again, making her grin. "I want to teach you, and I don't want you to be scared of doing something in case you fail."

'I won't.' Nova nodded.

"Good." She rubbed his head again, then stood, lifting him up into her arms as she did so. "Now, let me leave you with Brock's team, then I'll borrow Abilene for a word. Then I get to go see if I can help the others."

'Alright.' Grinning gently at him, she placed him down next to Abilene and Brock's team, then lifted Abilene up instead, taking her back over to the spot further away.

'Is something wrong, Ashley?'

"No, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to ask you to do something for me." She told her, kneeling down and putting her on the ground. "Basically, I wanted you to promise me that if you ever end up feeling uncomfortable with anything we're doing, you'd tell me. I know you're pretty shy, and I don't want you getting worried about stuff. So, if you end up wanting to back out of a battle, even a League one, just tell me and I'll take you out."

'Thank you.' The Bulbasaur said, after a moment of thought. 'I like to think that I won't need to do that, but thank you for giving me the option.'

"No problem. Now, think you'll be ok to start off Aura training tomorrow?" She checked. "It's going to be a little bit difficult, so if you'd rather not try for the first time in front of a group I won't mind."

'I'll do it with the group.' She decided. Ashley nodded, picking up Abilene again and patting her head.

"Sounds like a plan." Leaving her with the other Pokemon, she began wandering around her team, watching what they were doing and occasionally giving out help.

The next morning, Ashley found herself kneeling in front of Abilene, who'd volunteered to go first, with one of her vines in her hand.

"Ready, Abilene?"

'Sure thing, Ashley.'

"Alright. Close your eyes and listen to me. The rest of you, shush. Now, focus on your breathing, and the feeling in your vine. I'm channelling Aura now, can you feel it?"

'Yeah. It's nice. Soothing.'

"Good, focus on that. That's my Aura. Now, keep that feeling in your mind, and think of a happy memory. Anything at all. Focus on that, and focus on the tingling of my Aura." Slowly, Ashley began lowering her own output. "Focus on them both, don't forget either feeling, then slowly connect the feeling to the memory."

'Ok.' Abilene's voice was a little absent, and Ashley moved her hand out from under the vine.

"Now, push that tingling downwards, towards my hand. Don't forget the feeling, don't forget the memory, and move the tingling towards the end of your vine. Nice and slowly, don't forget either feeling, and move it along." A twisting, rippling cover of green and purple formed on the bulbous end to the vine, and Ashley grinned. "Alright, and open your eyes, looking at the end of your vine." The Bulbasaur did, looking confused, before grinning at the sight of the merged Aura on the end, seconds before it flickered out.

'Wow...'

"Really well done." Ashley grinned, rubbing her head. "Now, if you want, you can go practise as long as you're careful and quiet. Explosions are expected, but try not to do it too often since we all need to focus."

'I think I'd rather just wait.' She replied, stepping back and curling her vine away. 'I'd kinda like to watch, to be honest.'

"That's fine by me." Ashley nodded to her, then looked up at the rest of the group. "So, who's willing to go next?"

One by one, the rest of the group stood forwards and let Ashley help them unlock their Aura. A few of them had some stops and starts, like Zubat, and Goldeen was a bit of trouble to help due to being under the water, but after a bit of careful manoeuvring they managed it. Staryu had struggled as well, going completely blank for a few minutes and staring off into the distance, before the point that Ashley had been holding began shimmering in a wavy blue light.

Now Ashley was crouching next to Misty's Starmie, which seemed to be giving off a feeling of determination, and took the point the starfish offered.

"Alright, you know how this works. I don't know if it'll work at all with you, because you're Psychic, but I'm willing to try. Staryu did it, at least, so there's that. Ready to go?" A flash of acknowledgement, and she began pushing Aura into her hand, knowing that the starfish knew what to do from watching all of the others do it, but quietly giving her explanation anyway for the sake of it. "…So just push the feeling downwards, towards my hand, and we'll see if it works."

The purple limb sparkled for a moment, and Ashley held her breath, staring at it as a blue covering formed over it. A pink tinge joined it for a moment-

-Then it exploded, disturbing the water and knocking both Ashley and Starmie back.

"Whoa!" Pushing herself upright and brushing herself down, she hurried back over to the stream. "Are you ok, Starmie?"

One flash, acknowledgement. One long out, two short in, one long in, question status.

"I'm ok too, just surprised. Still… I think we might've just managed Psychic-typed Aura?" The purple Pokemon floated over to her, and she smiled at it. "Want to try again?"

Acknowledgement.

"Alright. Think you can find it on your own, or should I help you?" It paused, then shook its topmost point, seeming to focus again. The watery blue wave appeared again, followed a few minutes later by a vague pink one. The pink grew a little stronger, stabilised for a moment, then exploded again. Despite this, Ashley cheered, grinning maniacally. "Heck yes!"

"You did it!" Misty called enthusiastically, from where she and Brock had been sitting and watching the entire proceedings. "That's awesome!"

"It really is." Ashley said. "And also breaks about half the rules of Aura that I know about, and I think that I probably need to find some way to tell Lucario about this soon, but yeah is it awesome." Starmie blinked twice, sending amusement, and she nodded. "Yeah, feel free to go mess with that. It'll probably explode a lot more than anyone else's will, just because Psychic is not supposed to be in Aura that way, so try not to hurt yourself or anyone else, ok? And focus on making it stable more than anything."

Acknowledgement. Starmie swam off to the other end of the stream, away from the rest of the group, and promptly began focusing again on its new power.

Still smirking with an enormous amount of self-satisfaction, Ashley turned to Nova. "Alright, Nova. Ready?"

'I think so.' Ashley nodded, kneeling down and taking one of his paws.

"Close your eyes, then, and we'll start." Quietly she began talking him through the exercise, pushing her own Aura towards his paw like she had for the rest, and waited.

The Aura resolutely refused to appear, and when Nova opened one eye to take a look his face fell.

"Hmm." Biting her lip, she took her hand away for a moment, stopping the flow of Aura as she did, and sat down. Carefully she lifted Nova into her lap, holding him the same way she used to hold the Charmander at the lab when she practised her Aura translations by helping out the Professor, and ran a finger down his side gently. "Nova, sweetie?"

'Yeah?' He looked up at her nervously, and she smiled softly.

"Are you having trouble thinking of a memory?" He swallowed heavily, glancing away, and she sighed. "I thought so. I started having the same problem, you know."

'What?' Nova startled, staring. 'But… you're really good at Aura! You've been teaching the others fine, and you don't have any problems at all!'

"Now, yeah. But at this point I've been learning for three years, and a lot of it's been self-taught, with some help. At the beginning, though? Sure, I might've gotten Aura unlocked first time, but you still need to practise bringing it up and making it stable. That's what the others are doing right now." She sighed again, annoyed with herself. "Anyway, I managed to unlock it fine, but for a while after, I just couldn't do it. Couldn't form Aura at all. I spent something like two days like that, just not able to go forwards in my training at all because I couldn't form Aura."

'How come?' He asked, tilting his head.

"I didn't like that Lucario was the one teaching me it." She told him lowly. "It was great for him to be able to do it, even just for a month to get me started, and I was glad for it because it was my heritage… but I hated that it wasn't my mom teaching me. It should've been, Aura was in my blood through her, and she should've been the one to teach me how to use it, but instead I was stuck with Lucario." Closing her eyes, Ashley leaned back. "I was glad I was able to learn at all, but it wasn't my mom, and it wasn't right. I couldn't make a connection because of it, because I was too bitter about the fact that it wasn't my mom, that she wasn't there to watch me learn to use our heritage, to teach me what to do with it, teach me about our family's past and where our Aura comes from, and to be proud of what I was learning to do with my power."

Running her hand down Nova's back, she shook her head with a slight grimace. "I got over that, in the end, and it's all gone fine since… but I still hate the fact that Mom isn't here to help me out, to give me pointers over the phone if I get stuck with something or be proud of me for teaching others. She's not here to scold me about letting my Aura secret slip out, or maybe she'd scold me about keeping it a secret from my friends in the first place. I hate the fact that I'm not able to call her about the fact that I did something apparently impossible in teaching Starmie to use Aura, or the fact that you're struggling now. I hate that she won't be around with me to see the others learn too. And I hate the fact that Dad won't be standing with her, watching me learn and teach you guys, and that the both of them won't be around to see me in the League, do battles against people, maybe even win one in the future."

Ashley sighed and shrugged again. "Then again, if Mom and Dad were still around, I'd still be in Sinnoh, and never would've met any of you. About half of my team probably would be dead, come to think of it; I saved Ves as a kid, a little while into my training; I saved Torna with Strike's help after I stormed away from Volta and Misty; I saved Abilene and the entire village there from that blight; and then there's you. I'd've probably never met Gary, or Lucario, because I'd be living in Sinnoh and have been taught by Mom instead. I probably wouldn't ever have thought to try teaching Starmie Aura, because it's something that just isn't done. I might never have even learned about the whole Taught thing, because I don't know if Mom knew about that or if it was something the Kingdom Lucario knew about because of their records. There's loads that could've been different." Pursing her lips, she sat up again, catching Nova's eyes steadily. "I think I like it better this way in some ways, but it doesn't stop me wishing I was able to tell Mom about my training, and let her know when there was a problem, and ask for help from her." She gently rubbed circles on his head again, and he relaxed a little. "I still hate that now, but I've stopped letting that get in the way of my Aura. I just focus on the happier times, instead of the stuff I regret or hate. Do you think you can do that, Nova?"

'I… I can try.' He frowned, nodding. Ashley smiled slightly, putting him back on the ground, and took his paw again. Calmly, like nothing had happened, she walked him through the steps of forming Aura again, and the pair were rewarded with a flicker of red Aura. It was weak, vanishing almost as soon as Nova opened his eyes, but he spotted the tiny glimmer and grinned, his face lighting up.

"I knew you could do it!" Ashley cheered, lifting him up again. "Good job, Nova!"

'Thanks, Ashley.' He blushed, burying his face in her chest. With a grin, she extracted him so she could look at his face again.

"We'll work on getting you a bunch of better memories to use- the better the memory the easier it is- but for now even getting tiny sparks is brilliant." She pressed a kiss to his forehead, and was about to go on when she spotted movement in the corner of her eye, in the river near where Brock and Misty were sitting and away from where the three Water types were practising, and spun to meet it.

Five Squirtle, all wearing sunglasses, had clambered out of the stream. Two of them were aiming at her friends, who hadn't noticed them, two more were pointed at her team, still practising Aura, and one, wearing a different pair of glasses to the others, was looking at her.

She spotted them inhaling and guessed what they were about to do seconds before it happened and turned away again, holding Nova in front of her and making sure his tail flame wouldn't get hit, before yelling, "Watch out!"

The Water Gun aimed at her smashed the slight Protect she made with little difficulty and soaked into her coat, but the startled shout from her two human friends suggested that they hadn't been able to escape. A similar shout quickly came from the Squirtle, though, and Ashley glanced up to see what it was.

Torna, Swiftstreak and Ves had apparently all teamed up to stop the attacks from landing, blowing an enormous Gust at it and halting their progression for a moment. Volta had used this to hit the five with a Thundershock, which had caused their surprise.

'Go, go, out!' The apparent leader Squirtle shouted at his slightly-smoking team. 'Come on, get moving!' The group jumped into the river, and Ashley quickly activated her Aura Sight to watch them make their escape.

"Urgh!" Misty groaned, making Ashley glance over and wince. "I'm soaked!"

"Me too." Brock grumbled. "Are you ok, Ashley?"

"The back of my coat's pretty bad, but I'm ok." She told them, looking down at Nova and checking him over. "And Nova's ok too, I think."

'A bit scared, but I'm ok.' He agreed. Ashley nodded.

"Alright, new plan. Team, could you go out and grab some wood? We'll make a campfire here, I think. We can set up the tents and get changed, then leave our stuff to dry by the fire." She suggested. "Nova, you stay here. You know Ember, right?"

'Yeah, but I'm not very good with it.'

"Eh, it's fine. It'll be a bit of extra training, and besides, Volta's around in case of emergencies, his sparks work really well." The Adept's team all nodded in unison, then split off into the woods around them, Geodude and Onix following to try and help.

Starmie jumped out of the water and waddled over, circling its trainer for a moment before flashing a message- question status.

"It wants to know if you're ok." Ashley called over, digging through her bag.

"I'm fine, Starmie. Just a bit surprised." She assured it. "Do you think you'd be able to make us a fire pit?"

Acknowledgement. Starmie waddled off again, then began blinking rapidly to Staryu. The brown starfish nodded, diving down under the water before returning a moment later with a pair of rocks balanced on its 'hands'. It threw them onto the land, and Starmie nodded before diving in with it.

The group of four proceeded to watch with some bemusement as the pair of starfish collected rocks from the bottom of the river and brought them up again, soon joined by Goldeen when he realised what they were doing.

"That works." Ashley shrugged, going over and picking up some of the rocks. She promptly began arranging them in a large-ish circle in the middle of their small clearing, helped by Misty and Brock, until they had a reasonably sized fire pit. "Alright, that's enough, you three. Thanks!"

Acceptance. Ashley stared at the pit for a moment, thinking, then shrugged.

"Hey, stand back a bit, you three. Time for a control exercise, I think." Waiting for them to move away, she stepped into the pit and moved towards the centre, then formed an Aura Sphere. Slowly, she used that to tear up the inside of the pit, making a small indent in the ground as she did.

She was shaking slightly from the effort by the end of it, but grinned. "That worked." Jumping out, she went back over to her bag and finished setting up the tents, ducking in for a moment to change out of her jacket and shirt- now both with a fairly large water stain on them- and reappearing again just as Onix did, carefully manoeuvring through the trees with a bunch of bits of wood tied to his back with String Shot.

"Hi, Onix." Brock greeted.

'Hello.' He nodded back, then looked over at Ashley, who was adjusting her shirt. 'Your Butterfree has a funny way of thinking. As does your Beedrill.'

"I take it it was Ves' idea to do that?" She commented, gesturing to the collection of branches and the occasional cut-up log on his back.

'It was.' He moved closer to the pit, and Ashley shook her head.

"Of course. Just a minute, I'll break those." Carefully spinning another Aura Sphere, she cut through the ties of String Shot and jumped out of the way, letting the wood roll into the pit. "This is not gonna be set up right, but whatever. Where're the others?"

'They're on their way back too.' Onix told her, shaking himself. 'Mostly they have a lot of little sticks with them.'

"Good." Ashley sighed, shaking her head again. "Really, what was she thinking…"

'Who, me?' Ves asked, hovering in. 'I thought it'd be the best way to get a load of wood back here quickly!'

"That's fair, but why bother? We could just get more." She rolled her eyes as the rest of the group came in. "Whatever. Just come here, throw your stuff in, and Ves and Swift wrap some of this in String Shot, please."

'Sure thing!' As they did, Ashley went back over to Nova, kneeling down

"Ready? Just aim and fire."

'Ok.' Inhaling, he used Ember, lighting the String Shots on fire and starting the thing off. The group was soon gathered around it, the wet clothes drying nearby. Brock had found some marshmallows in his bag, to Misty's amusement, and they were soon roasting over their impromptu campfire.

AN: And end!

K: This was pretty long.

SV: Yeah, it kinda... didn't want to end. Originally the full Squirtle Squad encounter was in here, but I ended up splitting that into the next one instead, because of the length.

P: Now, something else. Someone asked if we could put the team list into the chapters, since Ashley's nicknames and the time between posts can make it a bit difficult to remember who's who.

T: There's a list on the profile, but for the sake of it we'll stick it here too, and probably at the end of each chapter following this. Hope that helps, multyfangirl20!

SV: And on that, I'll see you around.

Pikachu (Volta). Male.

Pidgeotto (Torna). Female.

Metapod (Swiftstreak). MaleSkin.

Beedrill (Vespine). Female.

Zygarde Cell (Zy). Unknown, temporary team member.

Bulbasaur (Abilene). Female.

Charmander (Nova). Male.

Two eggs from a gift.