Hello everyone, I'm back. And thank you all for your overwhelming support. A brief shout out to Chosen-One-92. I don't mind at all how long your reviews are, I don't find them rambly at all. In fact, I prefer reviews as long as yours, I learn more to improve on that way. So, everyone who reviews my fiction, thank you all. You don't HAVE to write a page-long review, but it helps me to learn what you like, dislike, and what you guys think needs improvement. Now, enough chin-wagging from me. On with the story.
Linking with Aura
Ash was wide awake, and stroking the soft fur on Riolu's head, as the Pokémon was still asleep in his bed. Yesterday was hectic. He'd gone for a walk, had been left berries in his thinking clearing, got poisoned – again! – by a Mewdamned snake Pokémon, and met a new friend, and (soon-to-be) mentor, in Riolu, a Pokémon that shouldn't even be present in the Kanto region. Not to mention his newfound aura power, whatever that was. But… something tells him he's going to find out today. As Ash was mindlessly stroking Riolu's head, the Emanation Pokémon squirmed, comfortably, and unconsciously wrapped his little blue arms around him, pulling the child into a hug. Ash could feel the heat sweep across his face as the fox began to nuzzle him like a stuffed toy, purring softly. He looked down at the dog Pokémon's closed eyes and noticed a contented smile adorning his cheeks. Ash found the smile very contagious and couldn't help but deepen the hug smiling to himself, comfortable in the heat he was sharing with his new companion.
In the professor's office, he was reading the last page of his tenth book on the many theories, myths and legends on aura. He'd learned about as much as he was going to learn from these silly things. No one, really, understands aura unless they're able to sense or use it anyway. This is going to be one topic the professor's just gonna have to take a backseat on. He can tell Ash the stories and legends, and the theories and principals, but that won't necessarily help him with learning how to fully utilise his own aura powers. For that, he's going to need the help of that Riolu. That was the second reason Professor Oak was up all night last night. Not only was he brushing up on theories and legends surrounding the mysterious phenomenon of aura, but he had also put in a call to Professor Rowan from Sinnoh. Rowan himself seemed rather confused as to why a Riolu would be living in the Kanto region, and promised he'd try to come up with a theory as to how the little one got to the Kanto region in the first place. Professor Oak had worked tirelessly to understand what he needed to teach Ash before he started training with the young Mon that helped to save the poor child's life for, what had been, the second time in his short time on this Earth.
The professor was, understandably, tired, but he couldn't allow himself a moment to sleep now. Ash was probably awake by now. And, being a Ketchum, he was most probably itching to get his newfound skills tested out. With this in mind, he made his way along the hallways down to Ash's bedroom. Slowly, he opened the door and peeked inside. Sat on the bed was Ash and Riolu. Riolu was producing small blue spheres between his paws and shattering them into miniature firework for Ash's amusement.
'How peculiar.' The professor mused at the sight before his aged eyes. 'I always assumed that Riolu were incapable of using aura based attacks until they became Lucario.' The old researcher scratched his chin, thoughtfully. 'Perhaps there's more this little one than meets the eye.' A soft smile swept across the man's features. 'Much like my little Ash, really.' His eyes met the ceiling as he leaned his head back in pride. 'You must be so proud, Delia.' After wiping away a small tear that managed to ooze its way out of his eye, he made his presence known to the young friends in the room.
He entered the room, with a large smile on his face. When the child and Mon noticed him, they smiled back, happily.
"Hello, boys." The professor welcomed.
"Morning, Grampy." Ash smiled, holding his arms out for a morning hug. Chuckling, the professor walked over to the bed and picked the boy up, whizzing him round in a circle, for a lap or two, like a plane, before embracing the giggling child in a cuddle. After a couple of seconds, Ash tugged himself away from the professor's arms. "So, am I gonna learn about aura today, Grampy?" He chirped, excitably.
"That's right Ash." Professor Oak chuckled. He looked down at Riolu, who was still sat on the bed, gazing up at him, curiously. He knelt down to Riolu's eye level, still holding Ash against his hip. "Do you want to help me teach Ash about aura Riolu?" He grinned.
"Ri Rio!" Chirruped a wide-eyed – beaming – Riolu, happy to have been offered with the chance to help his special new friend. Professor Oak offered Riolu his spare arm, into which the excited fox bound, securing a perch for himself in the old man's grasp. And with that, the professor rose to his feet – with surprising ease (despite the carrier load) – and made his way out from Ash's room to the training gym.
Riolu peered round the gym in awe. The room was massive! And all these weird and wonderful contraptions that lined the walls scattered about in neat patterns. Is this how humans get most of their exercise? Wow. It's a wonder why quite a number of them are deemed 'unhealthy' by others, if they've got these things to enhance their bodies. His eyes took a rest from scanning his surroundings to take notice of Ash and the professor. Professor Oak had a picture of a man from a far off kingdom, he thought the professor called it Cameran Palace (but he wasn't listening all that much), situated somewhere here in the Kanto region. The man in the picture wore a pair of blue gauntlets, with a matching cape, and held a staff that looked like a Lucario's head.
"This man was called Sir Aaron." Professor Oak announced to the awestruck boy before him. "In legends, he was a great knight, known as an aura guardian." From the tone of his voice, one could tell the professor had opted to use his fatherly, storyteller's, voice rather than his professor of knowledge lecturer voice, to help prevent against Ash snoozing of, I'll wager.
After about ten minutes of talking about the theories and legends surrounding aura, Professor Oak summoned Riolu over to Ash and himself.
"OK, Riolu. From what I've studied about aura, a trainer and Pokémon with a strong connection, like an emotional link, between each other can form, what's known as, an 'aura bond'. Am I correct?" Riolu nodded in confirmation, and turned to face Ash. It was apparent from the look on his face that he had no clue what an aura bond is.
"What does aura bond mean, Grampy?" He inquired, innocently. Professor Oak turned to him, about to answer, but Riolu raised a paw to stop him.
"You'd rather demonstrate it to him, wouldn't you?" The professor asked, with a knowing smile on his face. Riolu tread towards Ash, with a soft look on his features, intending to push aside all doubts he knew were in Ash's mind and all his fear of what was to come next.
Riolu pulled Ash into a hug, to show his support and guidance, and to settle the nervous child. When he felt Ash was relaxed enough, he opened his eyes, and pulled Ash out of the embrace, gazing into his auburn orbs. Using his aura energy, Riolu's eyes began to glow like living sapphires in his head. Ash found himself frozen. Stuck like a statue staring deeply into two, actually rather cute, sapphires that seemed to have replaced Riolu's eyes. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but for some reason he didn't want to stop the proceedings. Soon, Ash's eyes began to glow, shining deep, rich gold in colour. The professor couldn't help but stare in wonderment and awe at the sight, as gold gaze met sapphire, and an energy from both stares started to radiate towards the opposite, mingling together like rope being woven.
After a few seconds of weaving and threading, the energies poured into the boys' eyes, and their glows faded away, until they were normal again. Finally, Ash found himself able to pull away from Riolu, panting and gasping from shock and surprise. He was so shaken by the experience that he could only stare curiously at Riolu, wondering how to make a sentence again.
"What was that?" He asked, just about reclaiming control over his tongue. Riolu gave him a cheery smile.
'That was me creating an aura bond with you, Ash.' Came a voice. The voice was young, and a little husky, like a cartoon dog voice. Ash squealed in horror at the voice, and leapt as high as he is tall into the air. When he landed, he scurried as far back from Riolu as he could possibly get, before ending up with his back pressed up against a wall. Riolu tilted his head, curiously, and started to walk his way towards Ash, despite the squeaks of protest he gave with each step. As he neared the boy, he crouched down in front of him, and rested a paw on his shoulder, making Ash squeal again.
"H-how are you talking!" Ash demanded, terror lacing his words.
'Well, I'm not really talking, Ash.' Riolu, as I'm sure you've guessed this is Riolu 'talking' (unless you're a derpington), replied. 'It's my aura abilities. I made an aura bond with you, which means our auras are now shared. This gives me the ability to talk you telepathically – and you to me, too. With a little bit of training, we'll be able to share all kinds of fun and neat-o powers and abilities and strengths with each other, including the abilities to levitate and teleport.' The fox cheered, jumping up and down with growing excitement. Ash, however, was… a little less enthusiastic. He turned to Professor Oak, still looking like he'd seen a ghost in a scary, rotting haunted mansion.
"Grampy I'm scared." He whined, clutching his shirt in his little fingers. "What's going on?" The professor gave a curious look.
"I don't know, because whatever's going on I'm not clued in." He responded. Ash told the professor that he heard Riolu talking, and that he told him that by making an aura bond, they could share powers and strengths. "Ah." He mused, now slightly more in the loop than before. "Well, in that case, I know exactly what Riolu's done."
"What's Riolu done? Is it dangerous?"
"Not at all, my boy." The professor reassured the boy, chuckling slightly at his innocent ignorance. "All Riolu's done is linked your aura signatures together. An aura signature is the unique pattern that an individual's aura possesses, which gives them their own individual identity and power. So, in a way, you could probably call it a DNA code for aura." Ash, who had been listening intently, seemed to calm down at the explanation of what had happened between him and Riolu.
"So now, me and Riolu are connected together?" He chirped, gleefully. The professor nodded, giving a hearty chuckle at how easily the bot's mood changed from one of fear to one of joy and elation. "YAY!" Ash squealed, leaping for absolute joy. He scampered to his feet, beamed widely at Riolu now. "That sounds so cool, Riolu." He said, making the pup blush.
'Well yeah, I guess it is.' He admitted, smiling. 'Aura bonds are pretty cool, and also very helpful. Right now, we can only use one power together; telepathy. But, given time and practise, we can use all sorts of skills and abilities that can let the whole world know how powerful we are.' At these words, Ash had a thought come over him.
'Or maybe even get back at Team Rocket for what they did to me and Mummy.' He mused in his head, fighting back a snarl of distain at the memory. He shook the thoughts from his head, and smiled sweetly at Riolu and the professor. "So, am I gonna learn how to make a ball of aura?"
'It's called an aura sphere, Ash.' Riolu corrected. 'And yes. All we need is a target. Something that we can hit as hard as we like and it won't be easily broke.'
The solid stone target was set up. It was a giant disc, which very much resembled an archery target.
'Alright, Ash.' Riolu said, sizing up the target. 'I'll show you a basic aura sphere, and then I'll teach you how to make one yourself.' And with that, the fox closed his eyes, and extended a paw towards the target. Soon, a blue sphere formed in its grasp, growing slowly larger. When the sphere reached to be the size of Riolu's paw, the Mon released the orb into the air, flying straight towards the bullseye centre of the stone disc. Within seconds, the ball crashed into the surface of the target, blasting in a blue sheen, before fading away into nothingness. The target was undamaged, by there was a fair amount of ash from the explosion left behind. Ash stared at the, cosmetic, damage in awe. 'Now it's your turn, Ash.' Riolu barked. 'Let me teach you.'
Ash made sure he was paying the closest attention he could. He was not going to miss a detail and, possibly, cause disaster with an aura sphere gone awry. 'OK.' Riolu ordered, sounding very much like an army general. 'I hope you realise, Ash, that using aura is not like combing your hair, or brushing your teeth. You don't learn how to do it straight away. It takes a little bit more practise. And I'm gonna help you practise. So… here's how we'll start. First, aim your hand at the target.' He instructed, demonstrating with his paw. Ash followed the fox's lead, and raised a hand towards the target. 'Now close your eyes.' Again, Ash complied. 'Now. I want you to imagine a ball. A small ball in your head. Like a small light, about the size of a light bulb.' And, sure enough, Ash started to see a little light bulb sized glow in his head, shining in radiant gold. 'And now, I want you to think of it as an energy inside you. Feel the energy from that ball bubble away in the bottom of your tummy.' So Ash imagined the energy boiling in his tummy. As he did, he could actually feel the buzzing and bumping of something bubbling in his abdomen. And, for once, it wasn't him being hungry. 'Now imagine telling that energy to go to your fingers, and start to grow in the palm of your hand.' Ash concentrated on all his energy rising through his belly, past his chest, and into his hand. And very slowly, a golden aura sphere began to sprout from the palm of the child's hand. 'And release!' Riolu ordered. Ash found his eyes snapping open as he forced the sphere of gold forward. The ball lurched from his fingertips, and raced towards the stone target. Upon impact, the sphere burst, causing a shower of sparks to rain everywhere, fizzling and crackling as they fell.
Riolu, Professor Oak and Ash all gazed at the spectacle in wonderment. Ash gazed at his hand, wondering how he could have pulled off such an impressive first attempt. Riolu gave a proud smirk, and turned to Ash with an approving look on his canine face. 'Very good, Ash.' He congratulated. 'Very good indeed. But we have a lot more training to do, if you're ever going to learn how to master your aura like Sir Aaron.' Ash nodded, excitedly, and the children got back to training. As they spent the day working on Ash's aura sphere attacks, Professor Oak couldn't help but feel a great wave of pride wash over him, as if Ash was his own flesh and blood. A tear of happiness welled in his aged eye as he thought of how proud Delia would've been if she could see her little Ashy now. He may only be five years old. But Ash was changing quickly. He was growing up fast. And, one day… all these changes will amount to something… truly and utterly amazing.
Now, everyone... I appreciate the help and advice you all gave me last chapter. Now I'd like to ask another question or two. First off, I now have a few pairing ideas knocking about in my head, but I think too many of them are mainstream. Have any of you got any ideas of unusual, bizarre, or under/neverused pairs and shippings that you'd like to see happen? For example...; Brock and a Team Rocket operative. They can be as ludicrous as you like, as long as they're not pervy. And, I was thinking about making the rating on this fiction go up to M. What does everyone think? I know that it might make the fiction slightly harder to discover for authors who haven't found this fiction already but I feel that I could be a little more graphic with the future destruction Team Rocket operatives later on. And I think I could be a little more... adult... of sorts in a few other areas as well, if I deem it suitable. So, yeah. Please review, or PM me, and let me know your answers everyone, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you all next week. Bye for now.