Chapter 2: Root of One's Resolve

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! This story is not made for nor does it make me any profit whatsoever in any shape or form. The story is made purely for entertainment purposes in the form of reading and enjoying what will hopefully be a good piece of literature.

It only shows the moves of the Pokémon if the trainer has captured the Pokémon as the data is taken from the Poké Ball. If the Pokémon is wild, the Pokédex won't be able to tell what moves the Pokémon knows.

Anyways, onto chapter 2!

Ash looked at massive canyon he currently found himself in, the walls going up as high as a hundred meters. It had been a few hours since he left the rather small forest that had laid between the Town of Rota and this canyon, also known as Onix Canyon. As the name implied, it was home to hundreds of the Rock Snake Pokémon and the canyon itself was also large. It would take about four days of walking just to get across it assuming he didn't get himself lost.

'Where are we?' Ash asked himself as he looked at Smart Gear to try and figure out which way to head towards to get to Pewter City.

He saw the map of his current location on the screen and zoomed out a bit to get a better look. Seeing it now from what was essentially a bird's eye view, he was able to make out the general direction of where he needed to go and key landmarks to look for. 'I'm so glad they taught all of this survival training in the academy. I would be wandering blindly even with the Smart Gear if I didn't have those skills, since this place is like a giant maze.'

"Lar…" a voice full of absolute bliss came from Larvitar.

Ash looked down at his partner, wondering what had gotten him so happy. He sweat-dropped when the rock-ground type had pure ecstasy etched on his face as he was eating the dirt from the ground and was already sitting in a tiny hole. 'The Pokédex did say Larvitar eat a lot of dirt.'

"Hey Larvitar, do you want to keep eating or start going?"

"Lar? Lar Larvitar." The Pokémon replied with a few taps on his belly showing that he was full.

"Ok. Let's go." Ash then began walking with Larvitar following and he began thinking about the gym leader in Pewter City. From what his Smart Gear said, the guy's name was Brock and he was a rock-type Pokémon specialist. That would mean he probably knew a lot about Larvitar which would make the upcoming battle difficult but Larvitar did have some powerful moves in his arsenal.

'…but that didn't help against Kace…' Ash thought with an internal growl before his mom's words reached flashed in his head. 'I can't let the defeat get to me. I have to learn from it. Let's see, Larvitar is not that fast but Dragon Dance makes up for that…Power-Up Punch is a good counter to rock-types…but I can't rely on that. Gym leaders know about their Pokémon's weaknesses and cover for it…but they could also expect the challengers to know that they ways to cover for their Pokémon's weaknesses…which would mean…'

"GAH! What the hell am I thinking!" Ash said.

"Lar?!" Larvitar shouted back in response jumping at the random shout that came out of nowhere and echoed off the walls.

"Hehe…" Ash sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. "Sorry Larvitar. I was just thinking about some stuff…" He was cut off when he felt the ground shake. At first the vibrations were soft but as the seconds passed, they grew in intensity.

Larvitar crouched down a bit to get a better feel for the vibrations and thanks to him being rock-ground type, he could tell that something was coming their way and it was getting closer. His instincts told him to run and that's just what he was going to do.

"LAR!" Larvitar pointed in the direction going away from the incoming vibrations and started running. Ash instantly got the message and began to run as well.

Not a few moments later, an Onix burst out of the ground around twenty meters behind them. The two kept running as fast as they could but Ash saw that there was no way they would be able to out-run the massive snake made of interconnected boulders.

"LARVITAR! JUMP TO THE SIDE!" Ash shouted trying to get his voice across to Larvitar through the roars of the Onix despite being only a few feet apart.

Larvitar nodded and jumped to the side, towards the walls of the canyon and Ash did the same. They saw the Onix rush past them and disappear in the distance.

The two heavily panted, not from exhaustion but from being so startled like that out of nowhere.

"Larvitar! Lar lar tar!" Larvitar said angrily but kept his voice down.

Ash gave his partner an apologetic look. "Sorry about that Larvitar. I'll make sure to keep quiet from now on."

Larvitar could feel the sincerity in his partner's apology and gazed at him before giving a small smile and nod. "Lar."

"Thanks. Now let's get to that river." Larvitar nodded and the two began walking in the same direction they had been running and thus had managed to cover some ground in the right direction.

As they were walking, Ash decided it was time he discussed his training plans with his partner given that nothing else was on his mind at the moment except for his loss against Kace.

"Hey Larvitar, I was thinking that for your training, we can begin with practicing on perfecting your moves and increasing your stamina and speed since you already have a lot of strength and defensive powers." Larvitar nodded and smacked his chest in a show of power, proud of his partner's compliments. "I think for now, I'll work on what the instructor had said and improve my aura control but the academy level exercises aren't going to cut it so I need to use the advanced ones from the book. I also need to start reading in on how I should get started on being able to access my Muladhara and Manipura. Not only that but I have to change my fighting style to use my legs and feet a bit more. I think the Infernape style should already be included in my aura book."

Larvitar didn't know about the specifics on aura so simply stayed silent for the last bit.

"I think if we stay by the river, we should be pretty safe since Onix can't stand water. We can use nearby boulders to practice your moves while I train with you." Larvitar nodded and the two continued to walk.

Eventually, they walked through a sharp turn in the canyon causing them to freeze in fright at what they saw. They would have been happy that the river was in vision range however…there was a massive Onix, sleeping only twenty feet away from them. The Onix was probably around one-and-a-half times larger then a normal Onix which was saying quite a lot given the species' massive size.

But that was not even the scariest part.

No what was scarier was that they saw a yellow Pokémon with web like feet, a big round beak, a small tail and hands clutching his or her head, walking back and fourth from the head of the Onix to around the middle of its body which was laid out on the ground. Ash instantly recognized the Pokémon as Psyduck as he had seen plenty of them before but this one seemed to have a death wish considering she – gender was recognizable since she had two thick hair like protrusions from the head while males had three – was banging her head on the Onix in set intervals.

Ash and Larvitar looked at the Onix, just waiting for the immense rock type to wake up in an angry rage for having its sleep disturbed. They looked at each other being able to sense how tense the other was. When a minute passed and they saw the Onix wasn't looking to wake up anytime soon, they decided it was time they make a quiet but quick get away. They knew better then to try and take on what looked like an extremely powerful Pokémon given the numerous scars and marks throughout the boulders that made up its body.

Ash began tip-toeing past Onix with Larvitar following closely behind him, taking great care in not making a single sound. Ash stopped when he saw the Psyduck continuously walk back and fourth, past them, banging her head on the Onix without a care in the world.

"We should take her with us before she ends up being turned into a pancake." Whispered Ash to which Larvitar nodded, knowing there was no way that Psyduck would be able to survive a rampaging Onix even with her type advantage.

Ash then waited for Psyduck to walk towards them and when she was right beside him, getting ready to bang her head once more, Ash scooped her in his arms and quickly began to walk forward but taking care in minimizing any noise he may create.

"Pssy?" Psyduck said with a tilt of her head as she gazed at Ash with a creepy drone like stare.

Ash brought her up so that he could look at her dead in the eyes even though her gaze made his skin crawl a bit. "Listen Psyduck. I'm just trying to help you. If you wake up that Onix you could be in serious danger. We'll get out of here and then you can go wherever you like ok?"

"Pssssy?" Psyduck simply responded with a tilt of her head. She then leaned forward a bit and poked Ash on the forehead with her round beak.

"What are you doing?" Psyduck poked him again. "Stop that." She didn't listen. "Stop that!" She poked him one last time. "I said stop that!" Ash said just a bit more forcefully but, in a whisper.

Ash's eyes widened for a second when he saw the Pokémon open her beak and a small ball of water formed at the back of her throat. Knowing that some type of water attack was coming, Ash instinctively moved his head to the side and moved Psyduck a bit, avoiding the stream of highly pressurized water. Psyduck fired again and Ash titled his head to the other side to dodge.

"Please stop that Psyduck. I'm just trying to help you."

"Lar." Larvitar added, trying to convince Psyduck to stop attacking his partner.

"Grrr…"

Ash and Larvitar felt a very unpleasant tingling sensation run throughout their body. Their instincts were screaming for them to run and when they turned to look at the source of the rumbling growl filled with rage along with loud sounds of what seemed like boulders to be shifting, they knew their instincts were right.

Turning their heads around, they saw the bloodshot eyes of the Onix they had passed, no doubt from being woken due to Psyduck's Water Gun attacks accidently hitting him.

"RAWGHH!"

The massive roar was the final straw for Ash and Larvitar as they began sprinting towards the massive river they could see in the distance. However, their speed was nothing to what the massive rock type could reach, plus his mass allowed the Pokémon to reach the two in just a few moments.

Onix slammed his tail trying to smack the two but they managed to jump and roll out of the way just in time.

Ash gazed at the enraged Onix and their surroundings while holding Psyduck in his right arm. 'How do we get out of this? There is no way me or Larvitar can outrun it. Fighting back is out of the question since Onix can probably knock us out in one hit…or worse. We need to create a distraction to…' Ash was broken out of his split-second thoughts when he saw Psyduck launch another Water Gun attack towards Onix.

Onix roared as the attack hit right on his head causing a decent amount of damage but also increasing its rage. The rock-ground type threw the water type a down right murderous stare and opened his mouth, gathering blue-greenish colored energy.

'Psyduck really does have a death wish…'

Onix launched the Dragon Breath attack and Ash quickly reacted, making a big leap backwards, avoiding the attack.

"Lar!" Larvitar shouted as he ran to his partner who was standing behind the large amount of dust that was kicked up.

Ash didn't bother responding and decided to use this opportunity to pick up Larvitar although a bit slowly due to his weight. He then concentrated and reached for his Muladhara, imagining a red swirl of energy and felt his muscles stiffen a bit. Feeling the power in his body, Ash ran as fast as he could but heavily slowed down by his partner's weight.

Ash's instincts and aura was the only thing that kept him from being crushed as he took a powerful leap onto the canyon walls to avoid Onix ramming into them from behind. He then leaped off of the walls onto the ground, over Onix's body.

Onix left Ash no time to think as his tail glowed a metallic silver color and was launched towards him.

Ash dropped to the ground and watched as the Iron Tail attack flew an inch above his face.

"Larvitar hurry and use Dragon Dance as many times as you can and keep dodging Onix." Ash commanded.

Larvitar immediately complied and began channeling draconic energy through his body, toughening his muscles and fueling them with incredible amounts of energy, while his body was surrounded by black and crimson wisps.

Onix's fury was reaching untold heights as he saw his attacks continuously miss. He slammed his glowed tail onto the ground causing it to shake as shockwaves were spread throughout the area.

Ash and Larvitar struggled to hold their balance but when they felt the ground under them shift a little bit, they instantly jumped forward narrowly dodging a blue glowing spike of rock. The ground under where they landed also started shifting and just like last time they managed to dodge another incoming spike.

The two continued to dodge the attacks and Ash noted how Larvitar was significantly faster, over twice his normal speed. "Larvitar, if Onix comes in for a close-range attack, try and aim a Power-Up Punch right on his head. After that, run!"

"Lar!" The rock-ground type's right arm began to take a white glow while his body was surrounded by a red aura. He could feel his muscles power-up even further as more energy was pumped through them.

Like Ash predicted, the enraged Onix charged towards them, no doubt intending to crush them with a Body Slam.

Ash and Larvitar crouched down and just as the Onix was a few meters away from them, they leaped into the air. Larvitar immediately let loose his punch, striking Onix right in between his eyes just as the rock-ground type was passing under them. Psyduck helpfully let loose a Water Gun attack right at one of Onix's eyes.

Ash and Larvitar landed back on the ground as the Onix flew past them and crashed into the canyon walls, kicking up dust. The two used this opportunity to instantly start running towards the river with Larvitar easily able to keep up with Ash's top speed.

'Looks like Onix was dazed by the attack. Maybe the head is the weak spot?' Ash thought as the two rapidly closed the distance between them and the river. Just as they reached the river, a roar came from behind them as they saw Onix charging at them.

"Larvitar get back into your Poké Ball. I'm going to dive into the river." Ash said to which Larvitar nodded. Once he was back inside his ball, Ash with Psyduck in hand, dove into the river.

Onix's eyes widened a bit as he slowed down and eventually skidded to a stop right in front of the river and simply began to wait for the human to resurface since he knew they could not survive in water for long.

From under the water, Ash saw the waving and blurred image of Onix simply waiting for him to resurface. Knowing that he could not hold his breath forever, Ash began swimming down stream while making sure to stay completely submerged. He saw that there was no space for the Onix to follow him since the river was right in between two high canyon walls.

As the distance between him and Onix increased, Ash started to relax just a bit more but continued to swim at his full speed. Eventually, after a minute he ran out of air and came out of the water, gasping for air.

He swam over to the shore and barely managed to bring himself out of the water, just now realizing how exhausted he was from the ordeal with Onix as the adrenaline was leaving his system. He idly noted how Psyduck had been oddly calm and was currently giving him a drone like stare as he lied uncomfortably on his backpack, gazing at the sky.

Larvitar shot out of his ball and stood beside Ash. "Lar? Larvitar."

Ash gave Larvitar a tired smile. "I'm alright Larvitar, just tired. How about you?"

"Vitar." Larvitar nodded his head.

Ash smiled. "That's good. How about you Psyduck?"

"Psssy?" Psyduck tilted her head in confusion.

Ash managed to push himself up and take off his backpack. "Are you hurt?"

Psyduck kept her tilted head and drone like stare but she understood the question. In response she simply pointed at Ash.

This time it was Ash who was confused. "Huh? Is there something on me?" Ash said as he inspected his person. It was then he noticed the numerous scraps on his arms, some of which were bleeding. This was no doubt from dodging Onix's attacks during which his skin contacted the ground several times.

"Larvitar. Tar tar." Larvitar said in concern.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Ash said but did finally start to feel a stinging sensation from his wounds. He opened his backpack which was thankfully waterproof as it was built for traveling. However, his clothes weren't so lucky so once he brought out the first aid kit from his backpack, he took off the majority of his clothing, leaving only his black boxers on.

Opening the first aid kid, he proceeded to do as he was taught and first cleaned the wound with water from the river and disinfectants before placing various sized bandages on the scrapes. Once he was done he took out some potions and sprayed them on Larvitar's bruises before doing the same to Psyduck.

"That was something eh? Psyduck, why were you trying to wake up that Onix?" Ash asked as he proceeded to set up camp.

Ash received a flat drone like stare in response while Larvitar merely laid on the ground, also tired from the whole ordeal but also internally very impressed with his partner. Stories from other Pokémon in the Forest of Harmony, made him believe that humans were extremely frail and always relied on their Pokémon should problems come fourth. Of course, he knew that aura guardians commanded a fierce power but not really having seen one in battle made him still believe that humans were very weak.

The events in the Forest and the current situation he had faced with his partner began to change his opinions while simultaneously increasing his respect for his partner. He threw himself in harms way to save him from falling the first time and this time he saved the Psyduck with no hesitation and more importantly, no reason to do so. He had just reacted out of concern for the water-type and that just began to cement his loyalty to his human partner who rose to new heights in his eyes.

Not to mention the fact that Ash didn't seem the least bit angry at Psyduck for placing them in that life-threatening situation in the first place.

Meanwhile, Psyduck was also contemplating the strange human that had interrupted her when she was inspecting those strange boulders. The human had grabbed her and then ran around with her avoiding the strange moving boulders before jumping into the water. It was strange that he did not try to capture her in those strange round spheres she had been sucked into not to long ago but managed to break free. She wanted to investigate more of this strange human.

As Larvitar and Psyduck was lost in thought about Ash, said aura user was just about finished setting up the tent and fire place but given that there were no trees around and hence no source of fire, Ash materialized the emergency supply from his TSD making a note to himself to resupply on it when he was in the forest.

Starting the fire, Ash took out the took book from his backpack and started to read how to make tasty and nutritious food for Pokémon. Trainers often neglected giving Pokémon the proper nutrition for optimal growth and mainly opted to give them pre-prepared cans of Pokémon food with artificial flavor since it was more convenient. Just like for people, nutrition heavily affected Pokémon and their growth.

Ash followed the steps while he read and took out pellets of Pokémon food from the TSD along with several berries and jars filled with various shades of a brown liquids. He followed the procedure to the letter and made two bowls of Pokémon food, one specifically for water types and the other for rock-ground types. Both of them were mixed with a different mixture of minced berries and spoons of nutritious liquid from the jars – protein, key vitamins and minerals, etc.

"Larvitar, Psyduck, come and eat." Said Ash to which the two Pokémon were broken out of their thoughts. They walked over to the bowls of food Ash had laid out for them and began eating them. Once Larvitar took the first bite, he began eating at a much quicker pace, enjoying the taste of the Pokémon food. Psyduck however, took the first minute or so simply poking the Pokémon food with her beak or taking a pellet that was covered in the minced berries and nutritious goop, inspecting it. When she ate it, she began to inspect another pellet and the pattern continued, slowly gaining speed.

Ash sweat-dropped at Psyduck's antics and proceeded to take out a prepared lunch his mom had made for him consisting of a plate filled with beans, vegetables, sweet potatoes, tofu, along with a glass of milk. He would only have a week before he would have to cook his own meals but until then, he planned on enjoying his mom's cooking.

'This taste's so good!' Ash thought as the flavour of the healthy meal made him eat at a rapid pace. His mom always found the perfect blend between incredible taste and very healthy food that contained all the nutrients a growing teen like him would need. 'I hope I can make food that tastes this good later…'

Once they were done their meal, Ash used the river to clean up the dishes and place them back in the TSD. Seeing that his clothes would take quite a while to dry especially in the humid atmosphere due to the river and them being at the bottom of a canyon, Ash decided now was a good time to get some training done.

It was still mid-afternoon and this would be a good place to camp for the night since they were right by a water source.

"Hey Larvitar, after about two hours, let's do some intense training ok?"

"Lar!" Larvitar nodded and pumped his fist excited for some training but at the moment his belly was very full.

Ash then looked at Psyduck who was simply giving him another drone-like stare, not showing any emotions on her face. "Psyduck…you can go now if you want to, you just need to be careful from now on ok?"

"Pssy…" was Psyduck's reply before she walked forward and then began to bang her head on Ash causing another sweat-drop.

"Do you want to stay with me?" Ash asked wondering if that's what she wanted. To be honest he liked this Psyduck and wanted her on his team despite her antics.

"Psy…"

"Larvitar…can you tell her what I mean." Ash asked not exactly understanding what Psyduck was trying to say.

Larvitar nodded and proceeded to talk to Psyduck who didn't say a word throughout their entire conversation. After Larvitar was done, the water type looked between Ash and Larvitar and gave a simple nod.

"Larvitar! Lar lar." Larvitar said to Ash with a happy nod.

Ash grinned. "So, Psyduck you want to come with me?" Psyduck nodded before walking to him and banging her head on his leg again.

Ash chuckled and knelt down and looked into her eyes. "I'm going to connect with you using an aura bond ok."

Psyduck simply stared at him and Ash took this as an ok to proceed considering she had agreed to join him. He began to concentrate and focus his aura, pouring it out from his heart and reaching for Psyduck.

Larvitar watched with fascination again as he saw the stream of white energy come out of his partner's chest and connect with Psyduck's chest.

Psyduck's eyes widened just a bit at the sudden phantom sensation of various emotions such as happiness, joy, a bit of pain and a fierce will. Meanwhile, Ash felt a mild migraine along with an unending sensation of immense curiosity of the world around him.

The moment eventually passed and the two looked at each other, now having a better understanding of the other. Ash now could feel the connection between him and Psyduck but just like the one with Larvitar it felt a bit hollow but he understood that it would take time for trust to be built between the two. He did slightly notice how his connection with Larvitar seemed a bit a different now then before. The hollow feeling seemed to have lessened a bit.

Ash pushed back those thoughts for now and took out a Harmonic Ball and proceeded it to hold it in front of Psyduck. "Just tap here and you'll officially be part of this family."

Rather then tapping the ball, Psyduck banged her head on it despite having a bit of apprehension due to her encounter with a similar device but given how this human had acted around her, she didn't feel threatened in anyway.

When she was transformed into red energy and sucked in, Psyduck felt a lot different compared to the other ball she had been in. She did not feel any sort of restrain on herself but felt something strange as if she was being asked whether she accepted this capture or not. She could feel that with a single thought of defiance, she would be immediately be expelled from the Poké Ball. This feeling of being given a choice made her even more curious about his human and decided to accept the capture.

Ash's grin widened even more when the ball gave the signature ding indicating that Psyduck was officially captured and part of his team. "Awesome!" Ash said with glee before releasing Psyduck. "Welcome to the family." Ash smiled at the water type. "Oh, yeah. I should scan you with the Pokédex."

[Psyduck – The Duck Pokémon. Psyduck are suffering from a constant headache as a result of the mysterious psychic power that dwells within them. This headache seems to go away after their evolution into a Golduck. This mysterious psychic power has a side effect of making Psyduck suffer from memory loss and as a result forgetting about their psychic abilities.

This Psyduck is female.

Psyduck knows the following moves: Water Gun, Confusion, Refresh, Scratch, Hypnosis. Egg moves Cross-Chop and Confuse Ray are currently unavailable.]

Ash was really impressed with the move set as it provided Psyduck quite a bit of utility in terms of getting out of tough situations. Refresh was a very good move since it basically removed paralysis, burns and poison while Hypnosis was good at putting Pokémon to sleep but the move itself was slow and required good timing to land.

'I should probably have Psyduck practice her moves like Larvitar will be doing and then improve their stamina.'

"Lar! Larvitar lar lar!"

Larvitar's shout of annoyance and anger broke Ash from his thoughts. He sweat dropped again as he saw Psyduck was trying to bang her head on Larvitar's head along with poking him with her beak on occasion.

'I have a feeling that this is going to happen often from now on…' Ash thought before he picked up Psyduck. "Now Psyduck, please don't do that to Larvitar or any other Pokémon we come across. We don't want any accidents like the one with that Onix to happen again."

"Psyduck?" The water type said with a tilt of her head.

Ash heard the confusion in her tone and mentally sighed. He knew she was going to be a handful. "Now, why don't we just relax for a couple hours ok?"

He then placed a comfortable fluffy blanket on the ground which he laid down on with Larvitar following. Psyduck however decided to start poking the blanket with her beak but given its round shape, there was no danger of the cloth being ripped.

Ash chuckled at the two. 'I'm finally a trainer.' He still couldn't believe it he was finally on a journey. All those years of non-stop training, hard work in the academy and generally rarely ever leaving Rota except when going to Indigo Plateau to watch conferences made it a bit hard to believe that he was finally setting out to see the world. His dream now awaited him at the end of long road ahead.

He looked at the sky and saw a big rainbow seemingly being formed from nowhere but when he concentrated, he saw a large bird flying in the sky. "Hey Larvitar. Psyduck. Look in the sky, its Ho-oh."

The two looked where he was pointing and had separate reactions. Larvitar had a shocked look on his face before it changed to one of respect and he bowed his head. Psyduck however, simply gave the flying bird a drone like stare but with a strange gleam in her eyes. Not a moment later she began to seemingly try and jump off the ground in an attempt to fly to go after the bird.

Ash bowed his head in respect much like Larvitar as a sign of respect and awe. Ho-oh had always been a constant sight for everyone in Rota as the Pokémon flew over the town and Palace about every two years or so. According to their history books, this had been going on for centuries and it was eventually discovered that Ho-oh went to the Tree of Beginning in order to rest before continuing to fly over the world.

Ash took out his Smart Gear in order to read more on Ho-oh and the legendary Pokémon's myths while he waited for his food to digest. He forgot some of the things he had learned in class about the mythical Pokémon and wanted to brush up on the information.

[Ho-oh, The Rainbow Pokémon

Ho-oh is a legendary Pokémon that has been rumored to hold the power over life. According to Johto legends and myths, Ho-oh burns its old body every millennium before reappearing as an egg and eventually hatching. This Pokémon has been rarely sighted throughout history and the last known appearance was in the Tin Tower.

In ancient times, a small war had broken out in Ecruteak City in which the Tin Tower had burned down and along with it three Pokémon perished. However, it is said the Ho-oh appeared and raised the three Pokémon from their ashes – relating to Ho-oh's power - giving them life. These three Pokémon are known as Suicune, Raikou and Entei. Ho-oh was also said to have burned all the weapons used in the war using rose-colored flames. From the ashes of these weapons, the barren wasteland that had surrounded Ecruteak City for decades changed into a fertile paradise. One rose-colored flame that continued to burn had been discovered from the forest not soon after and was then preserved in a shrine built in an isolated spot near Mt. Silver in order to keep the eternal flame of Ho-oh safe.

This flame has been rumoured to hold an ancient power and many throughout the centuries have tried their best to get their hands on it, either to sell it or harness this unknown power. But any and all attempts had always been thwarted by the guardian of the flame and surrounding Pokémon as well as interference from the aura users of Cameran Palace.]

Ash continued to read the text for a while, getting a bit lost in the rich history of the legendary Pokémon. While he had never been interested in reading and often fell asleep when trying to study, any reading material that actually got his interest, made him read a bit longer then he normally would be able to handle.

"That's enough reading for today." Ash put away the Smart Gear and decided to think of different training methods for his Pokémon and himself. From everything he learned in the academy, he knew he had to give his body time to digest the food he had eaten before doing intense training otherwise he could end up harming himself. Pokémon however varied from case to case but it was generally a rule of thumb that it was better to wait before training.

So, Ash went into thought about now straying away from pure body-weight exercises and start to use resistance bands to start building more muscle. Weight and gravity training were a lot more advanced and would only start when he stopped growing.

'It's a good thing I bought those bands.' Thought Ash as it was one of the things he had bought in anticipation of his journey and wanting to be prepared for it. Stuff in the TSD had been all thought up by his mom but he did pack equipment he knew was useful to bring along as well and since the TSD was full or nearly full, he packed it into his backpack.

'I could increase Larvitar and Psyduck's stamina by tying a rock to them and making them walk while they carried around that extra weight…maybe I can do that as well! Training constantly while traveling!' He thought, as a giddy feeling washed over his body as, what he thought was a brilliant idea, came to his head. 'Of course, I better ask him if their okay with it…'

"Hey Larvitar, Psyduck." The two Pokémon looked at Ash. "I was wondering what you both would think of this training method. I would tie a rock to you with a rope and I would tie one to myself as well. We can then try training and with the added resistance we could increase our stamina."

"Larvitar! Lar lar vitar!" The rock-ground type roared in excitement at the sound of the intense training. Becoming stronger was very appealing to him.

"Pssy?" Psyduck replied in her signature confused tone although Ash could tell that she was curious about what he was suggesting. Probably not out of any desire to get stronger but the same simple curiosity that seemed to constantly fill her.

'I hope she doesn't start headbutting the rock…' Ash thought with a sweat-drop as he imagined the water type doing just that.

Ash then got up on his feet and took out his Smart Gear to use the map to navigate through this new canyon pathway he found himself in after swimming downstream. "Larvitar, stay here and keep an eye on Psyduck. I'm going to go look around for some boulders."

"Larvitar, lar lar." Larvitar said with a concerned tone.

Ash understood his partner's worry given the recent situation they faced. "Don't worry Larvitar. I'll be close bye. Just make sure Psyduck doesn't end up waking up more Onix's…" Larvitar gave Ash a small incredulous look "and I'll make sure to stay quiet."

Larvitar nodded and turned to Psyduck as the two began what would be a long staring contest. Ash took this que to leave and wander around searching for some various sized rocks and boulders for training. He knew Larvitar could handle a lot of weight given the rock-ground type's already immense one hundred fifty-pound weight. Psyduck however was nowhere near as physically powerful and hence wouldn't be able to handle too much resistance.

For himself, he knew that he could handle a good amount but it would mostly be trial and error. It didn't take too long for Ash to find various sized rocks that would be perfect for the training he had in mind. He then began to take them one-by-one back to his campsite which was thankfully close by since the bigger ones did put a strain on his body.

A short while later, Ash was standing in front of Larvitar looking at the rocks with intensity while Psyduck was walking around them with a curious but drone-like gaze.

"Ok, that's the last of it. Now time to bring out some rope and tie the rocks to us before beginning training." Ash proceeded to do just that starting with himself and took out some rope from his backpack and carefully tied it around the boulder and then around himself with only about a couple meters between himself and the boulder he thought was perfect for him.

He then did the same to Larvitar and Psyduck, the latter taking a bit longer since he had to do a bit of trial error since he didn't know the full capabilities of her physical strength. Once he was done, Psyduck began to headbutt the rock just like Ash predicted.

He sweat-dropped a bit but managed to get her attention when he spoke. "Hey Psyduck, are you alright with this type of training?"

"Psy?"

'I have a feeling that I'll rarely ever get a concrete response from her if ever.' He thought before looking at the water-type and then the rock-ground type.

"Well let's do this first. Psyduck, you use Water Gun on that boulder and try to crack it and once you manage to do that try moving the rocks with Confusion, increasing the weight you carry with your mind each time. Larvitar you practice using your Power-Up Punch and Body Slam attack on the large boulder. Once you two manage to do that, run up to that small rock there…" Ash pointed down the narrow corridor of the canyon they were in were a small pointy rock was sitting around thirty feet away. "and then back and keep doing this until you can't."

"LARVITAR!" Larvitar roared and immediately went to do just that but struggled quite a bit with the added weight and just had trouble putting momentum behind his attacks, lessening their power quite a bit. Of course, Ash's words kept ringing in his ears and the defeat he suffered at the hands of the Bagon which fueled the fire that burned in his heart.

Ash smiled at his starter who was training hard before turning to his water type partner. Psyduck was also practicing her Water Gun attack and was having more success at getting cracks on the boulders then her teammate but they were not that strong or begin with due to Ash's strength limit. Plus, the sheer pressure behind the small jet stream of water was not to be underestimate given how lethal it could be if accidently used against a normal person without any aura training.

Ash chuckled at the thought that the water-type was probably attacking mainly out of curiosity at what would happen to the boulder if she continued to fire Water Gun at it and partially because he requested it.

Ash decided it was time he get to his own training which was something he always did in the morning but given that he had to collect his exam results today early in the morning and then his battle…and loss against Kace, he hadn't had the time. So, he went through his usual regime of training the layers that he could actually do at the moment along with doing heavy physical conditioning which was made only tougher by the heavy boulder he had tied to him. It was even tougher when he had to do exercises that require traveling any sort of distance due to the incredible friction the boulder added.

He still needed to read the books he had been given to actually begin his Muladhara and Manipura specific training but again he hadn't gotten the time yet and he had been impatient in getting some training done. Plus, it just felt…wrong to Ash if he ever skipped a day of training, having gotten into the habit of doing it long ago. The academy found it prudent to place these training habits and other good habits in kids starting at a young age simply for the sake that it had helped them a lot throughout their life time as they were always healthy.

And even if Ash didn't have the habit of training everyday, the fire within him to reach his dreams would have burned him from the inside out if he didn't give it his all.

"Seventy…s-s-six…seventy…s-seven." Panted Ash as he did push-ups with the boulder balanced on his upper-back.

His body ached in agony while his muscles were more then ready to give out from sheer exhaustion but Ash just could not give in to his body's demands. His mind kept wandering around the loss with Kace. He didn't blame Larvitar for losing that battle.

'I'm the one who lost that battle. I was weak. But not ever again. I'm going to push my-self past my breaking point again and again until I reach the same level of strength dad had. Then…I will pass that too!' Ash roared in his head, his blood boiling and his will seemingly acting as a source of power for his body to keep on pushing.

Larvitar and Psyduck could watch in awe…well awe for Larvitar and more so curiosity and interest for Psyduck, as their partner pushed himself so hard. They could see his hands shaking whenever he pushed himself back up. His legs quivered every time he took a step forward, dragging the boulder along. No matter how slowly he had managed to push against the added weight and past his own exhaustion.

It was inspiring to say the least. They both had long since run out of stamina and the energy to continue their training, but seeing their trainer like this…it filled them with a determination that clouded their mind from the fact that their body was too tired to move wanting to continue training like Ash. But of course, no matter one's will, their body had limits and Larvitar, Psyduck and even Ash was no exception to this fact.

The teen pushed with all his might to complete this last lap between the camp and the small pointy rock and when he finished, his legs gave in and he collapsed on all fours. Ash gasped for air, his lungs starving for the oxygen so that it could carry out its normal energy production and proceed to heal the damage that had been done to his muscles from the training. His heavy breathing continued for minutes while sweat dripped down his rather nice and toned body show a decent amount of muscles, far above average compared to normal fifteen-year old's but it was a given for the majority of aura users. His boxers were also quite wet from the sweat but he could care less about that, more fixated on taking in as much as air as he could with each breath.

Soon, he turned to lie down on his back and simply gazed at the twinkling stars of the night sky along with the full moon.

"Lar?"

"Psy?"

Ash turned to the two Pokémon who no longer had the rocks tied to them courtesy of Ash earlier and were standing near him, with concerned looks.

"I don't think I've ever pushed myself that hard before." Ash said with a chuckle feeling…wonderful. The feeling of exhaustion, worn out muscles, covered in sweat and knowing he pushed himself so hard in training, it felt amazing to him.

Larvitar looked at Psyduck with confusion and Psyduck simply gazed at their laughing trainer who was happy despite being almost too tired to move another inch. They didn't say another word as Ash continued chuckling, enjoying the aftereffects of an intense training session.

It was around fifteen minutes later did he find the strength to get back up. "I'm going to take a short bath and then prepare dinner ok guys. Relax until then."

Ash then slowly walked over the river and grabbed a bar of soap from his bag along the way and cleaned himself but faced some difficulty given his aching muscles. Afterwards he started preparing dinner for his Pokémon following the cook book which emphasized greater amounts of protein for aftereffect meals.

His Pokémon were taking a nap while he prepared it, their exhausted bodies pulling them into a comfortable sleep. When Ash was done, he walked over to wake them up.

"Hey Larvitar…Psyduck. Wake up." He cooed in a soft and gentle voice while gently rubbing the two Pokémon's cheeks, much like how his mom had usually done for him. The Pokémon stirred before gazing at him with sleepy eyes. "Time to eat some dinner. You can sleep afterwards ok?"

"Pssssyyyyy…"

"Larrrrrr…"

The two Pokémon yawned and then walked over to their bowls of food near the fire and ate out of it. The good taste of the food chased away their sleep for a bit and eventually finished the meal along with Ash who was eating his home prepared meal.

Larvitar and Psyduck instantly fell asleep afterwards thanks to the warmth radiating from the fire.

Ash chuckled and washed the dishes before placing the two Pokémon on their soft blankets beside his tent. He then settled in his sleeping bag inside his tent which had a clear plastic covering at the top part allowing him to see part of the night sky.

Despite his exhaustion from training, his mind was still quite energetic and he knew he would not be falling asleep anytime soon. So, to pass the time, he brought out the aura books Sir Riley had given him since he knew he had to familiarize himself with advanced aura training techniques to further improve and hone his skills and work on his weaknesses.

Opening the first book which was a guide on using one's aura as a whole, Ash looked through the table of contents to find the advanced aura control and shape manipulation exercises since the first few chapters mainly consisted of what aura was and how one could bring it out which he already knew.

The first section he read was regarding aura control.

Aura control: Advanced

At this point, you should be able to easily bring out your aura and form some of the basic abilities such as an Aura Shield and Aura Sphere. From this point forward, aura control will become very important and should be incorporated into your training daily. Not a single day should go by without aura control training.

Aura control effects two things. One is your ability to efficiently use aura which is a form of energy, to perform abilities precisely such that minimal aura is wasted. Often times, aura is wasted when performing abilities due to a lack of control over the energy and manipulating it to do the exact task you want it to without expending more aura then what is required. The second thing that aura control effects is your ability to perform very advanced abilities and spells that require a very specific way of moulding and manipulating your aura.

Note that one's control over aura and their overall aura reserves are inversely proportional. This case is brought to the extreme for Manipura users as they tend to have a large amount of aura but little control over it, hindering them from using any delicate or specific abilities. Hence, they should focus on aura control training more and try to move into expert and master level aura control exercises as soon as they are able to do the exercises of previous levels to the point of it being natural.

Here are a couple of advance aura control exercises:

Palm Balancing: Use a thin object of at least thirty centimeters in length and balance it on your palm. Use your aura to try to firmly hold the object in place. When you feel the object tipping, focus your aura at a specific point to try and balance the object but DO NOT move your hand to balance it as this will defeat the purpose of this exercise. This exercise requires minimal aura use and thus can be done for extended periods of time, even while moving around thus allowing for quite a lot of improvement for beginners.

Leaf Sticking: Start with one leaf and place it on your forehead. Then use your aura to stick the leaf to your forehead and keep it there. This is done by covering the leaf in a thin continuous stream of aura and holding it place. This exercise requires minimal aura use and thus can be done for extended periods of time, even while moving around thus allowing for quite a lot of improvement for beginners.

Under the exercises, Ash read through the instructions and diagrams that showed precisely how the aura should be controlled during the exercises to achieve the desired result of the respective exercises. Upon finishing this small section of advanced aura control exercises he went on to read shape manipulation exercises.

Shape manipulation: Advanced

Shape manipulation is particularly important when performing abilities that require your aura be moulded into a specific form. The Aura Sphere is in fact mainly shape manipulation in its most basic form. The following advance training should only be done when you are able to make an Aura Sphere instinctively.

Shape manipulation plays a key role in not just performing abilities and manipulating your aura to take a specific shape, it helps train the layer of aura you are connected too. It is especially useful for Manipura users as Manipura mainly revolves around moulding the energy according to the user's imagination. Furthermore, shape manipulation also helps in converting your respective layer to the element it is tuned with (this process also involves lots of aura control).

Note that having good aura control helps immensely with the following exercise, however shape manipulation takes up quite a bit of aura in a short period of time. This exercise should not be done if you do not have a sufficiently large aura reserve. Ask a senior aura user for permission to perform the exercise.

Here is the advanced shape manipulation exercise:

Rotating Ring: Similarly, to when you make an Aura Sphere, you will be manipulating your aura to now make a ring of energy approximately the same size as your Aura Sphere. The process is almost the exact same as the majority of converting the energy into a ring instead of a sphere being reliant on your imagination and will but making a ring will be much harder due to the complex shape when compared to a sphere. Once you are able to make a ring, start rotating the ring in a direction and increase the speed as much as you can without the ring dissipating. Continue to increase the speed while also trying to make the ring smaller.

Ash then carefully read through the instructions and analyzed the diagrams, understanding the various steps of the procedure. By the time he was done, his tiredness was finally catching up to him, signalled by an exhausted yawn. He placed the book away and snuggled into his sleeping bag drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Ash woke up feeling refreshed and relax at the wonderful sleep which despite only being six hours in length, was one of the best he ever had. It was surprising to be honest since he had expected him to be uncomfortable sleeping in the wild after having a bed for his entire life but this was not the case.

Regardless, Ash went through his daily rituals along with his morning aura training since he wanted to get out of his canyon as soon as possible and reach the forest north of Pewter City. Being in this canyon was extremely dangerous, especially given his beginner status as a trainer, despite his experience and knowledge gained from the academy. He knew he had been incredibly lucky when he escaped that ferocious Onix with his life and only a couple scrapes and had no intention of going through that again.

He figured he probably wouldn't get some much training done given that he would travel a lot by day and only stop when it was time to set up camp. After some time, he was finished his morning aura training and body workout which consisted of various versions of push-ups, burpees, squats, lunges and a whole slew of other unique exercises that targeted his shoulders and back using his body-weight and resistance bands. He didn't incorporate any Manipura or Muladhara specific training since he hadn't had the chance to read through the books Sir Riley had given him.

He did however try out the aura control and shape manipulation exercises he read about last night. The leaf sticking exercise was not something he could do at the moment given that there were no leaves around. He did manage to do the palm balancing using an umbrella that was in his back-pack. He discovered that while it seemed very easy to do when he had read about it, it was in fact much harder. Ash barely managed to balance the umbrella using his aura for more then two seconds before it tipped over.

A short while after getting frustrated over his failure, Ash decided he would continue this while walking after they got out of the canyon. He then moved onto the Rotating Ring exercise which actually turned out better then what he expected since the book had stated that this was quite the difficult exercise. However, he had managed to make a fairly large doughnut shape after concentrating and even add a little spin to the ring but that's when the ring destabilized and faded out of existence. Ash suspected his success in this exercise was probably because of his connection with Manipura.

After he had finished with his training, he moved onto making breakfast for his Pokémon while he had helped himself to a prepared hot bowl of oatmeal that was cinnamon flavoured with various berries. By the time he was done eating, Larvitar and Psyduck had finally woken up, making him think that they really did need an increase in stamina but they weren't exactly like him who had done physical and aura training for years.

"Good morning Larvitar. Psyduck. Come here and have your breakfast." Ash said kindly at the two yawning Pokémon.

They walked over and began eating rather slowly at first but the food eventually began to chase away their sleep. Ash had packed away the camp while they were eating and once they were done, washed their bowls too. By the time he was done, both Pokémon were looking much more awake and alert.

"We need to get out of this canyon as soon as possible. Its not safe with how many Onix are rumoured to live here. Tell me when you get tired of walking. I'll put you back inside your Poké Ball." Larvitar nodded while Psyduck stared at him. They began to walk behind him as he began to navigate the canyon with his Smart Gear open.

A few hours into their journey, they came across a pathway that was blocked by a large stack of boulders that went as high as twenty feet. Ash noticed something distinctly odd and also very familiar about all those boulders. Not only that but he saw that there were large chunks of the surrounding walls seemingly missing…almost as if they had been bitten off.

"Lar…larvitar." Came the nervous voice of Larvitar who was backing off a few steps.

That pretty much confirmed Ash's suspicions as he too started backing away.

"Pssy…"

Ash felt his skin crawl as that particular drone like voice reached his ears. He looked at the water type who was eyeing the boulders with curiosity. A curiosity that was like a small spark in what was potentially an extremely volatile situation.

His fears came true when a stream of pressurized water was released from Psyduck's mouth and hit a spot on the pile of boulders with splashes of water hitting many of the surrounding large rocks too.

The rocks seemingly coming to life, shifted and turned until about seven Onix were staring at them with particularly enraged looks given that rock and ground types absolutely detested water. Ash calmly returned Psyduck and Larvitar into their Poké Balls both of whom did not resist. His calm demeanor vanished a few moments later as he channeled as much Muladhara as he could into his body. Adrenline began pumping heavily through his blood. He then broke into a sprint in the opposite direction with a fearful look on his face.

The Onix roared and gave chase.

Unknown Location

A man with shoulder length silver colored hair, shrewd blue eyes, and quite a fierce looking face laced with a triple claw mark scar across it, gazed at the numerous files in front of him. He wore a dark blue outfit with several white outlines and was neatly kept. The dark blue – nearly black pants went well with the outfit. The office was quite plain as there was nothing on the walls except for one picture of the Cameron Palace.

He touched a button on his desk near him and spoke into the speaker under it. "Send Raziel in here."

"Yes sir." Came a reply of a female voice on the other end.

A few seconds later the air in front of the desk became distorted before a man with black hair in a black outfit with white outlines similar to the silver-haired man's own appeared.

"What are your orders?" he said, getting on his knees.

"You are to go to Mt. Moon and assist Team Rocket in their objective of obtaining the Moon Stone. Get rid of anyone who gets in their way but you are not to assist them with anything else. Make sure to collect the full payment once the job is done."

"Understood."

The man disappeared in the same distortion of air, leaving the silver-haired man to get up and look out the large set of windows behind him giving a great view of a vast forest and lake in the distance. His eyes scanned the area and became seemingly lost in nature's beauty but his eyes held a tired yet determined look in his eyes.

With Ash

Collapsing on the ground, Ash took in deep breaths of air to fill his oxygen starved lungs while Larvitar and Psyduck came out of their Poké Balls.

"Larvitar! Tar!" Larvitar said from beside Ash's head in a worried tone.

"D-D-Don't…worry…about me…Larvitar. I'm…fine." Ash wheezed out in between breaths.

Larvitar turned to Psyduck with an angry look in his eyes. "LARVITAR! LAR LAR!"

"Psy?"

"LAR!" Larvitar shouted in sheer anger at once again placing Ash's life in danger. They had been particularly safe inside their Poké Balls but Larvitar had been more then ready to come out and defend his trainer should it come to that but it never had.

"Please don't fight Larvitar. I'm sure Psyduck didn't mean any harm. Plus, we made it out alive, didn't we? Although we are going to have to work on you wanting to attack anything that catches your eye Psyduck."

"Psy?" Psyduck titled her head.

"Grr…" Larvitar growled not understanding the water type nor how his trainer was so calm with how Psyduck placed them in jeopardy.

"Well on the bright side, we managed to get out of the canyon." Said Ash, wanting to diffuse the tense situation. He had run his absolute fastest at around forty miles per hour with Muladhara and adrenaline pumping through this body. He had glanced at the Smart Gear every few moments or so to head in the correct direction along with diving to the side occasionally to dodge the incoming Onix's. He had run into a few more Onix along the way and by the time he had finally managed to get away from the rock-ground types, he was at the edge of the canyon, most likely as a cause of running at such intense speeds for over an hour. He covered a journey of a few days of walking within an hour although it usually takes days since people tend to get lost in the maze-like canyons.

Once Ash managed to finally calm his racing heart and relax, tiredness filled his body due to the intensity and length of time which he had ran. "Let's just relax here, for a couple hours. We'll then try to find a water source and set up camp there."

After a couple of hours of resting on the soft grass, Ash and company began moving again. They walked through the forest and with the help of the Smart Gear, traveled in a single direction that was the shortest distance from them to Pewter City.

Around an hour into their travels, Ash saw that Larvitar was still glancing at Psyduck with an annoyed look. He sighed, "Come on Larvitar, you can't still be mad at Psyduck. She probably didn't even know those were Onix's. I mean you could easily sense them since you're a rock and ground type. She's a water type and very curious. It was an honest mistake."

Larvitar looked at his trainer in the eye and nodded. "Lar."

Ash smiled glad that his starter let it go. Psyduck looked at the exchange with a stare but with curiosity and internally, affirmation that she chose the correct two-legged creature as her companion.

Satisfied the issue was pretty much resolved, they began walking until they eventually encountered a boy with red shorts and a green shirt with a backpack, no doubt a trainer given the Poké Balls clipped to his backpack straps.

"Hey you! Want to have a battle?" the guy asked.

Ash looked at Larvitar who nodded and Psyduck who simply stared. "Sure. One on one?"

"Got it."

Ash then backed up a few meters before standing confidently. He saw that they were in the forest and hence there was not much ground for movement but the trees were good hiding places.

"So, what's your name?"

"Keith. What about you?"

"Ash."

"Well, get ready to get your butt kicked Ash."

"Its you whose butt is going to get kicked…no whacked! Let's go Larvitar!"

"LAR!" The rock-ground type shouted as he stood battle-ready in front of Ash with a fierce, determined look in his eyes.

"Woah. What Pokémon is that?" Keith said as he took out his Pokédex and absorbed the information he learned about the rock-ground type. "I doubt your Larvitar is any match for my Pokémon. Let's go Charmander!"

The red lizard like Pokémon with a flame at the tip of its tail appeared in front of Keith and gave a small roar but both Larvitar and Ash remained completely unfazed by the intimidation effect.

"You can have the first move." Ash offered.

"You're going to regret that! Charmander use Ember!"

"Dodge it and use Dragon Dance!"

Larvitar jumped to the side evading the thin stream of flames before being surrounded by wisps of black and red energy as his muscles became flooded with power but also become tense under the strain. Nothing the gutsy rock-ground type could not handle.

"Charmander hurry and use Metal Claw!"

"Counter that with Power-Up Punch!" Ash ordered. 'With Larvitar's power and speed boost, he should be able to easily overpower that attack. Plus, the fighting type attack has the type advantage over the steel type attack.' He thought in a blink of an eye.

Larvitar ran forward as his right arm glowed white while surrounded by a red glow, while Charmander charged with silver colored energy surrounding one of his arms, taking the form of vicious curved claws.

The two attacks collided but as Ash had suspected, Larvitar's charged up strength, speed combined with his body weight, the Charmander was sent crashing into a tree.

"Charmander!"

As Keith ran towards his unconscious Pokémon that was now on the ground, Ash praised his partner. "Great job Larvitar. That was an awesome battle."

"Lar, Larvitar!" The rock-ground type bumped his fist against his chest, pride filling him although he was disappointed by the lack of a challenge that battle presented.

Ash then got up and walked towards Keith who was holding the fallen Charmander.

"How is he?" Ash asked in a kind tone.

Keith was a bit taken back by the kindness in his opponent's voice since he had expected him to gloat about being too weak or needing more training or both. The last trainer he faced and lost too certainly did so and in an extremely annoying, arrogant manner that had heavily rubbed his nerves.

"I have to take him to the Pokémon center." Said Keith as he saw the particular bad bruise on the fire-types arm where Larvitar's punch had made contact.

"Here take these." Ash said as he brought out a potion and Oran berry.

"Um…thanks." Keith said, a bit hesitant to take the items but did so since he needed to at least treat his partner for now considering it would take a while to get back to Pewter City.

"No problem. Just treat him and head to the Pokémon center. I'm sure Charmander will be just fine."

"Thanks man. You know, you're a pretty cool guy." Keith replied, genuinely taking a fond liking to Ash.

"Hehe…" Ash rubbed the back of his head. "Now get going."

Keith did so and began walking towards Pewter City while spraying the potion on his Pokémon who was in his arms.

"Well, let's get moving." Ash said looking at Larvitar and Psyduck who nodded in response.

At some point during their walk, Psyduck had begun to wander off in a different direction but thankfully Ash had noticed pretty quickly and were able to find her right away. This had led to them finding a nice small pond that held crystal clear fresh water so Ash decided to set up camp there since his stamina was also reaching its limit from the earlier incident.

Ash had made dinner for the two Pokémon using his mom's cook book but trying out different flavours while he basically ate three meals worth of food his mom had packed for him as a result of his exhaustion. They had ate pretty early and they still had a few hours before it was time to sleep so Larvitar decided to relax while Psyduck swam around in the pond.

Ash took this time to start reading up on starting Manipura and Muladhara specific training.

Muladhara [Mula meaning "root" and dhara meaning "support" or "base"]

Element: Earth, metal and plant manipulation

Ash skimmed through the basic explanation of Muladhara and went straight to the basic training section.

Basic Training:

Muladhara is by far the easiest layer to train among the seven and is unconsciously used the most by all aura users which is what results in their physical capabilities being above normal human levels.

The first stage of learning how to channel Muladhara can be done by simple meditation and focusing on bringing fourth Muladhara by concentrating on the energy that resides in the base of their spine. Doing this outside surrounded by trees and grass makes it easier as it connects one with the energy of nature that surrounds them. Any aura user can accomplish this first form of training and simply doing this everyday for a few minutes will enhance their physical abilities as they will develop a natural instinct to constantly channel Muladhara throughout their body, something that is very unique to this layer.

The second stage revolves around channeling Muladhara throughout one's entire body and then performing physical activities, more specifically weight training as Muladhara will improve your physical capabilities. Focusing on channeling the energy and training can be difficult but constant practice everyday will heavily improve your abilities. Only when you are able to constantly channel Muladhara subconsciously and do not even need to think about it, should you move on to the advanced training – which is only for those who are primarily or secondarily connected with Muladhara.

There was not much else written for the basic forms of training Muladhara because it simply was that simple for anyone with the ability to bring out their aura. Just relaxing and meditating while focusing on channeling the energy was as easy as it sounded on paper.

Ash was capable of channeling Muladhara when he needed to but not quite at the point where he did it subconsciously. He did channel it during his exercises but not as much as he should have so he knew what he needed to focus in terms of Muladhara training for now.

He then moved onto the Manipura book.

Manipura [meaning "lustrous gem"]

Element: Fire and heat manipulation

Ash once again skimmed the basic reiteration of the things he already knew about Manipura given that he had read about it when he had learned what layers he had been connected to.

Manipura revolves around one's willpower. The stronger one's willpower the more concentrated and denser their Manipura will be, making it much stronger. Manipura abilities revolve around one's control of their aura and shape manipulation. Doing constant aura control and shape manipulation exercises will help in terms of controlling the shape and strength of your constructs made of Manipura.

When you are able to complete the advance training exercises, you can begin starting the basic Manipura exercises which is simply creating an aura sphere using Manipura. You have to focus on not only creating the shape of the Manipura to create the sphere but you also have to add power and rotation in order to add destructive power to the attack. Adding rotation is accomplished by releasing the stream of Manipura in a rotating form while manipulating the rotating energy to form a sphere. This is harder to do then simply creating the sphere and then adding rotation but it is much quicker and will hold much more power.

Aura users connected to Manipura should try to add rotation and shape simultaneously as it while improve your skills at shape manipulation and control of Manipura very quickly the more it is practiced which will help immensely to accomplish some of the more advanced Manipura abilities along with creating and controlling fire(and heat) – which is the second most volatile and destructive element behind lightning.

Manipura Aura Sphere: Form a rotating sphere of Manipura by channeling it through your core and into your arms, all the while imagining the attack in your head and using your will to control your Manipura. When you are able to accomplish creating a Manipura Aura Sphere with proper shape and rotation, subsequently high power, you should move onto the more advanced form of shape manipulation and learn basic Manipura abilities.

Ash began looking through the detailed diagrams, showing Manipura traveling through the body and into one's hand, taking in the information as it would be crucial to his training. By the time he was done, he realized that he had been reading for the past hour and that there was still another two hours left before bed time.

That was when a thought struck him regarding his upcoming gym battle. He knew that Brock was a rock type gym leader hence Larvitar's Power-Up Punch and Psyduck's all around attacks would be the key to winning. He needed to get lots of training in before he went and challenged Brock given that his Pokémon only had a day of training. He was nowhere near being close to being able to defeat Brock.

"You two up for some training?" Ash asked gaining the excited attention of Larvitar and a curious look from Psyduck in the pond. "I was thinking about our first gym battle and since we have only been together for a short time, we need to train more to get stronger and to understand each other more."

"Larvitar!"

"Psyduck?"

"Let's start with improving your Power-Up Punch Larvitar. Use the attack on that tree and keep going until you can't or you destroy the tree. Psyduck for now try using your Water Gun attack on that other tree and see if you can put enough force behind it to break it."

"Psy?" The water type simply replied not getting out of the pond.

Ash sighed and simply walked over, taking Psyduck out of the pond considering she was close to the shore. He then proceeded to carefully explain what she needed to do and was happy when Psyduck began doing exactly as told although he could sense it was more of her wanting to see if her attack could pierce the thick trees.

When he was near Larvitar he could see one flaw in his movement when executing his attack. "Hey Larvitar. Don't just use your arm when punching. Use your body, twist your hips when you come in for the punch so you put your whole-body weight behind it to make the attack stronger." Ash explained while demonstrating the basic punching technique everyone in the academy was taught.

Larvitar listened carefully and then proceeded to follow his partner's instructions and was happy to see and feel that he was indeed packing more power in each attack despite it taking just a bit longer to execute.

As the two Pokémon continued their training, Ash decided to get to starting his Muladhara training. He was still a bit tired but something like that had never stopped him from training. Plus, he could not afford to become lazy because he knew being lazy for one meant that you were more likely to be the next day and the day after that.

There were no rocks nearby for any sort of weight training he could so he decided he would try it with the toughest resistance bands in his bag. Taking out a red band from his backpack, Ash wrapped it around his upper back and got into a push-up position with the handles of the band under his arms.

Ash then began channeling Muladhara into his body and felt a large amount of power flowing through his muscles, making him feel like he could do anything. Beginning to do his push-ups, he found that they were still hard to do given the resistance band was providing approximately one hundred-seventy-five-pounds worth of tension. He doubted he would have been able to do these push-ups without Muladhara pumping through his body.

Deciding to test that, he stopped channeling Muladhara and tried to do one push-up. He got about mid-way before the tension of the bands kicked in and he could not go any further. With that theory tested out, Ash began to channel again and managed to squeeze in about thirty reps.

After, going through a bunch of other exercises like squats, bicep curls, etc. while channeling Muladhara, he dropped to the ground breathing heavily from exhaustion. Constantly using Muladhara drained him of his stamina quite a bit but he could feel his muscles aching, no doubt having gotten great stretches due to the strain he put them through.

He then turned his attention to Larvitar and Psyduck who were still training and were showing improvement in using their attacks as seen by the large dents in the thick tree trunks at the point of impact.

"That's enough you two." The two Pokémon stopped and turned to their trainer in confusion - well confusion for Larvitar since Psyduck always seemed confused - considering they had trained longer yesterday. "I was thinking that now we should focus on both of your abilities to dodge attacks."

"Larvitar!"

"Psy?"

"I will be launching small Aura Sphere's at you two however I will be random. You both just have to focus on dodging. Come think of it, Psyduck when you get the chance fire Water Gun at me."

And she did just that. Ash quickly managed to get out of the way before the thin jet stream of water could hit him.

"Not now! I meant when I'm firing Aura Sphere's at you. This will help us both get better at dodging attacks and returning our own fire power. For you Larvitar, we can't really practice returning fire until you learn long range attacks but I'll see if I can find any TM's to teach you some good long-range attacks. See if you can find some opening to close the distance between us. Psyduck do me a favor and not use your full power water gun attack. Even at low power it can still hurt me."

Larvitar nodded but was a bit disappointed since he couldn't participate fully in the training. He swore to himself he would train even harder the next time when he had long range attacks.

"Let's begin!"

Psyduck did not hesitate and immediately fire another Water Gun attack but this one had a lot less power behind it. Ash quickly moved out of the way and began channeling white energy in between his palms, forming it into a sphere before firing it towards Larvitar. Unlike the time during the examination where he used his full power Aura Sphere, this Aura Sphere barely had any power behind it, just enough to keep its shape and form until it reached the target hence taking very little time to make and fire.

Larvitar rolled out of the way from the rather fast attack and began running towards his trainer but was rather slow due to no boost in his attack or speed.

Ash had also instantly begin running, making it difficult for Larvitar to get in close while Psyduck had difficulty aiming for Ash with her Water Gun attack. Ash rapidly fire two Aura Spheres, one heading for Psyduck and the other for Larvitar. Psyduck simply stared at it and let it hit her causing her to get knocked down.

"You're supposed to dodge the attack Psyduck!"

Psyduck simply got off the ground and stared at Ash but he saw a strange glint in her eyes. She quickly launched a Water Gun attack which Ash barely managed to avoid. He then saw Larvitar had taken this opportunity to run towards him, closing the distance considerably but due to the rock-ground type's weight, he was still quite slow.

Ash quickly began running again, this time rapidly firing weak Aura Sphere's in response to Psyduck's rapid Water Gun attacks. This time Psyduck dodged the attacks while aiming but some managed to hit her and Larvitar.

This continued for the next hour or so with both Pokémon and trainer getting tired from running, dodging and attacking non-stop. Ash had seen visible improvement in their ability to dodge his attacks as time went on while Larvitar began to try to predict where Ash would go and run to that location. Psyduck's aim also improved quite a bit as time went on and Ash had to focus a lot more on dodging denying him opportunities for launching his attacks often.

The two Pokémon were currently relaxing on the soft grass in near the tent with Ash working on creating another meal for them since they had burned quite a bit of energy from training. The trainer and Pokémon fell into a deep sleep after they finished eating and Ash did the dishes.

A few days later

Ash stood around twenty meters away from a girl with shoulder length black hair and black eyes wearing track pants and a gray sweater. He had encountered her just after he had exited the forest, he had been training in for the past few days and also engaging in battles with other trainers and winning, mainly as a result of the experience he gained in Rota Academy.

This was no doubt his sixth or seventh battle and he loved it. The thrill of Pokémon battles made his blood pump and the more intense they were, the more he got into the battle himself as if he was the Pokémon doing the battling. He wished he could battle himself but people battling Pokémon was quite unheard of and only aura users ever attempted something like that and only when it was required. Outside of Rota people battling Pokémon or each other with abilities was practically non-existent unless it was involved in a mission. That made the new training exercise Ash had been using of improving aiming and dodging simultaneously all the more exhilarating.

Shaking his head from the random string of thoughts, Ash focused on the two on two battle that was about to start. The girl he was facing named Haley had recently challenged Brock and lost and wanted to get some training in before challenging him again. She had just sent out a Clefairy which looked quite strong so in response Ash had sent out Psyduck. Thankfully, the water type had been getting better at listening to him when he shouted the attack she needed to use which had been a problem…but not when she was attacking him.

Regardless, Ash was confident in Psyduck's strength and move set.

"You can have the first move." Haley offered.

Ash nodded. "Psyduck, use Water Gun!" Ash always liked to start off with an attack if he had to go first simply to see how his opponents react and think of a way to beat them.

"Dodge it and use Disarming Voice!"

Clefairy jumped sideways in order to dodge the thin jet stream of water but thanks to the training Psyduck had been doing with Ash and Larvitar, she easily noticed Clefairy's movement and turned her head towards Clefairy. The water attack hit dead on sending Clefairy tumbling backwards.

"Clefairy no!"

"Use Confusion and throw it against the tree!" Ash immediately ordered. One of the things they were taught at the academy was to never give your opponent breathing room to get up and think of and perform a counter attack. It was plainly stupid to stand around and do nothing and this fact had been drilled into their heads.

Psyduck's eyes glowed a light blue color causing Clefairy to be outlined in that same color and lifted into the air. Clefairy was then thrown into the trunk of a tree colliding head first, causing serious damage.

"Clefairy!"

"Finish it off with Scratch."

Psyduck ran forward towards Clefairy but when she saw the Pokémon was out cold, she simply stopped dead in her tracks and clutched her head as usual. "Psy?"

Ash looked at Psyduck and then at Clefairy and noticing that the fairy type was unconscious.

Haley recalled her Pokémon feeling both angry that her Pokémon was hurt badly and sad at losing yet another battle right after her loss at the Pewter City gym.

"You haven't won yet! Let's go Spearow!" Haley shouted her frustration getting the better of her.

Ash looked at her and then at Psyduck. "Return Psyduck."

As Ash was raising Psyduck's Poké Ball, he saw a jet stream of water heading towards him. Ash easily jerked out of the way of the attack before simply sighing and looking at Psyduck's blank eyes. This had been a reoccurring theme after every battle Psyduck participated in so at this point it was becoming somewhat of a norm for him. As Psyduck returned into her ball, Ash looked at Larvitar standing by his feet and motioned him to go on forward.

Larvitar nodded and excitedly ran a few meters ahead staring into the angry normal-flying type.

"Use Quick Attack!" Haley ordered the moment she saw Larvitar come onto the battlefield while mainly ignoring the interaction that happened beforehand.

Spearow was surrounded by a thin white aura before he immediately launched forward at blazing speeds. Speeds too high for Larvitar too dodge and as a result was hit however thanks to his very sturdy body, he ended up taking minimal damage. Spearow however, was a whole other story as the flying type had been sent tumbling backwards a bit disoriented from the impact on the rock-hard body.

"Use Dragon Dance!" Ash ordered, relying on what was becoming his and Larvitar's favourite move to use.

Larvitar became surrounded with wisps of black and red energy causing power to flow through his body.

"Double Team into Fury Attack!"

Spearow managed to get back into the air and formed a dozen copies of itself before they all began flying towards Larvitar.

"Hit them back with Power-Up Punch!" Ash quickly responded, although not knowing how to deal with the combination attack since none of the moves in Larvitar's arsenal could deal with multiple opponents or in this case copies.

Larvitar's arm glowed white surrounded by a red aura and he punched the incoming Spearow but his attack simply caused the copy of the Spearow to burst, releasing a small flash of light. Larvitar then tried to punch as many of the oncoming Spearow as he could but he only ended up hitting the copies while the real one managed to get in several strikes amongst the chaos.

Ash saw that this was going nowhere and even with six copies destroyed another six remained. He looked at Larvitar and his gaze went towards the grassy ground his partner stood on. "Use Power-Up Punch on the ground!"

Larvitar although a bit confused, placed his trust in his trainer and followed through. The resulting impact caused some dust and dirt to be launched into the air, hitting the copies causing them all to dissipate.

"Use Pursuit!" Haley quickly ordered not wanting to give the rock-ground type any breathing room.

Spearow became surrounded by a dark veil and flew quickly towards Larvitar.

"End it." Ash simply stated seeing Larvitar was still using his fighting type move.

Unfortunately for the normal-flying type, Larvitar's use of Dragon Dance allowed him to react fast enough and managed to counter the dark type move with Power-Up Punch. Thanks to the type advantage and the numerous power boosts he got from Dragon Dance and Power-Up Punch, Spearow was knocked out cold from the moment of impact.

"Spearow!" Haley shouted as she ran towards her fallen Pokémon and quickly recalled him, thanking him for a good hard-fought battle.

"That was a great battle." Ash said as he walked over after congratulating his partner.

"It was." She said, standing up and putting her hand forward. Ash smiled and shook her hand, glad at the good sportsmanship.

"Do you need any potions or berries to heal your Pokémon?"

"Its ok. I stocked up on supplies before coming here to train. I'm going to treat them soon. Well see you around. Maybe we can battle again someday."

"Yeah. That would be awesome."

With that said the two trainers parted their ways with Larvitar happily following and Psyduck deciding to pop out of her Poké Ball right onto Ash's head.

"Psy?"

A few hours later

Ash made his way through the quiet streets of Pewter City, heading towards the Pokémon center with both of his Pokémon resting in their balls and they were already informed that they would be given to the Nurse in the center to be healed.

There were not that many people on the streets since it was getting dark and Pewter City was known to have a low population. He soon arrived at the red-roofed building and walked inside, instantly noticing that there was a small group of trainers in the lobby either chatting or just relaxing and watching the T.V displaying the news. He walked over to the front desk where Nurse Joy, a woman with dark pink hair in the form of two circular pig-tails and front bangs, wearing a white knee-length dress and a nurse hat with a red cross, sat alongside her helper Chansey.

"Hello and welcome to the Pokémon center. How can I help you?"

"Hi Nurse Joy. Can you take a look at my Pokémon please?" Said Ash as he handed over his Harmonic Balls.

Nurse Joy was a bit surprised upon seeing the oddly colored blue Poké Balls but upon seeing the Cameron Palace symbol on them a happy smile came on her face. "You're an aura user." Ash nodded. "I'd be happy to look after your Pokémon. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I would like to register for the Indigo League and have a room for the night."

"I see. Can I have your Pokédex." Ash handed it to Nurse Joy who inserted it into a slot on her computer. A minute later she took it out and handed it back to Ash along with a card. "Your all registered for this years Indigo League. It will be taking place in ten months. And your room is 2B. Come here in an hour to get your Pokémon."

Ash nodded and gave his thanks before and walked down a hallway and up a set of stairs towards his room. He took a nice long hot shower to get rid of the stench from traveling for a week before het set his backpack in the small room and made his way down the cafeteria and paying for standard meal. The soup, salad, rice and curry tasted decent but nowhere near his mom's level of cooking. While he was eating, he began to think of his upcoming gym battle tomorrow.

'Psyduck will have a very good chance at winning with Water Gun and Hypnosis but I can't let any of Brock's Pokémon get in close since she can't handle direct attacks that well. For Larvitar…Dragon Dance and Power-Up Punch will be the moves I have to use the most to get past their high defense.' Ash thought as he brought out his Smart Gear and went to a trainer app that provided detailed info of all the gyms in Kanto. Based on it, Brock mostly used and Geodude and an Onix for battling beginners while having a Rhydon and Golem for more advanced trainers.

He knew he would most likely use Larvitar against Geodude and Psyduck for Onix and had a basic strategy in mind on how to go about the battle. According to the Smart Gear, Brock relied on defense boosting attacks and using the rock type field to his advantage in order to counter type weakness which was something to keep in mind.

Once he was done eating, he placed the dishes in a tray at the counter and washed his hands before making his way to the lobby seeing that there was still fifteen minutes before he was supposed to go to the front desk to get his Pokémon.

There were around five trainers in the lobby, three boys and two girls chatting away. Ash simply decided to sit down on one of the many sofa's in the lobby and look at the T.V in order to kill time.

It was around a few minutes in when a boy around his age with brown hair and black eyes with a Pikachu hanging over his shoulders approached him. He wore an open green jacket and green travel pants with small white outlines along with a yellow and blue colored hat and fingerless gloves.

"Hey I was wondering if you battled Brock yet?"

"Not yet. I'm going to battle him tomorrow."

"Aw man. I was hoping you could give me tips. My name's Ritchie by the way and this is Sparky."

"Pika pi!"

"My name's Ash." He shaking his fellow trainer's hand.

"So, how many badges do you have?" Ritchie asked.

"None. This is going to be my first gym."

"Hey, same here! So, how long have you been a trainer for?"

"About a week. How about you?"

"Around two weeks. I spent a lot of time training in Viridian Forest before coming here. I just hope I'm strong enough to beat Brock since I heard a lot of trainers have been losing to him lately."

"As long as you believe in your Pokémon, I'm sure you'll win. Even if you don't you can always train and try again. The Pokémon league is still ten months away so we have plenty of time to get the badges." Ash said.

"Yeah."

[Ash Ketchum! Please come to the front desk to pick up your Pokémon.]

"Well time for me to go."

"Ok. See ya."

Ash made his way towards the front desk where he saw Nurse Joy waiting for him along with a tray with two Harmonic Balls.

"Your Pokémon are all healed up. Just make sure they get a good night's rest since they seemed a bit exhausted."

"Yeah. We've been training a lot in the past seven days. I'll make sure they get some rest." Ash said before taking his Pokémon and heading towards his room to get to sleep and let his Pokémon out.

Once he made into his room, he got settled into the bottom bed of the bunk bed while Larvitar and Psyduck came out of their Poké Balls.

"Larvitar."

"Psy?"

"Get some rest you two." Ash said pointing to the prepared bed the rooms had for the smaller Pokémon. "Tomorrow's our first gym battle. I can't wait for it!" Ash said in excitement.

"Lar! Larvitar lar lar!" The rock-ground type also said enthusiastically.

"Pssssy…" Psyduck found herself too entranced staring at the moon and bright stars she could see through the window to care.

'I'm going to beat Brock, and then every other Gym Leader. I'll become a Templar. I'll become the very best…' Ash thought to himself before slowly drifting off to sleep with his Pokémon doing the same.

At midnight, deep in the forest east of Pewter City

"Are you sure this is the right way Jess? We have been walking for the past hour."

"I know this is the right way! Look it's right here on the map!"

A small cat like Pokémon walking on its two legs which had huge feet sighed. The cat used his paws to rub his temple on top of which lay a gold charm while his curled tail twitched.

"Will youse two cut it out! Let me see that map!"

The feline grabbed the map out of the woman's hand. She had blue eyes and vermillion hair that was quite shiny suggesting excessive use of hair products that caused it to stay in one shape jutting backwards, down at an angle while curling at the end. The woman wore a white mid-thigh length skirt with knee-high black boots, a white mid-drift cut top – exposing her belly – which had a giant red 'R' on it, a black blouse underneath it and elbow long black gloves. This was Jessie.

"Hey give me that!" The woman shouted trying to swipe the map but the feline managed to jump backwards and dodge it.

"You have been reading this upside down!" The cat Pokémon shouted in anger.

"What!? Let me see that?!" The woman snatched the map and looked through it more carefully and realized her mistake. "Mybad…" she said with a blush of embarrassment.

"Maybe we should let Meowth do the map reading from now on." The man, named James said. He had shoulder length blue hair, green eyes and wore a similar outfit as the woman except his consisted of pants and a shirt with the same giant red 'R'.

"Hurry up you two!" Meowth said as he already began walking in the right direction.

The other two quickly chased behind the Pokémon to catch up.

"This is one of the first big assignment we've gotten from headquarters. We can't mess this up! How are we going to impress the boss if we can't do a single mission?" Meowth asked.

"Yes! Its all for the boss! If we do good on this, we may get a promotion!" said a giddy Jessie.

"We can even become executives!" James said causing the other three to get stars in their eyes.

"Then when we get powerful Pokémon, we can show that little silver-haired twerpett what happens to those who mess with Team Rocket." Jessie said gaining an evil glint in her eyes.

The other two cringed at the thought of what would happen to the poor girl when Jessie got her hands on her. They didn't feel as sorry as they should have given how they got beat badly at her hands in Viridian City when they tried to steal the Pokémon from the Pokémon center.

The two backed away slowly when Jessie began to release a rather scary and evil laugh.

The next day

Ash stood outside of the Pewter City gym just a few minutes after its opening time. He had woken up earlier today to get his aura training in along with some decent exercises using the open field behind the Pokémon center. His Pokémon had gotten a nice warm-up as well so they were more then ready to go for this gym battle and they were currently inside their balls.

The gym design itself was quite unique as it looked like a giant rectangular prism shaped boulder with numerous cracks and a door at the front. Regardless, Ash pushed unlocked doors open and walked inside.

Ash instantly noticed he was in a large room with a battlefield in the dead center that had multiple rocks jutting out of it. There were also numerous railings above for spectators to view gym battles.

Across the battlefield he saw a rather tall guy, seemingly in his late teens with spiky brown-hair wearing a green vest jacket atop a light brown t-shirt and brown pants. Along with a slightly darker skin tone, the guy had seemingly closed eyes yet his attention turned towards him when he had heard Ash's footsteps.

"Can I help you?"

The voice echoed throughout the gym despite Brock not saying it in a loud tone, mainly as a result of how quiet it was.

"I want to challenge Brock to a gym battle."

"I see. Well, I'm Brock and I accept your challenge. However, before that I need to how may badges you have."

"I don't have any. This is my first gym."

"I see. So, you're a rookie?"

"Yes."

"Ok then. It will be a two on two battle and I will be using my Geodude and my Onix." Brock said.

Ash simply nodded his head. It wasn't that surprising to see Brock stating what Pokémon he would be using since it's a tactic that they used to keep newer trainers off balance and raise doubts in them due to the gym leader's sheer confidence. Not to mention all of that information was available on the trainer app or website.

"Forest, I need you to referee this gym battle!" Brock shouted to a guy that seemed to be younger then Ash that was standing on the far side of the gym doing some work.

"Ok, I'll be right there!"

A short while later, Ash and Brock were standing in their respective trainer boxes with Forest, who seemed to be an identical copy of Brock only a bit younger, standing in the referee box at the middle of the battlefield on the side.

"This will be a two on two battle between challenger Ash Ketchum and Pewter City Gym Leader Brock. The gym leader will not be allowed any substitutions but the challenger may change their Pokémon whenever he wishes. The challenger will have the first move. Send out your Pokémon and let the battle begin!"

"Let's go Geodude!"

Ash didn't even need to through his Poké Ball as Larvitar burst out.

"Larvitar!" The rock-ground type roared.

"Use Dragon Dance!"

Larvitar became surrounded with wisps of black and red energy, getting powered up.

"Defense Curl into Rollout!" Brock commanded.

'Let's see how you deal with this Ash.' Thought Brock since this combo always ended up taking rookie challengers out quite quickly given that they weren't able to handle the sheer force behind the attack especially when Geodude built up momentum.

"Power-Up Punch!"

Larvitar's right arm glowed as he stood sideways intending to use his whole body weight behind the punch like Ash had showed him. When the two attacks met on the middle of the battlefield, Larvitar prevailed and sent Geodude rolling backwards into a large rock causing chunks of it to break and fall.

'Wow that Larvitar is quite strong. To be able to get past Geodude's defense and power like that.' Brock thought before giving his command. "Use Rock Throw!"

"Dodge it and get in close!"

As Geodude began chucking the chunks of rock that had broken off from the previous impact, Larvitar began running towards his opponent in a zig-zag patter in order to avoid the rocks coming at him.

'Just a bit more…' Ash thought. When he saw that Larvitar reached Geodude, he reacted. "End it with Power-Up Punch."

Larvitar took a leap into the air and brought down his glowing arm that pulsed with immense power onto Geodude's head.

"Roll to the right."

Geodude did so and narrowly avoided the attack which had caused dust and rocks to be blown into the air.

"Body Slam into Power-Up Punch!" Ash instantly said with an excited grin.

Out of the small dust cloud, Larvitar burst forward ramming into Geodude sending him flying into another large rock but this one not breaking from the impact. Using his speed Larvitar ran forward, nailing Power-Up Punch onto his opponent causing cracks to appear on the large boulder. Brock's shout to dodge it fell on deaf ears.

When Larvitar stepped away from Geodude, it was easy to see the rock-ground type was knocked out cold.

"Geodude is unable to battle! Larvitar wins! Will the gym leader send out their next Pokémon!" Forest said although his tone was a bit anxious given the immense strength Larvitar displayed to throw Geodude around.

"Return Geodude. Great work. I'm proud of you." He put the shrunken Poké Ball into his vest pocket and turned his attention towards Ash who was celebrating with his Larvitar.

"Great work Larvitar! You were awesome out there!"

"Lar! Larvitar! Lar Lar! Vitar!" Larvitar said while bumping his chest happy at his victory.

"You and your Larvitar are quite strong. To be able to react that quickly, I can tell you both have trained a lot and are quite close." Brock said.

"Thanks. Larvitar is my first Pokémon and partner!" Ash said with a grin while Larvitar once again bumped his chest.

"That said, don't think you've won yet. I choose you Onix!"

Larvitar let loose a growl upon seeing another Onix. He grew a bit frustrated with them given the events in the canyon.

"Come on back Larvitar." The rock-ground type gave a reluctant nod despite wanting to battle the Onix. "Let's go Psyduck!"

"Psy?" The water type gazed at the giant Rock Snake Pokémon after coming out of her Poké Ball.

"Let the battle begin!"

"Start this off with Water Gun!"

Psyduck let loose a powerful jet stream of water towards the face of the Onix.

Brock smirked. "Block it with Iron Tail."

Less then half of Onix's bottom half glowed white before turning a metallic silver color. The rock-ground type then brought it front of him, easily block the stream of water, not causing any damage at all. Onix then proceeded to bring the Iron Tail down towards Psyduck.

"Dodge it!"

Psyduck did so however the sheer size of Onix's tail and the power behind it clipped Psyduck and sent the water type side-ways into a rock.

"No Psyduck!" Ash shouted in worry.

Psyduck simply got up and clutched her head and gave Onix a drone like stare seemingly unaffected by the large bruise on her back.

'If that attack had connected then Psyduck would have been out cold…even hurt badly. I can't let her be hit again. Water Gun won't work unless she can get a clean shot.' Ash thought as he decided on the next attack. "Use Hypnosis!"

Brock's eyes widened. "Iron Tail on the ground!"

As Psyduck's eyes glowed a bright pink while she gazed at Onix, the rock-ground type smacked his metallic tail onto the ground causing a large dust cloud to envelop the field.

'No! Hypnosis can't work if Psyduck can't see her target.'

The dust cloud quickly dissipated but when it did the giant Rock Snake Pokémon was nowhere to be found.

'Where did he go?' Ash thought as he scanned the battlefield quickly noticing the large hole where Onix used to be.

"Psyduck und…!" Ash didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Onix burst out of the ground under Psyduck sending the water-type flying into the air before crashing back to the ground.

"Psyduck is unable to battle! Onix wins! Challenger, send out your last Pokémon!"

Ash recalled Psyduck and gazed at her Poké Ball. "You did a great job Psyduck. I'm proud of you. Take a nice long rest."

He then looked at Larvitar who had a worried look but that was soon placed with a confident one as he went onto the battlefield, intending to defeat the opponent his fellow Pokémon could not.

Ash looked at the Onix with a slightly nervous look, realizing just how powerful it was. This battle was beginning to remind him of his loss against Kace a week ago. He had been sure he would win at first but now…it seemed…

"LARVITAR! LAR!" Larvitar shouted at Ash feeling his doubts coming through their aura bond.

Ash looked at the rock-ground type who had an angry look on his face. He smiled at his partner easily understand what he was trying to say. "Sorry about that Larvitar."

"Lar! Vitar Lar Lar!"

Ash nodded and looked back Onix with a determined look in his eyes while his mom's words rang at the back of his head. Pokémon can tell when their trainer is nervous with or without the bond. He couldn't afford to be nervous. He had to be confident and believe in his Pokémon.

Brock smiled at the connection between Ash and his Pokémon. He was already more then worthy of the gym badge in his eyes compared to many of the other rookie trainers that came to his gym. They always blamed their Pokémon for the loss.

"Let's do this Larvitar!"

"Lar!"

"Use Dragon Dance!"

"I don't think so! Use Iron Tail!"

Despite Onix quickly responding to the command and whipping his metallic tail down towards Larvitar, the constant practice of using Dragon Dance allowed him to perform the move and use the enhanced speed to narrowly jump out of the way, his body weight protecting him from being blown away from the Iron Tail's impact with the ground.

"Use Dragon Dance again!"

Larvitar once again became surrounded with wisps of black and red energy, growing stronger and faster.

'I have to get Larvitar as strong as possible for him to stand a chance at taking Onix down. Onix's main weakness is his head so if Larvitar can land a Power-Up Punch there, then its game over.'

"Trap Larvitar with Rock Tomb!"

Onix became surrounded with a brown aura before large ovular shaped rocks jutted out of the ground around Larvitar. The rock-ground type tried to dodge them but whenever he ran in one direction a rock came out in front of him until he was effectively trapped.

"Break out with Power-Up Punch! Focus on a single rock!"

Larvitar began to pummel one of the rocks surrounding him with the fighting type move with each strike causing more and more cracks to appear on it.

"Use Iron Tail and end it!"

Onix roared before bringing down his metallic glowing tail down onto the large rocks intending to crush Larvitar. However, just before the attack connected, Larvitar managed to break free and dodge the steel type move.

Seeing the middle part of Onix's body right beside him, Larvitar used Power-Up Punch right at it, causing Onix to roar in pain.

"Hurry and use Wrap!"

Onix managed to recover his senses fast enough to coil his body around Larvitar effectively locking him in place and squeezing hard causing him to cry out in pain.

"Larvitar no!" Ash shouted in worry seeing his partner in pain. 'Larvitar doesn't know any long range attacks he could use to hit Onix and weaken his grip. What can I do to?'

"Give up Ash. There is no way your Larvitar can break free from Onix's grip." Brock said knowing the battle was over. He also wanted to see what kind of a trainer Ash was. Would he continue the battle and let Larvitar be knocked unconscious or would he accept defeat and prevent any further pain from befalling the rock-ground type.

'I…I have to give in…I can't let Larvitar be hurt anymore…' Ash thought as he watched Larvitar cry out in pain as Onix squeezed harder.

"Alright! I give…"

"L-LARVITAR! L-LAR…VITAR!" Larvitar shouted through the pain knowing what his trainer was about to do and stopping him.

"But Larvitar…"

"LAR…VITAR!" Larvitar didn't say anymore as he began using Dragon Dance focusing on increasing his power more and more. This was a matter of not only his pride as a rock-ground type but also it was not in his nature to give up. He would keep fighting until he couldn't any longer. Defeat was never an option in his eyes. The image of his partner training until he dropped from exhaustion fueling his will further.

"L-L-L-LAR…VI…TAR!" Larvitar shouted, using his new found strength to push against Onix's grip just enough for him to fall through and escape.

"No way!" Brock said in shock and Onix was much the same. Even larger Pokémon failed to overcome his strength and break free of Wrap.

"Larvitar…" Ash said astounded by his strength before a small amount of regret came to the back of his mind for doubting his partner. "That was awesome Larvitar!"

"Lar…Larvitar."

Larvitar was panting heavily while his vision was becoming blurry due to the sheer amount of power pumping through his muscles and how much energy it took just to break free of Onix's grip.

"Wow…" Brock said astounded with Larvitar's will power. "End this with Tackle." Brock knew Larvitar would not back down…not with that look in his eyes. So, he decided its best he end it before Larvitar pushed himself too far.

Onix rushed towards Larvitar, intending to ram his head into him.

"Use Power-Up Punch Larvitar! I know you can do it!"

Hearing his partner's words, Larvitar's arm began glowing white surrounded by a crimson red veil. Despite his vision being a bit hazy, he could make out Onix coming towards him. Twisting his body, Larvitar waited before punching forward using his entire body right when Onix was an inch away. The resulting impact kicked up a lot of dust and Onix ended up sliding forward near the barrier around the battlefield. When the dust settled, Larvitar was standing in front of the unconscious Onix.

"O-Onix is u…" Larvitar then fell backwards, knocked out cold. "Both Onix and Larvitar are unable to battle! This match is a draw!" Forest said.

Ash rushed over to his partner and picked him up in his arms with a happy smile. "That was amazing Larvitar. Just amazing." He then turned towards Brock who was patting Onix on the head before recalling him. "Thank you for the battle."

Ash then rushed out of the gym, heading straight towards the Pokémon center.

"Hey wait!" Brock shouted but Ash didn't hear him.

"That was some battle…" Forest said as he walked over to his big brother.

"Yes, it was. He seems to be quite a good trainer. Not to mention how much he seems to care about his Pokémon." Brock said with a smile.

"That's one heck of a Larvitar eh Brock?"

Brock's eyes widened as he recognized that voice. Turning around he saw a man wearing a red heat that covered his head and eyes but when he removed it, Brock saw it was none other then his dad who had left to become a better trainer.

A few hours later

Sitting beside his sleeping Pokémon, Ash sat with a contemplative look on his face. He knew his Pokémon battled with all their strength in the gym battle but he felt he was the reason behind them not achieving victory.

'Maybe if I changed what attacks they used? Or reacted more quickly? Why didn't I believe in Larvitar? I should have trusted his strength. Is that why Psyduck lost? Because I didn't believe in her.'

"You are only defeated when you let the defeat get to you and you don't learn from it."

His mom's words rang in his ear. This was not a defeat. This had been a draw. But even in the draw Ash had seen Larvitar's determination and the sheer strength he carried inside of him. Not to mention that Psyduck battled valiantly as well and did not show any fear when facing the Onix – although he doubted the airheaded water type feared any Pokémon – nor did she back down from the fight.

He learned that they held a lot of strength and potential. He learned that he had a lot more training to do if he was going to not only defeat the eight main gym leaders of Kanto but also do well in the Indigo League. He had to train harder and bring out the limitless potential that lied within his Pokémon just waiting to be utilized.

Ash smiled at the two with renewed determination and will. This was not defeat. He would just need to train hard and try again.

A few moments later a thought ran through his had that caused his face to lose color.

Running to his bag he grabbed his Smart Gear before running out of the room and dialing his mom's number.

"H-Hey mom." Ash said nervously as he held up the phone for the video call and saw his mother's angry yet worried face.

"What took you so long to call me Ash? I have been worried sick! I tried to call you but it wouldn't connect with you!"

"Sorry about that. I don't think there is some interference in Onix Canyon and there was no cell signal in the large forest afterward. I just got here yesterday night." Ash said nervously, trying to calm his mom down.

"You could have called me right away when you got to Pewter City. I was so worried about you."

"Its ok mom you don't have to worry. I can take care of myself and I have my Pokémon with me."

"It's a mom's job to worry Ash. Just wait when you have kids. You'll know what it means to worry all the time about your children."

"That's a long time away." Ash deadpanned.

"So, how did your gym battle go?" Delia asked.

Although a bit sad over not winning, Ash knew better then to whine over it. He gave his mom a determined expression with fire blazing in his eyes. "The match ended in a draw but I'm going to train hard with my Pokémon and challenge the gym again! There is nothing that will stop me from becoming the greatest trainer ever!"

"That's my Ash. Keep chasing your dream and you'll reach it in no time." Delia said, very happy he wasn't blaming himself for this draw like how he blamed himself for his defeat with Kace. Ash always wanted to be the best but being on this journey was helping him understand that the road to such a dream is filled with lots of defeats that you need to learn from. "Just remember that defeats are just as if not more important then victories. You learn from defeats and grow after which you can obtain victories. Without defeat there is no such thing as victory." Something your father always said to me.

Ash got stars in his eyes hearing something else about his hero. "Thanks mom!"

Delia gave him a smile. "No problem Ash. So, what are you going to do now?"

"Train in forests near Pewter City and then challenge Brock again."

"I see. Goodluck Ash."

"Thanks mom. I'll call you again soon!"

"You better. Bye."

"Bye."

After hanging up, Ash walked back into the room and sat beside his Pokémon, feeling a lot more-light hearted after his conversation with his mom. 'Defeats are just as if not more important then victories…I don't understand it that much but I think I know why you say that dad.'

It was a short while later he heard someone coming into the room. When he turned he saw that it was none other then Brock.

"Brock. What are you doing here?"

"Well I came to do a few things actually. My Pokémon needed to be healed and get some rest after that intense battle you and your Pokémon put them through."

"Are they alright?" Ash asked a bit worried that they have been badly injured.

"They're fine." Said Brock but a bit surprised at the concern he was showing over his Pokémon. "The very beautiful Nurse Joy said they just need some rest in the healing machine and they'll be back to normal in no time at all."

"That's good."

"How are your Pokémon?" Brock asked seeing Psyduck was almost looking like a mummy while Larvitar's arm was heavily bandaged.

"Psyduck was pretty banged up but Nurse Joy said she should make a full recovery in a day since she just suffered from bruises. Larvitar's arm was pretty hurt but after a day or two of complete rest, he should be back on his feet."

"That's good to hear. Sorry about putting your Pokémon through that."

"It's alright. Once they are feeling better, we're going to train harder and be back for that badge so don't get too attached to it." Ash said in a determined voice.

"That's actually one of the reasons why I'm here. Here…" Brock handed Ash a octagonal shaped pin that was gray in color. "The boulder badge."

"Huh? But why?"

"Gym leaders are able to decide who gets a badge and who doesn't. If you won the battle and I thought you weren't worthy of it then I wouldn't have to give it to you. Not all gym leaders follow this and just give the badge away to the challenger if they win, but I feel like you need to earn the badge and what it entails. And you definitely earned it in my book. You showed that you cared more about your Pokémon then you did your victory when you were ready to give up to save Larvitar. That's all I needed to see."

Ash took the gym badge in his hand and smiled. This was his Pokémon's effort and they deserved it for all the hard work they put in for the battle.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Anyways, there is one last thing I wanted to talk to you about. You see my…father just returned from a training trip and he will be the one in charge of the gym from now on. I always wanted to go on a journey to become a world's greatest breeder but being in charge of a gym and having to take care of my nine siblings, I couldn't do that."

"Nine!?" Ash said in shock.

Brock simply nodded since this is not the first time someone had been surprised by how many brothers and sisters he had. "Yeah. Anyways, now I want to go on a journey and I was wondering if I can come with you if you don't mind."

"Why do you want to travel with me?" Ash asked a bit confused and surprised at the request.

"Well other then the fact that you are a talented trainer and different compared to all of the other beginner's I have battled, traveling with someone might be fun and you're the only one I can ask at the moment." Brock explained.

Ash thought about it for a second. Have someone, especially a former gym leader around would be very helpful plus he seemed to be a decent guy.

"Sure."

"Great. I'll meet you here in a day. Hopefully your Pokémon will be all healed by then."

"Ok."

Brock then left the room leaving Ash to his thoughts.

A day later

Once Larvitar and Psyduck had woken up, Ash had proceeded to explain what had happened between him and Brock and the two, mainly Larvitar, were surprised that they managed to get the gym badge and despite the draw, the two did become happy upon hearing the praise from their trainer. Well Larvitar looked happy at any rate. It was hard to tell with Psyduck but their bond told Ash what he needed to know.

Afterwards, the two spent the day slowly recovering with Ash making some good Pokémon food for them using the Pokémon center's kitchen. He contacted his mom again and updated her on everything and told her that they may be out of cell range when they reach Mt. Moon but he would call her as soon as he could.

With that said, Ash had some free time on his hand as his Pokémon had been fast asleep in their hospital beds. He had long since finished his aura training out of sight at the back of the Pokémon center and was progressing quite well in using his Muladhara but was still having problems with creating an Aura Sphere using Manipura. His aura control and shape manipulation exercises were improving everyday slightly.

Out of boredom Ash had asked Nurse Joy on something to do to pass the time and she suggested that he visit the local museum as there were many amazing fossils and artifacts to see there. Given what he knew about the history of the Pokémon world, he wanted to see how many others viewed it and the gaps that lied within it.

So, he had made his way to the museum paying the small entry fee and began looking around. He found several different fossils on display along with a few exhibits of ancient Pokémon bones. There were also some tablets that were said to date back to the time of Pokélantis but not much else was known and the language on the tablet had not been deciphered.

Afterwards, he more or less spent the day at the Pokémon center by his Pokémon's side. The next day, Nurse Joy had given them a clean bill of health although told Ash to let them relax for one more day to prevent any further injury. Around the afternoon, he had packed all his stuff and met with Brock outside the Pokémon center who had gotten ready for the adventure ahead, carrying quite a large backpack.

The two and Larvitar had made their way out of the city and began making their way towards Mt. Moon which they could see in the distance due to the massive size while Psyduck stayed inside her ball. They would have to cross it in order to get to Cerulean City so Ash could challenge the gym. He knew about the Sensational Sisters thanks to the Smart Gear but decided to ask Brock for more information.

"Do you have any advice on how to bear the Cerulean City gym?"

"Well they mainly use water type Pokémon so your Larvitar is already at a huge disadvantage…"

"Larrr…" Larvitar growled.

"I don't mean it in a bad way Larvitar but water types do have a big advantage over you. Anyways, your only option is Psyduck at this point unless you catch a grass or electric type and train it before we get there." Brock explained. "But man…those Sensational Sisters…they are so beautiful…"

Ash raised an eyebrow at Brock as he began giggling perversely. 'Did I make the right choice in deciding to travel with him…?'

"Thanks for the info…"

Psyduck then appeared out of her Poké Ball onto Ash's head and began looking towards one of the trees in the forest they were walking through. She then fired a Water Gun attack at the leaves of that tree.

"Psyduck, why did you do that?"

"Pssy?"

"Uh…" Brock's face etched into one of fear as he began pointing towards the tree.

Ash noticed this and look to where Brock was pointing causing his own face to lose color.

"RUNNN!" Ash sprinted while recalling Larvitar and Psyduck.

"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" Brock shouted chasing after Ash.

The horde of Beedrill gave chase.

And that's the end of his chapter!

Please provide feedback on how the battles are and if I'm doing an ok job on character interactions or not. This is my first fic so not exactly sure so really could use some tips on improvement.

I'll see you all in the next chapter!