All for You

Chapter 24

Paul was bored. The champion of Kalos's best battling tip was 'bond with your pokemon and play dodgeball'? Pathetic. She could have started the year with anything. Make sure your pokemon's moves compliment each other, make sure your pokemon listen to you, raise them to a high level, train hard. But no. Dodgeball.

He easily nailed a patheic classmate. There was a simple way to do it: Have your pokemon guide you exactly. Say a sylable of their name for each 10 degrees he should turn, and another pokemon could say when to throw. For Paul, this challenge was easy. He had his Ursaring say which way to turn, his Honchcrow say whether to go foward, his Torterra tell him to dodge, and his Electivire tell him to throw or pick something up.

And he was nailing trainers left and right. 

"Ur-Ur-Ur-Sa!"

Paul turned 40 degrees to the right.

"Honch!"

Paul walked foward.

"Vire!"

Paul stopped and picked up the ball.

"Vire!"

Paul spiked it as hard as he could in front of him. He heard an "Oww!" and repeated the process with an occasional "Terra!" where he dodged.

Soon, Diantha alerted the few remaining trainers: "Attention! There are 5 students left! That menas we're going into the final round! Please take off your blindfolds."

Paul took off his blindfold to see who was left. He was pleasantly suprised to see two of his dorm roomates left; Alain and Gladion. That meant they were worthy adversaries. There was some random kid who Paul didn't know. And then there was Ash. 

Paul didn't know what to make of Ash anymore. He had obviously improved as a trainer, but so had Paul. His battle against Diantha hadn't proved anything to Ash; Diantha had failed strategically, relying too much on her own power. But Ash being here now obviously proved something.

"If anyone wishes to take out or return any pokemon, now is the time. You won't be allowed to do so for the rest of the competition."

Paul scoffed. Why would anyone change their strategy now? If they were still here, whatever strategy they had was working.

So when Ash returned more than half of his pokemon and one of them ran to the sidelines, Paul raised an eyebrow. Pathetic. What does he think he's doing?

Diantha then checked everyone's blindfolds. "Alright, the final round begins in three, two, one, GO!"

Immediately, Paul hear a smack. "Four trainers remaining!"

Ursaring immediately started guiding Paul. "Sa-Ring-Ring!"

3 Syllables, starting with sa: Paul turned 30 degrees to the left.

"Vire!"

Paul threw the ball and heard it hit someone with a satisfying, "Ughn!"

"Three trainers remaining!"

He quickly found another ball and threw it: "It's down to the final two trainers!"

Ursaring spoke excitedly: "Ring! Ur-Ur!!"

'Ring' and two syllables: 90 degrees right plus 20 degrees: 110 degrees to the right.

Paul turned.

"Honch-Honchcrow!"

Paul ran foward.

"Vire!"

Paul bent down and found not one, not two, but three dodgeballs.

He grinned.

Urasaring and Honchcrow quickly guided him to whoever the last trainer was.

"Vire Vire Vire!!"

Paul threw all three dodgeballs. Assuming one of them had to hit, he smirked and let down his guard. Because so, he was not prepared for Torterra's "Torterra-terra!"

Paul was shocked for a moment, suprised none of his dodgeballs had hit the last trainer, and was unable to dodge the large rubber projectile headed his way. 'Thwack!' It nailed him stright in the face.

"And the winner of the Pokemon Dodgeball Contest is Ash!" Paul heard Diantha exclaimed.

Paul angrily ripped off his blindfold to see how Ash's pathetic strategy won.

That's when he saw Ash glowing blue.

Not only was he glowing blue, but his eyes were glowing blue as well, a bright electric blue.

________........________

A moment after Ash saw himself, he stopped glowing. He turned to Lucario, and he wasn't glowing either. He then turned back to the student body. Some people looked at him like he was an atomic bomb, others looked concerend, and even more still simply suprised or stunned. 

Shortly after he stopped glowing, Diantha approached him. "Ash, are you alright?" Apparently she fell into the concerend category.

"Yeah, I'm fine! You were right! That game really helped me connect with Lucario. The glowing blue was aura."

After hearing this, the students who were concerned or scared sighed relief along with Diantha.

Cameren whinned. "Why did you get to connect with your Lucario?" He pouted. "I know! I'll just train even harder!" Cameren pumped a fist up into the air excitedly. "Right, Lucario?"

"Cario!" His Lucario said excitedley.

Tierno started talking about the last battle. "Wow, Ash, how did you jump so high when you dodged and threw that last ball? Or when you perfectly dodged the balls you couldn't even see! It was incredible!"

Diantha smiled. "Well, that was certainly the most interesting game of dodgeball I've ever witnessed!" Everyone laghed gently as she turned to Ash. "And Ash, I'm glad you've gotten closer to your pokemon becaue of it. That was today's goal, after all!"

Just then, the bell rang. "And perfect timing! That's the end of class, everyone! I hope to see you all tomorrow!"

As Ash grabbed his backpack and walked towards his dorm room, he flashed back to everything aura-related that had happened. So sometimes I can hear Lucario's thoughts. Sometimes he can hear mine. Sometimes I can see everything with my eyes closed. And sometimes Lucario and I get... transported to a space where time stands still, and when we leave the space we both get headaches and are tired. ...That's not very helpful, but maybe Gary has some ideas on what we can do to figure more out.

---***---***---***---

"Hey, Gary" Ash said, throwing his backpack on his bunk.

"I've got it!" Gary exclaimed.

"Huh? About the aura thing?" Ash said, confused. He had arrived back at his dorm room only to find Gary pacing around excitedly. None of the other boys were there.

"Huh? No, about something else that I can't tell you about yet. But I did have an idea about that aura thing too. Nice job winning dodgeball, by the way. Nothing cements epicness like winning a game of dodgeball against 60 other kids."

"How did you learn about that? I just got here, it couldn't have happened more then 5 minutes ago!" Ash exclaimed, suprised, as he unpacked his bag and put his homework on his desk.

"Big news spreads fast. Apparenly, you were glowing and your eyes turned blue Ashy-Boy. Sounds aura-related to me." Gary whipped out his phone.

"How did you know that blue is the color of aura?"

"I stayed up till 11 last night reading all about aura. Apparently, not too much in known about it.  But I have an idea on how to get you and Lucario to do 'the thing' again."

"Which thing? The big-blue-floaty-space-pausing-time thing? Or the seeing in aura, talking to each other thing?" Ash tried his best to explain it.

"The first one. Though I may have an idea about the other one, too."

"Well, what's the idea?"

Gary simply grinned wickedly.

Oh, boy. Something tells me I will not enjoy this...