All for You

Chapter 39

Serena and Ash sat together in the back of the flying taxi for al of 20 minutes. Corviknight was much faster than their treck through the forest had been, and they soon arrived at the airport.

While they were waiting for their flight, chatting, they met none other than the great Gary Oak. 

"Hello, lovebirds!" He said, alerting Ash and Serena to his presence.

"Oh, hey Gary!" Said Ash, blushing.

"Soooooo, how did it go?" Gary asked.

"How did what go? You were watching my battle!" Ash said, confused.

"I mean, your date last night! Did you hold hands?" Gary said with mock stars in his eyes.

Ash and Serena turned bright red. "A-er-date?" Ash said.

"We were just-" Serena tried to interject.

"Yeah yeah yeah, you definetly don't like each other. Got it." He winked.

Ash changed the subject. "How did your research go?" He asked.

"Wow. That was the most subtle change of subject I've ever heard. But for your information, the research went great! I'd tell you all about it, but you probably wouldn't understand." Gary said smugly.

"That's great! Are you on our flight home? The 10 o'clock one?"

"Yeah. But don't worry, I'll let you sit by Serena." Gary winked again.

Ash sighed, bright red.

The three of them boarded the flight, arriving back at the school around 1:00. Serena and Ash split up to unpack, but not after a very long, tease-inducing hug.

One the way back to the dorm, Gary wouldn't leave Ash alone. "You're in love, Ashy-Boy. Did you see how long you two hugged? She likes you! Did you kiss on your date? Did you tell her you looover her?" Ash ignored him, blushing, the whole way to the dorm.

Thankfully, when he got back, Gary had to give the information he had gathered back to his professor, meaning Ash had the whole dorm to himself.

He sighed happily and collapsed on his bed, thinking over the events of the last day. He had won his battle and had a date with Serena. It was a date, wasn't it? Ash chuckled. I guess Gary did teach me a few things.

He sat on his bed for about 2 minutes, 'relaxing', before admitting that he was incredibly bored. THe obvious soloution was for Ash to grab lunch from the cafeteria. There weren't many people and most of the food was being put away, but Ash arrived just in time to grab a slice of pizza.

Ash was about to head back to his dorm room when he ran into Gary again. 

"Ashy-Boy! I've got news!" Gary called out. Ash turned around to see Gary jogging towards him.

"What's up Gary?" Ash asked, prepared to dash at the least mention of Serena.

"I was just reviewing my research on Glimwood Tangle when I found something I thought we could use for your aura training!"

"What do you mean?" How would a dark forest with fungus relate to Ash's aura?

Gary got closer to Ash so that no one would overhear their conversation. "I was learning about the characteristics of the glowing mushrooms when I found they store the latent residual energy from the pokemon in the forest, releasing it when touched in the form of bioluminescene. I was able to measure that energy with some devices that are in my bag that can read energy levels. And that means..." Gary waited for Ash to put the pieces together.

Ash blinked.

Gary sighed. "I think I can get more information about your aura if I connect my thingies to you while you practice." He dumbed it down.

"Well why didn't you say so?!" Ash said. "Let's go practice!"

They headed towards the practice fields. 

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

Once Ash got to the field, Gary remembered something.

"Oh, wait up Ash, I forgot something. I'll be right back."

"What did you-" Ash started, but Gary had already walked away.

Gary jogged towards the dorm building. He walked up to his floor and banged on a door loudly. He kept banging over and over until someone opened the door.

"What!?!" Shouted a very angry Paul.

"Well, Purple, someone wanted to be involved, right?" Gary said pointedly.

"I didn't mean I wanted you to pound on my door!" Paul said.

"Come on, Lavender." Gary grabbed Paul's arm and yanked him out the door, leaving a confused Gladion and Alain a moment to wonder what was happening before the door slammed closed.

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

While Gary was gone, Ash practiced talking to Lucario through aura. 

'I can talk to you and hear your thoughts, but you have yet to talk to me and listen to mine.'

"Alright, how do you do it?" Ash said excitedly.

'To talk to someone, simply project your aura into their minds and think about what you want them to hear.'

". . . Okay, it's worth a shot!" Ash didn't really get it, but he might as well try.

He acsessed his aura, which was always welled up in his chest, and reached out with it like he did to search for aura. Only this time, he reached into Lucario's mind, while thinking, 'Can you hear me?'

He did this for a few seconds before getting a reply. 'Yes, Ash! You did it first try!'

Ash grinned. 'Yes!'

Lucario smiled. 'The next step is to try and listen to my thoughts. This is harder. You have to reach out but also listen and feel for my thoughts instead of broadcasting your own. Try and imagine that when you talk to me with aura, you're showing me something on your phone. You're holding the phone to show me, and you pick what's on the screen. But when you try to read my thoughts, you're holding the phone while I pick what's playing.'

'Alright.' Ash stopped broadcasting his thoughts and simply listened, but didn't hear anything.

'Ash, you're simply telling me with aura that you hope this works, you're not listening. Focus on hearing, not on being able to hear.' Fot a second, Ash thought he had heard Lucario, but it turned out that Lucario was simply broadcasting to Ash.

'Oops, my bad.' Ash said sheepishly. This time, he focused more on listening instead of being able to listen.

'Are you able to hear this? I'm not broadcasting.' Ash heard faintly.

"Yes!" He said out loud. 'I heard you!'

Lucario smiled. 'You're getting better at controling your aura.'

"Thanks, Lucario!" Ash said, grinning.

At that moment, Gary and Paul arrived. Ash was about to ask why Paul was there before remembering their deal.

Gary unsuprisingly started things off with a joke."Hey, Ashy-Boy. Ready to start sticking my machines onta ya?"

"Alright!"

Gary mentally smacked himself (Come on, Ashy boy. You're supposed to come up with a witty retort!) before continuting. "Alright then, I need you to stick this," He reached into his bag and pulled out a headband with multiple wires connected to it. "...Onto your coconut, and I'll monitor and record it with this!" He took out a device that was connected to the wires and plugged it into his rotom phone. "Let's get some answers!"