Going forward and beyond {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book I}

V Riley's P.O.V

"He is so close, one more obstacle and he'll face the champion," I thought out loud.

"He'll win this," Lucario assured me.

"I know... but that still does nothing for the nerves," I replied with a dry chuckle.

"Well, we can be nervous together," Reggie smiled at me and grabbed my hand in support.

My heart skipped at his beautiful smile. I love his smile. I love him. I began this journey to find and aid The Chosen One. What I found was a little brother and a little sister, for who I'll do anything to protect. A mission and the determination to fulfill it. And a partner I would love to spend the rest of my life with. Ever since Hearthome City, where we exchanged numbers, we've been texting and calling daily. We bickered, argued, laughed, and smiled together. We shared our values and hobbies, we found companionship with each other. His kindness and care won me over, and his passion and determination had me falling for him.

"Ok lovebirds, keep it to yourselves," Paul grumbled next to us. "I don't want to watch my brother flirt."

"Sorry, Paul," Reggie apologized with a beautiful blush.

He is so pretty, I mused to myself, totally ignoring Paul.

"We are all here to bare witness of the challenger Ash Ketchum facing against the Leader of the Sinnoh Elite Four, Lucian," the referee stepped on the battlefield, gaining all of our attention. "The Terrain Master and Psychic Master, will face each other in a battle of 6 vs 6. Only the challenger will be allowed to substitute his pokemon." I saw Ash blushing slightly when Elite Four Lucian smiled at him, and chuckled to myself. Ash could be so cute sometimes, I thought amusedly. My chuckling became worse when I heard Gary grumbbling about long-haired older men. They are both adorable! "Let the battle begin!"

"Mr. Mime!/Sylveon!" Both trainers released their pokemon at the same time.

"So it will be a fairy battle today," Lucario commented.

"Screw fairies!" Lance grumbles half-heartedly behind us.

"Lance really hates faries, doesn't he?" Dawn chuckled.

"Light Screen!" Lucian went for the defense right away.

"This will be harder than before, Psychic-types deal a lot with defense and special attacks," I commented worriedly, but I had nothing to be concerned about.

"Sylveon, use Agility and use Iron Tail!" Ash commanded,

Mr. Mime did not have time to evade before it got face-slapped by Sylveon's tail. As Iron Tail was a physical attack, the Light Screen was useless. "Now, Shadow Ball-Mystical Fire combo!" Sylveon opened his mouth and shot a ball of black and purple energy with black static around it. He then released a red-orange stream of fire surrounded by rings of fire, that combined with the Shadow Ball. It was honestly breathtaking. The Shadow Ball now had an orange core, and the colors became purple in the middle and then black at the end. The black static that had been surrounding the Shadow Ball was now going through as if it was an electric current, around the fire rings that srurrounded the combination.

"I am so stealing that!" May and Dawn exclaimed at the same time, before turning to each other and chuckling.

Even though the attack was a special combo and the Light Screen was still up, it damaged Mr. Mime quite a lot. However, it was the Light Screen that had kept him standing and allowed him to dodge Sylveon's upcoming Play Rough and counter it with a Zen Headbutt. Sylveon retaliated with a Bite, and while still biting Mr. Mime, released a Weather Ball that sent Mr. Mime crashing back and out of the count.