The beginning of a new road {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book II}

IV Trip's P.O.V

I watched as my Serperior and Max's Serperior lunged at each other, over and over again. The spar was a vicious one, but seeing the beaming smiles on the pokemon's faces had me smiling.

"They are having fun," Ash commented, coming to stop next to me.

"They are," I agreed. "I still can't believe how much they've improved in such a short amount of time."

We were at Pummelo Island, in the Orange Archipelago. The plan had been to be at Professor Oak's Lab, but that had changed when intell about some smugglers around the islands had come from Top Officer Looker. Ash needed to be in the islands, it also aided with paperwork and administrative issues to be in his tower. So, the boot camp was moved. Not that I minded, the islands were a beauty with thousand of incredible picture possibilities. My camara is almost out of memory, but my pokemon and I were enjoying ourselves too much to care. I had even taken some time off to visit Pinkan Island and catch a pink pokemon, a female Nidoran. An excellent addition to my team.

Max and I were trained until we dropped. Not only our teams, we as well trained beside them. We ran and did weights with them, stretched with them. We went to bed exhausted every day, but it was all worth it. How can I know when my pokemon had trained enough when I do not even know the limits of my own body? It was also an incredible bonding exercise. Conkeldurr, especially, I've found has gained new respect for me.

Also, I could not complain when my pokemon had it ten times harder than me. They had one-on-one battle exercises with Ash's pokemon, they were learning new moves like crazy, being mentored by Ash's pokemon on mastering their type-energy. Not to mention, the all out wars exercises Ash has been drilling our pokemon on. They had to fight various of Ash's pokemon at once, with me at times but also on their own. I've never realized how hard it was to command so many pokemon at once. When I focus on one, I almost get the other hit by one attack. If it were an enemy situation my team would have been killed by now.

It did wonders for my pokemon's teamwork for sure... but it was exhausting.

Yes, I've been repeating that word over and over again. But it is exhausting! No wonder it is called a boot camp! We would have not survived if we kept this level of intencity our whole journey through Unova!

And don't get me started with Ash's pokemon! I knew they were insane! But this is just too much!

I don't think I've ever seen a Primeape being able to bench press a Conkeldurr, but my pokemon is certainly in love. The same can be said about Unfezant, who is pinning hard after Ash's majestic Pidgeot- pity she only has eyes for her mate, Skarmory. I don't even want to release Frillish into battle sometimes, because I do not know what crazy new thing he had learned from Squirtle. That tortoise needs to come with a warning sign, there's no way such a little pokemon can be so chaotic! My Vanilluxe, I do not know if she is learning to be a sculptor or to battle better. Glalie and Froslass are such a cryptic couple!

Ash really does have some interesting pokemon, and this is not even the worst of it!

I see them spar with Legendaries daily! Not only with Ash's Legendary's Birds, but also with the various Legendaries in the Sevii Island's Battle Frontier. That Charizard of his is quite honestly terrifying... no one should smile that widely after taking on Legendary after Legendary. Even Dragonite, Garchomp, and Tyranitar are not able to touch him. Even though, they are also able to take down Legendaries. Their chances are of 50% even though they are pseudo-lengendaries, but that is to be expected as they are young and newly evolved.

Arceus... I just realized that Ash has three pseudo-legendaries and four Legendaries! How is this guy real?!

"Chandelure is getting used to her new body," Ash commented, gaze on said pokemon. She was floating around, under a tree's shade, with Ash's new pokemon Gengar and Dunsparce. "The evolution happened recently so I was worried about pushing too much on her, but ghost biology is quite different from other pokemon."

"That it is," I agreed, ghosts always leave me quite baffled. "She was the last one to evolve... it left me feeling sad for some reason."

"Empty bird symptom," Ash rapidly answered me. "At least, that's what Professor Oak calls it," he turned to me with an amused smirk. "When you have trained all your pokemon to evolution and all that's left is to aid them to perfectionate their craft. But it's different from raising a pokemon from the ground up. Which is why Gym Leaders love their craft so much. They need to keep on training pokemon, so that trainers from all levels can come and battle them. Max and Dawn, were starting to feel it and decided to catch a Pidgey from Pinkan Island. I can see you did something similar," he mentioned, looking at Nidoran with a smirk. "She will keep you entretained. Now that we are on the topic," he took something out from his poket and handed it to me. "A congratulations from all your hard work and progress."

"You didn't have to give me anything," I told him, stunned.

"Maybe, but I wanted to," Ash replied with a smirk.

"Thank you," I told him touched by his kindness. It never stopped surprising me how someone as strong as him can be so kind... or maybe he is strong because he is kind. "T-this... I can't accept this!" What Ash had given me was a Moon Stone and a reservation for a weekend at the new Kojiro resort in the Orange Archipelago. "This is too much!"

"You can and you will, see it also as a birthday gift," Ash told me firmly, as if he was giving me orders while training. "The Moon Stone is also a gift for Nidoran and all the hard work she had put on her training. You know what? The resort weekend can also be seen like that, a nice couple of days to relax and massages for their sore muscles. They worked hard and need to relax before your next journey."

"They did earn it," I agreed with a soft smile. "I accept your gift. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ash replied. "Where are you heading next?"

"I'm going to Kanto," I answered, smirking when I noticed I had taken Ash by surprise. "I've learned better than to underestimate the region this last year and there are so many different pokemon here, compared to back home. It will be a nice adventure."

"I hope you'll enjoy it," Ash told me.

"I know I will," I answered. "After all, Kanto is the region you came from. It must be as crazy and chaotic as you. I can't wait for what's next!"