Identity

CHAPTER 18 || Welcome to Your New Home

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Identity

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Ash's POV.

In front of me was a dark room. I looked down. I couldn't see myself. I felt like a ghost roaming this black room. Out of nowhere, I heard the sound of spotlights. The next thing I knew, there were two lights shining on two people: Lysandre and Serena. Serena was sitting in a chair with her arms chained to the armrests. Her feet were chained to the ground. She couldn't escape.

Lysandre pulled out a gun, and aimed it straight for Serena's neck.

I tried to shout, but I couldn't. I wasn't in the room. The only thing that was there were my eyes.

"You won't get away with this," Serena growled.

My eyes started to tear up. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't-

"Ash! Wake up!" Serena yelled. "Ash, wake up!"

My eyes opened faster than I've ever opened my eyes before. I looked into Serena's cerulean eyes and sighed in relief.

"Sorry, I had a nightmare," I explained.

"About?" Serena asked.

"Come on you two, it's time we get going. Ash, here's your clothes," Valencia interrupted, throwing my shirt, pants, and jacket to me.

"Thanks, Valencia," I replied.

I stood up in front of Serena which instantly made her blush. I chuckled.

"What?" I asked.

"N-Nothing! Where's that pool when you need it?" Serena responded.

I laughed. I looked behind me and realized the obstacle course disappeared. Valencia must've done that when we were asleep.

After I finished putting on my clothes, Valencia led us up a secret entrance in the middle of the prairie.

"Use your aura. You'll see an arch in the aura. That's the entrance. Walk into the arch," Valencia explained.

The world went black as I closed my eyes, except I could see Valencia's aura, Serena's aura, and the aura of the mysterious arch.

Valencia went through the arch, and soon Serena and I did too.

I opened my eyes, and realized that I was in a whole other world. The ground was all made out of quartz. The arch was made out of marble. There were quartz walls about 3 feet by 3 feet (0.9 meters by 0.9 meters) tall with grasses and flowers in them. Trees had their own little quartz walls surrounding their roots.

The whole place looked high tech. People were flying in the air with aura magic with no hesitation at all. Every building was made out of quartz, making it look like a city in the sky. (It wasn't, though.)

There were sidewalks made out of a more grayish-white with roads that were a darker gray white.

Everything was trimmed with a dark blue color, referring to the power of aura I'm guessing.

"Welcome to the aura village. Otherwise known as Ora," Valencia explained.

"It looks really high tech," Serena replied, thinking the same thing I was.

"I'll show you around, there's a training area dedicated to new aura users. You're a guardian, though, which means you can get a mentor for free," Valencia explained. "It's a whole other world up here, so we use a whole different currency."

She placed five golden chips in both of our hands.

"That's basically $500 in PokèBuck currency for each of you. You can convert your money in banks if you want, there's some around here." Valencia smiled. "Why do I keep on telling you 'around here'?

"Okay, there's a whole section of this city dedicated to the aura guardians. You'll meet rivals and friends there while you train. That's where the private training courts are.

"A lot of mentors live there. If you get lucky, you might be able to get an aura master to train you."

Valencia soon stopped once we walked towards a door.

"Only aura guardians are allowed to go past that door. Come back here at daybreak tomorrow. I'll do the test on your Greninja, Ash," Valencia explained. "Unless you find a master to mentor you. Then, come whenever you can. I'll wait on this bench until noon."

Valencia pointed to a quartz bench with vegetation all around it. Hedge bushes were around the bench.

"Explore the world that you'll be living in for at least two months. I hope you enjoy it. Phones still work up here with the outside world; however, they don't work as effectively," Valencia explained. "I'm done talking now, I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"See you," Serena waved.

Serena and I walked through the, once again, quartz gate. We were opened to a whole other area without quartz ground, but fresh grasses that seemed technicolor. Serena and I ran hand-in-hand down the little hill we entered on. Soon enough, we found some adults and children. They looked at us with question.

"Who are you?" An adult male asked.

"We're new aura guardians! We came from the outside world, we were the only ones left," I explained.

"To be an aura guardian you'd have to be related to the Ketchum or Yvonne family, what are you talking about?" A kid asked.

"Wait... you're our family?"