Chapter 12: Sir Aaron
Sir Aaron
Sir Aaron had witnessed beauty and true ruthlessness in steven and his pokemons battle styles in the competition so far and he knew steven would grow up to become someone important in the future. Be it stopping crime or defeating the league, aaron believed that no one could stop the meteoric rise of steven and his team. Sir Aaron could only sit and wait as steven battled his way through the tournament, how he flawlessly tackled trainer after trainer and didn't even seem to be trying. After Steven had beaten everyone and gained the grand prize he asked everyone in attendance if they would participate in the gauntlet, Sir Aaron was utterly surprised to say the least. Steven was the first one to challenge his modern ideas of battling, and although gauntlets were not totally uncommon it was undoubtedly a challenger was actively challenging more than 5 times his number. The most impressive part was the fact that in his note to the announcer Sir Aaron clearly heard him say "I am too strong and i want a challenge". This could only let Sir Aaron come to the terrifying conclusion that all the moves that steven and team had used weren't even the limit of what they could accomplish, and the thought excited him to his core. The announcer stunned him out of his thoughts by asking him if he would agree to Stevens request, Sir Aaron, who wasn't listening up until this point just nodded in confirmation. Sir Aaron wasn't the wealthiest person but he could certainly afford whatever this trainer asked of him. Sir aaron was completely in the dark about stevens request regarding aura and didn't even think about it, afterall only him and his lucario knew he possessed aura.
The gauntlet started as Sir Aaron watched on, and as he watched he payed special attention to Stevens 3 pokemon. As he watched he looked at the fighting style of Stevens pokemon and he started to notice similar patterns as they fought with the other trainers. The ralts used agility and combat prowess to sneak around the battlefield at lightning fast paces and would send off confusion after confusion to maintain a control on his surrounding. The bagon was pretty much just running around tanking hits and firing back at anyone that got close to it. As for the growlithe, he was fighting a pack of 4 poochyena each responding to a different trainer, but nonetheless somehow still holding the upperhand. Then his gaze shifted over to Steven, who wasn't even looking at his pokemon, no instead he was sending a piercing glare right at Sir Aaron. Aaron didn't know if he had upset the trainer by accepting the gauntlet but then as he caught the gaze of steven, steven looked at him and silently mouthed "watch this".
Suddenly out of nowhere, all 3 members of stevens team all roared out and then they started an all out attack on the other pokemon. That was when Sir Aaron realized, although it was a gauntlet, steven had somehow commanded all 3 pokemon when to attack and defend, all while staring at him, not even looking at the battle field, "What monstrous ability!" Sir aaron thought to himself in the moment, this could only mean that steven was so aware of how his opponents would fight that he didn't even need to look at the battlefield! As for how he was commanding them, well he would have to ask about THAT later. The gauntlet was now in chaos as Steven and his team starting making moves.
First in growlithes fights, he started to make multiple fire spins to block the view the trainers had on their pokemon, greatly weakening their battle capabilities and after a few attacks the confused and disoriented pokemon all fainted. Bagon honestly was doing more of the same but instead of tanking the hits she was now defending while stacking up dragon dances. She suddenly stopped dancing and let out a mighty roar that caused all the pokemon in the area the flinch, and she did not miss this chance and started firing off powerful ember after powerful ember at the enemies. What surprised him the most was actually the ralts, which after the watch this from steven, started basically screaming at all the pokemon, and for reasons unknown to aaron the moves looked like they were doing actual attacks just by yelling, perhaps Steven had made a new move?
Sir Aaron honestly couldn't think fast enough to track the battlefield and so he just watched Stevens' pokemon fight the other trainers' pokemon. To be able to witness such prowess and technique from Stevens pokemon was truly a magnificent sight to behold. Ralts' beautiful speed and coordination, Bagons hyper intense battle through the center folds, and growlithes constant stands against more than one opponent were glorious. Sir Aaron didn't know where to look, all around the battlefield there was carnage and destruction and Steven stood on and only watched with a slight smile on his face. After half an hour Bagon fell to a thundershock from Stones mareep, she could tank physical attacks pretty well but suffered from poor special defense, so this was natural to her. Stone couldn't believe what he had done and after confirming it was his pokemons move that fainted it he received the first prize. Next up about 15 minutes later the growlithe went down, ralts was preoccupied and couldn't come to help in time and was taken out by a poison sting from a nearby zubat. The ralts however was not so simple and adamantly refused to go down, this was a very prideful pokemon in Aaron eyes.
–2 hours later–
Steven watched on as Prince let out one last disarming voice on the mareep from Stones party. After the mareep fainted, Steven had officially won the gauntlet! The announcer congratulated him and raised his hand in the air without asking him first. Steven was drowned out in cheers but rushed over to ralts, who was starting the process of fainting. 'Prince! Well done!' Steven said out loud in his mind to Prince who was starting to fall asleep after being pushed to the edge for over 2 hours. It was truly exhausting to be the leader when facing an army huh?
'My lord, I have done it. This accomplishment of mine is also yours, I know there is something odd about the 'sponsor' Sir Aaron. The energy in his body is not like how it should be and i think you know why. I figured this was… ' ralts almost passed out but came back and said,' I figured this was a good time to show my devotion!' ralts side smiling a big goofy smile. Right after he said this to Steven he passed out, going limp in Steven's arms. Steven returned him to his ball and thought to him,' have a good rest buddy, you deserved it'
Steven looked to the left of him to see Stone smiling, he too had enjoyed this chaotic battle to be the best. In fact as Steven looked around, although there were some that seemed bummed they didn't get the prize they were all breathing hard and looked to be having genuine fun in this battle. Unknowingly this was the effect steven brought out of this group of trainers, he had given them a goal line to work towards, with the most common thought being 'I need to get as strong as him!' and 'I must double my training now!'. Steven could not read the minds of the people around him, perhaps if he had Prince he might be able to do it, but Steven knew that was crossing a boundary and it was something that shouldn't be done.
The announcer yelled out as he held Steven's hand in the air,"The champion is here! Despite it being his first tournament this young boy known as Steven has raised a valuable merit in this battle and despite being outnumbered 81 to 3 he still managed to get a win here!" Steven didn't pay him any attention, he wasn't here to earn fame with the people, the reason he was standing here now was to get aura. This needed to happen now and it seemed luck was on his side as the announcer said,"Now Steven! What is the wish you want Sir Aaron to bestow upon you!" Steven almost laughed out loud when he heard that, of course he would not expose Sir Aaron here and banking on the fact that he would win he had prepared a note specifically for him. So walked away from the announcer and walked towards the stage where Sir Aaron was. Everyone who had been watching and cheering till started to get quiet as Steven moved closer to Aaron. Steven slowly walked up to Sir Aaron by going up the stage extremely slowly, Steven was artificially spiking tension. Steven slowly walked up to Sir Aaron who had gotten out of his chair when Steven started walking up the stairs.
Steven took the note out of his pocket and gave Sir Aaron the biggest happiest smile he could muster, after all his training steven found it hard to smile naturally out of battle but right now he could do it thinking about how hard he could train aura. Sir Aaron was a little caught off guard by the smile as Steven face hadn't made a single expression throughout the entire tournament. Steven handed him the note and just waited for Sir Aaron reaction, because he knew it was coming he was prepared for the suspicion from him as this was something that was rarely told to others. Sir Aaron took the note and slowly unfolded it, and when he read it his mind went blank and he didn't say anything for a few seconds before laughing out loud as hard as he could. Steven had written down "Train me to use aura". A simple sentence and something that could not be misconstrued by anyone who read it. Although this was Steven basically trapping Sir Aaron by his secret it was the only way Steven could get Aaron to agree. Sometimes you had to play dirty to be on the side of justice.
Sir Aaron recovered from his laughter and said,"Ok! From now on I will train you Steven Morgenz and you shall become a better trainer because of it!"
Steven laughed at the insight of Sir Aaron in his head as he had just completely wiped away any advantage Steven had with knowing his secret. Sir Aaron had pulled an uno reverse on him metaphorically. By saying he was "training" Steven everyone believed that would mean his pokemon and not Steven himself. This was a masterstroke of genius by sir aaron and steven was starting to re-evaluate sir aaron, after all this man was not as simple as he was portrayed in the pokemon series.
–Later–
"How did you know that I use Aura?" Sir Aaron asked Steven. Steven and Sir Aaron were sitting across from each other in a field with prince sitting between them. Steven just thought back,'I honestly don't know, but when i got close to the stage earlier, I sensed an abnormal energy within your body. I had heard of these things called 'Aura Guardians' before but never knew what to expect, so i took a gamble that you were one. Also after the gauntlet my ralts confirmed my thinking after he told me that energy in your body was "weird" haha'.
Although this was a total fabricated lie Steven didn't say anything else as Prince confirming that he did tell him that was enough proof. Sir Aaron looked at him and said,"Ok, look I don't really get the talking in your mind thing so I am just going to talk out loud and you just think back to me if you need help. I am going to start cultivating you as a master, which should loosen you up to accepting aura energy. First I am going to explain all that I know about it. Aura has 3 distinct stages, all 3 level have individual sections within themselves. Think about it like this, the first stage called "punching through air" is the first section of the three, after you break the bottleneck you will enter the 2nd stage called "punching through sound" and once you ascend again you will reach the 3rd stage known as "Punching through will"." Sir Aaron explained the different power levels in a way that was easy to comprehend and grasp, which made it easy for Steven to catch on and learn properly.
Steven nodded his head and Sir Aaron continued,"Right now I have fought and cultivated my Aura for around 12 years since I was 17 after a lucky encounter with my master. I have personally reached stage 2 part 2 and I have not been able to advance to the next stage. Aura is not easy to cultivate and can be dangerous under the wrong circumstances, so you need to use it wisely and only when your life is in danger!" Sir Aaron said this part with alot of authority and Steven nodded his head for Aaron to continue. Sir Aaron thought for a moment and said," Turn around and I will stimulate your core and meridians so that they can accept Aura"
Steven did as he was told and Sir Aaron placed his hand on his back and slowed his breathing to a smooth, consistent pace. Steven noticed this and got in the stance he showed to prince and started to match Sir Aarons breathing, however as he was breathing he noticed something. His breathing was stable but it was unbalanced and didn't have a single breath that the breathing technique centered around, which was a big no no in alot of the cultivation books he had read in his other world. So he stopped and turned back around to Sir Aaron and before Aaron could protest Steven thought to him,'Sir Aaron, this presumptuous but i believe it will help you break your bottleneck.' Sir aaron was confused but excited as he had not broken this bottleneck in 2 years. He listened to steven intently as steven thought in his head,'Hold your hand like this, ok good, now i want you to watch how i breath, listen to it and match the cycle' Steven thought to Sir Aaron as he started meditating the way he had taught prince, who at this moment was actually meditating right next to them while helping with conversation. Sir Aaron noticed that Steven breathing and Ralts' or Princes breathing were perfectly in sync so he started meditating. He started with his usual breathing technique and then gradually tweaked it to match Steven and Princes breathing.
Sir Aaron was now perfectly in sync with Steven and Prince, and if someone saw this scene they would most likely not understand a single thing that was going on. Sir Aaron continued the breathing Steven suggested and almost immediately he started feeling better. This was not uncommon with aura meditation but Sir Aaron was feeling like he had never taken a single injury in his life right now, and aura power felt like it was very sharply rising. Suddenly inside his meditation world Stevens voice called out to him,'Sir Aaron! Keep cultivating your Aura, me and Prince are going to cultivate with you and you lend you our power!'. Sir Aaron was touched and focused on the matter at hand, he shadow boxed an imaginary fighter in his mind as this was his way of meditation. As the fight continued on the fighter only seemed to grow stronger and stronger, but strangely Sir Aaron wasn't backing off like he usually did, now that he was feeling reenergized and youthful again he was fighting with all his spirit. Then he did it and successfully beat the shadow warrior in his meditation state.
Sir Aaron suddenly got off the ground and yelled," I HAVE DONE IT!!!".
Steven appeared beside him and thought,'congratulations Sir Aaron I don't know if it was bad of me to do so but while you meditated I had Prince syphon some of your energy and give it to me so I could cultivate along side you.' Sir Aaron stopped in his tracks and stopped celebrating. What had Steven just said?
"Steven? Did you just say you took some of my energy and effectively gave yourself Aura?" Sir Aaron asked in very serious voice while not looking at Steven.
Sir Aaron then turned around to Steven brimming with a blue light around his body. 'My god!' thought Sir Aaron to himself,'While i was breaking my bottleneck he actually taught himself Aura without my help?!' Sir Aaron looked at Steven and said,"Steven, now that you possess aura i am setting a goal for you, become at least stage 2 part 3 so that I can fight with you as aura masters." Sir Aaron had not had a good human on human fight in song time and he was itching to fight someone after the intense battle in his meditation room.
Steven cocked his head a little bit and thought back in a confused expression,'Thats the third stage? But while Prince and I observed you clearly had two dramatic increases in energy Sir Aaron"
Sir Aaron stopped and powered up his Aura to see what stage he was at. The kid was right, he had directly skipped past stage 3 and gone to stage 4. This breathing technique would definitely come in handy. Sir Aaron let his aura dissipate and turned to Steven and thought to him,'thank you, without your help I definitely wouldn't have been able to break the bottleneck in my cultivation of aura. Steven I wish to Sponsor you for your journey fro-"
'No thanks Sir Aaron' Steven thought as he cut off Sir Aaron
"Huh! Why?!" Sir Aaron was so confused he could throw up
'Professor Oak is already sponsoring me and I really only wanted to learn aura, so you have already done plenty for me. As for fighting you, just wait a couple of years, I'll definitely give you a good challenge someday.'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone