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

VI Pikachu's P.O.V

We stayed a couple of days more in town, Johana sleeping in Dawn's room and us staying with Riley. I'm starting to warm up to them. They've been instrumental in keeping Ash calm and helping him balance his raging emotions.

The contest was re-done in those days. It was kind of sad that there was almost no crowd and half of the contestants decided not to participate. Then again, no one could blame them. Jessie won it easily. Her second ribbon was safely placed in her ribbon case.

It was a slow process but Dawn was finally ready to restart our journey. Slowking had joined us, at least until we reached Hearthome City. Dawn... we needed a respite from the media. We took the Cyling Road on rented bikes, which seemed to brighten Dawn up. She seems to like cycling, pity her bike was destroyed. At least, it wasn't my fault this time.

Though Misty seemed to be quite stunned when she received a blue bike at her gym's doors. Ash now aware of all the money he had, had decided to surprise Misty and pay her back. All of us, Kanto originals, were there to witness the moment. We burst out laughing when we saw her shocked face. She can no longer hold it over our heads.

After Cyling Road, we went sightseeing on a steamboat, before reaching Hearthome City. But before Ash could send Slowking back, we received a message from our Elite Sinnoh Squad. It seems that it was time for them to experience their first cell takeover.

Before all, they've done was training, surveillance, and undercover missions. However, once Rose found out the location of the biggest pokemon trading ring of Team Galactic in Sinnoh, we decided to hit it and finish them. It did help that everyone was so focused on Ash, that no one noticed what was happening under his shadow. It was so like Ash to take a disadvantage and turn it into an advantage.

Unlike, previous times, with the Elite Kanto Squad, Ash did not call his most experienced pokemon or sat for a long and arduous strategy meeting. It seems that he was still quite angry about what had happened to Dawn. So, he decided to simply use Slowking to keep our squad's presence lowkey and attacked.

Who did the attack you ask? Ash and I. Yes, only the two of us. My trainer was furious and needed to blow up some steam. With my speed and Slowking's mind deflection, they never saw me coming. With Riley's aura training and Champion Lance's G-men training, those bastards ended up groaning on the floor and cursing the moment they underestimated Ash.

With Noctowl's illusions and Rose's intel, the squad easily slipped through and secured the jailed pokemon. They were fast enough to return and catch the last of our battle. Ash skillfully dodging five Galactic Goons attacks, before firing his weapon with scary accuracy. In a minute all five of them were on the floor paralyzed. I soon followed him and defeated the five Houndoom with an Agility-Iron Tail combo to the neck. If I did take out a bit of my anger towards Zoroark on them... well, they shouldn't have sent Houndoom against me, in the first place.

"Wow," Josh's Luxray sighed in awe. "So fast! I could barely follow him with my eyes."

"You could?!" I heard Josh's Empoleon exclaim. "I lost him the moment he moved!"

"Half of you stay with the wild pokemon and protect them until the reinforcements come. The other half secure the criminals and their pokemon!" Ash barked his orders. Much calmer now that he had released some stress during the fight. "Josh you are in charge of securing the Team Galactic members and Sarah you protect the pokemon- they've been injured enough."

"Yes, sir!" They all replied saluting him, alongside their pokemon, and moved into action.

Morning came while we waited for the reinforcements and the criminals were secured and ready to be transported to jail. With all the paperwork and making sure the wild pokemon were sent to a facility safely, we were not done until mid-afternoon. Especially, since the wild pokemon were frightened and not eager to trust humans. Not to mention Ash had to keep his presence a secret from everyone but the squad, and we had to erase the memory of the goons and their pokemon. We even had to take one wild pokemon to the Hearthome City Pokemon Center for emergency surgery.