Fanfiction: Just Another Pawn

[SIZE=12pt]A/N: Hello, welcome to "Just Another Pawn!" This fanfiction will have a large focus on aura. There won't be too many Pokémon battles, but when they do happen, I plan on have each side using strategy instead of just, "Use this!" "Umm, try this! And this!" So yeah. I plan on making the story very complex (even though I barely know what the story is myself), so if you want an easy to follow fic, you may want to leave now. Or you can give this a shot! Who knows, I might surprise you! Anyways, this A/N has gone on long enough. Enjoy the story![/SIZE]
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[SIZE=12pt]Chapter One: Arrival of a Hero[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Hi, I'm Ash Ketchum, ruler of the world. Not in a bad sense, mind you. You see, when I was young, I got mixed up in an organization. This organization made ones like Team Rocket look like child's play. The world was clay in their hands. They could do whatever they wanted. I was just another pawn on a chessboard. But you know what? That's probably the reason I won. You see, the pawn has the most potential. Weak at first, but capable or becoming the strongest piece on the board. This, is my story.
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[SIZE=12pt]"Ash, wake up!" my mom yelled.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]It was my tenth birthday. In 5 years, I could go on my Pokémon journey. Sometimes I liked to imagine a world where you could go on a journey at 10 years old. Heh, like that'll ever happen.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I went downstairs to greet my mom, running my hand over the railing as I did so. As I approached the bottom, the aroma of pancakes filled my nose. I made a toothy grin. It was my favorite breakfast of all.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]As I walked into the kitchen, I saw a stack of 5 pancakes on a plate. There was a square of butter on the center with maple syrup running down the edges. Knowing my mom, I figured there would be a surprise in the center, like chocolate chips. Little did I know, that wouldn't be the only surprise I'd be getting.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I started walking to the dining table. I looked at my mom and saw her gradually moving slower and slower.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"Mom?" I asked, "Are you okay?"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]She didn't even acknowledge my voice, as she slowed to a stop. Completely frozen.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"Mom!" I yelled, as I ran over to her.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I grabbed her shoulders and started to violently shake her.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"MOM, WHAT'S WRONG?!"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]My eyes darted around. There was a blue hue over everything. A loud ringing in my ears. I was beginning to feel dizzy. I heard a small chuckle behind me. I turned to see a man in a dark cloak standing where I was standing before.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"What did you do to my mom?!" I yelled.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]He just chuckled again.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"I remember when I was your age. Not a care in the world, waiting to go on my Pokémon journey. Everything was like a fantasy, then my companion died," He said, moving to sit in the chair, "I was horrified, of course, but what surprised me was when people dressed in full black jumped out of the forest, picked up his dead body, and vanished. It was then I realized the world was a lie."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]A lie? What does that mean? Who is he?! WHAT'S GOING ON?![/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"Look kid, you're special. You may be the only kid able to fix this hell hole we call earth. But for that to happen, you need to start training, hard. What do kids say nowadays? Ahh, 'you gotta be the very best'. When I see you again, I'll test you. You'd better be ready."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]And just like that, the man vanished.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"Honey, how did you get there?" my mom said in a surprised tone.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]I sharply turned around to face my mom. Besides the confusion etched on her face, she was fine. I didn't know what was going on. Who was that man? What happened to my mom? I look everywhere look for any signs of him. Anything! Alas, my body couldn't handle the stress. I fainted.
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[SIZE=12pt]"Ash, wake up!" my mom yelled.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]My eyes slowly blinked opened. Remembering what had just happened, my eyes widened. I sharply turned to my clock. It was 8:00am. The exact time I wake up.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Getting confused, I got up to see if my mother was okay. As I was on the stairs, I smelled pancakes again. When I reached the floor, I saw my mom in the same position as before. However this time, she wasn't slowing down.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]"Happy birthday, honey!" my mom greeted me.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]This didn't make any sense. It was as if the previous occurrences never happened. There were no blue hues, no loud ringing, and no man. Nothing. It was completely normal. At this point, my mind did something it had never done before. It started organizing all of the information.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]What happened? Maybe it was a dream. It would make sense, seeing as how time doesn't freeze and rewind at random. The problem with that is I would have had to have predicted everything perfectly.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Okay, let's think about this. When mom woke me up, her voice was at a normal pace. This means the occurrence would have happened after I woke up. When I got downstairs, she slowly stopped, not abruptly. That means however time stopped, it didn't happen instantaneously. [/SIZE]According to the man, he's going to test me at some point. He'll probably freeze time again when that happens. If I am to think of a way to get pass his freezing of time, I need to know the exact amount time it took to freeze it.
[SIZE=12pt]I closed my eye and let my memory drift to when I exited my room. In my peripheal vision, I saw the clock at 8:00:24.[/SIZE] I started counting the number of ticks until I noticed the time between each tick getting longer.
36 ticks from when I saw the clock, to when I saw my mom. The ticks started slowing down at 30 ticks and it took my mom 4 ticks to completely freeze from when I saw her. That means it took roughly 10 seconds for time to freeze.
Okay, that gives a time range, but what caused the time freeze? There was a ringing in my ears, a blue hue, and a man concealed in a black cloak. The only reason to be in a cloak like that would be to hide his identity. Whoever he is, he doesn't want me to be able to find him. What would happen if I found him? If he can freeze time, it's safe to assume he could keep me from doing anything to him. It probably relates to how he froze time. If I knew his identity, I may have been able to figure it out. But he's only worried about me seeing him, not anyone else. So he's probably part of a minority of people who can actually do this. If that's the case-.
"Ash? Are you okay?"
I was brought back to reality. I was so caught up in figuring out what had happened, I had forgotten about my mother.
I punched my fist in the air, "Of course mom! It's my birthday!"
I would rather she didn't know about what happened. If she did, she would probably just worry. I had no doubt my mom would notice if I got lost in thought again, so I opted to just sit down and eat my pancakes. I would have to talk to Prof. Oak about this.
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*Ding dong*
The doorbell rang. I was at Prof. Oak's ranch to see if I could figure out anything about what had happened.
The door opened, "Ah, Ash, what brings you here?"
I don't want to tell him the entirety of what happened, he's not likely to believe me.
"I'm getting ready for my Pokémon journey! I was wondering if I could have access to your library." I said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.
He laughed a bit, "Of course you can, Ash! If you ever want to access it again, don't bother asking!"
I smirked to myself. I was that much closer to figure out what happened.
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After browsing the library for a while, I came across a book, 'Legend of the Aura'. I was going to pass it, but I saw a ball of blue light in the characters hand on the cover. My curiosity peaked at seeing that. The story talks about aura guardians. There were many tales of their accomplishments; however, I didn't see anyone who had enough power to freeze time. Maybe it was a mix of aura and something else? Hell, it may not have been aura in the first place!
After reading about half of the book, I asked the professor if I could borrow it. Him being the kind soul he is, let me.
The book explained aura as the energy that flows through all living things. In theory, anyone could control it. However, it took a great deal of concentration to do so. I decided the best course of action was to study aura. This being the only book that was there, I realized I only had one option, to learn how to control it myself.
I realized I would first need proof that this could actually work. If this was truly energy, I should be able to increase some form of physical aspect, like in the book. Before this, however, I simply needed faith that this would work.
I started out with meditation. Every morning and every night, I would sit down, and meditate. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right. It felt like trying to go to sleep, while trying it stay awake at the same time. Though, I guess it did give me time to think about what had happened.
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After roughly 2 weeks, I began to feel something. I found that while meditating, I could feel something in my body. If I focused on my hand, it would start to feel....tingly. I didn't know if that was aura, but it was definitely something.
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Another 2 weeks had passed. I could make the tingly sensation happen without meditating now. It had another feeling now though, heat. Whenever I focused on my hand, it would feel a little warmer.
I've also found that thinking seems to be easier. I felt smarter than I was before. I was able to analyze a situation instead of just facing it head on. Imagine if I faced my problems without thinking things though. Heh, preposterous.
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It had been a 2 months since I found the book. The sensations felt much stronger. It could just be my brain not wanting to be wrong, but I didn't think that's the case. I was meditating, focusing on my hand. Even though I was focusing so hard, I felt so relaxed. I guess that meditation really does help. I kept focusing, a drop of sweat dripped down me cheek. My hand felt more and more energized. And then, it happened. It felt....different. I slowly opened my eyes to see a faint glow around my hand. I smirked, I'd finally done it.
A/N: Aaaaaaand cut! So that's chapter 1. What do you guys think? I started feeling antsy in the last few paragraphs, so sorry if it felt rushed. Anyways, don't forget to review! Thanks for reading!