Steven had caught the bullet!
However Steven was not out of the clear yet. A deep purple radiated out of his body as his hair started to spike slightly and his eyes started to glow a shade of purple every now and then. Stevens' hand was shaking violently as he struggled to contain the bullet that wanted to pierce Cynthia's heart. Steven quickly stepped in front of her and pushed her roughly to the side so that only he was in the path of the bullet.
Steven was struggling to keep this brand new technique under wraps and control it well as this was not perfect in any way and was extremely draining.
The Officers saw the deep purple aura radiating off of Steven and their eyes nearly burst out of their eye sockets! They were also horrified at the notion that Steven could catch bullets! This was extremely shocking to them as even powerful pokemon knew the damage a gun could do to them!
One of the guards behind the Jenny's had a mischievous smile on his face and he yelled out,"Fire at will!"
5 more bullets were fired, 1 at Cynthia, 2 at Jasmine, and 2 more at Steven.
Time seemed to slow down once more as Steven watched the 5 more bullets being fired and his heart nearly stopped as well. Steven was already pushing his energy and technique to the maximum just to stop 1 bullet! What the hell!
Just like before the 5 bullets started to glide through the air in slow motion and Steven's mind was racing to find a solution. Finally his mind figured out the method he needed to save all of them, the only problem was the energy required. He was currently sitting at stage 5 part 1 of the aura training, and he had been stuck at this bottleneck for a while, and he had no idea how to break the bottleneck and advance to Stage 1 part 2, aka advancing from "punching through air" to "punching through sound".
Steven saw that Prince was standing next to him and suddenly an idea was brought forth into his mind and he realized this was his only chance. He had 1 chance to get this right, or Cynthia, Jasmine, and possibly even himself would die!
Steven took a deep breath in the slowed down time and then when he reopened his eyes there was a renewed resolve buried underneath all of the doubts that crawled its way to the front. He would do this. No. He had to do this.
Steven then put his new technique into action, and instead of a small psychic aura hand to stop 1 bullet, he now had an entire psychic aura barrier that was 10 feet long and 4 feet wide! Just enough to block all of the bullets on their path.
Time slowly resumed and Steven instantly felt the soul crushing power and energy consumption of his new move. Before reality even had time to readjust to the time scale, Steven turned and yelled out in his mind to Prince,"GIVE ME ALL OF YOUR ENERGY!! ALL OF IT!!"
Time then resumed and the bullets quickly impacted the psychic aura barrier, causing Steven to almost immediately cough up blood! Prince then sat and started to meditate, releasing his royal seal and transferring all of his psychic to Steven.
Steven then roared! Although it was broken and it sounded like his voice was being dragged through tar and coal shards, it was also extremely primal and aggressive! Like a wounded beast standing on its last legs and pushing its will to survive to the very limit!
Prince started to sweat as the seconds ticked by, and after only 10 seconds of the bullets sparking against the barrier and trying to get into the barrier, Prince collapsed next to him and fainted!
However before he fainted he said,"My lord, please survive.."
Maybe it was the danger, maybe it was his heightened emotional state, maybe it was his spirit pushing him forward, but Steven didn't give up and for another 5 seconds maintained the barrier as blood began to pour out of his mouth, nose and even his eyes!
Cynthia screamed out,"Steven!"
While maintaining the barrier Steven looked back at Cynthia and Jasmine. It was in this moment that Stevens' heart was crushed as he saw his two friends in tears and they were sobbing as they saw the bullets heading towards them to claim their lives. Even his pokemon and the other pokemon had worried looks as they stood behind the barrier that Steven was struggling to keep up with.
Baron said,"Let me help!" Then he also started to meditate and soon after all of the pokemon were meditating and sending their various energies into steven. Cynthia and Jasmine understood what was happening and they started to pray to Arceus that Steven could hold out!
The energy consumption was slowly getting better as the bullets gradually slowed down but it still wasn't enough as 1 by 1 all the pokemon surrounding him all collapsed after sending him their energy!
Steven looked back at the bullets and steeled his resolve in this moment. This was it, no one else could help him, if this was his final act in this world, he had to make sure that he left nothing behind! Either he would survive or he would be dead, there was no inbetween!
Every 0.5 seconds that passed by pushed Steven further and further into an energy deficit, and Steven calculated that he had about 15 seconds left before the bullets completely stopped! However by his own estimation he only had about 7 seconds of energy left!
Steven, while still looking at the bullets that were slowly trying to break through the shield, thought to himself,"Dammit, I can't do it! Why?! Why is this how I end up!? I will not get to achieve my dream, I will no longer be able to adventure and my parents and siblings will never be able to see the effect I had!"
Steven clenched his teeth as he could feel that his vitality and stamina was being used as fuel for the shield.
Steven thought to himself,"Please! Aura please! I cannot save them without your help! You can't run out now! Keep pushing! Keep flowing! Never give up! Do not let them defeat you! This is no longer about saving just Cynthia, you are saving yourself too!"
Steven then had a moment of realization as time seemed to slow down again, seemingly to accommodate him and his thoughts.
Steven chuckled in this life or death moment and said in his mind,"I see. This is what I was missing the whole time. You can train yourself as much as you want, but just like pokemon, the power that they wield is their survival instincts."
"The power comes in response to a need, not a desire." Steven said as the clouds in his mind instantly went away and he reached his enlightenment!
Time resumed.
Steven then roared out once again, much louder this time though and his deep purple aura started to grow and solidify as his power continued to increase. "RAAAAAAHHHOORR!!" Steven screamed out.
Then a blinding light encompassed Steven and every person and pokemon present witnessed Steven start to glow with a stunningly beautiful purple light!
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Steven then took a step forward and the bullets completely dropped to the ground, no longer speeding towards them. Steven had won against the bullets and successfully broken through!
The guards, the Officer Jenny's and even Steven's own teammates all looked at the purple glowing Steven in amazement. Then Steven took another step forward, which immediately interrupted their thought processes. All of the officer Jenny and Guards on scene raised their pistols and prepared for the worst.
Steven then said in their minds in a very angry tone,"You tried to kill us!" Steven looked each guard and Jenny in the eyes and gave them a death glare. This intimidation seemed to work on a few of the guards as 3 of them turned around and attempted to run. However they almost immediately hit an invisible wall that they had no idea was even there.
One of the guards quickly shouted,"There's an invisible wall blocking us from leaving!! Commander Jenny, what do we do?!"
Jenny's eyes widened at this and she quickly shouted at Steven,"Let us leave and we will bother you no longer!"
Steven sneered at her and then laughed audibly in broken chuckles. He said to her and the rest of the guards standing there,"You filthy fucking rockets don't deserve my pity nor my respect, you could all burn in hell for all I care. Normally I wouldn't bother with low level rocket thugs such as yourself but you have crossed the line! Congratulations Officer Jenny G. Brasden, you are tonight's lucky winner!"
Jenny gulped and nervously asked,"W-Wh- What do- do I win?"
Steven gave her a sadistic smile and then said out loud in his usually tar covered voice,"Death!" Steven then made an aura sword with his hand and rushed towards the group of people that had fired upon them!
The Officers and guards instantly started to shoot at him! 10's of bullets were fired in under 3 seconds but Steven simply kept walking forwards while maintaining the barrier. Now the bullets lasted about 4 seconds before coming to a complete stop unlike before. Steven had a face of pure anger on his face as the Officers and guards continued to shoot.
As he kept walking towards them, slowly trapping them further, he thought to them,"You know, I actually hate killing people, I only do it so that you scum cannot hurt anyone any further. However, you shot at my friends, and nearly managed to kill them. I calculated all of your shots so far, and not 1 of these bullets hasn't been aimed at my heart or head, or theirs for that matter. You all want us to die so badly, but look at you freaking out when the situation is reversed, attempting to run and flee like scared fucking rats!"
Steven was only 3 or 4 steps away from the group and when he was only a step away from them, he heard someone call out from the sky,"STEVEN WAIT!!"
Steven paused and looked up and saw Lance arriving quickly approaching him. Steven frowned and said,"You want me to spare them?"
Lance touched down and immediately ran towards Steven, only stopping once he realized that Steven had his aura on in a public place and in front of other people! Lance then quickly said,"I don't know the exact situation, but those Jenny's are official officers of the Kanto Region, even I cannot let you kill them wantonly!"
Steven, for the first time in since Lance had known him, gave Lance a heart piercing glare that spoke of countless evil acts and plans for the people in front of him. Steven growled in Lance's mind,"They fired 78 bullets at me, Cynthia and Jasmine over there."
Lance gulped and said,"They were simply trying to stop you from attacking them!"
Lance suddenly felt a powerful pressure sit on top of his shoulder and head, forcing him to his knees. Lance was surprised by this and Dragonite quickly moved in front of Lance. However Steven didn't care.
Steven thought to Lance in a very angry voice,"They pulled their weapons first! They shot first! I managed to catch the first bullet and was stopping it from impacting into Cynthia's heart! Then while I was attempting to stop that single bullet they fired 5 more! Tell me Lance, does that sound like something trained officers of Kanto would do to someone they assume is a civilian?!"
Even though dragonite was blocking Steven, Lance could still feel the enormous pressure that Steven was sending towards him. Lance yelled out,"I will personally investigate! But you cannot kill them!"
Steven furiously yelled at Lance,"Wake up you fucking idiot! They are working for the fucking rockets! They are blocking trainers going into saffron because they are obviously going to commit some large scale plan on the city!"
Lance then asked, confused,"Wait, what?"
Steven replied,"Yeah, they said that there is construction in the area and that no one was allowed to enter! We were just explaining it to the guard when he pulled his gun and threatened to kill us if we didn't leave! That fucker deserves so much more than getting his arm sliced off!"
Lance then said,"Steven, Let go of the pressure. Now."
Steven did exactly that as he could feel the Dragonites draconic energy subtly becoming more active as Lance's stress from the pressure continued. Steven did not have enough strength to face off against a Dragonite!
Lance then stood back up, patted the dirt and dust off of himself and walked towards Steven. Steven glared at Lance and thought to him."So? Are you going to stop me?"
Steven and Lance glared at each other and the two very prideful people stared into each others eyes for a few seconds. Lance sighed and placed his hand on Stevens shoulder and quietly said to him,"Steven, I am not your enemy. Whether they worked for the rockets or not will be decided by the courts and various departments. I know your anger is great at this moment, but this is not the way to go about this. They are most definitely in the wrong if your version of events is true, regardless of whether they are affiliated with the rockets. They are going to be arrested as soon as you lower your wall barrier."
The guard and Officer Jenny standing there gulped and a few of them started to call out attacks towards Lance and Steven. However, reality got stuck in their throats as Steven, Lance, and even Dragonite were all giving off a murderous vibe. Basically their combined gazes combines into a tangible threat, which was "Try something, I fucking dare you."
Steven then huffed and said,"Fine. I will let the courts decide their punishment and I will not do anything to them." Lance smiled, however before he could respond, Steven continued with,"Make sure you properly watch them this time and actually convict them into a jail or prison that will keep them there. I know you have trouble actually keeping the criminals in their fucking cages."
Lance swallowed that bitter insult with a forced smile and as Steven powered down his aura, the invisible wall disappeared. Lance breathed a sigh of relief and then turned back to the officers and guard as Lance's personal SWAT police squad quickly raced into the route and arrested them, while also reading them their various rights as a possible criminal.
One of the Jenny's was crying and she yelled out to Lance,"Lance! I am a good person! I would never work with rockets!"
Lance scowled and said,"We will see about that."
Everyone that was being arrested had ashen faces when they heard that. They had all heard rumors about the Kanto Hypno division which was one of the highest rated crime-solving units.
Steven could feel his energy slowly leaving him so he quickly ran over to Cynthia and Jasmine as he asked them,"Are you ok?!"
Cynthia and Jasmine both had their mouths open in disbelief at what had just happened. Who was their friend they had been traveling with?! They couldn't even respond and only nodded their heads with their mouths still open in shock.
Steven started to tear up as he looked at Cynthia with a heartfelt look. He managed out,"I am sorry you had to witness that. When I saw the bullet coming towards you, my mind broke and all the anger I felt towards Team Rocket flowed to surface. My actions today almost caused you to die and nothing I could-"
Before Steven could finish his apology his knees suddenly gave out on him and he flopped to the floor, almost like a dead fish. Cynthia quickly ran over and picked him up and rested his head on her knees.
"You did everything you could! You don't have to be sorry! I would no longer be in this world if it weren't for you!" Cynthia sobbed out while her tears landed on Stevens face.
Steven had just enough energy left to put his hand on Cynthia's face. He quietly spoke out loud,"You are more beautiful when you smile, so don't cry.."
Cynthia laughed through her tears and with her emotion drive shot and used up due to the incident, she made an impulsive decision. She said emotionally,"Thank you for saving my life!"
Cynthia then leaned down and gave him a kiss on the lips! Lance's mouth dropped when he saw this romcom soap opera playing in front of him! Jasmine quickly pulled out her phone and started quickly taking a bunch of pictures!
Cynthia disconnected from his lips and Steven had a big smile on his face. Cynthia snorted a bit due to his goofy face and said,"What? Why the big smile?"
Steven couldn't speak anymore, so he sent her a thought that sounded exhausted even in her mind,"I've dreamt of this moment so many times, now it has come true. My dream is fulfilled.."
Steven then passed out and Cynthia got really worried and yelled out,"Sir Lance! He fainted! Is he going to be okay?!"
Lance rushed over and took Stevens' pulse and after about 10 seconds, he let out a sigh of relief. Lance then said,"It's ok, I think his exhaustion just finally caught up with him."
Cynthia smiled in happiness as the tears finally started to stop pouring from her eyes. She said to him,"Thank you! Thank you!"
Lance nodded and said,"No problem. Let's take you girls to the pokecenter for a general checkup. Then I will give you some information that is a state secret, and it is related to what Steven just did."
Cynthia and Jasmine gulped.