Training

The alarm clock rang. It made a shrill, piercing sound that broke the silence of the early morning like a hammer smashing a pane of glass. Gaia groaned and slowly sat up in his bed. Then he pressed a button on the clock, silencing it. His brain was still half-asleep and his eyes felt they were made out of lead. Damn Sensei Bones and his early starting times. In this case, he was supposed to be at the training grounds at 5.30.

He opened the curtains and looked outside. The sky was beginning to get light but it was still dark. Then he checked his clock. The digital readout read 4:45. Perfect. He got out of bed to head down to the kitchen for some breakfast. He was careful not be loud enough to wake up Alice. If she woke up, she would make sure he would pay.

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At exactly 5:30 and 45 seconds, Gaia arrived at training ground 45. It was mostly flat ground, with a few rocks and trees. It was used for one and one sparring Ten feet in front of him he could see a Marowak meditating on the ground, eyes closed and his bone laid out in front of him.

Good, maybe he won't notice me. Gaia took a step forward and trod on a small twig. It made a small snapping sound. Oh crap. Instantly, the Marowak opened his eyes and ran up to the Grovyle, his bone pressed against his neck. "YOU IMCOMPETENT FOOL!" Sensei Bones roared, "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD LIKE THIS? YOU ARE LATE!"

Gaia answered Sensei Bones after his head stopped ringing, "Sir, I am forty-five seconds late." He said.

"Late is late, no matter how tiny it is!" He seemed to have calmed down a bit, but was still shouting pretty loud, "You like to run, right? Then let's start with ten laps around the ground! Do it now!" He took his bone away. Gaia turned around and started running, with the Marowak screaming abuse the whole time. If he hesitated, Sensei Bones would double the amount of laps. Seth had learned this unfortunate lesson during survival training.

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It was now 9 am, and Alice was in the small training ground of her father's house. She was quite happy to train with her father. She hadn't done it for a while. Sure, there was a few months after her bitch of a stepmother was killed, but then survival training, exams and graduation had taken up most of her time. Then she had to go on missions after she graduated.

"So father, what will you be teaching me?"

Garret smiled at his daughter, "I will teach you how to smash rocks, climb up cliffs and breathe fire,"

Alice nodded, "Which one will I be learning first?"

"How to smash rocks. To understand how the move Rock Smash works, you must learn the principles behind it. Listen carefully to what I say, because it is all important…"

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Seth was with Master Dusk in training ground 17. He was trying to learn Fire Punch, but without success. He had been given a scroll from the headmaster and told to study it. So far he gotten the fire part right, but kept burning his hand.

He sat against a tree, panting and examining the burns on his purple right hand. "Dammit," he swore, "This is fucking hard," He quickly healed himself. It was now eleven and he had been going at it since eight. He was hot and tired.

"Giving up already?" Master Dusk approached him, an ice-cream cone in hand, "Also please don't swear in front of me,"

"I never said I was giving up," Seth huffed, "I will master it, believe it! I just need some time," He got up and focused his energy into his hand. His hand caught on fire and scalded it. He shrieked and willed the flames to go out. However, his hand was still burnt.

Master Dusk chuckled and licked some ice-cream, "Victoria mastered this, so I expect you to."

"Mum mastered this?" Seth asked, "Then I'm definitely gonna do it!" He gave another shot and successfully creating a Fire Punch.

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Day 3

Don and his team were wandering across town when they saw (what they thought was) a hilarious scene. Gaia was standing with a sword in front of him, trying to block Sensei Bones's attack. He looked hot and tired. Beads of sweat were beginning to roll down his green skin. Since the three of them completely hated the Grovyle, they decided to tease him.

"Hey Gaia," Wart taunted as he waved a can of cold lemonade around, "It's really hot today, isn't it? I bet you would love a cold drink."

"We're really lucky," Don teased, "We don't have to train with Sensei Bones like we're fifteen years old."

Gaia growled and muttered foul curses under his breath. He couldn't attack them, because he might get arrested and Bones would punish him. Bones scowled at the three explorers. Those fools! They don't understand the gravity of the situation, do they? He raged inside his Master Dusk had ordered everyone who had come to see Gaia to keep the saving-the-world a secret because it either cause mass panic or it would totally embarrass the Grovyle. The former was more likely to happen than the latter.

"Gaia!" Bones shouted, making the Grovyle snap to attention, "I have a new task for you!"

"What is it sir?" Gaia asked wearily. Behind him, Don and his mates were smirking wide, enjoying the sight of Gaia having to suffer.

"You have to attack the three idiots behind you for interrupting your training," Their smiles instantly melted and three of them looked at each other warily, "You can only use your sword and the techniques that I have taught you up to now,"

Gaia looked at Team Don, then frowned, "Sir, there are three of them and only one of me. I can't win," They breathed sighs of relief.

"No need to fear, I will be helping you." Fear froze on their faces. Sensei Bones was the best swords master in the whole of Treasure Town, so they had every reason to be scared. That and two of their members were weak against Ground. Gaia looked like his birthday had come early. He got into a guarding position.

"On my mark. 3…2…1…GO!" The two of them charged at Team Don, Gaia wielding a Flare Blitz attack. The team screamed and ran for their lives.

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Alice was standing over a lake, trying to breathe a full Flamethrower. So far she had only managed small Embers. Why doesn't it work? She growled angrily in her mind. Her energy was running out fast. Do I need to make my energy explode or something? Then she realized something. That's it. She focused all of her energy in her throat and tried to make it explode. Smoke poured out her nostrils and a fireball erupted out of her mouth. It was certainly an improvement, as the Embers she had been previously firing were twice as small as the fireball. However, the price was that her throat felt like it had been covered with jalapeno sauce.

She didn't have any water with her, so she looked around quickly before lowering her head into the lake and drinking from that. If she was caught, she would be in big trouble.

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"Hoo! Ha! Ya!" Master Dusk was throwing punches at Seth while the Sableye dodged. The punches came at full force and he couldn't afford to be hit.

The Dusknoir slammed his fist on the ground and created an Earthquake. Seth jumped up in the air and came down when the shock wave had left. "When are going to stop?" he asked.

The headmaster gave him a small grin, "When I say so, of course."

Son of bitch, Seth thought, and narrowly dodged a powerful Ice Punch that crashed into a rock. This is going to take a while.

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Two days later, more Shadow Pokemon attacked. Gaia had been walking down a deserted street alone when a Shadow Pikachu burst out of a dark portal in the ground. It tried to shock him to death, but Gaia used his new skills to slice it in half, and then quickly hack into a newly-formed Shadow Ponyta on the left. Now he could hold the sword with one hand for a minute, but most of the time he carried it with both hands. It felt more comfortable this way.

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Alice fired a fireball from her mouth in the training ground. It wasn't a steady stream of fire like the Flamethrower, but now her throat didn't feel on fire whenever she used it.

"You have improved," Garrett said evenly. A small grin appeared on his lips, "Very well. I will teach you the next step."

"Thank you father,"

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Five days later, Shia lay on her bed, face up, thinking. It was 7 in the morning but she didn't feel like going down for breakfast. She thought about Gaia needing to save the world. She felt slightly jealous. He had found three pieces of historical treasure and a really cool sword. But then again, she thought, he was probably the right man (or Grovyle) for the job. He was strong and he did receive some of the best grades in the academy. But not in maths. She was good at that.

She rolled out of bed (four-legged creatures slept on the floor) and headed down to the kitchen for some breakfast.

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"So, which one should we do?" Her, Leala and Fau were staring at the academy notice boards. She had joined Team Awesome after getting bored exploring on her own.

"This one," Shia pointed her nose to a rescue mission and took it down using her tail. It was from a Shedinja called Yang.

Help me! I am stuck in the first floor of Insecto Forest!

Reward: 2000 Poke.

The three of them stared at it with puzzled looks. Nobody had ever heard of someone weak enough to be trapped on the first floor of any dungeon.

"Should we do it?" Fau asked, "It seems weird."

"Let's do it," Shia replied, "It'll be easy." But she let the team out of the academy, she couldn't shake his feeling from her heart that something horrible was going to happen.

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They arrived at the start of Insecto Forest. It was consisted out of evergreen trees and a large number of Bug-type Pokemon. However, it was a beginner dungeon so Leala had no fears about entering it.

The three of them went in. They arrived at a single room.

"Okay, where are we?" Leala asked, looking around. Normally dungeon floors had more than one room.

Visitors. I haven't had some for a while.

They heard a voice appear out of nowhere. "Who's there?" Shia demanded. She wouldn't admit it, but fear was rising in her stomach.

Let me take you to my humble home.

Three balls out of light rose out of the ground, then flew towards Team Awesome at alarming speed. They screamed and tried to run away, but the light enveloped them and three of them felt themselves blacking out.

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Fau was the first to woke. There was no pain. She found herself lying in front of the gate to a mansion overrun by nature. A nearby sign said: 'Insect Mansion'.

Oh no, she thought, We're in a normal dungeon.

What's this? A scene from the prequel of Legend of the Sixteen Plates, whose name I cannot reveal yet? Best we go and check it out, then!

One thousand years ago.

"Ugh, agh, my head..."

Yuxai the Froslass woke up. Her head throbbed and her throat felt like sandpaper. She tried to remember what had happened. Yesterday everybody in the Royal Palace of Destonia had held a party to celebrate the beheading of the evil king. The one who did it was the wielder of the Spirit Sword. Like all parties, there had been alcohol, particularly wine and ale. Some, like the wielder of the Spirit Sword, didn't drink because getting drunk did not make a good swordsman. Some, like Wes and Aeros, enjoyed enough but limited themselves to not get drunk. Surprisingly, the king got drunk and had to be dragged away by the queen and her daughter.

She remembered that the last thing she did was accepting a pint of ale from her boyfriend, Marly the Roserade. Then there was a gaping blank in her memory.

She looked at her surroundings. The room looked familiar and she was sure if she didn't have a headache she would recognize it.

Then she noticed that Marly was sleeping next to her, a large grin on his face. And she was floating above his bed.

Oh no.

Five minutes later, a terrified Marly threw the door to his room open and ran for his life. Yuxai floated out of it at top speed, her face contorted with fury, "MARLY!" she yelled as she chased the Roserade, "HOW DARE YOU GET ME PREGNANT!"