"You think Minerva'll be fine by herself?" Rio asked Kora as they walked back to the Gym.
"She loves her alone time just as much as she loves pie," Kora replied with a weak smile. "Besides, I still gotta fight Jax, and if you're gonna be my audience, I gotta bring you with me!"
Right before they entered the tent, Jax, Nate, and Zeke walked out and bumped right into them. Well, it was more Kora and Rio bouncing off of Jax without alerting the Machamp at all to their presence. They were going to get stepped on if Nate and Zeke hadn't pulled Jax back with all their might. With that near-death experience out of the way, Kora popped onto his feet and smirked.
"Hey guys! We were just heading back, so ya didn't have to come looking for us!" the Zoroark said, playfully punching Jax in his chest.
"Actually, why were you guys coming out? You look like you have something important to say," Rio asked, getting a proud smirk from Jax.
"While the two of you ran after Minerva, us three teachers decided how we're gonna school you guys!" The Machamp explained, pounding his chest.
"I've decided that it would be best for me to teach Rio how to use different attacks and to try and help him with that ability he showed off earlier," Zeke said with his arms crossed. "Plus, I can teach him whatever he needs to know about Pokemon while we're at it, since I'm probably the only one here that can name almost everything off the top of their head..." he sighed, but kept a smile on his beak.
"And I'll be sparring with Kora to help improve his own set of skills! Not saying you aren't a good fighter already, but it doesn't hurt to practice some more!" Jax stated, his arms on his waist. Both Rio and Kora for a moment thought about what they'll be doing before their minds shifted back to Minerva.
"What about Minerva and Nate? What're they gonna do?" The two surprisingly said in unison.
"I decided to help her get faster and stronger, specifically. Maybe toughen her up a bit, since she could barely take a hit from me," Nate answered with a slight frown. Kora and Rio both felt a bit bad when they remembered their match, it wasn't exactly in Minerva's favor.
"Oh, I almost forgot! We're pretty sure that the guild won't hold it's tryouts for another month or whatever, so you guys have a whole month to prepare! And we're gonna make sure you'll fit the bill to get in!" Jax said, cracking his knuckles and grinning. "You know what that means, right Kora?"
"So we get to fight for a whole month without being interrupted?" Kora asked with an excited smile. Jax returned a smug grin and pounded his fists together.
"You know it little buddy!" Jax and Kora pounded their fists together and smiled brightly, causing Zeke to roll his eyes.
"They're either gonna slack off or wear each other down in less than a week," the Blaziken chuckled, amazed at the two's childlike excitement for fighting each other.
"So, when exactly are we going to start training?" Rio asked, getting a small smirk from Zeke.
"Actually, I wanted to get started as soon as possible. I was thinking we could train on the beach, you know, away from the forest full of Pokémon and flammable trees," the Blaziken stated, getting an excited nod from Rio.
"Then let's go before Mt. Muscle and the Jester start brawling," Zeke joked, turning towards Nate and smiling. "See ya later, Feraligatr. Make sure you don't piss Minerva off too much. Meet up same place tonight?"
"See you then, Blaziken. And don't worry about me, I can probably handle it," Nate replied. "But if anything goes south, I'll count on you to fix it."
The two tapped the back of their forearms together, looking at each other for a moment before Zeke and Rio left for the beach.
As the new Mentor and Trainee arrived on the beach, they were surprised to see Zen sitting on the shore. The Bisharp was also surprised to see the pair, but hid that well in his usual stoic demeanor. He stood and faced the two with his arms crossed.
"Zeke, can I ask what you're doing here with the Outlander?" Zen asked, staring the two down.
"Honestly, you need to lose the uppity attitude you have, Zen, and I'm here to train Rio." Zeke replied, crossing his arms as well.
"I have an uppity attitude? What about you? Whenever anything happens, you either sigh and roll your eyes to the back of your skull, or say 'whatever'!" Zen exclaimed, much to Rio's surprise. Zeke sighed and rolled his eyes.
"See?" Zen clicked his tongue, making Zeke sweat a bit.
"Whatev-!" Zeke immediately covered his mouth and coughed. "A-anyway, we have important training to do, so I guess we'll just go somewhere else!" the Blaziken turned towards the forest, ready to leave, but was stopped by Zen before he took a step.
"What exactly are you training him in?" Zen asked. Somewhere, somehow, Rio felt the tiniest amount of worry coming from him.
"Really? I thought you'd be too busy brooding to care about Rio?" Zeke scoffed.
"Seriously, what is it?" Zen asked. The Blaziken cleared his throat.
"That band on Rio's arm might have the ability to absorb whatever attacks that hits it, and boost Rio in some way. He was able to cancel out one of my Flamethrowers without causing an explosion, but it took a lot out of him," Zeke explained.
"Really?" Zen quickly glanced at Rio, "Perhaps, I should assist as well. For purely analytical reasons, of course." Rio was surprised by what looked like a change of character. He was even finding it hard to believe how close Zen and Zeke were. Then again, Rio did arrive yesterday, it's only natural anyone on the island would have known each other for a while.
"Well, thanks for the extra set of hands, Zen. Seems like someone is growing out of their iron-plated shell?" Zeke chuckled at his own unfunny joke. "I guess the first thing we should do is to show you what exactly I was talking about," Zeke said, standing a good distance away from Rio. "You ready, Rio?" The Outlander nodded, putting up his guard. Zeke nodded back, getting himself ready to fire a flamethrower. Zen back away from either Pokémon.
After throwing his head forward, Zeke fired a Flamethrower like the one during his sparring match with Rio. The Lucario threw out his right arm as the Flamethrower hit, causing the attack to envelope around him. As the fire faded away, Rio was shown totally unscathed and holding up his arm. The band was glowing a bright orange and red, and Rio also gave off a faint glow of the same color.
"That's, well, I guess it's impressive," Zen said. Rio groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Alright, fine. Hey Zeke, fire another Flamethrower, please!" Rio asked, annoyed at the Bisharp's lack of amazement. The Blaziken readied another Flamethrower, still ,aiming at Rio. This time when the attack hit, Rio put both paws out to hold it. The Lucario was successful at stopping the attack, dispersing the flames in a glorious fashion. He looked proudly at Zen, until his glow faded and his body was strained, surprised at how much the ability took out of him. He found it difficult to stand, but stood strong regardless.
"That's a bit more impressive, but from the looks of it, you can only do that once every time you gain whatever ability that is," Zen concluded, an impressed grin escaping his stern demeanor.
"That's what I'm hoping to help him improve, who knows, maybe he could send it back or something with enough practice?" Zeke chuckled, patting Rio on the back and nearly toppling the jackal over. "What do ya think, Rio?"
After keeping himself upright, Rio shrugged. "I might even be able to absorb it, I don't know?" he replied sarcastically. "I feel like I don't need to say I've never done any of... this before."
"Hmph..." Zen contemplated for a moment. "That could have some decent implications later down the line. Energy Absorption, or Type Absorption, whatever it turns out to be, can easily remove any paralysis, poison, burn, what have you. We'll have to see what your body or that band can take."
"Y-you aren't suggesting that I get hit with different things for a while... right?" Rio asked, hoping he doesn't get the answer he thinks he'll get. Zen responded by putting up his hand to Rio, and a familiar dark aura growing in his palm.
"You might want to guard this attack, Outlander. I don't have any moves that would cause any of those ailments, but it would still be to your benefit to find out if you can absorb the Dark typing. " The Bisharp stated before firing a Dark Pulse directly at Rio.
Rio couldn't exactly prepare for the attack so soon, throwing his arms up, bracing as much as he could. The attack hurt more than before, the thought that Zen was holding back when he beat Rio to a pulp, and he might even be holding back now, left a bitter taste in the Outlander's mouth.
"What the hell! You couldn't give me a minute to recover?!" Rio shouted, much to the other Pokémons' surprise. It could have been their imagination, but to Zen and Zeke, Rio's fur looked a few shades darker than earlier. Rio also took a more aggressive stance than before, more than ready to fight.
"I think you should calm down a little. I mean, you should be proud that you blocked that, given how tired you are!" Zeke stated with a smile. Rio didn't calm down however. Instead of regaining his cool and leveling out, he almost immediately lost his temper.
"Calm down?! Don't you tell me to 'calm down' after I blocked his Dark Pulse! If I hadn't block that attack I'd probably be dead!" The vastly infuriated Rio turned to Zen. "Were you planning on holding back, because I sure as hell didn't feel any 'holding back', metal head!" Rio snapped, making the Blaziken back off.
"Screw the training, I'll 'calm down' by beating this self-entitled prick to a pulp!" The Lucario charged the Bisharp with surprising speed, slamming his palm before pushing into Zen with maximum force, throwing the Bisharp into the water.
"Hmph, are you sure you want a repeat of our first fi-?" Zen scoffed, failing to get to his feet before being attacked by Rio again. The Lucario kicked Zen in the side, knocking the wind out of him. Before Rio could get another hit in, Zeke quickly grabbed the outraging Outlander and held him in a headlock.
"Seriously Rio, don't make me force you to calm down!" Zeke shouted. Unfortunately for the Fire-Fighting type, Rio started to jump and fall backward on top of Zeke.
"You can't force me to do anything!" Rio roared, breaking free of the headlock and surprising Zeke.
'What the hell? He couldn't have gotten this strong after so little time had passed after the hot springs. Is this from my Dark Pulse?' As soon as Zen stood back up, he readied another Dark Pulse.
Rio took notice and ran straight for Zen. The Pulse was fired, however Rio was able to sidestep the attack and thrust his elbow into Zen's stomach, causing the Bisharp to fall to his knees. The Outlander then clasped both paws together and slammed them into Zen's back. Zeke got back up, quickly gaining Rio's attention.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Zeke jumped over Rio, throwing a Flamethrower as he jumped over the jackal.
The attack hit the water around Rio, creating a steam cloud that blinded the Outlander for a moment. Seizing this chance, Zeke rushed in and hit Rio several times with Fire Punch before slugging him full-force with another one. Rio was knocked back to shore, some of his fur burnt where he was hit. Without giving Rio a chance to stand back up, Zeke fired a Flamethrower, directly hitting Rio and creating a massive explosion! The Blaziken turned and saw Zen knocked out in the water and ran over to help him out. As the dust cleared, Rio was knocked out cold with blackened fur.
"Can't say I was expecting Rio to flip out and attack us like that..." Zeke said to himself, placing Zen on his back near Rio, "Maybe I should get some well deserved sleep too, huh guys?" The bird joked to himself, sitting on the other side of Rio, looking across the open sea. Instead of taking a rest, Zeke tried to piece together what exactly caused Rio to lose it so fast.
/Back at the Square, right after Rio and Zeke left/
"So it's settled then? Loser buys the winner anything they want from the bakery?" Jax asked, a confident grin upon his face.
"Yep! Basically, you're gonna be buying me a whole lotta food!" Kora stated boldly. The two were moments away from letting loose right then, but before they could do anything, Minerva showed up and stopped them.
"Are the both of ya completely dense or somethin'? I know the two of ya aren't plannin' on fightin' right in the middle of the Square, right?" Minerva said, staring down the two. Nate nodded his head and crossed his arms.
"Minerva!" Kora exclaimed, a bright smile stretching across his maw. "How ya feeling? Was the pie good? You doing alright?"
"Geez, slow down, Kora!" Minerva giggled, hiding an embarrassed smile. "Ya already asked that twice! And the pie was delicious, I was just comin' out to thank ya and Rio, but looks like Blue's already gone. Oh well, he's gotta lotta trainin' to do, so I won't bother him, wherever he went."
"Oh, Minerva! It's actually really convenient you came out. We wanted, er, I wanted to get to your training as soon as possible!" Nate said with a toothy grin, which fell soon after. "I know you wanted to keep going, and I wanted to too, but you can't-"
"I already know what I gotta do. Can't let that lizard bitch get away scotch free for acting like an ass to me, the Meowth grumbled, clenching her fists and growling. She went into a sort of enraged state for a second, and when she came to, Nate and Jax had backed away from her. "...What?"
"N-Nothing... Look, I'm just gonna, take Kora and go. Good lu- I mean, Have fun, Nate!" Jax picked Kora up and quickly walked away, waving to Nate with a worried smile. Kora waved bye to Minerva, but he and Jax were already gone before he could say anything.
Nate opened his mouth to call out to the Machamp, letting out a few exasperated breaths before turning to Minerva and grinning nervously.
"Looks like, it's just us now, huh?" The Feraligatr chuckled, shaking his head a little and grinning. "Can't let everyone else have all the fun now, can we? Let's go and get you stronger!"
"Right!" Minerva cheered, a devilish grin on her face. "You get me stronger, and I pound Kane's stupid face in! Let's go!"
'Good... at least she isn't mad at me.' Nate sighed, leading Minerva into the woods.
The two stood at opposite sides of the sandy area, both excited for the fight that was about to unfold.
"Alright, we start on the count of three," Jax said, cracking his knuckles.
"1..."
"2..."
"3..!"
"WAIT!" Kora and Jax were stopped mere moments before their fight began. The culprit was Kai who, somehow, got into the middle of the field with neither Kora nor Jax noticing.
"Wha- Kai? What're you doing here?" Kora asked, a tad impatient.
"I wanted to train with you guys! Mom said I could so I came down right away!" The young Zorua said excitedly. Kora did his best to not show how utterly uninterested he was to fight with his or against his younger brother, so instead he tried to change the subject.
"What happened to Mia? Don't you guys have... I mean, I dunno, Kai and Mia stuff to do?," Kora asked, hoping he could get his brother to run off.
"Oh, she went to train with Minerva and Nate! She said she wanted to get strong with your best friend, since I'm gonna get stronger with you!" Kai answered, bouncing up and down and smiling brightly.
"Really? I mean, she's your friend and you don't even wanna train with her?" Kora raised a brow.
"Do you train with Minerva all the time? Usually, you two just kinda do whatever? Eating desserts, collecting pearls, sleeping together-"
"D-Do you just watch your brother?" Jax asked, uneasy. He looked to Kora, expecting some level of being creeped out by Kai's invasion of his privacy, but the Zoroark didn't look bothered by it in the slightest.
"We don't gotta train all the time, but we do sometimes," Kora replied. "Just like me and Jax were before you kinda just, butted in."
Kai turned to his brother and stuck out his tongue.
"Liar liar!" He taunted. "You two never train! Her hitting you because of a joke isn't training! Even when you fight Eva and Kane, you're hardly even trying! Eva would say something mean, then Minerva would beat her and Kane up!"
Kora groaned, more upset at being called out than the fact that his brother has been avidly watching his day to day activities. Jax, on the other hand, was having trouble getting over how little the Zoroark cared. There's no way anybody would be this ok with being watched so much!
"Well, why don't you train with Mia anyway? Me and Minerva don't need to train together because of how great we know each other! Only super-best buddies don't have to train together all the time," the Zoroark hoped this would be enough to kindly drive his brother away.
"Or at all, in your case." Kai snickered, a playful grin on his maw. "But if that's the case, Mia and I are Ultra-super best buddies, so we don't need to train at all!" The Zorua went up to Kora and looked up at him. "You and me never do anything together, bro! So we gotta train together until we're super-best buddies!"
This was turning into a hassle for Kora. He let out a sigh and looked down at Kai.
"Kai, look. Jax and I have been wanting to fight, by ourselves, because he's training me so we're ready to join the Guild. As much as I'd love a distraction, this is... really important." Kora's face dropped a bit, but he shook it off and tried smiling again. "Tell ya what, if Jax and I can get a few practice sessions together, we'll see if we can train with you too?" He had no intention to keep that promise, honestly, but he knew it would sate Kai for now. Maybe, if Kora's lucky, Kai would forget about this promise after a little while.
"Really? AWESOME!" Kai cheered excitedly, hopping around Kora with boundless energy. "I'll leave you guys to fight then, and after that, I'll join in!" The Zorua scurried off to the side, sitting a good distance away from the battlefield.
"Now that that's out of the way, let's get this started!" Kora stated, cracking his neck and grinning excitedly. He crouched down and threw himself forwards.
"Night Slash!" Kora shouted, his claws gaining a black and red aura.
"Dynamic Punch!" Jax roared, one of his fist glowing red. The two were just a foot away from finally getting to hit each other, when a certain Pokémon got into the midst of it again.
"Lunch? I can totally eat lunch right now! We should do that before we start fighting, right?" Kai asked, sitting between Kora and Jax. The sudden appearance of Kai led to Kora and Jax crashing into each other, hurting Kora much more than Jax.
" HOW THE HE-" Kora caught himself and coughed, "Didn't you just say you'd sit this one out?" The Zoroark asked through gritted teeth.
"Wait, really? I thought I was going to get food!" Kai said happily, pulling out three little baggies from behind him. Neither Kora nor Jax knew if those were always there.
"I-How..? That has-" Kora calmed himself down and fell on his but, accepting this despite how much he was dreading it.
"Alright, thanks Kai. Maybe we should eat a little before the fight?" Jax said, giving the young fox a smile.
"I'll make sure to grab a bite later, don't wanna stuff myself before we get into it. Kora sighed.
Kai gave Kora one bag, another to Jax, and the last to himself. Instead each bag was a small slice of the new pie that Kora had tried earlier today. For a moment, Kora was hesitant to eat the slice, however he scarfed down the slice anyway, feeling a strange hunger overtake him momentarily. The pie tasted much stronger than it did in the morning, sending a pleasant chill through Kora's body.
"Did they change the recipe already? This is fantastic!" Kora exclaimed, the other two had their mouths full so all they did was nod and smile. After a moment passed, Kora froze. He felt like he was choking on something, but for some reason he didn't want to cough it out. The fox started to sweat, gripping the dirt.
"Hey Kora, you feelin' alright man?" Jax asked after swallowing the last of his slice. The choking sensation Kora had finally subsided, allowing the Zoroark to breathe. Kai happily finished his slice, his puffy tail wagging behind him.
"Yea. I think I ate that pie a little too fast, hehe," Kora joked, reassuring Jax. "Ok, Kai, please sit on the side and watch us please?"
Kai nodded and bounced to the sidelines, planting himself on the ground and smiling innocently at the two fully-evolved Pokemon.
"Then let's get to it, we've got some sparring to do!" The Kora grinned.
The two again stood on opposing sides of the sanded area, and even though the two thought they could finally have a go at each other, the feeling of being interrupted again didn't leave their minds. After almost a minute of waiting, Kora and Jax both decided it was time to finally battle.
'Finally!' The two thought as they ran towards the other, ready to attack.
"Dynamic Punch!" Jax shouted, throwing out a super powered punch towards Kora. The Zoroark stepped to the side, evading the attack easily. Unfortunately, a particular Pokémon decided to also throw out an attack.
"Tackle!" Kai shouted, tackling Kora in the back, the two falling right in front of Jax.
"Oh, sorry bro!" Kai apologized, sitting on Kora's back. The Zoroark didn't respond, instead he chose to lay there for a while.
"Uh, maybe we can train later, Kora..." Jax said, defeated and disappointed. Again, Kora didn't respond. Kai hopped off his brother and started to trot towards the gym, leaving the defeated Jax and Kora in the field.
"I bet Rio and Minerva are still training. Lucky punks," Kora muttered into the ground, still refusing to move. Jax didn't want to bother the fox and went inside to punch some punching bags.
Minerva and Nate didn't talk too much, mostly because Nate was contemplating whether or not he should say something. He knew Minerva wasn't mad at him, but...
"So, uh..." the Feraligatr broke the silence. "Why did you run off earlier?"
Minerva didn't answer right away, making Nate feel like he accidentally said the wrong thing. Before the Feraligtr could apologize, the Meowth stopped him.
"It was somethin' Kane said earlier. I'd rather not repeat it, but I will say that he's got a beat down pendin' 'cause of it," Minerva clenched her paws as she remembered what that scaly bastard said.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that," Nate apologized, getting a soft smile from Minerva.
"Don't worry about it, I'll beat the snot outta that prick later," the Meowth boldly stated, reassuring Nate.
Nate led Minerva to a clearing with plenty of fallen trees and rocks scattered everywhere. Some of the trees look beat, like someone crushed them with something big or heavy.
"Every now and then, I come here to keep myself busy and break some trees, so this should be a great place to start your training," Nate explained, leading Minerva to a sturdy tree. The feline was expecting her instructor to tell her to chop it down by the end of the day, but his actual order was much more challenging.
"I want you to cut this tree down with one attack," Nate ordered.
"Alright I can do- wait, did you say with one attack?" Minerva asked, giving Nate a puzzled expression. The Feraligtr nodded, stepping to the side.
"Just one attack. And if you can't, or if you refuse to, then you'll have to wear these." Nate pulled out a pair of black bands.
"What's so special about those?" Minerva questioned her teacher, surprised at how her training has turned out only a few minutes into it.
"I'm glad you asked," Nate dropped the two bands, they hit the ground with a loud thud. To say that the feline was surprised would be an understatement.
"WH-WHAT THE?! How much do those things weigh?!" Minerva shouted, a bit of regret showing on her expression.
"About 70 pounds each. Not too bad right? Surely, you're strong enough already to wear them comfortably for the rest of the month, right?" Nate mocked. However, Minerva was more focused on the weight of the bands more than his small jab at her.
"So, are you gonna cut the tree or wear the bands?" Nate asked. The Meowth couldn't decide which was the lesser of the two evils presented to her.
'There's no way in hell I can cut a tree like this down in one attack, but a whole month with almost 140 extra pounds weighin' me down, constantly?' she thought.
"From the looks of it, you're probably going to take the bands, no?" the Feraligtr asked, getting a more anxious response from Minerva. The gator quickly wrapped the two bands on both of Minerva's arms, at first it wasn't as bad as she thought, but after a minute or so her arms felt like they were tied to boulders below her.
"Don't worry Minerva, you can take those off when the week is done, I wouldn't make you wear those all month," Nate reassured Minerva, the feline then let out a relieved sigh. "That's because after you get used to those, I'm going to give you heavier bands to wear," the gator snickered. Had she been able to, Minerva would have thrown one of the rocks laying around directly into Nate's jaw.
"One more thing, it wouldn't help you if I didn't give you some exercises to get you more used to the weights. For now, I'll have you clear out all the rocks and trees from this clearing," Minerva almost fell over, not just from the amount of work Nate is putting on her, but also because she lost her balance for a second.
"When this trainin' thing is over, I'll knock you out cold..." Minerva growled, again struggling to not topple over by the weight of her arms. Nate grinned.
"That's the whole point of training, now chop chop, these trees aren't gonna clear themselves. And besides, if you can't do this, then how are you gonna beat the shit out of Kane?" Nate asked, raising a brow.
Minerva grinned back and nodded, the drive to beat Kane fueling her. The Meowth started to move the tree trunks from the clearing, all while Nate watched from the side.
'Great! This is already going better than I expected,' Nate thought to himself and chuckled to himself. 'She's just like when I was training as a wee Totodile; angry, strong... well she's waaaaaaaay stronger than I was at her age, but whatever. Good times, good times.'