After their baths were done, Takuya and Avery went back outside with Ash and Tyler, joined by Professor Oak, Elm, and Rowan.
"From what Tyler and Ash told us about that fight, you seem to have inherited similar powers to your Pokemon counterparts." Oak said. "Yet from their descriptions you still are having trouble keeping them controlled while in use."
Takuya looked down at the ground. "Yeah, that's true. Whenever we push our powers to the limit, we have trouble keeping them under control."
"That is dangerous." Elm said bluntly. "If you cannot control your abilities, it could endanger everyone and everything around you. The question is, who can teach you how to control your powers?"
Kasi looked over to the other Pokemon in the field. "Maybe the best teachers of these abilities are the ones who have these abilities themselves. I didn't mention this earlier, but after the splicing, we discovered we can understand Pokemon when they speak."
"Pika?" Pikachu tilted his head to one side.
"Yes, Pikachu. Even you." Kasi said.
"So you can understand them?!" Ash exclaimed. "…Have you caught him saying about me?"
"Plenty." Kasi said. "He says you're his best friend, but that at times you can be too brash and behave like an idiot. I also heard him say that sometimes you could really use a tic-tac."
"Pika Pika? Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu said in an argumentative tone with Kasi.
"Pikachu, don't fib." Kasi said with a grin. "You brought that up when you were talking to Squirtle near the tree over there yesterday."
Pikachu felt a sweat drop run down his head. He gave Kasi a deadpan look.
"Pika Pikachu…" Pikachu said, pointing at her then sat down in a huff.
"What did he say?" Dawn asked.
"He says he's going to pay me back for that." Kasi said with a chuckle. "Quite the feisty attitude."
"Yeah, that's Pikachu all right." Ash said.
"She does have a point though." Tyler said. "Who better to teach you guys how to harness your powers than the Pokemon who use them regularly?" Tyler then got out a Pokeball and tossed it into the air. "Magneton, we can use your expertise!"
Magnaton then popped out of its Pokeball, hovering around Tyler.
Ash then looked up to Pikachu. "Care to teach Avery, Pikachu?" He asked.
Pikachu yawned, then jumped off Ash's head. He looked at Avery, folding his arms. "Pika Pikachu? Pi-ka, pi pi pika pika." (Are you ready? I can be a strict teacher, you know.) He cautioned.
Avery nodded. "That might be a good thing. It will remind me to be a diligent student."
"Well, that covers Avery's teachers." Tyler said. "Now what about Kasi and Takuya?"
"Perhaps I can help." Tracey said. He whistled for his Pokemon, Merril. She skipped up to Kasi with a smile, along with Ash's Squirtle.
Quilava stood in front of Takuya. He looked around, expecting another Pokemon to come forward.
"We still need one more…" Tyler said.
Right on cue, a shadow appeared overhead. Descending from the sky was Ash's Charizard! He landed in front of Takuya, next to Quilava.
Ash felt a sweat drop run down his head. "Takuya, I'm starting to feel really sorry for you right now. All I can say is 'Good Luck'."
# # # # # #
The training had gone into its third day. Avery, under Pikachu and Magnaton's teaching was steadily learning how to control his abilities. Today's lesson, however, was about focusing those abilities. Pikachu had just finished explaining the lesson, saying that Avery needed to learn how to hit a moving target. Yesterday's lesson was about hitting stationary targets. Today, Pikachu wanted to mix things up by having Avery try to strike him with a precise thundershock attack while Pikachu did his best to dodge.
Avery watched as Pikachu stood in the field with a cocky grin on his face. "Pika!" (Begin!)
Avery then called on his energy, focusing a light thundershock into his palm. He then held up his hand, and fired it at Pikachu, thinking this was going to be simple. Pikachu wasn't making it easy, though, as he dodged it. Avery shot another shock, only for Pikachu to dodge it again. This time, however, he struck a taunting pose while giving Avery a cocky look. Avery was now starting to get irritated, and threw a rapid succession of shocks at Pikachu, who just casually continued to dodge them while literally teasing Avery.
Finally, Avery thought he had a sure shot at Pikachu as he jumped onto a fence post. Avery charged another attack and threw it.
Unfortunately, Pikachu dodged the attack, and the thunderbolt whizzed past Pikachu as he side-stepped, and the thunderbolt went across the field hitting Kasi and giving her a bit of a charge.
"Ow! Cramp!" Kasi shouted as she fell over, holding her leg. "I got a cramp!"
Squirtle saw what happened and yelled across the field at Pikachu. "Squirt! Squirtle Squirt Squirtle!" (Hey! Watch it, Pikachu!)
Pikachu looked casually over in Squirtle's direction. "Chu." (Oops.) He said innocently.
Avery's face screamed embarrassment.
But no one was having as difficult of a time as Takuya who was over in a rocky area of the corral. Charizard was teaching Takuya with a steep difficulty curve, and today was no exception. Takuya's task against Charizard was to hit Charizard five times with a fire attack while dodging active attacks from Charizard as he flew over him in the air! Granted, Takuya wasn't having an easy time with this task, as Charizard was actively spitting flames down at Takuya, who in Tyler's words "was having to jump all over the field like an Aipom on a sugar rush" just to make sure he didn't get hit.
Takuya wasn't just trying to dodge, though. He was shooting flames back at Charizard, and in the next few moments managed to land four hits on him. Charizard, realizing Takyua was catching onto his combat moves began to do diving runs at Takuya who had to start jumping even greater distances. Takuya, now getting a little annoyed with Charizard then put in motion a plan for the final hit. As Charizard dove down for another run, Takuya sprinted on all fours in the direction he was diving. Takuya then jumped in the air when he was close enough, firing a blast of fire at Charizard, hitting him dead on.
Unfortunately, he and Charizard were going so fast they didn't have enough room to slow down and ended up headbutting each other before they could stop. They fell to the ground a short while afterwards, both clutching their heads with stars flooding their vision.
"Woah!" Ash, Tyler, and Professor Oak ran up to them as Charizard and Takuya stumbled back on their feet.
"…Did someone get the license plate number of that truck?" Takuya asked in his daze.
"I think now is a good idea for you guys to take a break." Oak said. "Besides that, you haven't had anything to eat this morning."
Takuya and Charizard heard their stomachs growl. "You have a good point there." Takuya agreed.
"It's a good thing Delia and Kathy volunteered to bring breakfast. They should have it ready by now." Oak chuckled. With that, they went over to the lab's back patio. Delia and Kathy had setup a nice meal, and not just for the people. They had also whipped up a few things for the Pokemon as well.
They all sat down and started to eat. Ash, Dawn, Tracey and Tyler sat across from Oak, Delia and Kathy at the table. Kasi sat down next to Avery, while Takuya and Brock sat across from them.
"I apologize for that shock earlier…" Avery apologized to Kasi. "I wasn't expecting Pikachu and you to be lined up in the same spot."
"Don't worry about it." Kasi said. "After all, I'm sure Pikachu totally didn't do it on purpose." Her voice had a slight ring of sarcasm. Pikachu just yawned in return, unphased.
"On the bright side, we're getting a better handle on our powers." Takuya said, putting some scrambled eggs on his plate. "During the past couple of days, Quilava showed me how to breathe out smoke." He then took a breath and blew a few small smoke rings over their heads that dispersed shortly after.
"Fascinating." Oak said, intrigued.
"So, what did you learn Kasi?" Dawn asked.
Kasi looked over at Pikachu with a mischievous grin, who was sipping on some lemonade with a straw. "Well…" She tapped a finger on Pikachu's glass, and the lemonade instantly froze over. As soon as Pikachu noticed, he looked over at Kasi with a deadpan look. "Pika?" (Really?)
"All's fair in love and war, Pikachu." Kasi giggled.
"Kasi, Pikachu… Please stop teasing each other." Takuya said. He then took Pikachu's glass and focused a slight heat on it through his hand, just enough to defrost most of the lemonade and not break the glass nor melt the straw. There were still chucks of ice still in the drink. He then gave the drink back to Pikachu.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Ash: Misty called yesterday. I told her you were in town, and she told me she would drop by today." Oak said as they ate.
Ash then realized his mistake. "Oh no! I forgot to call Misty as well!" He panicked.
Tyler couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't worry, Ash. I forget some things too occasionally."
Dawn looked at Ash. "Misty? You mean the girl that you traveled with when you were in Kanto and Jhoto?"
"Yeah." Brock explained. "She's also one of the leaders of the Cerulean City Gym. Haven't heard from her in a while. It will be good to see her and catch up."
"It would have been nice if you called as soon as you were in town." A scathing voice said from the patio door. Ash nervously turned towards the patio door.
Standing in the doorway was Misty, dressed in knee-high blue jeans and a T-shirt and sneakers.
"Oh! Hi Misty…" Ash said nervously. "I'm… sorry I forgot to call."
"I feel so ignored..." Misty said as she walked up to the table with an irritated demeanor. As soon as she was in arm's reach of Ash, her attitude then changed like the flip of a coin, from irritated to happy as she patted Ash on the head. "But things happen. Don't sweat it, Ash. I was really feigning insult. So how have you been?"
Ash then caught up Misty with the recent events, and about his recent journeys.
Misty smiled. "Still finding trouble, I guess. Just like the good old days."
"Honestly, I think it tends to find me." Ash replied.
"True." Misty said. "It's a good thing Tyler was there to help out."
"It was the right thing to do." Tyler said.
Misty then turned to Takuya, Kasi, and Avery. "Professor Oak told me about what happened. He said the police in Sinnoh have started up an investigation into other kidnappings like yours. They have a hunch that will lead them to Team Midnight."
Takuya looked down at the table. "I just hope they can stop them before anything else happens."
# # # # # # # #
Day eventually turned to night, and everyone was in bed. Delia had invited Kathy over to her house, as she had setup the guest room. Ash and Tyler were sleeping on cots that Professor Oak set up on the back patio of the lab. Takuya, Kasi, and Avery had some sleeping bags setup as well, though they were having a lot of trouble sleeping.
Avery and Takuya noticed that Kasi was looking out at the field with fear. "Everything alright?" Avery whispered as both boys sat up.
"I'm worried that Team Midnight will find us here." Kasi said. "I've been trying to hide my fear from everyone all day. But it just keeps building up… It's almost as if I can feel them closing in."
Avery looked over to Takuya. "Mind if I…?"
"No, go ahead." Takuya said, turning his sleeping bag to face Kasi.
Avery then quietly slipped out of his sleeping bag and walked quietly over to Kasi. Kasi opened her sleeping bag and Avery slipped in, settling in behind Kasi as he gently placed an arm over her shoulder.
"It'll be okay, Kasi. I'm here for you. All of us are." Avery said softly. Kasi reached up slowly and clutched onto Avery's arm tightly, tears running from her eyes.
"…Thank you, Avery." She whispered.
Takuya looked at the two of them as they started to fall asleep. Eventually, Takuya laid down on his back, and drifted off as well.