Pokemons Gift Chapter 7 : The Titans Gift

Story by Vitross on SoFurry

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Terra woke as a deep growl sounded from next to her; she jumped into a battle stance throwing the covers off herself and Ark, preparing herself to counter the attack that could originate from anywhere. The growl sounded again making her aware of its origin; it came from her trainer's snoring. She laughed at herself and dropped out of her battle stance.

It was dawn and judging by her trainers sleeping patterns she assumed she had enough time to take a small bath even though she didn't really need one.

She remembered the warm baths fondly when her old trainer had given them to her as a Buneary, before she turned into the trainer that Terra despised. She shook her head trying to clear it out of her head, she didn't want to remember that trainer anymore but she still came up in her mind.

Terra turned the knobs that controlled the water, fiddling around with them for a while until she found the perfect temperature and filled the tub. Sighing she slid into the perfect water and just soaked.

She relaxed and fell into one of her favorite daydreams, where she was just laying with her mate in a large meadow of flowers doing nothing except watching the clouds. The day dream was always a little different each time she had it and this time was no exception. The mate was no longer another Lopunny who also was missing eyebrow tufts, this time it was Ark himself. He bent over her and kissed her putting the exact same feelings as the kiss he gave her yesterday night. She was so into her daydream she didn't hear the door open and Ark coming into the bathroom, unzipping his pants, and sitting down on the toilet.

"Oh Terra, I'm sorry! I thought you were still sleeping." Ark shouted averting his eyes.

Terra jumped, and flushed. Now aware of how exposed she was she hastily grabbed the curtains and pulled them closed to keep from more embarrassment.

"I'll wait outside until you're done, I can hold it." He said making his way quickly out the door.

The flushed feeling Terra died down as she continued her bath. No longer in a daydream she quickly finished, and dried her body with one of the towels. Still slightly embarrassed she head out the door and Ark flew past her into the bathroom to take care of his business. When he finished he sat down next to her and hugged her apologetically.

"I'm really sorry I embarrassed you like that I didn't mean to. I wasn't really thinking."

"It is okay." Terra signed to him.

"You were very attractive when you were in the tub though." Ark blurted out. His words made Terra feel pleased despite the embarrassment that came with them. She never would have believed he considered her attractive in any way. From what she could tell from the few humans she looked at, the most desirable ones had a thin waist, and large breasts. She had neither, her waist was the same width as her body, and her chest was flat since she wasn't raising children.

"Sorry that slipped out." Ark blushed. Still though he wondered how accidental it was, he did have a little excitement from seeing Terra in the tub, there were no real parts showing but the concealment made them a more desirable to see. -I wonder what my uncle would think of me now. I'm in love with Terra three days after I caught her and just now called her attractive and she seemed like it! Well I guess I'll hit that roadblock when I see him next time. -

Ark's stomach grumbled reminding him once again that he needed sustenance. "I believe that this hotel has a free breakfast which I intend to take full advantage of, oatmeal is nice and all but it can't compare to waffles." Ark said.

"What are those?" Terra signed questioningly.

"I'll show you." Ark led her down to the main area, which now held the complementary breakfast and grabbed a table. Looks of disgust appeared on the faces of a few people when they saw the pokémon sitting in their dining area, some even left from disgust, even though she was obviously clean. The manager didn't care, the less people ate here the more food he could use the for tomorrows breakfast and in turn that less money he would have to spend on them. As a result most foodstuffs were a day old and their flavor was sub-par.

Ark got a plate, skimmed over the small buffet table and grabbed a few waffles that seemed a little fresher than the rest for them to share. He was tempted to grab a few.

"You see Terra the key to eating waffles is the amount of syrup you use, too much and it leaks all over you when you take a bite, too little and you end up with a dry mouth." He said as he poured syrup upon the waffles to where each depression was half filled with the sticky sweet fluid. "There now we can dig in." He announced cutting himself a small piece.

Terra followed Arks actions and cut herself a piece and plopped it into her mouth. It was unbelievably delicious, the moistness, the sweetness, and the warmth, all combined into what tasted like the greatest food that had ever graced her mouth. She tried to find something to compare it to, she finally thought that it must be the edible equivalent of love. She smiled broadly.

Ark gulped down the bite he had his mouth "What are you smiling for?" he asked as her infectious smile took over him a forced a small smile on him.

"This tastes wonderful." She signed to him.

"You think so?" Terra nodded. "I suppose they do now that I think about it, better than onions at least. " He said quietly.

They finished up breakfast in around a half hour. With full bellies they head back upstairs to their room and grabbed everything that was theirs. Then they brought their key back to the counter and left.

"Well first things first we're supposed to go see Adair. He's probably waiting for us. Race you there!" Ark challenged and broke into a run seeing if Terra could keep up. When he saw her rushing after him he picked up the pace. Terra gracefully bounded past him, she was built for speed unlike her trainer. After a few blocks she slowed to a stop waiting patiently until her trainer had caught up a little bit, she then flashed a smile before bounding the rest of the way to Adair's house. She waited by the door for her trainer. Ark rounded the corner and slowed gasping for breath.

"Okay...you... beat...me..." He gasped

"Slow boy." She signed and Ark laughed, taking defeat lightly.

Ark knocked on the door when he caught his breath and waited. Adair seemed oddly tired when he answered with a wave of humid air.

"Hello Lopunny and Ark." Adair greeted.

"Hi, you said you could answer some of our questions?"

"Yes, come inside please."

"Thank you." Ark said politely and proceeded inside the oddly humid house followed quickly by Terra.

"Sit down, make yourselves at home, but introduce your Lopunny first unless you don't have a name for her."

"Oh, her name is Terra."

"I'm pleased to meet you Terra." Adair said as he extended his arm to shake hands with her,

"Is it okay?" Terra signed to Ark who nodded. She cautiously shook the man's hand.

"Teaching her sign language, not a bad idea, I wish I could have had the same privilege when I was a trainer. I was blessed with a Vaporeon as my first; it would have been difficult to teach her sign language."

"Yeah it's difficult for us, the books don't take pokémon into account, but it's a nice experience for the both of us." Ark smiled at Terra who felt left a little out because she couldn't really say anything.

"For sure, so what questions do you have for me?"

Many questions raced through Ark's mind, he chose one at random. "Why is it so humid in here?"

"Not quite what I was expecting, never the less I will answer it, after you answer the question I ask you. What are your views on Pokémon-Human relationships?" Adair asked.

"Well we are in one, so you can say we support them." Ark exchanged a loving glance with Terra. Somehow Adair felt safe enough to mention their newly formed relationship.

"That's good; I had prepared a long speech before hand if you didn't." He sounded disappointed as if he almost hoped Arks views were different so he could start his speech. "I suppose that you announced love for each other last night, you found out before then you loved her already. You were surprised that she fell in love with you so quickly but accepted it when she said it or should I say signed." Adair glanced at Ark.

"How did you-" Ark began but was quickly waved off by Adair.

"That's one of the questions I won't answer, at least not now." Adair interrupted. "It's good that you accepted it so readily, I've seen far too many people go through the same thing as you with mixed reactions. You see what you're experiencing isn't too odd, though you might still feel as if this is, which is normal I assure you. Trust me when I tell you that I have seen a few people fall in love with their pokémon not a half-hour after they are with them, myself included. Know that there is no reason you have to do anything beyond what you did last night if you feel uncomfortable with it. It was nearly a month before we started anything beyond the occasional kiss."

Ark looked at Terra who nodded, She wasn't about to force him to do something that would hurt their relationship if he wasn't ready for it.

"Now back to the original question, it's humid because my mate had a long intimate session with me this morning, and when she mates with me she likes it to be very humid inside." Adair said without a trace of embarrassment.

"Your mate prefers humidity?" The question came from Terra who quickly covered her mouth.

"Yes my mate does. I'll explain it to you in a minute." He said towards Ark who had curiosity etched into his face, and returned to speaking to the both of them. "You see my mate is a Vaporeon named Mist, who's been bedridden for the past year from a rare disease. You delivered the cure for it yesterday." He sighed before resuming. "I can't tell you how grateful I am that you delivered it."

"Why all the secrecy around it if it was just some medicine?" Ark asked.

"Well if the wrong people got a hold of this the consequences could be disastrous, that potion is a lethal poison to us humans, and in the hands of an enemy it can be, how shall I say, quite persuasive. Money can achieve the same thing most of the time, but you always have the chance of someone denying it or taking the money but not following through. Not many people would go against you if there's a dart coated in an incurable and lethal poison aimed at their neck or their families." Adair explained.

"If that package was that dangerous how could have my uncle trusted me with it?"

"Draven always had a knack for picking out a person best suited for a job, especially when it wasn't him." Adair laughed. "If there was another person better suited for this he would have picked them instead of you."

"I don't think I was the best suited for it, he was in a rush and said there were no other options."

"Even if he was he wouldn't have picked you if you went the best choice."

"I feel as if I'm reading a book with half the pages missing." Ark mumbled.

"Its understandable, I could spend the next week explaining things to you nonstop and you'd still feel like that." Adair commented.

"Okay I guess." Ark doubted that was the case but decided not to push it. "How did you understand what Terra said?"

Adair breathed a sigh of relief; he was afraid Ark had disregarded it when he had spoken about the delivery. "I will tell you as long as you promise not to tell another soul about it unless he or she is as close to a pokémon as you are right now with Terra. Do you swear?"

"I swear."

"It's a wonderful thing to be able to speak with a pokémon in their language, many have tried to do discover a way to do it but each one failed. The only way to speak with a pokémon in their language and understand it is by receiving a "Gift" from the pokémon themselves. This gift can be given by any pokémon regardless of type, size, or species, however this gift can only be given once in a pokémon's lifetime, and when given it cannot be taken back. In essence it's the single most sacred thing a pokémon can give in its lifetime."

"This "gift" enables a few things. When you receive the gift you're connected to the giver, you both share an empathetic link, you will be able to speak in pokémon tongue and understand it immediately, also fertility is enabled between you two. However, a mating ritual has to be preformed first before a pair produces offspring. The receiver usually, over time, also takes on some of the traits of the giver, take me for example, I may not look anything like my mate but I can breathe underwater, and I can also swim a bit faster than most athletes. The traits are there just not very noticeable. Speaking of my mate I should probably introduce her to you both, if she's awake of course." Adair left the two of them alone for a little while as he went upstairs to fetch his mate.

"So this gift thing really exists?" Ark asked Terra.

"Yes." The Lopunny signed.

"I never knew something like that could exist."

"It is good." Terra signed, wishing she had a bit more variety with her words.

"I suppose you didn't give it to me because I was already teaching you sign language and it would have made me stop." Terra nodded. "If you ever give me the gift we can still learn sign language, provided we still have some words left to teach each other, if you want of course. But this is your decision, not mine. Don't do it if you don't feel its time."

Terra smiled broadly at him, the one reason she had for keeping the gift from him was gone. Everything was set; she was ready to give him it. She asked herself one last time if there was any reason for withholding it, that for some small reason he wasn't worthy of it, but found nothing. This was probably the only chance she had before something could change her mind. She stood up and held her paws together in a position of prayer.

Ark stared as she did this; suddenly a bright flash illuminated the house. He closed his eyes out of reflex. When he opened them back up he found he was no longer sitting in the room, but laying in a meadow full of flowers next to Terra.

"Welcome my son." Said a deep voice, it reminded Ark of gravel shifting underfoot. The sheer power that radiated through the voice made him shudder but for every ounce of power it contained there was an equal amount of kindness. "And welcome my daughter. Why do you come?"

"I bring us here to give the sacred gift." Terra said calmly, still lying on the ground. Ark surprisingly understood her every word.

"You have chosen this one?" The voice asked.

"Yes I have, He holds my heart and I hold his." Responded Terra.

"Then rise and give it to him young one." The voice said again.

Terra rose and lifted Ark up effortlessly, she then pressed one paw to her heart and one upon Ark's. Shimmering silver light passed through her arm from her heart to his. Ark felt the light spread through every area of his body warming it, then when ever inch of his body felt the same warmth, it stopped leaving him with a wonderful felling all over.

"It is done young ones, may you be blessed with a long life, and an even longer lasting love." The deep voice announced and with another bright flash they were back in Adair's house.

"Did it work?" Terra asked, a feeling of concern emanated from her.

"I'm not sure." Ark said in shaky pokémon's tongue, it felt extremely weird to be speaking a language he never been able to speak before now. He felt relief flow from Terra when he finished speaking, then he had trouble breathing as Terra nearly squeezed him to death.

"It's wonderful isn't it?"

"Hnnnt." Ark tried to say, Terra released him. "Wonderful doesn't even begin to describe it." He said after he filled his lungs with sweet, sweet air.

"How true, I'm glad that I didn't wait any longer to give this to you." Terra extended her love for him through their link.

"I never truly realized how much you love me." Ark kissed Terra as he took the love she sent to him, and replaced it with his own.

Terra sighed passionately breaking the kiss. "Same here." She shifted a little closer to Ark

"Well now enjoying this new experience?" Said a feminine voice behind them. "I remember my own very well, such a nice feeling. Isn't that right love?" They turned and found Adair and a Vaporeon climbing down the staircase.

"Yes nothing can compare to the first time you speak with your pokémon. Ark, Terra, this is my mate Mist." He gestured to the Vaporeon next to him. "Sorry we intruded on this moment you're having."

"It's okay." Ark and Terra said together.

"It's just as well, I believe they would have mated if we waited to show ourselves any longer, Speaking of which you still have much more to make up for." Mist said smugly. "So you're the one who brought my cure, I appreciate that; Adair probably won't by the end of the week if you know what I mean."

"Yes, I'll probably regret this all when I won't be able to move tomorrow morning from exhaustion." Adair laughed. "I suppose you have more questions?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah who was that voice in the meadow, and what is that mating ritual you spoke about earlier, and why is your mate called Mist?" Ark asked.

"I'll start with the easiest one first, my mate is called Mist because of her problem, which is actually very nice, she has a very fine mist that uncontrollably surrounds her at times."

"Like my missing tufts?" Asked Terra, Ark felt the disgust she had over her missing eyebrow tufts through the link.

"I suppose, you need to remind yourselves that each thing that happens for a reason, besides variety is the spice of life. Now onto the next question the voice, now about the meadow I don't know, I'm guessing your referring to the vision you had?" Terra and Ark nodded. "Each different recipient has a different vision of a place the gift occurs at. It's usually is a very meaningful place to the giver, a wonderful dream they had or a specific place that they remember. The voice is from Regigigas the one who first created the gift after he shaped the world into what it is now."

"I would have thought Arceus created it."

"Most would. Most people assume that Arceus created everything, but the truth is each legendary in some way helped create the universe. It's just that Arceus was given most of the credit by humans."

Ark merely nodded trying to work it through his mind. He had trouble believing it, for all his life he'd believed Arceus had created everything, his uncle even supported his belief.

"I can understand your disbelief but rather than continue on it let's get onto the final question, the mating ritual. Mist can you take Terra somewhere and explain her part in it?"

"Of course, please come with me Terra." Mist lead Terra out of the room, Ark felt somewhat lonely even though Terra was close by.

"Ark, the mating ritual for the human-half isn't as hard as you would think. It really isn't much of a ritual either; just merely something you have to do to be fertile. You see humans, as strange as it may sound, are adjusted after the gift to be bit too cold inside our body's to be fertile with our pokémon partners; we humans are only able to produce offspring with them in summer months. Humans also need to eat nothing except Pecha berries for a week before breeding."

"Is that it? I thought there would be a bit more... well more." Asked Ark unconvinced it was all. He felt a twinge of shock from the empathetic link; he noted that the link wasn't as strong as before even thought there was very little distance between them.

"Yes that's it."

"Would the child be human, pokémon, or a hybrid?"

"That's one question that I can't answer, a good friend of mine had his human daughter and pokémon son both hatch from an egg, and another friend had her pokémon daughter born by labor. I have yet to see a hybrid, but I've heard enough rumors to be sure there's at least ten in existence. It's strange, there's no predictable pattern on the way the birth occurs or what the child will be. Anyway this isn't a choice you make lightly, Regigigas made sure that the ritual took preparation beforehand to make sure the couple had time to stop it if they felt they weren't ready for a child."

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"Before I begin I want you to try to suppress the empathetic link between you and your trainer. Do this by focusing on something that doesn't relate to Ark" Terra nodded and tried what she was asked, when she focused on a cup in front of her and nothing else she immediately felt mostly closed off to Ark. "Fortunately we have an easier time than humans for our half of the ritual; all we need to do is mate with them during our heat and pray to the heavens above for fertility." Mist explained.

"That's it?" Asked Terra shocked that it could be so simple.

"Yep simple for us, want something to drink?" Mist smiled expecting the question Terra was going to ask.

"Why are we talking about this privately if it's so simple?"

Mist's smile grew wider; happy she could read Terra and predict this simple question. "It's to give them a little privacy." Mist laughed. "Humans tend to be a little squeamish about these things and generally don't like to talk about them with the other gender in the room. Humans can be silly creatures but that makes us love them all the more." Mist laughed again.

"Yeah I suppose so." Terra laughed with the Vaporeon.

"You are going to have to explain to him about your heat cycle, preferably before you come in heat again. Which judging by your scent I'm guessing your going into it again around next week." Terra nodded she had assumed her heat was still about two weeks away. Concern now gripped her as she wondered what Ark would do when it happened. Though he probably knew most of it since he was raised on a farm it still could be awkward for them.

"Now about that drink, any specific thing you want?"

"Water's fine."

"Okay." Mist summoned an orb of water from the air and guided it into a glass in front of Terra. "You're very lucky to find him."

"I know I didn't think that we could be so close so quickly but sure enough here we are."

"You fit together almost perfectly; I'm actually kind of surprised that you both didn't love each other from the start."

"I think we could have had my first trainer never came into my life." Terra grimaced faintly hoping the Vaporeon wouldn't ask about her

"First trainer? Tell me about him."

"Her actually..." Terra proceeded to tell Mist all about her last trainer and how she had acted towards her.

Surprisingly it made her feel a bit better as she talked about it. Mist's expression changed from one of interest when she started, to absolute hatred when she finished.

"I had no idea... The reason you were released was obvious no offense. But being that cruel to you is inexcusable and she most likely got away scot free to boot." Mist barely could contain herself. She felt like finding whoever Terra's first trainer was and slaughtering her. "People like that make me sick, you should have run when you had the chance Terra. Come here and sit down on the floor."

Terra did and Mist wrapped her head around the Lopunny in a comforting way. "You are hurt so much Terra, I could tell from just from the way you hold yourself, yet I didn't know why. You're keeping your emotions locked away, but it keeps eating away at you no matter what you do. You want to lessen the pain but you're afraid that anyone you tell won't understand you and make it worse." Mist said quietly as she could, trying to comfort her with words too. She knew that this Lopunny had enough hurt from this first trainer that she was desperate to keep Ark around no matter what the cost, her love for him started like that. But now that she had given him the gift there was much more to it than that.

Terra started crying, it was true, almost as if Mist had read her mind. She had grown so accustomed to having no-one that she could really relieve it that she really didn't try to anymore unless a memory surfaced and when that happened she took care of it her own way, by storing it deeper than before. Now that Ark was around, she was still holding it all in trying to appear strong to him instead, but now that she had given him the gift he could be an outlet for her to relieve some of it. Still she was unsure if she should burden him with it, he could end up thinking she was too pathetic to do anything.

"Terra you need to tell Ark what you just told me about your last trainer. Don't worry about making yourself seem weak in his eyes. I think He might understand it very well."

Terra nodded softly.

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"So what are your plans now after you made this delivery?" Adair asked curious about what path Ark was going to take now that he was a trainer.

"I figure I'm going to try the gym leader challenge and hope for the best." Ark responded.

"Not a bad choice, as long as you have a nicely balanced team you should do great. I tried once about ten years ago, almost got every badge too, just the Sunyshore one killed me and Mist. Never try to tackle an electric type gym with a team of mostly water types, I was cocky and got a nice lesson in humility, the bad thing was I knew about the weakness I had. Then Mist gave me a very aggressive talk about it. Hell hath no fury like a pokémon woman scorned, trust me, human women don't have natural power over elements like they do. Thankfully I recovered from the long drenching she gave me. I stopped with the gym challenge after that and focused more on defeating trainers for money. I've toyed with the idea of trying the gyms once again when Mist got over her sickness."

"Are you going to try now?"

"Depends if she wants to, I'm all for it if she is, though we probably need to gather all the badges again. Not to mention getting ourselves back into the groove, and assembling another team since my old one didn't feel like hanging around while Mist was sick." Adair paused thoughtfully "Hmm, I know this seems kind of sudden but, provided the girls say its okay, would you like to have a small battle?" Adair asked hopefully. Maybe Ark can get him back to what he once was an ace rank trainer whose only loss was against the Sunyshore gym leader.

Adair waved off the question before Ark asked it. "I know what you're thinking, that Mist hasn't fully recovered yet, well that cure you brought her back to nearly peak condition. Whatever Draven put in it was probably worth its weight in gold."

"Well it would be my first real battle but I don't see a problem with it if Terra doesn't. We could probably use the experience of fighting something that doesn't take two attacks to beat." Ark looked forward to asking Terra if she would like to.

"Welcome back, everything go okay?" Asked Adair as the two pokémon came back from the discussion they had.

"Yes, she knows everything I do about the ritual." Mist said as she watched Terra sit down next to Ark.

"Ark and I have finished with our half of it and were just discussing about having a battle between the two of us provided your okay with it."

"A battle sounds like a nice idea to get these muscles moving again. Heaven's know I need the exercise" Said Mist excited, she wondered if she was even close to the power she had before the sickness took hold of her.

"I will fight." Terra signed, Ark felt happy that she was still using sign language even though it was unnecessary.

"There we have it. We will start as soon as everyone is ready." Adair spoke calmly and everyone else nodded. "Mist if you'll come with me we should talk about what strategy we should use and I'm sure you two have a strategy to talk about." Adair gestured towards the other trainer and his Lopunny, and found his mindset different. Now it was that of a trainer looking at a rival rather than a man looking at the person who brought him the medicine for the one he loved. Deep inside he felt the passion for adventure burn once more, this time he would be able to act on it. He hastily took Mist to the kitchen to privately discuss their battle plans loving his newly rekindled passion.

"Yeah we should have one." Ark mumbled thinking about how little he knew about Terra's abilities. Terra sensed his growing concern and stroked his arm to comfort him. "I don't know what to do Terra; I know this would be coming soon enough, that I would eventually have to fight another trainer. It just seems like I'm going to lose no matter what I do, I have no clue as to how Adair fights, or how strong Mist is. Heck I don't even know how to fight."

"Even if we lose, we will still grow stronger." Said Terra still trying to comfort him.

"Yeah." Ark remembered the pokégear he bought yesterday and fished it out of his bag. "This will help at least." He said as he put it on and the screen lit up displaying a map. Pressing the red button on the side he switched it over to the battle reader and scanned Terra.

"Unable to find identifier chip, scan cancelled." The pokégear announced in a very scratchy voice.

"Identifier chip?" Ark said curious as to why the pokégear would be acting like this.

Terra shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll take it back to the store later maybe they can explain it. Can you tell me what attacks you know?" Terra started listing the moves which names she still remembered. She knew many more but had forgotten their names out of disuse. When she finished Ark explained the plan he made up to Terra, it involved using a move in completely different way than she could have ever imagined, but she was willing to try it.

"Are you ready yet Ark?" Adair yelled from the kitchen.

"Yes we are." Terra and Ark said.

"Well let's take this out of the city, don't want anyone complaining about us." With that Adair lead them to the outskirts of Eterna forest about a half hour walk from his house. Nervousness kept pummeling Ark, Terra tried to comfort him but failed, he was too strung out.

"Well here we are, ready to begin?" Adair asked when they reach a large open area.

"Yeah let's get this over with." Ark mumbled as he and Terra got into position.

"You sound like your already thinking you're going to lose." Adair laughed and got into position with Mist. "Well let's begin." His eyes flashed. "Mist use Aqua Ring."

Mist nodded and formed the soothing and curative veil of water around her.

"Okay Terra use Focus Blast like we talked about."

Terra smiled wondering if it would surprise the Vaporeon. She jumped high in the air and charged an orb of raw energy in her paws. Instead of immediately releasing it, she slammed it into the ground in front of Mist forcing the orb into the earth. For a second it looked as if it would do nothing, then the ground cracked as it became saturated with energy. Terra sped away from the confused Vaporeon, she almost laughed when she saw the equally confused expression on Mist's trainer. Terra reached her original position when the blast erupted from the earth, spraying debris and dust everywhere it was impossible to tell how much had hit the Vaporeon but she assumed she had at least taken a large chunk of the blast.

All seemed well until an unintelligible shout came from the other trainer and speeding Vaporeon emerged from dust cloud, slammed wetly into the side of Terra, and pinned her down biting her shoulder. Ark winced as the pain extended over the link they shared, it wasn't a crippling injury he could tell but it did hurt a bit.

Tossing the Vaporeon off of her, Terra cast him an "I'm okay" look and charged the Vaporeon, her arms flooding with the 'return' energy, she then stuck her enemy with the powerful force focusing on all the feelings she and her trainer shared. The Vaporeon was sent flying, Terra didn't even give Mist a chance to land, she sped under her foe and delivered a forceful kick to the enemy's stomach knocking the wind out of her and sending her sky bound. Terra raised herself up and jumped not giving her enemy a chance to recover from the steady stream of blows. She thought of a small dual attack while flying up to the stunned Vaporeon. Charging the energy into her leg she delivered a final massive kick, sending Mist back into the earth at a frightening speed. Terra fell gracefully back onto solid ground doing a small pirouette.

Ark found himself very attracted to the pirouette she made and hoped it wouldn't be sent through the link, the knowing smile she flashed him told him it had and a pleased feeling wormed its way to him. She was proud to have that effect on him, that he considered her to be attractive. She landed finally and stared at the area Mist landed ready to leap out of the way if an attack came. The Vaporeon slowly raised herself, the veil of water quickly curing the minor wounds she had and slowly healing the larger ones.

Mist scanned Terra her in an effort to predict what was going to come next but found nothing that gave the Lopunny's next action away. It scared her that she had no way to predict what attack would come next, she had prided herself on being able to see minute movements that gave away what action was coming up next, but this Lopunny had complete self control and didn't even twitch a muscle as Mist scanned her. In a split second Terra could be on the offensive again and not a single inclination showed about what move she would use. Terra's trainer shouted for her to use an attack which Mist somehow didn't hear, then she saw it as the Lopunny came rushing towards her, a small spark of silver appeared around her balled up paws.

Quickly, Mist dodged the blow and countered with a quick bite. Mist knew she couldn't take much more of this, if it hadn't been for the water surrounding her Mist would have lost already. Mist shook her head to try and clear it, this was impossible, she was a tourney caliber pokémon fighting a lesser trained one, even a year of being bedridden didn't do that much to weaken her besides the loss of a small amount of muscle. This wasn't supposed to happen, the reason she was losing dawned upon her. She had made one of the stupidest mistakes in battling, never underestimate your opponent, even the smallest flea has the ability to take down the largest giant.

Mist ran the odds through her head on how likely she was going to be able to win now that Terra still had whittled her down. The odds were equal, but in each scenario both parties were going to be seriously injured before any clear-cut winner would arise. There was little point to continue the fight until that happened. Staring at Adair she gave the signal for surrender. Adair nodded and announced yelled at ark that the fight was over.

"Damn boy and you were worried that you wouldn't be good enough. I can tell you now that what you lack in experience you and Terra more than make up in power and thinking, I have never seen a focus blast used that way before, and that 'Return' was damn powerful. You have a lot to learn true, and you need to be more involved with the battle, but you exceeded my expectations on how this fight would go." Adair said when they all gathered back together.

"It was nothing that I did, Terra was the one that made it all happen." Ark said as he started tending to Terra's wounds.

"That 'Return' attack she used was only as powerful as it was because of the love you share with each other. You had as much to do with it as she did." Mist commented. "Terra, the focus, power, and speed you shown were unlike any I have ever seen before. I consider you my equal." The praise lifted Terra's spirits she felt honored that Mist was calling her an equal despite the lack of experience she had.

"Well let's take care of business." Adair said taking his wallet out and handing Ark roughly three thousand yen.

"I can't accept this." Ark said as he pushed the money away.

"Take it boy you've earned it, this is what I would have bet had we placed money on this." Adair said honestly, he had been sure he would have won.

"Fine, but I'm buying lunch for everyone." Ark retorted.

"Deal."

"May I make a suggestion for lunch?" Terra asked.

"Of course you can Terra, you're the star." Ark said.

"Could we have waffles?" Terra laughed despite the pain she felt as Ark finished tightening the bandage on her shoulder.

"I don't see any reason why you can't my little Lopunny." Ark laughed alongside her and took her paw; the reason for their laughter was lost on the other two.