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Tk took the punch like a man, on the out side he played it off as just a playful punch, but he was totally, 'son of a @#$%, why does she hit so hard?!' on the inside. It took all the self-control he possed to not clutch his arm and jump up and down like a sissy

"Right, my lips are sealed" he said, making a zipper sealing like motion across his lips. He didn't wanna get on Sal's bad side, she might stop making her punches so... playful.

"But you know, it might suck to lack self control, but it sucks even worse to be on the receiving end of the one with no self control." before he could go into details his stomach sounded like siren. "uh-um, s-sorry" Tk stammered, a red tinge appearing across his cheeks, obviously embarrassed. The Center was in sight, only a few buildings down.

((Omega was easy as ******** to beat.))

Wayne finished up, and cleared his trays before leaving them on top of the rubbish bin. His pokémon went back in their balls for now, except for Lilligant, who followed behind him quietly.

"Hey Sal!" he waved on his way past, "I'm gonna turn in! Goodnight!" he carried on towards the stairs, but stopped at the first step, "oh yeah! Pokéburger: try it. I'm serious. Just don't ask what the meat is. Buh-bye!"

Lilligant gave Sal a quick look, but quickly hitched her leaves and followed Wayne up the stairs. Their room was a little ways down the hall, several floors up. There were a few other trainers flitting in and out of their rooms; normal for kids still excited about their adventure. Wayne was tired though, so he didn't pay them too much notice.

---

The room itself was fairly spacious. The bed was near the window, which overlooked the city's twinkling lights. A sound filter had been fitted, which meant that outside noise could be dulled with the flick of a switch. Besides that, there was a desk taking up a full corner of the room, which had a complementary laptop that could be used for transferring pokémon as well as internet browsing.

Wayne emptied his pockets on the bed and took off his shoes. His clothes were getting pretty dirty by now, and he had run out of money to get new ones. His parents were well off, but he didn't like having to go to them for hand-outs, not when he was supposed to be on a pokémon journey. He wanted to go pro one day, after all.

"Hey guys, time to come out," Wayne said, flicking the switches on the remaining pokéballs. He hestitated with Deerling, then decided against it. While the pokémon had been useful in training his core team, he still didn't trust it quite yet.

[Oh god... what day is it...?] Duosion gasped and Hitmonlee pushed past the psychic to claim the beanbag left in the corner of the room.

"Dunno about you guys, but I am so ready for bed." Wayne said, giving a tired smile. "If you can't sleep, try doing a little Aura training. Except you, Duosion. I don't want you blowing up."

Neither did the psychic, who hopped under off the bed and found a quiet spot under it, out of sight.

"I hope you're ready for tomorrow," Wayne said, yawning, "cause I think we should tell the rest of the crew about what we learned from Deerling. And I'm gonna need demonstrations... well. Goodnight."

Wayne flicked off the light. Hitmonlee glared through the darkness. What? Demonstrations? And he still couldn't... no, this was his chance. While the others were resting, he'd train. Get the edge. He'd show them all!

Everyone was asleep within five minutes.

Right after entering the center, Tk made a bee line for the buffet. Gabbing some of this and some of that, making especially sure to get some buffolaunt steak. with his plate loaded, and after making a second trip to grab two dishes of pokechow, one for spike the other for lancer, and a plater of baked basculin for Saria.

"Right, and here's for you Iron Hide." the youth said reaching into his sling pack for an item ball, producing a large hunk of metal scrap. Iron hide jumped to the hunk of metal, excitedly chowing down. Now that all his Pokemon had been taken care of he was free to dig in as well.

After He and his team had finished there supper, they retired to there room. Spike dropped into the bean bag placed in a corner. Lancer took up in the bed, taking up a single pillow, and Iron hide laid down at the foot of the bed. Saria slept perched on the roof of the center.

Tk kicked off his shoes, removed his sling pack and Xtranceiver, and plopped into bed, arm's folded behind his his head. his thoughts drifted back to Henrietta's house where he commented how his clone disappearing in a poof of smoke was like something from the Manga/Anime Naruto, a ninja themed Manga. A sly grin spread across his face. 'Ninja..'

and those were his last thoughts as he drifted off into sleep.

THE NEXT DAY

"Finally!" Wayne stretched, back clicking and joints cracking, "I thought I'd never wake up! I-- uh, what time is it?"

He peeled a curtain back and squinted through. Still pretty dark, but with a bluish tinge of tomorrow in the streets. Good enough. It was odd though, since the outside lights of the pokémon center made it look like sunshine was coming through the curtains. It'd be a good hour or so before sunshine really reared its ugly head.

"Guys," Wayne said loud enough to wake his pokémon up. Hitmonlee's eyes snapped awake furiously, but he didn't move from his beanbag; Lilligant spluttered from the end of Wayne's bed, her flower a mess with plant-bed-head. And finally, Duosion rolled out from under the bed, gave a short look to Wayne, then rolled back underneath, followed by snoring.

"I know we had food right before bed? But we have gotta have some breakfast. I've got a feeling today's gonna be a big one."

---

After running his head under the shower, Wayne came down in the lobby. His team decided to stay in the room to catch up on sleep, and he figured he'd let them. They needed their rest before training.

There wasn't any kitchen staff on hand this early in the morning, but there were a couple of cleaners about, as well as one or two trainers. Wayne wandered into the canteen and found the self-serve counter. It was a counter on wheels, fitted with a refrigeration unit.

Wayne fixed himself a cereal, then sat down at one of the tables and yawned over his breakfast.

"Tch, s**t s**t s**t" came the sound of a young boy mumbling curses. in the very same park that Henrietta kicked a** in last night, was Tk. obviously frustrated due to the scowl he was wearing plastered to his face. "Ive been going through the steps over and over and i still cant get it!" He'd been out since about an hour before Henrietta sent the message Via Xtranceiver.

"Ok ,again," he urged himself on, standing and repeating the same wall kick, off a tree and not a wall, into a second spiral kick mid air. after landing, going directly into a hand spring in a reverse pencil dive going up. At that point he'd attempt to angle his body so that he could land properly, only to fail, again. "s**t!" came another curse as he landed on his back. Normally Takamaru wasn't the type to curse so often, tending to only do it when irritated with himself.

"Screw this, ill practice the basics again" the silver haired youth mumbled, bringing himself to his feet. the basics included a series of jump's, bends, leaps and bounds. utilizing every part of the body in order to string together fluid motions. This was all the three dancer brother's had time to teach him before he left Castelia. 'wonder how there doing now..' he thought, thinking of how the three brother's helped expand his knowledge of Capoeira.

Before he had time to ponder the well being of Marcelo, Fernando, and Antonio, his Xtranceiver went off. Stopping his practice he walked over to where his Sling pack lay, along with his Xtranceiver. all four of his Pokemon still lay asleep in his room at the Pokemon center a couple blocks away. After wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and grabbing his water bottle to take a long drink from, he picked up the communication device. there was a new message in the crew's chat room.

It was from Hentietta.



After Typing in his response he strapped the device to his wrist before sitting down cross-legged in front of the same tree he was wall jumping off of. closing his eyes he reached out to the mental zipper that he used to control his duplication, his Aura . giving the Zipper tug he felt the same splitting sensation all over his body, 'Yup it worked'

he didn't even have to open his eyes to know that there was an exact copy of himself sitting right infront of him. 'Your getting the hang of this arnt ya' ' those thoughts weren't his, 'were they?'

'nope' came a cheery mental reply from his clone.

Opening his eyes The real Tk gave the clone a look of disbelief. "ok, so we can hear each other's thoughts?"

"Yup"

it took a second for the real Tk to reply to his clone, "is it weird that that doesn't freak me out?"

The clone only shrugged.

"Anyway, i brought you out cause i wanna test something." the real Tk said, standing in the process.

"And what might that be?" the Tk clone inquired.

"in the Manga Naruto, when he uses clones, he gains the experiences that his clones Experienced." he paused. "for instance, say you run off and take a history class, when i end the Aura link and you disappear, I should learn everything you learned during the class."

"Ok, and you think that if we both practice Capoeira, well learn it twice as fast!" the Tk clone replied.

"Exactly, considering my Theory holds true."

"and who said Anime never taught us a thing!"

after both Tk's finished laughing, they went to work practicing the basic movements once again. They went through the Au, which is basically a cart wheel in which you never stop looking at your opponent as well as keeping your knees bent. Then going into the Ponte, which is essentially a bridge with your belly button facing upwards. From there the twin Tk's would go into several other basic movements like the esquiva role.

they'd continue this for about an hour, stopping to reply to Xtranceiver messages and to Hydrate.

((Hey guys, just put up Part 1 of Day 7 in Sal's journal. The whole thing is kinda long, so she decided to split it up. And she was really tired when she wrote the first part, so if she made any spelling or grammar mistakes let me know and I'll tell her to fix them))

Salieri

Wukong was the last of the pokemon to get up. He scowled at the morning sun shining brightly through the windows. <******** the sun.

The Monferno scratched his butt as he got up, lumbering over to Salieri's bed. She was in a deep sleep, with a look of irritation on her face. The Battle Girl had not changed into her pajamas, and she had not bothered to get under the covers either. Wukong yawned before reaching out to shake her awake. [C'mon. I didn't get up just to sit around. Feed me-]

Before he could even touch his trainer, he found himself floating in the air away from Salieri. Salem held him in a telekinetic grip while Haizhe flopped his tentacles over the Monferno's mouth to cover it before he could start screaming curses.

Chen Zhen looked up and put a finger over his mouth for a quiet signal, shaking his head. Wukong stopped struggling and gave the pokemon a glare. He nodded.

Liuye looked at Salem and Haizhe, who released Wukong and let him fall to the ground. [Somebody better tell me what's going on,] he growled.

[We were up training late last night,] Chen Zhen explained, gesturing to himself, Liuye and Sal. [We got to sleep real late. Salieri told me not to wake her up and to just go train in the park by ourselves. She'll meet us there.]

[If we wake her up, it'll be worse than when the Pinwheel Forest burned down,] Salem joked, smirking a little. Chen Zhen rose an eyebrow at the "joke". The Espeon hung her head a little. [Sorry. Too soon?]

Chen Zhen dismissed it with a sigh, leading the rest of the pokemon to the door. [I don't get it. What were you doing up that late?] Wukong demanded to know more.

Liuye Dao gave him a look as if to say "It's a long story." [I'll tell you on the walk there,] Chen Zhen promised as he quietly closed the door behind him.

An hour later, Salieri was still asleep. Until her xtransceiver started to buzz with new messages. The Battle Girl had neglected to turn it off the night before.

VZZT. VZZT.

She began to stir, shutting her eyes harder to try and stay asleep. But to no avail, as a few seconds later her eyes opened, shaking with fury. She snatched the xtransceiver, finding it hard to restrain herself from breaking the casing in her grip. What time was it?

She checked. 8 AM. What the ******** night before***

"Since I went to Henrietta's house, I thought a lot about the things my Aura ability could do. I want to see if my theories are correct. For this one, I'll need your help. You'll be my spotters."

She had taken two of her pokemon to the South Gate of Nimbasa City. They were right outside, still a ways to go from the ever present sandstorm but isolated from people all the same. The environment coupled with what Salieri was saying put Chen Zhen and Liuye Dao on edge.

"If I really can control my body functions, then I want to try controlling my bioelectricity. So far, all I could figure out was how to toughen up my skin and sense my blood. That skin thing is like an armor, and I'm still brainstorming what I could do with the blood thing. But if this works, I could give myself an offensive advantage."

Sal pointed to her Pawniard. "Liuye, this is just like that Neuroshock ability you just learned. Only instead of using Inner Focus and Thunder Wave with your steel body, I'll be..." She looked down at her self. Aside from this new power, she was an ordinary human being. One in top shape, but still just flesh and bone. "Well, yeah. I taught you Neuroshock. Now I need you to teach me. Chen Zhen, you'll be on deck in case anything goes wrong."

[Pan!] Chen Zhen yelped, stomping his foot to the ground. None of this sounded like a good idea. He was supposed to be the medic. So did Salieri expect anything serious to happen to her? It could be dangerous.

Liuye, who already knew just how painful it had been to learn the technique, was hesitant to fulfill Master Salieri's request. But his master's orders were for him to follow. Even if he was reluctant, he would help Master Salieri reach her goals however he could.

He heaved a heavy sigh, then nodded. Salieri smirked, showing off the canine teeth on one side of her mouth as she pounded her fist into her palm.

"Alright. Then let's get it started."

~~~~~

"GRRRRAAAAAARRRRRGGGGH!!!!"

The first step had been sensing her bioelectric currents in her entire body. And surprisingly, that didn't take long. It seemed Salieri's ability let her easily tune in to the going-ons in her body. Once she was aware of her biology, she could start visualizing the changes so she could make them happen.

That was the part that was difficult. Previously, when she used her ability she didn't have a hard time sensing or changing herself, probably because those applications were simpler. But now she was toying with an electrical current that ran in a very precise manner in her entire body. Bioelectrical signals naturally fulfill many jobs in humans, so when she misfired them in the wrong direction, they came with nasty side effects. Such as excruciating pain.

As their trainer howled and writhed on the ground, the pokemon knew why they were out so far from the city. It was so no one had to hear her screaming.

She suddenly stopped, gritting her teeth as her fingers and legs twitched. A static shock clung her shirt tightly to her torso, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Chen Zhen rushed to her side, giving her a stamina restoring leaf to eat. It wouldn't do much to dull the pain, but it would keep her alert.

"Tha-KAH!" Her words were interrupted by a cough as she beat her chest. Sal cleared her throat as she sat up before she tried speaking again. "That was better this time. I think I'm starting to run low on Aura, because this is pre-tty draining."

She sounded happy to be learning this much, but she also sounded weak and exhausted. Liuye folded his arms and turned away. He was done. There was no way he could go on letting her do this to herself. Maybe she could find a better teacher, or try again when she was better with Aura. But not now.

Her hand around his arm made the Pawniard spin around. Eagerness was in her eyes, even though she looked weary. "I know you don't want to see this. But you're the only one who can help me, Liuye. I want this, and I'll be fine."

He struggled to meet her gaze. Salieri softened her features, and suddenly she wasn't putting on that hard-as-nails front anymore. "Come on, Liuye. I don't know how to explain this, but this-this whole...Aura thing, it's something I feel like I have to master. My life's not going to be the same anymore. It's surreal and exhilarating and honestly a little scary. But in my gut I know it's a part of me, and that means I have to take it as far as it can go. And I really, really want you to trust me when I tell you that I'll be okay."

There was a long pause, as the only sound was the whistling of the sandstorm winds in the distance. Finally, it was broken by the clinking of Liuye's metal feet as he changed his position, fully facing Salieri and standing up straight. The Battle Girl, with heavy eyelids, smiled and pat the Pawniard on the cheek.

"That's why you're my right hand man."
"Pa-PAN!"
"Other than you, Chen Zhen."

***Back to the Present***

Besides the fact that it took some time for them to grow back, there's a reason why Salieri didn't continuously use Pansage leaves to lengthen training. While they increased your stamina, if you took enough of them in a short period of time they would cause you to crash. Hard.

By 2 in the morning, even Salieri realized that she was too tired to keep going, even though she wanted to. So they returned to the pokemon center, Sal passed on instructions to her pokemon: take the rest of the team out for training in the park, and unless there was an urgent emergency DO NOT wake her up.

She had been too sleepy to remember to turn off her xtransceiver, so she could only blame herself for getting woken up by it. But she still muttered "Son of a b***h," as she rolled out of bed on her way to the shower. Answering the messages would have to wait until Salieri wasn't cranky enough to spin kick someone's head off.

Luka was probably one of the few people to still be in bed at 8AM. Out of sheer habit, he always turned his Xtanceiver onto silent overnight. No way was he getting woken up by other people in the morning. That was the job of his alarm clock which was set for 9:00 AM. And that was the exact time he got up. The book signing was going to take place at 11:00 AM so he and his team got themselves ready, fed and out of the hotel by 10:00 AM. As he left the hotel he looked at the C-Room, saw the responses and replied.



Luka thought for a moment. That didn't really sound like him. He wasn't a particularly sociable person but he guessed that the sentiment would be appreciated even if he wasn't going to do anything particularly strenuous. Still, he felt positive about the immediate future of the day, but there was a niggle of doubt in his gut that told him that something big was going to happen today.