Aiden arrived back at Route 4, missing the weight of his wallet, found a suitable area for training, and turned to Rae. "Alright," he said. "Ready to become totally kick ass?" He grinned. "Your little friend there might be of some use to us." He nodded akwardly at the IV stand.

((Woo. Finally. Only a few threads late. XD))

((One of which was titled "To Make a Pinsir Jump."))

Rae huffed. Finally. She swung it experimentally, though it didn't go very far. The plastic tubing was still tangling the stand in her horns.

Route 4 was still as barren as ever. There was a single withered tree, a few rocks, and dead grass that came up in patches. In the distance, a Numel chewed on some of this grass.

((Yeah. Leave me alone. xD))

"Err, that might be a problem," Aiden said. "Hold still, okay?" he said, walking over and reaching up to untangle the plastic tubing from her horns.

There were no knots or especially bad tangles, and the tubing came out easily enough. It turned out the plastic was completely seperate from the actual IV stand.

((Who can the make shorter post? =D))

Rae grunted impatiently, but let Aiden finish untangle her.

"There," Aiden said as he finished. Rae stood back up and shook her head before pounding one fist into the other. It was show time.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen," Aiden said. "You run up to the enemy, and Siesmic Toss 'em. You know how to do that. Just hurl them as high as you can into the air. As soon as you do that, you're going to jump up higher than them, twist around so you're facing downwards, force your horns into them, grab on, and spin as they fall and get crushed."

Sure the move sounded complicated. But an ever confident Rae only listened in silence. This was her kind of brutality.

"But in order to do that, we're going to have to work on your jumping." He looked around briefly, saw the tree, and walked over to it, trying to judge how high it was.

Rae started loosening up and started throwing jabs into the air. She was ready to start.

((And just a note. Unless you do some insanely great teaching, you're going to be here for a while.))

The tree was probably twice Rae's height at the very most.

((Mmf. Great.))

Aiden frowned at the scrawny tree's height. "Oh well," he mumbled. "Better to start small." He turned back to Rae and jabbed a finger at the tree. "'Kay, jumping exercises. Keep jumping in front of this tree. Slash it everytime you jump up. Keep trying to slash higher than you did before until you can jump higher than this tree." Aiden walked away from the tree as Rae approached it.

He grabbed Taste's pokeball. There was something he wanted to work with Taste on too. "I'm going to work with Taste a little. You just keep jumping, I'll check up on you every once in awhile."

Rae grunted. She didn't care.

Aiden released Taste. "Hey," Aiden said. "I want to work with you on a technique I thought might come in handy. We're going to try and harden only certain parts of your body. Err, your arms. This is so when you grab something, you can harden onto it, and solidify your grip." Taste shrugged, and Aiden thought for a moment. "Let's try it without you stretching your arms out first. Try it."

Aiden glanced back at Rae to see how she was doing.

Though Rae's jumps were impressive and reached somewhat close to the top of the tree, the height was consistent. She didn't show any immediate signs of improvement or increase in jumping power. She also lashed out at the tree with her arms every chance she got, but sometimes she would miss the tree altogether or accidentally jam her claws in the bark, which would throw off her jump and force her to make a clumsy landing. During one of these bad landings, she dropped her IV stand. Scowling at it, she kicked it out of the way and kept jumping.

Taste seemed to be doing slightly better, although the results of his effort were not as visible. He concentrated on Hardening his form. When he felt the entirely of his body start to get more rigid, he stopped and started over. After giving his arms a good stare, he slowly began to work on making them more solid. And he did, although he also got his sides and small parts of his face as well.

Aiden watched Rae's progress with a scowl. This would take awhile. "Keep it up, Rae. We're going to need to strengthen your legs. Feel the burn. Keep jumping."

Aiden was much more pleased with Taste's quick success. It wasn't entirely perfect, but it wasn't bad. "Good, Taste. Try it again. Only your arms. Focus."

Aiden frowned at the scenery. This really wasn't a very good place to train. He needed trees.

As he waited for Taste's next attempt, Aiden pulled out his pokedex and pointed it at the Numel.

This Numel is female and level 8, the PokeDEX said. The Numel was still diligently trying to eat the dead grass she'd found.

Rae just continued to keep jumping. If anything, at least she was hitting the tree trunk most of the time now. She still got her claws stuck sometimes, though, so she did occasionally made one of those terrible landings, but she was getting better.

Taste concentrated again on his arms. This time he'd done it, and he more or less had gotten just his arms Hardened at this point.

Update: Taste's arms have increased Defense (+2). His arms are beginning to get more solid.

Terrain: The ground is made of loose dirt, rocks, and the occasional spot of dead grass. There is a shriveled tree nearby.

Aiden wasn't too put off by Rae's slow progress. She was getting better, and apart from a few times before, she had never really worked on jumping. "Keep it up!" he called to her.

After Taste had sucesfully hardened his arms, Aiden grinned at him. "Awesome! But that's only the first part. Okay, uhh, unharden them or whatever..." he said lamely. "Can you do that?"

((Er, new rule? In combat, Taste can't unharden, but outside of combat, he can?))

Taste took a deep breath and stretched his arms a little. Already they were losing their rigidness, and after another breath, Taste's arms were as gooey as they normally were.

Meanwhile, Rae was starting to get a little tired, but she was't letting that stop her. Panting, she continued slashing at the tree. She was getting closer to the top now, and any bad landings were few and far in-between. The claw marks she left in the tree's trunk were stacking slightly higher and higher on each other.

((Ehh, sure.))

Aiden smiled a little, but said nothing to Rae.

"Okay, Taste. Now stretch them out and grab, uhh, that IV stand. After you've got it, harden your arms."

Taste easily stretched out his arms and snagged the IV stands. Since the Hardening the arms part was something he'd just recently gotten down, it took him a little while to get him arms sturddy again, but when he did he contained the Harden to his arms alone. He was catching on pretty fast.

And Rae just continued jumping. Her breathing was getting more labored as she went, but her will to improve was strong and she kept at it. There was almost a column of Scratch marks leading ever close to the top of the tree.

"Hey, try a few running jumps if you think that'll help," Aiden offered to Rae as he ran behind the IV stand.

He got a good grip on it, got into a stance, and then said to Taste from behind it, "Nice. Now we're going to make your grip unbreakable..." Aiden readjusted his grip. "Pull!" he yelled and started pulling the IV stand in the opposite direction.

Taste simply blinked at Aiden, shrugged, and pulled back. As it turned out, Aiden's extra height and weight helped out a good deal in the tug-of-war, and though Taste's arms and hands were Hardened, there were still times when it seemed the IV stand would simply slide through Taste's hands. But they didn't, and Taste held fast while he pulled back.

It was hardly unbreakable, but Taste still a decent grip. He began to look rather bored with this training and abruptly let the IV stand go.

<><><><>

Rae didn't show any signs that she had listened to Aiden, but she did take his advice. She started a little farther away from the tree and ran at it before jumping. This new element made her miss the tree with her scratches the first few times, but eventually she was back on track.

Her gasps for breath were extremely audible now, and every time she came down she was a little slow in getting back to a running distance, but she attempted her jumping once, twice, and on the thrd time clipped the top of the tree with her claws. After this victory, her next jump was a little lower, but the next one hit the top of the tree again. So it went, Rae hitting the top of the tree roughly forty percent of the time, and hitting just under it for the rest.

Aiden, not anticipating the sudden release, toppled over, the IV stand falling on top of him. He gave an aggravated sigh, pushed it off and sat up.

"You're such an ass..." he grumbled as he stood up and brushed himself off. "Alright, Rae. Go ahead and take a little break," he said, slinging his pack off and grabbing a drink of water.

Taste's grip was good. He was holding his own against Aiden, who wasn't exactly a small person. Against smaller, more frail pokemon, Taste's strong grip might have been their undoing. Taste was smart, and he learned fast. His only problem was he never showed it. His lackadaisical personality was his only hinderence. In order to get Taste to do anything, Aiden would have to bribe him.

Sinking his face into his hands, Aiden's thoughts were interupted by a loud grunt from Rae. She hadn't stopped. Her breathing was becomming heavier and heavier. She landed, staggered for a moment, and then ran back to jump again.

she's insane... Aiden thought. "Rae... At least give your legs a break. C'mere."

She didn't stop. She jumped again, and slashed the top of the tree.

Aiden was impressed. "Hey, who do you think's stronger? You or Taste?"

This made Rae stop. She turned to look at Aiden. The answer was obvious wasn't it. She raised her head, still breathing heavily and stared at Aiden.

Aiden cracked a smile. He'd gotten to her. "Why don't you prove it then?" Taste seemed totally uninterested in whatever was about to transpire and started slithering towards the Numel.

Rae yelled at him, commanding him to stay. She was eager to now to hear what Aiden had in mind.

"We're going to have a tug of war match," he said. "And Taste..." The Grimer wasn't paying attention. "If you win... we'll stop for more food. But only if you win." Taste stopped. Suddenly, a pair of eyes appeared in his back and he started slithering back. Now there was some motivation.

Rae moved in place, stretching out her arms. Taste stretched out his arms as well, but in a more literal way. He grabbed the IV stand and Rae grabbed the other side.

Aiden stood back. "Uhh, do you want me to say go or something?"

A furious roar from Rae and a gurgled, determined battle cry from Taste answered him and the two started pulling without waiting for Aiden.

"Okay, umm, yeah. Whatever works..."

And the battle was on.

A determined Rae would be more of a challenge, and so a lot of new factors came into play during Rae and Taste's competition. Rae was a lower level than Taste, and she was very tired from her constant jumping around. To add to that, Taste was pretty strong himself.

But Rae still had Taste beat by at least double in height and weight, was stronger than Aiden, and had the advantage of friction. Growling between puffs of breath, she dug her heels into the dirt to get better footing. Taste, who was essentialy living goo, had little friction to his name and had to depend entirely on arm strength to try and pull the IV stand back towards him. Also, when his arms were stretched out, he didn't have the exact same pulling strength he did when his arms were at their normal length. Though it may not have mattered so much with Aiden, with Rae it was making itself more apparent.

To make matters worse for Taste, he'd only Hardened once. Though his grip wasn't going to be readily broken, his hands were still somewhat slimy and the metal slid across his palms at times. Another Harden from Taste lessened that issue, but he didn't bother to focus exclusively on his arms; to do that took focus Taste couldn't spare at the moment, so he simply Hardened his entire body. This also helped give him a little more friction between his body and the ground, but not very much. His arms were still more solid than the bottom of his body.

Though Taste diligently held on, Rae was starting to drag the IV stand and Taste towards her. Occasionally she lost a little control as exhaustion began to set in, but she regained control and didn't let Taste take the advantage for too long at all. Soon Rae really was pulling both the IV stand and Taste towards her.

Update: Taste's overall Defense has increased (+1).

End Stats: Taste has increased Defense (arms and hands +2, body +1).

Terrain: The ground is made of loose dirt, rocks, and the occasional spot of dead grass. There is a shriveled tree nearby.

"Okay," Aiden said, walking forward. "Looks like Rae won."

Rae wasn't about to stop until she had the entire IV stand back in her hands. She snorted loudly at Taste, who was surprisingly still making an effort to pull his end of the stand. He even pulled harder than before.

Figuring Taste wasn't going to accept defeat so easily, Rae kept pulling. And then, much like Taste had done with Aiden, the Grimer suddenly let go of the stand. All Rae could do was stare as the power of her own pull made her fall right on her back. Rae battled fatigue to get into a sitting position so she could attack Taste, but she was getting slower. It seemed not even her rage and pride could keep her going at full steam anymore.

Update: Rae has received +1 EXP for the tug-of-war fight. Taste has received +2 EXP for learning how to Harden his arms and hands. Taste has unhardened and his Defense is now normal.

((Rae doesn't get points for jumping until you stop the training for Necrosis Combo.))

When it was apparent a fight was about to break out, Aiden scrambled to grab Taste's pokeball. He got it out and recalled the now glum Grimer.

With her target now lost, Rae did the equivelant of a Pinsir cursing.

"Hey, Rae," Aiden said uneasily. "If you don't take a breather here, you're going to freakin' pass out. Now just sit down and get your wind back. We're not in any rush."

Rae took a few more breaths before sharply inhaling getting to her feet. Admittedly, she didn't move after that, but she wasn't about to make it look like she needed a break. She would catch her breath standing.

Aiden just shrugged helplessly and sat down, resting up against his pack and waiting for Rae to catch her breath.

Her pride and determination was encouraging and overall a good thing, but Aiden feared she might overwork herself and pass out. Even the mightiest of warriors had to take a breather every now and then.

At least her stamina was improving.

Rae hadn't even completely caught her breath when she abruptly turned around and ran back for the tree again. She used this as the start for her running jump and leapt upwards, although her tiredness kept her far from the top of the tree. Hissing in agitation at this failure, Rae made a shaky landing, ignored it, and made a second attempt at jumping higher. Her claws swung slightly over the top of the tree.

Aiden's head drooped. This was going to be much more problematic than he had thought. He thought about recalling Rae into her pokeball to make her rest, but he knew she'd be strongly opposed to the idea.

"Do you want to become stronger?" Aiden asked suddenly, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

Rae paused briefly to answer with a sharp grunt.

"Then sit back and rest, dammit! I can't teach you this when you're constantly ready to collapse." He stared at her coldly. "We're taking this in sections. Feel free to work yourself to exhaustion. Hell, work yourself half to death. I don't care. Just promise me you'll sit back and catch your breath afterwards." He continued to stare at her. "Do as I say," he said, "and I promise you, you will become stronger."

Though Rae met Aiden's stare with constant eye contact of her own, it was at the words "Do as I say" that made her slam her fist into the side of tree. She earned a loud, satisfying crack from the split bark, continued to make noise by clacking her pincer horns together loudly, and ended her reply with another jump in the air. It wasn't high at all, but it didn't look like Rae was trying her hardest either. For the jump was no actual attempt, but a blatant disobeying of the orders "sit back and rest."

When she landed, she leaned against the tree to take a break. She would not listen and sit; whatever alliance Aiden and she had formed, it did not come before her personal pride.

Aiden let Rae's defiance go by impassively. He didn't break his steely glare, to his own surprise, even when Rae cracked the tree with her fist.

He didn't much care what she thought of him. When it came down to it, she was doing what he'd asked.

With the subtle air of victory, Aiden hid a small smile, and sat down, leaning against his pack. He held eye contact with his egotistical pokemon for a few more moments and then looked away and released Zerk.

The noble little Nidoran appeared in a small, brief flash of white light. It looked around and nudged Aiden when it saw him. "Hey, just thought you might like to get out a little," Aiden said. Zerk nodded slowly and looked around once more. After a few moments, he sat down, closed his eyes, and began meditating... or whatever it was he did.

As Rae regained her breath, Aiden thought back to the tug-of-war match. Rae had been nearly exhausted, and she'd still prevailed over Taste, who had much more experience in battle than she. Sure she had a rather large size advantage, but Aiden was still impressed. Taste was by no means an easy opponent.

Aiden looked over at the silent and unmoving Zerk. Not wanting to disturb him, he looked back up at Rae who had caught most of her breath.

"Okay," he said. "Let's clear that tree."

Rae rolled her eyes and decided to wait a little longer. Then a thought struck her. That waiting may have been a silent rebellion to her, but it would look like she was weak and needed a longer break, which she didn't. But if she instantly responded to Aiden's orders, it would seem like she was giving in to his demands and was weak to a human's will.

She got up, didn't look at Aiden, and took her time stretching. Then she began to jump again, but she made sure she was jumping as angrily as possible.

Compromise, Pinsir-style.

And it did wonders for her motivation, too. So irritated was she at Aiden's presence that she forgot about slashing the tree. Somewhere in between a fantasy of Aiden suffering some form of bodily harm, Rae noted that some part of the tree was touching her foot. Writing this off as a distraction and continuing her daydream, Rae was at the height of her next jump when she suddenly remebered she was supposed to be keeping records of height by slashing at the tree. This jolted her out of her thoughts and she swung blindly.

She hit air. Looking down, Rae saw that her entire body was now above the tree. She pondered whether or not this was cause for celebration on the way down, and upon landing decided that being pissed off at Aiden was the only solution. She rolled her eyes and glanced at him. She'd cleared the tree; now what was she supposed to do?

Aiden himself rolled his eyes and sat back on his elbows as Rae manged to jump whilst looking angry. And so it was ironic when she managed to completely clear the tree. Anger fueled her. Scary.

Even so, as she completely jumped over the tree, Aiden got to his feet. "Yeah! Perfect!" he shouted. Their little feud not forgotten, Aiden was merely complimenting a job well done. Zerk's eyes cracked open to see what the fuss was about. He closed them after a moment and resumed his silent state.

Although she acted like it was nothing and still appeared to be angry with Aiden, he knew she was proud of what she'd accomplished.

"Right then. Onto step two," Aiden said, walking over to the IV stand. "Let's practice your aim, timing, and catching. This IV stand will act as your enemy. Siesmic toss it up as high as you can. Then, make sure you're still jumping as high as you just did, and jump up to meet it midair. Catch it before you hit the ground."

Without looking at Aiden to recognize these orders, Rae nevertheless grabbed the IV stand awkwardly in her pincers. The metal pole slid around for a while before the wheeled bottom finally held fast to one of Rae's pincers, and with that Rae swung her head upwards. The entire IV stand went flying into the air, and Rae went jumping after it.

Rae got into the air and caught the IV stand with her arms almost as soon as the stand began to fall. She came back down for an equally simple landing.

Aiden nodded, impressed.

"Now it gets a bit tricky."

Rae scoffed.

"You're going to do the same thing now, but this time, catch it on the way down in your pincers. Try that."

Rae rolled her eyes. Was that all? She grabbed the IV stand in her pincer horns again, adjusted a little so she could actually throw the thin thing, and then tossed it upwards as high as before. Then jumped up after and kept her pincers wide open to receive the stand as it came down to meet her.

Aiden was right about this being tricky; the IV stand came falling back down and struck Rae squarely in the head as she failed to clasp her pincer horns together in time.

Fortunately the hit was light and Rae was reasonably high up. She scrambled to catch the stand in her arms, recovered, and made another safe landing, although she shot the inanimate object a look that could kill. Then she glared at Aiden, as if this was somehow all his fault.

"Not bad, not bad," Aiden said, ignoring Rae's steely glare. "Again," he added simply.

Rae growled but did it anyway. She again threw up the IV stand and jumped after it. This time around she caught it easily. Though the stand wriggled around in her pincer horns, Rae kept her balance and landed with the IV stand in her grasp. On her landing, the stand bounced up, hit the top of Rae's closed horns, and then thumped back down on Rae's head again.

This was enough to make Rae clench her hands into fists.

Aiden nodded in approval. "Alright. Good. Looks like you've got that down. Okay, this is where it gets real tough. You're going to do the same thing, but this time," Aiden paused dramatically, "catch it so you're on top of it, face down. I don't know what's easier. Ehh, you might try flipping around mid=air before you catch, or after you get it, hurry and flip over. I don't know. Whatever works best. Grab onto it with your hands too if you need to."

Aiden nodded again and stood back, giving Rae plenty of room. He expected many a failed attempts.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said dully, "be careful."

Rae snorted, and began...

Up went the IV stand, and after it went Rae, who was jumping a little higher each time. At this point, Rae had managed to put around five feet between her and the top of the tree. She grabbed the IV stand in her pincers and flipped so she was on top as soon as she secured the flying object. Unfortunately, it took her a while to get into that position, and the ground was approaching fast.

Rae wasn't going to be able to turn back around in time. If Aiden didn't do something, she was probably going to break her neck.

Realising the fatal injury Rae might suffer at the last second, Aiden wrestled with her pokeball and ripped it off his belt, while recalling her in a single, fluid motion. With its captor now gone, the IV stand fell to the ground with clatter.

Heart beating quickly, Aiden exhaled softly and released Rae again. "Okay, uhh, not exactly how I'd planned... Let's take it easy at first, alright? Just jump and try and practice front flips." Aiden paused, thinking lamely about any pointers he might give. "You got the flipping down already, you just need to follow through."

It was then Aiden deduced he'd never become a teacher.

Nonetheless, he kept a light grip on Rae's pokeball. His fingertips were kept on the round, smooth surface of the sphere, and he nodded at Rae to begin.

It took Rae five jumps to do an effortless front flip. Without the IV stand to throw off her concetration, Rae had enough time and height to successfully flip forward. The first three were slightly shaky in the air but had solid landings, and the last two made Rae look like she'd been doing flips for years.

After her successes, she snatched up the IV stand and took a moment to give it yet another dark look. So they met again.

Pleased with her sucess, but still a little uneasy, Aiden didn't stop her, but continued to keep a loose grip on her pokeball in case anything went awry.

But nothing did. The stand went skyward and so did Rae, who easily grabbed onto the stand with her pincer horns and simultaneously flipped over while still near the height of her jump. She let herself fall for a while before finally righting herself and coming back down safely. The IV stand jumped a little on landing, but otherwise remained secure.