PokeGirls: Lucid Method

Gin

Gin opened his eyes, and sat up. Looking around, the sun had just started to rise. He'd woken up a little earlier than usual, like he planned. He could feel a source of warmth at his side, and looked down to see Shana curled up against his leg, still sleeping peacefully. Checking his other side, he saw that T-elos wasn't there. He wasn't surprised, he had expected as much. Getting up himself, he got dressed and left the tent. Turning in the direction of the sun, he spent a moment filling his lungs with the crisp, cool air that smelled faintly of pine and wildflowers. He began doing some stretches, preparing himself for the day's training.

Yes, the primary goal was to see what Shana was capable of, but he'd be training himself and T-elos at the same time, to maximize their results. So he'd need to be limber, it'd be a long day of activity, he couldn't afford to jeopardize that by pulling a muscle or something. He moved slowly, purposefully, going through the same motions he'd done a hundred times before, slipping into the same patterns he knew so well. He knew them so well he could let his mind wander while he did them, using the chance to plan out a simple schedule for the day. Most Tamers didn't worry about their own fitness, aside from having enough stamina to maintain their Harem, but he was different. He enjoyed testing himself against T-elos, and he took pride in his own abilities. He may not be as strong or skilled as she was, but that was alright. He was strong enough for his own tastes, and that was enough.

Opening his eyes, he saw T-elos watching him. He felt no embarassment over this, she usually did watch him most mornings. Sometimes she participated as well, even though she didn't really need to. It had become a steady part of their day, something they did that almost seemed to draw them closer to each other. Letting his arms fall to his sides, Gin began to get breakfast ready, and asked T-elos to check for a suitable location for the day's activities. She nodded and moved into the deeper forest, searching for what he'd asked. Just a moment later, Shana slipped out of the tent, and moved next to Gin.

She'd actually been awake for a few minutes, but had been too busy watching him move to actually move closer. Perhaps it had been the Taming, perhaps it was simple lust, or perhaps it was admiration, but she had found herself unable to pull her eyes away from his form. But while T-elos had been there, she hadn't wanted to intrude. The hierarchy of their group was pretty clear to her. Gin was obviously the one in charge, T-elos was the next, and she was at the bottom of their group. That was okay with her, like most Titmice, she didn't have aspirations to be Alpha or things like that.

Now that T-elos had gone off, however, she felt free to move and approached her Master, not sure if it was okay to snuggle up against him or not. Their meals were the same bland protein bars and water they'd had the first time she'd eaten with them, and Shana scrunched up her face in distaste. Then she remembered her vow to do better, and shook her head. She'd promised to do the best she could, and if food like this was good enough for her Master, then it was good enough for her! Even if it was bland and yucky.

T-elos returned, and told Gin there was a suitable clearing fifty yards due east of their camp. Gin nodded, and pulled out the third protein bar. He handed one to Shana, and another to T-elos, and dug into his own. The three of them finished their meal quickly enough, and cleaned up camp before setting out to begin the day's training. They reached the area in question, and Gin spent a moment looking it over, then nodded in satisfaction. This would work just fine.

He set his backpack on the ground, and turned to face Shana and T-elos. He looked Shana over, trying once more to guess what T-elos had detected in her. She still looked more or less the same as any other Titmouse. Maybe a little different. That slight curl in her tail, that particular shade of fur, she seemed a little bit unique. He didn't realize it, but this was more his subconscious recognizing her more than anything else, he'd already begun to make a connection to her.

"Okay, let's begin. Just a simple warm-up for starters, thirty laps around this field. Okay, go!"

He left the bag where it lay, it'd serve as an impromptu starting marker. Without waiting to see if his companions were ready, he set out, slipping into a casual jogging stride. It wasn't a huge field, maybe four thousand square feet, so thirty laps wasn't all that big of a distance. It should be a simple enoguh matter for the three of them, enough exercise to get their hearts pumping a little faster, get them ready for the heavier activities.

He cleared the first turn, and turned his head a little to see how T-elos and Shana were coming along. They had both already started following him, T-elos moving with the same easy grace she always manifested, Shana a little less so. Too long spent in the wild had made her cautious, to constantly run in a straight line was dangerous. It'd make it too easy for predatory PokeGirls to find and attack her. She felt a little safer with T-elos and her Master here with her, so she tried to force herself to not worry about what might be stalking her, instead focusing just on running.

Time passed steadily, and the difference in their abilities became more evident. T-elos had actually passed Gin, and was getting a little closer to lapping him with each circuit. Gin was still doing good, moving at the same pace he'd started at, although now he had started sweating a little, and his breath was tinged with just a touch of raggedness. Shana was noticeably behind, however, the other two had both lapped her three times already, and she was looking kind of worn out. She wasn't giving up yet, though, she kept pushing herself to continue on.

By the time she finally finished the thirtieth lap, Gin and T-elos had already been finished for nearly ten minutes. Shana slumped to the ground next to Gin's bag, squeaking exhaustedly as she breathed deeply. Gin gave her a moment to catch her breath, but far too soon for her tastes he was already announcing their next activity.

"Okay, not bad. Now, the two of you pair up and do some simple sparring. T-elos, don't hit her too hard, got it?"

"Understood."

Shana's eyes widened in shock and dismay. She was supposed to fight T-elos?! There was no way she could do that, she still remembered how easily they'd captured her in the first place. It was no contest. But her Master had told her to, she didn't have any choice. Squeaking sadly, she straightened up and tried to think of anything she could possibly do to not appear totally worthless. Even if she didn't believe she had a chance, she still wanted to do good enough that her Master might complement her.

T-elos, on the other hand, was approaching the mock battle with as much seriousness as anything else she might be ordered to do. She wouldn't use her full power, but neither would she make it easy on her opponent. She also wouldn't wait forever for Shana to make the first move. In fact, she wouldn't wait at all. She was already dashing forward, moving so fast that it was almost hard to keep track of her. She charged directly for Shana, and lashed out with an open palm strike, more like a shove then anything. The hit was predictably a success, and Shana was knocked on her rear, losing her breath with an audible whoosh.

Shana recovered quickly, tried to counterattack while she was still getting back to her feet. She crouched and rushed towards T-elos, using a simple Tackle attack. Her speed and accuracy wasn't bad, and she contacted T-elos, a solid hit to the other PokeGirl's gut. However, there was one thing she hadn't taken into account. T-elos was encased in armor. Hard armor. She bounced back, her shoulder throbbing from the impact. She crashed into the ground, moving a hand to her shoulder to feel how bad she'd been hurt. It was tender, but it didn't feel that bad. She shook her head, this was bad. She hadn't really thought about T-elos being a Steel-type PokeGirl. Virtually all of her attacks were Normal-type, which had almost no effect on Steel-types.

T-elos saw Shana was distracted by her thoughts, and took the opportunity to attack again, this time with a simple yet effective hip attack. She turned to the side at the same moment she leapt at Shana, swinging her lower half into a hard impact against Shana's chest. Shana went down again, and sat there dazedly, stunned by the impact. T-elos straightened up and stood still, watching her opponent. Perhaps that hit had been marginally too strong, she would need to monitor strength levels more precisely, taking into account Shana's exhaustion from the earlier laps.

Shana shook her head slowly, and felt tears start to well up in her eyes. It was useless, there was nothing she could do against T-elos. Her Master would see how useless she was, and get frustrated, and get rid of her. She'd be all on her own, far from where she'd shared the communal nest with the other Titmice that had served as her 'family'. She sobbed quietly, wondering what was the point in even trying. Her shoulder ached, her chest was sore, and she felt sure it'd probably bruise up from how hard that last hit had felt. Her head turned down, as she felt just about ready to give up.

"Straighten up! There aren't any quitters on my team. You can do better, so get up and show me!"

Shana sniffled, and looked up to see her Master staring at her, an intense look on his face. She didn't see pity, or hatred, or even indifference. The look, what was it? Hope, no, not quite. Maybe... expectation? It was like he was so sure she could do better that he wasn't even considering another option. How could he feel so strongly about her when she'd just done so horribly? For that matter, why in the world had he caught her, and not any of the other PokeGirls that were nearby? She wasn't anything special, just another Titmouse that didn't matter.

"I said straighten up! If you want to give up, then do it after you hit T-elos once more. If you want to quit and leave, then I'll let you. But only if you hit her again!"

Shana's eyes widened. Was that it, was he really giving up? It was what she wanted, wasn't it? Then why did it hurt so much? She sighed, and slowly got to her feet. If he wanted to get rid of her, that was fine, but did he have to humilate her like this too? She didn't deserve such treatment! She'd show him! Glaring at Gin, she spun around and dashed towards T-elos, moving faster than she had before. Even so, T-elos was still too fast, dodging to the side easily. Shana frowned, and spun on her right heel, twirling around to lash out with her left foot. It didn't hit T-elos, though, it went wide, missing by several inches.

She growled again and continued her attack, pushing herself to just hurry up and hit T-elos so she could leave. She threw punches fiercely, letting one flow into the next, creating a stable rhythm that gave her enough breathing space to try to come up with a plan. All of these punches, T-elos was dodging each one easily, like she saw it coming. That was it! She had to be reading her moves! Shana wasn't a fighter, of course she'd be telegraphing her moves. She stopped throwing wild punches, straightening up and closing her eyes.

She knew she had to think of something, some move that could let her hit T-elos, something the other PokeGirl wouldn't be able to see coming. But what could she do? As a Titmouse, she didn't have really any battle skills. The only thing she was good at, well, was scampering and hiding. Wait, that was it! Shana grinned and opened her eyes again, just in time to see T-elos attacking, with a straight punch to her gut. She pushed off from the ground, jumping back out of T-elos' strike range. It had been very close, however, she could actually feel the edge of T-elos hand brush past her as she moved.

But she wouldn't let it faze her, she had a plan now! She crouched a little, going into a posture similar to what trained runners might. She faced T-elos directly, and prepared herself. She tensed up, and ran forward, headed directly towards T-elos in a beeline. She held an arm out like she was going to throw another punch, and T-elos responded to it, shifting slightly to the side, enough to avoid the strike. That was exactly what Shana wanted.

She continued moving forward, running right past T-elos and headed towards the dense foliage that was the forest. T-elos wasted a half-second processing what had happened, and started chasing, moving fast, faster than Shana. Shana had a headstart, but would it be enough? Barely. She dove into a dense shrub, plastering herself to the ground for a second. She tried to guess what T-elos would do next, but she wasn't as skilled as her opponent in deciphering a foes' intentions. Instead, she'd have to use her instincts, make a guess and hope for the best.

She waited for a short moment, then crashed out of the brush, using the various broken twigs, pebbles and dirt that she'd gathered up as an impromptu blind, tossing it in all directions, hoping to distract T-elos long enough to dash in and hit her. It looked like it had worked, a leafy branch flew right at T-elos' head, who lashed out with a hand to knock it out of the way. Too late! Shana rushed in, pushing herself to move faster than ever before. She leapt at T-elos, turning in mid-air to perform a passable jump kick. The next thing she knew, she saw dozens of stars fly past her eyes, and everything went dark.

Shana slowly opened her eyes, blinking slowly as she tried to figure out what happened, and where she was. She felt she was laying down, and tried to sit up. A slight wave of weakness and pain passed through her and she winced.

"Don't try to get up yet, just rest for a while longer."

Shana's eyes widened, as she recognized her Master's voice, and it was very close. Looking around, she finally saw him, he was sitting down next to her, a rag in hand. She tried to ask what had happened, but all that came out was a confused squeak. Even so, he seemed to understand. He smiled a bit, and brought the rag closer to her face, then set it on her forehead. It was cool, and slightly damp. It felt nice.

"T-elos had been in the middle of deflecting one of the branches you'd thrown, when you moved into her strike area. She hit you a bit harder than she needed, and you passed out. You've been out cold since, for a few hours now."

Shana frowned, trying to remember what had happened. Bits and pieces flashed behind her eyes, they seemed to match what her Master had said. So she had failed? She knew it. There hadn't been a chance of her hitting T-elos, it had been obvious from the start.

Gin saw her frown and realized what was bothering her. So she hadn't seen, then. Well he'd just have to tell her then.

"Shana. You remember what I had said, all you had to do was hit her, right?"

A depressed squeak.

"I never said you had to do it with your body. All of that brush and debris you threw, some of the pieces had hit T-elos. You did it."

"SQUEAK?!"

Shana's eyes widened, had she really done it, and not even noticed? It couldn't be, he was just teasing her some more, wasn't he? She tried to focus herself, cut through the pain long enough to be able to talk in more than squeaks.

"Don't tease Shana, Master."

"I'm not. Ask T-elos, she won't lie either."

Shana looked around, but she couldn't see T-elos anywhere. If only her head wasn't propped up on this pillow, she could see more of her surroundings. Wait, for a pillow, it felt awfully solid. Looking further above her head, she finally saw where T-elos was. It wasn't a pillow she was resting on, it was T-elos' lap! She blushed a little, although she wasn't sure just why.

"Affirmative. Seven pebbles, two leaves, and approximately two grams of dust and dirt made contact."

Shana blinked, her eyes going a little watery. Had she actually done it? Really? That meant she could leave! Wait, if that had been the condition for her to leave, then why were they still taking care of her?

Her confusion must have shown evidence on her face, because Gin chuckled a little.

"You're probably wondering why we're still here. I have to apologize for lying to you."

Shana's tears seemed more ready than ever to fall, but now from sorrow. So she had failed after all! They were evil, tricking her like that!

"No, not about hitting T-elos, you did that. I was lying when I said you could leave after hitting her. I needed to find a way to get you to keep trying. And see, you were able to do it. All you have to do is get some more self-confidence, and you'll see just how strong you really are."

The revelation struck Shana speechless. All of those things her Master had said, everything she had thought was just him teasing her, had it all been for that? She felt bad now, she hadn't trusted her Master, and look what happened. Even after that, he was still taking care of her, and apparantly intent on continuing her training. She felt warm, something a little different from anything she felt before. Suddenly, her pain didn't feel so bad now. Instead, she felt an overpowering urge.

"Master!"

Shana leapt off the ground, tackling a surprised Gin onto his back, nuzzling against him affectionately. She rubbed her head against his chest, and he clumsily rubbed her head. He was glad that had straightened out, although it had been fairly complicated. He let Shana stay where she was for a moment, then grew uncomfortable. He nudged her, to try to get her off of him, but the only reply she gave was a slow breathing. She'd fallen asleep. He sighed, and debated waking her up. But she looked peaceful, much better than the storm of emotions she'd evidenced during her first unconscious spell, so he didn't. Instead, he sighed and lay back himself, feeling the comforting weight of the Titmouse against his chest, soon joined by T-elos, snuggling up against his side. He blinked, he hadn't thought T-elos emotional enough to get jealous over something like this. Not that that was a bad thing. He closed his eyes, and decided to write off the rest of the day as an unavoidable delay.