Chapter 53

    ~Bea POV~

    I sit in the grass, resting after a harsh spar with Makuhita. She is the newest member of my team, outside of Eevee who is snuggled up beside me, and needs more work to reach the level of my other two. The feel of harshly worked muscles gives me a sense of accomplishment. I always enjoy sparring with my team, I just never realized it when I was back home. At home, I was constantly fighting in our dojo, usually against my fellow students or my siblings, but it always felt like a chore. Yet out here, on the road with my friends, it feels freeing.

    “Vee~” Eevee lets out a content sound as I softly pet her silky fur. I glance down at him just in time for him to roll onto his back and bat at my hand. I can feel the happy smile grace my lips from his antics. Maybe I should give them all nicknames. Frost’s team seem to like their names and so do Flannery’s. Then again, I am no good at coming up with names.

    “Hey Eevee, do you want to learn to fight like the rest of us?” I ask the melting fluff ball beside me.

    “Vee?” He lets out a confused sound as he tilts his head to one side and looks at me with his big brown eyes. He stares at me for a moment before rolling onto his feet and letting out an affirmative bark.

    “Let’s do this!” I give him a smile as I kip to my feet and call over Machop who is doing a kata nearby. My loyal partner quickly makes his way over and tilts his head, giving me a questioning look, wanting to know why I called him.

    “Hey bud, Eevee wants to learn to fight too. I was hoping you would help me cover the basics with him.” I tell Machop who puts his fist under his chin for a moment as he looks at Eevee. He makes a quick walk around the fluffy ball before stopping and nodding.

    “Chop!”

    “Thanks, buddy!” I give him a quick hug followed by a fist bump as we get set up nearby and start to teach Eevee the basics. Eevee tries fighting by standing only on his rear paws. He manages a few quick ‘punches’ but fails cutely while trying to imitate Machop.

    I giggle softly at the adorable sight only to get a face full of fluff from my Eevee deciding to tailwhip me. The whole clearing goes silent for a while as time seems to freeze as I take a second to process what happened. The moment is broken as I start to giggle even harder, much to Eevee’s dismay, his grumpy look makes me laugh even harder.

    After my little laughing fit, I chose to call over the rest of my party. We might as well train as a team and it never hurts to brush up on the fundamentals. We carefully teach Eevee how to fight, though he still tries to fight on two legs and uses his fluffy tail for balance. Once I feel he has the basics down I start pairing everyone up to spar.

    During the spars I notice that Machop is acting a little more aggressive than normal. I watch him for a bit longer and I realize he wants a challenge for some reason. With that in mind, I halt our training for a moment, even though Machop looks grumpy about stopping, and collect everyone around me again.

    The memory of Frost getting slashed from hip to shoulder, the smug look on the Pokemon’s face, the annoyed look on the faces of Team Rocket, all of it causes me to get irritated. Yet it’s the memory of the blood that brings a guttural growl out of my throat. They harmed her.

    From within my core, I feel a heat burning. The fact that they had the audacity to attack her causes the heat to grow. I stand up, unable to keep sitting there and letting my thoughts spiral, and let out a punch with an angry cry. Why, why, why! What right did those bastards have to attack my mate! I keep punching the air and stamping my feet against the ground just trying to get this burning rage out of my chest.

    My punches and kicks keep getting faster as this burning heat starts to consume me. All I can think about is the blood and seeing Frost laying there. I just want to burn the injustice that caused her to get hurt.

    I don’t even see the boulder before my fist slams into it. The sudden pause in my movement causes me to let loose an inhuman sound from my throat. All around me crimson flames burst into life before quickly vanishing. I take a moment to take a breath as all the rage and fire dissipates like a heat haze and I start to calm down. I open my eyes to a changed landscape.

    Where there were stones of various sizes, there are now pools of cooling lava. My eyes trace along the path of glassed stone and cooling lava and notice that the path seems to get closer to me. I look down in a daze and notice that I am now standing up to my ankles in molten rock. I look at where the boulder I punched is, or used to be now, and find the bottom half of it standing there with a cup shaped melted cut-out.

    My jaw drops at the sheer amount of damage that I seem to have caused. A whinny from Comet gets my attention and I remember that I am currently standing in a pool of melted rock. I gingerly lift my foot, realizing I don’t feel the heat, and find it perfectly intact but the sandals I was wearing are now missing. I take a small step and find that the pool feels like thick mud under my foot so I quickly make my way towards my pokemon. Once I am out of the pool, Comet comes over to me and just nudges my back.

    “Hey girl, are you okay? I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?” I ask her as I gently stroke her fiery mane. I was never able to play with it properly before as the fire would burn me, but now I can feel the almost hair-like texture of her burning mane. She shakes her head, letting me know everyone is safe before bumping her head against me again. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Whatever just happened seems to be done now and I feel better.”

    Comet pulls back slightly and looks me in the eye for a few seconds before giving her head a little shake and walking over to the rest of my team. I follow along behind her, trying to keep what happened out of my mind, for now, until I can talk with Frost tonight. We head over to the rest of the team who have started playing again once they see that I am okay.

    I give Comet a gentle pat on her back as I find a new rock to sit on, but the feel of the gritty stone against naked flesh causes me to stand back up again. I look down, now that I am not distracted by a pool of lava, and notice I am now completely naked. I guess my clothes didn’t survive whatever that was earlier. The cool breeze that brushes my cheeks makes me realize I am blushing as I quickly look for my bag to pull out some new clothes.

    After possibly setting the world record for getting dressed in the shortest time, I sit down on the rock again, this time in shorts and a tube top. I will see about dragging my lover into clothes shopping later and make her replace my bikini. My blush starts to fade as I watch Tinder, my Eevee, and Night attack Mags in an amateur way. The two of them seem to be tripping over each other rather than working together.

    The lack of teamwork gives me a spark of an idea. Frost and I need to learn to work together. I protect her, and she protects me. Just like our teams should work together. If we are together, I won’t have to worry about her running off to fight Team Rocket alone. Next time I won’t let her get hurt. With my new plan in mind, I call out to my team to gather. I take a few minutes to explain my plan for them to start training their teamwork.

    Next time, I won’t lose.