Phil woke slowly.  He felt an urgent need wake up, but found it difficult.  The young Aura Guardian struggled mentally, he wanted to wake up.  However, even though he was half-aware of being asleep and wanting to wake up, he could not.  Soon though, he regained enough control over his body to send a small pulse of Aura throughout his being.  Phil opened his eyes very suddenly, snapping awake.

The teenager went to stretch but noticed two things, one it was dark, two he could not stretch.  The Aura Guardian looked down to see that he was sitting next to the remains of the campfire, and that he was wrapped in a strangely strong rope.  Phil jerked, trying to snap the rope, but it was to strong, even when he summoned his Aura.  The way his arms were pinned to his side prevented the teen from getting much leverage.

"You're awake already!  I thought you said that tranq' would last for three hours, not ten minutes!" a large man with a very deep and gravely voice exclaimed.

"Baka, what are you talking about, there is no way could a teenager shake off that tranquilizer so quickly," a more normal voice replied.

"Well, Timens, you must be mistaken, come see for yourself."

A very tall and scrawny man, Timens apparently, came up next to the larger man, apparently named Baka.

"My lands, what have we here?  How did you wake up so quickly?"

Phil was about to make a sarcastic response, when he froze.  The Aura Guardian had spotted a massive Ariados waiting behind Baka.  The Pokemon clicked its pincers in a erie and disturbing way.

"Not much of a talker?  Eh, we'll deal with you soon enough," Baka snarkily remarked.  "Timens, keep looking for anything valuable."

Phil came back to his senses, and began to struggle again.  However, what he now presumed to be the Ariados' silk, was much too strong.  At about an inch thick, he assumed it could take up to 520,000 pounds, or so, of force.  He could only produce about 40,000 in his current position.  The large Pokemon scuttled forward and clicked its pincers again, as if to say not to even try.  Phil froze when the large arachnid crawled closer.  That is, until an Aura Sphere sent the Pokemon flying.

"Phil!  Call on Blazer's power to burn through the web," Denny shouted as he ran in front of Phil.

The Aura Guardian followed his companion's instructions.  Phil found Blazer's Luxury Ball using his Aura and drew on the Arcanine's Aura just a bit, and lit himself on fire.  The fire weakened the Ariados' silk quickly, allowing Phil to break free.  He turned to help fight their ambushers, but Baka was already unconcious, and Timens was cowering beneath Denny's gaze.

"Please do not hurt me!" he squealed with more than a hint of fear in his voice.

"What a coward," Denny spat.

The more experienced of the two boys then set about tying the two criminals to a tree.  Phil looked around for Racheal.  He found that the Ariados had webbed her up in her tent.  The teen frowned, why was he by the fire if the others were in their tents.  However, his question was answered when his short term amnesia suddenly lifted.

--Flashback--

Phil was keeping watch by the fire.  He watched the road carefully for any midnight bandits.  The Aura Guardian's attention was drawn by a clicking sound.  Phil turned to see a large Ariados crawling his way.  As he reached for Blazer's Luxury Ball, Phil felt a needle sink into his neck.

--End Flashback--

The teen pulled out his pocket knife and quickly cut the cords holding Racheal's arms and back down.  He then handed her the knife.

"Here, finish cutting yourself free, I need to talk to Denny."

Racheal nodded, and Phil slipped back out.

"Denny, what ever they used to knock me out also gave me short term amnesia."

"I will have some Guardians come and pick these two up for interragation."

"Good idea."

The duo then decided it was time for watch to change anyways, so Phil went into his tent, and promptly fell asleep.

The next morning Phil woke, this time without having to fight off a tranquilizer.  The Aura Guardian stretched, and walked out of the tent.  He found Racheal keeping watch, and cooking, while Denny snored extremely loudly in his blue tent.

"Hey Racheal, do you need any help?"

"If you could slice some Tomato Berries that would be nice."

"I can do that.  Oh, you never reminded me to give you self-defense training."

"Oh yeah, whoops."

"Here, after we finish breakfast, and eat it too, we'll do some training."

"We need to get on the road though."

"Denny might sleep until noon.  I think he is a bit exhausted from last night's events."

"True."

Phil and Racheal quickly finished making breakfast, which they devoured even more quickly.  Phil then walked over to a clearing.

"Alright, first you need a basic stance.  Are you right or left handed?"

"Right."

"Okay, then for your first stance I need you to put your left leg forward, like so," Phil demonstrated.  Racheal matched him quite well.  "Now turn your right leg so that it faces outward, and put your foot slightly back, bending your both your knees to make yourself more balanced.  Make sure your heels are parallel."

Racheal had a little more difficulty with this step.  Phil stepped over.

"Do you mind?"

"Go ahead."

Phil kneeled and gently helped Racheal adjust her leg.

"Now, do you feel how balanced you are?"

"Yes, I can keep my feet planted, but still move around a bit."

"Why is that useful?"

"It could help me dodge without giving up ground."

"Incorrect, it helps to remain standing as you move and dodge.  Keeping your stance also allows for quicker reflexes and harder hits."

Phil sighed, "Okay, well, I'll get Denny to help me explain that later.  Now, I want you to hold one arm over your chest, and one arm in front of you, with the top of your hand facing outwards."

Racheal easily followed this round of Phil's instructions.

"Now, to punch with your right hand, throw it forward.  However, you should not shove it.  Make your whole arm move in one fluid motion, snapping instead of pushing.  Make sure to rotate your arm so that when your fist makes contact its top is facing the sky.  Also, at the same time, twist your leg to face forward and breathe out heavily.  You need to punch with your whole body, not just your arm."

Phil demonstrated a punch in slow motion, then again at full speed.  Rachael nodded and followed his motions.  Phil helped Rachael hone her technique, until she threw an almost perfect punch every time.  He then moved on to kicks, which Rachael mastered equally quickly.  Phil could not stop smiling at how well Rachael was doing.  Denny finally emerged at noon, and they ate lunch.

During lunch, Phil caught Denny up on Rachael's training.  The young Aura Guardian was surprised at how little his friend cared.  In fact, Denny almost seemed as if he strongly disagreed with Rachael being trained.  George however, became very warm when Bellezza threw her half-finished bowl of stew over his head.  Although, Phil put the blame on George's perseverance.

After lunch, the trio and their Pokemon left the campsite and continued onward.  Nothing of note happened, other than George getting rejected by Bellezza about five times, each one getting worse than the last.  One time she teleported George into a tree, and the Tauros headed Gallade leaned in to kiss the Kirlia.  Bellezza had other plans, which were shoving the Gallade out of the tree.  George later said she was just testing his mettle.

Once they reached a good campsite, the group stopped and set up camp once more.  Phil instructed Rachael on martial arts again, and they laid down for a good night of much needed sleep.

A/N I am so SO sorry about not updating last week.  Forgive me!  I was having technical difficulties with my Wattpad.