World Tree MUSH

Miwa had asked Ash and Luke to meet her at the beach near Hau'oli City on Melemele Island, mentioning that she was hoping to learn a special and powerful new move. She had already taken to swimming there herself, as though it was a bit far from her home island, making the trip would help build her strength and endurance. While waiting for her friends to arrive, she was currently relaxing on the beach for a bit to recover from the long swim, with a bag of Malasadas and a pinap berry drink.

Being in Alola was relaxing. Refreshing even after all the business in space. He was tempted to show up with his warframe, because Ordis finally finished getting it patched back up. Thing is that tended to not be needed on the islands and probably would actually attract attention from people wanting to make a name for themselves by chasing off the big scary thing. So No, Ash had Ordis drop him off at Hau'oli.

Fortunately for As Miwa had given directions. Sure he would take histime, but he would eventually hit the beach looking every inch like a fresh faced tourist from the mainland. "Hey you. What's new, ot a concert planned and needing help drumming up a crowd?"

    Luke was already on that island, doing some research about the island challenges!, so when he got the invitation from Miwa, he was quick on his way to said beach, and he was not alone!, he was joined by Dynamo, and a pink and black... plush toy?. Luke reaches to try to pick up the odd creature, only to be swatted away by the odd, stubby limbs of the small guy, which grumbles at the kid and continues to stubbornly make it's way on foot.
    Luke and his entourage likely get there before Ash, with the Stufful chirping at the sight of Miwa, (or perhaps the snacks?) waddling a bit faster towards her, while Luke chuckles. "Either he likes you, or is hungry."

Miwa looks up as she hears Luke's voice, with a mouthful of malasada. She blushes a bit and swallows, then takes a sip of her drink to wash it down. She waves at Ash, seeing him arrive too, and reaches over to gently pat the Stufful on the head, hoping that would be acceptable, at least it wasn't a hug, and she also offered the teddy bear like Pokemon a malasada, so perhaps she'll be forgiven either way. 

 "Hey guys." She says with a chuckle at Ash's comment. "Not this time. I believe with the training I've been doing over the last few months, that I might be ready to learn the most powerful water type move, Hydro Cannon. It will require me to push myself far beyond the limits of the Hydro Pump move I am capable of now. There is a move tutor who can help me learn it, but still, most of the work will be mine. He should meet us here soon."

Ash tilted his head at what Miwa was saying. "I've done a little reading, so..." He frowned. "How would that work given you're essentially your own trainer?" He was there when she got her pokeball back, but at the same time he wasn't sure what protocol was. "Should... I get my warframe out? I mean practicing with the wee ones, or a friendly light sparring match fine, but I've seen footage of hydro pump and if this is even more than what that does..." Yea he'd likely survive, but that's still nto something he could adiquitly fight against as himself.

Then he looked to Luke, "Speaking of, how're the small guys holding up on training?"

    Luke chuckles a bit and quickly makes his way to Miwa, only pausing as he noticed Ash was there as well!. There is a round of waving to everyone, and listens to the explanation from Miwa, nodding slowly, "Well, I figure she will pay him and... well, handle the practice with our help!" he says witha grin, "That's a very impressive tutor you found, I should check for things like that for my own pokemon, even for the small grumpy one here.".

    The small 'teddy' grabs the masalada between two plush forelegs and begins tearing into it hungrily, pausing only to huff at being called small, not just by Ash but Luke as well!. "Stuff! ful!" it does sound annoyed, and Miwa might quite understand a protest about being called 'small'. Luke just chuckles more, "I don't think I have any pokemon... able to handle that, Dynamo is more adept at dodging and attacking, and Agni is a fire type."

Miwa shakes her head at Ash's concerns. "Well, this is how it usually works. The move tutor uses their own Pokemon to demonstrate the move, and offers tips to the Pokemon and/or trainer who wants to learn the new move, and said Pokemon practices until they manage to perform the new move. I'm not sure I really need a living target to practice against unless you really want to give me the insight of how much more painful it is than my normal Hydro Pump." She whispers to Stufful in Pokespeak that she knows small or not, that Stufful is strong. "Pri, ri, primarina." She then smiles up at Ash and Luke. "It seems Stufful is not too thrilled about being called small."

Ash looked to the Stuffle and quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, you're young. It passes, you'll get bigger. Don't look at me like that alright?" His attention then turned from luke's Stufful to Miwa before looking back to the Stufful on hearing the explaination. "Hey," He ent down to one knee so he stood closer to eye level with the little pokemon, "After we help miwa out you wanna go a round or two with me?" He then gestured to Luke, "A couple of the other pokemon that're with him did. They could tell you if its worth your time. Sound good?"

Then he would sit there for a few moments, time enough for the Stufful to think the offer over before he turned attention to Miwa while getting back to hisfeet. "Well, havingsomeone to practice with might help, I was just asking ot make sure before we got going since it'd take a bit to call ordis back in, get suited up proper, and get back down." He made it sound like a hassel, which it was, but if need be then he'd do it.

Luke Gray nods a few times, "I wonder if I can find someone to teach him moves or my pokemon." he replies, rubbing his chin a bit and smiling, "Wish I would offer someone to practice your moves in battle, but my team is nto quite prepared for that." he replies to his friend, patting Miwa's side, and sneaking a pet on his plush pokemon, which reluctanctly suffers the attention, being distracted with the snacks. The small pokemon nods to Miwa, before looking back at Ash, tilting it's head, and glancing back at Luke when the offer is made, receiving a nod before seeming to agree, sitting up. 
    Luke grins to Ash, that's quite kind of you, just... be careful, he IS strong." there was a moment where Luke almost says 'despite looks' but thankfully stops himself.

Having thought about it for a few moments now, Miwa does reconsider Ash's offer a bit. "Well, if you really don't mind, and you're sure I won't really hurt you, then maybe it will help some, I just wasn't sure it was worth the potential risks. I'll leave getting your warframe up to you Ash." She offers before turning to Luke and nodding. "It's alright, I really wouldn't want to risk hurting any of your Pokemon. Ash's warframe is pretty tough, so I guess there is less of a chance of anyone getting hurt, also, I guess even if it does, I'm only damaging his warframe, not Ash himself, so it's not the end of the world, right?" She asks as she looks back at Ash.

Ash saw the nod and grinned. "We'll both be in for surprises I wager. NOt every day you'll get to fight a human and nobody getting bent out of shape about it." He smiled at the Stufful and internalized the warning. It's the size of a child's toy yet had presence of mind to be aware of itself and what others were doing. That alone put the little guy as smart enough to be clever in a fight. Sure fine physics dictated all ash would need to do is do a goalie kick to send it flying, but these pokemon were always full of surprises.

"MIwa." Ash gave the primarina a level look, "I was close enough to touch a star." Admittedly it wasa freakishly cold one by stellar standards but 'cold' by those standards would still put Hell itself to shame. "plus that's the whole point of warframes, it takes the beating so i don't have to." He smiled and put an earpiece in, "Yea I'm gonna need my warframe after all. Mind swinging by for pickup?"
"I'm not getting any hostile readings," Ordis's voice was full of skepticism.

""I'm about to play the part of training dummy."

"Oh..." Ordis sounded less than enthused. "At least it isn't going to end up with you faceplanting another star. Ordis was miserable through that entire mission."

Luke Gray is not quite familiar with Warframes, just saw ash in action once, as far as he remembers. There is a grin as he nods, "I'd love to see that move." he tells Miwa, "Just be careful, Miwa is pretty strong." he says softly, glancing back at Dynamo, who stretches and absorbs the sunlight, "You only wanted to come to nap in the beach, didn't you?" he asks the big cat. 

    The plush bear seeemed to size up Ash as well, tilting it's head and waddling around it slowly, clearly considering it's own chances in a fight.

Miwa nods to Ash and laughs, giggling even further when she overhears Ordis' reaction to Ash's request. "I'll try not to beat up his warframe too badly, certainly I can't do the kind of damage a 'faceplant into a star' can do." She says with a chuckle, then turns to Luke and smiles. "Well, let's hope I can manage to learn it today. Not all Pokemon are able to perfect a move tutor move the same day they are shown it. But I do feel confident." 

 Speaking of which, just now the move tutor himself is walking down the beach. Miwa moves toward him and greets him with a wave. "Hello, I'm Miwa." She says as she offers him a bag of poke dollars to cover his fee. The man chuckles heartily though and nods. "I know who you are Miwa, I've been to a few of your shows, including your last public solo performance on the beach. I have to admit I never thought I'd be tutoring a move to a Pokemon without a trainer, but I suppose you are a special case, and I'd be happy to help you. My name is John by the way."

Ash smiled at the Move Tutor's utter lack of reaction at how odd this situation may be, what with a pokemon paying for its own education. "Apologies sir but as I will be her sparring partner for this lesson I need to properly equip. I will be somewhat delayed." He took out a wallet and counted out a small stack of pokedollars he then handed to Luke. "Since my suit has no pockets I figure having money on hand is a good idea."

Then as he walked away from the crowd a craft the size of a fighter jet and shaped like a mantis melted into view, looking almost as if it were created by a heat mirage as a compartment swivled and Ash was seemingly pulled into the ship before it shimmered back into invisibility and flew off.

Luke Gray smiles and greets the visitor, offering a wave, "Greetings." he replies, moving to pet his electric tiger, who lazily eyes that person, stretching on the sand. "Well, I will be watching from the sidelines for now, this is quite interesting!" he says, even as he agrees to hold Ash's money, "What, a gift for me?" he teases, "I'll hold it, don't worry." he says, watching Ash vanish to his vehicle.

Miwa watches as Ash goes and gets into his jump ship to get back to his main ship and switch out for his Warframe. She then turns back to John the move tutor and smiles. "He won't be long." She offers before drinking the rest of her pinap berry drink. While they wait, John releases his Pokemon, which is revealed to be a Samurott, a Pokemon which looks very much like an armored dark blue sea lion with bushy white whiskers. He promptly looks at Miwa and slyly winks at her. "Sam samur, samurott!" At this, Miwa blushes deeply and replies "Prima prim primarina." John the move tutor chuckles and says. "Alright you two lovebirds, we have other priorities today."

    Luke is a bit amused a bit as well, certainly the tutor was good at keeping calm! then again it might be an useful trait when trying to do demonstrations of strong, dangerous moves to potentially untrained pokemon. He eventually sits next to his Electiger, petting the lazy, round cat, and gasping as he sees the pokemon the Tutor uses!. He can't help using his pokedex for it, checking the info. While all of this happens, the Stufful sizes up the new arrival, waddling towards the water sea lion, before Luke calls him back, "Hey, let them practice." he chuckles. "You can chat with them later."

Miwa chuckles at Stufful wanting to check out the move tutor's Samurott. Looking up at Luke she grins and says. "He has an eye for strong Pokemon it would seem." She then turns back to John and puts on a more serious expression. "Well, shall we get this started then?" The man nods and begins with a bit of information to differentiate the attack from it's somewhat less powerful counterpart, Hydro Pump. 

 "Hydro Pump is indeed a powerful jet of water, but Hydro Cannon takes it to the next level. The inner stream is much more focused, but beyond that, a proper Hydro Cannon attack has a secondary stream creating a vortex around it, keeping the inner stream focused from source to target, while also causing it to flow even faster through the air. It is not an easy move to pull off by any stretch, requiring both great inner strength, and control over the water type power. I'll have Samurott demonstrate. Samurott, Hydro Cannon!" He says as he points up into the air. 

 The armored water type nods, his mouth glowing light blue, emanating an aura of power around it. Then suddenly an immensely powerful torrent of water erupts out of his mouth, with the mentioned vortex swirling around it, firing very high into the air before finally dissipating, really showing how much pressure was behind it. Miwa blinks a bit and swallows hard, that was going to be a hard act to follow, but she had to try. She looks at Luke for a moment though. "Wonder what's keeping Ash?"

It wasn't long, proving Miwa's statement correct, before Ash's landing craft shimmeredinto view a few dozen meters away from where pokemon and tutor were. Ash dropped from the ship, which seemedto start disappearing and raise skyward just as he left the drop apperatus. As Ash trotted towars Miwa, Luke, and company the armored bits of his warframe shone a bright coppery color, th headband looked freshly dyed, and in short it was almost as if it were a brand new warframe rather than one that had been through much abuse. They would also notice the only visible weapon he had was the curved katana-like blade at his hip in a plain scabbard.

The lights at Ash's face turned to regard Luke, then the Tutor. "Sorry for the wait. Glad you went ahead and started." He would be smiling in the transferrence pod as he stood there, arms clasped behind his back as he watched what was going on.

    Luke has to wonder the same as Miwa, looking again in the direction where the person 'vanished', "I hope he returns soon, he might miss the show." he says happily, returning his attention to the Samurott when he hears the Tutor explain what the attack is, taking mental notes about it, and clapping as he sees the powerful blast of water. 

tMeanwhile, the Stufful turns his focus from the big pokemon, to his potential 'opponent', trying to track where Ash went, waddling through the sand and following those footsteps!. As he gets close to the ship, Ash returns! he turns his burning curiosity to the thing... that appeared, and the odd warframe... Ash?... well, it kinda smells like that person at least!. He proceeds to walk around the warframe curiously, sniffing and prodding with one thick paw, clearly intrigued. He only pauses to see the display from the big water type, blinking a few times at the sheer power of the blast, impressed!.

Now that Ash is here, Miwa knows it's time. She knows this is a big step for her, and hopes she is really ready for it. Turning toward Ash, she takes a deep breath. "Ok, ready Ash? Everyone else might want to stand back a bit. I'm probably not going to get this on the first try, but you never know." Miwa warns, and waits for everyone to get clear, including Stufful, before she makes her first attempt. 

 "Ok, here goes nothing!" She offers before taking another deep breath. She focuses on the demonstration of the attack she just witnessed, and figures a major key to it is likely the power aura/glow she saw around Samurott's mouth. She knows there are other moves she has already learned that begin similarly, and so she draws upon that, and attempts the move. She closes her eyes, but still visualizes where Ash is standing. She opens her mouth, drawing upon all the water elemental energy within her. Soon her mouth begins to glow, and finally a jet of water comes from her mouth, only for the glow to flicker and the jet of water to sputter. Miwa sighs slightly at her failure, but doesn't let it keep her down. "Maybe if I get into the water, so I can draw upon the ocean, it'll be a little easier."

Ash's warframe would, to the Stufful, feel about like poking posssibly a steel type. SOmehow Ash had an apple in his hand, which he offered to the Stufful as both he and the pokemon watched the training display. Mentally he was running the numbors and nodded approvingly. "Wouldn't be able to one shot me, but it'd definitely get through my shields if I couldn't evade. Definately would keep me locked down." He sounded ammused at the fact this was an attack that if it landed could esentially do constant damage over time, keep him from doing anything in return, and likely would leave him on the ground when it was over.

"So, I guess the question is where am I needed for the next bit?" He drew his sword slowly, letting the blade rest in his left hand as he inspected it. To a trained eye it was crafted exceptionally well, but to those that knew of such things they might find oddities, possibly decorative but while being decorative these little etchings were functional in a way. He nodded at the sword and held it hilt up, blade pointed downward as he got in position before braing himself.

Then he watched as Miwa gathered herself. His blade glowed, prismatic flickers causing the curved scrollwork crafted into the blade to flair. Then... Nothing. Maybe a flick of water hit Ash's feet.

His blade lowered as the light died. "Yea." He nodded encouragingly at Miwa before walking into the ocean until he was up to his waist and again assumed a guard position with his sword. the scrollwork on it again glowing. "GIve me your best shot Miwa." Ash's voice was confident as he waited.

    The stufful taps the odd warframe, and then he gets a delicious fruit!. He greedily grabs the apple and begins chomping on it while watching the Primarina and the other water type show off those moves, analizing the attack the best he can, nodding faintly as he hears Ash speaking, it did look strong, not something he might want to get poked with!. The sword gets the small guy's attention, not many pokemon use 'weapons', but he can tell it is a fighting thing, moving aside to let Ash get ready, instead moving back to Alden's side and sitting again, watching Ash curiously. 
    Luke meanwhile, claps a few more times and cheers on Miwa when she starts her first attempt, "You are doing well Miwa, I am sure you will get it soon." he says, wishing he had any actual advice to give... he never even trained water types!.

Miwa moves down the beach and into the ocean. She stops at about the same depth as Ash, with her tail under the water along with most of her front flippers, while her head and torso stays above the waves. She closes her eyes again and takes a moment to focus, letting the power of the ocean flow through her, then finally opens them again and locks her gaze onto Ash. Once more her mouth opens and begins to glow, and once again a powerful jet of water flows from Miwa's mouth toward Ash. 

 The move then tutor calls out to her. "You've almost got it, but that's still just a souped up hydro pump, give it all you've got!" Miwa hears his encouragement, which is added to that which Ash and Luke gave her earlier, and she digs deep, putting every single drop of strength she has into this attack, and after a few moments, the vortex appears, and Ash will suddenly feel the strength of the water striking him, assuming he didn't move out of the way by now, increase by between 30 and 40 percent.

Ash was shoved roughly by the jet of water even as his blade caused it to split, each half diverting away. He said nothing to encourage, as Miwa needed to hear instruction. Instead he leaned into the torrent of water, bracing.

then his blade wavered, maybe due to a muscle tremor or possibly how the water struck it, just enough to cause the more forceful torrent of water to rip it out of his hand, striking him fully on the chest. At first his shield flaired blue, the torrent of water colliding with warframe's shielding systems. Ash saw the shields depleting under the constant barrage much like it would under withering flux rifle fire. His arms crossed over his chest as he took the brunt of the impact, wanting to test himself. He tried to take a step forward, to push the water back, but all he could do was stand in place, and even then the muscles of his legs rippled, shields rapidly withering, and his sword stuck in the ground somewhere nearby.

    Luke remains quiet now, not wanting to distract either of them, once the practice begins, he simply pets the lazy electric type, who seemed to be napping already, despite the things happening around it, and making sure the small Stufful doesn't do anything dumb like walk closer and poke at either of the... And there it was, the small plush like creature slowly approaching Ash, simply trying to make sense of how the armored 'human' seemed to somehow cut, or even stand with the flow of water, watching what he was doing, and trying to stand on it's hindlegs, paws crossed on it's chest. Of course, it is not quite able to 'stand', so it mostly looks cute, flopping down.

Miwa is only able to hold the Hydro Cannon move for a few seconds after she manages the move proper, but those few seconds still pack quite a punch. Once the torrent subsides, there is Miwa, looking rather drained, and breathing hard as she tries to catch her breath and recover from the energy she expended in using such a powerful attack. Finally, after a few moments, she cheers and claps her flippers. "Woo! I did it!" She then lowers her gaze to Ash, and winces a bit, seeing he's no longer holding his sword. "How was being on the receiving end of that?" 

 John the move tutor nods and smiles. "Well done Miwa. Just keep working on it and it'll get easier with time, I'm sure it won't be long before you can perform the move no problem without needing to be in the water. Since it appears my work here is done, I'll leave you three to enjoy your day at the beach." With that, the man calls his Samurott back into it's pokeball, and walks back toward the city.

Ash slowly relaxed, lowering his arms as he looked to miwa. Within the transferrence pod of his ship he smiled even wit hthe small dip into the frame's armor and his forearms and hands feeling like they took the rough end of well... a water cannon. "OK that was amazing!" Ash sounded chipper even as his warframe rubbed its forearms and worked the fingers of both hands. 

Then he heard the trainer start to take his leave, "Hey buddy yu wanna see if she can do a repete?" Then a glance to Miwa, "Or it gonna be awhile before you wanna try that trick again?"

    Luke waits just a bit longer, to let Miwa gather herself, before finally standing up and approaching the struggling Primarina, "Need some help?" he asks softly, smiling and cheering back at her, "That was very impressive." he says, nodding a few times, "I am certainly not wanting to be hit by that." he says with a bright smile. The small pokemon meanwhile simply checks on Ash, waddling closer to get a closer look.

Miwa smiles at Ash's praise of how incredible the new attack she just made was. It did feel pretty amazing, knowing that such power existed within her. She shakes her head at Ash's question to the move tutor though. "No Ash, he can go, it's fine. If I did it once, I'm sure I can do it again, but this type of attack is one that takes all of your strength, so I'm going to need to rest for a bit before I can try it again." To Luke, she smiles and nods. "I'm fine, I just... need a minute." She says as she makes her way back onto the beach, but stays in the area were the surf is breaking onto the wet sand, and lays there, trying to allow herself to recover for another attempt at successfully performing the move to prove it wasn't just a fluke.

Ash looked down at the Stufful's small show of concern, "Hey I'm alright." He reached down to pick up his sword as he looked at the small pokemon. "There's a reason I went and got the tin getup. If she hit me with that without i'd probably be on my back about... oh.." He vaguely waved somewhere way behind where he had been standing. "Glad you seem to appreciate how serious a fight can be."

Ash's shields finally started to replinish. "Luke seems like a pretty solid guy. I'm sure you'll learn a bit traveling with him."

Then when Miwa spoke Ash turned, sheathing his blade, and nodded. "If you say so then yea. That was a fairly impressive attack. Not somethign to sneeze at, and if I hadn't been completely braced for it then that'd hurt like getting hit like... well.." Ash frowned in his transferrence pod, "Well like a hose of water strong enough to punch through a ship's hull." He walked over to Miwa in case she needed help getting to land. Water pokemon she may be, but she still breathed air.

    Luke does his best to help Miwa settle down, and even sits besides the big mermaid seal, patting her side lightly, "Hope you don't mind if I sit here." he says softly, smiling and nodding. His electric pokemon seems to wake up from the impromptu nap, to see the warframe, and a tired Miwa, and well, just seems confused, "Ger?". It pads closer to casually sniff around, tilting its head as Ash speaks, it looks... odd. 
    The Stufful glances up at Ash and nods, poking at the sword with one paw, and then at the side of the metal leg, glancing back at Luke for a few moments, as if considering what was said. "I should go to the PC at the pokemon center and get that earthquake TM I keep forgetting I own, maybe teach it to this little guy, I bet he is strong enough to use that... and would be even better once he evolves."

Miwa lays there for the moment, but smiles at Luke and Ash wanting to be with her and make sure she was ok, even perhaps going a bit overboard, she was tired, not half dead, but still, the sentiment warms her heart, it was certainly one of life's great treasures to have friends like these. "Thanks guys, you're the best, really. I couldn't ask for better friends." She says as she finally sits up on her tail and seems to have caught her breath. She takes a moment to stretch a bit and clear her throat, then nods. "Alright, shall we try for a repeat performance?" She asks with a grin, moving back into the water, but this time, a bit shallower than before, hoping to rely a bit less on the benefit of having water all around her this time.

The sudden up and ready attitude caused ash to grin within the transferrence pod as he drew his blade. Shields were looking solid. His blade was drawn and held out at his side. His head tilted forward as he faced Miwa down, "Take it all in Miwa." Ash spoke again, his voice stern, memory flickering in his mind of a lesson he had endured early in his own training, "All of your love. All of your hate. All of the things destroying your focus and ffeed it into a single point."

"I'm right here Miwa. My blade is drawn." Ash asked as he slowly started to advance on Miwa, wanting to give the Primarina a small bit of drama to the moment. The etchings on his blade flickered with prismatic light as he advanced, its tip scoring a line through the sand impossibly causing a trail of sparks to fly as it inched slowly closer. "You only have one chance before i close the gap."

His pace quickened. Was he trying to pressure her? THere was trying to add a bit of dramatic flair and then there's pure lunacy. She's only just managed to nail the move once and he's going full on last charge of the lgiht brigade?!

Miwa nods as Ash gives her a bit of advise, that was good, might help her focus in that extra bit of power she needs to do this move properly and on the regular. She began to think about her feelings for all of her friends, Ash in particular due to their friendship being a little 'extra special'. She thought of all that she hates, all of the people who have done her wrong, which thankfully, was a pretty short list, but also all of the things in the universe she wish she could change for the better. She took all that and focused on how her growing stronger would help protect the people she loves, and right the wrongs in the world around her. 

 But now Ash was coming closer, and she saw the glint of the light against that wickedly sharp blade. She imagined how easily it would slice through her skin, even though she knew Ash would never really try to hurt her like that. With a shake of her head, she pushed that from her mind and focused again. This time she knew just how much this move required the entirety of her strength as a water type Pokemon, and like before, she put every bit of herself into this one attack. She opened her mouth, it began to glow with a light blue aura like before, and finally, that vortex empowered torrent of water erupted from her mouth like lava from an exploding volcano, and it surged toward Ash with incredible speed and ferocity. She had done it again, even more cleanly than the first time.

Trueth be told there was a good ten meters between Ash and Miwa when the wall of pain started. Sure fine Ash wasn't going to hurt Miwa, but adding just that little bit of pressure on her seemed to give that little extra incintive. Problem is now he was faced with a torrent of water and he was not at all braced for it.

His blade moved to block, one hand remaining on the grip as his other slid along the back of the blade. All forward momentum stopped. Each slow step he took was countered by the water jet threatening to blow him to the next island with a net result of neither gaining nor losing ground.

His sword glowed, flaring bright as void-energy infused metal diverted the attack, and through the rush and roar of water Ash laughed. She had done it. All on her own. This was all Miwa's doing.

After she ended the attack and the torrent of water stopped flowing, Miwa just fell back onto the surface of the water and floated on her back for a bit. She was exhausted, as although this second successful attempt hadn't drained her as much in isolation compared to the first, cumulatively it had taken quite a toll on her. But as she floated on the water, she felt so elated that she may as well have been floating on a cloud. A big grin was spread across her face as she said to herself. "I did it, I did it! I learned the strongest water type move there is. Only six other species of Pokemon have even been known to successfully learn this move, but I did it." She finally kicked softly with her tail, and came to rest back on the beach again after a moment, laying in the wet sand.

Ash nodded at his blade and resheathed it while walking towards iwa before sitting in the water beside her. His arms hurt, His legs ached, and even if it was the warframe that took the brunt of it, it was still his mind having to process everything. So in a very real way that was as much a workout for him as Miwa herself. "That," He took a deep lungful of air, "Was intense." Trueth be told he had no idea he'd be able to block something like that. "And you managed it... I think that calls for drinks. I'll buy. Whatcha say?"