Over the next couple of days that Saphire stayed at Calea’s house she was spending more time with Theo than their guardian. Calea worked in the workshop section of her basement, and seemingly non-stop as well as sometimes she would find the Vulpix asleep at one of her machines. From what she was told they are what helps her create these latex and rubber items; it was also what Calea’s suit was made of. She would boast that her latex was the strongest anyone could ever make and could stay shiny even after an intense battle.
    Saphire didn’t care too much about Calea’s job, as it wasn’t necessarily part of her job as a guild member to think about it. She was more concerned about going back to the guild and learning all that she needed to in order to become a full-fledged guild member. Unfortunately she was told only the next day after Johnny and Chanler dropped her off that all guild training was suspended until further notice. That bit of news put a damper of the Eevee’s attitude just a bit as she was really hoping to continue learning. It wasn’t all terrible though as she was also informed that she could go to the guild’s training grounds whenever she wanted to now.
    She would’ve gone earlier in the week, had it not been that Theo wanted to go out and explore town, and Calea told Saphire to go with him. It was on the fourth day that Theo decided that he just wanted to train behind Calea’s shop in the grassy field that separated Great Usarus and the western mountains. Like the last few days, Calea told Saphire to stay with Theo so the two of them could look out for each other.
    “Go out through the staircase behind the bed.” Calea told them as she walked up to her bed to where a large piece of cloth was hanging on a wall that bordered it. She pulled back the cloth from the left going right to reveal a small passageway that connected to a set of stairs at a steep incline. There wasn’t a light source in the hidden path; probably because it was supposed to be a hidden escape route. “When you go out make sure you close the hatch. It only locks from inside so make sure to lock it when you come back.”
    “An escape route? Pretty cool I guess.” Saphire thought to herself as Calea explained the passage in front of her. “It makes sense too. The door upstairs locks and there’s also a trap door before you make it there anyways. This makes getting out in a hurry easy.”
    Theo balled up his right hand into a fist in front of his chest and smiled at Calea. “Alright, Ms. Calea. I’ll make sure it’s locked when we come back in.” The Riolu gave a small nod to the latex clad Vulpix and looked to Saphire with a gleeful smile. “Come on, Saphire! Let’s go train!” Without waiting for her response, the eager Riolu dove into the dark passage and climbed the stairs to their top.
    Calea rolled her eyes and chuckled as she looked down to Saphire on her right. “Keep an eye on him will you? I know you two can take care of yourselves but I just have a funny feeling that his enthusiasm will get him hurt one day.”
    A short laugh escaped Saphire’s lips after Calea’s statement. “I will, Ms. Calea.” Bunching up her muscles, Saphire hopped over and past Calea’s bed to land inside of the passageway. Up above her she could just barely make out Theo’s body as he fiddled with the hatch that lead outside. Sound of physical exertion came from the Riolu ahead of her and Saphire was curious so she padded up the stairs. She had to be careful not to slip on the stairs since they were smaller than the ones that were in the spiral staircase.
    Once she stood next to Theo she could just make out the wooden hatch in front of her. It was basic but had the same steel reinforcements that the trap door and front door upstairs. On either side of the hatch were metal loops, and the same were two sets of metal loops on the right and left sides. Two poles with handles that stuck out of them sat in the loops which barred the hatch from opening. Apparently Theo’s night vision was terrible as he was trying to push the handles up when there was clearly a large gap between the two pole ends.
    “Theo why don’t you try pushing the handles together?” She asked him.
    Apparently Theo hadn’t thought of that as he made a small noise of confusion for a moment. The Riolu looked over to where he heard her voice come from and then back at the bars in front of him. He switched his grip on the handles so that he had his palms facing each other before pushing them together. A metal clang filled the small passage as the pole ends slammed into one another.
    Theo appeared quite surprised that they moved so easily but didn’t argue about it. “Well its unlocked now!” He thought aloud happily as he walked forward with his arms out. The hatch lifted up easily after the bars were out of the way and midday sunlight shone down on their eyes. Saphire’s eyes narrowed to slits immediately as the bright light hit her face; Theo had to shield his eyes with his left arm while his right pushed the hatch over to the right. Gravity took the door the rest of the way and hit the ground with a heavy slam.
    Saphire walked ahead of Theo and stood just in front of the stairs. Surrounding her as she came out was a rather quaint and small garden stretching to the right and left side of Calea’s house as well as another ten feet in front of her. There was a grassy path separating flower beds from each other as well as a ring of smooth stones to line them. Opposite of the basement door was a short wooden fence and gate that was at least half a foot taller than she was.
    “Whoa.” Theo mumbled as he stepped up next to her, his eyes finally having gotten used to the sun’s light. “I didn’t know Ms. Calea had a garden.” As he said that, Saphire did find it odd that Calea of all Pokémon had a garden. For one she was a fire type and two is that she almost never even goes outside other than to take Theo and herself out to eat.
    “Same here.” Saphire responded as she took in the view of the garden. She took a moment to smell the air as well; the scent of full bloom flowers filled it with the smell of spring. “What I’m wondering though is how these plants are still alive.” Theo looked at her, a bit confused at her thought. “Well think about it. It’s almost winter and these plants look like they’re in summer still.”
    He took a moment to think about it for the both of them. Theo placed his hand in front of his snout and held it there for a moment before pulling it underneath and scratching the side of his neck. “Maybe,” Theo started as he stopped and looked at her, “It’s because the basement is so hot that it makes the ground around it warm so the plants still live.”
    Saphire thought about what Theo said and it seemed to make sense. If the walls in her basement were warm still then the ground that was nearby would be warm as well for a while longer. “Makes sense I guess. Though they shouldn’t be alive for too much longer.” She informed him as she walked forward towards the gate. Theo followed behind her, closing the hatch slowly so that the bars didn’t lock them out. “So what is it that you wanted to do?”
    The Riolu pulled up his fists and threw the forward and pulled back: Right, right, left, right. Air whooshing by Saphire’s ears as he punched the air and smiled at her. “I want to train. I want you to hit me with some ranged attacks so that I can practice one of my moves.” Her ears shot up in surprise at what he was suggesting. Thinking back on the test that she took at the guild Saphire knew that her accuracy was fine, but her range was terrible. Theo apparently picked up on her doubt and continued. “Don’t worry Saphire. I’ll stand close enough that the attack will hit me and not disappear. This will also help you work on your attack power.”
    Saphire moved her head from side to side when he said that and smiled. “Alright. Sure we can do that.” The Eevee followed Theo out of the garden and into the field a small distance where he motioned for her to stop and he continued walking another twenty feet before stopping and turning around.
    “Okay so what you’re going to do is use your best ranged attack at me and I’m going to be deflecting it.” Theo explained to her. “Give it your best shot.”
    With that Saphire got her body ready to attack him. Legs loose but ready for the recoil of the attack, back straight and head up. Saphire opened her mouth; energy drawing forth and collecting in front of her open muzzle to start forming a sphere of black energy. The Shadow Ball grew in size quickly to that just smaller than her head and aimed right at Theo. He stood with his left arm out in front of himself, left leg under his arm. His torso was sideways with his left pointed towards her with the right side of his body facing away from her.
A heartbeat later Saphire let her Shadow Ball go at him, the dark energy sphere shooting quickly at the Riolu. The ball of darkness began to get closer to Theo, and as it did the energy that made it up also started to fade away. It made its way towards him, and just as it got within five feet of him his left arm began to glow white. He dove forward; his left arm outstretched as if the grab the attack right out of the air but instead flipped his palm down. The sphere hit the back of his paw and black sparks shot out from where his arm and the attack collided. Then in the blink of an eye the Shadow Ball had begun to ride the glowing arm all the way up to his shoulders. Half a moment later his shoulders had the same glow on them as the ball rode across them and onto his right arm which glowed as well. Theo aimed his right arm out back behind him towards the mountain in the background where the Shadow Ball sped off and blew up after traveling another ten feet.
    Saphire stared in astonishment at what Theo had just done with her attack. Her eyes were wide open in awe while her maw hung agape; wordless because of his display of skill. “What did you just do?” She asked simply, amazement and wonder both evident in her voice as she spoke.
    Theo simply shrugged his shoulders as he moved into a relaxed posture. “It don’t really have a name yet.” He told her as he folded his arms over his stomach. “Johnny taught it to me the last time I was here. In Great Usarus I mean. He said only I can do it because my aura has defensive properties. Whatever that means.”
She looked at him curiously. “Aura. That’s that stuff that Johnny talks about how it’s what makes us stay alive, and if it runs out then we die.” 
“He told me that too. So did my big brother, Liam.” Theo told her in response; confirming what she had said.
“Maybe I can learn about aura too when Johnny gets back.” Saphire thought to herself as she looked around. As she did, her ears began to pick up a noise almost like chatter from a lot of Pokémon. “Do you hear that?” Saphire asked him.
Theo tilted his head to the side out of confusion. “Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”
As if to answer both of their questions there was a short flash of light and suddenly Johnny was standing next to Theo. “Hey kids. We’re back.”
Theo grinned and looked at the Pikachu beside him. “Hey Johnny!” With greetings out of the way Theo hugged Johnny.
“Johnny!” Saphire exclaimed while dashing forward to stand in front of them. “What happened? Where did you go? Why couldn’t I come with?”
Saphire’s rapid bombardment of questions didn’t nearly overwhelm Johnny at all, but it did make him laugh. He reached out his arm and pet her head while shaking Theo’s shoulder a little bit. “I’ll tell you both about it over dinner. For now would you both like to see something cool?”
Theo was immediately all for it and it showed as excitement filled his face. Saphire was as equally excited but didn’t show it as much. “Sweet. Now hold on. I’m going to teleport us all to the guild where it is.” Both of them nodded and stood by his side. Johnny rested a hand on Saphire’s and Theo’s back before they were all engulfed in a flash of light.