Special Exercise.

"Alright, that's enough for now," Alex said.

Both Terra and Vito were sweating after the exercise they had done. They had taken off their shirts to prevent them from getting drenched.

Alex was watching the train from the very beginning and he was impressed with the amount of progress that they were making. "Sure enough these two will be great," he said.

However, one thing was apparent to him. One of them was growing faster than the other. Terra was growing faster than Vito could keep up. 'Is it normal for a kid to be this talent? He put me to shame when I was a kid."

Alex was smiling to himself reminiscing about the past. However, he was fairly certain that his 16-year-old self was just as good as Terra was right now if not better.

Vito raised his hand to ask a question and Alex allowed it.

"What of Edith, Cyrus, and Dawn, won't they be learning this as well?" Vito asked.

"Oh yeah, I didn't think of that," Terra replied.

Vito looked at him with a dull expression, "Of course you didn't, you just go with the flow don't you?"

"Ah yes, the others. No, they won't be learning from me, at least not. You see being chosen already grants them the basics that this power I am teaching you will give," Alex said.

"Then what's the point of us learning?" Vito asked.

"Well you see, Terra is going to need to learn about it now to have a better grasp of what he will be capable of in the near future, and as for you Vito. I simply wanted to teach you, is all. I know about your drive to help better your self and I feel like this training might help calm your mind and body a little better."

"Besides, they are already amazing in their own ways, all of them. So you better keep up," Alex said to Vito.

The two of them went back to the base and Alex was left again with the tree next to him.

"The meeting will be starting soon, Alex. Are you prepared? Calming down all those people might be the hardest thing you've done yet. I know what humans are like, what they feel, how they act, and what they do. I guarantee you, they will not like this at all. I believe we should keep Terra's identity a secret for a while longer."

Alex placed his hand on the bark of the tree and it was almost as though he tried to calm its worries.

"I know they won't listen. If I didn't know you for most of my life and I was told that a 17-year-old boy was going to be fighting for our lives, I'd shoot myself in the head to skip to the end result. But this meeting has to happen. It's not just about Terra, the world is in panic and my fellow servants are spread out trying to calm it down. If this meeting doesn't happen, I fear for the worst."

****

Vito and Terra were the first two to wake up in the room, and shortly after Cyrus did too.

"You guys woke up before me? I am impressed. I didn't believe that would happen. I was sure I would wake up first but I would like to congrat-"

"Yeah yeah sure," Vito said as he rushed out, "I'm going for a run before we head out, bye!"

Cyrus had just woken up but he knew that Vito was not just going for a run. 'Is he rushing somewhere? Something he wants to see?'

Terra seeing this thought that Vito was trying to get a one-up on him by training even in their free time. "I won't let him be the only one that runs! I'm going for a run too!" he said as he rushed off somewhere.

Cyrus was now left alone in the room with no one to talk to except for Dawn.

"I know you're awake, you might as well start getting ready, I have a feeling that John is planning something today," he said as he stood up to leave the room, stretching his arms in the air.

Alone in the room now, the sun could be seen pouring in through a window and onto Dawn's face as he was staring at the ceiling not saying a word while everything was going on. He had a blank expression of someone who didn't want to get out of bed.

He was doing absolutely nothing. The sounds of birds chirping could be heard coming in with the sunrise as he rose to sit up straight with his back pressed against the wall.

And then finally he said to himself, "Those guys make way too much noise in the morning."

****

Passing through the hallways, Vito was making his way to wake up Edith. 

Yesterday was one of the days she would have slept over and then later today she would have to go back to see her father. He was really overprotective to place a two-day limit on his own daughter he thought.

As he was running down the hall he saw John a little ahead of him making his way to wake her up. 'No he won't," he thought.

"Hello there John," Vito greeted with a friendly smile.

"Vito? I didn't expect you to be up this early," he looked at his watch, "Well I guess it's not too early in the morning for you to be here. Is this a coincidence I wonder?"

"What do you mean?" Vito asked feigning ignorance. "Anyways where are you going?"

"I was going to proceed to wake up Edith," he said.

"I can help you with that. You do a lot of work organizing the plans and constructing the schedules so you must have a lot of other things you should be doing right now besides she is my teammate and what are teammates for?" he asked still wearing the bright smile he put on.

John considered this for a moment and smiled thinking about what Vito was trying to do, it reminded him of something similar he tried to accomplish in the past.

'He seems more confident with himself than he was when I first saw him.'

"Very well then, you should wake her up. You are teammates after all," he winked and proceeded to go do something else.

Vito then walked up to her door and knocked on it 3 times.

There was no reply and he decided to knock another three times.

And another.

'How heavy a sleeper is she?'

Maybe he was being impatient because he was a little nervous to be here but he didn't feel like it would take so long to answer a door.

As he considered knocking on it a third time, the door swung open with a sleepy Edith rubbing her eyes.

"Huh, Vito? It's you," she said a little drowsy and swaying away by the door. "I thought John would wake me up, guess he's not here," *Yawn!* "Anyways let's go," she said as she took a step forward and stumbled as Vito caught her and held her upright.

"Good morning to you too Edith, I know you're excited to go on today's mission but shouldn't you get properly dressed first?" he asked in a low tone as he turned his head to face another direction.

"W-what?" she asked.

Then she looked herself over and realized that she had messy hair and was wearing her usual night outfit. A pair of grey loose sweatpants, her white vest, and a pair of white bunny slippers.

 She instantly broke out of her drowsy mindset and pulled away from him. The problem here wasn't that he saw her in her pajamas or that he held her for a little bit, no. The problem was that all of that happened and she wasn't wearing her bra!!

She backed away from him to her door and slammed it shut on him. A few seconds later, she opened it up again and only her eyes were being seen this time through the door.

"Y-you-u-u, Y-you didn't s-see anything? did you?" she asked from behind the door. One couldn't see her expression but could imagine that it was red.

"I didn't see anything that you wouldn't want me to see," Vito said smiling.

This made her squint her eyes at him as her eyebrows furrowed and she shut the door once more.

Vito skipped away happily along the hallway. He knew that he might be dead in the next few hours once she got dressed but so far it was worth everything including his life.

'Life isn't guaranteed, I might as well enjoy it. Besides, she is so cute when she is sleepy.'

****

Edith had just walked into the main room, Cyrus, Dawn, and Terra were all gathered together hanging out, but Vito! Vito was missing.

'Where is he!?' she scavenged the room with her eyes, looking intently but she could not find him. He was not here.

Then John walked in getting ready to take them all out for the trip and right behind him was Vito walking in innocently like he did nothing wrong.

'That coward! He knows that I can't attack him with John around and that I'll be leaving to go home today. He is avoiding me on purpose! When I catch you Vito I am going to break each and every one of your bones!'

The impulse Edith was releasing was so threatening that even Terra thought he could see black smoke in the room. It reached a point where every representative in the room was having their shoulder glow in reaction to it.

Dawn shivered at the feel of cold air before his symbol began to warm him up. He felt as though someone was wishing evil onto him, like a shaman.

Terra scooched up towards Cyrus and whispered, "Cyrus, what's going on?"

"I feel like the Earth senses we are in danger and is trying to protect us," he said pushing his glasses up.

"In danger from what?" Terra asked worriedly.

Cyrus didn't say anything. He looked at Vito who was obviously hiding behind John and whispered, "I wish you peace, it was short knowing you."

"Alright everyone, I don't know why the air got dark in here but let us head out," John said.

Going into Africa today, there was a small special box waiting for them when they arrived. John smiled and walked over and grabbed the box in his hands.

"Today is going to be a very special exercise for you all," he smirked.

"Each of you has your current tamed companion's name in this small box. You are going to draw from here and switch animals. One will have to tame something different from the other," he said.

Cyrus was highly suspicious of that box, it wasn't a normal one as it looked heavier and thicker than a normal box. Its top cover also didn't come off completely and slid off instead to the side but could not be detached from the rest of the box.

And the fact that none of them wrote down their animal's name in the box and it was already here waiting for them quenched his suspicion.

Cyrus already knew that this box was rigged.