Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mike continued his flurry of blows on Felsic's hands, he sweat began to run down his face and upper body. As for the Typhlosion, he was taking the hits with a smile, feeding off of the energy his trainer was putting out. Finally the boy stopped, catching his breath, all that screaming and punching really took it out of him. He looked around, a few passing people eyed him with peculiar looks. "What?" He asked, placing his hands on his hips. "Can't a guy train with his Pokemon and relax a bit?" When no answer was heard, Mike rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Whatever." The trainer mumbled, cracking his knuckles, something on his gloves catching his interest. "Hm?" He mused, looking closer. There was a dial. Upon further examination, a new selection was added aside from the usual 'Fire' and 'Smoke' options. "Punch, eh?" Mike read with interest, clicking the wheel to the new feature. As he pressed the button normally used for the Flamethrower and Smokescreen function, a devious smirk presented itself when his hands burst into flames. The boy examined his flaming appendages, they felt fine, his mother really did a great job proofing the gloves so his hands didn't burn. "Guess that's what you get when your mom invented for the army." Felsic eyed the new ability with a sort of brotherly admiration, and raised his palms for another attack.

"Fire...." Rearing back his fist, Mike thrust forward, a beautiful ribbon of flame and smoke trailed as his hand flew forward and connected with double force with the Volcano Pokemon's hand. "PUNCH!" He felt the force rush through his arm as his punch hit Felsic in the paw. The Typhlosion recoiled his hand. Despite his natural affinity to flames, the increased force of the blow, combined with nearly a half an hour of his hands being stuck in a constant manner caused him to need a bit of a rest. "Woah!" Mike exclaimed, looking at his hands as if he didn't believe such a heavy hit could come from his small frame. "Neat!" He chirped, looking over at his Pokemon. "Alright buddy, I've hit you enough, so now it's time for your turn. You get one clean shot." He stood up, visibly tired and covered in dirt. "Come on, it's only fair. But you only get one, I don't feel like dying."

Felsic stood up, a bit hesitant at the boy's request. But once he saw that casual confidence in Mike's eyes, the Typhlosion wordlessly sent a right hook flying through the air, connecting to his trainer's left shoulder. The brute force sent him spiraling through the air, landing a few feet back in the dirt. Face down, the boy's body shook with laughter. "That was great!" He spoke, his voice muffled somewhat by dirt. "You really are strong." said Mike, quickly rising to his feet.

Felsic felt the same way about his trainer. While odd, completely unpredictable, and with methods of physical training far from normal, Mike was certainly something else.

"Alright, you deserve a rest." Mike lifted up the Fire Pokemon's Pokeball and recalled him, clipping the ball back into the usual strap. He needed a break too, his whole body was sore from that bit of training. He set his back on the Pokemon Center wall, sliding down with a heavy sigh, the descent to the ground eased by the mass amounts of sweat on his back. He landed on his butt softly, letting out one last sharp exhale and closing his eyes. The breeze picked up, the winds wiping away his anger. "I can't keep beating myself up like this." He said, rubbing his shoulder. "My past is just that, the past. There's nothing I can do today to stop things from happening yesterday, so why do I let myself get like this?"

Mike leaned back, his mind racing with thoughts. He wished that his friends would show up soon. He still wanted that Omanyte.

Strolling down the path, she noticed a wooden sign in the ground, reading; "Route 1 - Viridian City up ahead." Tracing her fingers along the sign, she smiled strangely, her Bulbasaur giving her a dark look, as if to say, "come on.." Walking away from it, she came across some deep grass, covering the path ahead of them both. "Eh, you wanna ride?" Jumping up into the air happily, she caught him, letting him rest upon her head as she pushed past the thicket. Feeling something tug at her leg, she assumed it was just her pokemon, but quickly remembered it was on top of her head. Looking down warily, she kicked it away, but screamed as it bit hard on her skin. "Ow!" Running back out from the grass, she was surprised to see a Ratatta bounding after her, annoyed that she had kicked it.

Attempting to bite her again, Bulbasaur quickly leapt down, standing guard in front of Leila. "No! It's not safe!" Without turning back, it shouted loudly, "Bulba-bulba!" This probably meant stay back, but she couldn't tell at that moment. Readying itself, it stared back at the pokemon, watching it carefully. Suddenly, the Ratatta attacked, pushing Bulbasaur down into the ground. Frustrated, the Bulbasaur pushed it off, tackling it angrily as he defended his trainer. Irritated, the Ratatta shook its head, then leapt up again at the pokemon, scratching wildly in order to hurt it. Feeling the sharp claws against it's skin, Bulbasaur felt itself enrage, bellowing loudly at the rat pokemon, weakening it's strength as it back away in fear. Not one to lose the battle, the Rattata chirped angrily at the tow before heading back out into the grass, it's tail fading away into the distance. "Bulbasaur... Thank you!" Giggling excitedly for them both, she wrapped her arms around the pokemon as she hugged it affectionately. "You did great!"

Quite a bit of time had passed since Nina had arrived in the Gym, and for every second that Kasiya wasn't making herself present, the more it had added on to the girl's anxiety. What if she's completely decided against battling me? Or--or what if she's just toying with me, to see if I can handle the pressure of waiting for her? She blinked. No. That's the paranoia talking. Kasiya'd never do something like that-- she's not that diabolical. Heck, if anything, she's just a klutzy dork. She's probably gone and fallen in a hole somewhere. A chuckle.

Turning and walking towards her friends, Nina smiled a bit. "I don't know about the both of you, but I'm getting a bit antsy waiting for Kasiya. Whaddaya say we have a practice match while we're waiting?" Raimundo grinned at the offer, while Whitney nearly jumped out of her skin from excitement at the offer. "Like, totally and a hundred percent YEAH!" Nina jumped back a bit at the induced reaction from the girl. "Jeez, Whitney. Calm down. Heh. I'm only asking because I want to test out the Pokemon I want to use-- it's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to use them. That cool?"
Raimundo nodded. "Yeah, that's f--"
"Yeah, sure, whatever! Let's go! What's the conditions already?!"
Jeez. Somebody's got some blood boiling. "Well, the two conditions are going to be the same as the ones I will set for Kasiya: One, you are entitled to use three Pokemon. The second condition is that this will be a double battle, meaning that you two are gonna be working on a team, to simulate me battling Kasiya's team of two. Get it?"
Unclipping a Pokeball, Raimundo and Whitney stepped forward. "Totally."

A grin spread over Nina's face. "Awesome. Now, just... let me get the Pokemon from the PC." She chuckled, a little embarrassed, and ran over to the computer, logging on and donating all of her Pokemon, switching the three Psychics into her party that she was planning on using. Logging off and going back to the arena, the girl flicked her hair out of her face, and held one Pokeball in each hand. "Oh," she said, "for the record, this is only a practice match. Beating me won't earn you a Marsh Badge."

A moment later, four Pokeballs flew throughout the air.

On Nina's side, a gypsylike Pokemon swayed her hips while a mime moved his hands about in front of his face.

On the opposite side, a small Pokemon with large jaws stood in front of Raimundo while a large cat scratched behind an ear, positioning herself near Whitney.

Sheesh. That Rattata is really annoying. Geodude stood up from the broken rubble around him now a bit steamed at the opposing rat. So far no trainers with a low level one such as this had done so well in the gym. But it was still a really low level. "Use Rock Throw whenever it tries one against you and attack it with a few too." Brock commanded calmly.

"Geodude!" It shouted in response as it began tossing over a few heafty rocks towards it's opponent. Most of the smaller once were thrown hap-hazardly in an attempt to do collateral damage but the largest rocks were aimed with a deadly accurate eye.

"Defense Curl-Protect!" Brock proclaimed as the large rock came flying back at Geodude. He pulled in the cross arm pattern as a dim green barrier appeared around him causing the rock to deflect of harmlessly. As the green dissapeared the normal white Defense Curl sheen appeared showing the raised status again. "Rock Tomb it when it kicks up another rock at you!" Brock proclaimed.

((Dice roll for protect if it is a 3 it works, 1 or 2 it doesn't.))

"Be on the look out Geodude!" Brock instructed. "Use Protect if you see anything other than that rock coming at you!" He said calmly. I hope it works since I just used it recently. Geodude glanced around the battlefield looking for his foe pretty much in vain since he didn't see it.

As M.A. talked on the phone, Ky followed her towards the table where he had left his food. Before sitting down, he looked at his sandwich, still finding no appetite though his stomach growled. He knew that his Pokemon were hungry though, and so he let them both out. Little Guy took his normal perch on Ky's shoulder and Sting came out hovering near the table. Ky took both bowls and with one hand, he held the dish near his shoulder for Little Guy to reach, and with his other hand held the other bowl out to Sting. Not being able to hold it himself, Sting ate from the bowl as Ky held it, as did Little Guy. Both of them enjoyed their meals, shown by Little Guy's happy chirps and Sting's hastiness.

Ky just stood and became lost in his thoughts as M.A.'s conversation continued. He thought of the past, his family, his goals, his Pokemon. Every time his thoughts focused on Crenu, he lingered a bit, not quite ready to forget, but eventually shoved them aside, changing his focus to what he had to do now. Even with M.A.'s company, Ky felt very much alone. He wasn't really sure what to talk to her about, if anything. It was as if he was starting everything from scratch. Nevertheless, he found M.A.'s conversation entertaining towards the end. "M...... M...... uh...." Ky said, mockingly scratching his head. Then, he brought his hand up in victory. "Emm.... AY! There! I think I got it!" Sting looked on in confusion as he saw his bowl fling the remaining contents behind Ky, spreading across the Pokemon Center's floor. Realizing what he had done, Ky laughed in embarassment.