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Nero was worried... Where did he go? What had happened? Did his Starly wander off, or had someone stolen him...? The catscratch Pokemon was, quite reluctantly, leading his trainer in the direction that he'd seen the 'stupid bird' go.. Clooney hoped that stupid bird would stay gone.
Meanwhile, not so far away...

Icarus had been flutter-walking for a while now. No master. Nope. Not coming. Don't care. No he don't. Go. Go home now. I'll do that. Thought the little Starly, hip-hopping back toward his old nest. But he bumped into something. Long, hard, clothed. Trainer? He found? Icarus thought, and chirped upward at.... That wasn't the trainer...? He wore green. This one was in black and red...? Who's this? It kicked him! The strange one in black kicked him back a bit. "Hmph.... What do we have here...? Heh... A little Starly? I should be able to use you..." the man said, grinning darkly down at Icarus. "... Hehe... Score." he chuckled. Then, the man tossed a Pokeball at the ground, from which emerged a Squirtle... It had a dark, almost black shell, with a pale-blue skintone... "Now, Torrent.... Get that one for me. Don't really care how you do it... Just don't mess up..." the man said in a gruff tone, grinning the whole time... Icarus backed away, slowly at first, but the Tiny Turtle pokemon followed, menacingly pounding it's fists.

It was at that time that Clooney and Nero popped out of the brush, looking around for Icarus. "... Icarus! I've found you!" Nero said, smiling for a moment. However, after seeing the thuggish looking person, and his Squirtle, his face hardened. "... Step away, man. That's MY Starly. I caught him fair and square." he said, glaring at the man.

"Heh... You think I give a crud, dude? I'm taking it. That's MY Starly now!" That guy frowned and pointed at Nero. "Change of plans, Torrent. Take out that idiot's pokemon. THEN get me that Starly." he chuckled.

"Clooney! Get this started with a Quick Attack!" Nero said, to which the Meowth gladly obliged. 'Finally... A REAL opponent...!' Clooney thought, just before being knocked upside his head with a Watergun. "Nice one... AGAIN."

"Clooney! Try a Fakeout!" This was going to be an encounter Nero wouldn't ever forget...

Train was beginning to feel incredibly tired, but as soon as she saw the red roof of a Pokémon Center appear in the distance, she nearly broke out into a run, but that would be pretty rude seeing as she'd be leaving Carlos behind. She tried to keep her pace steady but couldn't help walking pretty fast until she reached the doors of the Center, stepping gratefully into the lobby. She picked up Pikachu as she approached the counter, locating the trays and putting her other Pokémon in it(in their PokéBalls, of course). When the nurse came to take her Pokémon, she leaned forward slightly, leaning on the counter. "Hi, do you have any rooms in back? We'd like to spend the night, please."

"Of course," Nurse Joy replied. "Just one room, I imagine?" She added, pulling out a key from under the counter.

"Oh, uhm, no, actually, two," Train rushed. No offense to Carlos or anything, she just, barely knew the guy and didn't exactly feel comfortable sleeping in a room alone with him. Sleeping outside just seemed different in that aspect, it's not like they would've been in a confined space or anything.


Leon headed towards the bridge, also being able to vaguely make out the shapes of a few people who seemed to simply be standing on the bridge. That was good, as it meant that his Pokémon would have a chance to battle different types of Pokémon, assuming these trainers were also traveling and didn't have just Wurmples and Zigzagoons as they'd been running into basically the entire time. Although that one kid's Zigzagoon had managed to pull out a move that had demolished Ghos… But Leon was cautious of that now, and was sure that either way Muuma would be able to handle any of these trainers Pokémon. She was a fair bit stronger than most Pokémon that were around thee areas, along with trainers'.

Leon continued on his way, mildly debating which trainers he'd challenge, though at the same time not really caring at all because there was an extremely good chance at least a few if not all of them would try to battle him, as it was simply the general trainers instinct to do so. At one point he heard someone calling out, but with little to no knowledge of anybody around here except for the gym leaders, he could only assume that the call was meant for someone else and thus kept walking uninterrupted. He realised quickly that the sound was getting louder, and the voice spoke again, this time much closer, and soon there was a boy at least a few years younger than Leon next to him.

"…" Leon stared at the boy for a moment, also taking note that Muuma now appeared to be gone. It didn't worry him, though. He was used to her disappearing acts by now. "Hello," He said dully, honestly having no interest in this kid or why he was suddenly talking to him.

Before Leon could even attempt to shake the boy's hand--although he probably wouldn't have anyway--a floating figure began materializing behind the boys head, and as Muuma became visible she let out a sudden shriek, hoping to startle Jett.

The edge of Leon's lips twitched every so slightly, not even noticeable to Jett, as he took a step backwards to avoid being crashed into as Muuma's shriek sent him lurching forward. He ran a hand through his hair boredly as Muuma floated back to him, clearly disappointed that her scare had permanently traumatized Jett, or at least made him actually fall over. "Leon," Leon replied to the first question. "And yes, I am." Great, so this kid was going after the same gym badge as him, which meant that if he didn't get there first, he'd have to wait for Jeff or Jett or whatever to finish his battle, first. And after all the time he'd spent being bored out of his mind just getting to the end of this route, he really didn't feel like having any more unnecessary boring thrown at him.

Muuma turned to face Jett again once she'd reached Leon's side, staring at the boy and making no other move for now, though she wondered if Leon was going to battle this boy.

Hoping she hadn't offended him, Train turned and handed Carlos one of the room keys, smiling slightly sheepishly as she moved out of the way in case he wanted any of his Pokémon healed. When Nurse Joy brought the trays back, Train happily took hers and bid Carlos goodnight, heading back to where the rooms were and glancing at her key to see the number before scanning the walls for her room. When she found it she slipped inside and placed her bag on the floor beside the bed, pulling out her pajamas and heading into the bathroom to wash up a bit.

As she closed the door behind her, she decided it was probably a good idea to take a shower. She had no idea how long it was going to take them to get through the mountain, and it was probably pretty gross in there, with dirt and mud and stuff, so she wanted to be as clean as she could before heading in there, but she also didn't want to take too long in the morning and annoy Carlos. Plus, she was pretty excited to train her new Growlithe some more, and wanted to set out as soon as they could after they woke up.

He really likes Ghost-types... was Jett's first thought at the sight of the Gastly. With a bright smile, he tossed a Pokeball of his own into the air, revealing River.

"You can have the first move," Jett grinned, taking a step back. "Are you ready, River?" River merely nodded in response, gazing warily at the two hovering Ghosts.

She did not have a good feeling about this.

River was upset when the Gastly popped her personal space bubble. Upset was not the word River would use when that thing licked her.

"R-river?" Jett asked, staring at his twitching Ralts. That was most likely super-effective. "Uh... use--" There was a shrill shriek when River used Confusion point-blank on the very close Gastly, hoping to blast it away from her. Far away.

"...Y-yeah, that's what I was going for..."

Clooney glared at the opponent, and attemped to Fakeout... But he missed. "... Torrent, use Defense Curl, and follow up with tackle..."

The Squirtle did as asked, and withdrew into it's dark shell, gleaming clear-blue eyes stared at Clooney, angrily. '... You think you can scare ME?' Clooney thought, and attacked with a Scratch. "Why are you doing this? Huh?" Nero asked the man. "Why..? Because its frickin' fun, that's why. Now, just give the pokemon over nice n' slow... Okay?" he'd said, and continued with that grin of his. "NO. You're not getting my pokemon. Go find your own damn Starly... This one is my friend..!" Nero half-shouted at the guy.

Clooney was hit by the Squirtle's Tackle, and waited for his next order...
"Squirrr...Squirtle!" The pokemon growled, and Clooney responded with the same...

"... Lowlife. Stealing Pokemon... That's just like a Rocket. I have had enough of people like you... Clooney. Give me your best Quick Attack and let's finish this!"