Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Hariyama and Skarmory "started viciously making out" (Mikallen, p. 172). Or maybe they did the more expected thing, which was glare at the rag-tag bunch in front of them. Really, couldn't have some of the lesser Grunts taken care of them, instead of having them actually work? The two Pokemon were strong and conceited, but rather lazy... Ah well, it was always bad for them if they didn't obey Janice's nagging orders. Speaking of which, here came one now.

"Annihilate them. Keep the Pokemon alive, though, dead ones are no good to us!"

Oh yay, free reins! It was so troublesome listening to that high-pitched blabbermouth of a woman. Hariyama cracked his knuckkles, smirking as he stepped forward, and the Skarmory screeched, a deafening sound, as it zoomed forwards towards M.A.'s little crew.

The girl's eyes widened considerably, and she grabbed the two immobile Pokemon -- being a very wounded Daemyn and a fear-frozen Diego -- and tackled them out of the way quickly and awkwardly, causing them all to sprawl on the floor. Not a very graceful movement, mind, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. Her arms groaned from the effort of hauling them and landing on the ground, on top of being twisted earlier. Meanwhile, Ulani was able to swerve out of the way, but barely; that thing was fast! They were a bit out-classed here, 'Lani thought, her beak clamped hard in determination. But she wasn't about to let her team down! She'd beat them all herself if she had to... somehow...

In the panic, the brunette didn't notice the little Magby at her feet, and thus nearly crushed him with the weight of herself and two additional Pokemon. Now that she was at ground-level, however, with a whimpering Houndoom and Smeargle at her side, she noticed the fellow, eyes slitted at those Rockets. "Are you here to help?" M.A. asked quietly, ribs aching, though an inner doubter in her mind wondered how much a little Swablu and a little red, bulbous duck could do to those tanks over there. Then again, she still had one more (predictable) card up her sleeve...

The Skarmory was making her round back again, and it was only with several persistent Fury Attacks from Ulani in the air that changed the irritable metal bird's attention from the four landbound figures down there to that little blue gumdrop of a thing. How annoying! She'd have to take down this pesk first; Hariyama could take care of the ones down there, that lazy slob of a fatass. Ulani blew a raspberry at the flying chunk of metal, and that sealed the deal; Skarmory began to chase a frantic Ulani about.

The cheeky blue bird knew she couldn't keep this up long, and attacking the Skarmory herself was out of the question; those Fury Attacks hadn't even dented her opponent, even if it had dented her aching beak. It was then she noticed that red bugger down there. Oh! He must be there to help out, lovely, hopefully he could do something! Ulani made a sudden swerve, temporarily losing the Skarmory and zipping back down to M.A., sweeping the Magby onto her compact body before jetting off again lest the Skarmory come to attack her trainer.

M.A. blinked at the rush of wind past her, wishing she could help Ulani and that duck more somehow, but her attention was definitely back down here, where that Hariyama was hovering above her. Daemyn snarled unevenly, trying to stand up, but the very effort of that send pain shooting up left side, where he had landed less than ceremoniously from that Seismic Toss. Diego was still scared stiff; he was an artist, he was supposed to stay objective... All the fear rushing into his body was incomprehensible to him. The big thing in front of them, shading them... frightening.

The Hariyama pulled one of his huge hands back, ready to initiate an attack, when a pale M.A. managed a smile. "Wait a moment," she said, a cryptic desperate kind of amusement in her eyes. "I have a gift for you." With that, she tossed something into the air, not too high, so that the Hariyama could not see it in the interfering shine of intrusive setting sun.

What he did feel, however, was three hundred pounds of elephant landing on his head.

"Agh... that really scared me," Sabrina confessed. "I thought that we were going to be attacked for sure."
"You never did explain yourself, Sabrina," Whitney replied. "What's going on? Who's after you?"
"Well... it's a bit of a story. I won't get into it now, but a summarized version is that in the time I was gone, I met someone and we were friends for a while, but there's a lot of bad blood between us now, and she's really mad at me."
"Mad to the point of violence... god. You like, really must've done something awful to piss someone off that badly."
"Well, awful enough, evidently. I think we're okay now though-- I can't sense her anymore."

Rio slowed down a little bit, at Whitney's command. "I don't need to you get tired out already and end up dropping us into the ocean or something-- that's the last thing we need right now. I don't exactly have any Water Pokemon with me... hah, speaking of the ocean." Looking ahead, the water was coming into view; it seemed as though the girls were approaching Slateport City. "I was here not too long ago, actually," Whitney commented, looking back to her friend. "Sabrina? What's wrong?" The girl had a serious expression on her face. "There's a battle up ahead. There's a big battle taking place." Whitney raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and? Battles go on everyday. Why is this--"

"Because," Sabrina began, "it's a battle between our friends and Giovanni. And I can tell it's extremely difficult, despite the fact that they are all powerful trainers."
"And just what do you propose we do? Crash the fight?"
"No, not so much. Let's just... mm, help out our friends a bit, shall we? We can attack from up here, and be gone before they know what happened. You've got Castform still, right?"
"I do. I can have him drop a Weather Ball on the field, and hopefully it'll help out."

Releasing her Pokemon, it floated alongside them in the air. They approached Slateport and, despite the fact that they were as high up in the air as they were, they were able to make out the figures of people, and Pokemon in battle. Lowering down a bit and hovering in place, they could make out just who was who-- and then they saw Mike's Magby being carried around by a Swablu that the girls assumed to be friendly. They were doing their best to keep a frantic Skarmory at bay. "There's our target!" Whitney exclaimed. "Castform! Harness all of the power of the sun! Weather Ball, now!"

Closing its eyes and concentrating, Castform created a ball of energy over its head; it shone bright red, indicating it was of a Fire element. Opening its eyes, it carefully watched the Skarmory's movements, and waited for the perfect moment to shoot the Weather Ball at it with a tremendous force. Whitney recalled her Pokemon after it had commenced its attack. "Rio! Let's get out of here, now!" With three consecutive sqwaks, the bird took off, a few of its tailfeathers falling. The wind currents carried them down and to Mike and the others, as if to say, "We were here. We hope we helped."

Alice gave a big smile to mask her discomfort. It wasn’t towards her new, lively, companions at all. As her flamboyant friend described the lavish hotel, a chill went down her spine. I hate sleeping on foreign beds! Yes, the fear and hate she had for traveling was caused by an acute Mysophobia. Who knew when they changed those sheets!? I don’t want to sleep in other people’s DNA deposits!! Hearing that the hotel is 5 star eased her anxiety a little bit. She had to keep optimistic.

She become a little disappointed when Aidan turned down Veilstone. She had been to Hearthome before, she visited when a pokemon her grandparents had breed entered. She had never visited Veilstone but heard stories from visiting trainers that had passed through.

There was no crying over spilt juice for Alice, she’d rather travel with a flamboyant trio then alone.

Hoooly crap. The SUN just smote something? She had better start being good. No more stealing shiny things. The Sun was watching. Well, at least during the day.

Before Ulani could ask what the heck Napalm had in mind, however, she was surprised by a sudden heat wave on her back and her shooting forwards about twenty feet in the air. The bird looped around a bit, trying to regain her balance; hopefully her heavy passenger could hold on. When she felt a painful grip on her cotton wings, she squawked a bit, but at least that meant he was fine. "Might -- wanna let go -- of those! They ain't -- pillows," Ulani panted, feeling the strain of carrying something besides herself.

Turning around, she saw that the Skarmory was barely conscious now and its lustrous metal was burnt black. Ulani whistled, taking her time to meander back to the steel bird. "I -- wouldn't want -- to fight you," she said to Napalm. "You -- pack -- a hefty punch!" It might have been easier for her to fly if she just shut up, but that was incomprehensible to Ulani.

When they arrived at the hovering bird, Ulani flew around its head semi-curiously. Yup, almost out cold. It could hardly croak at Ulani, a laughable attempt at viciousness. "Well okay -- I guess I could," the bird sighed, neatly pecking the Skarmory on the head, making a lovely little clunk! sound. And down, down, down the bird went.

Ulani's descent down was pretty nice too, much less effort than going up the stairs with a heavy weight. She landed with a tired oomph. "Thanks a bunch, Napalm," she twittered. "Might wanna invest in losing some weight, though. You're heavier than you look!"

Rowan watched the girl who was leading him away tremble for a bit before she stopped. He knew something was wrong but when she turned to face him her eyes so determined he couldn't help but be impressed by her. It wasn't often that you got to see someone who was so determined to do the right thing no matter the cost to one self. He knew that one day this young girl would inspire people to do great things. She wasn't there yet. No she wasn't strong enough but she would be someday. She still had self doubt and thats why when she went out there no one would listen to her. When she rid herself of that she would be able to move mountains. Rowan just stared at her for a moment before he gave her a small smile. "All right. Try to not get hurt. Remember I still have to tell you about Sinnoh." He glanced over to Luffy who was now on the ground standing proudly besides his trainer. "You and your pokemon are going to have a surprise soon, I can tell you are almost strong enough for it." That said he watched as she walked back towards the fray.

Napalm let out a cheerful honk of victory as Ulani, so prim and proper, landed the finishing blow on the now char broiled Skarmory, which hit the ground with a cacophonous 'crash!' Her compliment put a smile on his face, sort of. He couldn't really move his beak, but it certainly made him happy. "Well, I couldn't have done it without you." he said, easing his grip on her wings. No need to cling anymore, the danger was gone.

The Magby had never been so happy to feel the earth beneath his feet as he did when Ulani touched down. He practically rolled off her back, falling to the ground with a lazy thud. "I'll look into it." Napalm chuckled in response to the Swablu's suggestion, still sprawled out on the ground. "I'm not sure if I'd want to do that again though." he said, the last battle replaying in his mind. After catching his breath for a moment, Napalm stood up, looking back to M.A. That purple haired girl, Mitsu, had left her Pokemon to help. He figured she was alright, Napalm recalled Mitsu being a tough trainer. Besides, with all those Pokemon, he'd probably just get in the way. "I'm going back to Mike now Ulani. It was nice meeting you!" he waved good-bye before running off towards the battle on the stage between Mike, his friends, and that man in the orange suit.

Napalm cursed his little legs as he ran forward, hoping that someday he'd be blessed with longer ones, ones that let him run really fast! Thankfully though, there was an advantage to being small; no one really noticed you if you kept quiet. The Magby scurried between people, trying not to attract too much attention from the dark-clothed humans. So far so good, he thought as he ran between someone's legs.

Unfortunately for Napalm, that last maneuver would cost him his stealthy retreat. Before he knew what was happening, a gigantic mass of...something hit the ground in front of him. The ground shook, causing the much, much smaller Pokemon to fall flat on his face. He quickly stood up, wondering what Poke-bus had just nearly hit him. Napalm had to tilt his head almost completely back to get a look at the huge Pokemon blocking his way. It was easily the biggest thing he'd ever seen. It was huge, and green, with a fat tan belly. Whatever the heck it was, Napalm thanked his stubby legs for being slow enough to avoid being squashed.

"Oh drat." a voice from behind him called. "I was hoping to take you out in one hit and just have to drag you back to base." He towered over Napalm, and was about the same size as the Pokemon he sent out, only a lot skinnier. He wore the same clothes as the bad people who attacked M.A. "My Snorlax has gotten a bit out of shape lately, but I'm sure slamming you into the ground will fix that."

Oh this was not good, Napalm thought. This Pokemon was huge, and this trainer didn't seem very friendly. Not to mention, he was all alone, separated from his trainer. He was in big trouble.

"Snorlax, Body Slam!" the lanky man called out.

Napalm's eyes grew wide as dinner plates as the up-until-then lethargic Pokemon quickly rose to its feet, and threw itself at him, roaring loudly. Not needing an invitation, the Magby turned and ran, barely making it out of the way as the Snorlax hit the ground with crushing force. The impact sent him tumbling, but he quickly recovered to his feet, breathing heavily.

This was going to be the most challenging fight of his life, and he had to do it alone.