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After hiking up a small hill, Kevin saw a large fenced off field alongside the road.

"If you look to your left, you'll see... something completely boring," Kevin announced to his Pokemon, in his best tour guide impression. Twinkles and Monsoon looked at each other and then at their trainer with a blank stare. Kevin walked over to the fence and leaned on it, observing the herd of pink cow Pokemon.

"Normal types are soooo boring," he finally said after watching the Miltanks eat grass for about five minutes. "All they ever do is eat grass and look stupid. I guess I should have known better when I saw the name 'Moo Moo Farm' though."

While his trainer was busy being bored to tears by cows, Twinkles decided to have some fun. He climbed off his trainer's back and crawled under the fence towards the Miltank herd. Baring his teeth, Twinkles crept up on an unsuspecting Miltank. The Miltank was too busy eating grass to notice the creeping ghost, in fact, it was probably half asleep. Twinkles suddenly jumped out at the unassuming bovine, sending it into a frenzied uproar. Twinkles vanished on the spot, reappearing at his trainers side laughing hysterically.

The spooked Miltank ran wildly around the field, riling up the other Miltanks and causing a bit of a stampede. Kevin, snapping out of the grass-eating daze, watched the Miltanks for a second. The ruckus seemed to be contained to the field, so Kevin figured no long term harm would come of the mischievous ghost's antics. But that's still no reason to get in trouble for it.

"Yeah, we should go," Kevin said to his companions and turned on the spot, heading of down the road at a slightly brisker pace than he normally keeps.

Crouching tiger, hidden Blythe! The petite pinky assumed a crouching ready-to-kick-a** pose as the two Rocket-people strode up to her. They glanced her up and down, and laughed.

"Trivial efforts." The tall, silver-haired lady (or was she a he?) said. Her cold stare could pierce the heart of anyone. Her face showed no emotion, no heart at all. Was she human? Her companion, a lean musclehead from the looks of it, just smirked. "Now, lil' missy, mind handin' over yer Pokemon? We dun wan' break them fra-gile bones." He advanced, towering over Blythe like the sun to an ant.

Hmmm, a plan, a plan. "Well mister, it seems some bones will be broken!" Blythe said in her ever-cheerful voice, a dark undertone outlining her words and her attitude.
The man looked over her, asking once again for her Pokemon. "Stop playin', lil' girl. Hand 'em over."
Blythe let out a small giggle. "Hee hee.. I'm not playing."

Suddenly, all fists were out. Blythe landed a swift kick right in side of rocket-man's ribs. But, oh no! Mega Kick had no effect! The rocket-man retaliated with a punch to Blythe's stomach. Owww, but Mega Punch was super effective! Blythe fell to her knees and let out a small, pitiful cry.

Between the Machamp's electrified fists pounding against the Ivysaur's incredibly well-timed Protect barrier and the rash tone in which Mike spoke to her, it was enough to snap Kasiya back into her regular state of mind, and she blinked slowly, as though coming out of a dream-like state of sorts. "Whoa... I'm so sorry guys," she murmured, hardly remembering (or at least pretending very well to not remember) the past several moments. "Thanks for the save, Mitsu," she said, giving a thumbs-up to her good friend and looking more like her usual self with each passing second. Mitsu had always been one to battle defensively and right now she was thankful for the purple-haired girl's quick thinking and her well-trained Ivysaur. He's gonna be a kick-a** Venusaur someday, she thought, pointing to Karri. "Ariel, use Helping Hand to give Karri's Psychic a boost! Let's show that four-armed freak a thing or two!"

Ariel nodded quickly after having given Ivy a very thankful grin, an ring of golden-light circling the Vaporeon before it faded and reappeared around Karri, making the Psychic wave she had just launched grow much more powerful. Kasiya chose to ignore Giovanni's words, knowing that nothing he said had any real meaning behind it. In truth he was just nothing but a big pompous bully who'd managed to scare a few people and gain infamy because of it. Kasiya knew that if they could defeat him here, regardless of what happened it would sting the Rocket leader in such a way he'd never forget.

Another fiery attack from Houndoom was enough to end the Seviper's turn in battle and send yet another grunt scurrying away. Needless to say it made Flannery feel good to know that she was helping out and a part of her was beginning to understand what drove Mike and Kasiya to constantly throw themselves into these types of situations. It's good to help, she thought, directing Torkoal to use Protect as an overeager Rocket had a Water-type Pokemon she'd never seen before (it was in fact, a Croconaw) fire a rather powerful looking Water Pulse at the tortoise. "Now take it out with a Solar Beam," Flannery then commanded to Houndoom, who howled at the sky, gathering as much of the remaining solar energy from the sky as he could before he fired the intense solar ray at the offending Pokemon. "There's more than one way to crispify a cat!" Flannery said, laughing heartily as yet another grunt went fleeing from the seemingly-crazed gym leader. However, Flannery couldn't help but hope that her luck would hold out a little bit longer.

=-=-=-=-=

Leo frowned up at the Swellow as it used Double Team. That would make it a lot difficult to take the bird down and he really wanted Noctowl to get in there and take the briefcase away from that red-haired hothead in case one of the grunts could not. He smirked and looked up at the multiple blue and red birds flying around overhead before he flicked his wrist and sent out another Pokeball onto the field. "Feraligatr, blast that thing out of the sky with your Ice Beam!" The large gator burst from its Pokeball with a tremendous roar, an Ice Beam already charging as it glared up at the sky. In a sweeping motion the ray was fired, with Feraligatr's intent being to eliminate as many of the copies as possible in order to let Noctowl get an attack in on the real Swellow. Just don't hit Noctowl, you overgrown reptile, Leo thought, watching his Pokemon and underlings at work.

After quite some time, the girls finally touched down in Goldenrod. Whitney recalled an exhausted Rio, whom she could tell was more than glad to be able to rest. "Have you ever seen the inside of my Gym?" she asked, as the girls approached it. When Sabrina said she didn't, Whitney grinned a little bit. "Well, I can say that it's nowhere near as complex as yours is-- in fact, it's one of the simplest. Dare I say it's rather... plain?"
Sabrina chuckled weakly, rolling her eyes. "You're such a corndog; you realize that, right?"

Walking inside, Whitney helped to navigate Sabrina around. "It might seem like all of these plants in here are just randomly placed, but if you were to look down upon them from a bird's eye view, you would see that they form the shape of a Clefairy. Clefairy's special to me, because she was the first Pokemon I ever caught, and the second I'd ever owned. My Miltank, of course, was my first Pokemon. What was yours?" Sabrina smiled. "My first Pokemon... heh. Oracle, my Abra. Well, he's an Alakazam now. I got him from my father when I was much, much younger. It honestly feels like I've had him my entire life. We're inseperable; as far back as I can remember, I've always had his Pokeball with me, except for a brief minute or two when I traded him to Kasiya so she could evolve him into an Alakazam for me." But then, Sabrina realized she didn't have Oracle with her at the moment; the thought had crossed her mind for, really, the first time.

"It's a shame he's not with me now, though. The only Pokemon I have with me is an Espeon, that I received as a gift from someone, when I was M.I.A. She had an Eevee that birthed many eggs, and she gave one of them to me. I hatched it, and raised it up and evolved it. She's a good girl." Whitney smiled. "What's her name?" Running her fingers across the Espeon's ball, she responded, "Faith. Without a Pokemon, without Oracle, I actually lost faith in ever seeing him again. But, when I saw my Eevee hatching, when I saw this new life coming into the world, I felt this kind of... I don't know, newly restored faith that I can't even put into words. It was beautiful, and that's where her name comes from." Whitney's smile could only grow after hearing that story, but then a question crossed her mind. "If you miss Oracle so much, why not just go to my PC and withdraw him from your account?" Sabrina shook her head. "Not that simple, I'm afraid. I can only access my Pokemon from my PC in Saffron; that computer is on its own seperate and private network from all of the others in the world."
"What if I told you that after you went away, Nina withdrew Oracle and your other Pokemon from your PC? And what if I told you that before she went away to the Elite Four to be looked after, she deposited them into the mainstream Pokemon network? What if I told you it was all meant to be? Would you believe me? Would you believe?"*

Sabrina's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?!" she exclaimed. When Whitney indicated she was, Sabrina immediately asked to be led out of the Clefairy maze and led to the PC, which sat in the northwestmost corner of the Gym. With extreme glee and almost disbelief, Sabrina input her data into the computer, and was able to access the Pokemon that she hadn't seen in such a long time. She withdrew them, and released the five of them on the spot. Tears came to her eyes as she looked at her beloved Pokemon.

Regal the Slowking stood with his arms behind his back, his head tilted slightly, smiling to Sabrina. "It has been a long time, Sabrina."

Her Hypno, Somnus, stood beside Regal. "Yesss. We've misssed you, Sssabrina," he said.

Next in line was Mimien, her Mr. Mime. "Where have you been, Sabrina? Nina never mentioned specifics of anything to us about why you haven't been around... but here you are! This is great!"

Anastasia the Jynx had her hands on her hips. "Sabrina! You've had the lot of us worried out of our bloody minds!"

And then there was Oracle. "But the important thing is, you have returned," said the Alakazam." We could not have asked for anything better at this moment in time."

The tears were running down the Gym Leader's face, for the first time in a very, very long time. "I'm so sorry, everyone," she said, her voice cracking. She ran forward and took the five of them in a tremendous hug, sobbing.

*[/end Kelly Clarkson song quote]

Giovanni let out another laugh and closed his eyes, sighing quietly. His eyes slowly opened as he turned his attention towards Robin. "You're so naive, little girl. Don't you realize that only the most powerful survive in this sick, twisted world of ours?" He smirked, his dark features now becoming apparent as his cold stare swept over to Kilik and Mike. "I think some of your friends here know that better than anyone! They wanted to taste it! They wanted to feel it, just once, in their meaningless lives! Even they knew that power was too sweet to resist for long..." His smirk widened to almost maniac size. "I find your spirit inspiring, girl!" He laughed once more, "And I appreciate your gall. You've impressed me by merely suggesting you battle me on your own," Giovanni glared at the four children before him, "Which is much more than I can say for the cowards I see battling me right now! Not once have you attempted to fight me alone! That, children, is the definition of cowardice!"

Kilik's face fell. His heart sank. The boy took a step back, hearing Flygon cry out in pain as the Ice Beam hit dead on. There was a loud thud behind the group as the first casualty crashed with an explosion of sand. The trainer looked up at Giovanni, then over at his friends. His throat was dry and it was difficult to speak. He couldn't even think of anything to say. He's right... was the only thought that sped through his mind. Dejectedly, he recalled Bahamut to her Pokeball, while holding back the tears that were trying so hard to come out.

"I knew you were too weak," Giovanni addressed to Kilik, "The first to fall... How sad." The man looked over at Tyranitar, who swung at the right moment to deliver an Aerial Ace with his fist right down onto Portabello. The dinosaur let out a cry of pain as the Sky Uppercut unleashed its damage against him. Stumbling back, the beast fell as well. He said nothing, and his expression did not change. Instead, he ordered his Machamp now. "Show them your true strength, Machamp!"

Shrugging off the damage from the Psychic (which did sting his mind a bit), the four armed Pokemon clenched all four fists. The set of arms on the right began to crackle with electricity again, while the set on the left were suddenly engulfed in flames. "GO!" Giovanni roared. The Olympian cried out and swung, throwing the Thunderpunches at Ariel and the Fire Punches at the Ivysaur. Machamp laughed maniacally. Dragonite, on the other hand, still high above the battle, heard the command for a Thunderbolt. Obliging, the horn on his head began to glow and a large bolt of lightning shot forward at Ariel as well.

"To replace my fallen Tyranitar...I choose my Kingler!" he let the ball fly and released a larger-than average Kingler. The crab had scars all over its body, as well as a chunk missing from it's crown. "Crabhammer!" he ordered, pointing at the Gardevoir. The Pokemon scuttled over to his target, lifting his larger claw high into the air. He swung down, hard, onto the feminine Karri. Giovanni looked over at Kilik, "What's next, boy? Or are you giving up to set an example for the rest of your friends?"

Kilik froze up. Suddenly, he felt a sphere in his bag shake around. Scizor burst out of the ball in a dazzling display of stars and shine, her pincers ready to cut into any foe that dared stand in her way. "Scizor...?" the boy said blankly. The insect looked over at her master and nodded. She wasn't going to let Kilik down, not when he needed her most.

-*-*-

Elekid hopped off of Snorlax and looked over at Napalm. "Good job!" he said, raising his hand up for a hi-five. Though the moment for victory would be short lived as a massive boxing glove came crashing down into the sand in front of them. Cable glanced up to see a Hitmonchan that was glaring down at the two babies. He had to have belonged to the same trainer as the Snorlax - who else would be that persistent? He gulped when he watched the fist began to catch fire and suddenly found himself in the air, the victim of a Fire Punch.

"C'mon!" Cable groaned when he crashed into the dirt, standing back up very slowly, "That's just not fair! One big fat guy is enough! Now one that's wearing a skirt?" His prongs sparked with anger. They weren't going to go down that easy.