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Sora walks out from the kitchen, holding a coke bottle in his hands. He plops down on the down and takes a sip. "I need a break..."

"I hope I can get one... Though it won't happen." Sora drinks down the coke. He looks around the place and thinks of the past.

*My stomach growls*
Me: Well I'm going to find some food, catch you later.
*I head out*

Maddy walks in and sits down in the corner on the floor instead of on the ceiling and takes out all these books and just starts cramming for her test tomorrow.

Maddy kisses Kyo on the cheek. "Hey! I'm just trying to remember some stuff for a physics test I have tomorrow, but it's during me last class so I think I might save the studying for lunchtime tomorrow and just go to sleep now." She leant up against Kyo and closed her eyes, shutting her books.

Maddy elbowed Kyo in the stomach. "you pervert! Anyways, good night!" She got up and went to her room, entering complete darkness and locking the door behind her.

Kaano walked up to the missions board and took out a hammer and a giant grouping of papers that had a nail stabbed through the top of them. He then gently placed the nail up to the board and hammered away at it, until the papers were securely held up on the wall. He then put the hammer away in his bag and pulled out a pen. He started to write on the missions sheet. Sorry if this is a little random. Potential mood swings every day for two weeks tends to alter wordings and throw in parts that aren't needed at all by any means, such as the part with Oprah. Oh, and the reason why I put most of this stuff into my report is for personal bios on each of my pokemon. Nothing else. If you would like to just read about my battle with my electric pokemon, then work your way from the bottom until you reach a paragraph that starts with 'Under the lake'.

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MISSION- Spark for Joy
Go and catch an electric pokemon!

Pokemon:
Any non evolved, non legendary electric type pokemon.

Money: 200

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Kaano walked into HQ to see, once again, that it was completely empty. He wasn’t sure how he always seemed to pull that off, but nonetheless, he did. His entire day had been boring, and he really wanted something interesting to do. Deciding that nothing was going to happen by just sitting here waiting for someone, however, he decided to take it one step further and try and watch TV for the first time since he had joined Team Aqua.

He plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote from the end table next to him, turning the TV on as he did so. He didn’t know what enjoyment he’d get out of TV. He never seemed to be able to find any every other time he watched it. He couldn’t hear anything, so he was always forced to look at the pictures and hope that there was going to be an explosion or something to soon take up the entire screen. After all, those were the only parts that ever seemed to be any good.

He began flipping through the channels when suddenly he stopped at one that had a picture of what looked like a giant fan slowly spinning. Oddly, the slow spinning intrigued him. It was relaxing his body, and he couldn’t stop watching it.

Suddenly, big bold letters came across the screen reading “Valley Windworks”. It was some show about new electric power techniques…how boring. For some reason, however, he still couldn’t change the channel.

The camera angle in the commercial then shifted a little bit and you could see a giant patch of tall grass next to the huge fan-looking thing. Every once in a while, you could see little pokemon hopping up out of it and then entering back in, happily frolicking as they enjoyed their free lives. Every once in a while, he saw what looked like a squirrel jump out, and every time that happened, he couldn’t help but get that sudden feeling of “Awwwww…it’s so cute!” that people seem to get when they look at little kittens.

As he kept on watching the pokemon jump out, one of the squirrel-looking things dashed out of the grass patch, jumped, and quickly climbed up the base of the big fan. Upon reaching the top, it stopped, turned toward the camera viewing the commercial, and cocked its head to the side a little bit, a big, buck-toothed smile appearing on its face.

Kaano took the chance to examine this pokemon closer. He hadn’t ever seen one like that before…but then again, he had never seen any pokemon outside of the Hoenn region, so that wasn’t too surprising.

It was a little white squirrel with a blue stripe traveling from its head and ears down to the tip of its tail, which looked like it had a few liberty spikes sticking out of part of it.

As he kept on watching, the squirrel started to scurry around the base, every once in a while looking back at the camera and performing its same motion of cocking its head to the side. Then, after a little while, the squirrel did something new when it stopped…it started to circuit electricity in its cheeks.

Kaano’s eyes widened. He remembered looking over a mission some time earlier that was just to simply go out and catch an electric type pokemon, but up until now he could never decide on which one he wanted to try and find. This new pokemon that he saw was going to be his next mission…

Kaano quickly got up and walked over to the mission board, ripping off one of the many copies of the Spark for Joy missions. He then walked back over to the couch, grabbed a pen from the end table, and wrote ‘Valley Windworks’ on the mission statement. He had no idea where that was…

Kaano exited HQ and took his bike to Slateport City . Although he wasn’t fully sure where Valley Windworks was at, he definitely knew that it wasn’t in Hoenn, so he knew that the best place to go when unsure was to a port city.

As he entered into Slateport City , he was almost overwhelmed by the amount of people there was. Supposedly, today was the day that a new ship would be entering the water, and it had been the talk of Hoenn for the last week.

Kaano began to walk around town in an attempt to find a sailor that might know the general direction of his destination. After about an hour of searching, he met a sailor as he was walking out of the pokemon center.

Do you know how I could possibly get to this location? He held the piece of paper out to the sailor, who quickly snatched it from his hand and read it over.

“Team Aqua? Why would a scrawny kid like you be trying to join a gang of thugs like them? They’re bad news…haven’t you heard of their past attempts to flood the world?”

Kaano looked the sailor in the eyes and smiled. Of course I know about all that stuff. It’s not like I was born yesterday or something. They’re under new ruling now, though, and since he’s taken over, Team Aqua’s goal has shifted to just attempting to make the already-existing seas a better place to be.

The sailor looked dumbfounded. He wasn’t expecting an answer quite like that one. “Uhhh…okay then. Well, if you want to get to the Valley Windworks, you’ll need this map.” The sailor hands over a wrinkled, slightly damp map to Kaano.

Kaano opens up the map and looks it over. He then looks in the corner of the map and notices the new continent that he had to head to. He looks back up to the guard. Sinnoh? I have to head to Sinnoh? Could you give me some advice on how to get there?

The sailor rubs the back of his head a little bit and looks up. He didn’t want to ruin this kid’s mission, but there was only one way to get to Sinnoh…and it was a way that was nearly impossible to take. Nonetheless, he had to tell him.

“You know that new ship that everyone is gathering here to see set off? Well…let’s just say there’s a reason why it’s such a big deal. It’s the first ship among the three continents of Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto to take a route to Sinnoh.”

Kaano’s gaze follows that of the sailor’s and it lands dead-on to an enormous cruise ship, which was still land-locked by a strong wooden structure. He then looks back to the sailor and smirks. So you’re telling me that I have to get onto that ship, right? Well that shouldn’t be too hard…

The sailor looks down at Kaano and frowns. “No…you’re wrong. For the first month, that ship will only accept VIP invitations as tickets. I’m sorry kid, but you have no chance of getting on that ship.”

Kaano looked down at the ground and frowned a little. Damn…thanks for the help anyway, mister. Kaano then lifted his head up and walked away, disappearing into the crowd.

Despite what the man had said, Kaano wasn’t about to give up. After all, it was quite a bit of a tiring bike ride from here to HQ. He set off for the cruise ship in hopes that he might be able to figure out what to do from there.

As he started to near it, everyone was looking up in awe at the ship as the wooden platform keeping it from water came detached from its wirings. He was just in time to see the ship slide off into the water. This, however, wasn’t his main priority, so he kept on looking for a solution to his problem.

He began to near what looked like the entrance area for those who were awaiting the ship to get its bearings. There were already a quite a few people crowded up in the area. All of the men were dressed in nice tuxes, whereas the women were in dresses that only came second in formality to a wedding dress.

Kaano smirked as an idea started to pop into his head. These people are so rich and powerful, why do they really need to take a trip to Sinnoh? It’s not like they’re going to really get anything from it…

He then casually walked up behind the big group of people and slyly slipped his hand into one of the men’s pants pockets. Normally this would be completely uncalled-for and immoral, but he had been pick pocketing for years, and he was rather good at it.

It took him less than a second to grab the VIP invite out of the man’s pocket and slip it into his own. After all, Kaano was good at stuff like this. Also, thanks to the trance these people seemed to be in, the man probably didn’t feel anything enter or leave his pocket.

Kaano continued walking until he eventually reached a bench that was still giving him a decent sight of the ship. By this time, the ship had stopped at the entry point and had started to lower its escalator for the people to ride their way up on.

As the escalator finished its descent, a sailor came up beside it and started taking tickets from the few and privileged. This was do or die time.

Kaano got up from the bench and slowly walked up to the ticket man. He tried to keep a casual appearance, but it wasn’t all that easy. The entire walk up, Kaano’s mind was rushing like a speeding bullet.

Due to his lack of formal clothing, he could be easily kept from getting on the ship. Not only that, but the man he stole the ticket from would have already attempted to get on, and would have been denied permission. There was too much evidence. On the other side, however, the sailor taking the tickets could just look at the pass and think nothing of the person holding it.

Kaano looked down to his pocket and pulled out the invite as he merged with the giant crowd. He looked it over as he was waiting, slowly moving his footsteps as the crowd collapsed and more people boarded the ship.

As he reached the front of the group, he looked up to the ship and then back down to his ticket. Well…I guess this is the moment of truth… He held the invite out and looked up to the sailor that was about to take it. His eyes opened up in shock and, if it weren’t for that it was attached, his head probably would have spun off axis too. It was him…

The sailor took the invite from Kaano and shook his head. “You really are determined to get to Valley Windworks, aren’t you?” He looked down at it and flipped it to its back side, and then handed it back over to Kaano and pulled him close so he could talk without anyone else hearing him.

“Normally I wouldn’t do this…but the guy you stole this pass from just happened to be the guy that my ex-wife cheated on me with, so just for the sake of revenge I’ll let you off easy this time.” He then backed away and smiled. “Come back and tell me how Sinnoh is. I really want to know.”

Kaano smiled and nodded at the man. Thank you sir. I’ll make sure to come back and tell you all about it. Kaano walked up to the escalator and rode it to the top of the cruise ship.

As he reached the top, a man in a very nice, black tuxedo greeted him and took his bag, handing him the key to his room while giving rather speedy instructions.

“Hello sir, this is the key to your room, which is located on the third floor down from the deck.” The man placed Kaano’s bag on a trolley and continued talking. “When you get down there, wait for your luggage to arrive. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. This cruise will last for approximately six days, so be prepared for a long ride.”

Kaano nodded and was about to walk off when suddenly the man grabbed him by the arm and turned him back to look him in the eyes. “I haven’t finished giving instructions yet. The last thing you need to know is that the VIP invite you were given is an all access free pass and can be used as many times as you like. Even after this trip, you can still get back on with that pass.”

Kaano gave a really big smile and nodded again, following it up by finally walking off and to his room. He wasn’t expecting such an advantage to something like a VIP…but it did sort of make sense. After all, it IS VIP…

When he reached his room, he no more than got the door unlocked when the trolley came by and dropped off his bag. He opened up his door and threw it inside, quickly following that up by going inside so he could investigate the room he had been given.

It was absolutely gorgeous. There was no other way to explain it. The room itself was about the size of a trailer, and about 100x cleaner than one. Actually, if you looked at it long enough, you could almost see a slight shimmer and sparkle in certain areas of the room. Wondering just how nice the rest of the boat was, he left the room and walked up to the deck.

As soon as he stepped onto the deck, a great massing of streamers shot up into the sky, and shouts and cheers could be heard below as the people who weren’t allowed on the boat cheered on those that were. Kaano looked over and noticed that his new potential friend was standing down with the group, waving them on. As soon as he saw Kaano, he winked and smiled. Kaano smiled back and then turned around, taking a good view of the ship he was on. It was huge…

The ship had everything any man could ever dream of. There were three casinos, eight massive buffet-style restaurants, two underground pools, a golf course, three miniature golf courses, two batting cages, who knows how many bars, an ice skating rink, a roller skating rink, two discos, and, to top it all off, a giant stadium for pokemon battles.

It was obvious why they took six days just to get to Sinnoh. Despite the fact that the ship could probably easily make it in about two, they had slowed it down so that the many passengers could thoroughly enjoy their ride on it. After all, just walking around the ship had taken up his evening and most of his night.

At about five the next morning, Kaano finally returned to the confines of his room and got some shuteye.

The next couple of days had gone by like a blur. He and Kinesis played a few games of miniature golf (she won every time…who would’ve known?), did some ice skating, and spent a little bit of their time in the batting cage (Kinesis got hit about six times by the baseball…now she won’t go anywhere near it). He and Crabs spent each of their nights at the discos, where they took the floor with their miraculous Swords Dance. He and Zig, oddly enough, spent their time together having drinking contests. They all did their fair share of gambling and eating, which was sort of like their version of family bonding time.

Then, on the fourth night of their trip, while sitting at their usual gambling table and just having a merry old time, an older gentleman came up to the table and put his hand on Kaano, scaring him. He looked up at the elderly man with a smile on his face Yes?

The old man looked down at Kaano and gained a rather austere look. “Are these your pokemon?”

Kaano looked around at Zig, Crabs, and Kinesis and then looked back up at the man. Yes…they are. Why do you ask?

“Well, you see…I have a granddaughter at about the age of four who thinks that she is all that and everything else with her pokemon, despite the fact that she has never entered a battle.”

Yeah? So? It sounds to me like your granddaughter just has a high self-esteem.

The old man closes his eyes and sighs. “Yes, she does, but it’s annoying me to no end, and I really need someone to put her in her place. I’d do it myself, but she won’t battle me, so I need a young’un to do it for me.”

Kaano had never been in a battle against a human before, but he thought that it might be a good time to learn, especially seeing as his opponent was just a little girl. He nods his head and stands up. Okay. I’ll do it.

The man smiled and nodded back to Kaano. “Thank you. Your help will be greatly appreciated. We will meet you at the stadium.” The man then turned around and walked out of the casino.

As the man was walking away, Kaano grew a big smile on his face and turned back to his pokemon. You know what that means, don’t you? We’re about to get into our very first trainer battle!

Kaano grabbed up his messenger bag and dumped the chips they had won into it. After that, he held out two pokeballs, one marked with Z, the other marked with C. He then threw them up into the air, returning Zig and Crabs to their rightful place. He then looked at Kinesis and made a few hand signals, which she responded to by teleporting onto his back. Okay…now we’re ready. Let’s go!

Kaano ran out of the casino and onto the deck of the ship. From there, he headed to the giant stadium, which could be seen towering over everything else on the ship.

As he approached it, he almost fell to the floor as the wind in his lungs left him. It was THAT big. He hadn’t been this close up to it before now. He walked up to the front gate and went in, heading straight for the door that led to the center of the stadium.

As he entered in, a grand crowd of people cheered. He hadn’t expected such an entrance for him, especially seeing as he didn’t think he saw nearly that many people get onto the boat. As he looked up to the crowd, however, he noticed that most of it was taken up with sailors and servants. Hmmm…this is odd. I didn’t know that the workers could even leave their posts.

Kaano then looked straight ahead and saw the man standing there with what Kaano had guessed was his granddaughter. The girl was very short and looked a little on the fat side. She had blonde, Shirley Temple-style hair and an oblong-shaped face. Last, she looked stuck-up. Very stuck-up.

Kaano got to the edge of the giant pokeball ‘tattoo’ that was in the center of the stadium and stopped. So are you my victim? The entire crowd cheered as his telepathy rang through their minds.

Then, as the cheering began to die away, Oprah came flying through on her jetpack screaming. “Everyone in the crowd gets a humpback whale! Humpback whale! Everyone in the crowd gets a humpback whale!” The crowd’s cheers liven up again in response.

The little girl looks up at Kaano and crosses her arms. “Hm! Yeah, what about it?”

The old man then steps across the pokeball and grabs Kaano’s hand and shakes it. “The battle will be a 2-on-2. She only has two pokemon, so you must choose two to use on her as well.” The man then let go of his hand and began to walk away, but then turned back to him as though something important had just been remembered. “Oh yes, I almost forgot. I really hope you’re having a wonderful time on your trip. If you ever have any questions or needs, just ask one of my servants for help and they will happily aid you.”

Kaano smiled and nodded. He didn’t know that he was about to face the granddaughter of the owner of the ship! Kaano shuddered a little bit as he thought about the fact that his first battle was going to carry such magnitude. Not only was a high-ranked figure watching, but it was going to be a double battle. I guess this just means I’ll have to work extra hard…

Kaano smirked as the old man walked back over to the little girl. So should we start then? He then grabbed the Z and C pokeballs off his belt and held one in each hand. Well, I guess this is our time to shine, you guys! He hit the buttons in the center of both to make them enlarge and then cross-tossed them in front of him. Go Zig! Go Crabs! It’s time for you two to do your thing!

The little girl started laughing as she saw the two pokemon hit the field. “THOSE are your pokemon? They look pitiful!” She then snapped her fingers, which was answered by a couple of the servants from the crowd as they came down beside her and held out a pillow, one for each servant. Upon the pillows, there were two pokeballs. The little girl picked them up, tapped the buttons, and slammed them down at the ground. As she did, she made what sounded like some crazy shrieking sound that everyone but Kaano could hear. “Fuzzydumplings! Fluffywuffykins! Get out here and fight, you stupid, worthless things!”

An odd-colored Skitty and Ralts popped out, rolling their eyes at her. The Skitty, instead of having normal pink and cream-white fur, had red and cream-yellow. The Ralts, on the other hand, instead of having a white body, a green head, and red bumps, had a purplish body, a turquoise head, and orange bumps.

Kaano rubbed his chin and smiled. So you have a couple of shiny pokemon? Your granddaddy probably had to dish out some good amount of money for people to try and hunt for those…too bad I’m going to have to take them down like they were second-rate has-beens.

Kaano looked at the Skitty and then at the Ralts. Okay…what should I do first…? Kaano rubbed his chin for a little bit longer. Oh! I know! Zig! Start off by using tail whip!

Zig nodded in confirmation and then started to wag his bushy tail. Skitty and Ralts started to watch it slowly, almost lulling into it. Kaano could just tell from looking at them that their defenses seemed to be a little weaker.

The little girl got a grumpy look on her face and then pointed at Skitty. “Fuzzydumplings! Snap out of it and quit looking so dumb! Use doubleslap on that bad excuse for a pokemon Zigzagoon and teach it a lesson!”

The Skitty rolled her eyes again and then ran straight at Zig. When she got to him, she turned around and slapped him straight across the face three times with her tail. Zig looked a little dazed after the hit, but he just shook his head and went back into fight position, thinking little of the damage.

The little girl then looked over at Ralts and got the grumpy look on her face again. “And you too, Fluffywuffykins! Snap out of it and use confusion on that stupid Corphish!”

“Ralts…” It sighed and held up its arms, waving them about a little bit. Suddenly, amounts of pressure started to beat Crabs on different sides of his body, almost knocking him over.

Kaano looked to Crabs and smiled. Good job, Crabs! Keep your position as best as you can! We’re going to need you throughout this entire fight! Hmmm…that was a tough shot to him. This could be bad if I keep that Ralts in this battle for much longer. I was going to test out Swords Dance, but I’m thinking that ending this Ralts’s life quick could be the best decision… Crabs! Take a strong vicegrip to that Ralts and teach it who’s boss!

Crabs rushed forward as fast as he could and launched his humungous, open claw at the area under Ralts’ arms. Snap! It caught right in, leaving the Ralts in a great amount of pain. Crabs then let go and charged back to his side, proud of the job he did.

Yes! That was a great shot Crabs! It didn’t knock it out, but it definitely left it hurting. Your power mixed with its horrible defense was just asking for trouble. Kaano then looked at Zig and smiled. Okay, little guy, you know what to do. Headbutt that Ralts and take it out!

Zig took off in his zigzag motions across the field. If it weren’t for Kaano saying where Zig should be aiming, it’d almost be impossible to tell exactly where he was aiming at. Upon reaching Ralts, Zig touched his little paws back on the ground one more time and then thrust his head as hard as he could straight up into its torso. Ralts was sent flying backward a little bit and then hit the ground, knocked out. Haha! Good job, Zig! Now we just have one more to worry about!

You could almost see steam coming out of the little girl’s ears. “Grrrrrrr…Fluffywuffykins! You’re useless! Get back into your stupid pokeball!” Ralts flashed red and then was sucked up by the tractor beam. “Okay Fuzzydumplings! Don’t let me down! Use attract on that stupid Corphish!”

Skitty, not really caring all that much about saving the little girl’s hind end, only did a half-arsed attract performance. Nonetheless, it was still good enough to infatuate Crabs.

Kaano looked at Crabs and smacked his hand to his head, which he then shook. Ugh…Crabs, what am I going to do with you? Well, for the sake of possibility, we’ll just use Swords Dance.

Crabs jumped up a little bit, obviously realizing what an opportunity this was for him. He pulled two swords out from what seemed to be nowhere and threw them up in the air. As the swords were ‘gravitating’, he then pulled out a giant rose bush and threw that into the air as well. Kaano frowned. Crabs! Quit it! That wasn’t part of the routine! Crabs, however, didn’t listen. As the swords began to fall to the ground, he grabbed them both and hacked away at the rose bush, creating a giant heart in the center of it. As the rose bush touched the ground, he chopped out a single rose and caught it in his mouth at the center of the stem. He then danced around, doing a little crab walk for a while as he was skillfully swinging his swords about and launching them into the air. By the end of the performance, he had drifted over to Skitty and laid the rose he had in his mouth at her feet. He then raised his eyebrows a couple of times and returned back to his spot.

Kaano turned to Crabs with his arms folded and his foot tapping on the ground. Are you done now? You completely ruined the routine! What if there was a professional dance choreographer up in the crowd!? What would you do if you had just completely ruined your chances at getting a spot as a professional dancer!? Hmmm?

Crabs just kept on looking at Skitty, little hearts appearing in his eyes.

Oh well…nonetheless, you still did get the attack boost… Kaano looked over at Zig and sighed. Zig, it’s up to you. Make me proud! Headbutt!

Zig nodded and snarled at the Skitty. He wasn’t going to fall for any stupid tricks like that. He zigzagged at her and performed the same type of headbutt this time as he did last time, only he ended up hitting her straight in the face instead. Skitty wobbled back a little bit and started violently shaking its head. It seemed pretty shaken up from the shot.

Good job Zig! I think you made it flinch! It still seems pretty in the game, though. I think this is a much tougher opponent than the Ralts.

“What do you think you’re doing Fuzzydumplings!? Get in there and fight!”

Kaano smirked at the little girl and then turned to Crabs. Well? What about you now? Should we try to get you to fight, too? Crabs, use vicegrip.

Crabs just sat there, completely immobilized by love.

Kaano looked at Crabs, rather disappointed in his choice. He then looked to Zig and smiled. Well, it looks like it’s still up to you. Headbutt again!

Zig charged forward and headbutted, only this time taking an early jump and coming down onto the top of the Skitty’s head. Skitty had been launched downward a little bit, and almost smacked its chin on the stadium floor. The hit obviously left it in a little pain, and it showed, because the Skitty was starting to look a little torn up.

The little girl snarled. “Agh! You stupid cat! Are you just going to take those hits!? Use your doubleslap on that Zigzagoon again! And make sure it really hurts this time!”

Despite the fact that Skitty didn’t really want to fight, it didn’t really like the beatings it was taking, either. It charged forward to Zig and flipped around, this time heavily flailing its tail in Zig’s face and smacking him across it a good five times, each one looking painful.

On the last shot, Zig was hit so hard that he was sent flying a little bit, and even rolled across the floor. He slowly got up and snarled at the Skitty, which he then followed by limping back to his original spot. It was obvious that Zig couldn’t take much more.

Kaano looked over at him. Zig, just keep it up! I know you can pull through! You’ve just got to believe! Kaano then looked over at Crabs and frowned. But of course, it would help if Crabs here wasn’t so in love with that stupid Skitty…but I guess it can’t be helped. Crabs, use vicegrip.

Crabs just kept on sitting there, immobilized by love.

Okay, whatever. I just hope you pull through this before both you and Zig are done for. Kaano looked to Zig. Okay, Zig! Let’s use headbutt one more time! And let’s hope for a good shot!

Zig snarled one more time and nodded. He was going to make sure this shot was good. He had to, or else he might be done for. He charged in his zigzags until he reached the Skitty. This time, he performed the same type of headbutt as he did the first two times, only he made one change. He had taken his step about a half an inch closer to Skitty compared to what he did before, which resulted in him hitting it right in the chin instead of in the face. It wasn’t intended, but it was still rather effective.

So effective, in fact, that the Skitty was knocked off balance. It started wobbling back and forth, a dazed look on its face. Crabs watched in awe. For some odd reason, he thought the idiotic steps looked rather attractive. Well, for a while, that is…then suddenly…Crack.

Crabs drew his head back and gasped. “Cor!?” He ran up to Skitty and looked down under its foot. Skitty stepped on the rose. Crabs looked up at Skitty, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Corphish! Cor!” Crabs just started blinking at Skitty, tears falling all over the place.

Kaano smiled. He knew he shouldn’t be smiling at a moment of heartbreak like this, but he couldn’t help it. Crabs, she never loved you. It was all just an act.

Crabs’s blinked one more time and then opened his eyes back up in anger. There were no more tears. Just hatred. He was angry at Skitty, and he wanted to let it know. Yes…that’s right…give in to your anger! Mwahaahahahaahahaha! Use vicegrip, and force-feed your pain to it!

Crabs grew an even angrier look on his face. He was too angry to let this Skitty get away with what it had done to him. He started smashing his right pincer together as hard as he could. Then, suddenly, it started to glow…

Kaano’s eyes widened. He had no idea what was about to happen, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to see. Crabs’s little pincer began to expand, the light just shining brighter every time he slammed the pincers together. Skitty started to back away in fear. No…what is he doing?

He swung his pincer in front of his body and then launched forward a little bit, setting only a few inches between him and Skitty. He then performed a full swing, full-powered back hand across Skitty’s face. The poor thing flew sideways a few feet and then hit the ground, knocked out.

Kaano looked at Crabs with his eyes as big as saucers. What in all hell’s name just happened!? Was that a new move? Kaano ran over to Crabs, who had settled right back down after the hit. That was incredible! How’d you do that?

The old man came up to Kaano and put his hand on his shoulder, which Kaano responded to by looking up at him. “Well, young man! You’re much better than I had expected! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Corphish perform crabhammer like that!”

Kaano smiled and then looked back down at Corphish. Good job! You did it! He then looked over at Zig and gave him a thumbs up. You too, Zig. You were great!

He then stood up and pulled out both of their pokeballs again. Okay. It’s time for you guys to return to your place. They both glowed red and then got sucked into their pokeballs. Kaano put them back on his belt and turned toward Kinesis, who was still riding along on his back. Hehe. Did you enjoy watching that? Take any notes? Or possibly even videotaped it?

Kinesis smiled at him and shook her head.

You didn’t? Darn…I would have loved to have had a video tape of that. He looked back to the old man with a puzzled look on his face. So you’re telling me that Crabs used crabhammer? I didn’t think a Corphish learned that until it became a Crawdaunt.

The old man smiled and nodded. “Yes, that is very true. But I’m thinking that your Corphish might be a special case. After all, it used the technique when going through an extremely emotional event, right? I’m thinking your Corphish might have just force taught itself the move without even knowing it. You might want to look into harnessing that ability if you want to keep that move with it.”

Kaano grew a smirk on his face. “Heh heh. Okay. I think I could work on that. So you mean to say that he won’t be able to use it on a regular basis then? That sucks…oh well. He turned to the little girl who was now crying as she was nearly crushing her knocked out Skitty in her arms. Ummm… He turned back to the old man. Do you think you could give her my blessings?

The man laughed. “Oh yes! Of course. I will do that. You should probably get going, though. It’s starting to get dark, and I guarantee that you’ll want some good sleep after a battle like this one.”

Kaano nodded and then turned and walked out of the stadium, heading straight for his room for some rest.

The next couple of days went by about as uneventfully as all but the fourth had, and soon enough it was the sixth day of the trip…the day they’d be arriving to Sinnoh.

Kaano shot up from his bed as he started to feel it shaking violently. He started looking around really fast to try and find the cause, and soon found that it was Kinesis attempting to wake him up. Yes? What do you need?

Kinesis started to vigorously point to the door and then grabbed a little device off of his desk. It was his TADS. She then held it up to his face and started jumping up and down.

Kaano’s eyes widened. Oh shoot! It’s 10:00! The ship should be at Sinnoh in just a few minutes! He scurried up from his bed and got his things together as quickly as possible. He then slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and put Kinesis in between his arms.

He ran to the door, opened it, and left, heading straight for the deck as quickly as he could. When he arrived, people were already getting off. He ran to the edge quickly, looked over, and then pulled out the map that the sailor had given him. He looked it over and started to trace his finger from the area that he was at to the area that he needed to go to. Okay…so I’m at Canalave City right now…and Valley Windworks is just past Floaroma Town …so that means I have to go through here and up here and…

After memorizing his path, he got off the ship and rode his bike to Valley Windworks.

Under the lake, past the woods, stalled in the city, through the cave, and over the town to Valley Windworks he went. When he got there, he rode to the nearest patch of grass and got off his bike. As soon as he did, Kinesis’s head shot over to it. She then started pointing vigorously again, just like she had done before. What? Did you hear something?

Kaano no more than turned to look at her and suddenly a large amount of stars shot out from the patch of grass and shot Kinesis off of his shoulder, almost knocking her out instantly. Kinesis! No!

Kinesis got up from the ground and held out one of her arms. A barrier then encased her body.

Kaano looked over to the patch of grass, but didn’t have to look for long. As soon as he did, one of the squirrel-looking pokemon jetted out of it and headed straight for Kinesis.

This isn’t good…she’ll never be able to stand up against it. He took her pokeball off of her belt and held it out. Kinesis! Quick! Get inside! She glowed red and returned to her pokeball.

The squirrel-looking pokemon had almost gotten her. If it would have, she would have been done for. There’s no way she could stand to something that strong. It was obviously a higher level than her.

Kaano took this opportunity to check out the pokemon. He pulled out his TADS and held it out to the pokemon. Immediately, a name appeared in the box with a picture of what a normal one of this pokemon looks like. So this little thing is a Pachirisu, eh?

He closed his TADS and then looked the little fluff ball over. There’s something different about you…but what is it? He looked it over one more time, and then finally realized what it was. Ah! Your tail! You don’t have the liberty spikes like a normal one! That’s rather odd. Instead, yours is slicked to the side. Almost like an emover…but for a tail.

Kaano then grabbed a pokeball from his belt and held it up, letting the light shine across the Z that was labeled on it. Zig, do you think you can finish this up quick? You’ve got a barrier that’ll be around you for a few turns, thanks to Kinesis using reflect, so you shouldn’t be getting knocked out for a while.

Kaano threw the pokeball in the air, letting Zig come out into the open. Okay Zig, this battle’s all yours!

Zig no more than touched the floor and the barrier protecting him slammed into the side of his body, making him hobble a little bit to the side. The hit wasn’t actually all that bad, it was just the sheer unexpectedness of it.

He turned around to look at Pachirisu and then snarled at it. Pachirisu, in response, took off like a jet right at Zig. Okay Zig! As soon as he hits your barrier, counter with a headbutt!

Pachirisu hit the barrier as hard as he could, yet it still only slightly forced it back far enough to bop Zig on the nose a little bit. Zig doubled back and performed a full force headbutt at Pachirisu’s side, knocking it up into the air and then crashing down on the ground a little farther back.

Good shot, Zig! It was a critical hit! It looks pretty dirtied up now!

Despite such a good shot, the Pachirisu was, by no means, out. It sprung back up and started running circles around Zig, firing off stars at him.

Zig kept on looking in different directions, hoping to keep up with the thing, but it was just way too fast. He went to go turn one way, and suddenly it was behind him. He went to go turn another way, and he got knocked across the head by stars. The barrier couldn’t protect him from the attack.

Kaano was getting dizzy just by watching the stars fly out. Pachirisu was moving so fast, that each star it launched out was coming from a different location. There’s no way Zig can keep up with something moving that fast…but if there was a way to stop it, then…hmmm…

Kaano kept on watching as Pachirisu continued its barrage. Zig, despite being as strong as he was, couldn’t keep on taking the hits, and it was starting to show. Then, it suddenly popped into Kaano’s head. Zig! Use sand-attack!

Zig heard the order and immediately responded. All he did is just simply clawed sand into Pachirisu’s path. Although seeming to be rather inaccurate, it worked. Pachirisu was moving so fast that it was getting hit by the sand before the dust could disappear.

Pachirisu’s started hacking and coughing as it continued its run around. The sand was collecting everywhere in its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and it eventually lost the majority of its senses and tripped on a small rock, making it tumble across the ground at a high speed. When it stopped, it slowly got up and started to attempt to clean its face off with its paw.

Kaano immediately jumped on the opportunity that was given to him. Zig! Hurry in and headbutt it again while it's not paying attention!

Zig nodded and then charged in doing his zigzag thing. As soon as he got to Pachirisu, he ducked down and thrusted up. Pachirisu looked just in time to see the hit, but it was too late. It flew backward yet again and hit the ground a little way away, slowly getting up. It was obvious that it was hanging on its last bit of breath.

Kaano gasped as he saw the hit land. He knew it would be a good hit, but he wasn’t expecting it to be THAT good. It was, yet again, a critical hit. Kaano was surprised, however, that Pachirisu was still standing. It was amazing. The hit should have knocked it out, but it somehow, within the nanosecond, had found a way to tense up and endure some of the shot.

Kaano grabbed a pokeball from his belt and spun it around on his finger. Okay, Zig! I think that’s all you need to do! Kaano then tossed up the pokeball and caught it, pressing the button as he did so and letting it enlarge in his hand. He then reared back his arm and threw the ball as hard as he could. Go! Catch!

The pokeball flew to the Pachirisu and bounced off its tail, sending it into the air a little bit. The red tractor beam then shot out and enveloped the Pachirisu, taking it into its lair. The pokeball then fell to the ground with the small dot on it shining red. It then started to wobble back and forth. Once, twice, thrice…

The light then went out, leaving the pokeball completely motionless.

Kaano got a big smile on his face and then ran to the pokeball and picked up, looking it over. Hmmm…I think I’ll name you Ice, for your ability to make opponents seem completely frozen as you move. He put the pokeball on the fourth slot of his belt and then bent down to pick up Zig and pet him. Zig, you did amazing today. There’s no other way I can put it. I’m proud of you…

Zig looked up at Kaano and then licked him on the face.

Kaano smiled again and then set him down. He then grabbed the Z labeled pokeball off his belt and held it out. Okay, Zig. Return and take a rest. We’ll be heading back to Canalave tomorrow morning to wait for the ship. And when it arrives, we’ll be heading back home!

Zig returned back to his pokeball and Kaano headed to Floaroma Town for a night’s rest at the pokemon center there.

Two weeks later, Kaano finally returned home from the trip. He found the sailor who helped him find his way and told him his story, and even showed him a few of the pokemon that he got to see while he had spent his time in Sinnoh. From there, he then headed back to HQ, proud of the progress he had made of a trainer in even this short of an amount of time.

*Dusclops phases in and quietly attaches a note to the mission, then glides out into the darkness and disappears*

Wow. Another mammoth mission from Kaano. It's most definitely a Pass. I'll let Brian decide whether further rewards are justified.

Was it truly necessary to go through all this trouble for such a simple mission, though? You've set an extremely high standard for yourself and I can only hope you continue to live up to it.

Three other details I'd like to bring up:
1) Oprah on a jetpack? No. Please. Just... no.
2) The granddaughter seemed to act more like a spoiled 8-year-old, not a four-year-old.
3) How thoroughly did you proofread this? You left one or two tags hanging out. wink

Before I forget, I also want to suggest you check the vehicle rules. For long-range travel in the future, you may be able to borrow something. That way you wouldn't have to worry about boat schedules and tickets and such.