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Kilik took a step back, clenching his fists tightly. He watched as Bahamut was bitten into and a sharp pain went through his head. Placing a palm to his forehead and shaking a bit, the boy sliced the air with his hand. "Bahamut, show Arbok what a real chomp is like! Use Crunch!" Bahamut let out a scream of pain when Arbok's teeth sunk into her wing. The Pokemon managed to pry it loose and flutter away, still shaking out of fear. She opened her mouth and flew in for Arbok's neck, clamping down tightly.

The real Electrode was hit hard and sent spinning into the opposite wall. When the dust cleared, the sphere came rolling in slowly. It was scratched heavily and was particularly less shiny than it was when he first appeared. The clones all vanished in an instant and left the real one behind. A smirk appeared on Walrus and Electrode's lips. He held his arms out wide and nodded. Electrode closed his eyes and began to glow brightly.

"Mike! He's going to blow!" Kilik called out, "I make Weezing do it all the time when he's about to lose!"

The psychic turned around and walked back to her own six Pokemon, a cute smile spread on her face. "Well, I guess everything went okay, right?" she asked. The Pokemon gave some sort of indication that it did. "Ah, awesome!" she giggled a little bit. "But... why'd I choose that whole... procedure or whatever to be taken care of in here? I mean, I know that Sabrina wouldn't have minded, but..."

Anna blinked. Since Nina never saw Sabrina die, she didn't know that ownership of the Gym had been passed onto her. "Well, the reason you chose to do it here," she said, "is because it's your own Gym, Nina." The girl blinked a little. "What, why?"
"Oh, I thought I'd told you already! See, Sabrina and Professore Elm went to South America to study Celebi's effects on the damaged rainforests down there. She didn't know when she would return, but she left the Gym, her Pokemon, and all Gym Battles in your hands. She said she knew that you were the most responsible person for taking care of everything."
"Oh. Huh. No, I guess you didn't tell me. But, if Sabrina was going off to do something as important as that, then my role is small and insignificant in comparison to hers. I'd do anything to help her, even if it is being the temporary Gym Leader."
"Heh, yeah. She left just a little while after you guys got back from Mahogany Town. She was asked on the spur of the moment."
"Ah, I completely forgot about Mahogany Town! Did-- we did manage to get the Gyarados back to the Lake of Rage, right?"
"Nina, duh. Lance passed him off to you and you released him back. The machine that was trying to make him evolve was destroyed too, and Giovanni went crawling back to Viridian City while Lance went back to the Elite Four. Worked out pretty nicely, actually."

The latter sentence was potentially the biggest lie that Anna had ever told.

The ghost forced a little smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go float off to Celadon and tell Raimundo and Whitney the news and how everything worked out great. Be back in two shakes of Beacon's tail." With a little wink, the Ghost Pokemon vanished.

Better that you go than me, Nina thought. They both hate me right now.

"Good then," Kasiya said happily, looking back to Ariel and giving her a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, we'll have that Shellder off of you in no time." The patient Vaporeon just closed her eyes and sighed, hoping she'd still have a tail when the ordeal was through. "All right Rosemary, we need to get it to lose interest in Ariel. Try hitting it with your Razor Leaf, but be careful not to hit Ariel," the girl said softly, knowing that even though Rosemary had an advantage over Ariel, their level difference would more than account for any accidents.

Planting her feet firmly, Rosemary uttered a soft "Bay!" before she swung her leaf forcefully, sending a trio of sharp leaves spinning towards the Shellder. Two of them missed their target entirely, while the third ricocheted off the nearly impervious shell of the Bivalve Pokemon. The purplish creature opened its eyes, startled by the sudden attack. Turning its body as much as it could without releasing its hold on Ariel, it glared at Rosemary through the slight opening in its shell, a bit of foam seeping from the crevice.

"Well, at least we got its attention," Kasiya stated quite obviously, which resulted in another dirty look from Ariel.

"Are you crazy?!" The other Rocket shouted, quite angry with his partner. "That'll take out all of OUR Pokemon too!" Too distracted with his anger towards the large man to his side, he didn't notice his Arbok passed out on the floor, the last Crunch attack doing too much damage.

Master, I do believe this is where you would say, 'Oh s**t'. The Breloom thought spoke with a smirk, cautiously eying the igniting Electrode. It was a most peculiar Pokemon, as happiness and combustion is something he'd peg as more of a Nitro or Felsic thing. Not his little Napalm though, he was far to cute to be as brutish, at least not yet.

Mike stepped back, happy that he had some distance between the two. You're right P.B., and now, not to disappoint the fans. "Oh s**t!" Unfortunately for his Pokemon, he was no less than four feet from the soon to be crater. This was bad, he would rather not see his adorable little 'shroom a smear mark on the wall. Looking around quickly, he soon took note of an old rickety door on the side of the room. It was about thirty feet from where his Pokemon was standing, but he was confident that it would cause no major damage if the blast was contained there. Portabello! Kick Electrode into that closet over there! He said, pointing to the nearly broken wooden door to the side.

Quite amused at this plan, Portabello sprinted forward, landing in front of the Electrode with a smirk. Take this you overgrown combustible soccer ball! Rearing his foot back, thrusting it forward, hoping to send the kamikaze Pokemon far away from him.

Let's review the source material here: Bugsy has had a stressful day. He lost three Gym bouts, one of which to an insipid little twerp who thought he could spit gold nuggets if he willed it as such. Granted, Ky and that other girl weren't bad, but a loss still stunk. Then his town gets terrorized by Team Rocket, something no Gym Leader wants to have to deal with. On the other hand, he got to use Haracross and kick some major butt, so in the end that worked out alright. But the point was that it was still tiring, and he was planning on having a nice rest and waking up early to tend to his garden. But what do you know, this happens!

"You know what?" Busgy finally replied, gripping his hair in his right palm as he held the other across his waist. "Just, get out. Now. I'll think about what I'm going to do with you." The eleven year old rubbed his head, staring blankly at a few strands of purple hair he must have 'liberated' in frusteration while grabbing like that. "NOW!"

"Well excuse me for not having time bombs on my team you-" Any possible cussing and name calling afterward were obliterated by the deafening sound of the Explosion. Mike braced himself as a wall of wind and smoke crashed into him, the boy barely keeping his balance. "Oh s**t, Portabello!" He cried out, looking frantically in the dust cloud. Hopefully the shock of the blast made the hit a sudden, painless knockout.

For once luck was on his side...kinda. Mike found his Pokemon, face first in a trench of granite. The end result of the detonation didn't look like it provided Portabello with a very comfortable KO. "Yikes." Was all the boy could muster, recalling his Pokemon and staring at the Ultra Ball he called home. "Sorry for that buddy, I really had no idea it would just...well, explode like that." Now he felt stupid, but no sense in beating himself up for it. "Well now, that was certainly an odd way to battle." Mike looked over and noticed his Rocket foe was already gone.

"So..." He turned to Kilik. "What now?"