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[go keegan & kasiya! ]

"Or... dinner," Michael said, looking up at the grayish sky tinted with orange and pink where it met the horizon. Time had flown by, it felt, though truthfully the trip to Slateport had taken a little while and the sun always slipped the fastest to bed. Mary-Anne simply smiled, grabbing onto her older's brother arm. It made her feel like the little girl who tagged along everywhere with him again.

"So, what have /you/ been doing lately, big bro?" she asked, looking up to his face.

"Oh, same old, same old. Y'know, rushing off for some rambucklin' adventures, saving the damsel in distress, etc."

"Riiiight."

"What, you don't believe me? Well then. Nothing new, really. Just went down to Kanto to help out an old friend when mum called." He fiddled with one of the two Pokeballs, balancing it on his index finger and spinning it as if it were a basketball. "You know, I think I'll go back into coordinating for a while before retiring. Jin still wants to show off," he said, smiling fondly as he released the Pokemon. In a flash and sparkles, a gorgeous Masquerain made itself part of the crowd. It floated in the air a moment, humming, before settling itself on Michael's arm.

M.A. smiled and gave a little 'hi.'

"Oh, not even a little wince! I daresay you've gotten over your bug phobia." The young man grinned broadly.

"Almooost," she said reluctantly. Well, she'd known this Masquerain for who knows how long and he had stopped scaring her quite a long while ago, but it was true that he continued to creeped her out with those huge 'eyes' of his. But he /was/ nice, the girl thought, remembering Sting and Ky. They'd taught her to look past the Bug-exterior and see the Pokemon's character inside.

The two grabbed burgers for themselves and their mother and Pokefood for the rest before heading back to the hospital.

"So, have you decided on what you want to do yet? Training, coordinating, breeding, bank robbing...?"

"Hah. Well, no... not yet." M.A. sighed, falling into thought (which was visible, as her brow deepened and her step slowed, to her brother's amusement). Training was nice. And coordinating was too. But it almost seemed that if she went the latter route, she'd be compared to her amazing brother, and she almost worried that she wouldn't meet expectations. She wasn't brilliant like he was. It seemed silly to her when she phrased it in her head, but that obstacle remained to block her way down that road.

Jaeshan felt a good chunk of his confidence return as Combusken stepped forward, eager to get started. He felt a sense of pride at how far the young Pokemon had come in only a week (a week, and yet she'd already achieved her first evolution!) and he knew she would only continue to grow stronger. He also knew that Beldum would grow stronger too, although the strange Steel/Psychic-type would prove to be his toughest challenge as a trainer yet.

"Lotad, use Nature Power again!" the young girl cried, eying Combusken nervously. Her small Pokemon jumped up, letting the powers around it form into another Swift attack. Combusken jumped up in an attempt to avoid them, but they followed her every movement, striking her without fail. Grumbling, Combusken landed on the ground, her gaze narrowing as she awaited her command.

"Scratch attack," Jaeshan said calmly, his fingers still lightly touching Beldum's Pokeball. Combusken raced forward, keeping her arms at her sides before lashing out quickly, delivering a quick strike to her opponent. The Lotad seemed a bit surprised from the sudden attack, and hopped back a bit, worry etched on its face.

"Oh no... Try another Nature Power, Lotad!" the young trainer called out. With some effort, the Lotad managed to lob another Swift at Combusken, who didn't bother to try and dodge this time. Instead, she dashed forward, opening her beak and letting out a quick burst of flames. The ember was powerful enough to knock out the Lotad, and give Combusken the victory.

Keegan was brushing the sand from his clothes as Kasiya dropped down next to him, and he looked up to see Flannery standing before them. Something about the way she looked down at them made her look very regal, like she was born to be the gym leader here. He payed careful attention as she spoke, telling them the rules of the battle and whatnot, nodding along slowly. He didn't have any healing items anyway, so it wasn't like that rule would affect him. He noted the referee as he came in, not recognizing him. He must be new, Keegan thought, scratching his chin.

"I will be the first," he said, coming off a little more harshly than he meant to. "I've been looking forward to this for a long time." His grin was wide as he reached a hand to his belt, already knwoing which Pokemon he'd be sending out to begin the battle. He took his place in the challenger's box and scuffed his shoes in the dirt, marking it up a little. "Let's get this party started!"

Weezing popped out of the Pokeball, his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open. Toxic drool was seeping from his lips and he fell to the ground with a thud. The moment he came into contact with the tile floor, the Poison-type woke up, all four eyes bursting open and darting around the room excitedly. Finally! He was outside! He took a deep breath and unleashed a mighty, very gaseous expulsion in the shape of a heart. The cloud floated over to Kilik, who began to cough violently. It had been so long since he'd last sent out his partner that he had grown accustomed to a little something known as 'fresh air'.

"Now Weezing," he motioned for the hovering goof to come over, "See that Electrode? You've got to KO him. If you do..." he scratched his neck then snapped his fingers, swinging his backpack around and pulling his old leather boots out. They were covered in mud from his trek over to Lilycove with Mike. "You can have these!" he sang. Weezing's eyes widened and his tongue swirled around his lips slowly, leaving a trail of saliva all over his mouth. The Pokemon turned his attention to the Electrode and glared. He'd do anything for those disgusting boots.

Electrode wasted no time in attacking now that the introductions were complete. The sphere spun its body quickly, unleashing a Sonicboom attack that sliced the air towards Weezing. He floated there stupidly, waiting for Kilik's command to attack. When it never came, the glutton opened his mouth and sucked in a lot of air, floating up right before taking any damage.

"Weezing!" Kilik laughed, "Flamethrower!" He clenched his fist. Fighting alongside Weezing was always a blast, and usually ended in a blast too. Of course, he'd let his partner live to see another fight and not command a Self-Destruct close to the end. Weezing's cheeks began to glow a bright red and smoke began to billow out of his pores. Tears streamed out of all four of his eyes before he opened his mouth and let loose a massive stream of fire.

Electrode's eyes widened. How could that Pokemon know a move like Flamethrower?! Its eyes slammed shut and he tried to roll out of the way, to no avail. It was encompassed in the fire, and when the attack stopped it could barely feel anything, not that there was much to feel in the first place.

Weezing preened. This was going to be a much easier fight than he had anticipated. "Weeeee....zing." he burped, a small amount of fire escaping his lips.

Mike and Prickles were then warped into yet another room, this one seemed like a sort of cargo storage area. The boy grabbed his head, letting out an annoyed and frustrated groan. Even though the boy had taken training under Team Magma to withstand the disorienting effects of the warp tiles, it had been a while since then. He wasn't used to it, and his head was starting to hurt, really bad. "I'll be glad if I never have to step foot in this awful place ever again." Mike whined, slowly rubbing his temples in hopes to alleviate the pain.

The Cacnea however, was feeling fine, aside from the anxiety of the current situation. Being a Pokemon, it was much more accustom to adverse ailments than humans, so a few teleport sessions was nothing. But while he was physically fine, he was a mess otherwise. He wanted to find his trainer, and find her soon. Who knows what kind of trouble she was in.

"Don't worry about it Prickles!" Mike dashed over to the staircase and cautiously crept up, waving his hand as if to signal there was no issue. "We'll have her back soon, just you wait." He whispered, trying to keep quiet. The two quickly and quietly made it to the top of the stairs. "Excellent!" Mike quietly exclaimed upon seeing the familiar computer lab. "After this is the executive office, where I can almost guarantee Sasha is." Reaching into his backpack, the boy withdrew his PokeNav, sending a short (but grammatically correct) text to Kilik to meet up with him, along with a (hopefully) understandable instruction on what panels to take. He finished with a notice that (he thinks) he took care of all the guards along the way.

When he finished, he stuffed the gadget back in the bag and peered around the corner. Only one guard. Judging from the last couple of battles, this one would be no sweat. It's whoever was in the office he was worried about. He wasn't stupid enough to underestimate the leaders of an organization this size; that'd just be suicide. Alright, here we go. The boy stood up, and strolled casually into the room.

---

Shelly had been occupying herself by filing her nails, occasionally looking over to see if the little brat had woken up from her 'nap'. "The pains of being the best." She sighed, and continued to inspect her ruby red nails for any imperfection whatsoever. Suddenly, the door flew open, and the Aqua admin unenthusiastically glanced upward. It were two of her own men. What were there names again? She thought, not that it mattered. The two were out of breath and scrambling towards her, each attempting to speak over the other. It was loud, and annoying. Shelly stood up, lifted her long slender arm and smacked both of them into silence.

"QUIET!" She shouted, the two men shut up instantly. "What is the meaning of interrupting my quiet alone time?" Shelly pointed to one of the grunts and then crossed her arms, unamused. "You." She demanded coldly.

"Well, madam." Vince stammered nervously. "We have an issue." He recoiled, abuse was obviously a constant answer from this particular woman.

"An...issue?" The admin inquired, simply narrowing her eyes more at them.

The grunt stole a quick glance at the captive girl, who was still knocked out. He winced at the small trickle of blood that pooled around her chin. It must have hurt. "You see, there is this kid here, and he demands we release the girl." Vince shuffled nervously as he continued his story. "We tried to stop him but he's tough ma'am. Real tough. Not only that, he brought a friend with him, and he's no slouch either." He swallowed a lump in his throat, almost too scared to say what he had to next. "What's worse, it seems he's a member of Team Magma."

Shelly's expression quickly changed from annoyance to intrigue. Team Magma huh? Judging from the progress he was making this must be a high ranking official. Defeating him would make her look real good in the boss' eyes. But what does he want with this brat? She thought to herself, a bit confused at the reason behind this.

"Ma'am, what do we do?" Marty looked behind him at the door, certain any second the two boys were going to storm through.

The Aqua admin remained calm and collected. "You, lock the door." She snapped her finger at Marty, then pointed to Vince. "You, take your partner here and go inform the boss. Even though I hate to trouble him with something so trivial, we can't be too careful." She sounded more excited than her usual. She looked forward to these sort of 'disturbances' quite happily. It wasn't often when she had a challenge.

The two grunts ran to the teleporter behind the admin, disappearing instantly. Shelly looked over at Sasha, who stirred slightly. "Let's hope your friends are tough," She unhooked a Pokeball from her belt and smirked. "because I don't go down easily."

As expected, Mike was rewarded for his trespassing behavior with an angry shout at a forced Pokemon battle. The heroic grunt sent out a Carvahna, which appeared to be his only Pokemon. The Pokemon snapped its jaws hungrily, and the Magma boy might have been intimidated if he wasn't in such a hurry. "Listen, I gotta be somewhere soon," Mike said looking at his watch. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to end this in two turns or less." Feeling no need to waste time this round, he tossed up an Ultra Ball, releasing Portebello.

Let's make this one quick P.B. Mike thought, letting out a sigh. Do that cool move you did against Lisa, the one with the explosive seeds.

Yes Master! The Breloom responded, trying to recall what it was he did in that last fight. He remembered something about to do with his tail, but he was still a bit hazy on the details. It was like he wasn't the one in control when he performed that technique. Nevertheless, Portabello jumped into the air, forcefully flicking his tail in the direction of the Water Pokemon. Three large seeds were flung from the tip of his tail and collided with the Carvahna before either it or its trainer had a chance to react. The resulting explosion KO'd the poor Pokemon, and Mike was made the victor.

"You see, this is why I can't use to so much P.B.," The boy said with a yawn. "You just can't stop winning." He winked, lifting up the Breloom's Ultra Ball.

It is my lot in life Master. Portabello faked a depressed sigh. I will just have to deal with it. The Pokemon smiled proudly before being returned to his Ultra ball. Mike always loved using him in battle. He had yet to let him down once. The boy's attention turned to the Grunt, who was still attempting to gather his thoughts on just what happened.

"Here's a hint." Mike walked over to the Grunt, a cocky grin playing on his lips. "I kicked your a**!" He laughed, quite loudly. "Now go to your boss or wherever, I don't care, just get out of my way I got a princess to save!"

The Grunt glared and ran off past our hero and down the stairs where Mike had just recently come from. "I wonder if he'll meet up with Kilik." He laughed at the thought. His friend was much taller and more imposing than he was. But then again, he was wearing the robes of Team Aqua's sworn enemies.

The boy and the Cacnea made it to the door which lead to the executive office, only to be met with a slight impasse: it was locked. "Aw damn." Mike thought, as he shuffled through his pockets. "Great." He snorted. "I left my lock pick at home." The two stood there in front of the door silently cursing themselves for not looking for a key.

"Let's hope Kilik has a spare."

Kilik emerged by a large stack of red boxes. He felt a little disoriented then glanced at the staircase in front of him. According to Mike's message, this was the last set of stairs before he could make it to his friend. A very shocked Grunt came running down the stairs and bumped into Kilik, falling to the ground. Kilik stared down at him and then grabbed him by the collar. "You should watch where you're running," he smirked, "You could hurt yourself. Or worse, me." He glared daggers at the man, having a bit of fun, knowing full well that the Grunt wouldn't attempt to fight back. From sheer shock of losing and fear of Kilik's imposing manner, he fainted, becoming dead weight in the boy's large fists. With a sigh, Kilik dropped the man with a loud THUD and gave him a light kick with his foot.

"Out like a light. Boy," he laughed, "being mean can be fun." The boy ran his thumb over his nose and dashed up the staircase, snagging up Weezing's Pokeball in case of an attack from anywhere that Mike may have forgotten to check. When it was clear, Kilik walked over to his partner and slipped a hand into his pocket.

"Door locked?" he laughed, tossing Weezing's ball up and down a few times, "I could always have him use Explosion on the door. That'll make for quite an entrance. One that Rockets are known for," he pulled the pin off of his shirt and stuffed it into his pocket. Parading around as a member of Team Rocket did bring its advantages, especially when infiltrating an opposing Team's base, not that he had to use it that much.

Kilik knew full well that he would need all the power he could get should they be forced to fight any Admins or even Archie himself, and Weezing was definitely going to be necessary. Wasting one of his most powerful assets on something so trivial would be, in a way, suicide. He crossed his arms. "How do you suppose we get in, Mike?"