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Kilik's eyes widened and he looked horrified. As if Anna was already bad enough, she had finally become what Maorde had wanted. The Alakazam that had appeared on the battlefield really made Kilik's hopes fall quite a bit. He clutched the Park Ball in his hand, throwing a look at Scizor. "Scizor! Attack Alakazam with yo--No!" He shielded himself when his Scizor took the Fire Punch straight to the gut. Had Kilik even been paying attention? She flew back, crashing into her trainer, bringing both of them to the ground. Struggling to stand again, she at least pulled herself off her master. Kilik stood as well, shaking a bit, looking at her. "Scizor...Can you still battle?" She nodded once. She had just enough energy to take one last hit for the team.

Giovanni growled. Both of my Pokemon are vulnerable because of Mike! He threw a cold look at his 'partner' then at Tyranitar. The dinosaur took the Surf attack dead on. Giovanni felt his loafers get a bit wet as well. However, Tyranitar took great care to dodge the Brick Break. He faultered for a moment, which worried Giovanni for a split second. When the beast was ready, he heard a deafening crash from Nitro's attack. "Now then, Tyranitar!" the man roared, "Earthquake!"

However, the attack never came. With a loud crash, Tyranitar fell to the ground, out cold.

Mike's pride took a step up. It wasn't every day an ancient and legendary mass murderer complimented you on your skill. "That's right, I'm cool." However, his confident streak descent into a nosedive when the Metagross' body started to glow. "Oh, you've got to be fu-" Before he could finish the sentence, Taffy exploded, sending out a massive shockwave that knocked the boy backward. Painfully.

Nitro didn't have the luxury of landing on his butt. If it was up to him, that would be the first place he'd land on. However, the massive detonation asked for a change of plans. As he was very close to the exploding Metagross, the attack hit him for maximum damage, causing him to crash and tumble harshly. Even though his health was at its peak mere seconds ago, the Charizard lay unconscious, unable to battle any longer.

"Agh!" The boy shouted. "You son of a b***h!" Mike felt like running over and pummeling the old fart to dust now, he really did. But such actions would probably mess something up, so instead, he decided to think of his next Pokemon he should release. After a moment or two of contemplation, he decided on who it would be.

Maybe this'll throw him for a loop. He said to himself, throwing out a Poke Ball.

As the device erupted in white light, Felsic stood in its place. Tall and menacing, he was far from the cute little Cyndaquil he started out from. The Pokemon roared, the fiery mane on his neck erupting.

Looking around him, Maorde put his hands on his hips. "My, my!" he exclaimed, "I never thought I'd be backed into a situation such as this... perhaps I've underestimated the lot of you." He appeared ready to issue a command, but heard two cries of Pokemon from his immediate right; his Salamence and Steelix had fallen, losing to Whitnney's Miltank and Raimundo's Fearow; granted, the Pokemon looked well-worn from the battle. Cracking his neck, the man was visibly irritated, and he recalled the Pokemon. Looking toward the ground for a moment, he chuckled softly to himself, and bit his lip, kind of smiling. He looked back up, to see Nina recalling a fainted Krystal and sending out Anastasia, Sabrina's Jynx which she removed from Saffron's PC before taking off.

"Even my own daughter... tch. Well then, I have a proposition to make. We're all adults here, and the majority of us are intelligent." He cast a glance to Raimundo, who returned with a nasty glare. "Nina. Dear. Step forward, won't you?"
"Why should I? I'm not that stupid, father.
"Ooh, your words cut like a knife. You want your Pokemon back, do you not?"
"I thought you stated that we were all intelligent adults here. You know the answer to that."
"...Very funny. What if I were to offer you a trade? Your Pokemon-- Anna-- back, in exchange for my release?"
"Ha, ha. You're going to give me back an Alakazam that has no memory of me? How naive do you think I am?"
"I have the means of transforming her back into her previous state. If you capture her with a specialized Poke Ball that is in my possession, she'll revert to how she was before."

"That... sounds really great," she replied, "but I think I'll take my chances with this. Anastasia, Lovely Kiss! Put that thing to sleep and wreak havoc on it!" Truthfully, Nina did feel badly for calling Anna a 'thing,' but she got over it as the Lovely Kiss had surprisingly worked. Crossing her arms and stepping forward a bit, she grinned. "Doesn't matter how powerful your Alakazam is, Dad. Anastasia uses a couple physical attacks, and then you're down. I take my Pokemon back, release the ones you have with you, and everything's fine." With a grin, she ordered Anastasia to perform a Body Slam attack.

But, something went wrong. Anastasia was flung off to the side, being the subject of a Psychic attack. "What? What the hell?!" The girl exclaimed, looking to see that the Anna-Alakazam was very clearly asleep.

"I couldn't allow you to hurt him further, Nina."

Raimundo stood near an Alakazam he released from a Pokeball at his belt, arms crossed across his chest.

Nina Williams' blood ran cold. She slowly turned her head to the side, looking towards Raimundo as she saw Whitney, who was standing beside the boy, wearing a terrible expression of shock on her face. The girl was frozen for a moment, but after Raimundo glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, she dashed over toward Nina and the group at a breakneck speed, clinging to her sister.

This wasn't happening. It wasn't, it couldn't be. This was Raimundo, the boy who she'd been traveling with for quite an extended period of time. This was the boy that she was able to converse with and truly feel comfortable with. This was the boy she loved.

She was shuddering. Her mouth quaked, trying to form words, but nothing came. Nothing, that is, except, "...Why?"

Rai grinned. "Because. This man has timeless knowledge and experience that is truly unparalleled by any Gym Leader or member of the Elite Four that there is. He offered to help me, make me a better trainer... So, of course I accepted. The thing was, though, he wanted something in exchange-- he wanted me to draw out his daughter. So, it was fortunate for me I ran into you again. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to just follow you around, I made myself appealing to you. I played the part of a kind, caring, perfect boy that any girl would fall head over heels for. The worst part was actually feigning feelings for you and having to sit through all of your emotional bullcrap day in and day out."

By now, Nina was having difficulty standing. This wasn't happening, it wasn't! "That's impossible!" She mustered.

He laughed. "Not hardly! Why do you think that Maorde always just so happened to show up wherever we went? Why do you think that his appearence coincided with my own? Answer me that, Nina! Did you think it was all a string of coincidences?"

Stop. Please.

"There was one good thing I got to take away from my time spent with you, though." Reaching for his belt, Raimundo released four other Pokemon-- a Hypno, a Jynx, a Mr. Mime, and a Slowking. They were all Sabrina's Pokemon.

"What?!" she exclaimed. "How--?!"

"Simple, really. My Pokenav holds the appearance of a Pokenav, but it isn't really one. If I place a Pokeball on it, it is able to create an identical copy-- a clone-- of that Pokemon, with certain data extracted. I've got your father to thank for that technology." With a grin, he approached Maorde, his Pokemon following him. He jumped on Fearow, and helped the old man to do the same.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll be off." As Maorde commanded the Anna-Alakzam --who was waking up already-- to perform another Psychic Maelstrom, Raimundo recalled his clones as the duo took flight, shooting off into the sky like a bullet.

Kurine soon drifted into sleep, as the fire's glow softened and the flames began to shrink as it's fuel was dissapearing.

--------------------

She woke slowly to the brightness of the sun shining down through the treetops. As she opened her eyes, she had to blink multiple times before she was accustomed to the light. She sat up and looked at the smoldering remains of the fire, and took out her water bottle, pouring some of it over the ashes to make sure it wouldn't re-light itself.

After rolling up her sleeping bag and cramming into her backpack, along with the pillowish thing, she unclipped Sentret and Cyndaquils' pokeballs from her belt. Kurine opened the pokebals and let the two pokemon out. They looked at her, then at each other, and then at the surrounding area. As she clipped the pokeballs back onto her belt, Kurine said, "C'mon, now." To both of them, and, slinging her backpack onto her shoulder, started walking back towrads the path, Cyndaquil walking along behind her.

Sentret was a bit hesitant, though, but finally trailed along after Cyndaquil.

That sense of completeness overcame Kasiya as she put her Pokemon back in their places. It always felt right to have them right there, and at full health too. She rubbed her hands together, quite anxious to get going. "Shall we be off then?" she asked, remembering that they both had Acro Bikes. "We could use our bikes," she added, scuffing the floor with her shoe. "I bet Cinnabar is a nice place to tour by bicycle." The boys Keegan had spotted earlier with the surf boards were now heading out, and she watched them disappear out the door and down the road, heading for the ocean. The thought of surfing like that terrified her, as it was nothing she'd ever want to do in a million years.

She beckoned Keegan to follow, and she stepped outside, fully enjoying the cool breeze that drifted over the island. Once again she thought about swimming, and how nice the water would feel on their skin afterwards, when they were all hot and sweaty from training with their Pokemon. The last time she'd been swimming had been at Misty's gym, before she challenged the leader to a battle. She remembered that Nina and her Pokemon had been there, and it all seemed so long ago. She smiled at the thought of her blue-haired friend, and wondered what she was up to at the moment.