Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sam was bewildered by the spectral nail that had appeared out of nowhere, and it seemed Scarlet was too. Star felt a sudden pain in her body, not in one specific place, but all over. Sam heard Miharu's comment, and Sam lost confidence in what she was doing. She hated status effects, and with the Curse in effect, it wouldn't be long now until Star fainted. No matter that she had perfect health to begin with, in Sam's eyes, Star was going to faint very quickly. Better hurry and make the best of it.

"Star, try an Ice Beam! Fan it out!" Star froze the water that was gathering in her mouth before firing an ice blue beam at the Gastly, the beam flattening to create almost more of a wave then a beam. It zoomed towards the Gastly, and Sam hoped that it would hit. Every attack counted now. Sam glanced sideways at Mori as she launched burning embers at the Beautifly. Some had drifted over to their side of the field, but they winked out before any damage could be done. 'I'll have to look out, I don't want to catch on fire,' she thought vacantly.

“Oh,” Scarlet muttered, redirecting his gaze to the Marshtomp. “… That makes more sense. Terumi! Get ready to try and dodge the ice beam!” Scarlet and his gastly assumed that the strange pokemon would be sweeping the beam, but with Terumi’s agility, even dodging it them probably wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Wincing in pain, but still grinning like the Cheshire Cat, Terumi zoomed to the right. That would normally count as a good dodge attempt against something firing a beam, sure. Unfortunately, the thing that Star fired out wasn’t really a beam, and that totally shocked the both of them, a fact that was plainly evidenced on both Scarlet and Terumi’s faces.

The Ice Beam hit hard, passing straight through Terumi, whose body seemed to disappear in a cloud of purple gas. He was done.

“… I’m sorry, Terumi. You fought really hard for me… Again…” With a long sigh, Scarlet recalled his Gastly.

Cindy looked at the pokeball, finishing off her lunch. She almost felt pity, but not quite. She wouldn’t have been shocked if that sociopath went down laughing. As she walked onto the battlefield, flames on her back and head shooting up into high gear, she wondered just how she’d manage to win.

"Try to avoid it," Leon said, trying to be heard over the sandstorm. If it weren't for said storm, he would've been confident that Ghos could avoid it, but now he wasn't completely sure.

Ghos tried to see where the attack was coming from, but to no avail. He soon found himself surrounded by stone, and was thrown around by the force. He noticed unhappily that he could not move through the rocks, but also that the storm seemed to be bothering him much less now. That still didn't stop it from hitting him annoyingly through and spaces in between the rocks, though.

Leon didn't seem too bothered that the attack had hit, and responded by out very loudly, "Use your Giga Drain."

Ghos faintly heard this call and began to focus, and soon a few rather large green orbs began squeezing out from between the rocks. They headed at a decent speed towards the Onix, hopefully hitting and momentarily disappearing into the Rock-type before returning to Ghos.

Bibarel's ears twitched in annoyance when she saw the human on the other side of the battlefield almost start to laugh at her, and she pawed the ground in anticipation, very eager to show him that she was dead serious about battling. Jake, on the other hand, was still watching the Shieldon as the ground around him rumbled lightly. Many pointed stones than began to lift up out of the ground and hover around, though they didn't appear to do anything at the moment. Stealth Rock? Jake repeated in his mind. Sounds... stealthy. He coughed a bit as his chest and lungs were still a little raw from swallowing all that seawater, and nodded to his Pokemon. "Give 'em a Water Gun," he said, knowing that none of her other attacks would even touch the dual Rock and Steel-type.

Bibarel took a few steps forward, her cheeks billowing out as she collected a large amount of water in her mouth. She thrust her body forward, giving a bit of momentum to the jet of water that rocketed out and towards the Shieldon. This doesn't seem so bad, at least not yet, Jake thought, though he had no intentions of getting too comfortable.

=-=-=-=-=

Flannery couldn't see her opponent through the now very-smoky battlefield, and it annoyed her even more that she couldn't hear him shouting out commands, either. What are they doing, communicating psychically or something? she thought, hands once again resting on her curvaceous hips, though she knew it was ridiculous. Hariyama weren't part Psychic-type, were they? Or was she thinking of that Medi-something? Panic suddenly shot through her and she felt herself start to sweat, which was odd for the gym leader seeing as she was so accustomed to the temperature of the gym. "Torkoal," she called out in a small, shaky voice, "we need to hit them hard, and stay alive while doing it. Use Curse."

The Coal Pokemon nodded and withdrew his head into his shell, focusing until he felt his attack power grow stronger, and his defenses too, even though they didn't really need it. He also took a negative hit in the speed department, but since he wasn't quick on his feet to begin with, it didn't matter. He felt a rush of air pass by him as the Hariyama had tried to slam him with another Force Palm, and he knew more than anything else that he didn't want to get hit by one of those. "Now use Body Slam," Flannery called, her voice a little stronger than before. Sometimes she hated herself for having such flimsy confidence in herself, and in her Pokemon. Torkoal pulled his legs into his shell and snorted out another small cloud of whitish smoke before he rocketed forward, slamming hard into the Hariyama from behind. The impact knocked the massive Pokemon to a knee and he whirled around, catching Torkoal with one of his large hands. This would be all he could do for now as he felt a spasm jolt down his spine from where the Torkoal had Body Slammed him - paralysis had begun to settle in.

"Oh by the gods of all pokemon, I'm good! What was his name anyway... you know, the gods of pokemon?" Laichi mentions whiile walking out of the hospital.

Zii looks at Laichi and sniggers knowing Laichi would not understand him even if he said the name.

"I see, you're not the religious type. It's okay, I still love yah!"

Laichi is grabbed by Zii before a car zooms past where Laichi was about to walk. Laichi looks down and notices, "Hey I'm on a sidewalk! Wow, the sidewalk is as large as the roads!"

"So, this is the big city of North Petalburg? I heard there is a famous gym here."

Zii nods twice agreeing with Laichi's knowledge. But, something inside him does not want to go to the gym.

"Zii, did you get some rest at the Pokecenter as my butt got lazy on that very hard bed?"

Zii nods a yes and gets distracted as a young boy with a hoodie on leers at Laichi. Zii notices the kid start strutting over toward their direction. Is this a challenge, he thinks.

Laichi is looking at the hundreds of people walking about, living their own lives. She's staring at the massive buildings with a 'wow' shoved into her mouth. Her mind is on everything besides what is around her. This is her first journey to the city.

The boy holds out his hand as a grin comes over Zii's face. The boy gets two feet away from Laichi and stops. Zii falls to the ground laughing. He knew this was going to happen.

"You slimy mucky ewwwy gooey ekans in a stone hardened grass! Trying to sneak up on me! I will rip your arms from their sockets and shove them far down your grimer hole!" Laichi screams as her foot slams right into the boy's face.

The boy falls to the ground holding his face as blood trickles from his nose. He rolls around for a few minutes mumbling incoherent cusses at Laichi.

Laichi growls and attempts to lift up the nearest car to throw it at the man. (But, everyone understands that is impossible. She does not though.) The boy sits up holding his hand out with a peace sign.

"Stop hitting me! You can't lift that car up anyway... stupid girl." The boy said while gaining his composure.

If Laichi was taller and more muscular she would be intimidating, but she is not. So, her stomping like a sumo wrestler towards the boy, just looks like a gag comedy act. Zii chuckles, while Laichi passes him up.

"What do you want you seviper loving pidgey crap?" Laichi asks while standing in front of the boy as if she's ready to jump kick him.

"I wanted to challenge you! Stop hitting me!" The boy screams.

The crowds disperse and Laichi blinks as she laughs uncontrollably. Zii rolls around laughing to his hearts content. He knows Laichi's not the most social person out there, and her etiquette is to match.

"A challenge? Haha! Yeah! You got a challenge you weakling! Getting beat up by a little girl. That's just sad." Laichi rubs in as if he's a piece of meat.

The boy stands and reveals two pokeballs. The kid pulls up his hood and smirks.

Laichi and Zii fist pound and nod to each other while Zii walks into the circle the crowd has created. Both can assume this happens too much, that the civilians understand protocol.

"Zii, lets do this."

Once again they were in the air and ready to fly. This was the home stretch to Hoenn and then they'd be off to the Magma's base. Mitsu held her arms around Kilik's waist securely, not wanting to risk falling off the dragon should she get a bit too excited and thrilled with the wind against her scales and clouds above her head.

The purple haired girl's cheeks flushed red as Kilik gave her a gentle kiss. His lips were warm and soft. Her face brightened even more as she scooted back, bringing the two closer together. "I-it's not a big deal," the girl stammered through a smile. She had to wonder how he did it. How he made her feel safe and warm and happy despite all that was happening and maybe worse, what was soon to happen.

(( Short post is short, I apologize. ))

If you had asked Mike a week ago why he hated the tail end of any flight, he would have said 'Because I get so anxious and excited to get to where I'm going that I just can't take it!' with a wide smile followed by some ridiculous gesture. Now, if you posed that same question to him about this exact trip, he'd say something along the lines of:

"I'm sick, half my bones are broken, I'm spitting up half-crusted over magma every three minutes, and I have no idea how to deal with seeing Flannery again." Mike complained, his ever receptive Charizard nodding his head in agreement. He grabbed both sides of his hood and pulled it over his face as the wind tried desperately to blow it off. "I'm afraid to think of how badly this will all feel when it finally catches up to me." Truth be told, the boy had no idea how he was even sitting upright. He was in tremendous pain, as he had been since the night before after his little slip, but not as much as he thought he should be. As if on cue his forehead began to throb right around his messy scar. "Agh, dammit!" he cursed, lightly placing his hand over it. "What is this, smoke?" he asked, lifting his hand from his wound. Yep. Smoke was lightly wafting from the diagonal cut hole in his head. "I'm a human chimney. Ha. Hahaha! TOR-KOAL!" he said, dumbing his voice down to imitate the tortoise Pokemon before laughing again. "What a MESS we are!" he found himself saying. A strange tingle ran up his spine as he spoke.

Despite all the laughing and joking around, Mike was utterly terrified. Not about the mission, not about his confrontation with Team Magma, or his eventual showdown with Maxie, and not about how horribly dangerous the entire thing was. The thing that terrified him the most was, of course, seeing Flannery again. Images of her horrified expression and utter disgust for him that flashed across her beautiful face replayed in his mind with depressing frequency since the party, and now it was flickering like and old style motion picture. Like a flip-book, Mike's mind cycled through every eyebrow twitch, lip curve and pupil dilation that that dared tarnish her beautiful face. "My darling...she only needs to smile. Nothing in the world has the right to make her unhappy, NOT EVEN ME!" he screamed through grit teeth, curling his hand into a fist and smashing it into his right cheek. "You IDIOT!" and again. He grabbed his throat and squeezed. "But listen!" he choked out. "That's what this is for! I-I'm going to bring Team Magma crashing down so she will have all the time to s-smile she needs!" His free hand clawed at the air that he wished was in his lungs. "N-no longer will she have villains in her b-back...yard! Please! Let go of me!" Feeling his answer was satisfactory, Mike released his grip. "Better." he said simply. "Yes. Better!" he said, coughing up smoke. "See?" he said with a nervous laugh that tickled the back of his throat threateningly. "I knew we could come to an agreement. A-ha!"

------

As Sirrus took off once again, Sasha couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Kasiya. (Ironic, non?) "Z'he freedom of flight." she said to herself as she tightened her grip on Kasiya, tempting herself to make her hands migrate north, but ultimately deciding against it. "I really need to get back on track and win some badges so z'hat I can actually use eet." Her eyes wandered to her bag, where Roulette, her newly captured Fearow, rested. In typical Sasha fashion, she drifted off into a daydream where she, complete with matching goggles and scarf, ruled the skies on her awesome Fearow, flying from city to city in style. A smile snuck its way onto the pink-haired girl's face as she gently rested her head on Kasiya's back.

------

Mike's tension spiked as he saw Mt. Chimney on the horizon, his fears rising with the volcano as it neared. "Look Nitro!" he said, trying extremely hard to smile and failing. "It's HOME!" he screamed, grabbing both sides of his face and letting his fingers slide down his cheeks. "Hhh-ome! Ha-hahahaha! I can't-I can't breathe!" Mike struggled for air as Nitro neared Lavaridge, the familiarity and nostalgia welling up within him to an almost painful level. Smoke began pouring from his forehead and this time Mike wasn't in the mood for joking about it. "L-land over there, N-Nitro." he said, weakly pointing to the area between the Poke Mart and the Pokemon Center.

Nitro let out a short grunt in reply and began his downward spiral, tightening up the circles when Mike frantically told him to be more discreet about his landing. The Charizard lowered himself between the two buildings, and before he had the chance to completely touch down, he was recalled by his trainer, whose overeagerness to remain hidden caused him to crash to the ground; the momentum from the landing, however slow, still applying to his body as his mount disappeared into his little red ball.

Mike let out a loud grunt of pain as he felt what might have been more of his ribs snap from the fall. He slapped his hand to his mouth and bit down on it, anything to keep him from screaming. He slowly rose to his feet and donned his hood. Being a small town, and the place he spent almost the entirety of his life, he would be recognized instantly. While normally that wouldn't be a problem, Mike wasn't too pleased with his recent 'exposure' on the news. No doubt the citizens of this little town had similar feelings. Mike peeked his head out from the alleyway, looking around and flailing his arms frantically to divert his friends from landing nearby. He pointed to the area behind the Gym, motioning for Keegan to lead the way.

------

"Wah!" Sasha yelped as a sudden sharp turn jarred her from her fantasy. "Qu'est-il arrivé?" she asked, grabbing hold onto Kasiya as she steered her Pokemon away from the Pokemon Center and headed to the Gym. "Oh, we are here! Z'hat was sure fast." she said to herself, blaming her shoddy perception of time to her daydream. Soon they were once again on the ground, this time in Lavaridge. Sasha had been here before to challenge Flannery for her badge, and winning. Barely. At first she thought using Ampoule and Pierre would be a sure-fire way to win. They helped, but Sasha was shocked to find Flannery well equipped to deal with them, even at her massive disadvantage. I guess z'hat is why she is a Gym Leader. Sasha thought, the exact same one running through her head moments after Pierre was sent crashing to the ground by Flannery's Camerupt.

Sasha stepped off of the Flygon and helped Kasiya down, turning around just in time to see Mike dart past her. She jumped, letting out a surprised squeak. The shock caused her heart to race. "Ne pas faire peur comme ça avec moi!" she shouted.

------

Mike moved with practiced grace, weaving inbetween his friends and Pokemon like a river: soft and quiet. His footsteps made little to no noise as he hurried through the crowd and stepped behind Keegan, who was still in the process of dismounting his Skarmory. He said nothing to the boy, but only put a finger to his lips and adjusted his hood. No one could know he had returned. They would call the police. He would be thrown in jail, or worse, the asylum. And once they found out his new abilities, they would no doubt ship him to some lab, where he'd be tested on like some sort of animal. Heat radiated from the boy as he thought of it, dark smoke rising from the black shadow of his hood that obscured his face.