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Kilik sat back, leaning against the fence. His wounds were healing, that was for sure. It had to have been something Mitsu did when she healed him in the woods. Never before had he recovered this quickly from something. Maybe she had filled him with enough energy to speed up his system? No, that couldn't be it. Regardless, the boy shrugged and watched the Electabuzz and Aggron battle. His mind wandered elsewhere. Two days ago marked a turning point in his life. Everything he kept secret laid bare, and that went double for Mike. The boy's closest friend and strongest rival, Mike was the cause of Hoenn's near destruction two years previous. And then he snapped and Giovanni still went on. At that moment, he realized he couldn't rely on having his friends there forever: After Giovanni revealed his crimes, they all left him except for Mitsu. A light smile appeared on his lips.

"Mitsu!" he gulped. Was she still in the Pokemon Center, resting? Cable was throwing punches at blinding speeds, crying out generic karate noises with every blow. No matter how fast he punched, it would not break through Aggron's Protect. The cat jumped back and dashed forward. The green barrier faded away and he slammed him hard with a not very effective Thunderpunch! Aggron planted his feet into the dirt and grabbed hold tightly of the Electabuzz. He watched as Kilik lumbered passed them and he blinked. What the...? Electabuzz took the distraction as a chance to land a solid Brick Break on the opponent's jaw, landed in the grass and began to run alongside his trainer. He could hear Aggron stomping behind them in an attempt to catch up. "I heard a roar coming from this way! C'mon!" Kilik said over his shoulder.

-*-

Mazarin slammed his fist against the wall. He felt like a fool. Cheated, beaten, and dishonored. How could he have...failed? It was a simple enough mission. Even with the promise of double the pay, despite failing, Mazarin couldn't help but feel a pit form in the bottom of his stomach. "To be...or not to be. That is the question," he whispered to himself, "Whether tis of nobler mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune...Or to take arms against them. To die...to sleep. No more, and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to..." Another sigh. His wings had been charred to nothing. All he had to remember them by was a single nylon strap. He stuffed it in his pocket and growled. He was going to get back at Mike or Milo or whoever he was if it was the last thing he did! A hand touched his shoulder and it made him jump.

"Yo, Maza'in!" Alastor laughed, "Did't know you was a fan of the Shakespeare!" He crossed his arms. "But ya know, dat's all about suicide. Surely ya ain't t'inkin' of kill ya'self over some silly wings, are ya?" He ran a hand through his green hair.

"I..well, no. I'm not," Mazarin said, "But dammit! That flaming flamer cheated! It's not fair, Alastor! I had him, I had him! He was there and I had him! And now..." he dropped his head, "That chance'll never come again." He punched the wall again, cracking the tile. "What's the use? T.E.A.M.'s better off without me anyway. Maybe if I left, it'd be easier to get your pays."

"Now hooold'an buddy," the other man said, "You's like our baby brudda. Sure, you's gots your prob'ems, but hey. We's all do. You's just got mo' dan us, y'see?"

"Sure," Mazarin smiled. I'd understand him better if he talked like a NORMAL PERSON. The two boys walked down the hall, into a meeting with their higher up.

Div took a moment to assess the situation. Franz seemed to be holding up a bit better than Patron. Both pokemon had battered each other an equal amount of times and neither seemed to know moves that were effective against the other. The hail was the true deciding point of this match. If each were doing relatively equal damage to each other than the hail would mean that Franz was taking X damage while the Magnemite was taking X+Y damage where Y was the amount of harm the hail was causing. The only variable unaccounted for was the amount of stamina the Magnemite had. Div knew nothing about the stability of Snover's but they looked pretty sturdy. Magnemite was a steel pokemon and appeared to be made completely out of metal. He must have been at least a little resistant to immediate destruction. Either way things were definitely in his favor. He just needed to keep the battle on the same track it had been going on and all would go well. Honkey Pimp hadn't seemed to notice how the battle was going. Patron displayed very little emotion as he floated and took an assault from the oncoming hail. The boy seemed to be unable to read his pokemon's emotion to see how the battle was going and even less able to tell just by watching how it was obviously going. "You're doin good dawg. Smack these little bitches with another Thundershock." He said one more time and Div wanted to smack the arrogant look off of his face. Patron tilted forward once in what seemed to be a nod of approval and began to whirl the magnet at its sides.

Bright sparks sprung from the units as they rotated with increasing velocity. After what seemed like forever a bright current of electricity fired at Franz. Div was rather impressed at the aesthetics of the attack. Hail exploded into tiny shards of ice in the wake of the attack and even the pellets that weren't directly hit glowed with the yellow light of the attack. It was actually rather beautiful. Div made a note to look into trying something similar in a contest eventually. He was far too impressed with the pretty flashy lights to actually command his pokemon to do anything silly like block or dodge. So should I just take this or- Franz began to think before the lightning slammed into him at full force. "VERRRRRR!" He shouted in agony as the attack worked its way through his body. The annoying thing about electric attacks is that being merely resistant to them only reduced the physical damage they would cause. They still hurt like a b***h. The attack filtered through him quickly into the ground and he shook to rid his nerves of the pain. "Oh sorry Franz. Hit em back with a Powder Snow." Div said as he snapped out of his pretty magic light show. He felt a bit guilty for not properly aiding his new ally but this was certainly not the time for guilt. He would apologize to Franz later. HAHAHAHAHA NO. Franz thought as he heard Div dare to call an order to him. As far as he was concerned Div had broken his contract and the time for subservience was over. He was in charge now and he would do what he damn well pleased. With what he thought was a rebellious flourish he swiped his arm at the floating magnet. A cascade of leaves were launched in the ball's direction much to Div's surprise. Again many were ripped asunder by the hail but most of the rest sliced against Patron, knocking him slightly off his axis.

Div shifted his weight awkwardly as he considered what had just occurred. Had Franz just not heard him? Or did he just completely and utterly disregard an order? From his location behind the battle Div couldn't see Franz's face not that there was much to look at beyond the eyes. Div was really hoping this wouldn't make the battle more difficult. MC Lameface didn't seem to notice Div's moment of analysis or have the common courtesy to pause the battle while he thought. "Don't let these suckas get the best of you bro. Throw them off with a a Metal Sound." He said as he brought up his hands to cover his ears. Before Div could truly process what this command meant or say anything to Franz about it his thought abruptly stopped. Really it was more like they crashed into a wall and came to an explosive halt. Div had previously thought that the stupid cry the Magnemite made was obnoxious. The screeching cry was music compared to the unbearable raking of the sonic assault. Div had already brought his hands up to his ears but his head was ringing in the most unpleasant way imaginable.

Franz wasn't faring much better than his so called master. Franz didn't have ears persay but he did still sense sound even if at this exact moment he wished he couldn't. He brought his hands up to cover the undersides of the hatlike structure on his head where his sound reciptors were. He was beginning to lose his sense of space and balance. With a crunch his stubby legs gave out and he fell back on the ice pellets that had gathered around his feet. He realized that the sound had stopped but moving his arms from his ears just made his head hurt worse. If he didn't get up and use an attack soon the stupid ball of metal would attack again and taking damage in this state was not a good idea. Using Razor Leaf or Powder Snow would require the movement of his arms which he had already determined was not going to happen at this moment in time. So he went with his third option. His small eyes began to glow and emit an aura of eerie light. With a rather creepy gradual rise he sat up and looked the Magnemite straight into its singular eye. For a moment there was nothing but tension then Patron floated backwards slightly shaking in fear from the successful leer.

The young boy, with egg in arms and Cyndaquill on shoulder, continued down the path towards the eerie Ilex Forest. The trees became thick and began to shield the sun from sight until the shadows engulfed them. Day seemed to become night as he walked wearily through the forest, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the sudden darkness. Jomei thought about turning tail and going back to the comfort of the bright city, but these thoughts quickly succumbed to his 'macho-ness' and he knew it was a man's duty to take on these woods. He puffed out his chest slightly and started to trudge foward, for the sake of his manhood.

"HIIIYAAAH!" wailed a shadowy figure lunging from the treetops.

"HEEEEE!?" The purple haired boy screamed in confusion and fright, as he fell over backwards, knocking his companion off his shoulder for like the millionth time. He froze, clutching his new egg, with his eyes wide and a bit of snot dripping out of his nose.

Pizza calmly dusted himself off, not in the least bit amused with the repeating event. He glared evilly in his trainer's direction, when he noticed the egg still hugged tightly to the boy's body. Was a bit of jealousy peeking?

"PREPARE TO FACE THE WRATH OF THE ULTIMATE NINJA!" The shadow's words echoed throughout the forest.

"W-what?" Jomei questioned, sucking the bit of ooze forcefully back up his nose. Suddenly, he found a long piece of wood in the shape of a sword shoved in his face. The shadowy figure turned into a young boy, about his own age, as Jomei's eyes began to fully adjust to the darkness.

"I said," the boy began again, clearing his throat, "Prepare to face the wrath of the ultimate ninja." his words were much more relaxed this time around.


(I noticed this post has a few innuendos... ninja )

Napalm weaved in an out like a hesitant boxer, conflicted on whether to throw a punch or not. Mike had indeed ordered him to attack, but something told him that all was not in fact well within the boy. Not to mention, he had never met this teammate before, and wasn't too keen on their formal introduction being a fist to the face. Nevertheless, he kept his hands up in readiness, after all, the other Pokemon might not have such hangups.

Proton hovered in moderate silence, following the Magmar with his three eyes. He had heard 'Mike's' command, but chose to wait a moment to observe his new opponent's actions before he acted.

"What are you waiting for? Attack!" Milo snarled, stomping his feet in frustration.

Napalm shrugged. Oh well, he thought. He could always apologize later. "Mag!" With a grunt, the Magmar swung a flaming fist towards the metal Pokemon.

Anticipating this, Proton created a distortion in the air around him, using similar polarity magnetic fields to push his body outward, so that Napalm's attack only hit the air between them. He immediately reversed the charge, sending all three parts of his body back into formation, clamping tight on the Magmar's arm. "Maaaagne!" The air crackled with static electricity as Proton fired a retaliatory blast of lightning at his opponent, the light reflecting off of his metallic body as his magnets spun wildly.

Milo's brow twitched. "Impressive..." he said quietly. It appears that all that time Proton had spent at home wasn't a complete and total waste of time.

Napalm groaned in pain as the electricity surged throughout his body, and fought to free himself from the surprisingly strong grip of the Magneton. Once liberated, the fire Pokemon decided that limiting his new foe's movements would be a good idea, so he couldn't pull stunts like that again. "'mar!" Napalm expelled a narrow jet of fire at the ground between the two. It connected with a loud bang, spiraling out and encasing the two Pokemon in a raging inferno.

Proton's magnets spun warily as the flames inched closer and closer, as if it were alive and trying to pull him in. They succeeded in scalding his side, his plating melting slightly. "'neton!" he droned, quickly floating as far away from the wall as he could.

The two Pokemon now stood face to face (to face, to face), illuminated by the bright glow of the inferno surrounding them. Napalm readied himself for another attack, confident that the robot wouldn't do much floating around now. Proton's magnets spun slowly in anticipation of the duck's next move.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, stood Titanium and Camerae. Like Napalm, the Steelix eyed his opponent with hesitation. However, it was not so much out of fear of messing up the first impression, but more out of crushing the little guy to death. The feeling was only compounded by the Omanyte's wide round eyes, which stared up at him with innocent admiration and awe. Titanium let out a deep sigh. "Now listen here little buddy," he grumbled and growled in his own tongue. "I'm going to come at you now, and I need you to move out of the way so I don't hurt you."

Camerae responded with a look of pure ignorance.

The Steelix groaned, and raised his tail. "Oh well," he said to himself. "Instinct will just have to teach him for me." Titanium took in a deep breath, and readied himself for combat. He had to be ferocious, ruthless, and frightening (at least on the outside). With a mighty roar, the Iron Snake Pokemon swung his giant tail straight down, aiming for the little shellfish. "Please get out of the way, please get out of the way." he repeated in blind hope.

The Omanyte let out a shriek of terror at the sudden change in atmosphere, and quickly withdrew into his shell and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed.

Titanium let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. But his little celebration was cut off by a slight stinging sensation on his tail. "Hm?" It appeared that Camerae had taken offense to the attack (as well warned as he was), and had proceeded to squirt the offending appendage with a Water Gun.

The Steelix let out a hearty chuckle. The little guy had spunk.

This time, Proton took the offensive, launching another Thunderbolt at Napalm, who reacted quickly and blocked it with a well aimed Psychic attack. The mental wave punctured a hole trough the middle of the blast, similar to how he had used it the other day to deal with the Raichu's sudden blast of energy, but this time the end result was a little different. The attack didn't hit him, but since it was a much more concentrated than Shocker's previous attack, it reacted differently to being pushed out of the way and disrupting its precious balance. The resulting flash of light from the diverted attack was so bright Napalm had to shut his eyes to avoid being blinded. Taking advantage of the temporary distraction, Proton circled around the fire Pokemon, firing lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the Magmar, the flames from the Fire Spin occasionally flaring out to scald his sides.

Napalm had a great deal of difficulty of dodging the wide arc of the attacks in such a confined space. Rest assured the Magmar caught the irony of the situation. He had to think fast, he couldn't evade these bolts forever. The robotic Pokemon was certainly skilled at avoiding his flaming punches, which was not surprising to the Magmar. He figured that it had to have been around Nitro and Felsic long enough to know how Fire Pokemon moved and attacked, and to understand how to dodge them well enough to manage against someone not as experienced as those two. Why wasn't Mike instructing him on what do to? Napalm thought as Proton charged up another attack. It looked like he was on his own. Napalm rolled to the side to avoid yet another electric blast, hoping that an idea would come to him.

Milo silently watched the two Pokemon battle. He hated to admit it, but they weren't doing half bad. Both creatures showed an good amount of improvisational skills, adapting to their rapidly changing environment and using it to their advantage. He was sure that as soon as the Fire Spin went up that Proton would have been finished, but the Magneton used his hovering speed and wider attack range to pressure the Magmar into a defensive state, losing his initial advantage and draining him of his energy by constantly having to dodge each attack. However, the Magmar showed impressive agility and calmness under fire, and a fairly unique way of using his Psychic attack to block the first Thunderbolt attack. Milo let out a soft 'Hm.', interested to see how the battle would play out.

Unnoticed by Milo, the 'battle' between Titanium and Camerae raged on, kinda. The Omanyte was severely outmatched, and also had to play the part of the frantic Pokemon helplessly dodging each attack from Titanium's relentless onslaught, which consisted of the Steelix whacking the ground halfheartedly every few moments, and Camerae rolling out of the way to avoid being flattened. Titanium chuckled to himself as he watched the little squirt tuck into his shell and roll around each time he attacked. If nothing else it would give him exercise, the Steelix thought with a smile. He just hoped that the Omanyte wouldn't hold a grudge, or turn into something that could kick his butt.