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Adie turned her attention to the advancing Krabby as Ginji mentioned them. It looked like their numbers might have dwindled a little, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for her to train on a few of them. Of course, her choice of pokemon was limited because of their surroundings, but she had been itching to train Squirtle a little more in the open water anyways.

"Yea, alright, why not," she said, though she was a little nervous, visibly so, that there was going to be someone watching her this time around. Standing, she appeared perfectly balanced as she pulled Squirtle's pokeball out of her bag, releasing him into Wailord's back. Kneeling down, she gave him a small stroke on the head, walking with him towards the edge of their ride.

"Alright, let's get some training in, right Squirt? See those Krabby? Let's give Wailord here a break," she said with a small grin, Squirtle nodding and diving off of Wailord into the open water. One angry Krabby was coming near him, and so it was time for action. Disappearing underwater as the Krabby came near, Squirtle swam upwards in a powerful tackle attack, which knocked the Krabby straight into the air.

"Quick, Try rapid spin," she yelled out to her companion, watching as he leapt from the water, withdrawing into his shell and starting to spin at high speeds as he careened straight towards the airborn Krabby. Knocking it just before the crab pokemon hit the water, the force of the attack sent the wild pokemon flying into Wailord's skin, before it slipped down into the ocean once more.

Smiling, she jumped for a moment, clasping her hands in front of her with an excited laugh. Calling out encouragements to her pokemon, she slipped into a sitting position.

"That wasn't so hard," she said, glancing over at Ginji to see if he had any suggestions. She knew that she was an offensive player, and she needed to work on her defense...which became all the more apparent as another wild crabby suddenly burst from the water, striking Squirtle with a Crabhammer attack. They were not too far from Hoenn at this point, which was a relief, but she was not about to let a wild crabby of all things take out her Squirtle.

As he surfaced once more, he looked alright, though it was obvious that the attack had done some damage. Swimming forwards quickly, Squirtle managed to land a powerful tackle attack on the wild pokemon, followed swiftly by another rapid spin. Adie calling out orders, Squirtle obeying them to the best of his ability, it was clear to her they were going to have to train harder, even if they were holding their own in the open ocean. Finishing off the pokemon with a Skull Bash, it came just in time, as the water began to get shallower as they neared the fresh water river winding up into Hoenn.

"Come on Squirtle," she called out, returning her pokemon to his pokeball before another Krabby had the chance to make a surprise attack on him. Biting her lower lip softly, she tried to hide the blush on her cheeks as she turned to gave Ginji, wondering what he was going to say about her battling. She was out of practice, that was for sure, but any criticism was constructive, right? At any rate, she was going to have plenty of training time with her pokemon when they caught up with Ike.

"You think Wailord can fit up this river," she asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried to do the conversions in her head. By all accounts, she figured it might be easier for them to just swim the rest of the way, but then again, what did she know? Not to mention, it got the topic of conversation off her battling skills, and onto the training ahead.

Ike ventured off into the forest alone with Pikachu at his side. The little yellow pokemon was glad to be out training again, and Ike could tell. With every step it took came a spring of excitement. In fact Pikachu was so excited, it ran into a Tangela. Ike tried not to laugh.
"Alright, ready yourself Pikachu!" said Ike, getting his game face on. The Tangela looked pretty angry that it was bumped into.
"Pikachu, start with agility!" Ike called out. Pikachu quickly went into a sprint as it did circles around the Tangela, increasing its speed. Tangela's eyes did their best to follow the yellow flash. It finally began to shake its body, releasing a purple powder into the air. Ike knew this was it's Poison Powder. Pikachu stopped running and started to cough, being poisoned. He squinted his eyes to try and find Tangela in all the purple fog.
"Pikachu, use Discharge!" said Ike, covering his mouth with his shirt. Pikachu cried out and started sending off electric currents every other way. Eventually one hit Tangela and caused sufficient damage. Pikachu coughed as it loss some heath.
As the poison powder settled and disappeared, Tangela extended it's vines to use Vine Whip. It's purple vines reached out and whacked Pikachu, sending it flying to the right.
"Pikachu! Rebound off the tree with a Slam!" told Ike. Pikachu opened its eyes to find that it was flying toward a tree trunk. He positioned his body and bounced off the trunk upon impact, sending itself right toward the Tangela. Pikachu slammed himself into the pokemon, knocking Tangela down.
"Alright!" shouted Ike. He grabbed his last Great Ball out of his messenger bag and hurled it at the Tangela. Soon the vine pokemon was transformed into a red light and swallowed up by the ball. It shook once. It shook twice. It shook three times. It shook once more to Ike's dismay. The Great Ball finally settled down after it made a 'ping' noise. Ike and Pikachu caught a Tangela.
"Common Pikachu." said Ike, calling Pikachu to ride on his shoulders. "Lets try to find you a berry to cure that poison powder." he said. Pikachu coughed once more as the two set off in a grove of bushes.

((Boredom can be a productive thing...lol))

MISSION- Bon Appetite
Its time to cook! Your in charge of getting the ingredients for our meals! We need 2 steaks, 3 cobs of corn, 1 cheesecake and 3 bottles of water. Your mission is to go and get theses items, but watch out, many people are very hungry! (You will battle 3 hungry people)

Pokemon:
Snorlax
Gulpin
Slakoth

Funds: 200-1000

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Reclining back on the couch, Adelle could feel her TADs vibrating in her pocket, and yet had no motivation to pick it up. If it was another rescue mission, she was going to explode. Ignoring the vibrating sensation on her hip, she continued with her book as it tickled her a second time…and by the third time, Adelle could stand it no longer. Snatching her TADs from her pocket she opened the message to find…a grocery list?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered under her breath as her eyes scanned over the list of food she was supposed to get from the market. Part of her was relieved that this was going to be a walk in the park…the other half of her was angry that she had been reduced to a “gopher”. Not to mention that she had no idea how 2 steaks, 3 cobs of corn, a cheesecake and 3 bottles of water were going to feed everyone in the base.

Getting to her feet, she stretched as she slipped on her black sneakers to head to the market. She found an envelope of money waiting for her on the table along side a hard copy of the list. Stuffing it in her jean pocket, she walked out into the failing light, she released Meowth from her pokeball for the walk to the market, which was not very far but far enough to want someone to keep you company.

“Looks like we have shopping duty,” she said with a grin as she took off at a leisurely pace, Meowth padding along beside her. She would have taken her bike, but why waste a perfectly good evening?

It was almost a half hour before she reached the market, still aglow with customers at this time of night. People must eat a lot later than they used to. That was her only explanation for such a plethora of inhabitants. Pulling out her list, she grabbed a cart as Meowth leapt easily into the seat. It was not until she wheeled her cart into the market that she saw one of the most disturbing sights she was sure she would ever witness. People were running around seemingly mad with hunger.

Quirking an eyebrow, she casually pushed her way towards the meat counter to pick up the steaks first. After all, she was in no hurry so far as she knew. People would eat when she felt like cooking, that was her way of looking at it. Taking a number from the dispenser, she hummed softly to herself as she waited for the man behind the counter to serve the small elderly woman in front of her. Apparently she was having some sort of monster gathering because no woman that small would ever need 20 pounds of ground chuck. Shrugging it off, she moved forward as her number was called, only to have a short, stocky woman step in front of her.

“Excuse me,” Adelle said indignantly, scowling in the woman’s direction. However, her comment fell on deaf ears as the woman proceeded in ordering 10 pounds of pork chops and 15 pounds of chicken.

“Hey,” Adelle said once more, this time taking the woman’s arm in her hand to turn her around to face her. Rudeness was not something that she was willing to tolerate. However, the look that the woman gave her as she did so was enough to cause Adelle to stumble back a few steps.

“Butt out girl! This is my meat! AIEEE!” With a cry like an Amazonian warrior, the woman leapt at Adelle, knocking her onto the ground. Meowth was quick to jump to Adelle’s rescue, leaping from the cart, claws gleaming, onto the woman’s back who yelped in pain.

“Get this mangy feline off me,” she yelled as a Vulpix came tearing around the corner. Leaping into the air, a tackle attack struck Meowth with such a blow that both pokemon slid across the obscenely waxed floor.

“Ruby, singe the fur off that cat’s tail,” the woman yelled, making an attempt to grab Adelle once more.

“Hey, lay off! Meowth, dodge and hit it with a fury swipes attack,” she yelled as she scrambled across the floor away from the mad woman. If she had known that the lady was such a psycho, she would definitely had waited until the woman had gotten her comically large order of meat.

Meowth managed to slip right under the ember attack that emitted from the Vulpix, planting the pads of her hind legs on the ground and leaping up, slashing her claws in three quick successions. Each swipe struck home on Vulpix, sending him crashing backwards into a perfectly made pyramid of bottled water.

“Meowth, tackle attack,” she said immediately as her cat pokemon dashed forwards towards the still rolling bottles of water towards the orange and red form of Vulpix, slamming all her weight into the fire pokemon. Toppling over backwards, Adelle was about to order a finishing move when a security officer came running through the store, grabbing the stocky woman before she and another leap for Adelle.

“You get outta here lady,” he breathed through his struggle to contain her. For a short fat woman, she was sure putting up one heck of a fight.

“But I didn’t do nothing! It was that girl! I just wanted some pork,” she said through heaved breaths as she struggled to free herself from the man’s clutches. As the Vulpix ran after his mistress, Adelle moved up to the counter, panting slightly. Her braid had been practically pulled out, hanging by only a few folds of hair.

“I would like 2 steaks please,” she said calmly, Meowth leaping up onto her shoulders as she had done so many times before. The people around the counter all stared at her in disbelief as she got her steaks, pulled her overturned cart back onto its wheels and set the meat in the basket, Meowth jumping into the seat once more.

Adelle could not have gotten out of the meat department faster as she looked at her list, heading to the produce section. This is where she thrived. Adelle seemed to have a knack for picking out the best produce. Grabbing a plastic bag, she began to make her way over to the corn, taking three ears and placing them gently in the bag, twisting it tight and placing it in her basket as well.

“Ok…looks like we have to get a cheesecake, and some water and we will be out of here. Wish I had grabbed the water when it was strewn across the floor…would have saved me from walking through the meat department again,” she said softly, patting Meowth affectionately on the head.

Luckily for her, the bakery was on her way to the meat department, and so it would be an easy stop. Normally, there would have been an entire display of cakes, and a section devoted entirely to the scourge of dieticians everywhere…cheesecakes. However, as she got close enough, she saw a teenage boy grabbing the last cheesecake off of the self.

“Ok, this is getting ridiculous,” she muttered, taking off in a jog towards the boy.

“Gimme that cake,” she practically yelled, the frustration of this entire trip beginning to take its toll on her. One way or another, she was going to get that cake, even if she had to pry it from that shrimp’s fingers.

As the boy shook his head defiantly and stuck his tongue out at her, Adelle lost it. Releasing Squirtle from his pokeball, the turtle pokemon sprang forwards in a skull bash attack aimed at the boy’s gut. It wouldn’t kill him, and in her defense, he was being a really big jerk.

“This is my cake,” he yelled angrily, getting back to his feet and releasing a Pikachu into the commotion, which retaliated to the attack on its master with a thunder shock attack. Squirtle, thankfully, dodged to the left of the attack, which conveniently hit a shelf full of microwavable popcorn. The loud bang that followed was surely heard in a three-mile radius, as white chunks of popcorn flew in all directions, exploding from the bags and boxes.

“Squirtle, Skull Bash,” she said urgently as the turtle pokemon withdrew into his shell, shooting towards the yellow mouse pokemon. With a cry, the mouse pokemon flew backwards into the sea of popcorn on the floor, landing with a thud. Springing to his feet, a combination of agility and tackle was used to close the distance between the two pokemon. Seconds before the two pokemon made contact with each other, Squirtle withdrew into his shell to absorb the jist of the attack.

“Hydro Pump,” Adelle called earnestly as Squirtle leapt into the air releasing a strong stream of water at the Pikachu, who was recovering from the impact with the hard shell. The water hit the pokemon, once again sending it flying backwards into the sea of, now soggy, popcorn.

“Now give me that damn cake,” Adelle yelled, yanking it from his fingers as he ran off to find his pokemon in the standing popcorn. Placing the cake in her cart, she grunted as she went to push it back towards the meat department for the 3 bottles of water. However, after a few seconds, she realized that it was going to be more work to push the cart than it would be to simply carry her merchandise to get the water. Meowth leapt onto the ground, clearing a path where she could for Squirtle to pass through. Handing Squirtle the cake, which he took, she walked behind him and Meowth towards the bottled water carrying the steaks and corn.

Laden with everything on the list, she made her way to the front of the store to the check out lines, returning Squirtle and Meowth to their pokeballs as they placed their load on the belt. Sighing as she looked at the havoc behind her once more, there was no doubt in her mind that this trip had been more trouble than scaling a moving speed boat while treading water.

Despite the looks that the boy behind the counter was giving her, she kept her eyes fixed firmly on the counter in front of her as he gave her the total: a whopping 23 pokedollars. Reaching into the envelope in her pocket, she sighed as she pulled the cash out of the fold to find that she was three dollars short.

“Umm, hang on,” she said with an apologetic look at the cashier as the man behind her in line began to tap his foot impatiently. Rummaging through her pockets, she managed to find a few stay dollars, seeing as she had left her wallet at the HQ, which was not the smartest thing she has ever done. However, she was still was about half a pokedollar short. Turning to the man behind her, she put on a smile before speaking as sweetly as she could in her agitated state.

“Excuse me, do you think you could lend me a dollar? I seem to be a few cents short.” At first she thought that he might actually lend her the money…and then his face changed to one of utter anger.

“Look babe, just pay the man so we can get the heck out of here!” Slamming a pokedollar onto the counter in front of Adelle, the cashier took it and handed the man the change before giving Adelle her bag of food. Stepping out of the way, Adelle was trying to control herself. She wanted to punch him dead in the face, but that would mean causing another disturbance in the store that she was sure she could not afford. Turning, she walked out of the store, bag in hand to get a breath of fresh air and calm herself down before she began the walk back to the base.

As the man that had been behind her came out of the store, she could hear him muttering vile names in her direction, and so for the third time today, she lost it.

“Listen! Instead of muttering names at me, why don’t we settle this with skill?! A two on two pokemon battle!” Absolutely fuming, she was thankful that he had accepted her challenge so she did not have to beat him up the old fashioned way. Facing each other in the parking lot, she released Ekans into battle, glaring at the man across from her.

“Look Toots, I just want to get home and eat! Don’t go crying when I win,” he said in a malicious tone, releasing Growlithe into the parking lot arena they had made for themselves. Ekans was the first to attack with a well-placed Wrap attack, his purple body slithering around the dog pokemon and giving it a good squeeze. The Growlithe let out a rather surprised yelp as Ekans’ grip tightened, but after a moment, the dog pokemon took off in a run, slamming it’s body into the side of a parked car, Ekans caught between the two, which was enough for the snake pokemon to release Growlithe from it’s clutches.

“Alright Rex, Take down,” the man exclaimed, Growlithe taking off in a run towards Ekans once more, who was again alert and ready to battle. Adie grinned, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a confident fashion.

“Ekans! You know what to do. Glare attack,” she called out, Ekans catching the approaching Growlithe’s eye just in time. As the two make eye contact, Ekans let out a ferocious hiss, Growlithe literally stopping in its tracks, unable to move from the fear coursing through its body. Adelle’s eyes moved to the man standing before her, his expression priceless to her. He was shocked – shocked that his pokemon could lose to some little girl’s. Man, did he have another thing coming.

“Let’s finish this now. Ekans, poison sting attack!” With no movement standing between her pokemon and the dog before her, Ekans released a series of poisonous barbs from it’s mouth straight towards Growlithe, who could do nothing to protect itself. The barbs contacted the creature, the poison released into it’s body as Growlithe slumped to the ground, the annoyingly arrogant man before her forced to return it to it’s pokeball safely.

At first, he looked defeated…but then his expression turned to one of outright anger. In fact, it was enough of a dramatic change for a small shiver to go down Adelle’s spine. Letting out a frustrated yell, the man pulled a second pokemon from his belt, releasing it into the area. It was a Charmeleon…and it looked pissed.

“Ekans, come on back,” she said quickly, returning her pokemon to its pokeball before pulling Squirtle’s ball from her belt. Throwing it into the area, her turtle companion was released, looking at the Charmeleon like it was nothing to be afraid of.

“Char…use your Rage attack,” the man called out, a smug grin on his lips as his flame pokemon let out a bestial roar, taking off towards Squirtle like a pokemon on a mission. There was a dangerous glint in the creature’s eye, but it was not enough to deter Adie or her pokemon, who had proven themselves time and time again in these missions for Team Aqua.

“That’s it! Squirtle, pull out the big guns. Hydro Pump,” she yelled, throwing one arm forwards for dramatic emphasis, even if it didn’t need to be there. Sure, she was tired, reeked of soggy popcorn, and had just faced one of the toughest missions of her life in a grocery store, but that did not stop her from wanting to win this thing big. After all, adrenaline was an amazing thing for some people – Adelle was one of them.

As Squirtle withdrew into it’s shell, Charmeleon closed the distance between the two, sending a series of ferocious slashes and punches in Squirtle’s direction. However, they did nothing as his shell protected him from the worst of it. When the time was right, a last of water suddenly emitted from the shell, knocking the flame pokemon back into the man, who managed to catch it before they both tumbled to the ground.

Charmeleon was out for the count, and the anger on the old man’s face caused Adelle to back up slightly as he started to advance on her. However, he stopped, a low thudding sound coming from the forest surrounding the parking lot. Both Adelle and the man looked to the side, but by the time Adie turned around, the man was gone, literally carrying his fainted pokemon as he sprinted towards an orange car parked a few rows down. Hopefully that was his car, but she could not really understand why he was running so far.

“Squir! Squirtle,” she heard come from her companion as she felt his pulling on her leg, jumping up and down as he pointed to a small dust cloud quickly approaching the store. There, inside, Adelle saw one of the most beautiful, yet scary things she had seen in her entire life. It was a Snorlax…and it was hungry.

“Uhh…Squirtle, take the bags and go hide somewhere so it doesn’t get the food,” she said quickly, handing her turtle friend the two bags in her hands. Dutifully, the pokemon took off across the parking lot, hopefully keeping their purchases safe from this hungry pokemon approaching them at an alarming rate. If they lost that food, the rest of the team was going to be out of luck. There was no way she was going back in that store, no matter how angry everyone else was going to be at her.

“Dusksull, let’s get this going,” she said quickly, releasing her ghost pokemon into the field. Snorlax was almost on them now, and if she was going to keep it away from all this food, and therefore releasing all those hungry people onto the streets, she was going to have to take it down herself.

“Alright. Confuse Ray,” she called after a moment, Duskull releasing a beam of shadowed light towards the Snorlax. They had to wait for the opportune moment to strike with a pokemon this big, and as the lump of hunger stopped running, looking around with a comically cute, confused expression on it’s face, Adelle had a moment’s thought to let the creature go on it’s merry way. However, as the pokemon ran forwards, trying to slash through Duskull, but to no avail, Adelle was reminded just how dangerous this pokemon could be.

“Night Shade,” she called out quickly as the Snorlax went for another attack that luckily missed, Duskull went into action, inflicting a significant amount of damage to the confused garbage disposal. Now was the time to take this thing down so she could catch it herself.

“Will-o-wisp,” she said suddenly, a stream of fire emitting from Duskull that startled even herself as the Snorlax was inflicted with a burn that seemed to sap the fight right out of it. The pokemon did not faint, but instead fell back on the ground, causing everything around her to shake as it slipped back into slumber so it could recover from the battle. Grinning, Adelle took this as her chance, pulling an empty pokeball from her bag and throwing it at the sleeping pokemon.

One shake…

Two shakes…

Three shakes, and the Snorlax was now hers. Running forward to claim her new pokemon, Adelle could not help but express her excitement with a squeal of pure joy, jumping up in the air and flailing her arms about in what could only be described as some sort of interpretive dance.

Duskull seemed just as excited, flying around her in quick circles as Squirtle arrived on the scene once more, trying to balance the two bags with some difficulty. Attaching her new pokeball to her belt, she returned her pokemon to their pokeballs, though she left Duskull out for the walk back.

As the two started back towards the HQ, Adie had to laugh slightly, glad to be leaving this adventure behind. It was amazing to her how a simple trip to the market could turn into a nightmare.

“All in all, I guess it wasn’t so bad. Especially since we got a new member of the team, right,” she said towards Duskull, who nodded in agreement as much as a Duskull can nod. Laughing softly, the walk back with just as well as the walk there, which was a relief considering everything she had been through. Kicking the door to HQ open, she was greeting by the shocked expressions of some of the other Aquas. Adelle’s hair was matted, her clothes were disheveled, and she smelled of soggy popcorn. Not saying a word, she carried the bags towards the kitchen, handing them to the chef who gave her a quizzical look.

“If you think I’m telling you this story, you’re crazy,” she said, returning Duskull to it’s pokeball before she turned, heading for a shower.

[End Mission]

Cody slowly walked into the common room. Apparently he had missed something last night and he was pissed until something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. "MADDY!" he shouted. Aipom leaped from his shoulders and latched onto the side of Maddy's head hugging her tightly. "Easy Aipom. I know you're happy to see her but chill buddy. She's probably still sick. He hid the fact that he wanted to do the same thing. He was so excited to see her ok and out of the hospital wing. "You feeling ok?"

Cody couldn't hold it in any more. He was just way too excited to see her alive. Maybe he had a part in it. Or was it all Ginji? Either way... She was alive and standing in front of him. He tackled her to the ground and squeezed her tight. A tear ran down his face but he didn't care. His best friend was alive. Aipom was still hanging on to her head upside down on the floor. Cody finally realized that she probably wanted him to get off so he stood up and helped her up as well. "They'll be fine. They will be just as happy to see you as Aipom and I were."

Cody ran after her through the teleporter and appeared behind her on the beach. He grabbed her arm and got in front of her. "Things will be ok. I promise." He caught a tear before it fell from her face and wiped it away. "We're your family. We love you no matter what you do." He laughed making reference to Ginji. "Some more than others but we all love you no matter what."

"I would be more than happy to go with you," he smiled but realized that made it sound like a date. "Not as... ya know... a date or anything though," he reassured her. He took a pokeball from his belt and threw it into the air. His Shiny Flygon popped out and stretched his wings. "Goin on another TRP buddy. You ready?"