Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cody stepped out of the elevator with Ike, Flygon's pokeball still in hand. "I'm guessing I should be ready for anything, just in case this guy fails?" he asked Ike, watching the battle intently. The trainer had serious skill, but was it enough to defeat this guy?

Cody quickly released the waiting pokemon. The grunt sent out a Weavile first, using Ice Shard to deal serious damage to Flygon. The pokemon returned the attack with a critical Brick Break, almost KOing his opposition. A final Ice Fang sealed this battle's fate and Cody was forced to return Flygon. It was the first time his friend had fainted but he wouldn't let it effect him.

Feraligatr was next. The pokemon was immediately relaeased and let out a roar that echoed loudly throughout the room. Weavile started again with Night Slash, causing Feraligatr to roar again in pain. The Water Type quickly returned with a devastating Brick Break that disfigured the Weavile's face and sent him flying through a window.

The Grunt sent out Tyranitar, hoping to avenge the fallen Weavile. The foe's Sand Stream quickly whipped up a Sandstorm. Feraligatr started this one off right with Water Pulse, sending Tyranitar into an immedite daze. The pokemon was able to attack with Payback, dealing a superior amount of damage to the already hurt Feraligatr, knocking it down and almost KOing the pokemon. Feraligatr managed to stand up and charge at the foe, lifting it off the ground and pushing it through the wall, finally slamming it on the ground with Superpower. The Tyranitar was KOed but the Sandstorm took its final effect and depleted the rest of Feraligatr's Hit Points.

Both Trainers sent out another pokemon. Cody's Weavile came out, happy to finally be able to battle again and the Grunt sent out a Walrein. Weavile started things off with a Swords Dance, raising his attack stat at least two stages. Walrein hobbled over to Weavile and bit down hard with Ice Fang, not doing much damage. Weavile was able to take advantage of this by uppercutting the Walrein with Brick Break, knocking it back several feet. The opposition hit Weavile hard with Frustraition. The lack of respect from its trainer was obvious, due to the damage Weavile took from this hit. Weavile returned the attack with a final Giga Impact, ending it completely. Both trainers returned their pokemon.

"Pathetic. Take better care of your pokemon. That's part of the reason you lost. Your pokmon have no respect for you," Cody simply stated the obvious to the Grunt and returned to his team.

The grunt facing Ike seemed a little more confident than the average grunt, despite what Ike saw earlier. The grunt called out a Tyranitar right off the bat. Ike suddenly knew why. Lucario ran in front of Ike, ready for the battle.
"We have the upper hand in the one Luc." Ike said. "Aura Sphere!"
Lucario quickly formed a bright blue ball of aura and fired it upon the Tyranitar. The hit created a strong explosion and hurt the foe drastically.
"Tyranitar, Earthquake!" ordered the grunt. the building began to shake as the force of the earthquake struck Lucario and dealt a powerful blow. Lucario got back to his feet and stared down the worth foe.
"Go with Metal Claw!" said Ike. Lucario went into a sprint despite his damage as his paws shined a bright white. He then struck Tyranitar with a mighty punch, sending the heavy pokemon flying on it's back. Lucario landed, panting.
"Return Tyranitar, go Tyranitar! heh." said the grunt, not caring too much about his circumstances. Lucario leapt back to his side of the field, giving the new foe a disturbing look.
"Ike... this pokemon's aura... it's not right." Lucario spoke back to Ike. The grunt ahead of them chuckled lightly.
"Tyranitar, Shadow Blast!" demanded the grunt. Ike was taken back. It's a shadow pokemon! But there was no way he could of told that it was. This was scary.
The Tyranitar opened its mouth and fired a blast of shadow energy at Lucario, hitting him with the shadow attack. Lucario staggered, feeling weird.
"Hang in there Lucario! Use Close Combat!" he said to his partner. Lucario looked back up at the new Tyranitar with a strange sense of hatred. He wasn't himself.
Lucario rushed at the Tyranitar and began delivering blow after blow, hit after hit, strike after strike. Now Ike was beginning to worry. This wasn't the same Lucario from a few attack before.
The attack didn't stop. Lucario kept going in a fit of rage. The Tyranitar did the best it could to defend itself, but was taking a major beat down.
The Tyranitar fell from a 1HKO, not being able to take such damage. Even though the pokemon had fainted, Lucario kept going at it, showing no signs of stopping.
"Lucario!" yelled Ike.
No response.
"Lucario! That's enough!" yelled Ike
Lucario finally got it and jumped backward. It was trying to hide signs of fatigue, as if trying to present a more tougher self. This wasn't Lucario at all.
"Return, Lucario!" called Ike, returning his partner to his ball. The grunt mearly stood there and laughed.
"What did you do!?" Ike cried out. The grunt just called out his next pokemon, a Quagsire.
Ike called out Scizor.
"What, Lucario couldn't handle this all by himself?" Scizor smirked obnoxiously. Ike pointed out to his foe.
"Scizor, we have to stop this guy. Use Furry Cutter!" Ike said.
"Fine." said Scizor. The red pokemon looked over at the Quagsire and with a burst of speed, flew over and began slicing at it with his claws. One slice. Two. Three. Four. Finally Quagsire broke free of the attack and retaliated with Muddy Water as demanded of its trainer. Scizor was shot back with a torrent of brown water, but landed on two feet with style.
"Night Slash!" Ike called out to Scizor. Scizor rolled his eyes from the lack of a small breather and zoomed at the Quagsire once more, striking it hard with a glowing claw. The quagsire took the hit and got back to its feet, looking beat.
"Suck it up!" demanded the grunt. "Use Mud Bomb!"
Quagsire opened its mouth and fired blobs of mud at Scizor which exploded on impact. Scizor defended hiself by crossing his claws.
"One more move Scizor!" Ike called out. "Razor Wind!"
Scizor jumped into the air and flapped his wings at the Quagsire violently. The sharp edges of the wind send the foe flying backward, finishing it off.
The grunt returned his pokemon and ran away, having the last laugh.

"That dude's nuts." said Scizor, flying back near Ike. "All these guys are."
Ike agreed. Something was wrong with Lucario. He didn't like this one bit.

Cody stuck out his hand. "Luke huh?" he chuckled. "Nice battling. Very impressive indeed. Name's Cody by the way."

Dante stared at Maddy. "And here I thought we'd have to come looking for you."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's just go back." Maddy crossed her arms, impatiently. She was doing a good job hiding her nervousness.
Dante crossed his arms as well and eyed her queerly. "What makes you think we still trust you?"
Maddy's left fist lit up with purple flame. "Are you forgetting? I'm still Leader. I've had to pretend to come back to these people because I knew they'd lead me back to Shadow somehow. And they did."
Dante shrugged. "Fine! Let's just get out of here."
Maddy disappeared through a dark portal, along with Dante.

Maddy exited her room. It was weird being here while she was in her right mind. She passed a couple grunts as she made her way through the hallways. She glared at him, causing them to make their way along at a considerably faster pace. Once they were out of sight, she turned down another corridor. She opened the door at the end of the corridor and found herself standing in the middle of a sand tunnel. She whistled softly, and there was the sound of falling sand as a Spearow flew down into the tunnel from somewhere up above. Kale had a letter clutched in his beak. She took the letter and quickly replaced it with another one that read:

Ike,

Everything's going smoothly so far. They seem to trust me again. I'm going to try and get a pure sample of the virus and figure out where they'll be striking next with the Cannon. We should use Kale to send the jist of our messages back and forth, but if something urgent comes up then use the TADS. I'm still not sure if the signals can pass through undetected.

Maddy

She watched as Kale flew off with the letter, headed towards Aquos Island. She headed back inside, stuffing her father's letter into her pocket.

Kiara walked in after Sammy on glameow's feet, watching her dive under the couch. She silently took a seat behind Sammy and wondered how long it would take for her to notice the other.

Kiara nodded back and waved as Squirt came in, acknowledging the small squirtle, and continued to watch Sammy amusedly, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. Her eyebrows raised at the song, but she continued to make no noise.