Welcome to Gaia! ::

"She was..." Sub said as he turned to face the meteorite Poe had moved for him. "But Reno had touched this rock prior, and opened her cell. She then tricked Reno and use the little bit of chi from the meteorite that was in him in order to pull off a teleport and escape. Just because she no longer had the power doesn't mean she forgot how to use it, unfortunately." He sighed.

Thankfully, Buizel's abilities activated just in time and he was able to get a Rain Dance out just after Sunny Day was activated and at the same time, coated himself from Water Sport. If any of those hadn't happened, well, they would be in deep trouble. "Double Team and Agility! Activate Aqua Ring and the biggest Surf you can get." By now, thanks to Swift Swim and Agility, the water Pokemon was nearly invisible despite not swimming at the moment. However, only seconds later when two massive walls of Surf came crashing on top of Buizel, he did disappear. "Echo Voice now!" Soon, Freya had to cover her ears as every copy of Buizel copied the order she had given him and it was bouncing off the walls, all hitting Nova's ears. Since they were larger and he wasn't in the water, it would have a bigger effect on him. Seeing this as a good moment to strike as the Pignite would most likely be distracted. "Now, all of you, wrap Whirlpool around a Scald!" Buizel and his copies had taken this chance to surround the pig and each of them fired off the combined attack from all directions. "Buizel, let's finish this!" She shouted."Bui Buizel!!" The Pokemon cried from above, the only escape option that Nove would possibly have as everything below him was water. "Tail Dive!" Buizel responded immediately, a wave of water surrounding him and his tail began whipping around. This would surely end this part of the battle.

Maia ran outside, a wide grin on her face! This was it! She'd get herself in the team, and use the resources to secretly ruin Chirp's life!! No... no wait. Maia stopped for a second and thought about it. Chirp had helped her, even knowing that Maia was after her. It was.. confusing. No matter. Right now, she had a mission to do! The first hurdle? Getting to Goldenrod.

Maia stood outside on one of the grassier parts of Mount Silver. Walking was out of the question, and Maia had no money! so it's not like she could get on a plane or a boat... Should she go back and ask that Claydol for help?

A sudden, loud screech above her caused Maia to look up. Soaring down towards her was a large bird with a boy on back. It was Hawk and One! The trainer came down and had his pokemon land next to her. He untucked his legs from around the bird, and dismounted. As he walked around, a hand gently ran across the Braviary as a 'thanks'. "So. You're that lookalike that Chirp was dragging around. Which means that you're also the lookalike that I mistook for Chirp that night."

"...Uhm... yeah." Maia said. She couldn't stop herself from blushing. This was the first time she'd talked to Hawk since coming to the HQ that first time. "So uh... I guess I should introduce myself. Even.. Even though you already know who I am! heh..." Maia tried her best to ease the tension with a joke, but.... it wasn't very effective.

Hawk stared at her, feeling betrayed and... a bit angry. This doppelganger had lied to him! He was usually a tolerant person, but if there was one thing he ironically couldn't stand, it would be lying. I mean, yeah, he lied to people, but not anyone that mattered. "What are you doing here?"

Maia's smile faded a bit. Why was Hawk acting this way? She couldn't remember him acting like this to Chirp! Then again.... she wasn't Chirp. She's Maia. She took a look at her feet for a second before bringing her gaze back to Hawk. "I'm taking the entry test thing." She said, the shyness being washed away by a renewed determination. "Trying to find a way to Goldenrod."

Hawk stared at her, his gaze softened a bit. He groaned and rubbed his temples. "One, take this girl to Goldenrod please." He sighed, walking passed Maia and towards the HQ. "I'll give you extra hunting time if you do."

Maia watched Hawk leave. Even when he was upset, he still couldn't deny that although she was a different person, she was still part Chirp. Well.. atleast Maia assumed that was what happened. Not wasting any time, Maia mounted the Braviary. The pokemon growled angrily, but took off all the same.


Maia yawned. The Braviary touched down infront of the Goldenrod pokemon center during the middle of the night. "Thank you, birdy." Maia whispered, petting the Braviary. One seemed thankful for the petting, but dumped Maia off regardless. Can't be seen enjoying being petted! It was unmanly. One looked around before taking off again to find a place to roost.

Maia picked herself off the ground. It was to be expected! The bird must have been tired. I mean, SHE was tired, and she had just been riding along. Maia took a quick glance around. This really was a big city. Even in the middle of the night, people were still walking around in big groups. Perfect for finding one of these gangs.

So, Maia put on her "defenseless" face and strode down the nearest alley, clutching herself as if she was just another lost tourist. The only problem was... she cleared the alley without a problem! No one was even there! This continued for a while. What was she doing wrong?!

Angry at not being attacked, Maia begain roaming around into shadier parts of town. Places where big burly men and women hung around entrances and on bikes! This was where she needed to be! Maia put her face back on and began walking around aimlessly.

She'd just passed a bunch of bikers when a sudden, gruff voice made her stop.

"Hey, you lost girly?" A man said. Maia couldn't help but grin evilly. She turned around with big, teary eyes and said:

"Yes! I.. I'm so lost and alone! I just don't know what to do!"

The man walked over to her, and smiled. He was wearing a leather vest, biker's pants and various spiked trinkets here and there. Not to mention he was covered in tattoos from head to toe. "I'd be glad to help you." he said. He.. sounded sincere.

"...You're not trying to hurt me, are you?" Maia said, half asking, half baiting him.

"..no? Why would I do that? Here, I'll give you directions to the pokemon center. This part of town isn't that great for tourists."

Maia groaned. "What does it take to get attacked by random street thugs around here?! Am I unattackable or something?!" She yelled at him. It was no fault of his, she was just fed up with walking around without any direction!

"you... want to be attacked?" He asked, raising an eyebrow... well, raising the part of his face where he would have had an eyebrow. "Uhm.. well if you're really that... masochistic, I think I saw some of those Charmander gang-bangers go that way. But uh... are you...like, ok? With the whole being alone thing? Are you some kind of sicko?"

Maia ignored the man's questions. She had an evil smile on her face as she tore down the street in the direction the biker had pointed out. It wasn't long before she saw them in the distance. Their pants sagging, shirts way too big, and their general demeanor. All signs that they were in a gang. Maia ran to them.

"Whatchoo want?" One said, looking at Maia as soon as she stopped.

"I never thought about it, but you gang members look a lot like Scraggy." Maia said, giggling. "You guys are those Charmander guys, right?"

"What?! WHAT?!" One of the boys shouted, stepping closer to Maia and looking down at her. He was the tallest of the group, but he obviously wasn't the strongest. He was lean, like a runner. "We ain't oneathem Charmanderps. We the Tepig Kings, Bit-"

That was all Maia needed to hear, and frankly, She knew that if he got that last word out, she'd end up killing him. So, a swift kick sailed between the boy's legs. It served to pull his pants up to their correct position and effectively take him out of the conflict. With the tallest reduced to a fetal-positioned crying husk, Maia smiled at the others. "Ok, so. Who's next?"

Two sped off instantly. Leaving three guys nervously backing away as Maia came closer. "I don't care who it is. Someone just battle me." Maia tried to be charismatic. She tried to put on a friendly smile, but after that display, none of them wanted anything to do with her. The smile faded. Her hand shot out and grabbed one of the boys by the shirt. "I SAID BATTLE ME, YOU PANSY." Maia shoved the boy down onto the ground and began kicking him. He kept protesting and crying out for help, but it really didn't do him much good.

"OK! OK! I'll battle! Jus' stop kickin him!" One of the other boys shouted. This got Maia's attention, and she stopped attacking. "Go! Tepig!" The young trainer released his pokemon, the Tepig oinking happily.

Maia's smile returned. With a small curtsy, Maia thanked him. "At least one of you have some common courtesy. Now, Wynaut, check this out!" Maia threw a pokeball out, releasing the always stoic Wynaut. Her pokemon smiled, and sat down. It had no intentions of really putting forth any effort into this. "OK, first, I'll let you know that your name is Jack! Ok, Jack! Uuuuuuse splash!"
Jack obeyed! The wynaut flopped over onto its side! It was so dramatic!

"...Uh.. ok! Tepig, use ember!" Tepig, as eager to battle as a bear is to nabbing honey, began spraying hot embers out of her nose in a large plume! The whole thing was... kinda gross to Maia. This pigthing was sneezing fire at Jack! ohright, the battle.

Jack the Wynaut stared at the oncoming plume of heat and flakes of fire. He.... really didn't want to be hit by that. But at the same time, what was the point in dodging? "Wyyyyyyyyy..." Jack sighed, an envelope of pink chi quickly washing over him. The Embers collided, bunching up and sticking to the pink aura! The aura briefly shimmered, as if it was shined metal reflecting the sunlight, and the ember went flying back at the Tepig, along with the metallic aura! Ohbaby it was Mirror coat! "(...ow...)" Jack 'naut'ed.

The Tepig was caught off guard by its attack suddenly coming back at her! The attack struck and carried the pig pokemon back a few feet. Maia cheered for her Wynaut, who received the praise with unwavering stoicism. The other trainer wasn't so pleased about this.

"Ok! Tepig, go and use Flame Charge." He commanded. Maia noticed that he took a second to look around. Everyone else, besides the few spectators enjoying the battle, had fled. He was alone! Even the other two had picked themselves up off the ground and gotten away! Was he going to be a martyr?!

"It's alright, Jack! Just do that thing again!" Maia cheered! However, Mirror move only worked on nonphysical attacks, so the girl found herself quite angry when Jack was knocked flying. The Wynaut didn't even try to dodge! This wasn't like with Finn, as the Silcoon actually could not move on its own. "Jaaaaack! Come on!" Maia shouted, watching her Wynaut be rolled around by the Flame charging Tepig. Jack didn't seem to be doing anything to stop it! All he was doing was rolling around, burping out little pink Chi hearts into the Tepig's face.

Unbeknownst to Maia, Jack's sense of self-preservation actually did exist. It just wasn't as visable as one would hope. While he was being pushed around, Finn was blasting the Tepig with Charm. The Attack lowering move used so much reduced the pig pokemon's Flame charge to a flashy, flaming version of agility. Yeah the tepig was faster, but it wasn't doing much damage at all. The only problem with this plan was that Jack wasn't returning any of this damage, so he ended up being rolled under a bench, knocked out.

Maia face palmed, returning her pokemon with her other hand.

"Wow, All yo big sh/t about 'battle me' and then you end up losing? That's... kinda lame." The gang trainer called. His Tepig sped over and came to a screeching halt in front of him, flaming trails burning the ground behind it.

Maia dug in her pocket. "I'm not done yet! Go! Finn! Use Harden!!" Ohyeah! Finn, her first and strongest pokemon! Which... didn't mean much, considering, but still! Her silcoon awoke on the pavement, and quickly flashed white! Ohyeah! Harden!

"Pfft, Girl, don'tchoo know that Fire type is good against Bug?"

"...I.. I know that...now..."

"Tepig, dump this loser with Flame Charge!" The trainer's Tepig tore off again, engulfed in flame. It was like watching a flaming bullet train take off from a station!

"Ack! Finn! Harden! Keep it up!!" Maia yelped. She might be in some serious stuff right here, folks! what would she do if she lost?! She could take a page out of Hawk's book and just kick the Tepig in the face or something...

Finn saw the incoming Tepig, and in the increasingly short time he had before impact, he dumped Chi onto his body, using Harden as much as he could before he felt the searing hot flames!!!! Well, more like... slightly above room temperature. The Tepig hitting Finn didn't even feel like he was being hit by anything strong. In fact, the move was so ineffective, The tepig might as well have made a small squeak once it hit.

Everyone stood around, wondering what had happened. The super Charmed Tepig, and the Hardened Silcoon had turned things to a point that the type differences barely mattered at all. Maia took advantage of the situation. "Now, Use Poison Sting!" She shouted!

Finn gurgled with a renewed confidence! He spat out a shot gun spray of long, poison Chi needles straight into the Tepig! Now the shoe was on the other foot! Finn was rolling the Tepig back to her trainer with a barrage of those needles! ohyeah! come on! get it gooooooood!

If this was some kind of Persona game, a bar would flash across the screen right now. The bar would have a close up of Maia's eyes and several exclamation points. One would hear Maia's voice saying something along the lines of "Now's My Chance!" or "Let's Do This!!" or heck, even "Time to get down to business!" Or, for those pokemon fans out there. This would be the time where Maia would turn her hat backwards, toss up a little pokeball, catch it, make it big and suddenly pull back into the "spinning colors" background anime like to use. Did I just make a whole paragraph describing visual elements for a text scene? Yes!

From Chirp's memories, Maia knew how to use the SNAG. A few buttons here, a twist there, and BAM. The empty pokeball was turned into a brand name Snag ball. "Here, we, GO!" Maia shouted, hurling the pokeball like a pro pitcher. The ball struck the Tepig, pulled it in and fell to the ground, wobbling.

The trainer stammered, and the crowds began murmuring. Maia knew she had to act fast! "See, kid, this is the reason why befriending wild pokemon isn't the same as catching them! You have to grow up and realize this!" She shouted, pretending that this whole thing was to prove to this hoodlum an important lesson. The older members of the crowd began nodding, and their nods caused some of the younger people to nod too. The Trainer was at a loss for words. He was sure the pokemon was his! How did--?!

Meanwhile, ignored by the shenanigans involving the Tepig, Finn's eye disappeared from the little silcoon hole in his silcoon shell. The silcoon shook a bit, a white flame spilling out of the hole. The flame seemed to spread across the top, due to a crack splitting the shell open! When the flames died down, a new pokemon pushed its way out of the silcoon remains! It was Finn! He was.. He was.... He was beautiful! The battle had caused Finn to evolve into a wonderful Beautifly! Finn called out with a warbling "beeeeeauuuuuuutifly-y-y-y!" He was just so happy!

Maia, of course, was too preoccupied to witness the evolution of her pokemon. She even ignored Finn's cry! The pokeball was shaking up a storm. This Tepig really was resisting! The pokeball was wobbling and shaking and bouncing around. It was like the ball was about to break open! The trainer stooped down and picked up the wobbling ball. Which was a mistake on his part. "HEY." Maia shouted, sprinting over and tackling him. She knocked him to the ground, the two of them wrestling for the still shaking pokeball.

The guy pushed Maia off of him and shot to his feet, raising the ball high over his head. "HA! Looks like I win."

Maia got up too, frowning. She looked up at the pokeball, then at the thug's smug face. "return." Was all she said, holding out her hand.

The thug seemed confused, but when an unseen force snatched the ball from his hand and sent it whirling into Maia's his nightmare had become a reality. He'd lost his pokemon! Scared and confused, he took off running.
Maia looked at the pokeball proudly. The mission was complete, so there was no use in sticking around. She shrank the pokeball down and tucked it into her pocket. She got Finn's ball and pointed it at the Silcoon.... wait, why was it all split open like that?

Maia shook off her moment of derpitude. There was a wet-winged beautifly sitting ontop of the old silk wrappings. It happened to be looking up at her expectantly. "Finn? You evolved?" She asked, rather concerned. "Well, bug types do typically grow faster than the other types... I guess." So she returned Finn and tucked away his pokeball too. With all her pokemon rounded up, Maia turned and began jogging away to find a safe place to call in Claydol.

Successfully fending off Buizel's attack, Nova was feeling pretty good even though he was kneeling now. Unfortunately, Buizel was still running about, ducking out of the collision at the last minute. "Pig, Pignite!" he huffed a little frustrated. And all the weasel was doing was amplifying his speed as if he wasn't fast enough. Wait, did Freya just call him flaming bacon? "Nite, Nite? Pignite?" he teared up a bit. The pig too offense to that and what's more, more Waterfalls. Surrounded, Nova didn't know where to look and the splashes of water were only making him nervous. "Spin and Smog then duck!" Dan instructed. Doing a quick twirl, the pig breathed his poisonous smoke before ducking down when the water attack would collide in the center. His smoke cloud looking tail was the only thing that stuck above, being splashed by a bit of water. Before he was ducking, now he was cowering. Dan could see things did not look good and began to think of a way to counter this speed. "Hang in their Nova. I believe in you!" he shouted. If anything, he didn't want the Pignite to think he'd given up on him or this battle. And it was then that a faint glow could be seen on Nova. Just what was that?

Nova gasped as he found himself being surrounded in every direction by water. No! Not...Not like this! The Pignite surrounded himself in fire, performing one last Flame Charge. He dashed straight through one of the walls of water and headed in Dan's direction. After he declared he safe from drowning, the Pignite fell on his back and called it quits. Kneeling down and rubbing his stomach, Dan smiled "Good job Nova. You gave it your all." The trainer then proceeded to return him for a good long rest.

Now the question was, who to battle next? That's when Rain would tug on his pant leg and point to one of the pokeballs on Dan's belt. "What? Oh right. You haven't met him yet. Yeah, still working on his ability to follow directions" Dan explained to the otter. Immediately, Shark came to Rain's mind but he wasn't in the pokeball he pointed out. Instead, he'd use- "Electra!" Dan shouted, sending the tiny mouse out. The moment she emerged, the Pichu attacked Rain, pounding on his head. Funny thing was, Pichu don't learn Pound. "Knock it off. I want you to battle please" he requested. She nodded, detaching herself from the Dewott and entering the field. Later...he'd get his.

With Eevee's appearance on the field, Electra got all huffy. Apparently she wanted to fight Buizel instead. "You can win without the type advantage you know?" But she wasn't hearing that. Buizel were the closest thing to Dewott and she could just imagine it was Rain. But if she had to battle Eevee, so be it. "Let's start with a little Charm and follow up with Thunder Wave on the ground" Dan instructed. Clasping her paws together, the tiny mouse gave the sweetest and cutest face to lower Eevee's attack. Could she really attack something so cute with all her might. Dipping her paw into the denched ground, the paralyzing current would conduct with the water, which was everywhere thanks to Buizel.

"Double Team and Nasty Plot. And then...Thunder Spin!" Dan shouted before taking cover. With multiple copies combined with her speed, Electra easily dodged the Mud Slap. Then she get a slightly sinister look on her face as she used Nasty Plot. Dan swore she used this on the regular. Now the reason why the silver haired teen took cover would become evident as Electra began to spin while using Thunderbolt. It was like an electric vortex surrounding the mouse, destroying the stars that threatened to harm her. The only problem was that stray bolts of lightning would sometimes go astray. What's more, all this rotating eletricity could be fire to create something on the level of Thunder. And now this energy would be launched at Eevee. The only other problem with this move is that it drained a lot of energy from her, only being a Pichu and all.

Since Eevee dug for cover, Electra was give a quick moments rest. "Use Grass Knot to trap her and send down a Thunder!" Dan instructed, picking himself back up. Within the hole, long blades of grass would attempt to catch Eevee and keep her from escaping. Then Electra would raise her arms above her head as a large bolt of lightning was sent down into the hole. Right now the Pichu was panting. This would be so much easier if she were a Pikachu like...him.