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"Well, of course. People do call me the Pokemon Expert after all" he laughed. "Now how about you get cleaned up, Tracy can show you the way to the baths, and by then the food should be on the table." Professor Oak turned his head back down the way he had come from. "TRACY! Show our guest to the baths please!" he hollered into the house. "Now ... I guess I should go and make sure there will be enough to eat for us all ..."

Akane was left standing there as Professor Oak wandered back the way he came from, rubbing his head as he did so. After a few minutes, a small pink blur rocketed across the floor towards her, followed closely by an older boy with straight dark hair held back with a red bandana, bangs framing a somewhat handsome face. Looking down, the small pink blur turned out to be a small kitten Pokemon that was presently circling Akanes legs still at speed.

"Oh, wow," Whitney said, gazing up to a Jigglypuff-shaped clock on the wall and noticing it was past eleven o'clock, "I didn't realize it was that late... I think I'm gonna head off to bed for tonight." Nina acknowledged this with a little nod. "All right. Night, Whitney."

She watched her sister head off towards the dormitory before looking back to Raimundo, Anna hovering nearby. "I didn't know it was that late either," she stated. "We should probably think about going to sleep soon, too." Rai nodded a little bit. "Yeah. It'd be nice to be able to get out of here early, you know?" He paused. "What did you plan on doing tomorrow, Nina?"

"Well," she replied, "I think I want to go back to Olivine and finish up my battle with Jasmine. I've had quite a bit of time to think up a strategy to use, so I'd like to enact it."
"Oh really? What's your startegy?"
Nina chuckled, getting up from her seat and heading toward the dormitory as well.

"Not to lose."

She opened the door and walked inside, able to hear Raimundo and Anna trailing close behind.

"So, tell me Nina. What did you say this boy's name was?" The girl chuckled. "I already told you, you idiot. It's Raimundo. You remember him, don't you? We met him back when I went to challenge Morty."

The psychic's face lit up a little. "Shut up," she replied, "the really cute one? Are you serious?!" Nina laughed. "Yeah! I can't believe it either... Somehow I've managed to keep myself composed enough so that he wants to travel with me. And that's not even the best part! He actually... you know... kissed me."

"Oh my god! Are you serious?! Did Kilik find out? Is he mad?" Nina rolled her eyes. "No, and no. I'm done with that boy." She crossed her arms. "Wait. Why? What's wrong, Nina?"

The girl sighed. "That idiot used to be involved with Team Rocket, as you know. After he had left the team, he'd said he wouldn't go back... Yet, when Maorde Menskr turned up, he resorted to going back to Giovanni for help, to try to bring the Slayer down. I felt... I don't know. Betrayed."
"If he went back to that man, Nina, I'm sure it wasn't because he wanted to. He just knew that Giovanni was a very powerful man, and he seems to be a worthy adversary to Maorde."

"That's not the point, Sabrina! Saying that I was feeling betrayed doesn't even come close to what I felt at the time. I can't even explain it... Turning to the man who was, in essence, responsible for your death for help? That gave me the impression that he believed I wasn't a capable trainer of taking that man down. I just-- I don't know."

"Well... You don't need to worry about Maorde," Sabrina said knowingly. "You'll get him. I promise that you will, okay?" Nina nodded a little bit, and smiled.

Then, the dream slowly started to fade.

Kilik stepped through the Pokemon Center's electronic door, followed closely by his two companions. He walked to the front desk, unclipping his entire party from his belt and placing them into the tray. Although Sudowoodo, Lombre, and Elekid didn't battle, what was the harm in giving them a slight check up? When Nurse Joy had taken both Kilik and Rena's trays, the two trainers headed over to the couches where Mazarin had already situated himself. Taking a seat on the couch opposite his friend, Kilik let out an exhausted sigh as he fell. "Man, talk about tired..." he whispered.

Rena took her seat beside him, straightening the ends of her dress. "What'd you do?" she asked him, with a soft tilt of her head.

Kilik looked over at her and then locked his fingers together. He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. Rena rested her head on his shoulder while he spoke. "Well, let's see..." he thought for a minute, "I challenged Nina to a Gym Battle and won. Then came here to challenge Bugsy and Morty, beat them both. Three Gym Battles, plus that thing against Dramon." He closed his eyes. That seemed about it. He felt a piece of paper hit him in the face.

Mazarin laughed. "Don't be so modest, Kilik-Mi-Boy!" he reached a hand out and patted Kilik's knee a few times, "I saw that report! You were going toe to toe with Mayday Moreskates." He paused then mouthed the name a few times before laughing, "I mean, Maorde Menskr. Yeah, that dude."

This receieved a gasp from Rena and she clutched Kilik's jacket. "You what?" she whispered harshly, "You seem alright! How'd you escape!?"

The boy sighed and shot a dirty glare over at Mazarin. "It was nothing special. I passed out, actually. After that, I came here to Johto. Nothing in between," he lied. He really didn't want to tell Rena about the deal he had made with Giovanni. She had come so far since quitting Team Rocket and had always pinned blame on the Rocket head. If she were to hear about his deal, would she react the same way as Nina? Best to keep his mouth shut.

Nitro's warm body made for a relaxing rest of the trip, Mike nodding off to sleep several times mid-flight. Even though he was hundreds of feet in the air, the boy felt just as safe as if he was on his two feet, securely on the ground. The wind had calmed down, the only sound playing was the Charizard's wings slicing swiftly through the air. After another long flight, Mike was stirred awake by one of Nitro's trademark landings. Oddly enough, he was still in one piece, and not covered head to toe in dirt. The only odd thing was he felt the desire to land on the Lavaridge Town Gym roof! "Well, at least it's not a total loss." Mike took a deep breath, inhaling all the fresh volcanic air. It was so good to be back. The boy finished his nostalgic nose workout, reminding himself where he was. "The Gym," he said to himself, thinking back once more to the earth shattering fight between him and his girlfriend.

Girlfriend, it felt almost weird to even think of her with that title. Sometimes he let himself believe that the entire after math of the fight was just some horrid dream conjured up by Milo. Speaking of him, he kinda missed the twerp.

Deciding not to pay it any more thought, Mike walked over to Nitro, who was already curled into a sort of ball like pose. His eyes were gently shut, glad to have a long break. Squeezing himself in between the dragon's arms, Mike fell fast asleep in Nitro's secure grip.

After a long time of rolling over in her attempted sleep Linalee couldn't fight of the insomnia and decided a little travelling wouldn't hurt her anymore than it had already. Besides the moon was quite full and there was plenty of light. Ditching the sticks she rode on in the direction she hoped was north. Through the trees she managed to find the wall once more. Going along it westward she found that it indeed had a corner.

After a little more manuvering she was near a house with a rather steep ledge that lead right down into Cerulean. But further away she noted a strange tree and fence and so it would seem, another trainer out with his.. Meowth was it? Deciding that one could meet interesting people at odd hours of the night Linalee managed to strive over to the fence. Noting the tree, she released Cagomarg to dispatch it with an ember attack. It was quite effective.

"HEY YOU!" She shouted running up to the figure. Seeing that it was a young man of possibly a little younger age. He had lovely dark brown hair and blended in with the night in his black outfit.

Before retiring for the night, Kasiya handed over each and every one of her Pokemon, rather glad that they'd each had a rather healthy workout that day. "Everyone is doing so well, I'm proud of them," she smiled happily, taking one of the empty rooms and changing into her long, pale green nightgown. She sorted through her things, placing them on the table next to her but pausing when she came to her PokeNav. "Two new messages?" she blinked, sitting on the bed and flipping it open. The newest one was from Mike, which she was actually rather relieved to see. "Good, now I know where he is. Vaguely, at least." She thought about replying to it, but changed her mind, as her curiosity was geared towards the next message, and she also knew that her good friend could easily take care of himself.

She froze for a moment before reading the new message, feeling her heart skip a beat when she saw the name of the next sender. She took a deep breath as she read the message, but was soon smiling. "Well, it wasn't a phone call, but an apology is an apology in my book." She hit the 'reply' button, and went to work writing out her message.

Keegan;
First of all, you're wrong. You're not the last person I wanted to hear from. Secondly, I should apologize too, because I didn't have to start yelling and calling you all those stupid things. I'm sorry. T__T
And yes, chocolate fries sounds great. Maybe we can meet up at the beach party in Slateport on the 1st of July.
From: Kasi
PS: I'm in Fuchsia City and I'm going to try for my fifth badge tomorrow! =)

When she was happy with it, she hit 'send', placing the device on the table next to the bed. She watched it for a moment or two, hoping that wherever he was he would reply soon, or even call, but she soon found herself slowly succumbing to sleep, even though she'd napped not too long ago. She climbed into bed, enjoying the feeling of fresh, clean sheets against her skin, and turned off the light, and was soon fast asleep.

"Big mistake, the water is our dominion," Misty grinned, taking a step forward. With a flick of her wrist, she gave her next command. "Staryu! Water Pulse! Give it all you've got!" she called, her blue eyes scanning the surface of the water for her Pokemon's location.

Staryu heard the command loud and clear, and it shot through the water as easily as a Pidgeot in the sky. Once again it took aim at Shining, its core glowing blue as the pulsating blast of water was shot forward at the Eevee.