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Kilik tilted his head when Mike had somehow made it to the rock before he had. What in the world? How'd he do that? He watched as his partner moved out into the open and confronted the two Aqua grunts. He snickered at the exchange of words and then peeked to see what was going on. He paused then pulled his bag around his body, digging around inside for something. Did he still have it? He bit his lip. It would be quite entertaining if he did.

And sure enough, there it was. He removed the red 'R' pin from his bag and placed it on his chest, puffing it out so it gleamed in the sunlight. "Don't think he's alone, either!" Kilik called out, running from behind the rock with a Pokeball in his hand, "We're gonna get in, and thrashing you punks will be a fun way to start it!" With a flick of the wrist, the ball was sent flying.

Elekid burst from the sphere, his fists clenched tightly. Electricity sparked at the tips of his fingers. "Ele!" he dug his foot into the sand and glared as his two opponents. Why in the world would his trainer make him fight two at once? He wasn't near as skilled as say...Scizor. Then he looked around and froze in place. That stupid Magby was here! But he was standing beside him, not on the opposite side.

No. Kilik did not just make him partner up with Napalm. He growled and turned his attention towards the Carvanha.

It would be her first time to fly on a Pokemon, and as the Tropius started rather slowly, she would find it a rather pleasant, refreshing experience. Rather than panicking as the ground got smaller and smaller, she was rather awed to think that she had been down there just minutes ago, hardly an inch tall herself. The world was vast, she thought, as she squinted towards the horizon; this made her realize how minuscule she was, as a single person. Her life revolved around herself, naturally, as her own mind was her point of view, but the world revolved on much greater things than that. It was humbling and breath-taking at the same time.

Finally, the ascent ended, and the Tropius plowed steadily ahead through the air, his neck pumping up and down rhythmically to accommodate his flapping. How much power it had to use to keep itself flying such a distance was mystifying to Mary-Anne, who gripped her brother's shoulder for a moment to adjust herself. Michael turned around, cool wind whipping his relatively long hair into his eyes. "How ya doing, sis?" Fine, the girl answered, grinning with glee shining in her eyes. Of course she'd be. Bugs, she was terrified of. . . but other than that, the girl grown up with a handful good tomboyish traits, including a taste for adventure and light mischief, under his own jurisdiction of course. As much as he teased M.A., he and she both knew that he adored her to the bone. "So how's your journey been so far? I want to hear about it! You haven't called me as much as you promised me you would have," he said, giving her a mock grimace of pain. "Oh! And you've got three balls on that belt!"

"It's been so great! I've met so many great people. . . made a couple of new friends, too. Mitsu, Kilik, and Ky, my travellin' buddy. I bet you'd like them, Michael. And Daemyn's grown so much too, just wait until you see him. We've gotten reeeeeaally close now. . . I'm really happy. And there's two others now too! Ulani and Tora, a Swablu and a Phanpy. They're all really cool. . . Traveling around like this, I feel like I could be high on life," she said, laughing with careless innocence. Now she could understand why a younger Michael had left home and visited only once in a while -- as much as she missed her family, the world just seemed so huge, and she wanted to see as much as it and experience everything she could.

The young man smiled, a little wave of emotion rushing through his chest. Pride, joy, peace. . . His little sister was growing up so fast. It used to be that he'd come home and see her grinning as she ran to him. . . Now, it'd be him who greeted her when she came home. As long as he knew that she was safe, though, he'd be alright with it. After all, she'd find herself out there, like he had. "What a dork," he said at her enthusiasm, shaking his head -- though he was unable to shake off his smile, too.

There was a little chit-chat after that, but eventually the fly became more monotonous than interesting and M.A. fell asleep, nearly slipping off the banana-dinosaur as she did so (and nearly giving Michael a premature heart attack).

A quiet humming seemed to come from the Pokeball as Jaeshan clicked it open, and a strange Pokemon took shape in front of him, dozens of glittering silver and gold stars exploding like fireworks. It was silver in colour, and not very large, and in fact was shaped not unlike a metallic arm. Gold claws gleamed from one end, while the other sported a single red eye. It stared lazily in front of it before slowly turning to face Jaeshan. It's lone eye widened frightfully when it realized it didn't recognize the strange boy, and it dove for cover, although it's attempt was thwarted by the fact that it had tried to hide under the beanbag chair Jaeshan was sitting in and bounced off rather comically.

"Whoa, it's a Beldum!" he exclaimed with a slight chuckle, watching the Steel/Psychic mix try to find some place to hide. "It's all right, I'm not gonna hurt you," he told it gently while thinking, Yeah, like I could... it's made of metal! The Beldum floated up slowly, taking in Jaeshan bit by bit before it rose up to eye-level with the human. "That's right. Remember me? We met a long time ago," he said, maintaining the gentle demeanor. He knew full-well what a Beldum could eventually become, and it hadn't even occurred to him yet that it was differently coloured than normal Beldum were. Deep in thought, the Beldum made a nodding motion, as though it did manage to find a memory of the blond boy somewhere deep within its mind. Then again, it had spent a lot of time away from other people, and it didn't even like being around other Pokemon. "Ryka told me to take good care of you," he explained, reaching towards the easily startled Beldum, who shied away at first but hesitantly accepted the gesture of affection, "and I plan to do just that. I'll take very good care of you, and I hope we can get to be good friends some day."

((No not really... either colour is fine to me. *shrugs* ))
"Report," Mai barked, entering the surveillance office with an air of superiority, making her presence known as the door banged shut behind her. Her slender hands were barely visible from the sleeves of her long jacket as she stared down her nose at the Rocket at the desk fumbling to get his report in order.

"Y-yes, Ma'am," he stammered, clicking away hurriedly at the computer keyboard before bringing up a file on screen. There were several paragraphs of text, along with several photos from the Rocket's many surveillance cameras located around the various regions. "Kilik and M-mike were sp-spotted in Lilycove only a short while ago, and our agent confirms that the two b-boys are headed into the headquarters of Team Aqua for unknown reasons." He clicked the mouse a few times and brought up a very recent time-lapse photo of Kilik hiding behind a rock, right in front of the entrance to Team Aqua's hideout. The next photo showed Mike in all his Team Magma glory, Pokeball in hand as he appeared to be shouting at the two Aqua grunts guarding the doors.

"What on earth are they doing messing with those morons?" Mai asked, touching her finger to her chin and studying the photo closely. "And why is Mike dressed like one of those Magma fools?"

"We don't know, Ma'am," the other Rocket in charge of surveillance piped up. "It appears that the two of them are on some sort of rescue mission, and they're using guises from other teams to intimidate the members of Aqua - look here. In this photo, Kilik has donned the Team Rocket crest as well, but for no other reasons other than to try and use intimidation tactics," he said, shrugging. "He is no longer a part of this organization."

"Foolish," Mai said, shaking her head. But where did Mike get a Team Magma uniform like that? It looks a lot more complex than the outfits of the run-of-the-mill grunts... She shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "And the others?"

"Well Ma'am, it seems that Nina has vanished, as no one has seen her in several days. We don't know if it could be that Maorde person or what, but her whereabouts are currently unknown." He scrolled down the report a little more and cleared his throat. "And as for your sister-"

"Do not call her that," Mai snapped, her hand snaking out from under her sleeve and clutching the Rocket's throat so fast that it had been nearly impossible to see. "That good-for-nothing brat is related by blood, but she means about as much to me as you do. Understand?" Her hand squeezed the man's throat a little tighter, and he made a strange gurgling sound and nodded his head quickly in what easily could be determined as a 'yes.'

((Yay, I'm back again. For real this time? Hopefully.))

Mag managed to hike up into the mountians of Four Island. It was here that he had been training his pokemon for a relatively large amount of time. But the training wasn't over yet. It was good that his family had a small cabin that Mag was using as a home base for his training. It had been one of his favorite places to play as a child and he would often take some of his grandparent's pokemon up with him. Once he had obtained Sunfire he had trained him in the area.

Mag got up from the cot that was strung out between the trees near the cabin. He had taken a quick breather, it was a long hike up from the stream/pond where he had been training with Tsunami. But she wasn't in need of training as much as his two new recruits, Shining and Shadow. He released the brother and sister Eevee out of their pokeballs.

"Okay you two. We're going to do some speed training. You've both got pretty good accuracy on your own, but I'm going to try to make you better at hitting and moving quickly." The two pokemon nodded as they watched Mag with their large black eyes. Mag went over to the storage bin that was attached to the side of the cabin and pulled out some collapseable easle type stands that had targets painted on their soft cushioned surfaces. "So I'm going to set these up in a circle and you two will take turns using quick attack to hit them all. We'll start out with them being close together. Try to hit them with just one quick attack if you can. The longer you can maintain your quick attack the better off you'll be in a battle when you might have to stop your attack and get out of range of the enemy." Mag instructed as he positioned the signs in a pattern that was basically a line.

Kilik clenched his fist. This was going to be cake. He had a few run ins with Carvanha before. One time, on a fishing trip in the water close to Mauville, his dad pulled up a large Carvanha. He was little at the time, so it looked big anyway. And while I think about him... Kilik blinked, where is my dad? The boy looked up at the sky and placed a hand on his chin very nonchalantly.

"Gr...Enough standin' around, you Rocket punk!" the second Aqua grunt barked, "If you're gonna fight me, at least pay attention! Maybe this'll snap you into reality!" he swung a beefy arm and pointed at Elekid, "Use Bite!" The fish, who had adapted to fighting out of the water, used the moisture of the air to create a jetstream of water to propel him forward. The fish's jaws opened wide and aimed straight for Elekid.

Kilik blinked and looked down to pay attention to the fight. "Oh, we're fighting now?" he laughed, swinging his arm, "Alright then! Elekid, dodge and attack with Shock Wave!" The plug jumped to the side, dodging the predator's attack almost completely. The teeth of his foe still managed to slice lightly against his body. Angry at the attack (and the idea of still working with that dunderhead of a Fire-type), Elekid released all the pent up energy he had been storing in his Shock Wave.

He didn't hear the Supersonic over the sound of the crackling electricity, or the wail of the Aqua grunt when he noticed his Carvanha having difficulty getting back up. However, the Shock Wave wasn't enough to completely knock him out. Kilik clicked his tongue. "D'oh shoot. And here I was hoping we could get this out of the way quickly." He placed his hands on his hips and sighed.

"Put him down, Mai," his cool voice carried through the room. He glanced up at the monitor, glaring at all the pictures that had been taken. Specifically, the ones with Mike and Kilik. "Those two...they pop up everywhere, don't they?" His voice seemed calm, which was abnormal whenever talking about either one of the boys. His hands were clasped behind his back as he stood next to the Admin.

"Of course, Mike's outfit does intrigue me," he cooed, "I never thought he'd don the outfit again. I tell you..." Giovanni chuckled darkly, "Maxie and I pick our trainers so young. In fact, I believe Mike was the same age as Kilik when he was recruited to Team Magma..." he ran his fingers over the console and zoomed in on the image of Kilik's chest, glaring at the Team Rocket insignia on his breast.

"It's good to know our friend here hasn't forgotten about us, either," Giovanni let out a light laugh. The abnormal behavior he was exhibiting was almost frightening. Not in a 'let me cower' sort of way, but in an 'are you alright?' sort of way. "Busting headstrong into an organization's base...just like when I first met him. Kilik hasn't changed at all, save for a thicker head." The boss tapped his head with a ringed finger and smirked, rubbing his temple slightly.

"These children never cease to amaze me. As you were saying," he glared at the man with his cold eyes, "What about Mai's sister?" A sneer appeared on his lips.

Upon hearing his battle partner's jab Napalm shot a glare so venomous at the Elekid Mike was certain lasers would fly out. That's it. He stood up, giving his head a hard shake, wearing off the confusion effect. "Let's try a Faint Attack once more." he heard his trainer shout. Determined, the Magby jumped up and vanished, a faint outline of him blowing away in the oceanic breeze. Mere seconds later the Fire Pokemon appeared in front of the Zubat, who jerked back in surprise of the disappearing Pokemon, but was unable to dodge Napalm's attack. The Magby threw his arm violently, grabbing one of the Zubat's wings and throwing him down to the ground a second time. It made a slight 'piff' sound as it crashed into the sand.

Mike cheered, once again impressed by Napalm's intuitive attacks. "You rock Napalm!" He pumped his fist in the air, his Pokemon doing the same.

"Agh!" The Aqua Grunt swallowed fearfully. "I can't believe we lost," He recoiled, motioning for his partner. "We gotta tell the boss!" The two men ran off into the cave, leaving the door open in their panic.

"You know Kilik," Mike placed his hands on his hips in a state of genuine confusion. "I don't know why when someone in that position, with that type of body loses a battle they just don't threaten to bludgeon me to death with a rock. It's really amazing how stupid they are." The boy threw both of his hands forward, pointing to the door. "I mean, come on! I didn't even get a chance to show off my infiltration skills by picking the lock, what gives!" The little ninja stomped forward, picking up his Magby and holding him to his chest. "At least you did good in your fight Napal-jeez, you're getting heavy! Come on Prickles!" He had nearly forgot about the Cacnea, he was so quiet during the entire battle. Mike smiled, wondering how far off his Pokemon was from evolving. Oh, a Magmar would be so cool! The thought of another strong Fire Pokemon on his team was just too awesome of a subject for Mike to stay mad, and the boy practically skipped into the cave, Prickles hopping quickly to catch up.