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Mike bit his bottom lip, the mental image of a cooked lobster flickering in his mind as he saw Xanthos being, for lack of a better word, cooked. Drat, chalk up another win for fire Pokemon. He said, raising the scratched Pokeball.

"Xanthos, return, you did good!" After a few attempts to return his Pokemon, he finally hit the Crawduant, it morphing into a red light and returning to it's confinement. That blasted Torkoal is strong! I don't want to send out Nitro just yet, I'm not in that much trouble. He whirled around, the usual pensive look on his face. "Not Felsic, he doesn't have much of an advantage. " He said quietly. "Napalm is totally not going in, if he were a Magmar though..."

Twirling around in a circle began to make him feel a little dizzy. He stopped and stumbled forward a bit. Planting his foot, he lost balance and fell right on his butt. He raised his hand, a Pokeball clasped in his fingers. "I got it!" Quickly regaining his stance, Mike tossed out his next contender. A shower of white sparks covered the battlefield, a familiar squeal ringing out.

"A battle is fought, thunder is danced. I just remembered, I'm not wearing pants!" Making far less than normal sense as per usual, Beacon the Ampharos waddled onto the arena.

"Electrode! Sonicboom!" The Electric type spun its body very fast and created a small typhoon that shot itself towards Poppite in a harsh fashion. The tornado formed itself into a spear-like object as it flew.

Like a puppet without strings, Poppite spun nimbly about to avoid the attack. Its pieces floated about in strange patterns, each glowing with a mysterious yellow light. Kilik smirked and snapped his fingers across his chest. "Game over, hot shot! Poppite, Psychic!" He pointed at Electrode, which began to glow with a light similar to before.

"No!" the thug barked, "If I'm goin' down, you're a-comin' down with me, Meat! Electrode, end it now!" he pointed a finger at the center piece of Poppite, "Explosion!!" He slammed his foot on the ground angerily. The Electrode began to glow bright white and a high pitched, whiny noise filled the ears of all three thugs and Kilik. And then it happened; a large explosion that filled the battle field with black smoke. "Let's see your freak of a Pokemon survive that! Electrode may be out of commission, but you can't win at a stalemate!"

Looks like I won't be challenging Surge after all... he thought. He sighed heavily. "Wait!" he laughed, clearing his throat, "You forgot one thing! Poppite has an ability, just like every other Pokemon!!" As the smoke cleared, Poppite's pieces lay strewn about the field. The Rocket Ball in Kilik's pocket shook. The boy pulled the ball out and held it up. Four red beams shot out and collected the two hands and feet of Poppite, retreating them into the Rocket ball. "His ability of Disassemble!" he laughed, "Whenever a fifth of his health is lost, a piece of him retreats into the ball! Since his body is still out there, he's got health left! Like I said," he snapped his fingers again, "Game over."

"NO! NO! NO!" he cried, stomping his foot. The other two laughed. "I can't believe I lost to him!" He growled angerly, "I demand a rematch! Use a normal Pokemon this time!"

"Nope," he recalled the final piece of Poppite, "A deal's a deal. Get me Surge." Kilik laughed as he watched the three thugs walk into the Gym. He looked at the Rocket ball in his hand and sighed. It was fun while it lasted, Poppite. But it's over now. Once I beat Surge, I'm taking you home. He walked into the Gym, disappearing behind the automatic doors.

"I guess I'm falling behind too," Kasiya laughed sheepishly, suddenly not wanting to put off the pending battle with Master Koga any longer. "As much as I'd like to come, and meet another Hoenn gym leader, I should really get back to my own badge collecting. I've been needing to get that Soul Badge from Master Koga for a while now." She shuffled uneasily on her feet, her hand still resting on Seto's head. The Persian's long tail slowly swished back and forth, taking in everything the two trainers were saying. The feline Pokemon glanced up at Kasiya as she spoke, determined to live up to any challenge she'd give him. "I'll probably bike south, to Mauville City so I can catch a train back to Kanto. As much as I like it here in this region, I am feeling a little homesick," Kasiya admitted, adjusting the bandanna that kept her hair in check. "Plus, if I'm lucky, I can get a few battles in along the way and maybe some training too."

"Alright Beacon, let's take this turtle down Thunderbo-" Mike stopped, looking out towards the fight. The Ampharos was no where to be found. "Beacon, where in the hell...?"

The Electric sheep Pokemon had already dashed inside the cloud, twirling and dancing around. He hopped on top of a rock and began to do what humans would call stomping his feet. He called it tap dancing. Slamming his foot down, it got stuck in a rather oddly shaped hole, it glowed orange. Beacon looked down, waving some of the smoke away. He saw a ring of other holes like it, but was too perplexed to realize what he was actually standing on.

"Uh on oh." As his foot remained stuck for the beginning of the attack, Beacon was slammed with the full force of the Overheat. The unplugged holes got to him first, as the remaining one released the grip on his foot, sending him tumbling off the tortoise Pokemon and landing harshly. Beacon rose to his feet, angered. Without command from his trainer, he shuffled his feet on the floor and blasted Torkoal with a Thunderbolt strike from only a few feet away.

Mike could not make sense of the smoky haze that covered the playing field. He could only hope that his Ampharos hadn't gotten hurt too badly, as one Pokemon taking down two of his would be very hard to recover from.

Maven and Phyra worked with each other for a few hours letting play breaks interfere. Maven finally called quits and went back to the Saffron Pokécentre and called her mom to say goodnight thankfully she was happy to get off the phone quickly and curled up to Phyra.

"Tomorrow girl there's always tomorrow" Maven said curling closer and closing her eyes

"Look Ky, the sand is turning into a tornado!" Al pointed.

Ky looked and saw that the sand had in fact become much more dense and controlled, taking on a twister-like form. The battle was much more visible now, with an exception that the Larvitar couldn't be seen, hidden in the center of the cyclone.

"It's amazing, seeing how Pokemon's moves can be altered in certain situations. It's just like how the Spinirak caught the Spearow in the middle of its dive. They're very well trained," Ky said.

"Yup," Al agreed.

Mike watched curiously as Flannery had her little outburst. I wonder why she's getting so upset... he wondered. His moment of apathy came tumbling down once he saw the next Pokemon that was released. Blast it all! How is Beacon going to compete with a ground Pokemon? He stomped his foot, racking his brain for any idea to overcome the type difference. Torkoal did it, so can Beacon. he reassured himself. Then again, she's always spoiled that Torkoal. Methinks that is her prize Pokemon. That would mean that this Camerupt is not as strong. Mike clasped his fist, he knew he was going to have to play this smart.

"Alright Beacon!" The trainer cried out, a small sweat bead trickled down his neck unnoticed. The Ampharos perked up, dusting the soot from his body. "Use that new move I taught you!"

Beacon smiled and nodded, shaking his body all over. Soon little spores of cotton drifted over and snagged the Camerupt's hooves, lowering his speed. Mike smacked his head. "Not that move! Brick Break you dummy!" He groaned as the electric Pokemon danced with glee on his 'successful attack'.