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" 'Kay troops! Liiiine ups!"

Five pokemon rushed into a leveled and sequential line consisting from smallest to largest. They stood at attention like obedient little troops, each hankering for the wonderful piece of Poffin treat sitting in Sorano's hand. Each Pokemon had a chance to eat Lennyka's cooking. They knew how great it tasted. They all wanted it, badly.

Since his stay in Kodo, Sorano's team had expanded. It all started off with Horatio, his little lackey. Than his faithful Never joined the party after Moose sent him over from Johto. Pietro once was his yet he was traded off to Len. He obtained back his original Charizard. Nothing surprising there, considering the Charizard was quite the beast towards her second master. A Raichu by the name of Elvis was given to him by long-time friend, Messa. It was hard to tell where she got her hands on him, yet it was a wonderful gift to the teal-haired man. She said it was from her Miltank cousin in another land. That wasn't hard to reason -- she was a breeder after all. Whinny was always his, another one of those shipped Pokemon from Johto. With the grunt's absolute love for Iggybutts . . . he was bound to get a Wiggly onto his team. Lastly, there was Quinky, his first and only stolen Pokemon from another trainer. Stealing was his best bet for her. If not, she would have gotten quite the beating from her before abusive trainer. She's thankful to Sorano yet is utterly afraid of his second in command Flareon.

"Flaaaare." Never cried and stared up at Sorano. There was a pique of interest within his tone. Was the grunt expecting to bribe his Pokemon?

"Alls right, le's git this trainin' under wraps. Yas are gonna, like states a'fore in me room, battle once anotha in attempts to win this 'ere Poffin. Tha final victa will gain this prize. So . . . "

A murmur of distress erupted from the group until Horatio spoke for them.

"Shup, shup, shuppet, shup, shup!" he said as his bottom swung to and fro like a dress in dance.

"What?!" growled Sorano and the group of Pokemon were taken aback suddenly. "Ya's don' want ta 'ight each otha. Than how tha 'ell are ya gonna git stronga?"

A slap to his forehead flattened the rush of anger swelling in his cerebellum.

"Gosh, ya guys are too much."

Well, six is a big number. They are too much indeed.

"Ahah! . . . Ahaha . . . ha . . . ha. Jen . . . great ta see ya?" Sorano tried his best to hide his sudden fright with a mixture of forced laughter. He never expected for a certain you-know-who to open the fiery gates of Hell upon his so quickly! "Ifins ya wants a battle, ya came ta tha riiight place. I sees ya reached Agent huh? Hard ta a'lieve. Buts if I beats ya, maybe they 'ould raise me ups too."

Whinny immediately bounced up at the sight of a Pikachu. "Wiiiigly!" she cried. It was too cute!

"No Whinns, yer not goin' jus' yet." he said and blocked her off before the Wigglytuff had a chance to run and hug the living daylights out of the Electric rodent.

" 'ora" he said and beckoned the Ghost Pokemon towards him. "Yer first."

"S-S-Shuppet." he agreed with a small incline of his head and took his place for the battle. Oh, he hated battles. Battles were bad! Battles hurt! Horatio did not like battles one bit! Unless it was a battle of the books . . . those still hurt though . . . just not as much.

An intense black fog clouded the shy Shuppet's vision and immediately caused him to panic. He was not fond of darkness no matter how his type was suppose to be pleased with it.

"Oi, 'oratio! Calm down! Use it ta yer advantage."

To his advantage? How was that even po-, his own color. He was also as dark as the thick cloud of black. Yet, he couldn't see much within the darkness. Both his pros and cons were weighed equally. Would be execute them well though?

Sorano waited a bit. From his standpoint, it was certainly hard to tell where the opponent was. Maybe he could teeter the Chameleon out from its hiding space?

"Use Screech!" he called and the Shuppet complied, ringing out an ear deafening scream into the air. Horatio had no idea what was Sorano's plan but hoped it worked.

Horatio was slashed in the eye, the pulsating pain too unbearable for him to handle. He closed his damaged eye as it began to blur, the floating remnants of a shadowed mark deftly fogging his view. While he was screeching like a dozen fingernails across a school board, the Charmeleon was taking the initiative and attacking. What kind of one-sided fight was this?

The glowing of the claws alerted Sorano to the location of the striking Charmeleon. Ah, that was better. So long as he knew the fire-type's location, he'd know where to have Horatio strike. The smokescreen has loosened somewhat. Only lightly, but where he caught sight of the frilled and swinging edge of his dodging Shuppet's end, he knew he was in trouble. The best choice now was to push away the threat that was affecting his Pokemon. If not, Horatio would certainly find himself in a corner.

" 'oratio, Knock Off!"

The Shuppet obliged and swung himself about, lashing at the Charmeleon to lengthen the nearing space between them. Keep the enemy back as best he can, a cornered soldier cannot fight without room to swing his sword.