Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Welcome aboard! Here's your stub and i hope you have a pleasant trip!"

"T-thanks."
Kotsuko took his ticket stub and hurried aboard the ship. Finally he was off to get his friend revived, who still didnt leave his arms. He had strong feelings about this claw fossil. Knowing it was gonna be a strong addition to his team, despite the crack in it. He just knew it was gonna be the best even with a foreseeable flaw. He didn't care and just hugged it tighter as he stood at the stern of the ship watching Jublife soon become a spec on the horizon.

Grinning ear to ear he stood there, this group he had joined had given him so much more then he ever had before. Before he was just an average trainer that use to hang outside rock tunnel only ever knowing Cerulean City and Lavender Town because he was always afraid to venture outside of that.When he was little would pretend he was a excavator and just start digging hoping to one day find a fossil, but was always stopped short by the Poke-fans and Picnicers. At one point he had befriended an Onix, but some trainer in red scared it off with his pikachu, he always thought that was odd. As he grew older he began to wonder what the other continents were like, hearing of great challenges and epic struggles beyond just Kanto, and so far he was living his dream finally. He not only saw Johto, but Sinnoh as well, and now he was heading to Cinnabar Island.

His train of thought derailed when he heard a woman's voice and some guy stuttering. He thought it was odd to hear people at this end of the boat but he had guessed it was just some people enjoying the view as well. He took a glace across the starboard side and saw a few Goldeens splash out of the water and as he took a look on the other side he saw a Tentacruel surface and re submerge.

The PA on the boat chimmed in shortly after "We will be arriving at Cinnabar Island in one hour, please gather your personal belongings and prepare for departure.Kotsuko headed over to Port side to watch Cinnabar come into view and took a seat.

The ship made its landing and Kotsuko disembarked. After looking around the Island in child like wonder, seeing the ruins of the old mansion and Cinnabar gym sitting on top of a volcano he headed towards the Lab.

As he entered there was no one to greet him. After a weakly trailed "H-hello?" He started walking down the empty hall way, seeing wires on the floor trailing off to each of the rooms down the hallway. He started to look at each door searching for the clue that would point him in the right direction. After passing two doors he saw it. "Fossil R&D" Kotsuko took a deep breath and knocked on the door. "LOOK! I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MATERIALS! THIS ISN'T GOING TO WORK!" Someone shouted from the other side of the door. "Umm, E-excuse me. I m-mean you must be busy, er, um c-could i come in?"

"What? Oh, your not from the higher ups?" The voice said hurrying over to the door and opening it. Kotsuko was greeted by a smiling face with a pair of thin glasses and mess of hair. He looked as if he hadn't any sleep or had been putting his hand thru his hair countless times. "I'm completely sorry, the higher ups are putting pressure on our research and we don't have the proper materials and i keep..............and................with...............very much so............" Kotsuko began losing track of what the guy was saying because he started dropping large words that he wasn't familiar with and a lot of technical jargon that just made him feel confused so he tried his best to look concerned and sympathetic. "Oh! Damn sorry! I didn't realize i was rambling on. Here come in! What did you want? Wait, why am i asking that, i know why your here, its in your hands! Duh. Hehe, I'm all over the place, sorry pal. Here sit down, lets talk." After they sat down on a pair of chairs near a desk he looked him straight in the eyes with a dead serious look on his face. "I got some good news and some bad news, lets start with the good, lighten the mood. First off, i can revive your pokemon, no problem. The bad news is, I don't have the proper energy source to make it happen. Our latest commision wont be recieved until next week, and then it needs to be processed, and THEN they order for it and...........so...............with..........." It happened again, Kotsuko thought it would be best to just stop him right now.
"I-I get it. Can I help in anyway?"
Interrupted in mid sentence he began to smile. "Yes! Yes you can! You see i need Moon Stone for the energy source! And if you went and got it for me i could revive your pokemon and you'd save me some time AND id be able to...."

"W-wait i get it! Get moonstones! But the travel time will be a while, i don't have any pokemon that can fly." Kotsuko said interrupting him again, he didn't want to sit through anymore rambles. "Well even on foot you'd still be going faster than my request, but i just so happen to have a pidgeot, she's not much of a fighter, i mainly use her for Transport. She'll let you ride but i doubt she'd help you past that. She's a tad stubborn and doesn't like anyone else giving her orders. Lets head outside, once your off, when you get the stone, she'll come straight back. So don't rely on her past that." Kotsuko nodded. "Oh and leave your fossil here, ill take good care of it." He placed the fossil on the desk and left with the scientist as they headed out side he sent out his Pidgeot. "Ok PIddy, i need you to take this guy to Mt Moon, he's helping me out with my research, and when he comes back with moon stone come straight back, ok?" Pidgeot nodded and lowered her head to Kotsuko. He slowly approached Pidgeot and hopped on. She moved a bit and relaxed when he was firmly on. "Ok Piddy! Be careful. You too pal, and thanks! This is gonna help me alot!" PIdgeot spread out her wings and took off heading toward Mt Moon. Out the corner of his eye Kotsuko caught another bird like creature take off as well.

The simple "fairy" whispers started to get out of ear shot and kotsuko's pace quickened. He didnt want to lose track of his only lead, even tho it was just a sound. He kept running for what felt like hours until he ran into an unwelcomed familiar face and feel down. "Ow, sor- Oh no. Not you again."

Portos turned around staring straight down at Kotsuko. "Oh goodie, i can get a clefairy AND take your fossil." Kotsuko game a wry smile. "Dont have it. Your out of luck there." Portos' face turned red with rage. "YOU KIDDING ME!? Well fine, ill just smash ya and force ya to turn back."

'Obviously he's not looking for a moon stone, if i just keep that to myself he wont be any trouble, but i bet anything Mythos and Elizia are here too.' Kotsuko thought to himself as he reached for Mizu's pokeball.

"Venonant Smash em to bits!" Venonnat popped out of his pokeball and stood defiant. "Tackle him now!"

"Mizu! Show time!" Mizu intercepted the tackle and bounced back. "Now! Bubble!" Mizu spewed a foray of bubbles dousing Venonant. After a few more exchanging of blows Kotsuko and Portos stood at a stand still.

Kotsuko gave a small smile. "Not bad, your breaking the mold by improving, I'm actually impressed." Portos gave a guffaw. "Like id let my pokemon get weak after i lost to a grub like you!" After exchanging forced laughter both them and there pokemon stood there ground for a few minutes. Then out of the blue a giant fire ball shot out at Venonant and venonat fell down.
"Arceus! What just happened?!?!" Kotsuko shouted jumping back. "Piplup cant learn fire!!" Kotsuko looked around and caught the glimpse of a shadowy figure escaping the battle. "Mizu! Create a field of Bubbles to mask our escape!" Mizu complied and started spitting bubbles every where, causing a massive shroud and they escaped.

'The shadow went this way, I'm sure of it. From the looks of it, it had to be metronome, there's no way a fire type would have made a nest here.' Kotsuko hurried down the path hopping to catch a glimpse of that shadow again. It just had to be a clefairy, there was no doubt in his mind. After a few minutes of travel he found the shadow heading down one path and quickly followed it. The shadow stopped and turned around and moved its hands, a giant clear barrier popped infront of him and he ran into it.

"Oww.... damn it, I'm so close, I know its you Clefairy!" The shadow stopped from turning to run and faced Kotsuko, soon comming into view. "Cle-fairy?" A smile crept across Kotsuko's face as he saw the clefairy infront of him, only the barrier in his way. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you! I just need to find the moon stone you guys have." Maybe he should have worded it better? The clefairy stared at him, tilting its head and looking at him quizzically. "I need your help to bring back a friend to life. He's a fossil." Kotsuko said putting a hand on the barrier as he crawled over to the clefairy. "Please, little guy, i need your help." The Clefairy stood there for a minute thinking then started making weird hand movements. Something that wasn't associated with metronome. After a while it dawned on Kotsuko, the clefairy was trying to tell him something. He sat there and looked at each movement the clefairy was making.

That was a fist, bearing his teeth must mean threaten....

After piecing it all together it started to make sense.

The way it did a mocking laugh, the scared look on its face quickly after....

"I got it! Something is threatening your kind and you want me to help?" The clefairy nodded. "Of course I'll help! Just take this barrier down and ill help you" The clefairy hopped up and the barrier vanished, as Kotsuko took a step towards the clefairy a horrified look fell over its face. "I said id help little guy, whats with the face?" But before he could turn around a familiar voice that made his skin crawl whispered in his ear. "Long time no see little guy." Almost as if sheer terror was dumped on top of him. His once calm composed demeanor when dealing with pokemon entirely vanished as he slowly turned around and saw the beautiful, yet deadly face of Elizia.

"O-oh, H-hi." Is all he could muster out in the cold sweat that torrented him as his face shot down almost immediatly.

"Hi? Just hi? Aww i thought we were well past formalities between strangers. Where's my hug and warm smile little guy? I mean, you shoulda known i was gonna be here when you ran into Portos." In Kotsuko's constant looks up to Elizia and back down to the floor he could catch a small smile cross her face. "Don't worry, i wont fight you, if you just hand over the Clefairy you've got there ill leave you alone."

"N-no, I p-promised to h-help h-him." If only he could stop the stupid stammering, he didn't sound to convincing. "That's sweet and all Darling, but your little friend there is still a very rare find and if i heard you right, moon stones are involved? Id defiantly like to get my hands on one of those." Despite his obvious trouble, something didn't add up in his head.

"H-how, d-did, I, m-mean, w-when did, y-you..."

"Darling, your not gonna get anywhere stammering like that. Its kinda sad really. I'm guessing your wondering how did we get here from Sinnoh?" Kotsuko gave a slight nod. "Easy, we tailed you, and when we found out you were comming here we thought this was a perfect opportunity to get some easy rare pokemon and get your fossil on top of it. Pretty much a rich plan, i just have one small obstacle, you." She drew a pokeball from her belt. "Lets make this quick shall we? In fact...." She drew her second pokeball out. "Lets make this a double battle and get this over with."
Her two signature pokemon came out, Ryhorn and Klink. Kotsuko fumbled with his pokeballs sned only Mizu out and trying to grasp hold of Reavers ball to send him out, but then the clefairy he had stop next to him with its chest out. "Clef!" Kotsuko knelled down to it. "Hey, are you sure about this little guy?" The clefairy nodded and then pointed to Mizu as if to say "Just worry about your guy, i can handle myself." Kotsuko stood up. "O-ok, L-lets do this." Mizu and Clefairy stood next to each other ready for the fight. "Mizu! B-bubble, take on R-rhyorn!" As Mizu started spewing bubbles clefairy charged at Klink and hit it with a pound. "Rambi, rock blast! Shoot down those bubbles!" The rocks that Rhyhorn shot out barreled thru the bubbles and went crashing into Mizu. "Grinder, Thundershock the Clefairy, don't knock it out i want to at least catch it." A bolt struck clefairy and it fell down, but quickly got back up.

From there on the battle only got worse. Despite the type disadvantage, Mizu was having a hard time keeping up with Rhyhorn's attacks and when clefairy resorted to metronome it would always pop out a tail whip or growl.
"My, my, losing your edge? I mean i knew i was gonna get stronger to beat you, but it looks like your barely putting up a fight. Funny really." That smirk on Elizia's face started to boil Kotsuko's blood, if only there was some way to push himself out of his nervousness. He hated that smirk, he hated looking at her be that way....he.....wait! 'I looked at her without dropping my gaze!' He immediatly thought. 'All this rage must be pushing me past my fear!' Kotsuko took a more confident stance. "THATS IT!" Elizia took a step back in shock. "Whats it? What the hell are you talking about?" Kotsuko glared at her unshaken. "ILL JUST DO WHAT YOU DID BACK IN SINNOH AND GET MAD! MIZU!! PECK!" Mizu charged at Rhyhorn and peck'd it doing no visible damage. "Are you kidding me? Theres no way a weak attack like that would harm Rambi." Elizia said mid laughter. "NOW! BUBBLE!!" At point blank Rhyhorn couldnt counter with rockblast or avoid it in anyway. Soon it was pelted with bubbles till it dropped. "CLEFAIRY! GET IT TOGETHER AND TAKE DOWN THAT KLINK! COME ON!" Clefairy stood there staring at Kotsuko almost terrified. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!??! GET MOVING!" The Clefairy started to wimper and then ran off. "NO! GET BACK HERE! HELP ME FINISH THIS FIGHT!!" Kotsuko turned around shouting at the Clefairy as it ran away. "FINE! BE THAT WAY, MIZU! RETURN! ITS REAVERS TURN NOW!" Recalling Mizu Reaver popped out of his pokebal with a lazy "be~l" Elizia recalled her Rhyhorn stood still, no emotion in her eyes. All she did was point at Kotsuko. "Pathetic" She said wistfully. "PATHETIC? IVE OVERCOME MY FEAR OF YOU AND I'M TURNING THIS FIGHT AROUND! YOU'VE GOT NOTHING ON ME!" Kotsuko shouted, rage now pouring out of his entire being. Consuming everything of him. "I CAN FINALLY FACE YOU AND CRUSH YOU EVEN WITH YOUR OVER CONFIDENCE!" Elizia sighed, still not issuing an order to her Klink. "I did the same, i got mad when i was actually being beat by you and did what your doing now. After your fight i started to think about myself and that if winning was all that mattered." Kotsuko was now the one to smirk. "SO YOUR TELLING ME JUST ONE FIGHT WITH ME AND YOU THINK THE WORLD AROUND YOU CHANGES?!?! YOUR ALL THE SAME LOOKING FOR EASY MONEY AND TO RUIN PEOPLES LIVES! JUST! LIKE! MINE!!!! REAVER TAKE DOWN!" Reaver shoot at Klink and rebounded from the collision.

Elizia closed her eyes. "Sometimes it only takes one meeting, a chance encounter that finally makes you think for once. Seeing this now, i understand why you recomposed your self in our first fight, i probably looked hideous and that's how you were able to turn that fight around."

"That composure, i envied that." Reaver went rocketing into Klink again. Kotsuko now a victim of his pseudo cure he had concocted.
"Show it to me again."

"Show me your not some punk i thought i could get easy treasure from." Elizia started walking towards him. "STAY BACK YOU FILTH! WE STILL HAVE A BATTLE." But through his rage he didn't notice she was finally infront of him after he barked another order to Reaver. Elizia embraced him. "SHOW ME THE COMPOSURE YOU HAVE THAT MADE ME ENVIOUS OF YOU!"

Kotsuko felt paralyzed. His rage litterally vanished and he was left there, with a girl squeezing him and he started to feel a little damp too, the cold sweat from before? No, this one feels new. He looked at Elizia still not letting go of her embrace. Tears rolling down her face as she looked him in the eyes. "SHOW ME!" She shouted at him. Kotsuko literally jumped back.
"I-i, u-um, n-need, I-i mean, i g-g." Elizia wiped her tears away and gave one of her smirks again. "Go find that clefairy to scared off. I'll pretend i didn't see you. Ill take another loss just for the hell of it, now get out of here." The way Elizia was acting now, you would have never guessed she was crying a few minutes ago. Kotsuko nodded and ran down the path behind him with Reaver floating after him.

Only after a few minutes of running he found the clefaiy again, shaking in fear. Realizing he had shouted at it like it was some drone that should have obeyed him, he felt horrible. "Hey little guy." He tried saying in a tone that was apologetic and comforting. The Clefairy jumped in fear and brandished its hand threatening. "I know your mad at me little guy, but just hear me out, im sorry for losing it, it was my fear of.....no, that was just an excuse to go all out. I shoulda kept myself under control and i shouldn't have ruined our trust, i swore id help you, and i did, but i wish it was by better means. Team Eolith wont be bothering you any more." Clefairy stood down and hit Kotsuko across the face. "Yeah i deserved that, if you dont want to help me find moon stone, i understand, ill just try and find it myself." As Kotsuko turned to leave the clefairy hopped in front of him. It was holding something in its hands out to him. "Moon stone? You had it all along?" He knelled down and reached out for it. The clefairy gave a smile and a nod and gave it to Kotsuko. "Thanks little guy, i owe you alot. I promise ill come back and repay you some how." After handing off the moon stone clefairy hopped off out of sight further down the path and Kotsuko went back the way he came.

He never crossed paths with Eolith on the way back but that whole scene when he let himself succumb to rage to get over his fear kept playing through his head. He didnt even realize he was finally exiting Mt Moon till Piddy landed right next to him snapping him back to reality. "Oh, Hey Piddy, would you mind taking me back to Cinnabar?" PIddy lowered his head and Kotsuko hopped on and they flew back to Cinnabar Island.

"Excellent! Most Excellent! There's enough here to resurrect your fossil AND there should be some left over for more of my experiments until my order finally comes in! You have my thanks! Here, lets go revive your pokemon." Kotsuko had handed off the moonstone but his mind was still wandering over everything at Mt Moon. "Now all we need to do is................pull...........with..............then....." Drowning out his rambling, there was one thought that stuck to Kotsuko's mind, Elizia. "Show me that Composure." Still rang through his ears. It was almost as if she cared about him, and the fact that she was crying only furthered his belief in that. 'But she's apart of a crime syndicate. She must be trying to set me up to fall. I cant trust her.' But the sincerity in those words, he couldn't just shake it away.

"Are you just gonna make me hold this guy for you or are you gonna take him?" The scientist said shoving his newly Revived Anorith in front of him. "OH! He's revived now! Thanks!" Kotsuko said taking Anorith into his arms. "Whats wrong with his left eye tho?" Kotsuko pointed at the left eye that was closed. "I said it was probably a complication from the damaged fossil. Your lucky it revived properly at all. Anyway thanks for your help, now if you'll excuse me, i must get back to my research. I hate to shoo you out but, so much to do now to try and catch up to deadlines................things............without........." Before he knew it, Kotsuko was standing outside the science lab with his new friend in his arms. "Ano?" It said looking at him with its one good eye. "I've got to name you, everyone in my team has a name. Lets see..." Kotsuko caught himself realizing that probably was a tad insulting to his new friend. "Oh sorry!" It looked at him quizzically and it hit him. "Ah i know what ill call you! Pliskin! Cause you'll be tough! I just know it!" Pliskin seemed to like the name as its good eye tried to portray the look of happiness. "Lets go Pliskin, were gonna have to start training you!"