A Journey in Disguise~ Pg-14

[Ninetales1]

As Lupin headed out towards Route 29, once again the cold threatened to pierce his body, especially in the gusty winds that blew through occasionally. But this wind didn't so much as cause Maleficent's hair to flutter; as she was a ghost, she was impervious to such things unless they contained an aural force behind them (for example, if a gust of wind was part of a Pokemon attack). Once at the route, the surroundings became significantly darker, as here there were no streetlamps to light the way--only moonlight, moonlight that cast a dazzling bluish glow upon the route and the reetops scattered about it. It truly was a magical sight.

At one point Lupin and Maleficent reached a circular space in almost a complete ring of trees, with a rock about the size of a Wartortle shell in the middle of it. It was here that they stopped for a bit, facing the rock.

"Okay Maleficent," Lupin said to the Misdreavus, "once again, I congratulate you on a job well done. Yet by now I think you realise that remaining unseen is especially important in these missions. While you did a good job with that this time, there may be other times when you won't blend in as well with the surroundings. Fortunately, you are a ghost Pokemon. One fascinating thing about ghosts is their ability to vanish at will--to become transparent, to the point of invisibility in some cases. That is a characteristic I'm sure you have, correct? Let's see just how much you can vanish."

"Mis..." Maleficent muttered, thinking for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and held still, practically cloaking herself in the darkness around her. As Lupin watched, less and less light seemed to fall on her, until she became barely noticeable. However, the orbs on her necklace glistened just as beautifully as they did before.

"Hmm, I see this is a complication--your orbs are still visible. What does opening your eyes do?"

Maleficent opened her eyes, which Lupin had to squint to see, but nothing changed.

"What about lifting the rim of your neck upward to cover the orbs?"

This part took a little effort. Maleficent stretched out her clothlike neck a little bit, then attempted to curl it upward. On the first try she only managed to cover the orb in front--when she did, the orb vanished. Then she tried lifting up the other sides of her neck at the same time--which proved to be quite difficult. When she lifted up the left side at last, the front fell down, exposing the front orb. Then the right side twitched a bit, but Maleficent couldn't quite lift it up. While doing this, she lost her focus on her vanishing, and thus became opaque again.

"Mis mis mis..." she grumbled.

"Don't worry, it's probably something that takes a bit of practice," Lupin suggested. "Like crossing your eyes."

That Maleficent could do at least--she crossed her eyes, and for extra fun held two locks of her hair in front of her like hands.
"Dusmurr," she cackled.

"Ah, a very convincing Duskull disguise," Lupin commented in a sarcastic tone.
Then he turned his attention to the rock.
"Well anyway, let's move on. Why don't you use Psywave on that rock?"

"Mis?" Maleficent asked, a bit confused. But fortunately, Psywave was her favourite attack to use so far, although she much preferred using it on a Pokemon. Still, she fired the Psywave--an undulating wave of psychic energy glowing eerily in the night. When it hit the rock, the rock rose up a few inches and spun around, a peculiar aura surrounding it. It seemed like a telekinetic force, but not a very well-controlled one. After the wave disappeared into the rock, the aura around it lingered for a second or two, then vanished, the rock falling with a soft thud on the grass.

After that happened, Lupin asked Maleficent to do the same thing again. This time, the Psywave that came out didn't undulate as much, and lasted a shorter time than the last one. The rock shuddered a bit, but did not rise up at all.

"Hmm, the problem with this attack is that its power varies randomly," Lupin commented. "Yet, it seems that the wave is based on a telekinetic force. Or not--obviously I have no idea what using a telekinetic force is supposed to feel like. In fact, this is starting to sound like an uncontrolled version of a Psybeam. ...But did you feel the difference in power of the two attacks?"

Maleficent nodded. "Mis dreva mis mus, dra vurmis."

"I'll take that as a yes. When using that attack, try to be more aware of what you feel just before emitting the wave, and how strong that feeling is. In fact, why don't you try it a few more times--try to remember what firing the attack feels like each time."

"Mis mis vus..." Maleficent muttered, lost in thought a bit. She gazed at the rock for a short time, thinking about how the attack felt last time. She knew how it felt when building up energy for the attack, and releasing it likewise. She thought about the sensation she felt right when firing, that projection of the energies surrounding her... But she couldn't be sure, so again she fired a Psywave at the rock. This one was about as strong as the first one was, and again caused the rock to rise up a little and spin around.

"Mis mis." Thinking she got it a bit more than before, Maleficent used Psywave again. This time the wave felt a bit stronger than the last one, though not by much. The rock may have risen one inch higher than before, but not even Lupin noticed such a difference. Again, after the attack she paused and noted how it felt. Then she prepared to fire a third Psywave, feeling a sort of weakness--that the vibrating sensation surrounding her was not as strong as before. Sure enough, when she fired the Psywave, it came out weak and relatively flat. Disappointed with this, she tried again, and almost surprised herself. A feeling resembling panic swept through her the second she prepared the attack, and when she fired the Psywave she felt like she was being pushed backwards a bit. The wave that came out had oscillations that were almost as tall as Lupin, and when it hit the rock, the rock flew backward, spinning in the air until it hit a tree.

"Aha, there you go," Lupin remarked. "Did you notice how it felt that time? Now here is the tricky part. When you fire the next Psywave, recall the feel of that last Psywave. Theoretically, if you focus on it, eventually you should be able to control the power of that attack."

An enthusiastic smile spread across Maleficent's face. She closed her eyes for a moment, rehearsing the last Psywave in her mind. But something interrupted her--the sound of rustling leaves, then a hooting sound.

"Hoo hoo hoo!" An angry-looking Hoothoot flew out of the tree, landing on the grass a little closer to where Maleficent was. The Hoothoot made a whole bunch of hoots about something, probably being disturbed--it had flown out the the same tree the rock hit. In reply, Maleficent said something in an adamant tone of voice, giving the Hoothoot a disapproving look. Afterwards, she sounded like she was making a threat. The Hoothoot replied with a determined "Hoo hoo!"

"Did you just challenge the Hoothoot to a battle?" Lupin asked Maleficent. "Just be careful; it may know Foresight. If you see it shoot any red..."

Before Lupin could finish the sentence, the Hoothoot shot a red beam of light out of its eyes. This beam did not cause any damage to Maleficent though, causing the Misdreavus to laugh. Lupin shook his head in disappointment.

"That was a Foresight... All right then, looks like you'll have to defeat it by force. In fact, why don't you try a Sucker Punch?" Since Hoothoot will likely want to attack straight away.

Maleficent sped towards Hoothoot--not right at it, but a little to the side, like a Tackle that intentionally missed. When she was right next to Hoothoot, she made a sharp 90-degree turn, and started flailing around. However, she didn't hit the Hoothoot with anything--in fact, she was unsure what she was supposed to hit with. Meanwhile, the Hoothoot looked left and right to see where Maleficent went. Upon spotting her, it threw itself at her in a Tackle. The surprised Misdreavus flew backward and eventually landed crown-down on the grass, Hoothoot pinning her with the top of its feathery head.

"Use Psywave on it!"

Maleficent's surprise at the Hoothoot Tackling her reminded her of the sensation she felt just before using that strong Psywave, giving her an idea. Increasing her awareness of the situation--the Hoothoot having used an otherwise impossible Normal attack on her, the top of her head being pressed against the ground... She struggled to sit up a bit, recalled the sensation once more, and fired a Psywave...

The Psywave did something rather unusual: it produced one tall oscillation like before, but shorter ones after that, as if the wave couldn't decide how strong it wanted to be. But that didn't matter anyway, for the Psywave didn't even hit the Hoothoot. Hoothoot jumped backwards just before Maleficent attacked, avoiding the wave completely. When Maleficent finished firing the wave, Hoothoot jumped and landed head-first on top of Maleficent again.

"Oh f... what a waste of a Psywave..." Lupin mumbled. But speaking of Psywave, just then he got an idea...
"Alright, use Psywave again--you don't have to think too much about this one."

Despite the last part of Lupin's command, Maleficent immediately thought about the strong Psywave she used before, though briefly. Again the first oscillation was the tall one, but the ones after that were considerably flatter. Again, this didn't matter, for Hoothoot jumped back to dodge as before.

"Now use Sucker Punch!"

Maleficent was confused for a moment--didn't that fail last time? But just then, Hoothoot was getting ready to Tackle her, so Maleficent had no choice to quickly move out of the way. Of course, she still didn't know how to land a hit with that attack. However...

"Psywave, quick!"

This command surprised Maleficent so much that a rush of psychic energy overcame her as she was preparing the attack. The resulting Psywave sent Hoothoot flying, causing it to do a double backflip in the air before it landed head-first not on the grass, but on the rock from before. Meanwhile, Lupin saw that the Psywave had those same tall oscillations as before.

"Oh, wow, that was lucky," Lupin commented. "Both the Psywave strength and Hoothoot's landing."

"Hooooo..." Hoothoot moaned, eventually toppling over onto the grass.

"Mis mis mis mis," Maleficent remarked, apparently disagreeing with something Lupin said.
So that's how it works... she thought. So if I act surprised and panicky in a battle next time, my Psywaves will be stronger? Hahahaha, who knew?

It looks like either that Psywave needs more working on, or this experiment was a failure, Lupin thought. That figures... it's not like I'm an expert on psychic abilities. Maybe Psywave is meant to be random after all.

Those thoughts ran through the minds of trainer and Pokemon as they wandered back towards New Bark Town, for Maleficent had taken considerable damage in the battle with the Hoothoot, thus it was unwise to continue along the route for now. While Maleficent was resting, Lupin considered it to be a good time to look over the stolen papers... though he would have to do this in the closet, where there were no cameras watching.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC: Gee, it's taking longer than I thought to get to the end of that damn route. Well, I guess this makes up for all the things Lupin will be left out of in the afternoon...

By the way, for those of you who skimmed over my post and saw a Hoothoot mentioned, keep in mind this post takes place at night.

 

[ShadowDragon~]

@Ninetales: Excellent, good way to train that psywave :D Maleficent grew to lvl 7!

 

[ShadowDragon~]

Finally! Cherrygrove City is up! At least it will be when I edit this... Oh and I revamped the map of Johto a little bit, it will be edited alot as we go along, but I made a quick adjustment to show the new major cities and hideouts.

Cherrygrove City: Rocket exports​

Cherrygrove City, before team rockets inpact, it wasn't even considered a city. Because of its ideal location, Team Rocket rebuilt it to form a port, for exports and imports from Kanto. It is a port city as big as olivine, and filled with warehouses and factories. There is a pokemon center and a pokemon mart at the entrance, and other than that there are rows of houses mostly inhabited by rocket researchers.

-Minimum of 3 posts, maximum of 15
-Don't be uber, and don't just defeat every trainer or sneak past all of them. Make it realistic and take your time...
-Standard rocket pokemon

Things to do:
-Infiltrate the nearby houses to look for intel
-Investigate and ask around the city to find something out about the rocket importing
-There are warehouses which may contain interesting stock information and boat numbers. This could help to intercept the important imports and cut the Rocket Empire off of neccesary resources
-If you don't want to investigate the city, there is a training centre in the city, where you may train.
-The day or morning you arrived at Cherrygrove, it is saturday, january fourth...
-The monthly tournament is held each first sunday of the month, if you want to participate go ahead.
-Cherrygrove city is fun, you might as well go fishing or picknicking with your pokemon, I don't give a donkey's backside... (Well I do, cuz I grade the posts and I want it to be good... Well ya get the point)



Before a tournament or anything major, end the post signing up for the tournament or something, so I can give you your opponent. You are free to do as you wish in Cherrygrove, you can get your 3 posts and be over with it, or you can begin a nice journey or plot... Anyway, make sure to explore your characters feelings, thoughts, likes and dislikes etc. This is really to help you develop your character, and if you already have developed it, which I doubt, because there is no perfect way of expressing your character, then just do stuff XD

 

[KingKaos]

"Ro and Lia, we are finally in Cherrygrove City! Now we are one step closer to getting back the Goldenrod Gym!" Kamora shouts with Lia and Ro on his shoulders. Both Pokemon jump off his shoulders and then start running around him. He sees that his Pokemon are excited and ready to go along with the mission. Kamora laughs at his Pokemon and pats them on the head. "I am excited too, but what are we going to do here?" as Kamora says that a flier hits him in the face. He struggles to get it off and believes he is being attacked by an enemy. "Show yourself coward! I will take you down!" Kamora shouts as his Pokemon laugh. Lia takes the flier off of her master's face. "Thanks" Kamora reads the flier. His eyes glance over the paper and then a grin emerges on his face. He grabs his Pokemon and puts them into his arms. "On Sunday they are going to be having a tournament! I say this is perfect training for our mission. What about you guys?" Kamora asks his Pokemon. Ro starts to run around and Lia jumps up and down. "I will take that as a yes. Alright, let's go sign up and then start preparing." Kamora rushes away to the tournament sign up center.

When he arrives at the table, he notices a beautiful young teenager is also signing up. He stares at her and then enters a daze. Lia and Ro both notice what Kamora is looking at, the beautiful girl, and not the sign up table. Lia and Ro combine their scratch and tackle attack. Kamora rises up from the ground, after their attack, and apologizes. He walks to the table and signs up for the tournament. As he walks away from the table, the boy from the forest runs into him.

"Hey kid get out of my way! I am trying to sign up for this tournament and show my skills as a team rocket...." the boy stops talking and remembers Kamora's face. he is furious and grabs Kamora by the neck. "Give me back my stuff you stole while I was asleep!" the boy yells. Kamora simply snickers and then laughs at the boy.

"As a member of team rocket, we steal from the weak and give to the strong. Isn't that how we rockets work?" Kamora snickers again.

The boy, understanding Kamora's logic of team rocket is right, let's Kamora go and signs up for the tournament. "You better hope we aren't opponents in this tournament. If we are and I win, I will be taking everything you got, including your weak Pokemon." the boy points at Ro and Lia. "You shouldn't have pointed and called them weak, I knew you well. May your soul rest in peace." Kamora says as he walks away from the boy. Once Kamora turns his back, Ro and Lia attack the boy. Kamora laughs again.

After they finished beating up the rocket boy, Ro and Lia met Kamora at the lake. They look out at the sea and watch the water sparkle. "It's so beautiful. I would have loved to see this with Whitney. Then I could have confessed my love and we could have gotten married." Kamora snickers again, but notices Ro and Lia aren't attacking him. He turns his head and notices they have fallen asleep in his lap. "You two are adorable. I would feel bad if I woke you guys up for training. Let's wait till night time. We can work harder at night rather at day. I don't wanna waste this beautiful moment." Kamora lays back.

He looks up at the sky, but instead finds a girl looking down at him. She smiles and Kamora smiles at her. "My name is...." Kamora couldn't hear her name. "It's been a long time, Kamora, don't forget to visit me when you find some free time." the girl walks away. Kamora quickly stands up to see her, but she has disappeared. "Who was that girl?" Kamora suddenly feels a bite and a scratch attack. When he looks down, he sees that he has awoken Lia and Ro. They just happened to hear Kamora say something about a girl and were punishing him.

With his team awake, Kamora decides to train a little bit earlier than expected. However, as he is walking he hears a voice. "Don't forget to visit me while you are here." Kamora recognizes the voice. "It's that girl's voice again, but where is it coming from?" as Kamora ponders that, he is tackled by three small children. "Welcome back, Kamora!" yell the children. Kamora looks at the children with a blank stare, but soon recognizes their faces. "Jack, Jim, and Jerry the three Pokemon battling brothers! It has been a long time since I have seen you guys. You guys were like five when I last saw you, and now you must be like seven? The three most dangerous triplets are almost Pokemon trainers." The three boys hug Kamora and then start to pull on him. "Come visit Jessica, she misses you like crazy! You are all she ever talks about." the boys pull Kamora towards their home.

Kamora enters the house with Ro and Lia on his shoulders. When he steps in, he is tackled by a girl. He looks up at her and notices she is the girl from earlier. "Kamora, I am so glad you came to visit me. I bet you missed your future wife."

Kamora immediately loses consciousness, as Ro and Lia wonder what would be coming next. "I actually have a future wife..." speaks the unconscious Kamora.

 

[ShadowDragon~]

@K9S8: Cool post, no scramble of tenses which is good ^^ Though whenever somebody new speaks like one of the boys you have to start a new paragraph. Anyway post 1/~ Good job.

 

[drunk ¬_¬]

Chapter Two, Part 1

Ooc:

Spoiler:

sorry for the delay, hope you like it tho :nervous:

Name: Tito Daviles
Location: New Bark Town → Route 29

Tito woke up in a small room, on top of a small bed, with a small, and thin sheet covering him. To his right side he noticed his white duffel bag, which contained some items such as his new Pokéballs, and some clothing, had been thrown to the corner of the room. To his left, he saw that his orange PokéDex, and his silver PokéGear laid on top of a night table. Pulling himself up to sit upright, the next thing that he noticed was Tyrogue. He was sitting on the ledge of a window that gave the view of the morning city, and he held the apparatus, which Prof. Namba had given Tito, inspecting it closely. Tito simply got up, walked up to his Pokémon, and took the device from him drawing a confused stare from Tyrogue. "Don't worry about it", he said, "You worry about what you need to do, and I'll worry about what I need to do."

Tyrogue felt a little threatened by the statement, but decided to leave the issue as it was. He was very similar to his trainer in terms of personality, and understood Tito easily in his intentions, goals, and even his dreams. "Let's go find something to eat." Tito told his Pokémon and both of them found their way into the kitchen in the one story house.

There didn't seem to be much choice as to what to eat though, in a drawer he saw a loaf of stale bread, and some boxes of cereal. In the fridge, he found a jug of orange juice, and one with milk, as well as some yogurt. Tito therefore decided to eat a cereal and orange juice, while Tyrogue simply filled himself with yogurt. After all, they hadn't found any Pokémon food. Upon finishing their breakfast, the pair headed out. Their next destination: Cherrygrove City.

Throwing his duffel bag over his right shoulder, Tito signaled Tyrogue to follow him on foot. Tyrogue had never been a fan of Pokéballs, but he for sure was not a fan of walking, so he ran up to Tito, jumped, and sat on his shoulders, holding on to Tito's head. "Yup" Tito said reassuring himself, as he began strolling towards Route 29. Each second that passed by, he was one second closer to finishing what needed to be done.

* * * * * About 10 min. later * * * * *

Both Tito and Tyrogue stood before Route 29, the first route on their new journey. They knew this wouldn't be as easy as it was to get to New Bark Town from Cianwood, after all, they would have to walk into the wilderness of the Pokémon world. Luckily for them, however, it wouldn't be the first time that they had to do this, and they both looked forward to the challenge. One step at a time, they traveled deeper and deeper into the wild Pokémon's habitat.

The sight was incredible, Rattata ran from here to there, shuffling around the bushes, Sentret played with each other rolling into balls from time to time, and standing on their tails attempting to seem taller. Raising his gaze up to the clouds, Tito noticed a flock of Pidgey flying around the sky happily, while the Hoothoot were most likely hidden among the trees, sleeping.

Both Tito and Tyrogue kept walking on with a silent admiration of the wilderness that surrounded them, before they bumped into something; or better said, something bumped into them. Tito turned around when he felt something crashing into his back and stood gazing at the sight of another Rocket grunt, who was breathing heavily, and kept looking back in search of… something. "Get the **** out of the way next time won't you!" The grunt barked at Tito, and quickly shoved him back and attempted to walk past him.

However, as soon as the grunt was at shoulder-level with Tito, Tito clenched his neck, and threw him to the ground rendering him unable to move. "I believe you owe me an apology." He said in a really plain but somehow sadistic manner.

"I'm ss… sss…so… r… rr… yyy." The Rocket grunt said in a low voice while clutching Tito's hand with both of his, and as his eyes began to bulge out of his eye sockets from the pressure. "It… won't… h… hha… ppennn… ag… ggaan."

"Good." Tito answered, and let go of the younger-looking grunt. As he began to walk away however, he realized that this guy was a bit thinker than the rest.

"Bastard! As if I would let you get away from me after disrespecting me like that!!!" Tito shook his head in disbelief as Tyrogue began laughing uncontrollably. As if he could defeat Tito in a fight. Upon turning around, however, they noticed something else. Next to the guy's right foot, there stood at about waist height, a purple pile of… sludge?

Tito immediately took his PokéDex out to figure out what it was. It read:

"image removed""Grimer, the Sludge Pokémon. These Pokémon are said to have emerged when sludge from a polluted stream became exposed to the Moon's X-rays."

"What-the…" Tito slurred still looking at the PokéDex… it wasn't just the shape of it, but the way it moves, to the way it smelled… that thing was nasty! "As you wish… Tyrogue! Get over there."

"Ty!!!" Tyrogue looked over astonished by his trainer's response. He didn't want to fight… that! Even so, it wasn't even a second later that Tyrogue blinked and changed his gaze to a certain look of confidence, planning to not give the opponent a single opportunity to either attack or defend itself. "Tyrogue!" he said in an assertive manner.

"Alright Grimer..."

"FAKE OUT!"

It only took the blink of an eye. With incredible speed, Trogue had been able to get up inside the foe's Grimer's guard, and with a prompt knee to the gut, sent the opposing Pokémon flying back to its trainer.

"You'll need to do better than that." Tito said chuckling.

"I'll show you better, you bastard!" the opposing trainer said biting down on his lip. "Grimer, use Pound!"

"Stop him Tyrogue! Use Tackle!"

Again, abusing his speed advantage over the bigger Pokémon, Tyrogue sprinted towards the sludge-like Pokémon as it held its right arm up ready to strike. Penetrating through the non-existant guard, Tyrogue drove himself into his opponent's stomach and hit it strongly in the stomach before the poison Pokémon's hand fell on him weakly, causing Tyrogue to again take his distance.

"Damn you!" the Rocket yelled gritting his teeth.

Tito, however, answered with a word of advice: "If you're so insistent and rash, you won't be able to take advantage of the openings made by your opponent…"

"**** you!" his opponent barked. "If offense won't work we'll go ahead and use Harden!"

Upon hearing the command, Grimer stopped in its short pursuit of the smaller fighting Pokémon, and crossed its arms in front of him, let out a silent "Hmph", and suddenly, instead of being as liquid and runny as before, and it became a darker shade of purple, he seemed somehow more solid, harder.

"Tyrogue, use Tackle again!" Tito commanded nonetheless.

Tyrogue ran again at full speed towards his opponent, being a bit cautious of any counterattack, he didn't unleash his Tackle until he was sure there was no way for Grimer to escape it. Unfortunately, neither Grimer nor its trainer had any interest in doing that. The collision was a lot different.

There was a loud thud, and… Grimer had only moved a few inches back while Tyrogue skidded off in a different direction, and fell rolling for a few feet. "Why?" Tito questioned himself. He didn't know much about Pokémon in general, and only had an idea of the way the Fighting Pokémon worked, meaning he didn't know what the Harden command had meant.

"Hahaha!!! You're such a dumbass! Did that weak Tackle even damage me?" The other trainer started… "I don't think so!!! Hahahahaha"

'Damn bastard I'll show you' Tito thought, but stopped upon seeing his Pokémon struggling to get up. 'But he's right… he did something… Harden, his Pokémon didn't even seem like it was doing something at all, it just stood there and… OF COURSE its defense became stronger, because IT became HARDER! It's so simple!' he thought triumphantly at the realization of what Harden was.

"Alright, we've wasted too much time, Grimer! Use Pound!" Upon hearing the command, Grimer charged at full speed (well, as fast as it could go) towards Tyrogue with its fist raised up high, and a loud laugh.

"Tyrogue, dodge it!" Tito commanded, and watch as his Pokémon ducked first towards his right, and jumped out of the way of the attack, in his confident way, always sure of victory.

"Hahaha, oh my Arceus, you're stupidity impreses me! Use Poison Gas my love!" In an instant Grimer turned his face around and let out a long stream of a purple gas which formed like a cloud right where Tyrogue was due to fall.

"Damn!" Tito reacted as he realized the predicament his Pokémon was in.

"You can't dodge in the air!" the maniacal grunt kept saying in his high-pitched voice.

Swoosh. In an instant, Tyrogue fell in the middle of the polluted cloud and dashed out sensing the danger, but it was already to late. He put his hand against his forehead, and felt droplets of cold sweat. Tyrogue was poisoned.

"Damn!" Tito barked, "Tyrogue! We need to finish this fast, let's use that move, okay?" Tyrogue nodded.

"There's nothing you can do to win now! It's all a matter of time, and time's on OUR side!!" the foe grunt kept yelling and laughing maniacally making hordes of Pidgey fly away, Rattatas and Sentrets ran around trying to find shelter, and one or two Hoothoots even opened an eye to see what was causing the ruckus.

"Hi Jump Kick!!!"

Tyrogue had been able to creep up closer to Grimer during its trainer's distraction, and taking a cue from his trainer, jumped up high in the air, made a couple of acrobatic maneuvers including a front flip, and came down upon Grimer, hitting it square in the face, and sending it flying away until it hit a tree which it squished against, and much to Tito's amusement, a few pieces of purple goo fell from its sides, splattering all over the tree's surroundings.

"It's over." Tito said with a slight sigh, missing his previous matches such as the one in the boat, which were clearly easier. "Come over here Tyrogue." But Tyrogue stayed where he was. "Tyrogue!" Tito called again, but again there was no response. Tyrogue just stood there looking at the splattered purple Pokémon, as he clutched his chest. "Tyrogue we need to treat…"

"Hahaha you're so ignorant aren't you?"

"What?" Tito asked himself as he looked up towards his challenger, and from the corner of his eye was able to spot the Grimer sliding down the tree, and getting into its usual body form.

The grunt continued, being satisfied with the look of disbelief in his opponent's face. "Did you know that Poison Pokémon are resistant to Fighting moves? That's because through the years, they've had to protect themselves against them. My Grimer for example, is the epitome of good defense against Fighters. His goo-like body reduces the increased damage of using Fighting-type moves by absorbing the shock caused by them. Thus, you're oh-so-strong attack turns out to be just a weak one."

"Imp… impossible!" Tito mumbled shocked at the sight of the reforming Grimer, and still awestruck, turned around at the sound of Tyrogue coughing out some black sticky fluid. "Tyrogue!"

"Pound him while he's weak Grimer!"

"What?" Tito turned around just in time to see the Poisonous Pokémon land a vicious hit in the back of Tyrogue's head. "You bastard!" he swore knowing full well the damage that such a hit could cause. "Tyrogue! Use Tackle!"

"Harden Grimer!"

Tyrogue jumped from his kneeling position, and hit Grimer square in the chin, however, he fell to his knees and again began to spill the disgusting black ooze. Grimer, however, didn't move an inch.

"Damn!" Tito barked now angry at the way the fight was going. He hadn't lost in a long time, and he didn't plan to lose again. After all, Chuck almost never lost.

"Good Grimer! As long as your defense is high he can't do anything to you!" The other trainer yelled giving Tito an idea…

"Tyrogue! You gotta trust me on this one!"

"Ty!" Tyrogue yelled reassuring Tito.

"Tackle!"

"Are you stupid or something?" He heard the other trainer ask. "Grimer Harden again!"

"Now Tyrogue, jump!" Upon hearing the command Tyrogue knew exactly what to do. He jumped up in the sky, went into a kicking stance, and fell atop the hardened Poison Pokémon with a loud thud.

"Grimer get up!" the Rocket grunt yelled, but to no avail. Grimer was down and out. "But how?!" he yelled turning to Tito.

"It's simple. You said that the reason Tyrogue's kick wasn't as strong first was because of Grimer's gooey body that absorbed the impact, well, when it hardened, the new body took the impact full on. There was no way out." Tito answered. He stayed quiet for a while before recalling his Pokémon and moving on to his destination.
​

 

[{Swan}]

"I still can't believe ya."


"Rhys, can't you talk of anything else! There's nothing wrong with it!" Helena chided. They were sitting at a table in the Cherrygrove Pokémon Center, Helena's hands curled around a steaming cup of hot cocoa, her hair still full of knots and twigs. Rhys was sitting in front of her, drinking a cup of milk, not a spot on his entire being. Quite infuriating, really.


"It's ridiculous! Amycus? Amycus? Ya catch a Spearow and call it Amycus?!" He shook his head, his wavy red hair flying with the motion.


"I think it fits her!" Helena argued. She had indeed called the little bird Amycus. And she thought it fit.


"What? Are you creating your own army of Death Eaters?" The mocking tone was so much worse with his accent. "And Amycus is a lad, not a lassie. You did know that, didn't ya?"


"Alecto just didn't suit her. Plus, Alecto's fat. And maybe I am creating my own army of Death Eaters. Who's gonna stop me? The Irish police?" She received a glare for that comment, but it was followed by a wide grin. "If you excuse me, I'm going to get a room now, and take a long shower." She returned Rhys' previous glare, swept up her bag and hot cocoa, and got a room from Nurse Joy.


The first thing she did was take the sewing kit from her bag and repaired all of the holes in her clothing, and there were many. When everything was patched up, and some holes even required actual colourful patched to cover them up, she took the longest and most amazing shower of her life.


When she came out, she quickly got dressed again and went back downstairs into the main room of the Center. The sun was about to set now, but Rhys was still sitting in the same seat, reading a book. Artemis Fowl, it appeared to be.


"Good one, despite the bit of childishness involved," she commented . Rhys looked up half startled before grinning up at her. He marked his page with a bookmark and stuffed the paperback in his backpack. Seemed like she hadn't only gotten herself a Potterd, but a bookworm in general.


"So it's time for you to tell me the whole deal." Completely and totally out of the blue. Rhys' expression was completely serious, but still a bit comical due to his freckles.


"Are you kidding me?!" Helena protested, glancing nervously around for eavesdroppers. "Here?" she hissed.


"Relax, no one's listening. Have you never heard that the best place to talk in secret is somewhere with a lot of people? Noise gets drowned out. Just keep your voice low." When she still bore a doubting expression, Rhys continued. "We had a deal, remember. I know stuff about you, you know stuff about me. Your stuff sounds interesting. I want in."


Helena glanced around nervously again, and Rhys rolled his eyes. "Listen, Rhys, I don't think I'm supposed to talk about this to the first person I meet. How do I know you're not lying to me just so you can find stuff out?"


"Listen, if I were a true Rocket, I would have captured you already. There is a lot more you'd be able to tell while under torture. Believe me, Rockets might be a lying and scheming bunch of bastards, but they're not that smart. Not the low ones anyway. They seem to attract a lot of brawny types low on brains."


She had to admit, Rhys had a point. But she still shouldn't just tell people about her mission. "I don't think so, I still don't trust you." More eye-rolling on Rhys' part.


"Look, lassie, I don't intend for our outings in Cherrygrove to go wasted, can't you see. There must be some valuables stored here, information, or simply interesting objects. We're going to find out exactly what is going on here. But I'd like to know who exactly is behind us."


Okay, she had to admit that he had a point. After a deep sigh, she started talking. "The old leaders are behind me. Them, and Flannery as you already know."


His eyes widened. "The gym leaders?!"


"No, the leaders of nothing, you idiot, of course it's the Gym Leaders," she hissed at him again. "There's nine of us in total, all working as spies. One for each of the leaders, and me. But I'm not supposed to do anything stupid, and just stick to the plan, and that's exactly what I'll be doing."


"Which is?"


Did he have to know everything? "To rise to the top of the Rocket chain and take them out from the inside. No funny business, just that. We can't risk anyone finding out about the mission."


"Good job you've been doing," he grinned and she felt the urge to slap him. Miraculously, she didn't.


"Shut it, it was a mistake, okay?" He grinned again and she felt a surge of anger. "Stop making fun of me!"


"Shhhs!" He shushed. "You don't want to attract too much attention. Not only do you look way to sweet and innocent to actually look like a rocket, but you're don't look half as mean as the nicest rocket."


"That's it, I'm leaving, there's a bed upstairs waiting for me." She abruptly left the table and half-stomped upstairs. She unlocked the room, changed into the oversized tee she called a pyjama and let herself fall onto the bed. Within seconds she was asleep, like a brick. If only I lasted.


About two hours later something shook her awake quite roughly. "Helena, wake up!" someone hissed into her ear. Grunting angrily she opened her eyes to find Rhys' brown ones looking at her. Seriously, did this guy never leave her alone?


"Do you know what time it is?!" She hissed back.


"Listen, someone overheard our talk and she's on her way to tell the superiors. Get dressed quickly, I'll be outside the door."


Someone overheard?! Crap! That was really bad news. They had to intercept them, and quick.

 

[ShadowDragon~]

Drunk: Haha nice touch on the 'oh my arceus' Tyrogue grew to lvl 7
Luigi-a: Zomg U tolds him! See thats wat'cha get xP Catch that rocket spy person grunt

k9s8: Yeah I will give you your tournament info, if I get 2 more posts of cherrygrove (Saturday)

 

[KingKaos]

"That's not possible, it can't be possible, it's not possible. How did this happen!" Kamora yells as he awakens from his slumber. When he wakes up he sees that Ro and Lia were not by his side. "Where did those guys go?" Kamora looks around the house and sees no one is around the house. "Could this have all been a dream?" Kamora scratches his head. "I wonder where they ran off to?" Kamora continues to search around the house for his Pokemon. He looks in the basement, in the attic, and even the dining room. The house is very much empty. Just as he is about to walk outside, his eye is caught by a book on the table. He moves over to the book and opens it. When he opens the book, he finds that it is a photo album. The pictures include, the three little children that tackled Kamora, in various poses. They were smiling, grabbing each other in wrestling holds, dancing, making funny faces, and standing on top of each other. Kamora was surprised by how funny the pictures were. He turns the page and is shocked at the next picture.

"This can't be what I think this is? In the corner of this picture is a boy and that boy is.....me?" Kamora drops the book. "It couldn't have been me, I don't remember this picture. However, I do look pretty young in that photo. Could it mean that I took this when I came to Cherrygrove when I was younger? This is all too much to handle." Kamora looks at the picture again. As he looks at the picture, he can feel his memory of that day flowing back into his mind. "Now I remember that day. It was the day that I was left here while my family did some work. That day, I blocked it out, because of what had happened to her." Kamora's mind begins to return to that day.

"Kamora, hurry up! You are so slow and how can you be so weak? You're family works on building power Pokemon. Try to catch up with me, Kamora!" a young girl yells at Kamora.

Kamora is following behind the girl, but is very far behind. "Slow down, Jessica. I have short legs and I can't keep up with you. So what if my family is a family of battlers. I am my own person." Kamora says as he falls even further behind. Just as he is about to give up and stop running, he hears Jessica yell at him again.

"Kamora, if you can get up here, then I will give you a special prize!" Jessica yells at Kamora. She then throws berries at him as a way to reinforce him.

Kamora laughs at Jessica's attempts and so he bends his knees. He moves his arms right and left. He stretches his back out and then burst with speed. He runs as if he had used his own Extremespeed. Within seconds he is right beside Jessica. "What's my reward, Jessica?" Kamora asks. As he smiles Kamora falls to the ground. "I used that burst and now I got nothing left. I'm sorry Jessica."

Jessiac laughs at her fallen friend and falls beside him. "You think you don't have energy, what about me? I have no more energy either." Jessica laughs and then turns to Kamora. "So what do you want as a reward?" Jessica asks.

Kamora starts to think and turns his head. Just as he is about to speak, a wind picks up. He jumps to his feet and looks up. When he looks up, he sees that Fearow are flying around them in circles. "Why are they circling us? I know that they don't wanna play with us?" Kamora looks ahead and sees a flock of Pidgetto and Pidgeot. "They must be battling with them and now we are in this battle too. I gotta get Jessica out of here." Kamora grabs Jessica's arm. As he is about to run, the Fearow start to dive down. "Not good, gotta block the shot." Kamora tries to move Jessica.

Kamora's legs give out and he falls. Jessica is unable to move from running as well. The Fearow is about to make contact. Just as it is about to attack, a Pidgeot stops the Fearow. The Fearow and the Pidgeot move farther away from Kamora and Jessica.

After the Pokemon disappear, it starts to rain. "Kamora, it's starting to rain. We should go home right about now. We don't want them to worry about us." Jessica says. She begins to walk away, but Kamora pulls on her arm.

"Jessica, my reward, i know what I want it to be. I want to protect you. The only way I can protect you and make sure you never get this close to danger again, I will protect you. Jessica, I will make you my wife and protect you!" Kamora shouts. He releases Jessica and runs back to the house.

"So do you remember your promise?" Jessica asks standing behind Kamora. Kamora turns around and jumps.

"Don't scare me like that, Jessica. I remember my promise to you. However, things have changed since that time. I kinda already promised to make the Goldenrod Gym Leader she would be my wife." As Kamora says this, Whitney sneezes somewhere in the warehouse.

"Why do I feel that idiot, Kamora, is talking about me again?" Whitney asks punching the wall.

Kamora feels a chill run down his spine. "Why do I feel like Whitney wants to beat me into a wall?"

"Jessica, where are my Pokemon?" Kamora asks. Jessica laughs and points outside. Kamora looks outside and sees Lia and Ro playing with the three brothers. "I guess they could use the relaxation time, because they may not get this chance again."

"What do you mean by that Kamora?" Jessica asks. Just as she asks the question she looks at Kamora's clothes. She hadn't noticed his clothes till now. "You joined team rocket! How could you join those monsters!" Jessica yells. She attempts to slap Kamora.

"I only allow those with good reasons to slap me. I joined them to destroy them. Right now I am working with others to destroy team rocket and bring the gym leaders power again. Jessica, I am doing this because I have to, not because I want to. Believe in me." Kamora releases her hand and walks outside. Lia and Ro jump onto his shoulders. "Jessica, I hope we can meet again." Kamora walks away then turns, "You can meet me again at me and Whitney's wedding." Kamora continues to walk away. As he continues to walk another chill goes down his spine. "Yeah she is going to kill me."

"Kamora!" yells the family. "If you are really going to do this mission, then go to the training center. Get stronger and make sure you are strong enough to protect Whitney. Make sure you are strong enough to protect your wife!" Jessica yells.

Kamora blows her a kiss and he is then attacked by Ro and Lia. "I guess I shouldn't have pressed my luck to begin with." Kamora says as he falls to the ground.

 

[drunk ¬_¬]

Chapter Two, Part 2

Name: Tito Daviles
Location: Route 29 → Route 46

Tito sped through the trails of Route 29 holding his Tyrogue against his chest as the poor Pokémon kept throwing that disgusting toxic fluid out of his body. His eyes left him and he began to get delirious looking around to see the different trees that they passed.

'Damn I need to hurry up… ****ing *******, what did he do to my poor Tyrogue, what's going on?' Tito questioned himself trying to figure out what to do about it. As he kept running, he noticed a small house on the side of the road towards which he headed to.

Tito opened the doors of the resting house shoving them in and bursting in as he yelled for people to help him: "I need help! My Tyrogue! Someone help me out!" The people inside were civilians however, and having hatred for Team Rocket acted like they didn't notice the young man. Realizing that people saw him as a Rocket member, Tito did the first thing that he knew would actually help in this situation. He walked up to the nearest kid he saw and picked him up from the neck, pulled out an empty Pokéball, and posing as if there was something in there demanded: "If no one helps my Tyrogue, the kid's gone!"

A wave of panic was felt throughout the room, and an old-looking man was the one to get up, and say: "I'll help your Pokémon. Let the kid go."

"You first!" Tito screamed with tears filling his eyes as he realized how much damage he must've been doing to the kid's family who simply hugged each other crying in the background.

"Very well." The old man replied as he took out two different sprays bottles, one of a transparent yellow color, and another one colored purple and white. "This one is an Antidote." The old man started, looked up, and was met by a worried gaze from the Rocket grunt. "It heals Pokémon from poisoning although he will still need some time to recover." He continued perplexed by the Rocket's personality. "This one," he said as he picked up the purple bottle, "is a Potion. It has some chemical properties that help the Pokémon heal faster… and that's that, will you please let go of the kid now?"

In response Tito simply let the kid go, and walked up to his Pokémon hugging him and pressing him strongly against his chest.

However, Tito soon realized that the people around him were having trouble digesting the situation, and in an effort to sell his character, he shoved the old man out of his way, and entered Route 46 in order to catch some fresh air. "Damn," he told Tyrogue with a sigh as he rested against a tree in the far side of the 'route'. "That was way to close for comfort, don't you agree?"

"Tyrogue!" his Pokémon responded in a blissful manner, happy to feel normal for now.

"Good, I'm happy that you're okay." Tito told him, keeping his sight focused on the rest house that kept him 'incarcerated' in Route 46. "Should we head back?" he asked his Pokémon, although he [Tyrogue] overcome by joy had started jumping around, and then grabbed a rock, lunging it to a tree, which's branch fell, prompting the rise of an angry Rock Pokémon, Geodude.

"Spearow!!!" it screeched angrily after been woken up and thrown down from its tree.

"Wait." Tito said as he took out his Pokédex and opened it.

"image removed""Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. Spearow has a terrible attitude. It is very wild and will sometimes attack other Pokémon and humans."

Tito only had time to utter a simple "Ohshh…" before noticing the Pokémon charging after him at full speed.

Tito ran at full speed towards the rest house, but luckily tripped against a Geodude sleeping on the floor, who made him fall face first to the ground just in time to hear a swoosh sound pass only inches away from the back of his head. "****!" he yelled as soon as he noticed that the Spearow was turning around, still gliding towards him.

"Spearow!!!" it screeched in its maddened state. It kept moving towards Tito, who balled up into fetal position, when suddenly, a loud thud was heard, and Tito looked up to notice that both the Spearow and his Tyrogue were at a longer distance. Tyrogue was standing, panting lightly, and holding his shoulder, while Spearow struggled to its feet, and flapped its wings menacingly. "Spearow!!!" it yelled at the Fighting Pokémon, but Tyrogue stayed silent.

A long silence ensued, being broken only occasionally by the wild Pokémon's footsteps, which made some leaves crack from time to time, as it inspected its adversary's stance, circling around Tyrogue. Tyrogue, on the other hand, kept a tall, Karate-like stance, with his front hand low, and the back hand covering his chin. He simply looked at his aggressor with his perpherals, following it wherever it went.

'Of course!' thought Tito as he came to a realization, and was quick to break the silence with a command: "Tackle it, Tyrogue!!!"

Hearing his trainer's command, Tyrogue nodded, and with a short but strong exhalation, turned around, and lunged himself at the Spearow. The Flying Pokémon, however, had already foreseen this, and it simply flew up high, where it wouldn't be reached.

Or so it thought. "Damn, Tyrogue, are you ready for this? Hi Jump Kick!!!" Upon the command, Tyrogue jumped unnaturally high and with a swing of his right leg, hammered the bird Pokémon, slamming it against the ground landing a strong hit.

"Spearow!!!" the wild Pokémon screamed panicking from beneath Tyrogue's foot, as it flapped its wings violently making its way back to the sky. Looking down upon the spot where it had just been, Tyrogue greeted it with a serious stare, angering it even further. "Spearow!!!" it shrieked, as it sped towards it one more time.

Tito was quick to command his Tyrogue to counter the attack with a Tackle, but unfortunately for them, Spearow wasn't trying to use a Tackle against Tyrogue. Instead, it avoided Tyrogue's shoulder, and drove its beak against the Fighting Pokémon's neck. "****!" Tito swore looking at his Pokémon turtle-up. "Keep fighting Tyrogue!" he yelled helplessly, only to notice that his Pokémon hadn't completely recovered form the fight against the Grimer, as it began to clutch his chest along with his neck. 'Tyrogue. No.' he thought shocked.

The Spearow noticed this too, however, rather than feeling bad about it, and stopping, its attacks only intensified, and it began to drive its beak against Tyrogue over and over and over again.

'Damn. Tyrogue! Get out of there!" Tito knew that his Pokémon didn't have many options to get away, and continued to look on gritting his teeth unable to do anything to help. But Tyrogue was able to find missing strength in his trainer's voice. Taking advantage of the precise timing used by the wild Spearow, Tyrogue had already found a 'window' that he could take advantage of in order to escape his predicament. It worked.

As Spearow drove its neck back, Tyrogue laid still, closing his eyes, and opening them up again to reveal bright red pupils that glowed lightly. As soon as the Spearow moved the first muscle in its neck, Tyrogue was already rolling out of the way, and Spearow simply drove its beak into the ground making a large hole. "Perfect Tyrogue! Now Tackle it!"

Hearing the command, Tyrogue drove his shoulder against the bird Pokémon's face, driving it back to ground again, and again, and again. "Ty-! Rogue-! Ty-! Rogue-!" It said with each hit it dealt to the Pokémon, until Tito finally stopped him.

"Tyrogue! Wait up!" he said. 'Chuck told me before leaving that the secret to an effective team is to use a varied team. Having only Fighting-type Pokémon can prove to be a really big handicap. I won't jeopardize this mission because of aesthetic preferences.' "Alright, time to catch a Pokémon!"

"Ty!?" his Pokémon reacted confused as he saw his trainer throw a Pokéball at the Spearow, which opened up, and in a flash of red light, pulled the bird into it, falling to the floor, and shaking wildly.

Tito bit his lip as he watched on expectantly.
​

 

[{Swan}]

Helena quickly pulled her tanktop over her head and pulled her shorts on and out the door she was, without shoes or a jacket. Rhys was waiting for her, and obviously surprised that she came out that quickly, but she marched right down the stairs and into the night. The rather could night might I add.


"Why on earth do you not have any shoes on?!" hissed Rhys, who was only just catching up with her. "Are you bloody insane?! You're going to freeze out here! Here," He gave her his top layer, which was a heavenly warm brown sweater with very soft inside. She didn't want to take it, but it was freezing and that sweater was just so sooooooft.


"Thanks." They passed the rest of the way in silence. Rhys seemed to know exactly where he was going, and Helena just kind of trailed behind him, buried in his coat which was way too big, and taking in the town at night with big eyes.


"Where exactly are we going?"


"Shhst!" Came the immediate shush, "We're almost here, patience lassie." They came up to a street with row after row of warehouses. Rhys turned into a dark alley without any street lights, it was uncanny how well he knew his way around here. As if reading her mind, he answered. "I grew up around this part of town, I know my way, I also know where the Rocket will be headed, but keep silent. There are lots of ears around here."


The thought that Rhys would have grown up in such a rough neighborhood kind of frightened Helena a bit, but she figured that not everyone lived as lucky as she did. They turned some more corners, creeping along a rather thin alley between two impossibly long warehouses and a wall separating the lot from the rest of town.


Then suddenly Rhys stopped her, and pointed to the door right in front. He extended both of his hands, palm up, to her and she understood the sign. Stay put. He then motioned to himself, and then to the door again. He'd check it out first. A last sign to be silent, and he was off. All the while Helena was left crouching behind a few crates, waiting for Rhys to return. After an agonizing ten minutes, he came back.


"That over there, it's their headquarters. The girl we need is in there. You're going to grab her attention, battle her if you must. I will do some research, she if she's told anyone, then I'll come back and take her out." He whispered. Helena nodded in response and they both went in.


The warehouse from the inside was a mess of boxes, and on top of the boxes sat a dark-haired girl, few years older than Helena maybe. The girl was waiting for someone, and you could see she was impatient from the way she played with her hair, and tapped her foot on the floor. She was also nervous, and kept glancing around. Helena silently released Amycus, and the bird looked up at her curiously.


Helena pointed at the girl, who was still playing with her hair impatiently. She motioned her hand against the palm of her other hand in a pecking motion, and the intelligent bird understood. With a rustle of wings Amycus attacked the girl, who let out a startled screech. Quick in reflexes, the girl released a Seviper.


"Seviper take this imbecile out," hissed the girl, but Helena noticed that she was also trying to keep quiet. Not wanting to wake anyone, perhaps? Maybe for different reasons. The Seviper quickly sprang into a bite attack, which Amycus barely dodged. She pulled into a dive and attacked the snake again with a peck attack. All the while Helena sat uselessly behind some crates, hoping for Rhys to come back soon.


Seviper suddenly wrapped its oversized tail around the Spearow and started squeezing. "Seviper, make sure it can't squeek!" came another hiss from the girl, and Seviper wrapped another curl of body around Amycus' head too.


"We'll see how much fight you still have after the experiments you godless creature." Seviper sqeezed tighter. Suddenly the snake's face contorted with pain, and tail lost some of its grip, and Amycus came up while pecking every inch of the snake that she could get her beak on. Seviper tried to come back with a lick, but Amycus clamped down on its tongue, and things just got ugly right there.


Seviper shook its head from side to side, trying desperately to lose the bird clamping down on it, the girl tried to get in between, or to beat Amycis away from her giant snake. Helena was preoccupied in warming her cold feet and whishing for Rhys to hurry up. In the end Seviped shook the Spearow away from it, but she retaliated by pulling into a dive, beak first, and landing hard on top of the snake's head.


The snake was about to faint when smoke engulfed the entire room, the girl looked up startled, but Helena could see a dark shape within the smoke. It must be Rhys' Koffing, Butler, at work. The figure that was the girl suddenly cringed and collapsed, and another figure appeared from behind her. "Come on, lassie, we need to get out of here now!"


Helena whistled lowly, and Amycus flew out of the smoke through the open door and into the air where Helena called her back into her ball and followed Rhys, who had the unconscious girl in her arms. Together they ran as fast as they could. Rhys scaled a fence, threw the girl over it and climbed back up to give Helena a hand, and both of them sank down on the other end, huffing and puffing from the sprint.

"S-So what are we going to do with her?" Helena said, during the intervals of her breathing. Rhys took a while to answer.


"Get rid of her, it's all we can do."


"Wait!" Helena squealed," You don't mean, rid-rid of her, do you?! You can't do that. We can't do that. It's murder!"the last word came out in a really high pitch, and Rhys quickly shushed her.


"How else are we going to ensure that the information doesn't leak, Helena, tell me that and I'll do it your way," His tone was snapping, impatient. "We need to make sure that she doesn't talk, and we can't just tie 'er up and leave 'er somewhere. She'll die of starvation, or escape and tell people. I don't like it, Helena, but it need to be done!"


Helena had nothing to say to this. He had a point, no matter how gruesome that point was. She couldn't deny it. "Look," Rhys continued. "Get back to the Center, do you remember the way?" Helena nodded. "Good, go back, I'll do the dirty work. Get some sleep, rest, we'll talk tomorrow."


"Here," she removed the sweater and tried to give it to him, but Rhys turned back to normal and flashed her a grin. "Nah, I've got thick skin, plus, it looks so much better on you." With that he picked up the unconscious Rocket and carried her away. Helena stayed put for a while, processing what had happened, before slowly walking toward the Center.


Once she got back to her room she hung the sweater over a chair and dropper herself in bed, clothes still on. Curling herself in a blanket she tried to give herself images of the girl. The evil girl. The girl that was going to have them killed otherwise. As long as she kept thinking of that, she wouldn't be as scared. Wouldn't feel that guilty.

 

[Ninetales1]

OOC: *gulp* Is this RPG still alive...? Well... I'll get in a long-awaited post now. Expect a second either tomorrow or Sunday.
IC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a couple of hours, there came a moment when Lupin was sitting at a table near the dark kitchen area of the house in New Bark Town, finishing a much-needed cup of tea obtained from the said kitchen. It was something he had classically done, taking advantage of the kitchen while the owners of the house were asleep--and probably what had initially inspired him to become a thief in the first place, a long time ago.

At that same moment, Maleficent descended from the upstairs hallway, an ominous shadow drifting across a dimly lit space. She had been keeping watch on the master bedroom, just in case.

"Mis mis dra," she said to Lupin with a nod. The coast was clear and there was little to worry about.

Lupin nodded back in reply, then turned back to the scone in his hand. He stared at it for a little while, apparently in a state of contemplation (Maleficent detected a tinge of fear in him at this time), and eventually wofled it down, though being careful not to leave any crumbs on the table. Standing up, he beckoned Maleficent to come with him. As he did so, he once again checked the large pocket on the inside of his coat to make sure the recently stolen documents were safely in there.

"We should be leaving now, at any rate," he said to his beloved Misdreavus. "It's about 3:30 now, and we're meeting up with Merlin at five."

As soon as Lupin left the house for the last time, a sharp gust of wind threatened to push him sideways, and send Maleficent's hair flying forward--though the latter didn't happen. Maleficent's hair just rustled gently as if it was just a slight breeze. The scene looked roughly the same as it had been before, though a couple of clouds were now gathering in the sky, obscuring the Suicune constellation that was clearly visible at this time of year. Lupin occasionally looked up at this sky, if only for the purpose of avoiding the streetlamps.

But it was January, and a typical early morning. When Lupin reached the end of the block, he broke into a run, his usual way to stave off the chilly weather. Maleficent glided along after him, pleased that she didn't have to deal with these petty mundane things. Finally Lupin stopped at the edge of town. Immediately Maleficent spotted the tree the Hoothoot had fallen out of earlier, the one she had defeated during Psywave practice. However, she didn't feel much like participating in another battle tonight. She was more in the mood for relaxing and stargazing--she took several glances upward while following Lupin.

Somewhere beyond the clearing they had entered before, a cliff loomed over them, one about three times as tall as Lupin was. Fortunately, there were several jagged rocks on its slope, which made it possible for Lupin to climb it with about as much ease as he had demonstrated on the fence between the two houses from before. However, when he placed his hand on the rocky wall at one point, he pulled it back--the rock had somehow emitted an electric shock. Immediately Lupin knew this must have been something the Rockets had installed. And if that wasn't enough, shortly after Lupin reached the top of the cliff, an arrow shot at him out of nowhere, passing behind his back by less than an inch.

Oh, I heard about these stupid trees... he thought, referring to certain trees which shot these arrows at people when they passed by. Again, another one of Team Rocket's wicked inventions.

So Lupin took off in a run again, causing the arrows which shot at him for the next minute or so to instead fly behind him. These had clearly been designed to sense when someone moved in front of them, and hit them just in time as they walked by. A running person, therefore, would be too fast for the trees.

Yes, and now I suppose I should expect these trees to get up and walk, and strike with swinging branches, Lupin thought as he ran. Sounds like something out of a fantasy to me.

All this while, Maleficent was casually floating in the air, following Lupin and pitying him in a way as she went.

Ha, these mortals with their running and panting and their sensitivity to cold and their confinement to the ground, she thought. And their opaqueness, she added as an arrow went right through her. It's a shame I can't remember what being mortal was like.

After another few minutes (one of trees shot a laser beam instead of an arrow, striking a Hoothoot and burning it to a crisp), Lupin passed between two large non-shooting trees, stepping down onto a patch of grass. As he did so, something squealed underneath his foot.

"RAAAAAAAAAT!"

Lupin ignored this and kept on running, which he did for about another minute. After that, no more arrows or laser beams came, so he slowed down into a walk again. At that time Maleficent was looking up at the sky, admiring what was left of the Suicune constellation and how the moonlight made the cloud near it glow slightly. But after a while something disturbed her. First she heard a soft pitter-pattering noise behind her, then she saw Lupin stumble forward a slight bit and mutter something in surprise. Looking further down, she saw that Lupin was now trying to shake off a Rattata that was clinging onto his trouser leg with its teeth. Apparently it had been aiming for his ankle.

"RAAAAAA..." the Rattata squealed as it flew some feet into the air and landed on its back in a shorter patch of grass. Strangely, there was a puff of dust when Rattata landed in this grass. The Rattata got up and hissed at Lupin, waving its sprained tail behind it. Then it crouched down and wiggled its butt, preparing to Tackle or something.

"Why don't you hit it with a good Psywave, Maleficent?" Lupin said with a smirk on his face. This was one pathetic little Rattata. "Get close to Rattata first."

While the Rattata was focused on Lupin, Maleficent snuck around and ended up behind it. At that moment the Rattata started running at Lupin, and Maleficent followed. As she did, she quickly prepared a Psywave, focusing on the worry that Lupin would be Tackled. The undulating wave that resulted dipped downward, skimming the floor for less than half a second, then shot upward and hit the Rattata square in the stomach. The Rattata flew up in the air again.

"Another one!" Lupin commanded.

Before the Rattata could reach the ground, Maleficent got underneath it and used another Psywave, though this one wasn't as powerful as the last one was. Still, it caused Rattata to fly a bit higher.

"Oh, this is reminding me of a volleyball game," Lupin commented, sounding amused with himself. "Good, keep at it."

The smirk on Maleficent's face matched Lupin's at that point. She darted over to where the Rattata was about to fall, got underneath it, and used Psywave once more. This was a very weak Psywave, which hardly caused Rattata to fly up at all. She quickly fired another Psywave, and this one was just as powerful as the first. However, since the oscillations were so large, the wave arced right over Rattata without hitting it. Instead, Rattata fell right through Maleficent and onto the ground. Turning around and straightening up (she had been upside-down while firing the Psywaves), she looked down on the Rattata, who was feeling a bit dizzy. After a while, it growled and tried to Tackle her, but the attack of course did nothing--again the Rattata passed right through her. Upon realising its failure, the Rattata cursed at itself in Rattata language, then turned around and aimed a Tackle at Lupin instead. After all, Lupin was the one who had stepped on its tail.

"Let me get this straight--you want to fight me instead of Maleficent?" Lupin asked in a rhetorical fashion. "I'm pretty sure you'll fail either way. You already failed by not actually biting me. Now Maleficent will own your soul... but first..."

Just then, Rattata was running towards Lupin, trying to Tackle him. Just before it could though, Lupin gave it a small kick in the face. Maleficent laughed when the Rattata did a face-plant into the bottom of Lupin's shoe. Then, just for the heck of it, she moved up to Rattata and used a final Psywave to finish it off. But when she did, something strange happened. First of all, the wave was somewhat darker in colour than it had been before--it was a deep violet as opposed to the iridescent mauve from before. Second, just before it hit Rattata, the wave spread out a bit, and it seemed to both her and Lupin that it was trying to assume a hand-like shape.

"Rattttt..."

The Rattata fell like a sack onto its side, muttering to itself in trembling whispers. Maleficent peered over it, getting the impression that the Rattata was having some sort of waking nightmare, though not a very vivid one. Taking advantage of this, she absorbed this dark energy Rattata was generating into her orbs, laughing in a soft yet maleficent manner as she did so. Feeling refreshed and even a bit giddy, she flew upward in a spiral, dancing in the air as she flew back to Lupin. Lupin greeted her with a little round of applause.

"You learn rather quickly," he complimented, "and for that I am both proud and hopeful. So far you have indeed proven yourself to be worthy of accompanying me on this journey. If you were a person, I just might start thinking of considering recruiting you into the Black Cat Bandits... ah, but there are still several events ahead that will test us even further."

The stretch of route that followed was significantly more peaceful than the last stretch, though the clouds continued to gather, blocking the moon and taking on an ominous red glow. It was silent in this part, but that was probably better than hearing the whooshing of passing arrows and zapping sounds of passing laser beams every few seconds. Speaking of sounds, though, it was so quiet that Lupin could hear a tiny little series of beeps and bell-like sounds issuing from the pocket on his chest where the R was. He reached into this pocket and took out his cell phone. When he saw that Yamiko was calling him, he almost jumped in surprise, and his heart beat in the same excited manner as it always did when she first became present.

"Hello Yamiko," Lupin answered. Maleficent raised her eyebrows when she saw the slight degree to which Lupin's face seemed to light up. "Is everything all right?"

- "Well, you won't believe where I am," Yamiko replied, sounding rather pleased. "I'm at Halberd's place."

"Oh really? What might you be doing there?"

Yamiko sighed.
- "I've been thinking a lot about this mission against Team Rocket. I kept having this dilemma--a part of me really wants to come with you on this journey, but another part of me thinks it would be better if I stay out of Johto, out of Team Rocket's grasp. Yet if I do the latter, I'd feel like this helpless trapped princess--you know, like those women who are asked to stay home and protect the homeland while their husbands go off to fight in the war. I know it's very pathetic, and I didn't know what to do for the longest time. I tried to see if there was some way I could somehow help with this mission even if I were to not accompany you--even though I would have definitely loved to do the latter."
There was a hint of regret in Yamiko's voice as she said this, and even Lupin's heart sank a little.
- "So instead, I had this idea--I'm helping Halberd with the surveillance process. I bet I can even help with deliveries and other things--Melody is excited about being a delivery girl. And who knows, maybe I might figure out how to hack into Team Rocket's administration offices. I'm kind of forming a plan of how to go about that..."

Lupin smiled and nodded. "And this is one of the reasons why we're together. You really have good judgment on these things, and you made an excellent compromise. We may even be able to work together on tapping into the security systems--and I'm sure you and Halberd would enjoy watching a boss meeting through a security camera. Fortunately I brought my USB drive and adapter with me, so that should be possible. Halberd even let me borrow his watch, though it obviously doesn't fit around my wrist. I'll see if I can pick up a few other useful devices once I get to Cherrygrove--there's a port where they're importing a bunch of devices--probably from obsolete organisations like Teams Snagem and Galactic since they're from different regions. Also, I did find the blueprints for some of Dr. Namba's devices--I stole them from his own house a few hours ago. I'll be showing them to Merlin shortly, and hopefully we can relay them back to you as soon as we can."

- "Oh really? Wow, that's quite an accomplishment! Oh, and you know what? I think I actually might send Melody over. I don't believe Team Rocket has ever seen her, and Melody can do some pretty fast traveling. She actually figured out how to walk on water a few days ago."

- "Fairy! Fairy! Cle fairy!" Lupin heard Melody muttering excitedly in the background.

"Okay, but send UFO over to accompany her, just in case she gets attacked by a Tentacruel or something. A lone non-water Pokemon crossing the sea is typically not a good idea."

- "Well then, if we send them over ASAP, they should arrive in Cherrygrove by... late tomorrow afternoon. I think Halberd will let you know exactly when. But I'm really glad to be talking to you--it always puts such a smile on my face. But be very careful out there. I don't want one of your Pokemon suffering the same fate as my Kirlia, nor do I want you going back to prison. And who knows--perhaps we will finish this mission together, hand in hand. But until then, take care, and farewell for now."

"Yes, same here."

About a half-hour later of walking along the route with very few Pokemon encounters (though some trees shot one or two arrows at Lupin, one which Maleficent blocked with a Psywave), Lupin saw the silhouette of a building in the distance. The end of Route 29 was drawing near. Checking the clock on his cell phone, he saw it was 4:48 AM. He was twelve minutes early. To kill a little time, he wandered around the end of this route, again noting the awkward silence. Maybe this was due to having grown up in Sinnoh, where nighttime usually meant chirping Kricketots and Kricketunes. Even back in Hoenn, there was the scent of Gloom pollen on the routes at night, and the occasional sound of howling Poochyenas or Mightyenas, especially during a full moon. Especially in Lilycove, Shuppet often wandered about the streets at night--but Shuppet are not native to Johto, where Lupin now was. Even here, the sound of a hooting Hoothoot was quite rare. Did Team Rocket do something to this place that disrupted the wild Pokemon here?

All of a sudden, Lupin heard a sound--not a Hoothoot, but a whisper of "Psst!" from some unknown source. Seconds later, the same voice whispered, "Over here!" Turning around, Lupin scanned a row of trees, eventually spotting a short shadowy figure hidden well among them. Recognising this person as Merlin (more by voice than by sight), Lupin walked over to him and returned the greeting.

"Down here," Merlin whispered again, and the two squatted down amidst a group of shrubs.

At that point Lupin took out the papers he had stolen, and shone his dim little flashlight on one of them. This one had a diagram of what looked like some sort of shield at the top of it, mostly made of some sort of electrical energy.

"Well, here's what I found. This one's a patent notice for one of the devices. I've confirmed that this one makes a Pokemon immune to any non-physical attack. This should be very effective when used on a ghost Pokemon."

"Oh, yes, unless an opponent uses a Psycho Cut or something, that should make them almost invincible," Merlin commented.

Lupin proceeded to show the rest of the papers. He had regarded two of them as unimportant, but there was one that was a shipping order for some parts in Olivine scheduled for a month in the future, and another that had contact information on some of the other staff members, along with tasks they had assigned Namba to do or vice versa. The most peculiar thing about this, as Lupin pointed out, was something Namba had Dr. Wolfe do: "give me the full details on just what your plan is in Mahogany Town". Lupin remembered that this Dr. Wolfe was a Rocket official who was under the influence of the gym leader resistance. Apparently Namba still thought Dr. Wolfe was on his side.

One of the papers Lupin had randomly picked up from Namba's office was a diagram for an unfinished device. This was apparently a device that, when thrown onto a Pokemon, would cause the Pokemon to obey the owner of the device without question. Namba had not yet conceived the actual details of putting together this device, but he did make a few other notes on it. One thing he wrote in the margin was, "Can be used on an enemy's Pokemon during a battle." Another said, "Maybe include a personality-inhibiting factor?" At the very bottom was yet another note: "Needs more research."

"Well then," Merlin commented during Lupin's explanation of this device, "I suppose we will be the ones to finish the research for him. Except we'd be using that device against Team Rocket."

The last paper Lupin showed Merlin was the other patent notice he found.

"This one," he explained, "is a device that increases the voltage of Mareep's wool so much that touching the wool is fatal. I can come up with a couple different ways to use this wool, in fact..."

"But there's one problem," Merlin pointed out. "None of us have a Mareep."

"Well then, I suppose I'll have to catch one. They're native to Johto, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. Maybe if I can use a device similar to the Overlord Snare (that's what the unfinished device was called), that's another option. I can think of several ways to do this."

After a while, Lupin put the papers back in his pocket, and he and Merlin entered Cherrygrove City. This was a bigger city than Lupin had imagined; he had previously thought of it as a small town near the beach, obscured by the fame of Olivine. Yet now this city was a full-blown port. This was the first place Lupin and Merlin walked by--the docks of the cargo ships that imported devices from other regions, according to Lupin's speculations. Next to the docks was a warehouse, whose purpose was probably to store all the imported devices. Nearby the docks were a group of houses. Some of the houses had nameplates on or near them--names of Team Rocket researchers.

As they walked, Lupin and Merlin kept a close eye out for any security cameras. There were some around the warehouse, but not around the houses as was the case in New Bark Town. Even though there seemed to be no guards out and about, they spoke in near whispers. When they did, Maleficent hovered close to their heads (in between them rather; Lupin was about a head taller than Merlin). Most of the time they were talking small talk--Merlin asked how Maleficent was doing, Lupin explained the Psywave practice they had done, Merlin offered some tips on using that attack...

"...and theoretically, once she has full psychokinetic control of the wave," Merlin said at one point, "it might as well be considered a Psybeam. Psybeams can take many different shapes--it seems that each Pokemon uses it differently. It makes sense, considering that the psychic abilities one has is mostly determined by their various characteristics--personality, level of experience with other psychic abilities, type..."

At that point, Merlin and Lupin came to a section of town where the streetlamps were brighter, making the vivid purple colour of Merlin's coat much more noticeable. Maleficent occasionally got a glimpse of the occasional dark purple highlights in his otherwise long black hair, which was loosely tied up as usual despite the cold, as well as the green eyeshadow he was wearing. Maleficent thought this was an appearance that would definitely work for a magician, or even a Pokemon trainer who specialised in Psychic-type Pokemon, which Merlin certainly did. Although he liked the Ghost-type as well, he kept emphasizing that ghosts specialize in psychic abilities as well, and that a Ghost/Psychic-type would be redundant.

One thing that Lupin noticed was that Merlin had a red R much like his attached to his coat. Lupin thought this was a smart move, so that if anyone sees them together, they'll think they're just two Rockets who decided to team up. He just hoped that a Rocket official would never ask for his ID. Speaking of his ID, a peculiar thought regarding a Rocket ID for Merlin came to Lupin's mind...

After about an hour of walking around and stopping to talk occasionally, the two Black Cat Bandits noticed the sky turning a deep shade of blue, especially in the direction of Route 29. At this point they were at the coast again, moving close to the warehouse and checking the angle at which the security cameras were pointing. Lupin was beginning to devise a pathway into the warehouse by avoiding these cameras... but for now, as he was just walking by without attempting to enter, whoever was watching the cameras would hopefully not consider this suspicious. Walking around some more, he and Merlin stopped in a residential area and discussed another matter.

"So how should we get these documents back to Halberd?" Merlin inquired.

Lupin the went on to explain his phone conversation with Yamiko, and the carrier Pokemon sent to deliver the papers. Merlin mentioned something about attaching them as mail to Pokemon then trading them to Halberd or Yamiko, but Lupin figured that might be risky if officials checked the contents of the mail. After all, one of the other things Lupin had overheard in a past meeting was some Team Rocket officials reporting that young trainers often sent love letters and birthday cards to faraway friends by attaching them to Pokemon and trading, and said that this can also be used for secret documents. While they admitted it was a clever idea, they probably set up a surveillance system later on to prevent that from happening.

A while later, after Lupin and Merlin stood near the docks to watch the sun rise, they headed to a commercial district in the city, where one or two stores were opening up. One of these stores was a coffee house, where Merlin insisted that they get a bite to eat before proceeding any further. Before entering, Lupin returned Maleficent to her Pokeball (after several protests of course), and he and Merlin unpinned their R's and stuffed them into a pocket. It's a good thing they did, because a pair of Team Rocket grunts flew out of the place and landed face-down on the pavement. Behind them was a woman with clenched fists, a threatening look on her face.

"I don' wan' any o' ya Rockets hangin' roun' ma place," she sassed. "Hello," she added in a flowery tone of voice to Merlin and Lupin, holding her hands behind her back. "How may I help you?"

Merlin and Lupin looked at each other before speaking.
"Yes, we would like Giovanni's head on a silver platter," Merlin answered.

"Mmm, that sounds tasty," the woman agreed, playing with her blond hair. "And I know just the right spices to garnish it with."

No, Lupin and Merlin did not have Giovanni's head for supper, though that was nice wishful thinking. The owner of the place was indeed strongly opposed to Team Rocket--in fact, she told the two that she had a habit of "sneaking into the warehouse occasionally, just to see what they were up to". Nor did she like to give out her real name; the only name she gave them was Panther. Like Lupin, she wore all black clothes which covered most of her body. In fact, although this Panther seemed like the loud type, Lupin did see some potential in her, just maybe. Not to mention when he asked her how she got into the warehouse, she replied, "Ah, but a true magician never gives away her secrets!"

Nor will I give away mine, Lupin thought as he and Merlin left.

A while later, the sky had gotten brighter, though the clouds obscured the sun and it was drizzling a bit. Lupin was standing next to a gaping Merlin, who was facing an empty parking space.

"...B-b-b-but... this is unbelievable!" Merlin stammered. "How could someone have stolen my car?"

"Looks like they did with the window-breaking method," Lupin commented as he inspected the pavement. "Pathetic. They probably hot-wired it too. And this has to happen to a car that I stole the proper way. I hate to put this blunty to you, Merlin, but I don't think you're getting that car back. But perhaps I could steal another one..."

"Urrgh, and that means we'd have to forge the registration again, and... really, it is too much of a bother. Let's just find someplace to spend the day..."

Finally the two reached a hotel, Lupin having said many reassuring car-related things along the way. Unfortunately, the only rooms available in that hotel had just one bed, but that wasn't too much of a setback. It wasn't that long before Lupin and Merlin were both in their night clothes (or day clothes for that matter), having shut the blinds tight to minimise the amount of sunlight entering the room.

"Well," Lupin concluded as Merlin slipped under the covers next to him, "I guess this means we're sticking together for a while..."

Lupin wanted to say "at least until you get another car" after that, but didn't want to upset Merlin again after he had successfully cleared that from his mind.