Team Havoc Fight Club (Revived)

[Ninetales1]

By the time ringo had sat down in the club, a battle was about to begin on the battlefield in the centre. The challenger was Reina, the red-haired girl who was first to arrive in the guard tower, and Cubert was standing in front of her. The grunt who was battling her sent out Venusaur.
Venusaur versus Cubone? Ringo thought. One Grass-type attack from Venusaur and Cubone might be out of the match. This shouldn't take very long...

It was a short battle, as Ringo expected, but the outcome was the opposite of what Ringo expected. Venusaur didn't even get a chance to attack in the battle--Cubone used a combo consisting of Bone Club and Bonemerang, causing the floor of the battlefield to give out and Venusaur to fall in. The Venusaur soon found itself unable to escape this trap, and therefore lost the battle.
"eh-hem... The winner of battle number 2.... is Reina Oosaki," called a voice whose speaker could not be seen. (Maybe it was Giovanni.)
That must mean I'm next... Ringo thought, still a bit surprised at how short and unexpected the battle was. But he didn't allow himself to be surprised much longer--he had to stay focused on the battle that was ahead. Sorciere and Alice were sitting or floating next to him, but it was Sorciere that got more attention from Ringo at that moment.
"Sorciere, are you ready for battle?" Ringo asked the Mismagius.
"Misss..."
Ringo glimpsed a reddish gleam in Sorciere's eyes--one that usually appeared when she was eager to battle. More precisely, it indicated that she was viciously excited about the battle--she couldn't wait to cause some serious damage to whatever Pokemon she was up against. It would especially be fun if her opponent was a Pokemon who mainly used physical attacks. Those mundane fighters were fun to "magick around" with.

Ringo was about to get up when...
"Ringo Murakage," called the same voice, "please wait a few moments while we repair the battlefield. That figures--there was a huge hole where the grunt's Venusaur once was, and to be fair to eveyone, the battlefield needed to be smooth again. However, the repairing process didn't take too long--the battlefield dropped down to who knew where, and a new battlefield slid in from underneath a wall. But anyways, while this was going on, Ringo used these few seconds in the darkness of his seat to examine the money he had just stolen. He pulled it out and found two paper bills--each worth 10000 Pokedollars.
Wow, that's a quite a lot of money for me, Ringo thought, though it probably barely made a dent in Don Pearleon's riches.
Ringo took his wallet out of his handbag and put the new money inside of it. By the time he finished with that, it was his turn to walk up to the edge of the battlefield.
"All right Alice, you can stay here and watch if you want," Ringo said to his Umbreon as he walked away. Alice wore an awkward expression as he did--she probably thought it was she who got to battle first, as was often the case. But for some reason or another, Ringo decided that Sorciere was a better choice. But at least Sorciere liked battles a lot more than Alice did, so the little Umbreon was quite relieved as she sat in the chair, excited to see how Ringo and Sorciere would do in the battle.

After Ringo took his place on the battlefield and Sorciere floated over the battlefield in front of him, a grunt walked up to the other side of the battlefield. Ringo recognised this grunt--he was Bruce, another grunt that used to be in Team Rocket. Ringo had heard about him from his father, as he was the friend of the Team Havoc scout who got fired after messing with Ringo's letter.
"Well hello there, you son of a wolf," Bruce said as he took out a Pokeball. Ringo rolled his eyes briefly at this little comment.
My father picked his nickname for a very good reason (although I don't really know what it is), so haw dare he insult it. Speaking of nicknames...
"Hello there Brucey boy," Ringo replied. "I'm Shadowcat, and I'll be battling you. All right Sorciere, time to wipe Brucey out!"
The grunt grumbled at this statement Ringo made. "How dare he call me 'Brucey boy'... that's what Lupin used to call me."
"Kabutops, I choose you!" The fossil Pokemon emerged from its Pokeball and clapped his scythe-like claws together.
Kabutops, eh? Ringo thought. Wonderful! Low HP and low Special Defense, and Mismagius is faster.

"Sorciere, start off with your Confuse Ray!"
"Missss..." Sorciere's speech sounded like a hiss at this point, as it often did when she was in a battle.
The Confuse Ray was truly a spectacle. It came out as a thin spiral of dark energy, which arced upward and bounced along the floor of the battlefield in the direction of Kabutops.
"Dodge it, Kabutops!" Bruce commanded. The Kabutops jumped out of the way of the bouncing confuse Ray Attack, although it couldn't help but look back at it and admire its mesmerising beauty. Such an intricate dark spiral flowing and bouncing along, sending circular waves of energy outward when it hit the floor... This was definitely one of Sorciere's favourite contest moves. But this was not a contest--it was a battle, so the Confuse Ray had to hit. Sorciere glowed with a familiar blue aura--her Psychic attack. Except she didn't use it on Kabutops--she used it on her own Confuse Ray, in order to direct it towards Kabutops. Just when the bouncing and arcing Confuse Ray about about to hit the edge of the battlefield, it rebounded and gracefully leapt back towards the Kabutops. Soon enough it made contact, enveloping Kabutops with a purplish aura for a while.
"What the..." Bruce stammered--he didn't expect the Confuse Ray to hit his Kabutops. Great--now Kabutops was confused. "Hmm. Try using Aqua Jet!"
Kabutops was feeling dizzy, yet barely heard its trainer's command. Kabutops launched itself at Sorciere, a wave of water in its wake.

"Try again, Kabutops," Ringo muttered to himself as he watched the Kabutops' attack. Ringo didn't need to tell Sorciere what to do next--they had rehearsed this before. Ever since redirecting the Confuse Ray, Sorciere had been keeping an eye on Kabutops, still enveloped in her psychic blue aura. She had been waiting for Kabutops to attack, just incase it wasn't affected too much by the Confuse Ray. Yet still, Kabutops had barely made contact with Sorciere in the quick Aqua Jet attack, so Sorciere took a little damage before the Psychic attack took over Kabutops.
"Yes, Kabu... wait, what?"
Bruce watched as his Kabutops hovered in the air, surrounded by the same blue aura as the challenger's Mismagius. After a while, Sorciere's eyes glowed particularly bright--the force of this extra psychic energy threw Kabutops in an elegant backwards flip. After doing a full flip midair, it hit itself in the hip with his own scythe--one of the places where he wasn't covered too well with rocky armour. Then he crashed head-first into the pole behind him, and fell to the floor.

"Darn Psychic attack..." Bruce mumbled. "Kabutops, quick!"
Kabutops didn't need further commanding--"quick" meant to use the same attack again. So it surprised Sorciere by hitting her with another Aqua Jet. Unlike the last one, this one did quite a bit of damage. So much that Sorciere fell to the floor and struggled a bit before keeping herself afloat again. She looked to be very badly damaged.
Was that a critical hit? Ringo wondered. If it is, Sorciere had better be careful to avoid any other attacks...
"All right Sorciere, now use your Shadow Pulse combo!"
Ringo told Sorciere to use her favourite combo ever, which was equally effective in battles and contests. First, Sorciere summoned an orb of shadow energy, cloaked in an aura of darkness.
"Misss... magius."
Sorciere focused on Kabutops with all the force of her mind, regardless of whatever pain the aftershocks of the Aqua Jet caused. Then she fired a wave of dark energy at the Shadow Ball--a spiraling wave o black the enveloped the Shadow Ball, so that the whole attack looked like a black comet. This flew straight at the Kabutops, leaving a trail of dark energy behind it.

"Whoa! Kabutops, dodge and use Night Slash!" That'll KO that Mismagius if it hits. Hee hee hee.
Kabutops was mid-dodge when its scythes glowed prematurely, and it hit itself with the Night Slash instead. This didn't hurt too much due to its armour, but the Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse combo from Sorciere did. Black flames and purplr smoke hovered above Kabutops for a while before landing and fizzing away into nothingness.
"Ka... bu... topsss..." Kabutops fell to the ground.

"Kabutops is unable to..." the voice started, but then... "Oh wait, not yet."

For the Kabutops leapt back up, severely damaged from the attack but still having barely having enough energy to continue the battle.
Now it's in the bag.
"Now do another Dark Pulse."
Whenever Sorciere was asked to do a Dark Pulse by herself, it could mean only one thing. Sorciere summoned a field of dark energy in front of her, which swirled around and materialised into a dragon. This dragon roared and its bright purple eyes glowed, as its energy-made form flew straight at Kabutops, its black energy-made fangs bared.
"Kabutops, fight back with Ancientpower!" Bruce shouted.
Kabutops got to the point where it summoned a few rocks around him and prepared to make the attack cut right through the dragon and hit Sorciere. But Sorciere came prepared as usual--she used ehr Psychic attack again to hold the rocks in place. The rocks glowed purple and spun around, then disappeared in a flash of what looked like faery dust. So much for that Ancientpower attack...
"Try using X-scissor!" Bruce told Kabutops. He figured the energy-made dragon was Dark-type, so X-Scissor would be super-effective.
Kabutops lashed at the dragon with its scythes, but the dragon was too quick for it. The dragon bit Kabutops on the head then surged through the rest of Kabutops' body. Kabutops' scythes, meanwhile, cut through the dragon without doing anything--after all, it was sort of made of ectoplasm. Meanwhile, the darkness that enveloped the Kabutops was no longer a dragon, but an energy field that whirled around Kabutops, draining its energy by the second.
"Mis mis mis..." Mismagius cackled in delight as she watched the Kabutops inside the dark vortex. She then made some of the dark energy form into black flames that spun around the Kabutops. These were not actually fire--they were more motes of dark energy that had a burning effect similar to fire. Although they weren't able to cause burns. Anyways, the darkness continued to swirl around the dizzy and weakened Kabutops...

"All right, Sorciere, you can stop now--I think Kabutops is done..." Ringo knew how Sorciere liked to do a lot of damage to her opponents even after they fainted.
Sorciere obeyed Ringo and stopped her attack, but afterwards she extracted a wisp of aural energy from the Kabutops and absorbed it into one of her orbs. She usually did this after a battle--it was her method of obtaining energy.

When all was done, Kabutops lay motionless, yet barely alive, on the floor.
"The winner of the battle is Ringo Murakage, a.k.a. Shadowcat!" the voice announced.

Sorciere began to feel the pain inflicted upon her from Kabutops' Aqua Jet after the battle, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. She had, after all, gotten worse damage in battles before, and had used Curse, a self-damaging attack, before. So Sorciere grinned and turned around to follow Ringo back to the chair where Alice was sitting.
"Umbre umbreon!" Alice cheered as Ringo sat down next to her.
<"That really was a wonderful battle, as usual,"> Alice said to Sorciere in a string of "Umbre umbreon"'s.
<"Naturally,"> Sorciere replied, feeling extremely proud of herself.
Yes, you performed excellently, said a voice in Sorciere's mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC: I'll leave it up to you to decide who that voice came from... though if you look at Ringo's history it's pretty obvious...

 

[Marilyn]

Maria watched attentively as the boy before her battled. She was seated calmly in the stands, and was observing the pokemon's techniques. She was quite impressed with the force in the attacks, and knew right away the boy would win. After a few minutes of battle and a near fatal Aqua Jet, the boy succeeded, and left the field. Maria stood up and stretched her legs.

"Maria Yatokimo, please report to the battlefield for your battle," the voice on the loudspeaker said. She could not see a person, was it maybe Giovanni? Probably not, he was too special for something like this. Probably petting his Persian and discussing his plans to take over the world.

Maria calmly walked to the battlefield, and held Absol's pokeball in her hand. Was this the right pokemon to pick? After a few minutes of thought, Maria decided she wanted to use Flygon. Absol had gotten into a battle a few days before, and was still not fully healed.

"Sorry Absol. You'll fight very soon, I promise, but today's just not your day." She lightly kissed the pokeball, and slipped it into her pocket while pulling out another.

She came to the field, nodded fiercely towards her opponent, a Grunt, and the battle quickly began.

VS [URL="https://pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpmfa/dpmfa445.png%5b/IMG"][U][COLOR=#0000ff]https://pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/dpmfa/dpmfa445.png[/IMG[/COLOR][/U][/URL]][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Maria lifted the pokeball over her head, and gracefully released it into the air. "Flygon, do what you always do. You're very best!" Flygon quickly nodded to her, and flew happily up to the ceiling.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]You could tell this pokemon loved to battle. He whizzed happily around, waiting for his opponent to be released.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The Grunt released his pokemon, a Garchomp.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana][I]Hmmmm, good thing I picked Flygon. Garchomp is weak against Dragon type moves. Just my luck. I'll be able to defeat him even quicker.[/I][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Maria took the first turn, and politely asked Flygon to perform his attack. "Flygon, please use Dragonbreath!"[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Flygon wasted no time in flying above his opponent and attacking. His mouth, acting like a cannon, shot out the fire (or whatever it is..) quickly, proving him to be strong and extremely quick.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The Garchomp was extremely affected by this. It fell to the ground and quickly staggered back to its feet. This was the part of the battle Maria hated the most; watching the other pokemon in extreme pain. She wanted to end it quickly, and send the poor pokemon to the Pokemon Center as soon as it was over.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"Garchomp, come on buddy! You could stand up!" the Grunt encouraged his pokemon, an obvious look of pain in his eye. He probably hated to see his pokemon like this too. Garchomp stood up, and took up a battle pose. "Great buddy! Now, use Giga Impact!"[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Garchomp prepared for his attack, and launched it skillfully into the air. Unfortunately, no matter how strong it was, it never would hit its target. Flygon dodged the attack as if it were nothing, and seemed happy while he was doing it. It was almost like he was putting on a show.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"Okay Flygon, just finish this whole thing off with Aerial Ace." Maria said, getting ready to rush to the soon to be extremely injured pokemon. Flygon chirped happily, while lifting himself as high as he could, and then flying straight down at full speed, hitting his target straight in the stomach. The Garchomp fell, and without another word, Maria was declared the winner.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]As soon as the match was over, Maria ran over to the injured pokemon. It's trainer was kneeling beside it, looking panicked and worried.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"I'm so sorry about hurting you're pokemon so much. It just had to be done." Maria apologized, kneeling beside the trainer.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"It's fine, but I didn't expect you to be so strong! I didn't see it coming." The Grunt said, putting on a small smile.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]"You better bring him to the Center right away, so he'll be in tiptop shape tomorrow." Maria said, standing. The Grunt nodded to her, recalled his fainted pokemon back and quickly walked away.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Maria whistled to Flygon, who came to her quickly, and she petted him. She praised him on his good battle, and called him back to her pokeball so he could have a good rest.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]With a big smile on her face, Maria walked off the field.[/FONT]​

 

[Trainer Kat]

Hmmph. Takuya let out a sigh and a yawn as the battles dragged on. Boring. As always, he thought. The only battle that had mildly impressed him was that redheaded broad's.

"Well..." he began, speaking only to Gantz the Gengar, who was sitting on Takuya's lap. It was something he wouldn't have tolerated in public under normal circumstances, but since Gantz had just gotten hit in the face with a Shadow Ball, the boy figured he could allow it. Despite the fact that Gengar was somewhat scary, this Gengar looked almost adorable at this particular moment, sitting flat on his bum in his trainer's lap, legs stretched straight out in front of him.

"What did you think of that Reina girl, Gantz?" The Gengar rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I don't like her either, but she beat a Venusaur with a pathetic little Cubone." He laughed. "Maybe the Venusaur was just improperly trained!"

During this time, the boy with the Mismagius had swiftly won his battle against a Kabutops. Neither the boy nor his ghost had been paying close attention. That is, until the blonde from earlier showed up with a Flygon, who swiftly disposed of the opposing Garchomp. It was at that point that she apologized to the trainer. Takuya's expression went blank.

"What...the hell is she doing...? How...pathetic." He scoffed at her. She was weak, that was all there was to it.

"Takuya Miyamoto, please report to the arena at once."

"Well, Gantz, that's us." The Gengar shook his head defiantly. Takuya simply grinned and walked into the arena.

"Hmph. Youz think youz a match for me?" The opposing trainer, a man by the name of Luke, growled. A big burly guy, Luke would probably throw something like a Steelix at him. No matter. Takuya could handle anything.

"Go! Salamence!" Luke roared, throwing a PokeBall. The sphere opened, and, in a flash of red light, a blue dragon emerged, giving a roar that far surpassed that of his trainer. The corner of Takuya's mouth curved up into a grin.

"Gengar!" he yelled, raising one arm and snapping his fingers. His challenger guffawed.

"What, youz thinks Pokemon just rain from da sky or somethin'?" At that, Gengar leaped from the top of the concrete wall, falling the full fifty feet before landing squarely in front of Takuya.

vs.

"As a matter of fact, I do." The boy retorted. "Gantz, use Shadow Ball." The Gengar leaped backwards, forming a ball of purple energy between his two chubby hands before releasing it, sending it flying towards the Salamence. The dragon was a huge target, and slow at that. The ball hit him square in the chest.

"Salamence, Dragon Claw!" Luke yelled. The dragon roared and charged Gantz, who easily jumped to the side, producing another Shadow Ball and hitting the Salamence.

"Gantz, this has gone on far too long. Finish it!" Takuya screamed, eyes full of hate and anger. The Gengar sent rings of energy flying towards the dragon. A Hypnosis attack. Perching on the now sleeping Salamence's skull, Gengar began to absorb energy. Dream Eater. The dragon fell hard and fast. Never mind that Gengar was rightfully too weak to battle, having taken a super effective hit to the face earlier. He could still live up to his trainer's expectations.

"No!" Luke yelled, recalling Salamence and falling to his knees. Takuya walked over to the trainer and crouched in front of him, placing one cold finger under Luke's chin, tilting his face up to look him square in the eyes. Bringing his face close to the other trainer's, it certainly looked like Takuya had a habit of seducing boys. That is, until he spat right in Luke's face, flinging him to the side and kicking him in the ribcage.

"That's right!" Takuya cackled insanely. "You see that? I. Am. The. Best!!"

"T-T-Takuya Miyamoto wins!" the announcer said fearfully.

 

[Kansas]

The battles after Reina's tended to drag on. She wasn't used to not striking down opponents in one hit and it almost felt like they were just wasting time. They all had unnecessary movements in their strategies... thats what almost got them hit. Reina released Cubert out of his pokeball once more and picked him up, hugging him to her chest to let him see over the edge at the arena. The boy... Takuya, was beginning his match.

"Alright Cubert... you watch all of their movements, know how they battle... we wont be beaten by these chumps... especially that girl.... What on earth was she thinking? Such a soft attitude has no place in a setting like this. I sure hope she knows what she's getting herself into because if she fights us, she's going to need a bit more than a pokemon center..." Reina said silently to the little Cubone held cutely in her arms.

Reina inspected Takuya and his Gengar closely as they battled.

"Hmpf.. flashy entrance..flashy battle styles... their ego is going to be what gets them defeated...Edge wont give them time to play around like that... and neither will you, right Cubert?" Reina said as she fiddled with the black pokeball on her waist a little bit.

The battle in the arena finished as Takuya proceeded to taunt the other trainer at his defeat. Reina scoffed at the scrawny kid and his Gengar and turned her back to the arena.

"Hmpf... I'd almost be scared of his little tough guy facade if he didn't look more like a girl than I do..." Reina said quietly to Cubert as she giggled. "That being said.... watch out for that Gengar if we go against him, got it?"

Cubert nodded in compliance and they both proceeded to sigh a deep breath in unison, awaiting the final few battles so they could get out of there...

 

[AluminumKnight]

((Haven't posted for awhile, so I'll make up for it with an uber-long one :) ))

When Derek heard that each of the trainers were going to battle, he got excited. He hadn't battled seriously for awhile, so it would be nice to let his pokemon unleash their full power again. Dusty, too, seemed to get even more excited. Derek wondered if the Venomoth's change of mood was from the news of battling, or simply because he could sense that Derek was excited. "Ven! Ven!" chirped Dusty, again fluttering excitedly over Derek's head, seeming to forget about it's previous nervousness around all the ghost pokemon. Derek was lost in thought about what pokemon he should pick to use in this battle as he followed a few of the other trainers into the battle arena. Where they entered into the arena was actually a balcony; the arena itself was sunk 50 feet down into the middle of the room. Even higher above the balcony was a glass room that reminded Derek of a press box. An intercom buzzed to life:

"Welcome, trainers. I am the one who has summoned you here, Giovanni. I wish to see your skills in battle before competing in my league. By now you should have chosen your 1 pokemon to fight with and should be ready to do battle with your opponent. The battle will be against my agents, you need not know their names, just their numbers. The order will be as follows and will be posted on one of the monitors for reference. Battle well, trainers." The voice suddenly cut off as a list of names scrolled down the monitor into place.

1. Taide Moruko
2. Reina Oosaki
3. Ringo Murakage
4. Maria Yatokimo
5. Takuya Miyamoto
6. Derek Hightower
7. Ayukat Elizabeth Mary Tajiri IV

Derek looked up at Dusty. "Second to last?" he asked the Venomoth, "Looks like we have some watching to do, Dusty." Dusty reacted simply by saying "Ven! Veno!" and resuming his fluttering, which had ceased when the intercom came on. Derek settled down into a seat and watched as the first boy, Taide, whom Derek had not seen in the tower earlier, stepped into the arena. Derek looked around at the other trainers to see if anyone reacted to this new boy. Everyone seemed to be preparing for their battle. They all knew that this was very important: a loss meant they would be going home already. He watched as the redheaded Cubone trainer from the tower retracted the pokemon into his pokeball and flipped her hair back, leaning against the railing. She wasn't as classically beautiful as that dark-haired Aya girl, Derek thought, but she definitely wasn't unattractive.

Just then, Derek heard the cry of the battlers releasing their pokemon and snapped his attention back to the arena, realizing that he was staring. His focus turned to the battle, where Taide seemed to have lucked out, getting a Charizard as his opponent whilst using a Blastoise himself. He easily disposed of the Charizard, and the redhead, whose name was apparently Reina, was up next. Despite having an unfavorable matchup against a Venusaur, Derek was impressed with how easily her Cubone won. Ringo battled next, and was the only one to have a slightly harder time with his battle against a Kabutops. There was another new trainer, Maria, up after Ringo. She won easily, much like Taide and Reina.

Derek was especially interested in seeing the next trainer, the emo kid. He watched as the boy's Gengar easily defeated a Salamence. Nothing too special, though his Gengar looked tough. However, after the battle the boy proceeded to spit in the Havoc grunt's face, throw him to the ground, and kick him in the ribs. Wow, thought Derek, only a trainer with serious self-esteem issues would stoop so low. I almost hope I lose to him someday, because if he did that to me, he wouldn't be walking out of here. He was up next, apparently, but he figured he'd wait for the official announcement to start moving.

Derek was impressed by the rare pokemon their opponents were using, but they didn't seem to know how to use them. Perhaps they were pokemon given to them by Giovanni specifically to give the trainers a challenge? That was no way to win battles. Again, Derek found his mind wandering, and forced himself to focus, as he was up next. He looked over at Dusty, who had taken up a perch beside him. As soon as Derek looked at the bug pokemon, he cried "Ven! Venomoth!" and took off into flight again, excited at the prospect of battle.
"Sorry, buddy," said Derek apologetically, "I can only use one in this battle." He retracted Dusty into his rarely-used pokeball, smiling at the pokemon's whining.

"Derek Hightower, please report to the arena at once," boomed the intercom, and Derek made his way down the stairs into the arena. He walked out onto the dirt to take his place across from his opponent, a Havoc grunt who grinned evilly upon Derek meeting his eyes. Derek kept a stern, serious face as he returned the grunt's gaze, releasing his pokemon.

"Razor! You got this!" The Arbok appeared, giving it's best menacing "Arrr-bok!"

"Tyranitar, let's do this!" cried the grunt as he released the huge pokemon, causing the dirt in the arena to begin flying around in a sandstorm.

Without even flinching at the sight of the rare and strong pokemon, Derek yelled out his first command. "Razor! Use Glare!"

"No, Tyranitar! Don't look into it's eyes!" cried the grunt, but it was too late. The Tyranitar had already met Razor's eyes, and was partially paralyzed by the move.

"Good, Razor! Now use Poison Fang! Go for his belly!" Derek knew this move wasn't very effective against Tyranitar's Rock typing, but he hoped Razor's poison would be able to wear the beast down.

"Tyranitar," yelled the grunt, "come on!" The Tyranitar was struggling to move. As Razor approached him, the grunt tried to yell out orders, "Use Crunch!"
Razor lunged at Tyranitar, sinking it's fangs into the pokemon's hide. At the same time, Tyranitar managed to bite Razor hard in the neck. Razor recoiled and let go of it's grip on Tyranitar, hissing as she tried to hide her pain. "Good job Tyranitar!" shouted the grunt, "Now finish him with a Slash!" Fortunately, the effects of Glare were still giving the Tyranitar a hard time.

"Razor, dodge it!" yelled Derek. Razor was easily able to dodge the Tyranitar's clumsy attack, and both Derek and the grunt began to see that the Tyranitar was weakening due to the poison previously inflicted. Derek smiled as the grunt realized his plan and contorted his face with anger.

"Come on, Tyranitar!" shouted the grunt, "Try Dark Pulse!" The Tyranitar, barely able to keep it's eyes open, attempted to gather energy to attack, but to no avail. A loud thud was heard as the Armor pokemon fell to the dirt.

A triumphant smile crossed Derek's face as he petted the back of Razor's head. Razor, still trying to hide her pain, looked as menacing as she could as she stared down the grunt, who was frustrated at his pokemon, recalling the fainted Tyranitar into it's pokeball. Derek whispered "Good job Razor, you showed that beast." Derek withdrew Razor and left the arena without another look at his defeated opponent, climbing up the stairs. As he re-entered the viewing area, he couldn't help but to quickly glance Reina's way before sitting down. He began to go over the battle again in his head. Given the type disadvantage, Derek thought, I think I did about as well as I could have.

 

[Jim]

The battlers in the tournament were by no doubt excellent Trainers who raised their Pokémon as best as they possibly could. A prime example was the Cubone battling a very short battle against a Venusaur, with all the odds against it Cubone had won. The Gengar and Takuya had been impressive in their short battle. Sorciere the Mismagius and the blonde girl with her Flygon had fought adequate battles also, not to mention Derek Hightower's victory against a Tyranitar with no less than an Arbok.

"None of the Trainers are fighting to their full potential, up to yet none of the battles has lasted more than five minutes, they don't want to give away their strategy." Aya thought to herself. "However I've picked up on at least one battle style; The redhead, she focuses on combos and brute force to try and KO the opponent as fast as possible. I think the emo-boy focuses on evasion and trickery. I'll deal out my victory fairly quickly,"

"Ayukat Tajiri, please proceed to the battle arena,"

"Come on then Gligar, let's show them what you've got," she said to her Gligar, still perched on her shoulder. The duo proceeded down to the battle arena. The battler was already present, she was a regular Team Havoc Grunt, with the black uniform, regular letter H, she had red shoulder length hair.

"Ha, we'll flatten you in three seconds flat," the Grunt yelled from the other end of the dusty battlefield. She held out her Pokéball and threw it into the center. In a flash of white light her Pokémon was revealed. The Pokémon was a Pterodactyl Pokémon. It had huge wings and saw like teeth. It screeched an almighty screech upon release and soared into the air.

"Hm... Perfect." Aya pointed her arm up towards The Pterodactyl. With it's inability to fly and it's ability to glide, Aya had to use her arm as a sort of runway so the Pokémon could take off. "Go Gligar, and let's finish this quickly."

VS

Gligar soared straight at the Aerodactyl -who must be at least 40 feet in the air- awaiting his orders from Aya.

"Ha, that runt? Aerodactyl finish it quick, Hyper Beam!" the grunt screeched. Gligar continued to soar towards Aerodactyl. The Pterodactyl produced a large ball of yellow-orange energy infront of it's mouth and launched it as a beam. The attack was mere inches from Gligar when Aya finally commanded an attack.

"Gligar! Double Team!" she shouted. Gligar instantly 'split himself' into many fake copies using his speed; the copies surrounded Aerodactyl. The Hyper Beam was so large that it took out at least four of the copies and a larrge chunk of the field below. "Okay, Gligar, use Psychic to smash him into the floor!" The copies of Gligar all vanished leaving one remaining Gligar behind Aerodactyl. Gligar withdrew his tongue into his mouth and closed his eyes. He seemed in deeep concentration for a very short amount of time and finally produced a thin pink aura. Aerodactyl was glowing pink also. Suddenly Gligar opened his eyes -which were glowing the same colour- and punched the air -towards the ground- which sent Aerodactyl smashing down to the arena. "Now that it's grounded an Earthquake will effect it.."

"Aerodactyl! Get up!" the Grunt yelled. The Pokémon obviously wasn't hers as she seemed unaware of Hyper Beam's secondary effect.

"Gligar, swoop down and finish it with an Earthquake!" Gligar did as he was told and majestically delved down towards the recharging Aerodactyl. The scorpion Pokémon smashed it's tail down into the ground sending rocks up from everywhere, all colliding with the Pterodactyl Pokémon.

"Ayakut Tajiri is the winner..." the nervous guy on the intercom announced. Gligar didn't have a scratch on him. Aya held her arm out and allowed Gligar to swoop back into his position on her shoulder and they both proceeded back towards the rest of the group.

 

[Ninetales1]

OOC: Trainer Kat: Ringo's Mismagius battled a Kabutops, not Salamence... Ah well, probably just a typo.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ringo had been thinking mainly about Aya and Takuya ever since his own battle ended, and waited in anticipation to see how those two would do. After all, he showed the most negative of attitudes towards both of them upon meeting them back in the guard tower. He even half expected Takuya to use Gengar in his battle, and Aya to use Granbull. But anyways, as for Takuya specifically, by that time Ringo's attitude towards him had calmed down a tiny bit. At first he saw him as a lame "wannabe" imitation of his father, but then figured that given the chance, he just might identify with him. That is, as long as Gantz doesn't get too close to Sorciere. Ringo really wasn't here to make friends, but if he had to, Takuya seemed like the best candidate so far.

Anyways, although Ringo still kept himself aware of what was going on behind him and around him (though all he noticed was an electrician unplugging something from the wall with a fairly loud zap), he kept his main focus on the battles going on in front of him, while Sorciere commented to Alice about the flaws in the Pokemon's strategies. Let's see, first Maria battled a grunt's Garchomp with her Flygon. Hmm, a battle of two Pokemon of the same types. However, the hyperactive Flygon seemed to be more Flying-type than Ground-type, and made quite a spectacle of attacking and dodging mid-air. Okay... was it Ground-type or Flying-type? It sure seemed like the latter. Anyways, the battle was extremely quick, just like Reina's was. Basically, it went: Flygon used Dragonbreath. Garchomp used Giga Impact but missed. Flygon used Aerial Ace. Whoopee. Anyways, Maria ended up apologising to the grunt for hurting his Garchomp, but that was understandable. Ringo was completely aware how painful attack impacts could be. It seemed that Ringo was constantly around people and Pokemon that have experienced many different types of pain--people who tried their best to keep Ringo away from the pain they felt. Yes, the Pokemon had battled or had major clan issues, Mum was cursed, and Dad was tortured. Yet Ringo experienced none of the above, and apparently Golden Fox (his Alakazam) had never taken too much damage in a battle. If he started to sense tough times in a battle, he usually teleported away rather than let himself get hurt. Did a world without much pain really mean a life with something "missing"?

Takuya was up next, and to this battle Ringo paid special attention. (Although apparently Takuya didn't pay much attention to Ringo's battle.) As expected, Gantz battled, against a Salamence in fact. Hmm, now what sneaky strategies would Takuya pull off? For a brief moment Ringo thought about how his father battled, just as a comparison. Let's see, most of the time spent dodging attacks and picking at weak spots... adding in a dramatic climax full of personal flair when the time is right... finishing the battle wih a bang... Anyways, as for Takuya's battle... Ringo was thrown off a bit. The Gengar attacked straight away with a Shadow Ball, which hit the Salamence directly. Then he did the same thing again, after dodging a Dragon Claw by jumping to the side. Finally he put Salamence to sleep with Hypnosis, and then KO'd it with Dream Eater. It was an onslaught of attacks, save the Hypnosis (which was necessary for the Dream Eater to work anyways) and the quick dodge. Ringo quickly abandoned the ties he put to his father and Takuya. Not only that, after the battle, Takuya showed a display of plain old low rudeness, in the form of spitting in the grunt's face and kicking him. Talk about unnecessary...

Was there any battle that would take longer than Ringo's did? Ringo's battle surely took a few minutes, with the preparation of attacks and the action by both Kabutops and Sorciere. Ringo wondered if Derek's battle would last a little longer than Maria's and Reina's and Takuya's did... Well, it was longer than the others--Razor, Derek's Arbok, had to do quite a few attacks against Tyranitar due to type disadvantages. But it worked out--Razor managed to paralyse and poison the Tyranitar, whilst getting into a "bite fight" with it. Then Tyranitar had a hard time using Slash and Dark Pulse, and ended up fainting from the poison. Surely, Derek's battle was a prime example of how status problems can be very effective in weakening a Pokemon. It's no wonder that status problems make a Pokemon easier to capture, not to mention two of them at the same time.

Lastly came Aya's battle--her Gligar versus the grunt's Aerodactyl. (What was it with the fossil Pokemon?) Again, this was a battle Ringo paid special attention to--he almost expected Aya to show lots of pride and style in the battle. Let's see--a stylish Gligar? O-kay... Anyways, first Aerodactyl used Hyper Beam at the gliding Gligar, but Gligar dodged it at the last minute with Double Team. Then Gligar used Psychic (Wha...?), concentrating a bit and finally surrounding himself with a thin pink aura, contrary to Sorciere's thick blue one. Well, Gligar had low Special Attack, maybe that was a factor... Anyways, once Aerodactyl was on the ground, Gligar did his first stylish move in the battle (although the surprising Psychic attack may have counted)--a majestic swooping dive towards the ground. The dive ended in an Earthquake, which KO'd the Aerodactyl. Anyways, Ringo was overall unimpressed with another quick battle, but still he couldn't fathom how in the world that Gligar could have learned Psychic. He probably learned it the same way a... Sunflora would have learned Flamethrower. And what's more, it was effective. Not strong enough to do a whole lot of damage by itself, but effective.

Although the battles were now over, Ringo wanted to stay in this building a while longer. He enjoyed the darkness of the seats surrounding the battlefield, and would regret going back into the world of blinding neon lights. Those lights really were evil--they block the view of the stars and occasionally the moon (no wonder his father's Mightyena often shouted threatening barks at Neo Saffron), and they suck up all the electricity of the surrounding areas. At his house in the outskirts of Saffron, frequent power outages occurred in order to direct more electrical supply to Neo Saffron. Ringo really wanted to go out and find a light switch or two (or perhaps a hundred) that would turn off all those annoying lights. Now that would be a good thing to do.

Meanwhile, Sorciere and Alice had their little chat, although Sorciere did most of the talking.
<"Hee hee, that Kabutops was so fun to toy with!"> Sorciere giggled.
<"Pssht, you nearly got KO'd by an Aqua Jet.">
<"So? I still won, right? That Aqua Jet was merely a small price to pay for that Kabutops' demise. Call it pre-deed karma, if you will.">
<"Small? ...You really do remind me of Lupin. Both of you look at pain like it's nothing. I really don't see how you can do that... for me I just carefully avoid it.">
<"Yes, I know, you run around dodging attacks and slowly wear the foe out.">
<"I take a different approach in the daytime, if I absolutely HAVE to battle in the daytime.">
<"...Anyways, what did you think about the other battles?">
<"I can't wait to see you battle Gantz,"> Alice commented. <"If he uses Hypnosis on you...">
<"Oh come on. I know how to counter hypnotic waves. I did it before in that battle with that Hypno.">
<"Yes, that was what I was about to say... Still, you did well. I mean, you did a longer and more showy battle than the others did, but still...">
<"Oooops! I forgot that this was a battle, not a contest battle! I'm so used to making everything a spectacle!">
<"Keep it up. Really."> Alice nodded, then curled up on the chair she was sitting in. She wanted to stay in this cozy darkness forever.

 

[Kansas]

Reina scoffed at the rich girl battling. although it was true, her Gligar did make quick work of an Aerodactyl. Despite the girl's nasty attitude, Reina hated to admit to herself that she was a little happy seeing other not fully evolved pokemon on the field.

"Hmpf... i guess the competition is going to be pretty stiff if i have to fight one of them in league or tournament battle..." Reina said quietly to herself as she turned away from the arena. "Cubert, return."

She swung the doors open and stepped into the brisk night air. The Havoc Hotel's bright neon lights were easily visible from the club. Reina set off towards the hotel, at a quick and steady pace. Cute girls like her needn't be out this late at night, especially wearing a mini skirt in a city run by gangsters...

Reina finally arrived to the luxurious doors of the hotel. She stepped through them and walked in, entering a grand lit hallway with crystal chandeliers hanging above and a small reception desk in the middle of the room. A cute young woman stood quietly in the little kiosk, awaiting the trainer's arrival. Reina approached the desk and slid her crumpled letter between them without saying a word and inspecting the grand hotel.

"Reina Oosaki?" the receptionist questioned.

"aye? oh yes, that's me." She responded quietly.

"You'll be staying in room #2, down the hall to your left. Remember to keep your letter with you. You have access to every part of this hotel, you have the option of room service or eating with the other trainers that accompany you in the dining hall. There is a training center and swimming pool for training your pokemon and recreation. There is also a lounge area for post battle relaxation including a pool table, music, and drinks. Please enjoy your stay and good luck." She said as she finished explaining slowly as she slid Reina's room key across the table.

"Thank you, ma'am" Reina said as she picked up the key and walked to the left towards the hallway leading to her room. Upon reaching the doorway, she found the door to be an elevator instead of a hallway like she previously thought. She rode the elevator to the only floor posted on the buttons aside from the floor. Upon reaching her floor, she stepped out. It was a normal looking hallway, dimly lit with a pale orangish color. She scanned the side of the hall, finding room #2. She pushed the door open and her eyes widened with pampered delight. The room had fantastic designer furniture, complete with a hot tub and lovely view of the city. She couldn't believe what she was going to be staying in, definitely a good reason to keep on winning, just to stay here. Reina plopped onto the half circle couch in the middle of her room and immediately dozed off. The matches would start the following evening... she definitely needed to be rested up. No doubt the trainers were going to be tougher than the wimps she fought earlier tonight.

 

[AluminumKnight]

Derek watched as Aya battled an Aerodactyl with her Gligar. The Havoc grunt went for the KO right away with a Hyper Beam, and that proved to be her downfall, as the Gligar was able to pin the flying pokemon to the ground and use Earthquake for a super effective hit. It was pretty imaginative of her using that Psychic (it's rare to see Psychic on a Gligar, Derek thought) to throw Aerodactyl down.

After the girl had returned from her battle, the trainers were given instructions on where they were staying. Derek was anxious to get to the hotel, as he was exhausted. They had arrived at midnight and then walked a half hour and THEN all battled, one by one. He made sure he still had his letter with him, and once assured, headed to the hotel, behind Reina. She always seems to be in the lead... Derek thought as he entered the hotel. He presented his letter to the receptionist, who informed him that his room number was 4. After dropping off Razor to get her wounds from the battle healed, and reassuring her that he would be back for her in the morning, he proceeded to his room.

Although he knew going into this that they would be staying at a nice place, Derek was still taken aback by how roomy and fancy his room was. It had expensive furniture, a huge couch, and a great view, not to mention a hot tub. The room was so large, his pokemon could easily stay out of their pokeballs. Knowing they would like that, he released Flow and Dusty. Flow, happy to finally be out of her ball, wrapped her slender body around Derek with affection. Dusty, excited to have such a big room, immediately fluttered throughout the entire area. "Now you guys have to let me sleep," Derek said to the pair, "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow." With that, Flow let go of Derek and he flopped down on his bed. He looked at Dusty. "Lights?" Dusty flew over to the lightswitch and flipped it, and Derek was sound asleep in minutes.

 

[Ninetales1]

The chat between Sorciere and Alice was interrupted by an announcement from Giovanni.

"Attention all trainers!" Giovanni announced from the top of the tower. "I have to say that all eight of you have passed the test, although some of you have clearly done a better job than others in the battles."
There was a pause, during which Giovanni probably mentioned a few names to himself.
"Now, I understand that it's past most of your bedtimes, so fortunately a grunt will now be directing you to the hotel you will be staying at. Good night and good luck everyone."
They'll need it.

Hotel? What hotel? The part of the letter that mentioned the five-star hotel was crossed out on Ringo's copy--what did that mean? Oh well, it didn't matter now. Sleep was not on Ringo's list of things he had to take care of now, although most of the other trainers were heading off to bed as the grunt directed them to the hotel. He just sat there in the darkness of his seat for a while, although after a while he carefully got up and crouched behind a row of seats.
"Psst, Sorciere, Alice, come here a bit."
The two Pokemon followed Ringo to his hiding spot. Upon their arrival, Ringo pointed to a hole in the wall behind him.
"Why don't we see what's in that tunnel while we're here?"
"Umbre umbreon," Alice whispered to Ringo. Then she turned to Sorciere.
<"It seems like a good idea--why not check it out? Oh wait, me first!">
Alice leapt over Ringo and entered the hole.
Aha! I haven't gotten the chance to do that since I played leapfrog with my brother!
Alice was referring to the time she was still a wild Eevee living in Floaroma Meadow, before Lupin caught her and ever since was always the one to initiate such an investigation.

Sorciere rolled her eyes and entered after Alice and Ringo. She thought it was in her best interest to turn invisible and slip through edges of metal walls...

The tunnel ran into a tunnel that seemed to wrap around the edge of the battlefield. Ringo could see the surface of the battlefield through a series of round windows, but not a soul in the tunnel. It was a very narrow tunnel, barely big enough for him to stand up in, and barely wide enough for him to walk sideways in. Ringo kept looking to his right to see if anyone was there; Alice was scouting the area ahead of him to see if she could see anybody. Sorciere was invisible, so that didn't apply.

However, the tunnel proved to be nothing interesting--soon it led to a dark, empty room with a door leading to the outside. Hmm, now this was an interesting back door to remember in the future. This door led to the back of a dumpster that lined an alley. Whew, an alley that was at least partially dark--for the blazing of nearby lights still went on in the distance. But the good thing about this alley is that there were little nooks and crannies where the light was even dimmer--two such places looked like possible "bedrooms" because they looked like they could also block out sunlight in the daytime.

Ringo kept this alley in mind as he walked along and out of it, taking a little time to put his sunglasses back on before entering back into the neon world. Sorciere was a little more used to bright lights, so she floated alongside Ringo with few problems (although the lights still annoyed her). Alice scurried along underneath her, in the shadow of her dress and hat. Fortunately, Sorciere didn't mind a female Pokemon being underneath her skirt. If it were Ringo or Golden Fox...

Speaking of Ringo and Golden Fox, at that point Ringo let his Alakazam out of his Pokeball, shaking the Pokeball beforehand. Golden fox understood this signal--the second he emerged from his Pokeball, he teleported away.

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Saffron...

Yamiko was not tired either--in fact, it was only a while ago that she woke up. She had been sitting in the same spot for about a half hour, with a purring Meowth in her lap and with many thoughts on her mind. She had been thinking about her son, about the battle he was fighting, about how her own Mismagius was doing with him...
"Ree-owr," the Meowth muttered as it stretched out and walked away from her. Then Yamiko got up, with quite a bit of difficulty due to staying in a sitting position for so long. She had a bit of a headache, but it was nothing unusual to her. Only a Psyduck would be able to better handle a headache.

The fan was on, and Yamiko was not wearing her usual purple sweater--just the light purple shirt underneath and a pair of jeans she had just bought two days ago to replace the black pants she had worn ever since she first met her husband. After all, it was warm on this midsummer night--Ringo and his father must be really lucky to be asleep during the hot hours of the daytime. Anyways, Yamiko walked downstairs to be greeted by a crowd of anxious Pokemon--they reminded her of a group of fans waiting for a celebrity's autograph. Some of the Pokemon cheered, including a group of gossippy Oddish that she had recently taken in. A Bellossom was seated behind them, acting much like their mother (although she really wasn't).
"So what's the news on our brave little Mismagius?" the Bellossom asked telepathically.
"Well, Sorciere won a battle," Yamiko said aloud, so the other Pokemon could understand her. "She even got to use her favourite contest combos. She didn't use Curse, but..."
"Aww..." Bellossom then sighed.

Meanwhile, just outside Neo Saffron

"Kazam!" Golden Fox reappeared in the same park that Ringo was in just an hour or so earlier with his father. Speaking of "his father", there was someone this Alakazam was supposed to meet here...

After only a few moments, a Mightyena walked up to Golden Fox and barked.
<"Hello Sirius,"> Golden Fox greeted. <"Fancy meeting you before Ringo.">
<"Oh? You mean you didn't see Ringo since this morning?">
<"Well, I saw him, but I only was with him for a split second now before coming here. After all, he did mention that I was supposed to come here after an hour.">
<"Indeed,"> said the Mightyena. <"Ah, here comes Lupin now.">

"So, how did the viewing go?" asked a familiar curly-haired man, his glasses shining briefly in the moonlight.
"...Ah yes. Yes. Oh, interesting. That Mismagius... Oh, and how did it... I see. Well."
Golden Fox was trying to talk telepathically to Lupin, be he never did as good a job as with Ringo, who was his trainer, or Yamiko, who had lots of experience with telepathy. Fortunately, he was able to communicate with worldess thoughts and brief images.
"Yes, so Ringo saw me, eh?" Lupin finally asked Golden Fox. By that time, a Dusknoir was approaching them, and a Weavile watched from a tree.
<"Saw, but didn't recognise..."> Sirius muttered.
<"Perfect--when are we going to sneak into Neo Saffron?"> the Dusknoir asked.
"Ah, Shinigami, Hopscotch, good, you're both here." Lupin glanced at the newly arrived Dusknoir and Weavile. "Obviously Wheeler would be asleep now (the coward), so... Golden Fox, how about we tell the tale, say?"
<"Why don't you do the storytelling--I gotta get back to Ringo."> With that, Golden Fox teleported again.

"...so this means there's quite possibly a sort of passageway leading underneath there, an underground Neo Saffron, if you will..."
Lupin didn't go into the details on how beautiful Sorciere's Dark Pulse or Confuse Ray was--he just proceeded into more "important" stuff. Soon enough, he was exiting the park, Sirius and Shinigami and Hopscotch following him (Hopscotch the Weavile leapt from tree to tree). There was still so much to do...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC: From here things will get interesting.

 

[Trainer Kat]

After Takuya's little display post-victory, he made his way back up into the stands to watch the final two battles. First was Derek Hightower, who was narrowly victorious. Even with a blatant type disadvantage, his Arbok still managed to defeat his opponent's Tyranitar, though not without suffering some war wounds. Finally was that rich chick, who used a Gligar against an Aerodactyl. To make an otherwise unimpressive match notable, it seemed that Aya's Gligar had learned the move Psychic.

"Hmm..." Takuya mumbled, his hand absentmindedly placed on the top of Gantz's head, who had resumed his position in his master's lap, legs straight out in front of him. "You don't see that everyday." He glanced down at his Pokemon. "You'd better be careful when you fight that one, Gengar. Who knows what other surprises it has?" The Pokemon merely grinned up at his master, who had gone back to watching the arena intently. It was at that point that Giovanni made an announcement.

"Attention all trainers! I have to say that all eight of you have passed the test, although some of you have clearly done a better job than others in the battles." There was a pause. "Now, I understand that it's past most of your bedtimes, so fortunately a grunt will now be directing you to the hotel you will be staying at. Good night and good luck everyone."

"Tch," Takuya scoffed, standing. Gantz leapt off his lap, landing by his side. "Who needs to sleep?" A girl with lavender hair approached him, obviously someone who would be showing him to the hotel.

"I'm Anya, and I'll be showing you to your room. Right this way, Mr. Miyamoto." She led him out of the club building, out onto the streets. "You know..." she began, her back turned to him as she walked in front of him. "I watched your battle. I have to say, that's really impressive." She giggled and turned her head to the side, looking at him out of the corner of her equally lavender eyes. "I'll be looking forward to your next matches."

"Whatever," Takuya mumbled. He could care less about some lame tramp. The chick obviously knew next to nothing about Pokemon, and was probably just saying those things in an attempt to get Takuya to notice her.

Tch, she's a girl, what do you expect? he thought. Girls aren't good for anything.

"Well," the grunt said, holding open the door to the hotel. "Here we are." Takuya's green hues scanned the lobby. Five star indeed. He entered, beginning to approach the desk. "Wait," the grunt protested, hand pressed lightly against his back. "I almost forgot, here's my number..." With that, she pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled ten digits onto it. "In case you can't sleep," she added.

"I'm an insomniac," Takuya shot back, leaving the girl stunned. He made his way to the front desk, approaching the woman behind it.

"Takuya Miyamoto?" She asked, confirming his identity. The emo boy gave a swift nod. "You'll be in room 5. Enjoy your stay, and please, remember not to lose your ticket. You'll have access to all of our luxurious facilities, including a pool, training center, and lounge. Meals will be provided for you, and you'll also have the option of ordering room service, or dining with the others. Now, do you have any questions?" Takuya shook his head. "Good, now here's your key." With that, the attendant dropped the key into Takuya's awaiting hands.

The boy made his way to his room, taking in all the luxury. It wasn't everyday a guy like him got to stay in a place like this. Once he reached his room, he unlocked the door and entered, flipping on the light. The room was impressive. First stop was the bed. He lay down on the edge of it. For the first time in days, a smile crossed his lips.

Clean sheets... he thought as Gengar climbed up onto the bed, sitting down. It almost makes me want to go to sleep...that is, if I could. Takuya stayed like that for a while.

He figured since he couldn't sleep, he would at least check out some of the facilities that broad had mentioned. After all, everyone was probably asleep by now, so he wouldn't have to worry about running into anyone. He exited his room quietly, after which he walked down the hall to the lobby. He had no idea where anything was.

 

[Marilyn]

IC: Maria watched as the other trainers did extremely well in their battles, and had to admit she was quite impressed. She frowned sternly when Takuya had battled, and her frowned deepened when he spat on and kicked the poor grunt. She wondered if anyone would notice if she slugged him, but then decided against it. Something was definetly wrong with this guy, and she couldn't help but be curious as to what. She smiled when everyone had finally finished battling, and was quite excited to know what they were to do next.

" Thank you to everyone who has battled. We are glad to say that you have all fared very well, and we will give you instructions on what to do next. Everyone will spend the night in Havoc Hotel, which is a five star hotel. All accomadations are included, so we will have an assistant direct you to the hotel. Good night everyone." The voice spoke clearly from the loudspeaker, but Maria couldn't believe her ears. She had never been in a five star hotel, since the Pokemon Center was always the best she could do. She was approached by a young man, who was probably the assistant.

"Hello Miss Yatokimo. Please let me direct you to the hotel." The man seemed quite nervous to be around her. He fidgeted with his shirt before walking stiffly to the door, she trailing behind him. He had fairly light hair, and small brown eyes. He was rather short, and not too thin.

"Okay, that sounds fine to me! I don't usually stay in hotels, so I'm pretty excited about this," she said enthusiastically.

"Um…. I thought your battle was pretty amazing. Flygon is very strong."

"Why thank you!" They had now neared a large, beautiful building. The man didn't even have to tell her; she knew this was the hotel. When she was finally delivered safely inside, she mumbled her thanks as she walked around the place, eyes huge. She walked over to the front desk, where she was greeted by the receptionist.

"Hello Miss Yatokimo, and welcome to Havoc Hotel. Your room is number 4. As a guest, you can use all the facilities found in the hotel. Don't be afraid to call the front desk if you are experiencing any problems. Here's your key. We hope you enjoy your stay." The receptionist spoke in a robotic, but professional way. After handing Maria her key, she turned around and began other work.

Maria walked into her room, and was pleased by it's beauty. It was large, brightly lit room, with a huge bed that looked extremely inviting, and beautiful matching furniture. A large TV faced her bed, and she decided she would maybe watch a movie during her stay.

She slipped into her nightgown, and happily jumped into bed. She tried to sleep, but found out she was too excited to do so. She was expecting herself to fall asleep the instant her head hit the pillow, since she had had a long day, but her body had decided otherwise. She was wide awake and extremely alert, and her body felt like it could do three hundred sit ups without breaking into a sweat. Sighing, Maria got out of her bed and put on her ballerina flats. Instead of waiting to fall asleep, she could at least waste her time by checking out the facilities. She stepped out of her rooms, still in her nightgown because she thought that everyone else was sleeping, and she set down the hall. She walked quietly, but as she turned the corner, she bumped into someone. She tripped over her own feet, but quickly got up to apologize.

"I am so sorry," Maria apologized quickly to the person standing in front of her, and quickly realized it was Takuya. "You can't sleep either I see. Would you like to join me on a walk to check out the facilities?"

OoC: Is it alright that I bumped into you Kat?

 

[Trainer Kat]

OOC: Yes, of course it's ok. :]

IC:

Takuya stood in the lobby, staring at the TV set through half closed lids. He seemed to be mesmerized by the moving picture. As his hair fell in his face, he would brush it away, expressing a bit of frustration at the uncooperative fringe. The boy was clearly bored with the world at the moment. Apathetically, he pressed his tongue to his lip ring and began to move it from side to side. Gengar released a small grunt.

"Mm...Gantz? You want to go steal dreams, don't you?" The Pokemon nodded. Takuya chuckled softly. "I suppose you can do that later when I head back." He tapped his foot impatiently on the carpeted floor. "What the hell, let's go back now. I'm bored and there's a TV in the room anyway." With those words, he turned to make his way down the hallway to his room, only to be greeted with a head on collision. Maria.

"I am so sorry," Maria apologized quickly to the person standing in front of her, and quickly realized it was Takuya. "You can't sleep either I see. Would you like to join me on a walk to check out the facilities?"

"...I don't sleep," he mumbled. After a slight pause, he finished with a sigh. "Yeah, whatever. I'll go." Upon noticing her nightgown, he blinked, giving her a blank stare. The thing wasn't exactly something that most girls went walking around in, as it seemed slightly revealing.

"What are you...wearing?!" he exclaimed.

OOC: OUCH short post. xD I didn't really have a lot to say.

 

[Marilyn]

OoC: lol, the what are you wearing part made me laugh. This is a short post, well since it's kinda hard to make it long without godmodding. Don't worry, I didn't :P

A second later, Takuya had responded. "...I don't sleep," he mumbled. After a slight pause, he finished with a sigh. "Yeah, whatever. I'll go."

Maria didn't even want to question why he didn't sleep. He was probably an insomniac. She had never met an imsoniac, and she was now full of wonder about how they could stay awake forever. Don't they get tired? But then again, she was quite surprised he had agreed to go with her. A boy who seemed this distant, well it was quite odd. She saw him staring at her nightgown, and she quickly blushed.

"What are you...wearing?!" he exclaimed.

Ignoring her embarrassed state, she boldly said, "What? You've never seen a nightgown before? They are quite common around my parts. Honestly, you've never seen one of these?"

She was not really expecting to see him, nor anyone else walking around at this time of night. She did not exactly regret changing, since this was her most comfortable nightgown, but now she wished she had put on a bathrobe. Her nightgown was light pink in color, with lace fringes on all the corners. It was light, and only a bit revealing. But now that she thought of it, she did not exactly care. This was Takuya, an emo kid. Why would she care whether he liked it or not.

 

[Trainer Kat]

"What? You've never seen a nightgown before? They are quite common around my parts. Honestly, you've never seen one of these?" Maria's statement was quite bold. The boy merely shook his head. He had exchanged enough words with the girl for now. The movement disturbed his bangs, and the hair fell loosely in his eyes, causing him to look more like a sheepdog than an emo kid. With one flick of his neck, he threw the fringe back to its normal place.

Without saying anything to Maria, Takuya began to walk along the walls of the lobby, his head turned towards the structure. He was obviously looking for something. Eventually he stopped before a medium sized map just to the right of the TV. Leaning towards it until he got at eye-level with the laminated piece of paper, he stared through his half-closed lids. Turning back towards Maria, he pointed to his left, giving her an apathetic look. He doubted she would be able to read his little gesture, so he decided to give her a few more words.

"Training center's that way." He continued to point, flexing his finger as if to emphasize that they should go down that hall. Gengar took one look at Maria before turning back towards the hall. Takuya began to walk down the hallway. He threw his right arm up before saying in a monotone voice; "Come on."

OOC: In an effort to get these posts a little longer, I'm gonna allow you to just make him come with you. xD I can add the dialogue in and his reaction and stuff, but in your next post, you could arrive at the Training center, and just assume that Taku-bear's following.

 

[Sir Aaron1017]

With a sigh, Lexie pulled herself out of the pool at the Grand Havoc Hotel, which by the way, was the size of an Olympic Pool. "I guess that I could go back to my room" She thought to herself, so she grabbed the towel that was sitting on the back of the deck chair, and dried her hair, then wrapped it around her waist. She saw her reflection in the surface of the pool, and shook her hair in an attempt to get in into a manageable position, which in turn made it worse. Her black two-piece swimming suit fit comfortably, so she barely even felt it was there, which made her double check, just in case. She slipped on her sandals, and walked slowly into the hall. The cool breeze from outside as it hit her damp skin made her shiver unconsciously.

When she rounded the corner of the hallway into the lobby, she noticed two people starting to walk down a hallway, a boy that had long black hair, and a girl that was wearing something pink, which she guessed was some type of sleazy bed wear. She hadn't seen many people here before, and she was dying to talk to someone. She had tried to make conversation with the lady at the front desk, but she didn't cut it, she was just too old, and was just there to give information about the facilities and rooms.

Without even thinking twice, she ran after them and started yelling "Hey wait up!" The two looked her direction and made her feel slightly uncomfortable. When she finally caught up to them, she said "Hi, my name is Lexie, but you can call me Lex."

 

[Jim]

"Attention all trainers! I have to say that all eight of you have passed the test, although some of you have clearly done a better job than others in the battles." There was a pause. "Now, I understand that it's past most of your bedtimes, so fortunately a grunt will now be directing you to the hotel you will be staying at. Good night and good luck everyone."

Aya, was leaning against a wall during the prior announcement. Once the mysterious-sounding announcement had finished echoing throughout the room, Aya stood up. She straightened her clothes and then reached to her belt. She reached for the Johto-exclusive Fast Ball; a regular looking Pokéball but with two symmetric yellow circles on the left and right sides of the Pokéball and a prominent electric bolt of the same colour at the top. She seized the Fast Ball and pointed it at Gligar. She didn't speak a word to the Pokémon as the red beam withdrew him. She shrunk the Fast Ball and re-attached it to her belt. She grabbed the indigo, gem encrusted Pokéball and released her 'signature' Pokémon, Granbull. The flash of evanescent light revealed the Bulldog Pokémon. Granbull sat proudly at her owner's feet.

Because of this display most of the Trainers had already left her.

"Come on Granbull, let's go check out this Hotel." The girl exited the building with her Pokémon in tow. The walk wasn't very long, but she had underestimated the distance, possibly due to the bright lights. As she arrived she pushed through the beautiful doors and entered a grand and beautifully lit hallway, furnished with crystal chandeliers amongst other furnishings. The inside of the building was a huge contrast to the outside. "This Hotel reminds me of home, and there's not one place in this world that has achieved that,"

Granbull, who was walking on all fours, seemed equally amazed as the duo slowly approached the dainty woman in the kiosk.

"And last but not least, Ayukat Ma-" the woman started but was abruptly interrupted by the black haired girl.

"Aya. Aya Tajiri the fourth," the girl loathed her full name, she absolutely despised it.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," the woman apologized courteously, however sounding a little annoyed. "You will be staying in room #7, unless you have any objections to that number?" she added sarcastically. "I thought not. Keep your letter with you at all times and enjoy your stay," the woman added a forced smile at the end and handed her the room key.

A few minutes later, as Aya was climbing the stairs, she managed to catch sight of three of the battlers, the emo boy Taku, and two other girls, both wearing... well not much. [OOC: It's like Kat with Kozue and Fen in Grand Tournament (on Route 1) but in reverse XD].

"Hm?" Aya said to herself, quite surprised at the seemingly 'random' scene. "Peculiar, I was sure he was more of a guy's guy, well. Good luck to him with those two. Didn't know he had it in him," Aya laughed as she finished talking to herself. She made sure she could easily escape before emitting a loud wolf whistle down the corridor and then escaped undetected.

OOC: Ahhk, short post, but a least I finally posted.

 

[Ninetales1]

OOC: Hmm, if Ringo doesn't have a hotel room and practically everyone else is in the hotel...
IC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<"So what are we going to do until it's time for bed?"> Sorciere asked Alice, who was still underneath her.
<"Well, I suppose we'll do something very interesting indeed,"> Alice guessed. <"There's something about human-Pokemon moments that are just so... amusing.">
<"Of course, it's also fun to wander off on your own,"> Sorciere commented. <"If you were me, say, you'd probably spend a lot of time collecting energy from people. Of course, I just did that with that Kabutops, so... Wow, this will be my first time on a nighttime adventure with Ringo. I wonder if it'll be different from my daytime adventures with Yamiko in the past. I only remember two of those--they were when I was still a Misdreavus, and before Yamiko met Lupin.">
<"But nighttime adventures are more fun!">
<"I know--but others get in the way of my energy-stealing searches, so I always go alone.">
"Come on you two," Ringo said to the two Pokemon, after incomprehensibly listening to their conversation. "Let's wander 'round some more. I think that's what we had planned, right?"
Alice stifled a giggle as she nodded in agreement.

This particular street was emptier than the one that led from the club to the hotel. It was an empty street, true, and it had more bright lights and fewer neon signs, but this street also held memories. To his left was a large, gray building with a stylish, almost wavy roof, and glass doors leading to a hallway whose floor was lined with a carpet that was ornately decorated and looked to be made partially of gold. Ringo remembered going inside this building several times--this was Sabrina's gym. Sabrina had been a good friend of Ringo's mother, and she was a very interesting person otherwise, and she and her parents were the only people Ringo had ever heard of who were able to use telekinesis. After being exiled out of Saffron City, Sabrina had moved to Pallet Town, staying with Professor Willow, who also happened to be her mother's cousin. Sabrina still came to visit the Murakage family occasionally, but this was a friendship that had become severed ever since the invasion of Team Havoc. Such sad memories...

Ringo thought about entering the gym, but the guard standing just inside the glass doors told him otherwise. Upon seeing this guard, Ringo made a particular hand signal to Sorciere and Alice, telling them to keep quiet. After all, there was a good chance that this area was restricted, or that he had a curfew he hadn't been told about... Anyways, Ringo then focused his attention to the right side of the street, where there were a row of small houses. Ringo's face lit up almost as brightly as the neon signs in the distance when he saw these--one particular house here was the reason why Yamiko and Sabrina met in the first place. It was the house directly across the street from Sabrina's--which was easy to identify because the walls were slightly cracked, due to an episode in Sabrina's youth when she used her telekinetic powers to break down the house. Anyways, the house in the row across the street, the one that had the faded red number 14 on the door, was the house that Yamiko had lived in in the first years of her life. Her friendship with Sabrina had originated when she saw Sabrina across the street and became interested in her. Anyways, Yamiko's father lived there for a long time--from the time Yamiko was born to the time Team Havoc took over the city. Now Grandpa lived in Lavender Town, in a house previously occupied by Ringo's great-great-grandmother. Anyways, this house was not guarded at all--in fact, Team Havoc had done nothing with it since taking over the area. It was a small house, after all--so there was little use for it. Some of the larger houses now housed Team Havoc members, but this was one of the lucky ones to remain unoccupied. Anyways, before seeing Ringo off, Mum had given him a key to this house, and it was this key that Ringo now used to that door numbered 14...

Apparently, Grandpa had been in a hurry to snatch every personal possession he could find before being "evacuated", so he said--there were pieces of paper lying on the floor here and there, an overturned chair, and a tiny ballet shoe. This had obviously belonged to a young Yamiko, long ago when her main childhood ambition was to become a dancer. Her first ballet shoe--this might be a cherished memory to dear old (well, mid-thirties isn't that old...) Mum, so Ringo picked it up and put it into his handbag. Anyways, after that Ringo began to take a look around, the quiet Sorciere and Alice splitting up to explore on their own. The study to the left held a desk with scattered papers all over it, an empty bookshelf, and an elegant-looking red leather chair, which Grandpa had bought two days before the Team Havoc invasion. The room to the right of the main hallway was large, dark, and completely empty, as it had been for the last thirty years. An odd smell lingered near the kitchen sink, probably from the refrigerator whose contents were probably all mouldy. The bathroom was again barren (wait, does a bar of soap count?), but there was still a small bed in a small room beyond it. Perfect--Ringo could sleep here tomorrow! He didn't need a hotel after all.

Sitting on the bed, Ringo let Golden Fox out of his Pokeball at last. Here would be a very awkward place to place a surveillance camera or something, after all--yet just incase, Ringo had closed the curtains on a window to his left. Alice lay curled up on the bed next to him, and Sorciere floated by in front of him.
"Well, I must say it feels just like home here," Ringo said at last.
"It's very welcoming," Golden Fox said telepathically to Ringo. "You think that if your grandfather had a Kadabra, an Alakazam would feel very welcome here."
Ringo smiled at Golden Fox, then started to pet Alice.
"Umm breeeon," Alice sighed. A bed provided a nice place to rest for a while.
"Well, we got plenty of time--we certainly could rest here for a few minutes. Let's try not to stay too long in any room that has windows..."

Ringo got up, probably for the restroom, while Golden Fox lay down on the bed.
<"This bed is even softer than the one in my Pokeball,"> the Alakazam commented.
<"Very true..."> Alice muttered.
<"Oh come on, don't fall asleep. If anyone should be tired, it would be me, after that battle... Ah well, I'm okay."> Sorciere still felt a little shaken by that Kabutops' Aqua Jet.
<"You'll be fine, after a good day's rest and a break from battling,"> Golden Fox suggested. Then he closed his eyes and started to fall asleep. He was normally asleep at this time, being the "day watcher" for Ringo, but he was so excited for Ringo for the last hour that he was awake for a short while. Besides, if any further test battles took place around noon, someone needed to be fully awake...

 

[Kansas]

Reina arose the next morning with a wide stretch. She looked towards the large window in her room which had the curtains drawn shut. She walked over and braced herself for light as she threw open the curtains. The morning light burst through the room, exposing everything to the new day.

"perfect! hmm first round matches are tonight, i'll be fighting the REAL trainers, FINALLY." Reina said aloud. She let Cubone out onto the floor in front of her.

"Well Cubert! tonights the night we make ourselves famous! Thousands of people will be lining those balconies, just to see how strong we are..." Reina froze at the thought. Cubert looked at her in question for a moment before she finally spoke.

"thousands... of...people....I NEED NEW CLOTHES IF I'M GONNA BE BATTLING IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE! COME ON CUBERT!" Reina said in a panic. She reached down, grabbing Cubert's bone and pulled it and the little pokemon behind her as she dashed by the table grabbing her letter and sped out the door.

Reina flew through the elevator door, skidding to a stop in the middle of the hotel. She then turned to the door and charged down the street towards the mall in the center of town.

-----

After hours of shopping, and a handful of bags, she slumped back to the Havoc Hotel and plopped onto a chair in the lobby. Cubert trailed slowly behind... clearly worn out from Reina's shopping, he collapsed at her feet.

"aw... Cubert, i'm sorry baby...take a rest.. i'll just use Edge and Sunny tonight." Reina said in a patronizing tone. "Come on back, babe." she said as she recalled Cubert back into his pokeball.

"Uhm... excuse me? Miss Reina?" a voice called from across the room.

"Yes?" She responded curiously. noticing it was the secretary at the center kiosk again.

"Mr. Giovanni has sent battle orders down and would like me to relay them to you. Only the even numbered battlers will be fighting tonight. From now on, the matches will be 3 on 3, and there is a chance you all COULD be facing each other. The order of battle between the few of you fighting today will be decided tonight. Mr. Giovanni also requests the other trainers come watch from a private box reserved for you all on the 4th floor of Club Havoc. To see more of the competition" She said happily.

"Thank you so much!" Reina responded cheerfully. "Now... lets see, i was trainer #2... so I guess i'm up tonight... and poor Cubert is so tired out...When all else fails, i guess its up to Edge to clean up the arena. Oh well, I can decide later. I wonder what the other trainers have been doing all day in preparation for tonight...thousands of spectators..." She thought to herself as she let out a VERY heavy sigh, she leaned back in her chair and thought about the match to come tonight....

and what she was going to wear...

 

[Sir Aaron1017]

"I am tired, so I will see you guys tomorrow, O.k.?" Lexie said to the two. She turned on her heel, and walked down the hall, turned right, and headed to her room. "I really need to go get new clothes tomorrow. All I have are those stupid..." She mumbled, then went into deep thought. She continued until she reached the door with an 8 on it, then slid her key, and turned the knob, pusing the door open. She stared at her room for the third time since she had been in the hotel. It was spectacular, better than she was used to, thats for sure.

"Espeon, come on out!" Lexie said in a whisper, bringing the psychic cat out of it's sluber from the ball, to have her jump on the bed. returning to sleep. She changed to her pajamas, then slipped under the covers on the queen-sized bed, petted Jewel, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When her alarm clock went off, she threw it across the room, breaking the second one this week so far. Grogily, she walked to the bathroom, took a shower, brushed her teeth, then went and got dressed in her usual outfit. She had atleast seven pairs of each item, and they were getting boring. She fixed her hair, grabbed her pokemon belt, then ran out of the room, with Jewel hot on her heels.

When she finally made it downstairs, she saw a red-headed girl sitting on a bench in the lobby, obviously contemplating something that was troubling her.

"Hi! My name is Lexie, what is yours?" She said warmly, trying to be as friendly as she could because she was in a desperate need of social activity.

((OOC: I am sorry for the small post, but I was dying to get some conversations going with Lexie))