"Agent Kaipo, we've an urgent situation."
"Of course, Captain Blabberface." A young teen sighed into his cell phone. He'd just sat down at a bar with his incredibly passable fake Id, and was not in the mood to be summoned by his superior officer. The irritated voice of Lennox, a Magma Elite and Kanoa's superior, practically screamed through his speakers. Batting at a strand of long dark hair that poked out from under his pullover cap, he listened idly to the older man rant on the phone.
"For the last time, Kaipo, refer to me by my name, or rank, or just sir! Show some deference, man. You're in the proud ranks of Magma, so you'd better act like it!"
Rolling his eyes, Kanoa mouthed: "Thanks Corporal Blah-Blah" before audibly voicing: "Yes, sir."
"We've intel on a pair of defectors heading into your sector. Rendez vous with the two other Magma agents we've contacted at the corner of 9th and Bridge, in front of the Pokemart. Your objective is to retrieve the two deserters by any means necessary. Comb the area for any sight of the two. When you detain them, contact me for exfil. They should be within your A.O. within the hour."
"Why not send a real squad after them?"
"They've given them the slip. You and your two cohorts will be in civvies, so as to remain fairly undetected."
"Who're we looking for?"
"Tango 1: Paul LeBaron, callsign: Ogre. He's 5'11, 182, Black Hair, Grey eyes. Tango 2: Devon LeBaron, callsign: Turbo. He's 5'8", 140lbs, Brown hair and blue eyes. The two of them were spotted wearing fairly nondescript clothes. At last sighting, they were wearing black hoodies and jeans, each. Do not let them reach the docks. Neutralize any hostiles on sight."
"Roger that" Kanoa groaned slowly as he rose from his seat, grumpy at not having placed an order. He slung his backpack over his shoulder, happy that he'd kept his gear in there. "Do I get a cool callsign?"
"We've designated you 'Rascal'."
"Hey, that's pretty coo-"
"Get to work, Agent Rascal." Kanoa could've sworn he 'heard' Lennox's smirk on the other side of the line. The teen was growing increasingly tired of his irksome and rather smug superior officer, and briefly wondered whether or not a transfer was possible. "Lennox out."
"Bye bye, General Turdbucket."
As he stepped out of the bar and into the street, he took a moment to notice the signs on the lamp post next to him. In plain letters, and lit by the bright street-light, he read: "9th" and "Bridge" respectively. Caddy corner to his location, he noted the Pokemart in question and shrugged. That was possibly the easiest trip to any location he'd ever taken on a mission.
As he strolled lazily across the street, he slipped his hands into the backpack, pulling out a pair of fingerless gloves with metal plates. Upon reaching the pokemart, he dipped down and grabbed a few more items. Taking off his shirt for the moment, he slipped into a protective vest (Kevlar? Lennox had called it something like that), followed by some elbow pads. He slipped his tee-shirt and hoodie back over top. Taking off his already fairly heavy, steel-toed boots, he slipped on a pair of shin guards that came up to his knee, protecting his legs as well before slipping his boots back on.
Once all preparations were complete, he felt a bit bulky, but Lennox had suggested he train in something called "CQC", which for the life of him, he couldn't remember what those letters stood for. The training involved him running around and falling down a lot, hence the protective equipment. Checking his belt to make sure that the pokeballs were still all there (he hadn't quite gotten used to counting 5 pokeballs), he slung his backpack back over his shoulder and waited patiently for the other two agents to arrive.
"A Pikachu's Thunderbolt is expected to give off 100,000 volts if electricity. A device overloads with 750 amps, but have 500 ohm resistors. How many resistors will it take for the device to take the charge of six Pikachu's Thunderbolts so the device doesn't overload?" Jake was stationed at the dock, doing his homework. OUt of all the missions they had to test him with, it was this: Waiting for two ex-Magmas to meet him here and to leave them to the ship. No problem, right? Course not. He had to expect Magma to hunt them down as well. Can't let anything out of their walls, right?
"Stop doing your homework," echoed in his ear through the bluetooth device in his ear. Of course, he had to have someone watching for the test, and furthermore, he had already exclaimed that he would have no part of this mission, so failure would be on Jake's hands, not the higher up. "Keep an eye out for them as well as Magma."
"I know, I know. But if I don''t complete this assignment, they may take away my scholarship. If I lose that, then I would have to take less classes, which means longer to get my diploma. So, as I do my homework, I got Trickster keeping an eye out on things." Just then, an Abra teleported in front of him, causing him to look up the homework to see her shake her head before vanishing again. "No sign as of yet."
"Yeah, well still be careful. Can't make any mistakes, rookie. By the way, why would you need so many Pikachu if it would have so much trouble resisting one?"
It was just natural for Abraham West to wake up as early as he did. He was never really able to sleep late even when he had nothing to do that day. Worst case scenario, he'd figure out something to do, but usually he had plans. That was, at least, until he moved to Noverus. He ran there to lay low, after all, but of course, got caught up in shenanigans, and now he was forced to work for Magma to pay off a debt.
This was a substantial hit on his charisma. He woke up and just stared at the ceiling of his motel room for what seemed like five minutes, but turned out to be an hour. During that time, Gaia, his Swinub, was cuddled up between his torso and his left arm and Tartarus, his Elekid was on the floor next to the bed. Chaos, the newest addition to his team, his Shellder, remained in his pokeball for lack of a better place for him to stay overnight.
Then, his cell phone rang on the stand where there was a room phone (which was never used). Abraham gave off a natural sigh, which woke up Gaia, and reached over to pick it up. "West." He said with disappointment. "Okay. Yeah. 9th and Bridge. I'll figure it out. Who am I meeting? Okay. Yes sir."
"Nub?"
"Yep," Abraham said, setting the phone down, not really knowing what it was she was trying to communicate. "We got a mission."
Before getting dressed, he fed his pokemon (he even stopped and got a bowl for Chaos) and allowed Chaos out of his ball to eat. Then, he put on one of the more casual of his outfits, which still happened to be a longsleeved button down shirt and flat front pants with a belt, the shirt tucked in. He didn't wear a tie, which is what made it oh so casual. This time, his shirt was a solid dark blue color.
Then, he made his way to 9th and Bridge, as per his orders. Tartarus and Chaos were back in their pokeballs but Gaia shuffled along beside him. As he walked, he couldn't help but continuously look down to watch her move at what she considered to be a very intense pace due to her tiny legs.
He nodded when he turned the corner of the PokeMart to see Kaipo already waiting patiently against the wall. Abraham lost his smile of adoration once they made eye contact and just nodded. "Good to see you again Kaipo. Looks like we both still have our jobs even after that stunt at Shady Acres. Do you know if they're actually gonna go through with it? Spending money to maintain the park?"
Ares jumped as he heard a loud ringing sound. He was in Shady Acres, the suburban skate park that he had helped capture on a previous mission. Volgen, his Houndour, had been injured during said mission and had to stay at the local pokemon center while he recovered. Ares had just picked up the pup, who had made a full recovery, and was on his way back to his apartment room in the poor district.
After a moment, he recognized the sound coming from his black and red poketch, a second-hand outdated model with a big crack on the screen. He'd received when he'd been drafted into Magma. Being the dinosaur it was, it didn't have anything other than the basic features, meaning it couldn't do much more than call other people. With a small sigh, Ares pushed a button on the watch's face, accepting the call.
"Agent Zarrenler, come in," A rough businesslike voice said, mixed in with a great deal of static. As much as he hated being in Magma, Ares had to admit that he liked being called 'Agent'. "We've got a new job for you."
"M'right here," Ares said, glad his poketch didn't have a videophone to show him dramatically roll his eyes. The statement was rather obvious. After all, who else would have accepted the call? Still, he was supposed to acknowledge the officer on the other side of the call.
"Good," The voice said. "I assume you'll be needing a briefing, so here goes; We have a pair of turncoat operatives on the loose. You are to rendezvous with two other agents in order to neutralize the targets and anyone who is trying to assist in their escape, Aqua or otherwise. The two operatives you'll be apprehending are Paul and Devon LeBaron, who go by the codenames Ogre and Turbo, respectively. Meet with your partners at 9th and Bridge. You had better not mess this up, Hangman, or you'll be hanging, all right. A success here will get me a promotion. Out."
Ares stared blankly at the cracked screen, which displayed a digital watch in military-style time. That was it? All the officer had given him in the manner of the defects' descriptions were their names. There was no way he would be able to find them like that. He would just have to hope at least one of the other two agents had gotten a better description.
"C'mon, we'd better get going," Ares said, talking to the three pokemon at his side. Hope, his over protective Gligar, nodded from her perch on Ares's shoulder. Orbis, his equally overprotective and rather irritable Bronzor, chimed in its agreement, and Volgen yipped from his trainer's feet, vigorously wagging his stubble little tail. Cadou, the trainer's Sandshrew, was in his pokeball, most likely napping.
As Ares rounded the corner to his destination he breathed a sigh of relief. Kanoa and Abraham, who were really the only other Magmas he knew, were both at the corner. At least he wasn't working with elitist snobs. He nodded in greeting to the older operatives, walking up to where they were.
"So, um, you guys know what the two defect operatives look like?" Ares asked as he walked up to them. "I only got their names."
"Oh Hello!" Kanoa's face lit up as Tall-Dark-and-Handsome Abraham approached. It appeared that he was already familiar with one of his teammates, which made things easier. Between Abraham and Kanoa, Abraham easily used his brain better than his haphazard and lackadaisical counterpart. "My commanding officer, Sergeant Nutsacks, said that they're posting police units and some pr people to oversee it. The prizes are mostly Magma propaganda and a few leftover pokemon items. Nothing big." Kanoa paused for a moment "But yeah, he gave you a "good-job-by-you" speech that I never passed on to you. So...good job by you!"
A weight fell off of Kanoa's shoulders. He wasn't cut out to be a leader by any means, even if he technically outranked Abraham.
"Say...you're a smart guy. Why don't you lead this mission, huh? Also, did you get a cool callsign? They assigned me 'Rascal', pretty debonair right?" Kanoa surprised himself at the use of the word 'debonair'; he didn't even realize that it was in his vocabulary. He gave himself silent kudos for using the word properly.
Then Ares Zarrenler appeared, and immediately got down to business.
"Well, hello to you too, Little Mister and friends." Kanoa grinned cheekily as Ares approached. His spirits quickly reached a high peak once he realized that he knew both of his fellow operatives, and that they weren't idiots. He had no qualms whatsoever with being the dumbest in the group, seeing as it summed up most of his life. "From what I got, one's 5'11 with black hair and grey eyes. The other is shorter with brown hair and blue eyes. They're wearing black hoodies and jeans." When it came to attributes, Kanoa didn't have that hard a time remembering details. Names remained his greatest weakness.
"So, any ideas on how to go about this?" Kanoa had been racking his brain while waiting for his teammates to arrive, but he kept daydreaming about a certain someone back at his apartment complex, who maybe wanted to hang out later.
"So why me?" Jake asked dully into the blue tooth as his pen scribbled on the paper as he was doing math. "I mean, you could easily be down here, taking down Magmas left and right with what I heard."
"That's the problem. I am too well known," the observer admitted. "I am pretty much a big enough name for them to recognize me even in a disguise. You, however, are just a simple college student. Why would they keep a hit on a kid like you?" He could hear Jake give off a low, "hmph," on the other end from that remark. "Hold on, I think I am seeing something." Zooming in with the binoculars, he was able to see one of the targets: Turbo.
~~~~~~
Tightening the hood over his head, Devon "Turbo" LeBaron kept quiet as he walked forward, taking a moment to look at a piece of paper. It was instructions given by Aqua to him and his brother on where to meet for the pick up and get them into base safely. If things went smoothly, there would be no issue. However, that was never the case, so the brothers chose to split up and arrive at different times, not to arouse suspicion. Still, he could not help but twist a Pokemon containing his Pikachu in his hand. "Hey brother, where are you at?" he whispered, a Poketch in his hand as he talked to his brother.
"Approaching 9th and Bridge. After that, I am going to head left and for the given port," Paul "Ogre" LeBaron replied. "If you think I am worried, don't be. I got protection nearby." And by protection, he meant the Lairon walking to the right of him. "You are a block away as we planned, right?"
"That's right. Just be careful. Don't expect Magma to let us get away without a fight. I know how reckless you can be..."
"Relax, brother. Everything is going to be just fine."
Abraham just nodded and gave a modest smile while slightly rolling his eyes and Kanoa congratulated him for his success on the previous mission. Then, he offered Abraham a leadership position on this particular mission, which was initially appealing, but after a moment, he was less enthused. He'd only really been offered because his higher up didn't want to do it himself, and gaining rank in Team Magma wasn't exactly his goal in life anyway.
"Rascal?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "You, uh. You actually want me to call you that?" Then, he remembered. "As the unofficial leader of our group: No. No, I will not call you Rascal." He said this, of course, with a playful smile which indicated his facetiousness. "I don't need a codename either. Just call me, uh," he paused. "Adam. You can be- I don't care, just make it a normal sounding name. The point of codenames isn't just for anonymity, we need to fit in on the streets, right?"
And then: "You know what? Fuck it. Call me Abraham. I just realized I don't care if people here know my name."
Abraham wasn't too shocked to see that the third member of their party was, in fact, the third member of their previous party: Ares. The boy was young, but he did have a smart sense about him, which was respectable. He certainly seemed more mature than Kanoa, but Abraham could tell there was more to the skater than he let on. He had some rank and loyal pokemon, which likely meant he had some level of maturity, though perhaps not the same kind Abraham commanded.
"Good to see you again, Ares,"
"So, we're looking for-" he saw a man in a black hoodie and jeans walking with conspicuous Lairon next to him and talking to someone through his PokeTech. "Would that, uh," It seemed too easy. "That guy?"
Ares nodded as Kanoa explained the appearance of the two turncoats. Hope nodded as well, staring intently at Kanoa as he spoke. Ares looked at the Gligar with a slight frown. He knew she was just trying to protect him, but sometimes the ground type was overly serious. He was sure Hope could learn a lesson or two in relaxing from Cadou, strange as it seemed for anyone to be learning anything from the laid-back Sandshrew.
As if on queue, someone who fit Kanoa's description of walked by. A Lairon at his side only added to the man's suspicion. Ares looked over at Kanoa, raising an eyebrow. It seemed like a joke; After all, things were never that simple.
With wide eyes Volgen watched the Lairon from behind Ares's legs. It was so much bigger than him, and bigger meant stronger. He hated how larger pokemon loomed over him, seemingly able to crush him with one blow. They reminded him of the pokemon back when he was used in the dogfights, always pushing around the others because they were bigger. He whined softly, pawing the ground. Ares picked the houndour up and began to scratch him between the ears, calming him down.
"So, um, should we follow him?" Ares said, dropping his voice so that only Kanoa and Abraham could hear. The younger trainer figured that, since the guy was alone, it would be better to let him lead them to the other guy rather than capture him now and let the other escape.
Abraham opted out of a callsign, which was 'nihilistically cool'. He'd heard someone say that phrase here in Hoenn, and honestly had no grasp of the concept of nihilism. It was a big word and sounded cool, and he was particularly proud of himself for remembering it.
"You don't need to call me Rascal" Kanoa conceded with a bit of a sad look. Admittedly, Abraham had a point, despite the inherent coolness of a codename. "I thought it sounded cool."
He did, however, make a mental note to refer to Abraham as Agent Cupcake at a later date.
Then, before they could even hatch a wickedly cool scheme, a guy in a black hoodie and a Lairon appeared. Understandably, they weren't in the best part of town, hence the want for protection or, at least, intimidation.
"Sweet Ballsacks, it is!" Kanoa exclaimed in an excited whisper. Ares' idea to follow him seem good. He looked to Abraham, then looked to Ares, then finally at his feet. "It's a good plan, Carey, but we can't all follow him." He frowned, his excitement waning. "He'd catch on. It could also be a trap. So...I'll follow him. Agent Hangman, follow me at a safe distance, in case I need back up. Agent Gorgeous George, scoot on up ahead down 8th, quickly then double back in to 9th. You know, scout ahead and junks. Also, that way, if he loses me, you might be able to catch him, right?"
Kanoa's speech was half professional-half slacker, and he spoke with his usual casual air, which, if "Ogre" was watching, would make it seem like a bunch of people chatting in front of a pokemart.
Ogre walked by them, though once he was in earshot, Kanoa whispered: "Just play along" then launched into a story about the time he climbed a building. Once the man was past them, Kanoa reached into his backpack, pulling out some earpiece looking devices. "Got them from HQ, they're walkie talkie earpieces." As the other two put them in, he popped open a pokeball, summoning his Zubat, Helipop. The bat pokemon flapped about excitedly, happy to be out in the air again.
"Helipop, play...uh...overwatch. You stay overhead and give me a warning if people are coming, like we practiced."
Neither confirming nor denying, the Zubat took off into the air, flapping almost erratically to gain some height.
"Ballright! Send in the clowns, bitches!" Kanoa's excitement returned tenfold as he practically bolted the three steps to the corner. Assuming an easy pace, he began to stroll a good several yards behind the man they figured to be Ogre and his Lairon. Hopefully the other two followed the plan, as it seemed like a pretty good, safe one despite being so slapdash.
"No way! A test!?" He said cheerfully into his earpiece, to see if Abraham and Ares responded. He was careful to choose something that would be easy for the other two to understand while still seeming conversational. He'd always been good at mischief, especially throughout his school days. Luckily for him, there actually was a real-life usage for shennanigans and things like not getting caught. Perhaps the life of a secret/not-so-secret agent would be a good choice after all.
"You realize how much you stand out, right brother?" Turbo asked over the Poketch, seeing him in the distance. He was also able to see a Zubat get into the air after he passed by some kids. "Either Magma has been hiring more kids, or the rumors of some Rebellion group are true. Either way, I am sure they don't want us lounging with Aquas."
"Brother, how many times do I have to tell you to relax," Ogre replied. "Everything is fine. Leiron needs the excercize anyways. He's fat." This put the steel type in shoock, surprised on what his trainer said. "It's true. You really need to get on a diet. Hopefully our friend would be able to help out after we help him with some tutoring." They weren't stupid enough to have a cover story themselves if they stood out. If they were to be questioned, they were going to a study group. The clothes were jsut stylish to them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With more scribbles of the pen, Jake looked up and about each way. Out of no where, Trickster popped up besides him and pointed down the street. "They are that way," he asked, getting a nod from the Psychic tyupe. "Alright. Keep your guard up, and give them detours of they run into trouble." With a small nod, the Abra vaniashed once again. Closing his book, Jake had to get up and stretch. "I wonder if I could catch another foreign Pokemon as I wait..."
Abraham remained relatively calm as the trio began to silently follow the suspect. There were some basic rules to following someone, and almost all of them revolved around subtlety. Keeping distance was important, and keeping people between one's self and the target as well. Don't follow exactly, because that's too obvious, especially to those who might know they're being followed. Don't be afraid to lose sight for a moment, just as long as you know how to find them again.
Things were different when traveling with a group, though. One might even say harder, because a group of three traveling together, not talking and walking at the same pace as a lone walker looks like they have a mission in mind. They'd need to keep up this charade of small chat consistently and, while small talk was a specialty of Abraham's, and he didn't doubt Kanoa's ability to fill the void with speech, it was still risky. After all, Kanoa, Abraham and Ares were not three pees in even the most mutant of pods.
Abraham, himself, was much more of a solo kind of guy, and preferred working against others than working with them. Still, "Don't lose sight of him or me,"
With that, he picked up the pace to walk ahead of Kanoa and Ares. His rate was faster than the man they were following so he eventually caught up, but he made sure to maintain a look of seriousness about his own situation, while disregarding his surroundings. Though he wasn't wearing a tie, he did look like he was on his way to something with at least some importance, and so he figured Ogre wouldn't think much of it if he passed him up and walked ahead of him. "Excuse me," he said, politely and without making eye contact.
He saw this tactic on TV once, where half of the team follows and half leads the target. This allows for a more fluid approach to the trail...Or something. He wanted to try it, at least.
Ares looked at Kanoa in confusion when the older agent called him “Carey”. He thought for a moment that Kanoa had mistaken him for someone else. Then he realized it was most likely a fake name. Regardless of whether he'd been called by the name intentionally or not, he decided he was going to use it, anyways. He'd lived in Noverus all his life, after all, and it wouldn't be that odd if Ogre knew his name. Not to mention Ares wasn't exactly a common name in Noverus.
"Psh, you call that a climb?" Ares said as Kanoa began his story. He was trying to act like the social person he most certainly wasn't. "Y'know that big apartment over on Sunny Haven Avenue, next to the pokemart? I climbed that once, no gear, no helmet, nothing." He wasn't lying. He'd done the climb three years ago on a dare. It was stupid and dangerous, but the boy who'd made the dare had taken Volgen's pokeball- with the Houndour inside- and had refused to return it until he'd climbed to the top and back down.
Ares accepted the earpiece from Kanoa, holding it gingerly in his hands. He figured the tiny piece of technology was by far the single most expensive thing he'd ever held. For a moment he just stared, amazed that he been entrusted with something worth so much money. Then he fit the device in his ear as carefully as possible. It felt awkward, something in his ear. It was unsettling, but he resisted the urge to take the earpiece out.
"Hope, you keep an eye on the air, too." Ares told his Gligar, under the assumption that two overhead watchers would be better than one. "Try to stay close to me, since I might need you to battle at any moment. If you do get lost, find Kanoa, Abraham or Helipop. You do remember Helipop, right? He's Kanoa's Zubat." Hope nodded and glided up after the other pokemon.
“What did you say?” Ares said jokingly as he heard Kanoa’s voice from the earpiece. For the first time since he’d been drafted into magma he chuckled. “Just kidding. I heard you.” The ease in Ares’s tone surprised himself. There was something about the older trainer that just made the younger more comfortable talking. As he spoke into the microphone he started walking swiftly toward the direction his two colleagues had already gone. Once he caught site of Kanoa he slowed down to a liesurley pace, making sure to keep both Kanoa and Ogre in sight.
Abraham didn't quite follow Kanoa's idea. Well, truly the idea was Ares', but still. In any case, the desired outcome had been achieved, so Kanoa merely shrugged it off. He had, after all, introduced the idea of Abraham taking charge of the mission.
He'd also failed to respond to "Agent Gorgeous George", which was a pretty cool nickname. "
Ares piped up over their little earpieces, and Kanoa was surprised at the tone. Normally the youngest member of their mutant pod held a solemn tone in his voice. This levity greatly surprised Kanoa to the point where he just laughed into his earpiece.
"Okie dokie artichokie! We're all in position." He glanced overhead to watch as a Gligar moved effortlessly from building to building, keeping a steady watch on the situation. It was a bit of a comfort to know that there were two pokemon surveying from overheard. However, he knew that Helipop would let out a Screech if anything was amiss, he didn't know the signals from Hope.
Continuing his casual stroll, Kanoa made sure to keep his gaze moving about, lest Ogre figure out that he was being tailed. Honestly though, when a large, city-controlling faction had a dossier on him, wouldn't it have been better to be less conspicuous? The brazen choice to have one of his known pokemon in the open was a silly move. Well, not that Kanoa knew what pokemon he possessed, but still.
But then it struck Kanoa. If it was a brazen move meant to draw them in...it meant that his brother was probably positioned to mark them in return. They'd been trapped into revealing themselves too soon.
Nevertheless, there was the chance that it wasn't a trap, too, and that Ogre, despite his standing in Magma, was actually just a brazen, blunt meathead. He probably had some powerful pokemon on him too.
He'd let Abraham handle him if it came to battle. That seemed pretty wise.
"Soooooo slow." Kanoa casually buzzed into his earpiece "Kinda boring, m'right?"
"Odd place to do homework," Turbo said to Jake, hands in pockets. With him looking up to see the hooded man, he had to try and remember what the key phrases were to know it was them. If not, he had to play fake and get rid of him. "Need any help?"
"Yeah, sure," he replied, asking him about the same question about the Pikachu. There was five answers he was to expect, each one indicating if how was whoever. For Turbo, it was speed. Ogre was about Power. The right answer meant he was bugged. Questioning numbers meant the info was leaked. Anything else and he could be double-crossing.
"I know it is out of the box, but wouldn't their Quick Attack on conveyer belts work a lot easier?" The speed answer. This was Turbo.
"Doubt my teacher would accept that kind of answer. Think anyone else can help?"
"My brother, but he likes to take his time. Besides, he likes to take his time."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Stupid kid," Ogre muttered as someone passed him by, saying excuse me. It wasn't like he hit the guy or Lairon, but still, part of him searched his back poket. His wallet was there, so it wasn't like anything was stolen. "Alright, now where were we?" Looking around, he was able to see the sails of a boat to the left of him, which was a good sign of the pier nearby. What stood out to the Lairon was the meat bun stand over there. With a happy cry, he ran his way over there. "Hey, get back here you fat ass!"
Running down, he took a moment to catch his breath, muttering, "Fine. Two meatbuns." With the man behind the counter busy, an Abra handed over the food, watching the money get placed on the table in return. As the two walked off champing away, Trickster Teleported off as the worker turned qabout, seeing the missing meatbuns and money. He wasn't sure if he made a sale or got paid to get robbed.
"I'm really bored."
After finding himself met with silence (which he assumed were nods of assent from his two cohorts), he figured he'd restate his most obvious state of mind.
"You know what? I say screw this secretive nonsense, and let's just attack him. That'll draw out his brother for realsies, then we can just nab them both, right?"
Without waiting for a reply, the ever impulsive Kanoa threw out a pokeball. The ball cracked open behind Ogre, summoning a little Roselia on to the street. Lennox had said "by any means necessary", and alleviating his ennui at trailing someone was undoubtedly a necessity. Lennox had also neglected to mention anything about keeping a low profile. Perhaps it was for the best that Lennox hadn't recommended "Agent Rascal" for Stealth training.
"C-Dub!" the lanky teen hollered as he broke into a run forward "Toxic Spikes!"
With a sweep of his flowery arm, the Rose-looking pokemon threw out a cluster of purple caltrops. The little spikes landed scattered around Ogre and his Lairon. Lairon, possessing a Steel Type, was immune to them, but Kanoa was pretty sure that Ogre posssessed more pokemon than just Lairon.
The poison spikes was an odd surprise. First off, who the hell would use poison around a steel type?! Secondly, who in their right mind would challenge Ogre, a man who got his name by taking hits and dealing them back even harder? "You chose the wrong opponent, kid," he said, turning around to face Kanoa. "If you think that will stop us, think again! Lairon, show them why. Use Iron Head!"
With the stomping from the four legged Pokemon, the steel around his head began to glow platinum before charging in at the flowery Pokemon. This was going to be no problem. Like a flower can stand being ran over!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
with some nearby commotion, Jake and Turbo looked over their shoulders to see a nearby battle between a kid with someone else and Ogre. "Should we help?" Jake asked, watching what was going on.
"No, not really. He would just yell at us for interrupting his fun. However, if their numbers change, then i am sure we will have to interfere," Turbo insured, clutching Pikachu's Pokeball tightly.
Abraham heard Kanoa's voice and understood it as a battle command. While he was initially annoyed that he'd go against the plan, there was some sense to it. The guy, Ogre, was obviously meeting his partner, and if they were allowed to reunite, it would be a much harder battle. Taking them out one at a time was a much better strategy, though it would make it difficult to find Turbo (Ogre wasn't the name of a guy who'd sell out his brother).
Still, it didn't seem necessary for Abraham to join the fight, not yet anyway. Kanoa and Ares were already engaged in combat, and there was no need for it to be a 3v1. Having Abraham on the other side of Ogre in case he decided to run would be better, and it would be even better if the guy didn't know Abraham was with the attackers.
With the attention of anyone in the area on the battle, it was hard to notice Abraham slow to a stop, turn around and watch the fight. He wanted to make sure he was casual about it, and so he popped out a cigarette, while keeping his eyes on his surroundings. There was, of course, the possibility that Ogre and Turbo were traveling together, just not side by side. He'd need to be prepared if Turbo were to join his brother.
Ares sighed as he heard Kanoa launch an attack. He had really hoped they wouldn't have to fight around a bunch of people, but he supposed it was for the best. When they finally took down Ogre, it would be a lot harder for him to escape by boat, which, knowing of Aqua, was most likely what they had sent. Afterward, though, they would still have to find and catch Turbo.
Hope glided down to Ares's shoulder, nodding in the direction of the battle. Ares took it that the Gligar was alerting him to the fight.
"I already know about the fight," Ares said. "But thanks," he added quickly as Hope drooped. "Stay up in the air and keep an eye on things. Let me know if you see Turbo coming." The Gligar nodded and soared into the air. It went ahead to the scene of the battle and circled around Ogre and Kanoa, watching the fight.
Ares quickened is pace, but he continued to walk. He wanted to remain inconspicuous for as long as he could before he started fighting. If it was his choice, he would have remained unknown as a Magma for the entire mission, but he couldn't. He would have to reveal himself at some point, so then seemed as a good a time as any. As he got closer he returned Volgen to its pokeball. At the moment, he didn't have need of the Houndour, and the Lairon would just scare it. That just left he and Orbis. The teenage trainer took a deep breath and stepped out of the crowd to stand next to Kanoa.
"Orbis, hypnosis," Ares said calmly. For a moment the bronzor glowed with psychic power. Then it launched several ring of psychic energy in the direction of Ogre and his Lairon. Ares didn't care whether it hit the Lairon or its trainer, so long as he wasn't getting pummeled by Ogre or trampled by his pokemon.
Kanoa grinned cheekily as Lairon charged with a powerful move. Snapping his fingers, he yelled "Helipop!"
Out of seemingly nowhere, Kanoa's Zubat swooped down, snatching up the small rose pokemon before impact. The Lairon skidded past missing his mark, and effectively putting him in range of Orbis' Hypnosis attack. Kanoa hadn't anticipated Ares' aid so early, but the ever serious kid had chosen to step in quickly. Good thing he did, from the looks of the Lairon, Kanoa's foolhardy assault might've been a poor choice, considering Ogre's nickname was...well...Ogre. Luckily, Abraham had not yet acted, meaning that at least one of the three was still actively keeping an eye out for the other brother.
"Coco, use Leech Seed. Helipop, back in the air!" With cries of acknowledgment, Kanoa's Zubat dropped his Roselia from the air, as the latter aimed one of his roses like a gun. Like firing a pistol, a tiny burst of seeds shot forward. Upon contact, they were sprout and wrap the traget in an ivy like substance, draining energy from them and returning it directly to the Leech Seed user. Kanoa wasn't going to win this one with brute force.
With any luck, the Hypnosis and Leech Seed would take effect, causing Ogre to recall the Lairon and send out another pokemon...directly onto Coco Wheelie's toxic spikes.
"Hey man, that's cheap," Turbo called out as his steel type got wrapped up and began to snooze about. "Damn it. Cheap ass kids. Did your parents ever teach you how to have a proper match?" Returning the steel type away, he gave a bit of a sigh. "Now you kids are going to get it Nidorino, get them!" Bad for them, for as the Pokeball was sent out into the battlefield, the purple Pokemon appeared, looking around on the opppoents, seeing who he had a better Rivalry with. AS for the Toxic Spikes, he was seeping them away out of the battlefield. Advantage of a Poison type. "Show that steel plate your feet. Double Kick!"
As they began to engage in combat, an electric zebra seemed to of joined in the fray. "Good grief, brother. Getting hot headed again. Guess I will lend you my hand again. Blitze, Flame Charge the Roselia." With the zebra stomping her fet, a flame surrounded her body before taking charge at the plant type.
Jake stood a small distance away, watching the brothers enter combat together. One whose focus on pure power, the other on speed. Two basic traits on how to take an advantage, but not everything. Still, they did make a good team. Would the rookie have to step in himself to help out as well? With Trickster teleporting on his head, he let off a small sigh.
"No, no they didn't," Ares said in response to Ogre's question. Hope hissed loudly from her place above the battle as a warning to Ogre. "Besides," the trainer said, trying to taunt the Magma defect, "Surely someone as tough as you are isn't scared of fighting two on one." The taunt sounded quiet and unconfident, as though Ares was scared was scared of Ogre and didn't want to admit it. He was plenty scared of Ogre, that was for sure, and he was more than ready to admit it, too. There wasn't much more he could do, though. Ogre, he could already tell, had pokemon that were much stronger than his own, and putting the Lairon to sleep, was probably the most he could do, as far as the battle went. He knew, however, that people couldn't think straight when they were angry. If they could send Ogre into a rage, then there was a chance he would lose his common sense and do something dumb.
Ares put a hand on Orbis's pokeball as Ogre sent out a Nidorino. Defensively, both Coco Wheelie and Orbis had a slight advantage against the poison type, but there was no telling what Ogre might do. He whipped the pokeball out of his pocket as the Nidorino kicked at the Bronzor, but he was too late. The attack hit full-force, sending the steel type flying backwards and into its trainer, who, out of instinct, grabbed tightly to his pokemon when it hit his chest. The impact knocked Ares flat onto his back and he hit his head on the pavement. For a few moments he just lay there, the world swimming around him. Then he sat up, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. Hope had glided down beside him and was carefully watching him. She seemed relieved when he sat up, smiling and jumping into his lap. The impact sent a new wave of dizziness over the trainers and he squeezed his eyes shut until the feeling faded.
"Good job Orbis. Return." Ares said, retrieving the fainted Bronzor's pokeball from the ground next to him and calling its occupant back inside. Hope hissed and got up, ready to charge the Nidorino. Ares stopped her with a hand and said, "Don't. You'll just get hurt too." The Gligar obeyed, though she still glared murderously at Ogre and his Nidorino. With a grunt Ares got up, standing next to Kanoa once more. He just stood there, though, not sending out any other pokemon.
"Sorry," Ares said to Kanoa, quietly enough so that Ogre and the recently-arrived Turbo couldn't hear. "He's too strong for me. If I keep fighting, the rest of my team will all faint before they can do anything."
Abraham was grateful for his decision to remain on the sidelines for the first part of the battle. Kanoa and Ares had effectively drawn out Turbo simply by being a couple of kids, which surely boosted the confidence of the brothers. However, Abraham had grown increasingly confident in his pokemons' abilities as well as his own, and even if Ares wouldn't be of much help in battle, he knew he and Kanoa, together, had a chance of taking these two on.
Gaia made her appearance to the scene of the battle, though from enough of a distance to not be affected by Toxic Spikes. The opponents had a Blitzle and a Nidorino on the field, meaning Gaia's Earthquake would be particularly effective against both of them. Of course, the biggest problem with using an attack as powerful as Earthquake meant a fair amount of collateral damage.
"Gaia, use Earthquake once Kanoa's Roselia is safe, alright?"
"Nub!" She shouted as she charged into the fray from behind.
"Kanoa!" Abraham shouted. "Get Coco off the ground again! And hold onto something!"
Once Kanoa got Coco to safety (assuming he did) Gaia held onto the ground beneath her, using her power over the earth to make it begin shaking from beneath the surface. The quake beneath everyone grew more and more powerful, tossing chunks of ground all around the area. The attack would hit everyone in the battle, with the exception of those in the air and Gaia herself.
Ogre attempted a taunt by talking about parents, trying to belittle them by playing down their age. Ares seemed unphased, but that was probably because he was an orphan or something like that, and didn't have parents. Kanoa opted a playful shrug in response on his end.
Then, Kanoa visibly flinched as Nidorino's solid double kick instantly took out Ares' Bronzor. He'd expected a former Magma Elite to be powerful, but he honestly hadn't expected anything like that. Turbo's sudden appearance meant their plan had worked, but Coco Wheelie took a hard hit from the quick Flame Charge. Unbeknownst to Kanoa, the hit had actually boosted the Blitzle's speed as well.
Meanwhile, Ares rose, and Kanoa moved over to him, checking for any sign of injury. He didn't quite have a medic's eyes, but it was common for him to have seen his old friends limping, or holding their arms funny. He was a skateboarder, like his old friends, and he was used to seeing them hurt themselves.
"It's okay, kiddo" Kanoa placed a protective hand on the kid's shoulder "There's some proverb about not fighting when you can't win or something like that...so...you're being wise and junk, right?"
Then Abraham's voice floated in, completely foregoing the use of callsign and the other cool stuff. True, they hadn't worked out some secret code language, so it made sense that Abraham got to the point.
"Helipop! You heard Agent Muffintop! Do it!" Kanoa wrapped his arms around Ares and dragged the boy down, essentially tackling the poor kid back down to the ground. Meanwhile, Helipop swooped in once more, scooping up his Roselia partner, impervious to her poisonous thorns.
Gaia's Earthquake ripped unchecked through the current battle area, notably drawing significant attention to the scene. Kanoa covered Ares with his body, taking the odd rock or chunk of earth in his back. The rest of his joints were notably protected by his elbow and knee pads, so he focused his attention on keeping the young boy under his charge unharmed.
Once the Earthquake subsided, rendering the match 3 on 2, Kanoa straighted up and yelled "Coco! Helipop! Strongest Combo Go!"
As he reached back down to help Ares up, Kanoa's Zubat lowered his Roselia to the ground before hovering over him. Upon the command, the two let rip their Air Cutter and Magical Leaf attacks simultaneously, hoping to finish off the enemy pokemon still standing from the Earthquake. The barrage of wind blades flew in between the flying leaf projectiles, forming a double-typed attack. However, their mastery of it lacked great precision, and some of their attacks collided, weakening the entire conflageration. Nevertheless, it still covered a wide area, making dodging difficult.
Both of the brothers seemed to of stood back, getting ready to take on the powerful Earthquake attack before there was a sudden wave on the Blitzle before what seemed to of been a small Pokemon appeared on his head: an Abra. Glowing white, it vanished again, taking the Blitzle away with him as the Earthquake struck down the Nidorino.
"Why are you fighting these two," Jake asked, walking onto the battle scene, Blitzle and Trickster reappearing behind the enemy Pokemon. "You are taking away my study time for my next exam. If I don't pass this test, my professor will take away my scholarship."
"Sorry, kid, but they started it by trying to attack my ass while I wasn't looking," Orge comment. "Rude bastards..."
"Quite. Not only that, but they attacked in numbers. You think they are part of those criminal groups like Aqua?" A bit of banter, but how they reacted could show their true colors. Either way, they weren't backing away form combat.
Nidorino seemed very warn out from the heavy strike and wave of hits, but with Trickster's timing, Blitzle seemed uningured.
"Nidorino, use Peck."
"Blitzle, Shock Wave."
With the brother's commands out, even without designating targets, they knew what they were after. With the speed boost, the zebra lewt off a fast electridcal attack at the Zubat with defined accuracy, which gave the Nidorino a change to charge up and jump at the Roselia with a sharpened horn.
Ares let out an audible "Omph!" as Kanoa tackled him. Hope hissed in warning, but then swooped into the air as the earthquake started. Ares could feel the ground shaking and hear the sound of rubble hitting the pavement. He didn't say anything, but he silently appreciated Kanoa acting as a meat shield.
Ares got up in time to see an Abra bring what he assumed to be Turbo's Blitzle to the scene of the fight. He motioned for Hope to come over to him, keeping his eye on the Abra. Turbo and Ogre were no doubt out of his league, but the small yellow pokemon didn't seem like much of a fighter. As much as he hated Magma, he figured he might as well do his job right, if he was doing it at all.
"The Abra," He whispered to Hope, trying not to catch the Abra's attention. That was all Hope needed. She glided back up into the air, slowly circling toward the Abra. When she got close enough she shot toward the Abra and grabbed at it with her large front claws. Then she jabbed at the Psi Pokemon with her tail, the tip glowing with a deeper purple than the rest of it.
Meanwhile, Ares watched the battles, a hand on Cadou's pokeball. The Sandshrew needed its exercise, and now would be a good chance as any to give it to him. He released the lazy ground type, which, unsurprisingly, tried to fall asleep at his trainer's feet.
"Oh, no you don't," Ares said, picking up the Mouse Pokemon and setting it on his shoulder. "You're fighting soon, so you need to stay awake." Cadou looked disappointed that he couldn't go back to sleep, but he perked up at the prospect of a battle. It had been a long time since his last fight, and he was rather looking forward to another one, just for kicks.
Abraham wasn't surprised that everyone around reacted to the Earthquake. It was such a powerful attack that even particularly strong pokemon were susceptible. Surprisingly, however, an Abra appeared from thin air and immediately teleported out, taking the Blitzle with it. An unexpected turn of events, to be sure, but Nidorino still took the full force of the attack, and its pain was visible.
Kanoa got Ares to safety, and it seemed as though all of his allied pokemon were unaffected by the Earthquake, which was good - It meant they were prepared for him to do it again. Before Abraham got a chance to issue the command, however, a third person entered the area which, in all fairness, made it 3v3, but it totally threw Abraham off course. Who was he? Was he another deserter he wasn't told about?
On second thought, it wasn't complicated at all - There was no ambiguity about this kid, at least not now - He was an enemy, and had to be defeated. He could keep using his Abra to get one of the brothers' pokemon out of the Earthquake, but that was okay. Gaia was putting all of them on the defensive, and forcing them to play the battle entirely reactively.
"Gaia, again. Use Earthquake."
And she did.
Ares immideatley dropped to one knee to brace himself as the earthquake started. He kept one hand on the ground for balance, and with the other, he held tightly to a rolled-up Cadou. Miraculously, no rubble fell on him, aside from one chunk of concrete that cut and numbed his shoulder. As the ground stopped moving he got up, unsteady but unhurt.
"I'm fine. Just a bit shook up," Ares said, massaging the feeling back into his shoulder. The cut didn't seem that bad, long but shallow, hardly bleeding at all. "By the way, how are we going to keep Ogre and Turbo from fleeing. Even if we defeat all their pokemon, Ogre's strong and Turbo's pretty fast- at least that's what I'm led to believe- they could probably escape to a boat or something. Not to mention the Abra. It isn't like they're coming quietly." The question had been bugging him since the fight had started, and he figured now was a good a time as any to ask it. It was better than waiting until the defect were already making a run for it, anyway.
Hope looked back at her trainer as the Abra warped away, silently asking if she should follow. Ares nodded and waved her on. Even with Orbis knocked out and Hope chasing down the Abra, he still had Volgen and Cadou. Besides, as long as Hope was on the offensive against it, it would be on the defensive and unable to effectively help, leaving the two brother's pokemon without a way to escape the earthquakes.
Ares cringed as the Charmeleon blasted Abraham's Swinub ,he believed it was called Gaia, with a burst of flame. The Charmeleon seemed pretty strong, and Gaia was at an elemental disadvantage. He could have blocked the hit with Volgen, he realized a little too late, due to the Houndour's Flash Fire ability, but that would have scared the poor thing to death, and even then he probably wouldn't have been able to completely protect his co-worker's pokemon. On top of that, Volgen had just come from the pokemon center badly hurt from his last battle. He wasn't about to send the Dark Pokemon up against something as powerful as Ogre's Charmeleon.
"Cadou, use Swift on that... spider thingy," Ares said, realizing mid-sentence that he didn't know what to call the small pokemon the Abra's trainer had just sent out. The Sandshrew jumped to the ground, curled up into a ball, and began spinning rapidly in place. As he spun yellow stars formed around him and shot at their target with deadly accuracy.
It seemed Turbo and Ogre had wisened up to the fact that Gaia was the biggest damage dealer at the moment in time. Charmeleon changed its focus to target her, and so did Blitzle, apparently at least. But something caused it to disobeye its trainer's command, and it attacked Helipop instead. It was hard to celebrate this mistake, as Zubat was far from a durable pokemon, so the hit would still hurt significantly.
The Flame Burst hit, as Gaia was not agile enough to dodge such an attack. Abraham had a decision to make, whether or not to leave Gaia in the battle. She could still do very significant damage, but now that the enemy were all using fire attacks against her, it would bode unwell for her. It was difficult, because he didn't know how weak Charmeleon or Blitzle were. Charmeleon was new on the field, so he'd easily be able to take one Earthquake, but Gaia probably wouldn't last another round.
Chaos, his Shellder, would do well against Charmeleon, but he'd get dominated by Blitzle's lightning attacks. So, he decided, he'd allow Gaia to stay for one more round to get off one more Earthquake, which should have been able to finish off Blitzle, and weaken Charmeleon. Basically, to make way for Chaos to come in and do some damage. "Okay," he nodded. All of this went through his mind in the second after Flame Burst hit, and so all this planning changed when he saw what happened next.
The fire did hit, as previously mentioned, but Gaia began to shine. She grew to be much taller, massive tusks swooped out from her face. Everything about her was bigger - Except her little piggy nose. She had evolved into Piloswine, a notably more powerful form. Where Swinub was a relatively fragile pokemon with some strong attacks, Piloswine had the capacity to take a significant amount of punishment while dealing about 50% more damage. Abraham's heart began pounding faster. This changed his whole plan - More importantly, though, it changed his best friend. She was really big now. Still the same Gaia, though...He hoped.
"Okay." He composed himself. "Gaia! Earthquake!"
So, it didn't change his whole plan, after all. Before, he was going to make Gaia use Earthquake, take some hits and probably get knocked out. Now, she was still going to use Earthquake and take some subsequent hits, but she'd have a significant chance of remaining standing afterwards. This meant he'd be able to switch to Chaos without her even fainting...Assuming Blitzle continued messing up its Flame Charge.
Kanoa audibly gasped as his Zubat took the hit of the Flame Charge. With only a 25% chance of success, the Blitzle had managed to land an attack, with the confusion only causing a momentary judgment lapse. Not able to withstand that attack, Helipop dropped to the ground where he lay hopelessly unconscious. Kanoa recalled the bat to the pokeball, keeping in mind that he still had Coco Wheelie on the field. That meant Darkslide, his Skorupi, Carousel, his Petilil, and Benihana, his Shroomish, were still ready to go at the moment's notice.
Unfortunately, the Flame Blast radius proved enough to take out his battered Roselia as well. He fell to the ground with a high pitched groan, unwilling to get back up and continue on in the fight. With a sigh, Kanoa recalled him too.
In the mean time, with the disappearance of his Abra, the new kid declared his intention to use a pokemon called "Webbz."
The battle had turned into all out chaos now, with Ares rejoining the fray with a Sandshrew, and Gaia, Abraham's Swinub, growing huge and notably more ugly. Kanoa's mental facilities struggled to keep up and take in the new phase of the battle, as an entire new set of pokemon were essentially on the field.
"Darkslide, go!" Resigning himself to choosing based on instinct rather than logic, Kanoa summoned out his first pokemon, who hadn't really seen any real battle lately. "Bite the Blitzle!"
He had to take the lightning Zebra out, as it seemed that Turbo, his owner, had not lost any pokemon yet due to any means. For whatever reason, Kanoa felt that it would even the score somewhat.
Darkslide clacked his claws appreciatively at the command before tearing hungrily towards the Blitzle. As he neared though, instead of clamping down with his cute pincer mouth, he spun his entire body. Pivoting on his front legs, he whipped his entire abdomen and tail in a ferocious arc, leaving a trail of dark energy in its wake. Kanoa hadn't seen the move ever before, especially in Darkslide's repertoire, but it looked incredibly cool. A more informed trainer would've known the move as Night Slash, but a more informed trainer Kanoa was not.
Seemed like Ares pulled out ne of the best questions out there, and got no response from his partners. Even if they won the battle, it was not like they would just quietly agree to just head on back to Magma that easily. A good thought considering that there is a good chance Ogre and Turbo were only named that for their Pokemon.
With the Charmeleon getting quickly worn out by the Earthquake and Blitzle getting knocked out, it seemed the ground type was having a major advantage, even if now the opposing Pokemon were now getting struck by their reckless teammate as well. However, the Joltik took his small body into account to jump around the shaking earth, trying to dodge the earth and stars, not being so sucessful and wearing down fast as well.
"This is pissing me off!" Ogre yelled, stomping at the floor.
"I know. This battle has no true meaning and is completely useless." Returning the Blitzle, he sent out an Accelgor on its place. "Besides, at this rate, we will never be able to help you out for your exam."
"My thoughts exactly," Jake finished, the three getting set up once more.
"Flame Burst!"
"Me First."
"Spider Web. Big enough for all three of them."
With Charmeleon's explosive fireball fired straight at the Mamoswine, the Accelgor got himself ready for whatever the mammoth had ready. Being big meant being slow, which meant being able to read what the oppoenet has planned. However, its not like itwas announced who he was Me Firsting. As for Joltik, the bug was getting ready a massive ball of webbing to blast out into the air, expanding out as a giant net. It seemed too easy for the Pokemon to dodge, but its not like its aimed at the Pokemon, now is it?
Cadou yawned and looked back at his trainer tiredly. The pavement was warm beneath his paws. It was the perfect place to sleep, aside from the noise of all the fighting, but he could get over it. He yawned again and started to curl up on the ground.
No, Cadou," Ares said firmly. "This is not the time for a nap. Now, use swift again." The Sandshrew obliged, if somewhat grudgingly, and launched another volley of yellow stars at its target. He didn't notice the web as it spread out over the battlefield. He was still spinning as it descended,and he got himself hopelessly tangled up.
Ares took a step back as the spider web net expanded, but he was still recovering from Gaia's most recent earthquake and he didn't step back far enough. He found himself caught in the sticky silk as the pokemon's trainer had probably wanted. Struggling against the tangling confines of the web, his hand reached for the pokeball that held the last available member of his team.
"Volgen, burn this stuff up," He said, releasing the Houndour with a flash of light. The pokemon nodded and let out a steady stream of flame, first freeing himself before moving on to the others that were trapped. It was slow going, since he had to be careful not to burn anyone. Unlike him, they weren't fireproof.
Ares tried to stand still while Volgen worked to free him, but mentally he was kicking himself. Why had he said anything? he thought. Now they knew that, as far as Ares was informed, that they had no real plan as to making sure Ogre and Turbo went into custody. If he'd just kept quiet, maybe they would have at least been mildly concerned about being apprehended, but now he'd gone and ruined it.
"See?" He muttered rhetorically. "This is why I don't ask the questions."
Kanoa emitted something crossed between a gurgle and a yelp as the Spider Web wrapped him and Ares up tightly. The duo felt to the ground from the impact, and Ares' struggling only served to tighten the constricted, sticky strings.
Confused as to how to escape this new predicament, Kanoa attempted a few vain struggles on his own before giving up. Luckily, the more level-headed Ares summoned Voot Dawg, ordering him to burn up the web. With the slow going, Kanoa contented himself to laying on the ground for a moment, actually taking the time to enjoy the brief reprieve.
At Ares' remark, Kanoa grinned and responded:
"Shoot first, ask questions later. Then we drink." he paused for a moment. "Then I drink" he amended with a semi-repentant shrug.
The screech of his terrified Pokemon receiving a bit of fire snapped him back to the reality of the situation, allowing Kanoa to detached from his constant inner monologue.
An order sounded across the field from Abraham, which sounded quite feasible to the grounded Kanoa. Craning his neck a bit for a better view, he yelled: "Roger that Agent Muffinman! Darkslide! Use that super cool slashy move on the Charmeleon!"
Darkslide, still reeling from the flame, found a moment in which to roll his eyes at his trainer's cluelessness. Clacking his claws and hissing, he charged the much larger fire pokemon despite the clear disadvantage and viciously slashed with his tail.
Meanwhile, Kanoa had no idea what 'Me First' was, so he had no idea as to its effects.
While Darkslide launched his attack, Kanoa wriggled a hand to his belt, drawing out another pokeball. After a moment of finagling, he managed to deposit the pokeball outside of the Spider Web, nudging the center dot to release the pokemon within. In a bright shower of what appeared to be sparkles, a Petilil appeared, smiling at her trainer happily with a soft trill.
The appearance of Carousel, the Petilil, had been a bit more flashy than he'd expected, still not used to her 'shiny' status, but nevertheless, he'd added another combatant to the field. Sure, the rules probably stated one each, but Kanoa had a constant distaste for rules, and chose to ignore them entirely, just as his opponents had.
"Carousel, Leech Seed on...Al Gore over there." He jerked his head to indicate Ogre, hoping that the little Bulb pokemon would catch on. With a happy chirp, Carousel hopped towards the battlefield. Once she was content with her position, she turned and fired off a little leech seed bullet, aimed at...Turbo? Evidently she hadn't quite caught on to Kanoa's head-jerky indications, and had chosen an entirely incorrect target. On the plus side, she hadn't singled out an ally.
((Bunnying of Trickster done with permission (I think)))
Ares allowed himself to relax slightly as Volgen burned the last of the spider web off of him. The Houndour walked toward Kanoa, leading with a stream of fire. Ares started to second-guess the wisdom of having Volgen Burn away all of the webbing. The Houndour had just recently recovered from his last battle, and using Ember so much would have taken a lot of energy out of even the healthiest pokemon at The pokemon's level of power. The Houndour wasn't looking so hot, panting tiredly as he made his way over to Kanoa. At the moment, though, Ares couldn't think of any better way to get rid of the web, so he let Volgen cotinue with his tiring task.
Meanwhile, Hope was continuing to chase after the Abra. She wondered how Ares and the others were doing. Not knowing what was happening worried her. Chasing the Abra was also boring and repetitive, not to mention frustrating. All in all, she was becoming grumpy and impatient.
"Time for plan B," she muttered to herself. "Charge and scream like a maniac." Catching an updraft, she flew high above her target before diving nearly straight down, uttering her best battle-cry and she allowed toxisn to seep into the tip of her tail. How she caught the Abra she didn't know, but she jabbed at it furiously once she did. She refused to let her grip weaken once she had it, for fear her foe would teleport away if she did.
Finally, she allowed herself to let go of the Abra, Satisfied that she'd done her work well enough. Catchign and defeating the Abra had exausted her, and for the moment, she didn't really care what happened to it. She had to get back to Ares. She could hear the sounds of a battle nearby, and she thought she saw the back of Abraham's head not far ahead. She glided up above the fight, recognizing Ares among the trainers. Looking over at the brothers, she noticed that, while they had sucessfully subued one of the brothers, the other one was still able to flee. She smiled cruely as she got an idea to finnish off Ogre.
Ares, unaware of his pokemon's nearby presence, simply stood in the midst of the battle, feeling rather helpless. Hope was off chasing the Abra, Volgen was already busy and quickly tiring, and Cadou was trapped under the webbing.
Ares started as the realization struck him. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He'd had Cadou's pokeball with him the whole time, and he could have easily returned the Sandshrew and then re-released it away from the webbing. He proceeded to do just that, annoyed that the obvious hadn't come to him sooner. Upon being freed from the sticky webbing, Cadou went out of his way - and he rarley went out of his way to do anything - to glare at his trainer, as if to say about time.
"Cadou-" Ares said, not yet sure what he was going to do. Before he could go farther, he was interupted by a loud yell, and Hope came diving from the cloud, aimed for Ogre's face. Her claws were out and open to grab at the Magma defect, and her tail glowed purple and dripped with toxins. Ares, for once, felt sorry for the brother; Hope's poison, while he didn't think was lethal, would most likley be uncomfortable to say the least as most poison was, and on top of that was the matter of being stabbed in the face. Ares was glad he wasn't in Ogre's place.
The Rock Blast from "Chaos" slammed into the Accelgor. The ninja like pokemon evidently had a great aversion to rocks, and dropped to the ground. It wasn't out yet, though, as it slowly rose back up, staring defiantly at the bivalve pokemon that had struck it.
As Darkslide rushed the Charmeleon, despite the obvious differences in strength, size and type, his route was suddenly cut off by his fellow bug pokemon. The Accelgor lashed out with one of its arms, sending the same streak of dark energy out. The Skorupii shrieked and fell back several feet, reeling from the effects of his own attack being used against him.
"Huh, looks like Ninja bug can use 'Super cool dark slashy slash' too." Kanoa mused out loud, taking an opportune moment to stroke his chin stubble, despite his being trapped under a spider web.
Within moments, however, the net had opened up, allowing Kanoa passage, and he stood back up, helping his comrade, Ares, back to his feet in turn.
Adopting a cool pose, for the sake of morale, Kanoa swept his eyes across the battlefield in a vain attempt to analyze the situation. Unfortunately, Kanoa didn't possess the quick thinking to completely grasp the situation. Everything around him just seemed like a hot mess, and he wasn't able to grasp anything of it.
That is, until Turbo fell over from Carousel's Leech Seed, and Ogre toppled to the ground, a victorious looking Hope crowing nearby. The two targets had been subdued, which just meant that the random Aqua kid was their only real remaining opponent.
With the leech seed sapping his strength, Turbo couldn't muster the strenght to issue commands to his Accelgor, who appeared uncertain as to how to tackle the situation at hand.
On the other hand, Ogre's Charmeleon blasted into an upset rage, starting to shoot out explosive spheres of flame at any target that wasn't his master. The first hit Darkslide, instantly rendering the Skorpion pokemon unconscious. Nearby, Carousel trilled in pain as flakes of the fire landed on her, causing her great discomfort. The next Flame Burst struck Accelgor, who after receiving five rock blast hits, could stand it no longer and toppled, unconscious.
Kanoa recalled his friend to the pokeball, which left him with Benihana and Carousel, both of whom were horrendously weak to Charmeleon's flames, and the latter of which was already on the field.
"Carousel" Kanoa nodded "Sleep Powder."
As the Charmeleon began to charge towards the little bulb pokemon, fire brimming from the seams in his mouth, the Petilil hopped boldly forward, firmly planting herself. As the Charmeleon opened his mouth to roar and strike simultaneously, he was met with a faceful of Pink powder.
The powerful lizard stopped dead in his tracks, the fire disappating in a puff of smoke from his mouth. He stared, confused, at Carousel for a moment before toppling over, asleep.
"Lennox. Exfil confirmed, three blocks west of 9th and Bridge."
Kanoa turned, a triumphant grin on his face.
"Hey Four-Eyes" He crowed, pointing to the kid who had joined up with Ogre and Turbo "Better get out of here before reinforcements show up."
Kanoa stopped for a moment, blinking. He hadn't meant to sound so thuggish. He'd gotten used to playing the bad-guy for a bit now, so it came easily. Yet, this hadn't been a conscious choice to gloat over eliminating two enemies who had, just the day before, still been registered comrades.
"So...yeah. Run before I change my mind."
He looked to Ares and Abraham questioningly, as if he wasn't sure how to continue with the mission, despite the fact that it was over. A part of him begged to simply take out the boy in front of them and complete the mission, while the rest of him resisted wholeheartedly: Jake wasn't a target in the mission, therefore it was complete. He looked down at Carousel, who blinked questioningly back up at him, waiting for a decision.
Kanoa simply dropped to his haunches, resting his elbows on his knees and head in his hands, feeling the surge of a powerful headache.
"Hangman, Muffinman, keep an eye on Ogre and Turbo until exfil arrives." he muttered to Ares, next to him. "I need a moment."
Jake took a step forward, not ready to accept the loss as it was. being his first mission, he couldn't really let that go. However, his earwig rang at him from the watcher. "Its no use. Three on one isn't god sign and it sounds like they got reinforcements coming now. Best retreat." Jake let off a low growl before returning his small tick. As a sign of good timing, Trickster seemed to of appeared on his shoulder.
"Trickster, let's get out with this guys." It was a last ditch escape plan, but it could be possible to Teleport away with everyone. And Teleport they did, but only with Jake. With the Gligar bugging her, she couldn't muster the strength to transfer more than on being (other than herself). The poison would of made it worse if that had any effect on her as well. At least the tower where Jake was receiving his calls was a safe spot.
"Seems like an unsuccessful mission. I knew using this as a test boat was a stupid idea," his guide muttered next to him. "Come on Jake, it just shows you need a lot more training." With a sigh, Jake followed up, leaving the top of the tower back to HQ.
With his allies free from the web and the battle seemingly over, Abraham called back Chaos into its ball. All three of his pokemon made it through the encounter without sustaining any serious injuries, and so he was pleased. Tartarus, Abraham's Elekid, didn't get any play in the fight, which was somewhat unfortunate considering his love of battle, but Abraham was happy.
He summoned Tartarus, who was still fresh, just in case Turbo or Ogre tried to make some sort of move. Elekid's potent electricity had a chance to paralyze targeted pokemon, but against a human? Pokemon had evolved, almost specifically, to take hits from one another. Even the smallest thundershock on a human would leave them out for a lengthy amount of time.
"You two should sit down," Abraham said, approaching the two trainers calmly. "Tartarus here's pretty upset he didn't get to use his electricity yet." Tartarus, standing at Abraham's side, was winding his arms very quickly in a circular motion, pumping up the electricity within his own body, and preparing for a powerful strike. "He'd love a reason, and I'll be honest, I'd love to give the command."
He then approached Kanoa, whose last ditch efforts proved very effective, leaving Tartarus to guard Ogre and Turbo. "You did good, Kanoa. Those were good calls. You should have Coco surround these guys with Toxic spikes, though, just in case they try something. Then, we can relax."
Kanoa shakily stood up as Abraham approached. While it felt nice to hear that he'd done a good job, Kanoa couldn't quite figure out whether or not if he'd done the 'right' job.
On the one hand, he'd fulfilled his mission. But, he didn't know exactly why the brothers had been fleeing Magma. He didn't even really know what Magma stood for, except that a majority of the population in Noverus seemed to dislike them. The guy from Shady Acres, and the girl from the Beach Resort had both openly and bravely opposed them. He'd occasionally joked about being the bad guy...but now he was pretty sure that he actually WAS the bad guy.
"Thanks Honest Abe." Kanoa offered a weak smile at his fellow agent. "Coco's pretty unconscious though...I don't think he could even muster those up right now."
It proved unnecessary, as a loud rumbling heralded the arrival of a Magma vehicle. A feared Armoured Personnel Carrier rolled into view down the street, with what appeared to be a motorcycle in front of it. Both vehicles had been painted in the traditional Magma Red, indicating that the ex-fil had arrived.
Before long, the APC had trundled up beside the area of operations. The two grunts seated in the front stepped out, saluting to Kanoa.
"Oh...guess I outrank them." Kanoa blinked, looking to Abraham and Ares. "Go for it, guys." He indicated the two incapacitated brothers, who were quickly scooped up by the Magma Peons.
Kanoa watched silently as both brothers were dragged by; their eyes glared weakly at him, covered with a mixture of defeat and hatred. Not remembering a time when he'd seen such emotions embroiled together, Kanoa couldn't help but look away awkwardly each time.
"Well..." he sighed as the convoy rolled back out of sight, leaving Ares, Abraham and Kanoa alone out in the middle of the street. The latter stared out after the receding vehicles, his normally cheerful attitude rendered sullen by the victory. "That's that."
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