Cassandra Thorne's Story

Kojiro sat upon his freshly unearth motorcycle, honestly surprised the thing still worked considering how long he'd left it buried beneath the pile of rocks. He was enjoying the view from Mount Hideaway, for some reason the great sweeping view of Route 1, Pallet Town and even Viridian City was soothing to him. Sadly, he wasn't here to enjoy the view...there was a job that needed to be done. He began a group call with his teammates, simply rushing into the Rocket base rumored to be in an isolated house outside Viridian City would be dangerous. At least that's what instinct told him, but something in the air didn't feel right...something was missing. The raid on this building should alleviate his concerns, his musings were interrupted by the signal indicating the call had started.

"Yo it's me, found my bike and the thing still works. Everyone in position? We don't want our prey to get rid of our prize by wiping their databases before we access them." The plan wasn't too complicated: get it, take out the locals, get their data and fall back to the Saffron City. Going to Commerce City would be smarter, it's second only to Saffron in size and is more out of the way. Also rumor has it that Rocket still held Saffron, which made sending the message very easy.

"Just a question on us falling back, besides from telling Rocket that Kanto is ours...is there any real point in going to Saffron. Personally I like Commerce City more and we basically set up base there already. Or how about Pallet, they're right here so we can just unencrypt without really having to move before we play again?" Plans really weren't his thing, if anything he had the least sense in the entire organization. He waited for the explanation on that, and also for people to confirm whether they were in location or not. When everything was in place, he set out his Garchomp- watched it speed towards the building in question and revved his bike before rocketing downhill after it.

"Commence Operation, hopefully we'll have some fun on this one!" His voice clearly revealing a thick lust for combat.

---

---

Her pokegear was buzzing like mad, and Cassandra sighed heavily, glancing upwards and bringing a hand up to shade her face from the sun, depressing the button to answer the thing with the other. Honestly, if it weren’t for her burning need to revenge herself on everyone who dared wear an ‘R’ on their chest, she probably would have preferred to be sleeping. Then again, if not for those events, she’d also be happy and whole and entirely without need for this crap.

Her own position was closest to the house, up in a tree, upon whose branches she balanced without the slightest hint of anxiety. ”Yeah, yeah, red leader, I’m here,” she answered the call with considerably less enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Kojiro would know she wasn’t planning to slack on this mission. Sometimes, when Team Cataclysm did things that didn’t have anything to do with Team Rocket, Cassandra would go suspiciously missing and turn up again at the slot machines or in a bar, whichever happened to strike her fancy on the particular day. Hell, sometimes she even trained, both herself and her pokemon.

Today, though, she was in it to win it. These fools weren’t going to know what hit them.

As soon as the other had confirmed their presence, Kojiro was talking again, and she didn’t mother suppressing the urge to sigh. Guy was a hell of a trainer, though they had yet to test each others’ mettle, but he was probably the worst strategist on the team, grunts included. She stared incredulously at her pokegear for a second, as if certain that she’d heard that wrong, and dragged a hand down her face. Oh for the love of-

Before she could complete the thought, she spoke. ”We need to go to Saffron because that’s where we left the high-level decryption programs, Kojiro. You know, the ones we’re going to use to get the information from these systems? Also, it’s where Daisuke is, and he’s the only one of us that knows anything about computers.” Their tech expert wasn’t the most field-oriented member, but he was invaluable for his knowledge of how to bypass Rocket systems.

Either Kojiro was satisfied by the explanation, or he just didn’t care, because after that, he called the start of the op, and Cassandra’s body language changed immediately. While he and the others caused the biggest commotion they could and drew the Rocket goons out of the building, she was going to infiltrate a little more quietly and get the information they needed from the subterranean levels, at least if all went well. Leaping down from the branch, Cassandra landed lightly in a crouch, rising to her feet with a dangerous grin.

She was actually kind of hoping not everything went well.

---

---

---

---

Long before most had risen for the morning’s activities, Ravenna had been trekking up Route 25 to the Cape, a small box of mechanical parts floating through the air at her side, surrounded by a vague haze of blue-purple psychic energy. The girl was an odd sight, in her knee-length black dress and knee-high hiking boots, managing to appear more as though she, too, were floating than walking. The stirring breeze played with strands of pastel pink hair, teasing some of the shorter ones into her face, but from the look of solemn equanimity on her face, it apparently wasn’t a concern.

She spent most of the morning aiding Bill with moving some new equipment around his house; he was trying to put in a berry garden, it seemed, and she’d volunteered to help. In a way, it was repayment for a gift a long time ago; it had been from Bill that her father received the twin Eevee that had become her very first pokemon partners and steadfast friends.

Both Artemis and Orion were presently outside with her, Artemis poking around in a box of seed packets and Orion sitting quietly beside her, apparently content to make sure his sister did not stir up too much trouble. Glancing over at them from between her borrowed straw hat, Ravenna smiled and turned back to her work, which presently consisted of digging small holes with a trowel and dropping seeds into them before covering them over again, the fresh mounds of earth temporarily dark against the drier soil.

It was already shaping up to be a hot day, and she was grateful for the sun protection from the wide-brimmed hat as well as the intermittent cool breeze. Sitting back on her feet for a moment, Ravenna reached for the canteen of water at her side, feeling the sudden burst of hostile intent far too late to do anything about it. The shovel that had been laying nearby slammed into the side of her head, rendering her immediately unconscious, and she fell to the ground.

Artemis and Orion leapt as one to their trainer’s defense, but a net was thrown over them, and though the Espeon’s psychic blast rendered a nearby Koffing unconscious, the grunt that had stooped by the unconscious girl found their pokeballs and recalled the both of them, rendering their assistance moot for the time being.

“The heck did you do that for?” Xavier asked of Annabeth, who was still holding the shovel in one hand, looking entirely unconcerned.

“No need to risk any more interference than we’re already going to get,” she replied pragmatically, dropping the shovel and signaling to a few grunts, who ran forward with small, disk-sized devices with the Rocket logo on them. A pair started laying the explosives, and the third approached the young woman with a length of rope.

“Just toss her in the truck,” Annabeth said, her tone clearly bored. “We’ll drop her once we’re out of here. Take her pokemon though; there might be something rare in there.”

---

Ravenna woke to the sounds of chaos, and the sight of not much but darkness and what looked to be some of Bill’s computer equipment. Her mind was still fogged, the thoughts filtering through slowly, and an attempt to access her power failed to dredge up even the most basic of telekinesis. She discerned that she was bound by the hands but not her feet, left to rest against a wall in what appeared to be the storage part of a mid-sized moving truck. A noise close-by indicated the opening of the door, and the girl immediately shut her eyes again, pretending to still be out cold.

A shaft of light spilled into the truck, someone tossing in what looked to be a crate of research materials before slamming the door shut again. Ravenna tugged at her bonds, but found them too strong for her to break. Biting her lip, the girl leveraged herself to her knees, and then onto her feet, peering around in the dim light of the storage compartment. Her waist-sash was gone, and her pokeballs with it, but her bag was sitting right there, and with some work, she managed to sling it over her shoulder. If her pokemon weren’t in here, where were they? And just what was causing all that commotion outside? People were yelling, and the occasional cry of a pokemon suggested that at least one battle was taking place.

Well, she might not be able to use her powers for the moment, but that didn’t mean she was going to stand here and do nothing. Since her hands were uselessly behind her back and a strip of cloth appeared to have been tied over her mouth, she settled for kicking the wall of the moving truck as hard as she could. The Steel-toed boots she wore were good for more than just hiking, and she thought, hoped really, that someone would be able to hear her making a racket over the din of the other goings-on and think to let her out.

Her first thought was simply for her pokemon. She needed to find them. They were no less than her family and friends, and she’d do anything to get them back. But this was not the right time to panic, and so she maintained her calm, unwilling to despair at the moment.

Jeremy wasn't exactly skulking around, he stood to tall and straight to properly skulk. Instead you could say he stalked, in this case he lent against a helpful wall. For most people they would appear to be somewhat of a delinquent in the same position. Not Jeremy, instead he looked and odd mixture of threatening and regal. Somewhat dignified in his sweeping black cloak and the elegant figure of Spirit at his side, his hand resting in the smooth fur of her neck. It was difficult for people to assume he was loitering and up to no good. He was just scary and keeping to himself, which was true except that he did have something planned that wouldn't turn out so good. No one would ever know since no one ever got near enough to him and they way he glanced at people as they past keep them even out of earshot. So not a person could hear the conversation when he answered his rather important call.

"Yeah. We're in position." He replied quietly, his silky voice laced with boredom. He was speaking for himself and the two sentries in place to watch this wider area while Cassandra was the eyes on location. Ezra and Shred were watching from another two posts. So far neither had shown much signs of anything, Argent kept taps on the two. They were the the first wave, distraction and chaos. Jeremy didn't doubt that he was expected to take the fall if anything went wrong, why else would he be put at the front. These Cataclysm people probably didn't treat their newbies kindly and he probably counted. He was on of their recent volunteers, volunteer meaning he had caused Team Rocket more than a few problems and the recruiters wanted a visit. It didn't end well with both of them being soundly beaten, one after the other. Jeremy earned his place well enough. The hierarchy was built on strength, and the young man had no problems there.

He didn't move much as Argent came into sight, trotting down the path. People parted before him easily enough, easily an impressive specimen topping out at rough 42 kilograms of vicious muscle, claws and teeth. The few unfortunate or foolish who didn't manage move far enough were further encouraged with a snarl. Jeremy hardly paid attention to the conversation going in his ear. He didn't care where they went as long as they beat down the bastards a few notches. Instead he awaited the signal to head out rather eagerly. As did Spirit and Argent at his side.

"Commence Operation, hopefully we'll have some fun on this one!"

Jeremy certainly hoped they will as he ruffled Argent's neck affectionately.
"Time to play." He said with a grin and any onlooker could almost swear that the Mightyena shared the same evil expression. Spirit didn't really show so much, being the every graceful creature she is, but Thrall knew that she certainly looked forward to this. Unfortunately he didn't think she was allowed to burn down the building after they were done, he would have enjoyed it.

Kojiro's face formed a feral smile when he heard everything had been set. He'd started the operation prematurely, but the rest of the crew was more than capable of covering for his impatience. He began his part of the job, "Garchomp, stir up the Spearow flock nearby and drive them here. If possible try to take out their sensors without getting noticed, then patrol the skies and take out any runners." With a grunt, his Pokemon began its job... and no one would find out what happened to the base. As the birds took to wing in the intended direction, he rang in again.

"The Spearow are in the air around the base, between their ruckus and Garchomp they shouldn't be too alert." Spearow had a reputation for being irritable, with that in mind Rocket shouldn't be expecting something like this. "Jeremy, I'd like you to stay outside with me. Crush anyone outside and on the upper floors before trying to shut down their ability to contact the outside. If there's security cameras...see about cutting of the exits. I'll run down anyone who gets through you, also be prepared to back up Mykeisha." New or not, Jeremy was thorough and strong...the perfect anchor to set up top and block contact with the outside world. He also had some mobile Pokemon that would help Kojiro do his own job.

"Cass," Kojiro began, having completely forgotten her policy on the nickname. "If you'd be so kind as to use Jeremy and me as distractions...sneak into the base. Take any and every scrap of data they have and take out anyone you see trying to run.Careful though, since for the most part you'll be on your own." He didn't elaborate from there, Cass was even more ruthless than him when Team Rocket was involved. His statement was more of a polite reminder of why they were doing this in the first place.

"Mykeisha, your job is the most difficult one here. You're to keep the lower levels busy, so Cass has a clear line and they don't have the chance to activate base defenses or wipe any data. Furthermore you're also the first line in making sure gets up to the surface to signal for help. Should you start to get overwhelmed, Jeremy will be your back up." Mykeisha was resourceful and as such he didn't bother putting any thought in how she'd do her job. If anything, she'd already begun doing hers and might even be full two or three steps ahead of the curve. He didn't bother saying anything more...it went without saying that they all had to make sure absolutely no evidence was left behind. Of course, everyone was entitled to manipulate the evidence if the result benefited the team.

---

---

Mykeisha and the team above must have been doing a hell of a job leading off the grunts, because this was almost too easy. Of course, they’d deliberately chosen a day for the strike when the base would be understaffed, the majority of its usual occupants off on some information-collecting mission somewhere. The last batch of orders Daisuke had intercepted suggested Cerulean City, but that wasn’t really their concern right now. There was important research in this base, most of it belonging to the scientist Annabeth Crowley, or “The Mad Professor” as she was sometimes called. Hopefully, it would give them some insight into Team Rocket’s long-term plans, the better to crush them with.

Slipping inside the house through a window, Cassandra landed lightly on her feet, glancing around to be sure there were no peons in the area before kicking at the rug on the floor, already dislodged where someone hadn’t replaced it properly after charging outside. Sure enough, the telltale cracks in the wood panel signified that a trapdoor was present, and she hauled it upwards with little effort, making sure to let it down gently but not bothering to close it behind her as she skipped the ladder and jumped down instead.

Years of physical training proved useful, and Cassandra stood smoothly from the crouch she’d landed in, tossing the dark ponytail back over her left shoulder and stalking down the corridor, sticking to the shadows provided by the dim track lighting in the ceiling. The place was primary stainless steel down here, which only served to reinforce that sinister laboratory vibe it was giving off. A considerable commotion up ahead indicated that Mykeisha’s part of the operation was in full swing, and while she drew the remaining staff to her like Venomoths to a flame, Cassandra began a more methodical search, slipping into the first door on her left.

Damn. There were two people inside already, a grunt and a man in a lab coat, who appeared to be a scientist of some kind. Reacting swiftly, Cassandra grabbed the nearest glass container off a table and hurled it, contacting the scientist in the chest and causing him to stumble backward. The grunt was already reaching for his belt, but she didn’t plan on giving him the chance. Planting one palm in the table, Cassandra vaulted over and ran, ducking low to bring her shoulder into a hard hit to his stomach, lifting him off the floor a bit with the rising motion. He too flailed backwards, but she was relentless, flowing into a strike with the heel of her hand, which broke his nose, blood gushing forth and onto his uniform. Swearing loudly, the grunt brought both hands to the injured area, trying to stem the tide. Leaping from a stand, Cassandra twisted her body, bringing a leg around to smack him in the side of the head.

The roundhouse knocked him unconscious, and he fell to the ground, but not before the characteristic pop of a pokeball issued from her left, and Cassandra’s head snapped around to see that the scientist had recovered from having the large flask thrown at him and was now in command of a Porygon.



Cassandra’s reaction was automatic; her hand found Ziocite’s ball and she plucked it from her belt, expanding it in her hand before lobbing it into the space between them. As the Gallade appeared, the scientist blanched slightly, and this brought a none-too-kind grin to the woman’s face. ”You have no idea who you’re dealing with. Maybe if you run, I won’t chase you.”

The taunt had rather the opposite effect than she’d expected, though, and she had to admit she was a bit impressed when he stood his ground, his face clearly reflecting whatever he was thinking in order to steel his resolve. “All I see is an intruder who needs to be dealt with,” he replied haughtily, and she laughed even as he ordered his Porygon to use Confusion.

The attack wasn’t too effective on Zoicite, who indeed appeared more irritated than anything. Extending the arm-blades at his elbows, he firmed up his stance as she’d taught him, awaiting orders as patiently as his reckless nature would allow. He didn’t have to wait long. ”Low sweep,” she hissed, furious that this lowly swine would dare injure one of her pokemon. They had no right. Not then, not now, not ever.

The Gallade obliged, ducking low and swiping with the right-hand blade, catching the Porygon right in the middle of its oddly-constructed body. The pink-and-blue creature let out a cry, and she almost felt sorry for it, but hardened her heart. The tackle it tried in retaliation hit Ziocite’s leg, causing him to stumble a bit, but he recovered quickly. ”Now, finish it. Night Slash.” Her pokemon nodded firmly, springing into the air and swiping with the right on the way up, hitting the side of the Porygon’s head and dazing it, then with more force on the way down, driving his elbow into the crown of the creature’s skull, if indeed Porygon had skulls in the typical sense.

That was enough, and it went down, forcing the scientist to withdraw it and send out another. The Magneton looked a bit tougher than its counterpart, and immediately hit Zoicite with a thunderbolt, forcing Cassandra to take a step back or risk being in the blast radius. The little jolts of energy jumping from Zoicite’s joints indicated that he was paralyzed, but nonetheless, he manged the next Low Sweep, forceful enough to knock one of the nodes of Magneton away from the rest and onto the floor. The magnet pokemon wasn’t done yet, though, and Cassandra had to clap her hands over her ears when it unleashed a Sonicboom at close range, and then another when the paralyzed Zoicite was unable to respond.

“Double Team!” Cassandra called, judging from the electricity gathering around the poles of the magnets that the next attack would probably be another thunderbolt. Zoicite immediately complied, illusory copies of himself wavering into being, then solidifying. All of them moved at the same time, mixing themselves up so it was nearly impossible to keep track of the real one.

”Thunderbolt the one on the far left!” The scientist cried, and caught the triumph flashing through Cassandra’s eyes too late. The electricity went right through the false Gallade, causing the lights in the room and the hallways outside to flicker when it accidentally hit a computer console instead.

Cassandra seized her opportunity. ”One more low sweep,” she commanded, and Zoicite was happy to oblige. The impact sent the Magneton’s remaining parts flying, but it was unconscious before it hit the ground, and its trainer recalled it, looking like he very much wanted to flee right now. “Sorry,” Cassandra purred, not sounding very sorry at all, ”but you’re not going anywhere.” One sleeper hold later, and the researcher was on the floor. The console in this room, however, was ruined by the collateral damage of the battle, which forced her to head back out into the hallway after treating Z’s wounds with a Paralyze Heal, looking to enter the next room, this one hopefully free of grunts and scientists both.

---

---

The second, third, and fourth rooms had proven entirely useless, and now the Grunts were running around at higher velocity and volume, apparently in a panic now that it was plain as day that there were intruders in the base. She’d had to knock out at least three more, all of whom had been so shocked upon sight of the stranger moving quietly through their hallways that they’d conveniently kept still for a few seconds so she could hit them in the head. It was stupidly easy, actually, and she wondered if that leader of theirs was really what he or she thought they were. Puffed-up, arrogant little… the rest of her thought was far too obscene for good company, and interrupted besides, as she finally hit pay dirt.

This room, a floor lower than she’d started on, contained a bank of computer consoles against one wall, most of the screens darkened, but otherwise still intact, which might not last long given the general chaos that her comrades tended to cause. Jogging to the nearest one, Cassandra powered it up, tapping her foot with a hint of impatience as it whirred to life. Thinking it might be worthwhile to do so, she released Jasper and ordered him to watch the door, though all she really needed was for him to loom in it. Surely a cranky-looking Charizard would be sufficient deterrent for most of the fools in this building.

The computer demanded a password, and Cass swore under her breath and dug around in a pocket, fishing out the silvery disc that Daisuke the team’s technician had given her, eyes darting around for the appropriate slot in the computer’s tower, which she found sitting inconspicuously in a corner. Feeding the disc to the machine, she watched as the man’s preprogrammed hacking protocol whizzed through the security measures the Rockets had installed, seeking the data they wanted and making surreptitious copies of it without deleting the original material. The idea was that Team Rocket should never know just what Cataclysm knew, and Cataclysm was going to know quite a bit by the end of this little jaunt—

The thought was abruptly pushed to the side as the earth beneath her feet trembled. Cassandra, long used to maintaining her balance in difficult situations, needed only a single step back to right herself, and of course ground-type attacks were no issue for Jasper, who merely glanced at her from the corner of his eye, attentive as ever. No, the problem was in the fact that a large chunk of track lighting fell from the ceiling, which she was then forced to tuck and roll to avoid. Rising seamlessly to her feet, Cassandra snarled and resisted the urge to yell into her communications device. It wouldn’t go very well with the persona she used, anyway, even if it might have been perfectly excusable. The roof over her head continued to lose structural integrity, but thankfully the computer spit the disc back out at that point, and she was able to seal it in its protective case and slide this between layers of her clothing.

Speaking calmly, slowly, and languidly into her communicator, she nevertheless allowed a hint of irritation to seep into it. “Objective reached, no thanks to the earthquake that nearly destroyed the computer console I was working on. Let’s wrap it up and get out while the building still stands, hmm?” Rolling her eyes in Jasper’s general direction, she was rewarded with the Charizard equivalent of a shrug, and he pushed the door open, leading the way back out into the passage. She didn’t like his chances of making it up a stairwell, so she recalled him and made a break for it. If one of her teammates decided to do something catastrophically ill-advised like that again, she wanted to be well-clear of it.

She passed neither of the other two who were instructed to be in here on her way up, and took that to mean that they’d either already finished their jobs and left or were still in the middle of their engagements with the Rockets. Oh well; wasn’t her fault if they got left behind. Theirs was an organization that operated on such logic, and though it sometimes still managed to bother her, she wasn’t feeling too charitable right now, considering.

She pulled herself up the ladder to the trapdoor, passing a couple unconscious Rockets on her way out, then emerged into the surrounding area, still bombarded by Spearow. That wasn’t much of a concern to her though, and she simply ducked into the nearby copse of trees, winding her way to Kojiro’s position with ease. She drew up next to the man looking no worse for wear, if a little tousled, despite the fact that she’d been moving at a good clip for the entirety of the operation.

“Ghost Girl and Pretty Boy out yet?” she asked flatly.

Kojiro had found his job quite easy, the base was either weaker than they'd heard or his Team was stronger than he believed. Given the lack of a real chance for the members to truly size each other up, it was probably the latter. The Spearow left him well enough alone, while he found the fact amusing, for some reason the fact left him feeling a bit empty. Even the occasional sight of his Garchomp diving from the sky, followed by a shout or scream just became background noise. He hadn't fully registered the passage of time until the ground beneath him shook and took him from his feet. Fortunately, no one was around to see that disgraceful moment and he was able to stand again in peace.

" Rather early start on bringing down the base," he passively commented. Oddly he felt nothing at the thought of any of his comrades being crushed beneath the base. Just in case things were still going in relative synch with the plan he began to prep his ride again. "So long as they burn the place before leaving, it really doesn't matter." At this point, Cassandra dropped in from the trees, and not exactly happy looking either. Tact prevented him from making a joke at her slightly ruffled appearance, leading to her speaking first.

“Ghost Girl and Pretty Boy out yet?” she asked him in a very flat manner. He answered with a bland shrug and lazy toss of the head.

"I haven't seen em, and since I don't see a flaming Rocket base...I'd say no. The more important question is do you have what we came for, I'd like to leave now." He returned Garchomp to its ball on the 'now' to add a bit of stress to the point. With that, he mounted his motorcycle, plenty large enough for a second passenger. " Hop on, the sooner the nerds in Saffron get things moving again...the better." He was partly pouting from the lack of a fight for him, but in truth... it was doubtful anyone besides the Grunts had anything they'd consider a worthy battle at this base.

The rumbling shook through the structure, sending shivers through the floorboards and the combatants legs. The team rocket members stumbled a bit. Despite all his appearances Jeremy did too, although he recovered smoothly. Someone was enjoying causing destruction, Jeremy assumed it was one of his team. He didn't really care who, as long as they didn't bring the building down. The team rocket girl took the chance, although sensibly she couldn't really get the drop on the four legged Pokemon which hardly suffered during the earthquake.
"Granbull, Headbutt!" Her call was decisive and possible a good choice at that time, Spirit's stare off had slowed her to the point where she could actually be struck. Struck before she could retaliate, she yelped as he heavy strike send her tumbling backwards towards Jeremy's feet. Suddenly any lightness went out of him and the Team Rocket grunt paused when she saw the anger slicing through from that gaze.

"Argent!" He barked, and the beast snarled eagerly, alight with the same rage that began to flood Jeremy. Siliva was stunned for a moment by the sudden shift in demeanor. Perhaps if she realized quite how successful the impact was she might have pushed the advantage. Except she would never have gotten the chance, as the Granbull collapsed beneath Argent's retaliatory onslaugh. It yelped and struggled, the yelp devolving into a howl as the larger beast thrashed and the terrible sound of shattering bones filled the room. A Mightyena's jaws could crush down hard. By now Jeremy seemed almost oblivious to the revenge being wrought upon the unfortunate Pokemon, he crouched next to Spirit as she struggle to stand. She did not whimper and Jeremy would not return her to safety yet, she would get a chance at payback.

An aura of red flowed around the bull fairy, dissolving it and drawing the essence back into the pokeball that the grunt gripped close like a precious item. Stanely stood now too, next to her. They seemed reassured now the conflict had settled into their favor it seemed. They would not be prepared, few could injure one his companions so badly an escape unscathed. Argent stood between the two trainers and his own master and prisoner, hackles raised and lips drawn back to expose the fangs filling his maw. He was not the main attraction though. Flames flicked around Spirit, she now stood. Her fur glowed, both with fire and a magical golden glint. Jeremy even stepped back, the head intense on his face. He glanced at his prisoner, no longer in his grasp but at his side and resigned to the fact she couldn't try anything. Jeremy had 3 Pokeballs on his belt and she had no way of knowing that only one of them was filled. He another pair ready to recall, Argent's and Spirit's. A glance over and the young woman and Jeremy's viciousness softened, for only a moment. "You might want to run." He advised. She took a step back, then paused. Looking at the new set up, the grunts had their second Pokemon and the wounded spirit had all the intensity of the sun.
"I think staying with you seems the safest." That brought a nod and nothing more as the Staravia and Lumineon fully formed and the trainers began to shout their commands in unity. Their target was Spirit and wisely so as the Mightyena shimmered and dissolved, returning to the safety of one of Jeremy's spheres. A fraction of a moment later the cataclysm began.

Spirit was the source and epicenter of it all. The flames, roaring and red ripped from her body fading to blue as the extended. Napalm coated everything before them shear force of it blew out the far wall. Sending a burst of orange and yellow into the world beyond. Nothing was visible and nothing could through the thunderous force of nature. It was doubtful there was even a chance to scream as the flesh was seared from the bone. The Ninetails, as mighty and magical as she was, suffered for the amount of power and fury unleashed. She collapsed as the caustic blue and red flame began to eat away the structure. Jeremy only remained for as long as it took for the Pokemon be returned to the safety of her Pokeball then hurriedly dragged the blond rocket grunt away from the maelstrom of flame and outside. "We're done here." She made no resistance as they left. Already the fire was starting to catch on higher portions of the building. Once to a safe distance Jeremy glanced over to this tag along. She noted the look and sheepishly looked away before pulling off the team rocket shirt, leaving a tank top and slightly burnt shoulders. Knowing that at least that Cassandra was out the tall young man spoke into the communicator.
"Well I've... finished" He grinned at that, it was more then obvious now, the smoke was rising and the screams and shouts from the surrounding neighborhood was a good distraction for anyone. "If anyone is still inside I suggest you leave, very quickly."

The message delivered he moved back and started to stride away, they all had to find their own ways back to Saffron. He didn't have a suitable transport, he would take a public service. It wouldn't be a quick journey, but he was willing to find out more about the newest Team Cataclysm member.

---

---

”I said objective reached, didn’t I?” Cassandra asked with a shrug of one shoulder. Reaching into the left side of her clothing, she grasped the small jeweled case that contained data, currently between the layers, and pulled it out with her index and middle fingers, rotating her hand so it was visible from both the side and front. With a wink and a catlike smile, she flicked her hand and it was gone, slid up her sleeve with a small sleight of hand.

Jeremy’s voice rang over their communicators just then, and right on cue, the building went up in flames. Cass frowned just the slightest bit. There were unconscious people in that building. She shouldn’t care—they were Team Rocket, part of the organization that had taken everything from her. But despite herself, she did, just a little, and flicked open the lid on her XTranceiver, hitting what seemed like a few random buttons before she tucked it away in a pocket. That should alert the closest emergency dispatch; they could trace the signal to this location, assuming the column of smoke rising from the base wasn’t already visible in Viridian.

More or less satisfied with this, she raised a brow at the weird communication from Mykeisha, but by now, that sort of thing was to be expected from the “dead” girl. Cass would be more concerned about it if she’d sounded at all like a normal person, whatever the hell that was supposed to be. Though she could probably fly back to Saffron on Jasper, she decided to accept Kojiro’s offer anyway and swung onto the back of his bike. Who knew? They might run into stragglers from Team Rocket or something.

As things turned out, they were semi-covertly tailed by three such members, who had taken to the sky on pokemon with the ability to fly. Given the angle of the sun and the speed they were moving, it was only by sheer chance that she caught sight of the irregularly-shaped shadow that couldn’t possibly be a cloud. Adjusting her position slightly, she raised one hand to tap Kojiro on the shoulder and spoke close to his ear to be heard over the rushing sound of the air caused by their passage.

”We’ve got company above. I’d say it’s your turn for a little go-round, no?” They were just entering the city limits of Saffron, but something told her he wouldn’t care if the battle was in the middle of the damn Celadon Department Store, as long as it was a bit of a challenge. Three at once could qualify, maybe. She personally was hoping for a little less property damage than she was probably going to get, but hey, you couldn’t have everything you wanted.

The three Grunts overtook them and landed some distance ahead on the road, each beckoning their current flying pokemon ahead first. Well, that was one way to go about things, anyway.

Kojiro noted the tap on his shoulder from Cassandra as he was speeding towards Saffron City. The fact that he’d waited a bit longer than he’d wished had initially annoyed him, but this offer seemed a good plus. He brought the bike to a screeching halt before his bike got too close to awaiting party. A large man with a blue Mohawk waved a heavily tattooed arm in command of a Skamory. To the far right was a scrawny looking blonde in glasses guiding an Altaria and between them was a fidgety woman with a Swellow. He drew two Pokeballs from his belt and asked one simple question, completely irrelevant to the current situation.

“Are you strong,”Kojiro asked, a glimmer of surprise flickered across the trio’s face which prompted him to continue. “I asked are you strong, can you battle well, do the three of you coordinate well? In short are you worth my using more than one Pokemon?” His tone was devoid of reason the entire time, more like a maddened frenzy that increased as he spoke.

“Hey of course we’re strong,” the Mohawk spoke. “Sure Finn, Fujiko and I aren’t Lieutenants but you won’t find a stronger group than us. The name’s Eric, remember it for I’ll be the one to take you down!” The other two seemed heartened by his show of confidence.

“Swellow, Quick Attack now!” The woman, presumably Fujiko, launched the first strike before Kojiro could even launch a ball. While he was loathed to do so, he was forced to act quickly in an effort to keep up. To avoid being hit himself, he’d need to take a hit himself this time…the trick though was prioritizing speed. As such he relied on the Pokeball that had been closer to his body.

“Lucario ES toh C,” as the ball opened he spoke the commands in a code he’d taught the Pokemon in question. In response, Lucario dashed into the speeding Swellow. Due to the abnormal speed of the collision, neither party could avoid the situation. The blur that had been his Lucario slowed and took a knee; Swellow had definitely done damage in its hit. In contrast, the Swellow was out cold on the ground and Lucario was able to stand in the silence. “Not bad, but you’ll have to earn the next one.” In agreement with his words, Lucario pumped its arms in determination.

“Swellow, you earned a rest. Zebstrika show him we’re a force to be reckoned with.” In a frighteningly smooth action, Fujiko recalled the dropped bird for a new Pokemon. The zebra patterned electric type stamped a hoof in a show. It seemed significantly stronger than the predecessor. The more dangerous part of the battle, were the actions of the other two.

“Alataria, use Dragonsbreath,” the little man Finn made his move. Lucario was able to jump back in time to dodge, but it was still scorched from the flames. Even worse, suddenly a storm of sand obscured the battle field. Eric must have switched out as well! Kojiro took advantage of the sand cloud in combination with the lingering flames from the Altaria to add a new Pokemon of his own.

“Garchomp Dragon Rush the cloud,” his words were lazy in his command but the sinister tone was unmistakable. He’d originally planned on using the Infernape that he’d originally drawn, but the Sand Stream already compromised Lucario enough. He couldn’t afford to waste a second Pokemon to an environmental condition after his big talk earlier.

“Lucario, AS toh L,” he was met with the sound of shattering concrete from the right…Garchomp remarkably missed. But what really worried him was the sounds from Lucario’s side…nothing could be heard over the storm. The sand storm worked both ways; he couldn’t hear his opponents and they couldn’t see him. A hippo-ish shape became slightly visible behind the sand due to a quick flash of light…complete with a Lucario outline…one surprisingly stiff. At that moment he realized the trap, from behind the flames Zebstrika must have used Thunder Wave to paralyze Lucario. The noise of the move was covered by the flames first, which also covered the light. Then the sandstorm itself kept the protest of a paralyzed Lucario from reaching his ears…but what had that flash been, a fire move?

“Return,” Kojiro jabbed the pokeball in Lucario’s direction, but before the red beam could fully engulf Lucario it was attacked again. It was the Zebstrika, if he guessed the outline correctly and the only move he could think of for that kind of blow was Pursuit. When Lucario had been reabsorbed in the ball, he did a quick examination of its condition courtesy of a handy add on to his gear. Lucario was just barely conscious and he felt a massive surge of anger at the current condition. Three Grunts- weaklings from Team Rocket were actually forcing him into a true battle. He’d even been tempted into bringing out his single most powerful Pokemon. His left arm drew back to release Infernape, but before releasing he began the throw he found himself glaring at Cassandra. There was no reason for it, it was a look daring for a challenge but something about her demeanor caught him. The fire that had once been in his veins went to ice and he began to think.

“There’s no way that they can see through the sandstorm from the outside…they should be as blind as I am. Furthermore their coordination is too good; one of them has to be calling the shots at the moment.” It was at that moment, he had an epiphany. If it was correct, if he sent out Infernape, he’d be falling into a trap. The aggressive stance he had been standing in shifted to a neutral posture and he reviewed his options. “I could bet everything and use Tyranitar for my strongest duo- no that’s my last resort. I need bait… Gengar won’t work since it’s too frail to eat a paralysis and then sit there. Plus there’s that other Pokeball from the nerd. To bait out that last one, and to crush that Hippowdon, I’ll need to sacrifice Kingdra. First… I’ll need to mess with the Trainers a bit; it might throw off their game.” With that in mind, Kojiro drew a pair of goggles from his coat and stepped into the raging sandstorm. Sure enough the completion had been inside the entire time, clustered just enough so they could hear each other speak. Eric and Fujiko seemed slightly agitated; meanwhile Finn had the look of a man whose plan was unfolding before his eyes in the exact fashion he wanted. His Garchomp gracefully rode the air currents in the storm, using them to its advantage. The Altaria and Zebstrika on the other hand seemed to be slightly inhibited…a Hippowdon was partly buried in sand as well.

” So far so good,” Kojiro thought as he drew his phone and opened the Infrared. It was still too loud for him to speak, but text would help him hide emotions. In kind the three Grunts did the same, effectively making a text based four way chat. The sand whipping his skin wasn’t too bad, but he knew from experience that prolonged exposure would rub it raw and potentially begin to flay it. To all the three of them, he sent one message: Cute strategy, but highly transparent. Eric I’m disappointed, I thought you said you’d defeat me not Finn use you to annoy me. He closed his infrared after he sent the message, they’d get no chance to reply. The taunt was shallow, but Eric briefly tried to tussle out of the group. The posture of the three had a slight but hostile change, and that was all he could do on the psychological front. With a shrug, Kojiro sent Kingdra onto the battle field.

“Garchomp use Sword Dance, and Kingdra Hydro Pump the Hippowdon.” He had to use this as a chance to firm up his offence. Garchomp’s natural speed, obscuring coloration and ability to ride these gusts with ease made it virtually untouchable on this field. He simply had to wear them down and let Garchomp’s strengthen offence do the rest. Altaria began a dance of its own; any trainer that knew Dragon types would recognize it as Dragon Dance. A red flag instantly went off in Kojiro’s head; Finn didn’t seem like the type to try taking the offence in these conditions. He began watching the other two Pokemon, desperately searching for a clue. He watched Hippodwdon avoid his attack before it even began by using Dig. Next was Zebstrika, while Kingdra was still committed to the Hydro Pump it counted with Spark. It was at that moment, Kojiro spotted something…Zebstrika had a seed sticking out of its mouth. He couldn’t get a good look the seed, but he had a hunch that he’d have been better off using Gengar at this time. Kingdra was struck by the Sparks, luckily its Dragon Nature kept the damage well under control. Kojiro came up with something new on the fly… there wasn’t enough water around for Surf so this was the best he could do at this point.

“Kingdra Dragon Pulse Zebstrika and Garchomp Dragon Rush that Hippowdon when it surfaces.” He really didn’t want to leave the Altaria unattended, but to confirm he needed to see if Eric’s Pokemon was holding a seed as well. He’d barely gotten the words out before Hippowdon struck. Zebstrika was shielding by the sudden emerging of Hippowdon and Altaria was able to dodge the remaining Pulse. Hippowdon on the other hand ate both the Dragon Rush and a Dragon Pulse; the blows caused it to roll over. It also possessed a seed in its mouth. The Ground type barely held its consciousness from the encounter…but now Kojiro knew what was going on. Altaria’s new singing confirmed it: he’d fallen into a Perish song trap; he’d either have to end this quickly or switch out to be hit by Pursuit. To make things even less easy, Zebstrika stuck with Sparks once more. To his surprise, Garchomp stepped into the attacks path without his saying anything. Its Ground type made it immune to the attacks effects, the pressure was on but the worst had been avoided.

“I’ve got to remove that Altaria or this will keep happening,” Kojiro thought to himself. [i]“ Kingdra is barely holding its balance thanks to the Sandstorm but it’s invaluable to Garchomp. So Kingdra will need to be used as a sacrifice since it currently is at a huge disadvantage. I might be able to also take one of the other two with it.” By the end of his internal dialogue, Altaria took to the sky, much higher than the Sandstorm. By value, Zebstrika was up to bat…the Paralyze was too big a threat. “Guys Ice Beam and Aerial Ace that Zebstrika…we need some damage on it.” Well the Sandstorm was already hurting the Zebstrika…heck the other Trainer’s uncovered skin was already bleeding. Both attacks were spot on, but Fujiko wasn’t even perturbed. Rather than recalling her unconscious Pokemon, she walked up and gave it some medicine. Zebstrika stood up again, invigorate but not at full. It would seem he simply freed her up from using the Heal Seed to counter Perish Song. Hippowdon on the other hand, returned to its Trainer for medicine of its own. When it came back to the field, it was clear it had made virtually a full recovery.

“Garchomp, roast that Zebstrika, Kingdra don’t miss this time on that Hydro Pump,” Kojiro knew he was really cutting it close here. After this bout, he’d have to recall Garchomp and Kingdra. That’d force his opponent to make a choice, but if Kingdra took any more damage a Pursuit would take it out. Normally this wouldn’t be so bad, but Kojiro didn’t have any battle items on himself at this time. Zebstrika used Discharge at the start of the new bout, not only damaging but also Paralyzing Kingdra. Garchomp managed to land a Fireblast since it had waited for Zebstrika’s attack. But in exchange, Altaria managed to swoop in and hit Garchomp. Fortune was with Kojiro though, when Hippowdon went after the grounded Garchomp for an Ice Fang, Kingdra managed a solid hit with Hydro Pump. Kojiro couldn’t suppress the smile on his face when he recalled the pair. But in his early celebration, he’d about Kingdra’s condition. The Sandstorm claimed its first casualty in that fashion, and Garchomp was returned to the field with Gengar. Apparently Altaria had eaten a heal seed; it seemed fine despite the Perish Song.

“This is it guys: Zebstrika, Skarmory, Altaria and one more against you two. Think you can pull it?” Kojiro was honestly beginning to feel nervous about this fight. The enthusiastic reply from his team however kept him going. There was a lengthened stare down, and eventually the Sandstorm died out before anything happened. But Kojiro took this chance to speak with his opponents; in this strained silence even his talking voice would carry a good distance. “You did well, effectively taking out on third of my team.” There was a slight exchange of glances from the Rocket Trio. “Cassandra, we’re bringing them with us. With a bit of work, I believe these three would be a rather fine addition to the Team.” Kojiro returned Gengar to its Pokeball as he said this and drew Tyranitar’s. “So in honor of your accomplishment, I shall show you REAL power.” With that he released Tyranitar and the Sandstorm returned anew. Whether due to the difference in power or size, this one was far larger than Hippowdon’s. In fact, if Cassandra didn’t move his bike back she would be caught up in it as well. With a delighted screech, Garchomp took to the air and rode the gusts once more.

Through the sand, the sonic distortions of a Screech came through. Garchomp and Tyranitar briefly shielded their ears. A Discharge of electricity followed, but Tyranitar barely reacted to it…so far so good. Lastly came the green flames of Dragonsbreath, a complete miss, Altaria apparently hadn’t been able to adjust to the new storm. “Double Fireblast, and save the Altaria for last.” Kojiro barked in a highly commanding tone, he instantly covered his face as he spoke. The light of the two Infernos pierced through his closed eyes while the expected tiny shards of glass began to dig into his skin where it could or became latched into his cloak. His phone pinged that an infrared wished to make contact and he curiously checked it. The message he’d gotten was the Rockets announcing their surrender. With a smirk he returned to the two Pokemon to their Pokeballs. Hopefully he’d gotten his message across to not just the new recruits, but also to his own Team.

The calmed sandstorm revealed a trashed area. They were out of town so the police wouldn’t care too much. He felt a hot liquid oozing down his face and other parts of his body, something he expected. After all Tyranitar’s Sandstorm was intense, and he’d complicated it by flashing who knows how much sand into glass. In fact glass shards covered the area; what had once been mostly street and wooded area had been reduced to rubble and sand. The gouges from the Hydro Pumps and craters of missed attacks were just about the only true features left in the area for nearly two soccer field’s distance. “If you three want power, drop the R’s and follow. Cass, you’re going to have to drive.” Kojiro tacitly pointed at his bloodied face his right eye kept shut since he felt a shard of glass shred the skin over his eye brow. “I can’t exactly see very well at the moment. So either drive or be my eyes.” With strides that oddly seemed more fitting than his usual lazy gait, he approached his bike. Hopefully they’d be able to simply leave.

---

---

The young woman listened as the other relayed her trouble, and frowned. It wasn’t quite the same, but… she could certainly sympathize. Her best friend, the only one she’d had, and the closest thing to a sibling she’d ever known, had gone similarly missing, only… she had dreamed Mykeisha’s death, felt with the uncanny reality of nightmare the sensation of a heart ceasing to beat, before she was startled awake by a crack of thunder. She hadn’t been able to sleep that night, nor any of several after, too afraid that the dream would revisit her in all its terror. She could imagine how Junko must feel, not knowing.

It wasn’t that she had anything to say; any soothing words that she could offer would be just that. But… she could do something, surely. ”When we’ve helped Bill… if you still haven’t found him by then, I will help you look.” Maybe if Junko took her to some significant location or another, she or one of her pokemon would be able to read a clue off an object or something of the like. It wasn’t the strongest of her powers by any means, but she was willing to give it a shot if it could help somehow. It was not as though she had any urgent business of her own to attend to, after all—she was just a wandering Trainer without much of a goal.

Their conversation was playfully interrupted at this point. For a moment, Ravenna just looked blankly at Kael, clearly uncertain as to what exactly he was talking about. She was just reaching up to mirror his gesture when Junko seemed to catch on much more quickly and reached up to Fio’s face, swiping an index finger over her cheekbone. The rose-haired girl repeated this, and blinked when her digit came away with sunscreen still on it. ”Oh,” she observed mildly, then tilted her head sideways at the antics of the other two. A tiny smile played at the edges of her mouth, but she offered no further comment than this.

---

By late afternoon, they were in Saffron, the city with buildings tall enough to scrape the sky. She supposed that somewhere around here, her father was cloistered away in his office, but she felt no particular need to go locate him; they had lived entirely separate lives for as long as Ravenna could remember. Her mother had given her a name, and her father had provided her with everything she needed to live, but she couldn’t say that either had ever been able to provide her with much else. It wasn’t so bad—she’d just found the rest elsewhere.

Glancing around at the three people about herself, she wondered if maybe she’d be finding something else soon… something wonderful and important. But, the elderly mediums had always reminded her, it never did to get ahead of oneself. So she scanned the buildings and the people around her, enjoying the way their surface-level thoughts buzzed at the edges of her consciousness without really registering, like radio static or something of the sort. Everyone was a slightly-different color, too, though none so vivid as Junko, Kael, and Kenji. It made her happy, that she was next to the brightest, most brilliant colors of all.

It was at precisely this moment that her musings were interrupted by a loud crash, and a shift in the wind, coming from some distance away. Castor, ever the brave pokemon that he was, immediately turned towards the sound, looking troubled and taking off in the direction it had issued from. ”Castor?” she questioned quietly, both with her mind and her voice, but his only response was to send her an impression of great urgency, and with some reluctance, she took off after him, boots surprisingly light on the pavement. ”Wait, Castor!”

But he didn’t relent, and the few times he moved out of her visibility, he sent mental images her way, guiding her after him with obvious intent. For what, he refused to say, and she could do little else but trust him and follow. Eventually, she could see what looked to be a large sandstorm ahead, battering the buildings on this side of town within a rather impressive radius. Basically everything inside it was of course impossible to see from this distance, but she had the feeling it was dying off.

At last, her Lucario stopped, right at the edges of the storm. Ravenna drew up beside him, and even as the swirling sand tugged furiously at her hair and clothes, it began to die down. Her arm went up to shield her face; she hadn’t thought to don her go-goggles in her haste to follow him. Still, she caught the roar of an engine, and a motorcycle passed her by, what looked to be two people aboard it. She didn’t think much of this, too absorbed in examining what the flying sand left behind: scorch marks, rivets in the ground, and three flabbergasted-looking Rocket Grunts.

”Oh dear.”

---

---

---

Cassandra had scooted forward from her perch on the back of the motorbike and now sat straddle with her elbows propped on the handlebars, hands cradling her chin, watching the goings-on with some interest. She hadn’t been aware that Kojiro used code with his Lucario, but that was probably to be expected. Why turn down an advantage? Unless of course you didn’t need it, but there was nobody who could say that all the time, and frankly, this bunch looked considerably tougher than your average lot of peons.

They were well-coordinated, too, from the looks of things. Scanning their body language carefully, she decided that the leader was the blond one with glasses. He looked the most satisfied with how things were going, as though he’d expected as much. The girl just looked impatient—she probably relied on speed for most of her fights. The other guy was durable, brawny, and had the pokemon to match. It was funny, how things like that worked out, wasn’t it?

Kojiro glanced over; well, perhaps the more accurate term was glared, but Cass just raised a brow, entirely nonplussed. She waited for him to detect the trap, and she wasn’t disappointed. She really would have to challenge him some day, just to see which of them was really the stronger. She currently sat at a comfortable number two in the organization, and frankly, she didn’t want to lead, nor even hold the more contentious top spot, but it would be fun. Not yet, though; the entire team was still too fledgling, and needed some stability for a bit. Besides, he’d started the whole thing; she was just along for the ride.

The rest of the battle was interesting if not particularly surprising in the end, and she watched with the cool eye of a professional as Kojiro went for demonstration rather than total humiliation. Huh. she frowned slightly, a thoughtful rather than angry expression. She wondered why- oh. His words explained well enough. “Well well well,” she replied with all the languid ease of a smug Persian. ”Lucky them.” She couldn’t say she was all that thrilled with the idea, but if she refused to work with former Rockets, she’d have excluded half of Team Cataclysm.

So she shrugged, using the time that Kojiro needed to conclude the show to dig a few business cards out of her pocket. They contained little more than some contact information for an alias of hers—Astrid Valentine—and a number through which she could be reached. More accurately, a screening program would be reached, and run several identity checks before patching someone through to a low-level employee with further instructions, but you couldn’t be too careful when building an empire, even if most of them just thought they existed to destroy things. With a sharp flick of her wrist, Cass tossed a card at each Rocket’s feet, glancing up at Kojiro’s bloody eyebrow with a sly smile.

“Got a little enthusiastic with the sandstorm, did we? They make eye protection for that, you know.” Nevertheless, she remained in the driver’s position on the bike, the engine already on since she’d needed to move it out of the way just a few minutes earlier. Tossing the three Rockets a mock salute, she revved the engine. “You heard the man, kids. It’s been fun, but places to be, you know.” Starting forward, she’d already picked up a blurring speed by the time the first civilians—a group of four people probably averaging a little under her own age—arrived on the scene, and she paid them no mind as she passed by.

They were back at the base much more surreptitiously than they’d entered town, and Cass pulled the bike into the underground parking garage, hopping off and killing the ignition in a smooth movement. Glancing behind her, she shrugged. “Come on then; let’s see if pretty boy and the ghost made it back while you had fun. And find the first aid kit while we’re at it; you look like you could use it.”

---

---

Guard duty. Guard. Duty.

Though Kouji had only been a member of Team Cataclysm for a little under a year, the fact that he was actively sought out for his tactical mind and prowess on the battlefield should have at least granted him the opportunity to surpass this scrub work. It's not that he particularly minded being a low-man on the totem poll (he gathered quite quickly that the term "Field Agent" was a fancy synonym for "Peon,") he just was under the impression that he wouldn't be quite as bored doing it.

Nevertheless, recruiting Kouji was a double-edged sword- they knew that his interests lay solely in putting down the criminal syndicate. Unbeknownst to him of course, he was run through the system several time by the Psych Division, who proceeded to advise The Officers not to inform Kouji about their grander aspirations. Kouji had no interest in any new world order- he rather liked things the way they were.

Kouji sat slumped in the parking garage with Hero, Croc and Wattson, leaving Boss and Big to guard the rear entrance. Kouji seldom kept any of his team confined to their Pokeballs (save for the mischievous Ether,) which proved useful in alleviating the need for him to patrol.

The sound of Kojiro's bike was almost music to the zonked Kouji. Slowly rising up, he strode to meet his two superiors, noticing Cassandra taking a very un-Cassandra-like move in allowing herself to ride partner to anybody, let alone the dim-witted Kojiro. He couldn't deny Kojiro's immense power, though, which is all that defines good leadership according to the Cataclysmic Code.

He dusted off his black suit and rubbed his drowsy eyes, addressing his two superiors. "You guys don't look pissed- I guess the op went well?"

---

---

"Hey Kouji," Cassandra greeted in response to the inquiry, but she figured that Kojiro would be explaining the rest at some point, and besides that she didn't really have much to say about it. The op went down fine, a few Rockets got pummelled, life was good. Sometimes.

"The op went smooth enough, had a couple followers, but I took care of that I think."Kojiro didn't exactly comment on the eye wear statement. He'd gotten blood in his eye because he took off his goggles to begin with. Instead he settled for taking of his coat to inspect the damage, the thing was naturally riddled with tiny bits of glass- he probably was too. The part that got to him more was a blatant tear towards the tail of his coat, a section roughly the size of his palm was missing. He shrugged it off, it wasn't like that end would carry his scent so much as the smell of where he'd recently walked so a Growlithe would only be able to take a follower to Mt. Hideaway. Just to check, he also unbuttoned his shirt, nothing worth noting in terms of body damage, which meant his own blood would be the most for evidence aside from the Rocket Grunts.

"Right I know Cass wasn't the only one that watched the fight. So what's everyone's opinion on my auditioning the Trio?" He openly asked this over Cataclysms intercom; something told him the local nerds either camera fed the fight to the Team or they managed to stealthily watch it on their own. Since Cataclysm was young he didn't want to make any ill- timed moves. "Also what's everyone thinking, personally after I get patched up I'm thinking some aggressive expansion is in order. That and more members equals more sparring partners, don't suppose anyone has any ideas or alternatives? Maybe some form of casual entertainment?" With that he threw himself on one of the couches in the common room, his clothes could stay on the floor.

At this point, Cassandra stalked into the room, a square red box dangling by the handle from a pair of dark fingers. Striding past Kojiro, she dropped it nonchalantly into his lap, raising a brow at his queries over the intercom but not offering to comment at this point. In truth, her devotion to the larger project of Team Cataclysm was pretty sparing- all she was properly concerned with was getting rid of Team Rocket. Still, she'd do what she had to in order to see this goal accomplished, and filching members (good ones) out from underneath that pompous executive's nose was quite in line with it.

Moving into the kitchen, which was attached to the common room on this floor, she too spoke, and expected that she would be equally as heard. "Fastest way to expand is to get known. Saves us the trouble of finding people to join if they all want to come to us." Rummaging around in a few cupboards, the woman started a kettle over the gas stove and set to chopping some vegetables, clearly more comfortable with a knife than most people had any right to be.

"An idea as tasty as what I'm looking for," a specific "ghost girl" responded as she stuck her head in the refrigerator, without much warning of having entered in the first place.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. It was like none of them knew how to cook or something. "Go sit down, Gastly, I'll take care of it." Shaking her head, the woman lifted the kettle off the burner and replaced it with a skillet, dropping all the things she'd been slicing into it with a sizzle. The water, she moved elsewhere, throwing some tea leaves in to steep for a few minutes. She was pretty sure that if these people didn't have her around, half of them wouldn't ever eat. Much as she professed not to give a damn about any of them, she did care enough that she'd really rather that not happen. So she (grudgingly) cooked at least once a day when she was around, and made enough for at least ten people, so that the leftovers could sit in the fridge until someone remembered that they had a metabolism at two in the morning and wander in as though a kitchen were a foreign concept.

Honestly, she was kind of irritated that her mother had rubbed off on her so badly.

Despite being asked otherwise, Mykeisha decided to walk over to the counter anyhow, simply out of wonder for what she was to expect to be eating later on. Yes, even for a dead woman, Mykeisha had quite the appetite, simply another quirk among her many, many others. "What is it that Miss Thorne is making for us tonight, I wonder..." Mykeisha asked, holding a pink and blue fan over her mouth, gazing into the skillet. Of course, the fact that the last anyone heard of her was that she was trapped in a burning building only a couple hours ago was one that Mykeisha did not make obvious, as she wouldn't even be standing there if she was human, or if she didn't have a Gardevoir.

Sometimes, the urge to smack oneself on the forehead was almost too strong to resist. Cassandra wasn't the most familiar person in the world, and if she didn't like a person, they weren't allowed to call her anything but her name, but she had never liked or encouraged being called 'Miss Thorne.' It was, in fact, how that person had addressed her, and if she'd disliked it before then, she despised it now. Still, one didn't exactly tell Mykeisha something like that and expect her to care or remember. The ghost just did things her own little bizarre way, and the rest of them either put up with it or didn't. "Stir fry," she answered simply, choosing to let the matter drop. The tea was done steeping, though, and she placed several cups on the counter to indicate as much, pouring herself one and leaning up against the surface to drink hers as the food cooked behind her.

Her father had always encouraged the practice of consuming tea after physical activity, and since he was over fifty and still regularly beat the tar out of people half his age, she saw no reason not to maintain the habit even in his absence. If the others chose to, well, their health would be better. If not... no skin off her teeth, anyway.

Strolling into the kitchen at a lethargic pace, Kouji took a seat on a cushion positioned closer to the door than to the rest of the officers. Though he put in a little less than a year's time with the organization, he still felt like a bit of an outcast. He's no stranger to the indifference he wears on his face- it's a flaw that his sister incessantly derides him for.

He did a scan of the room, noting the presence of all but one of the officers. Cassandra took her usual spot preparing the meal for the evening- she put on a tough face, but Kouji could tell that her care for the group went deeper than she probably wanted anyone to pick up on. Head honcho Kojiro was next on his scan, who had sustained some sort of injury to his eye. Kouji reasoned not to bring it up, confident that somebody would do a better job of bringing that up.

Lastly was the mysterious Mykeisha. Though Kouji was a typically accepting person, he never could quite read her. Any attempt to ever engage her in conversation in the past proved fruitless, as she would either be off in her own world, or making claims about her alleged death.

"And Maya told me that I was socially inept..." he thought to himself, giving Wattson and Croc leave to go and play. Hero lay at Kouji's feet, never one to stray too far from his old friend.

It was at this point that Kouji grew weary of being the elephant in the room, and decided to join in on the conversation. "At the risk of overshooting my pay grade, how did the mission go? Doesn't look like we lost anybody."

"I really could care less about this pay grade crap," Kojiro answered while bandaging up what cuts and injuries he got from the glass. "From my end the mission was rather boring, all the effort in planning the thing and a simple charge took care of everything. If anything the trip back was more interesting. Three Grunts from Rocket decided they wanted to dance, and I'm hoping they'll decide to join soon, it's not often you find a three man cell with that level of potential."Kojiro's voice was rather dull as he spoke, after all it wasn't too important now. "But Cass, what do you mean 'get us known'? That could be anything from robbing a bank to going door-to-door asking for members. Also, how long until that disk gets cracked?" He refrained from suggesting they split up despite believing the more things that could be done at once, the better.

"Oh yeah, I should also hit up the Center and get my team patched up. Or is our own medical wing working now?" At this point, his voice once more possessed inflection. In truth, even he didn't know if it was from true concern for his Pokemon or simple lust to get back into battle. "As for losing anyone, I don't know. It's not like I counted who went in and then came out; I kind of assumed that people would just go do their own thing and then we'd all get a call when the disk was cracked."

"Med wing's working, though only the pokemon side," Cassandra replied in her usual languid tones. Pausing a moment to flip the ingredients around in the skillet, she set her tea down and flicked open the communication device on her other wrist with her free hand. "Daisuke says the disk may be a couple hours yet. Personnel check-ins indicate that everyone made it out without incident, but also that Jeremy hasn't shown his face here yet." She shrugged. That wasn't so abnormal. Trying to coordinate the team was kind of like herding Meowth; they all sort of did their own thing and only really came together when it was necessary. Things were probably better that way-- if this whole thing blew up in their faces (and she wasn't an idiot, it probably would), then they'd all be able to move onto the next without too much difficulty.

"As for getting known, well... that's all about getting people to believe that we're worth supporting, isn't it? Trainers aren't the only people we can use. We need popular opinion to keep the police off our backs, and we need financial backing if we're going to keep running expensive operations like this one. End of story." If they didn't manage to find those two things somewhere and somehow, they'd never be able to take down Team Rocket, and that was really the important bit, wasn't it? She'd learned the hard way that you didn't do that kind of thing alone, not with the new leader in charge. That'd get you beaten and trapped in a collapsing building, and more importantly, without your pokemon. The lines of her face hardened at the thought, and her mouth dropped into a scowl. Poking around in the fridge to hide it, she found some rice and reheated it for the stir fry, dropping it in with the rest.

How to go about it was a bit more of a challenge, and she gave it some thought before responding properly. "Well, besides the Gym Leaders, who are the most well-known people in the region? I'd say it's a pretty even tie between TV personalities and radio broadcasters. They're in the spotlight all the time, which is right where we want to be, yeah?" Mercurial, her face shifted into a devilish grin, playful where solemnity had been but moments before. This could be fun.

Atomsk walked into the common area after a particularly brutal training session with Rai and Thai. Atomsk believed that in order to properly communicate with ones Pokémon, one needed to be able to go toe to toe with them. Feel what they feel. This gave Atomsk a particularly toned body. He walked in with Rai and Thai on his heels. He had a noticeably large flow of blood coming from the top of his head, although his hair covered the location of the actual wound. His shirt was still off, and he lit a cigarette as he walked. He walked up to Cassandra, she was in the middle of cooking, and reached into the skillet to grab the plethora of foods mixed into it. He threw the handful into his mouth, and chewed happily. "That's pretty good Cass, although it's lacking spices. Throw in some salt and pepper. but it still needs more than that."

"Well, maybe that's because I haven't added the spices yet, you lug," Cass replied, watching with distaste as Atomsk grabbed a handful of food right out of the skillet. "Honestly, it's like living with barbarians. Didn't your mother ever teach you patience?" She was tempted to smack him with a wooden spoon or something, but he looked like his pokemon had already kicked his ass enough for the day. That would be extra carbos in their food for the next day or two, if she had anything to say about it. "Get your sorry self over to the first-aid kit Kojiro's using or I'll teach it to you, and we don't want that, now do we?"

This sort of banter was more or less the norm for the two of them, as Atomsk was occasionally Cassandra's sparring partner, and therefore subject to a bit more friendliness than the average schmuck. Perhaps unfortunately, she best expressed such goodwill with sarcastic barbs and threats of physical harm. Well, she'd never claimed to be normal, either, and it sort of worked out most of the time, so whatever. Flipping open another cupboard door, she grabbed an array of spices both mundane and exotic and set them down on the counter. Personally, she liked her food hot enough to cause most to sweat, but she toned it down for the less curry-inclined in the group.

"You don't have to tell me to use a damned first aid kit, I was already planning on it." Atomsk got annoyed whenever he was told to do something by Cassandra. He didn't really like his own mother, so getting mothered by Cassandra wasn't something he particularly liked either. He grabbed a hand towel, and wiped the blood from his forehead with it. He grew uncomfortable quickly with so many people around. He didn't like showing off his scars, so he threw on his shirt and tie quickly on his way over to the table Kojiro was sitting it. He grabbed some bandages and rubbing alcohol from the kit. He poured the rubbing alcohol over the wound, not even wincing from the pain, and then wrapped the bandages his head. He took a deep inhale from his cigarette, and breathed out a decent cloud of smoke.

Eevee ran into the room and quickly jumped up onto his shoulder. She nuzzled into him, and he proceeded to pet her. "How long until dinner? I'm hungry as hell!"

Her initial response was to roll her eyes, but she did glance behind her to check on the food. "Two minutes, tops. Anyway, we were just talking business, if you have any input." She waved a hand as if to say it made no difference to her, then cast her eye over the selection of spices, selecting a good four from the bunch and heading back over to the stove. Kojiro could fill him in if there was anything worth passing on, but at this point, it seemed like more summaries of events wouldn't help and it was probably best to just decide on something.

Kojiro finally acknowledged Atomsk's presence when the man helped himself to the first aid kit. He usually got along with man, and even began speaking in a friendly tone. "Got your ass handed-" at that point Kojiro had to suppress a wince from a spike of pain in his skull. For some reason, he'd always get these when around Atomsk for extended periods of time."-to you again I see. Sparring Pokemon can be fun and all, but there's really no reason to go at it so hard core." Kojiro had already finished bandaging himself before Atomsk had gone for the first aid kit, if anything this meant he no longer had to put it away. He stood up and began to walk out of the room, "Well if anyone needs me I'll be in the med bay then. Gotta patch up my team after the little scrap today." Sure he was technically avoiding people at this point in time, but he'd rather avoid the pain in his skull at the moment.

"Cass just save me some, I'm starving. Also don't listen to Atomsk on spices, he likes to fry his tongue."

---

---

While the group of Cataclysm Admins (if you could call them that), and one field-grunt-whatever-person (okay, so maybe they weren't in the business of titles, but who cared?) were away, Cassandra found herself down in the third subterranean level with Daisuke the tech nerd. Now, most might have disdained someone in the computer-mankey's position, as indeed he spend most of his time holed up in a dark room with little but bright screens for illumination and as a result was kind of awkward, but Cassandra actually didn't mind. She'd never tell him this, but the guy reminded her a little bit of her brother, who'd always been something of a disappointment to their father because of his complete lack of interest in martial arts. That had, naturally, left her to shoulder those burdens by herself, but since Dion was now a big-shot tech analyst at some company in Hearthome, she supposed she couldn't hold it against him.

Plying Daisuke's attention away from his consoles was never easy, but a little bit of experimentation had yielded his weakness to her: the guy had a serious thing for Lava Cookies. Which was why she was presently leaning over his swivel chair, dangling just such a confection in front of his face long enough for him to snap out of his screen-hypnosis and notice, at which point she naturally snatched it out of his reach. "Uh-uh, kid, you've got to give me something first. What's on that Rocket Disk?" Daisuke eyed her suspiciously (he was by now long aware of her tendency to exploit loopholes in wording), but then shrugged, turning back to his console and pulling up a screen.

"Several base locations, a few personnel files on admins, plans for some operation in Cerulean that apparently went down this morning, and... well... this." The screen changed, revealing a list of names, and Cassandra scanned it for two full minutes, blinking slowly in a catlike expression of surprise.

"Is this...?" she started, and Daisuke nodded, irritably brushing strands of light brown hair out of his face.

"Yeah. It is. Think we can make something of it?" His speech dissolved into munching as she handed him the lava cookie, still staring at the screen, only this time, a slow-blooming smile was spreading over her face.

"Oh, I'm sure we can. Who's still in the building?" When he 'mmphed' and pulled up a list, she discovered that the only people with enough clearance for this info were Kojiro and Jeremy, who must have found his way back in the meantime. Striding to the intercom, she depressed the speak button and summoned both of them. "Hey Kojiro, Jeremy. You guys should get down to Daisuke's cave. He's decoded the disk, and you're gonna want to see this stuff." Leaving it at that, she returned to stand beside the seated technician, crossing her arms and leaning a hip against the side of his chair casually. He looked faintly perturbed by this, and reddened somewhat at her proximity, but Cass didn't even notice, too fixated on the various data peppering her field of vision. It was practically the Rosetta Stone of Rocket plans, and that actually made her a bit suspicious. Retrieving it had been too easy, and though their new boss was a lot of things, an idiot wasn't one of them.

Still, she'd wait and see what the others had to say about it.

Treating his Pokemon hadn't been that big a deal. After all Garchomp had suffered minimal damage and Tyranitar hadn't suffered injury at all. Essentially, they got away with just pills to recover move using their moves and a tiny bit of medicine to heal Garchomp. He returned them to their Pokeballs immediately afterwards, that way the two couldn't begin to start any trouble.

"Grah who was that woman?!" Kojiro flipped over a nearby medical bed as he fumed, then began treatment on Lucario. It had been staring at him since he'd released it, probably waiting for a chance to get going again. "Ah quit your bitching, for a 3v1 of that nature you did fine." With that he injected Lucario with something to treat paralysis, but Lucario also jumped up as if it'd been healed. With a quick look at the bottle, it'd seem he'd wasted a Full Restore. "Yeah, yeah just go grab the medicine on the counter to recover your moves." With a demeanor matching his own Lucario jumped off the bed and went to the counter in question. The two exchanged a quick fist bump in the encounter, something of a mutual understanding. With that, he had to address Kingdra; his use of the Full Restore had technically put him over budget in term of quick care. So he had to haul the unconscious Pokemon into a tank meant for water Pokemon treatment and hook it up there. It'd take the thing a couple hours to get Kingdra up to snuff again. Kojiro set the thing to ping his gear when done so he could leave the room, he wanted food. He'd barely gotten into the kitchen and begun to help himself when Cass's voice played over the intercom. Apparently the nerds had gotten something worth show, so he just lumped himself a bunch of Cass's cooking and began the descent into the nerd cave.

"Rai' wah u ca' meh dow' for," the words had come out through a mouthful of food so clarity wasn't exactly possible. He quickly swallowed before speaking again, he wanted to go back to eating...ignoring the fact that his meal was actually triple a normal portion. At that point his eyes caught the screens and he quickly skimmed the information on the screen and an amused smile apeared on his lips. His instincts screamed at him that key pieces of data on the disk were a trap. Other bits he had suspicions on but couldn't identify a real reason, a quick flashed of pain behind his eyes nearly made him drop the bowl. Both to preoccupy himself and not risk spilling his bowl, he bagan shoveling food in his mouth and eating much too fast to properly taste the dish.

Jeremy had only just returned to the nest. The trip back on the bus hadn't exactly been a hasty journey. One that was filled with worry, Jeremy and his compainion hardly spoke. Instead he watched out the window as he worried over Fury's condition. They had exchanged a few words before that, he learned her name was Alex and she learned who he was and his purpose. That was it and she still had no qualms about travelling with him. Oddly enough they didn't actually discuss why she was even following him. He had directed her to a hostel for the remainder of the day as he wandered back to their safehouse. He was welcomed by the scent of cooking, most likely Cassandra's since she often enough volunteered to cook. Jeremy would try if she didn't except he doubted that the others would apprieciate his particular, bland preferences. Pasta and mince would get tiring pretty quickly. Argent paced in behind Jeremy and Ezra slithered around the doorframe and along the wall. No one minded them roaming the place, at least no one had brought it up with Jeremy himself.

The dark young man didn't really get a chance to tend to Fury since Cassandra's voice crackled over the intercom, it seemed he turned up just in time to hear about anything interesting. He paused for a moment considering ignoring the summons and tending to Fury. She was tough, she could take the punishment, in fact he had always pushed her hard. On the other hand he despised needless suffering. He put that off though, mostly likely she needed rest and she was secure enough in the orb on his belt. He crouched down next to Argent, running his hand through the Mightyena's thick black scruff. He just glanced at Kojiro as their 'leader' stumbled through and helped himself to a overly generous serving. Jeremy waited until the man had left before he confided in his friend. "You did well Argent." He put on a soft smile, one that was reserved only for his dearest friends and the reason he had waited for Kojiro's abscence. He looked over to the Arbok curled comfortable in the corner. Its yellow eyes enveloping in a cold venomous gaze. The purple coils shifted as Ezra moved its head to focus on his trainer. "You too Ezra" He added, not that he would glaze over the Arbok's role if the pokemon wasn't present. Jeremy loved and trusted each and every one of his pokemon, even if they didn't display the affection openly. He shifted a pokeball off his belt. One that hadn't been disturbed for too long he placed it gently at Agrent's feet. "I think Lynn will be wanting out by now." Argent growled a little, he didn't particularly like being away from his trainer. And this seemed to occur more often since Jeremy had joined Team Cataclysm. Though he still spent enough time with his compainions he now had to allocate time to other distractions. Argent picked up Lynn's pokeball in his mouth and padded out through the door. Of course Thrall did notice the slight lack of enthusiasm. Which made sense since the Mightyena wasn't the energetic one of the group. Still he made a mental reminder to spend time with them later, when he could. Perhaps for Alex's 'audition'.

He made his way down the multiple staircases to Daisuke's lair. Ezra slithered quietly along behind him, which had become somewhat of a thing. He certainly wouldn't leave the newest member of his team alone since the Arbok had a habit of attacking people who got too close. The lair wasn't really a lair either. The room was deep enough for it to be a moderate, unshifting temperature. So it was neither cold or warm, just a bland luke-warm. Also Daisuke may have been a part of Team cataclysm but Jeremy had next to no respect for the guy spending his time down here with computers. He stepped into the room to hear Kojiro mumble something indescirnable. Jeremy sighed as he moved closer to the screen. A sideways glance and a frown at Kojiro's obssession with his food. [color=#80080]"So, what am I looking at here."[/color] He wasn't impatient, it was just he would rather be somewhere else, tending to Fury and then spending time with his friends.

It took a couple minutes for the other two to assemble, but it wasn't like she was frightfully impatient. Quite the contrary actually. She watched from the corner of a slanted eye as he scanned the data, and from his expressions, she had to guess that he was coming to similar conclusions as she. She caught a small tic, an involuntary movement from the looks of it, before he caught himself and started attacking the food like his life depended on it. Curious; she'd noticed his odd behavior from time to time, but she'd never thought much of it. Lots of the people here were "odd," and he was hardly as weird as the girl who was utterly convinced that she was dead, for Arceus' sake. She filed it away in that increasingly voluminous mental cabinet that held such things, then turned back to the screen.

Jeremy arrived then, and she decided to keep it quick, as they all likely had things to do. "I'm guessing most of these schematics on future operations are fake, but this one-" she pointed out the floor plan of Bill the Pokemaniac's house- "Is confirmed by local news to have happened this morning. Took the guy's pokemon and a bunch of data on genetics, it looks like." She shrugged; that would take more detailed exploration, but of course they wouldn't have the data itself, just what types they were looking for.

Presently, though, the more interesting feature was the list of names, and she had Daisuke bring that back to the forefront of the windows, grinning. "Recognize anyone?" she asked, though it was a mostly rhetorical question. "This list contains most of the biggest names in the less-than-legal underworld, and they're all invited to a social gathering hosted by the Rocket organization. All their major financial backers, in one place. Now, if some upstart, but incredibly bold rival team were to infiltrate this and pull off something big, like, say, a takeover of the whole building or a sound defeat of the present admins, that'd be bound to sway some investors, don't you think?" she let the idea sink in for a moment, rather pleased with it herself. Oh, there'd be plenty of technical details to work on, of course, but that could be hammered out now and possibly in subsequent meetings. Maybe she'd even try getting Kouji to put his opinion in. The kid seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders; maybe it was time they used it.

Jeremy's voice sounded behind Kojiro sooner than he'd expected, but his haste and efficiency had still allowed him to put a significant dent in his dish. He closed his eyes and spent an overly long amount of time chewing before speaking, the movement of his jaw used as a beat to focus himself. When his eyes opened again, the usual wild glint was replaced by a deathly coldness even his voice took a different tone- the harshness in it replaced with an utterlack of emotion. "It would appear Rocket expected a raid such as ours to occur, after all most of this could easily be covered by a simple classification." He began to indicate at the screen as he spoke, the same machine like voice, one unused since he'd first left Rocket, going the entire time. "That meeting is without a doubt a valid enough event, but I want that location cross referenced as I guarentee you there's more than a little catch. Look for something like double meanings, multiple locations of same name or a basic secondary code inside the message; Cassandra, this is up your alley so preparation and such is entirely up to you. As for these three base locations, I can tell you right now they don't exist... I helped forge their signature." One last item on the list caught his eye...and he had to point it out for the sheer stupidity of the notion. "Pop quiz: What would Rocket want with three truck shipments of 'Tauros feed'?" The label on it seemed so magnificently fake that it screamed cover up...the question was if it was worth the risk to investigation.

Kojiro set himself back on his heels for a bit, eyes closed while waiting for an answer from his colleagues. His current thoughts drifting over the earlier statement of getting attention through a Radio Station or Television Network. The nearest TV broadcast was within Saffron itself...but the police response time would be essentially zero after his battle earlier. It also would capture faces, making it very easy for any enemies to track down a member of the Team. Which essentially left radio as the chosen option, no loss since they were easier to enter anyways. Most of the Team's manpower would be busy, after all there was still an extensive lists of bases, checkpoints and various Rocket matters to interrupt. The matter of a radio broadcast would have to be done as a solo job, the issue was picking the best candidate...

Jeremy shrugged, he knew that Kojiro's question was rhetorical but the ace trainer often had his own ideas. "Smuggling." Even if it wasn't real feed its quite possible it was a sincere cover. On the other hand it was so obviously not feed that it could be a complete cover. Jeremy didn't have enough of an insight into how the upper echelons of Team Rocket worked. They were sick bastards to the core, he wouldn't put anything past them. Although he now knew someone who could, at least the more current workings. He keep the information about Alex to himself. He would let them know later, he doubted she would have much insight into how the system worked. Neither did he know if they could trust her. Hopefully she would spot the situation to decive Team Cataclysm and betray them to the Rockets. That kind of of desire for power would suit a potential for Team Cataclysm. "If you are aware of Rocket's illegal activites then you would assume that it was a false trail. However if the the place was searched by some oblivious legal authorities then some of these could be covers for an actual operation. My opinion, it might help to know who they were guarding against." The dark clothed man was even less visible in the dark of the room. He wasn't looking at their esteemed leader, instead he was scanning the list on the glowing computer screen.

"So are we going to act upon this?" Jeremy was glad he didn't have to make any decisions. He would gladly leave that to the people who were more interested in being in charge. How that grinded on him, he had yet to challenge one of his 'superiors'. He would have except he had no desire to lead. Once he had proven himself strong he would probably leave, finding the next challange. In a way it was stimulating to work with and be among people of a similar mindset. He wasn't in a rush to leave. He glanced over at Cassandra, although Kojiro was currently the one in charge it seemed to the young man that she was far more involved. He expected she would sway the vote in favour. Once the dicussion was made he would be freee to go tend his own pokemon. "Also, I think we're glazing over something big here." He gave a look at Daisuke, one of the few times he would properly acknowledge the guy's little usefulness. "Show us what you have on their recent heist at Bill's." He commanded the little man, positively towering over the seated tech. He turned back to the others, suddenly a little more interested in this meeting. "Don't you think this job is a little more important than you're treating it? Bill is one of the most influencial researchers there is. You wouldn't send just any grunts on something like this, they would send their best. And if they going to risk the heat that's going to draw they must really want that data. If they want it that bad I certainly don't think we want them to have it."

Daisuke looked mildly irritated at the show of intimidation, but rolled his eyes and brought the data back up anyway. "The op was going down at the same time as our raid, so we don't know what they took, and it doesn't explicitly list what they're planning to take, either," he pointed out, and Cassandra nodded her understanding. They'd have to find another way of coming by that information. The news had only reported stolen pokemon and "research," which knowing Bill's reputation had something to do with genetics. Other than that, though, the reports had been vague. It was definitely worthy looking into, but it would take time. As for what the 'Tauros feed' actually was, who could say? They'd have to try tracking the supplier, and that, too, would take time.

But keep these people confined in one place for too long, and you were likely to cook up an explosion the likes of which a Voltorb could only dream about. Which meant they needed to stay on track for now, and plan all of these other ops for some time in the future, when they knew enough to make them pointed and successful. Cracking her neck from one side to the other, Cassandra made her recommendation. "It's a lot of information," she said at last, scanning again over the various screens, "And most of it is useless to us without further processing and cross-referencing, and since apparently Daisuke and I are the only ones who can stand sitting at a desk long enough to do that, we'll have to wait a while before we can plan anything around it. I think for now we need to focus on our own team: notoriety, funding. I'm going to get a plan going to send multiple operatives to Lavender's Radio Tower, and you'll probably want to be one of them, Kojiro. If there's a voice to be associated with Cataclysm, it might as well be yours. As for the rest of it... I'm going to take a closer look at that little crime-boss get-together the Rockets are throwing. I've always loved crashing parties." A wicked smile crossed her face for a few moments, but then it was gone.

"If that sounds like a plan, then I think we're done here."

Atomsk's final orders lingered in Kouji's head like a broken record as he was left alone to watch his two superiors part ways. It certainly had been an interesting day- he had gone from gruntwork to aiding a prison break in a matter of hours!

Kouji despised working alone- although he had all of his Pokemon with him, the grunts of his companions could never replace tried and true human communication. There was also the issue of the operation itself- freeing fugitives from a prison. Truth be told, Kouji was having mixed feelings about the whole ordeal. He got into this group to put the Rockets down, and yet he is now being made to rescue them?

He cast aside his doubts, worried that they would prevent him from following through. This was his big chance to earn the trust of his higher ups, which consequently meant a chance to start getting some answers. He steeled himself for the gravity of his situation- now he just needed to formulate a plan. His primary goal was to free as many captured Rockets as possible, all the while not harming the guards inside.

He considered the possibilities; A frontal assault would be a fatal mistake. The worst case scenario would be his complete annihalation, and the best case scenario involves him hurting many innocent guards to free these criminals. This plan was counter-intuitive, so he immediately scratched it. Sneaking into the high security facility would also prove futile, as he would be spotted by either the sentries or the security cameras. Either way, he would be compromised on the spot, and considering his status among his fellow Cataclysm-ites, he didn't anticipate a daring rescue on his behalf.

He then began to consider the capabilities of his team. All of them were capable of fighting in their own right, but he had to consider what else they were capable of accomplishing. Bignacious, oddly enough, was the stealthiest member of the team, while Hero and Wattson were about even in terms of running speed (Croc could actually outrun the both of them, but he was still too young to appreciate the gravity of the situation enough to take it seriously.) Boss could fly, and Ether...

"Wait a minute! Ether!" Kouji thought, instinctively clutching her Pokeball. Porygon-Z was upgraded from the Porygon model for the purpose of messing with computer systems. The cops probably had tech support strong enough to block a full-on system crash, but he was sure that Ether could at least trigger the alarm to incite just enough panic in the compound to free the grunts and make a fast escape. Upon making this revelation, Kouji made a trip to the Pokemon Center, releasing Ether from her Pokeball and explaining the plan to her.

"This mission is gonna get pretty hectic on your account, so I'm sure you'll have a field day," Kouji began, "I'm gonna patch you into an e-mail and send it to the Prison Ward. Once the message gets sent, find your way into the prisons system. I need for you to locate the cell numbers of only the Rocket Grunts. Once you have that, send me a message on my Pokegear to let me know that you've got 'em, then I'll give you the go ahead to trigger the alarm. Once you've done that, open the cells that you've found, and I'll have Boss blast a hole in the southern wall. If all goes well, I'll be able to run them out and give 'em a 'pep talk' of sorts. I'm going in blind, so give me about two hours to retrieve you again, otherwise, you should head back to Bill's. Everything clear?"

On any other given day, Ether would have been less than enthused simply being addressed by Kouji, much less taking orders from him. However, Kouji was giving her an uncharacteristically chaotic order, which she wholeheartedly supported. Saluting him with her artificial limbs, Kouji nodded in approvement, confined her to her Pokeball, and deposited her into the PC Network. He then composed a phony e-mail addressed to the Prison Ward (whose address was located conveniently on their website,) and sent along his bug right behind enemy lines.

While waiting for Ether's confirmation, he made a second trip to the Mart, purchasing a cheap party mask meant for concealing his identity. He was doing this op dangerously close to home- the last thing he wanted was for his face to be seen by his family after a prison break-out. Before he could ponder the ramifications for much longer, however, his Pokegear beeped the familiar chime that told him of a new message. Sure enough, Ether had located the cells that the Rockets were being held in- there were quite a number of them like Atomsk had said, but they were all conveniently being held on the ground floor away from the other inmates. This would make staging the escape all the more easier.

He released Hero and Wattson from their Pokeballs- this plan was going to require speed and efficiency, and he could count on that from both of these guys. Steeling his nerves, he gave Ether the go-ahead to trigger the alarm- which she did with a smile on her insane face. The three burst through the front door mere moments after the alarm triggered, running headlong into the ensuing chaos.

To Kouji's surprise, the guards were far more preoccuppied with the sudden alarm trigger than Kouji's presence. They must have been drilling for a possible rescue attempt since retrieving the prisoners- but they were stationed in droves everywhere except the front door. This worried Kouji, but he had come too far to turn back now.

He reached the holding block as outlined by Ether. This op had so far been way too easy- something was most assuredly amiss.
Before he could hypothesize further, however, the door slammed shut behind him, locked from the outside. Amidst the panicked chattering of the Rocket Grunts, Kouji could see one lone figure standing in the middle of the room. He was calm, cool, and collected, hands resting firmly on the Pokeballs on his belt.

"Small stature, and a mask..." the Prison Ward observed aloud, "You ain't like no Executive I've come across before. You ain't dressed like 'em either. You're either top brass or cannon fodder. Either way, you fell right into our trap, and I ain't gonna let this opportunity go!"

Kouji grounded himself a little firmer, observing his opponent a little more. Judging by the way he was dressed, this must be the Prison Ward, and if he was stupid enough to lock himself in a room with a potential lethal breach of security, then he must've been pretty sure of his abilities. Kouji would ordinarily send his entire team to quickly put down the guy, but the room was big and the acoustics were awful- he was going to have a hard enough time issuing orders to one Pokemon, let alone five. Not saying a word, he watched as the Warden unveiled his first combatant.



With a resounding crack, Michael's Pokeball revealed his first combatant- A Shiftry, primed and ready for battle. The Pokemon was almost as aged as its owner, though judging by its stance, he was certainly no stranger to battle. The outcome of this match was not of any importance- Kouji merely needed to stall long enough for Ether to open the doors to the Rocket's cells.
He scanned the room- to his dissapointment, the corridors were quite narrow, preventing him from unleashing his entire team upon Michael. He was a Warden, after all- he probably expected such 'dishonorable' tactics, making the venue a very wise choice. The Grunts, now recovering from the initial bewilderment, began to realize what was happening, and began cheering wildly for Kouji, calling him 'Maskman.'

"Maskman, huh?" Kouji thought to himself, "That's actually got kind've a nice ring to it..."

Michael, however, was not one to be toyed with, shouting "Hey Mask Boy, Negasus here ain't known for his patience. I ain't got no problem tellin' him to tear you apart if you don't send out one of your own!"

Negasus, Kouji assumed, was the name given to Michael's Shiftry, and by the Pokemon's restless demeanor, he wasn't bluffing. "Hero, you're up buddy." Kouji murmured to his oldest companion, "Remember- your job is to stall. Take him down if you can, but don't push yourself."

Hero nodded in agreement, slowly stepping in front of his master. Without giving him time to think, Michael's Negasus charged at a breakneck speed, crashing down on Hero with a ferocious Brick Break. Completely caught off guard, Hero took the full brunt of the assault, sliding across the hard prison floor back to Kouji's feet. The prison erupted in a unified chorus of instigating "Whoah's" and "Oooh's" from the grunts.

Wattson chattered wildly, assisting Kouji in helping the bewildered Hero back to his feet. "You okay, bud?" Kouji asked, which was responded to with a stern nod as Hero stumbled back to his feet. Kouji offered further counsel in the form of an observation, "Punch for punch, this guy has the advantage. Aim low- he stumbled a little bit on that last attack, which makes me think he's spent more time flexing his arms than focusing on his footwork. You can end it quickly if you can knock him off balance"

Hero nodded with approval, but not before Michael could chime in with a quip, "You got spirit, but you're still young and green if you think your Typhlosion can win just 'cause you have type advantage!"

Kouji had no idea what type Shiftry was, nor what Typhlosion's attacks were strong against, so the insult was about as effective as a child calling him 'stupid.' Realizing that taunting wasn't eliciting any sort of response, Michael began to bark orders to Negasus, "You've almost got him, Negasus! Hit 'im with another Brick Break!"

This would be his decisive mistake, however, as Hero seldom fell prey to the same trick twice. He watched the behemoth's clumsy feet, grounding himself on all fours in preparation to retaliate. Without even so much as a command from Kouji, Hero allowed his fiery spines to heat up to a fever pitch, unleashing a dire Flame Wheel to the unsuspecting Negasus's feet. As Kouji predicted, Negasus was not prepared for a blow to his rather unassuming feet, and consequently toppled over from the assault. Hero, in response, clambered atop the Shiftry's exposed stomach, delivering a devastating Eruption to the entirety of Negasus's body, rendering him all but done for.

"Alright Negasus, come back!" Michael beckoned, returning the defeated Pokemon to his Pokeball, "Looks like this'll be interesting after all. Let's bring it home, Fiona!"

With this, Michael let loose his second fighter- a Houndoom. Upon her emergence, she howled a shrill battle cry, followed by a slight hop into an intimidating stance.

Neither Kouji nor Hero were phased, the former simply issuing a quiet order to his companion, "This one looks quick, but I bet you're quicker. Hit him with some fire." Typhlosion charged towards Fiona ablaze, knowing full well that the latter command meant for him to attack with a Flame Wheel (Kouji was clueless to the universally-accepted names of Pokemon techniques.) To Kouji's bewilderment, however, Fiona simply opted to dodge the attack, following up with nothing more than an unassuming bark.

Confused by Michael's uncharacteristically passive tactics, Kouji bade Hero to attempt another Flame Wheel- to which he obliged, albeit a hair slower than before. Fiona exerted even less energy dodging the assault, continuing to bark maliciously at the ever wearying Hero. This left Kouji utterly confused, until he witnesses a very strange act from Hero. After his second attempt, he slowly staggered to his feet, coughing up what appeard to be a dark liquid. Kouji recognized that substance anywhere- Hero had been subject to a Toxic Poison, and from the looks of it, it had been slowly eating away at him since Negasus' demise.

"Well that was clever," Kouji grumbled to himself, recalling the poisoned Hero to his Pokeball, "His Shiftry must have excreted the Poision while Hero was wailing on him. He somehow cued his Houndoom in on that fact, which is why she's opting to let the poison take effect instead of wasting energy fighting Hero herself. Smart."

Fiona howled loudly, a triumphant display of her wittiness. Kouji could have opted to have Hero do some form of damage before fainting, but that would be disrespectful to his team. Kouji had never let his Pokemon faint before, and he was not going to start now. However, the problem now was finding another combatant to stall for Ether. Wattson was integral to the final phase of his plan, so he couldn't risk losing him, and Croc was far too weak for the likes of Michael's battle-hardened team. Boss would have been the best choice, as he was easily Kouji's strongest ally, but winning was not Kouji's priority.

Without a word, Kouji tossed a Pokeball into the prison floor, revealing Bignacious to be his next competitor. The Grunts roared with applause- they truly had no idea what was going down here. Kouji tossed Big a berry from his pack, offering some words just audibly enough for Big to hear, "Remember, we're trying to stall for Ether. I'm sure you could eat this guy for breakfast, but play a little more passively with this one." Big nodded, inhaling the berry without thoughts to trivial matters such as chewing.

Quickly sizing up the new opponent, Michael barked new orders at Fiona, "He's gonna be resistant to fire, Fiona. Hit him hard and fast- we want to hurt him more than he can heal!"

Letting out a howl, Fiona rushed at Bignacious from his left side, bearing her fangs in an attempt to sink a ferocious Crunch into Big's flabby flesh. He let her get close, before lashing out with one of his trademark Brick Breaks; an attack that she just barely avoided. Fiona again charged Big, this time feigning right attack in favor of re-attacking the area she just left. This tactic worked, but not without suffering a nasty Brick Break across her skull.

The two combatants gathered their bearings, both suffering from brutal assaults. Though Big wasn't nearly as fast as Michael's Houndoom, he was at least twice as resiliant, having both bulk and a way to recover from wounds. This Houndoom was built for offense, so as long as Big could outlast the mutt, he would surely emerge the victor.

Michael must have realized this, as he barked an order contradicting his initial observation, "Fiona, light 'em up! Torch him with a Fire Fang!"

Big saw his opportunity to cause some major damage. Instead of dodging the attack, he protruded his gut as the target for Fiona, intending to absorb the brunt of the assault with his legendary Thick Fat capabilities. After allowing her fiery onslaught to be mostly absorbed, Bignacious retaliated with a punishing Return. Fiona was buffetted, but far from defeated, quickly bouncing back up into an aggressive position. Bignacious, on the other hand, found himself rather troubled at the most recent hit he took. This, in turn, troubled Kouji, as he was certain that Big had the upper hand.

He soon realized Michael's sudden paradigm shift; Fiona's recent attack had left Big with a nasty burn that was rapidly eating away at his health. He knew he was going to have to order Big to rest up, which would further open him up to assault from the much faster Houndoom. Even with Big's capabilities to attack in his sleep, the results were often of a sporadic nature, and Houndoom was going to be capable of dealing damage far quicker than Big could heal. This was easily the hardest battle Kouji had ever fought. Still, he had to stall long enough for Ether to open the cell doors, as Kouji was quickly realizing that this was the only way that he was going to get out of this in good shape.

"Big..." Kouji paused, knowing full and well that he was ordering Big's defeat, "...take a snooze."

Big obliged, falling immediately into a deep sleep. The regenerative powers of a Snorlax still amazed Kouji to this day- almost instantaneously, his wounds began to patch themselves up, and all signs of the burn were all but exhausted.

As Kouji predicted, unfortunately, Michael was hoping for just this very thing to happen. Almost instinctively, he ordered a mercilous onslaught from Fiona, to which she gladly obeyed. Tossing and turning, but still deep in slumber, Big was forced to endure the attack, unable to do anything about it. Kouji knew that Big's only chance at getting out of this was in the hands of Lady Luck...

"Big, time to roll the dice..." Kouji ordered hesitantly. At his command, subconsciously initiated a Metronome, and what followed was quite miraculous- Big was engulfed in water! The Metronome had prepared Big to launch a sleeping Waterfall at Fiona. This stroke of luck, however, became Big's ticket to defeat, as Michael let out a sinister grin.

"Yeah, I'm sure you thought water was a great idea, didn't ya? Zap 'im, Fiona!"

Mimicking her owners grin, Fiona's fangs began to spark wildly, charging headlong into Big's aquatic attack. The electricity was augmented by the cats now watery frame, dealing fatal damage to the already unconsious kitten. Big's sleep grew restless, mirroring Kouji's own anxiety.

"Ugh!" Kouji couldn't help but let loose a disdainful grunt, recalling Big to his Pokeball, "How could that happen...?"

"Is this seriously the best rescue party Rocket can muster?" Michael jeered, "The last time I had Metronome used against me was from my daughter's Clefairy! How in the world did you become an Exec?"

Kouji was now legitimately concerned- he only had one more Pokemon he could afford to stall with, but he knew that Croc was highly outclassed and would only last a few minutes at the most. Boss was the only one on the team capable of putting down this mutt, but he had only seen two of Michael's team, and though Boss was quite powerful, it was still one against potentially five more! Ether would have to finish quick, or this op would go dreadfully sour...

"I'm sorry Croc, but I need your help..." Kouji sadly beckoned, sending forth the eager Croc.

Michael rubbed his temples, now genuinely dissapointed, "Are you kidding, Mask Boy? Don't make me put this one down- he's just a little one."

This proceeded to set Croc off, chattering wildly at his new nemesis. Kouji could only put his hands in his pockets, knowing full well he had just sent his weakest link to battle with a titan. Still, Kouji had to make every second count, hesitantly dropping a simple order to the eager Croc, "...time to power up, buddy..."

Always eager to please, Croc began to dance wildly about, performing the esoteric Dragon Dance that Boss had taught him. Michael, in response, merely shook is head in bemused dissapointment.

"Kid, you've got stones, and that's something I respect." The Ward chided, "But now it's time to teach you a lesson in humility. Fiona, Thunder Fang!"

Croc stood nary a chance, as Fiona caught him at the torso with an electrifying bite, deftly tossing him to the wayside after the electricity had coursed through its veins. Croc had never suffered such an onslaught before, struggling to even make it to his knees before he buckled over again in defeat.

Michael shook his head as Kouji shamefully withdrew his companion, "Why would you do that to him? I know you Rockets aren't exactly known for your compassion, but you had to know that your Totodile didn't stand a chance!"

Worried, Kouji grabbed hold of Boss's Pokeball- Boss was the only one capable of destroying the south wall, which would be their only means of escape once Ether unlocked the cells. If Ether didn't hurry, this may very well have been the end of Kouji's journey.

"Boss..." Kouji began, tossing Boss's Pokeball into the arena, "Drag this one out as long as you can. We still need you after this fight..."

Michael's posture suddenly became more rigid, concerned at the unexpected presence of a genuine threat. Still, whatever doubt he had was dissolved in an instant, offering an immediate shift in tactics to the ever-hardy Fiona.

"Alright Fiona, on your toes!" Michael cautioned, "We're gonna run some 'Hard Defense' with this one!"

Boss was Kouji's strongest contender, and he had no doubts about his ability to tango with this already-wearied Houndoom. Still, she was a formidable opponent, and the Ward still had at least one more competitor who was probably just as strong as the current one, if not moreso. Boss was going to have to scare this one into a more passive strategy if he was to outlast her.
"Boss, let's show him our version of 'Hard Defense' with the business end of your nails!"

Bearing his mighty Dragon Claws, Boss swooped in to deliver a decisive swipe to the on-guard Fiona. However, just as Boss was close enough to make contact, Fiona had erected a barrier that rendered his claws completely inneffective! He took to the skies, gathering his bearings after the failure of his onslaught.

Kouji had seen this move before; He believed he had heard a trainer call it Protect in the past. He also remembered that the move would not function if attempted to be used multiple times. Not giving him time to recharge the move, he ordered Boss to follow up with another Dragon Claw, to which he followed through.

Michael was not to be bested, however, ordering Fiona to launch a volley of Shadow Balls at the incoming dragon. Instead of dodging the projectiles, however, Boss opted to stay his course, taking most of the attacks as a price to nail him with his deadly claws. The exchange ended in Fiona being knocked farther back, while Boss grounded himself to recover from the shadowy missiles. Having time to properly process the pain, it took a lot more out of him than he anticipated, rendering Boss almost as exhausted as Fiona.

Before further blows could be exchanged, however, Kouji's Pokegear lit up, indicating a new message had been received. To his great relief, it was from Ether, who had identified the cells of the Rocket Grunts.

He glanced over at a nearby cell, quietly addressing four Grunts who were completely enthralled with the battle.
"You four," Kouji beckoned, immediately getting the attention of the prisoners, "You're all about to get sprung. When your door opens, I need you to help me grab the Ward. We're gonna throw him in a cell so we can get out of here without a tail. We clear?" The Grunts gave an inconspicuous nod, completely convinced that Kouji was one of them.

He swiftly sent a confirmation e-mail to Ether, gaining the confusion of the Ward. "What're you up to, Mask Boy?"

"I was never a match for you..." Kouji admitted, adopting a more dominant posture, "It's clear that I've got a lot to learn, but beating you was never the goal. This was."

Almost as if cued, the cell doors began to open one by one, rendering both the prisoners and the Ward quite confused. The initial shock quickly wore off from the prisoners, however, as they simeltaneously charged towards the center of the room.
Kouji had to act quick- the guards outside would inevitably hear the riot and organize within a matter of minutes. Quickly convening with the four Grunts, they charged at the Ward. Fiona had pounced upon one of the Grunts, but the other three and Kouji were able to (albeit with some difficulty,) pin the ward to the ground, just as he was going for another Pokeball. Fiona reeled around and, having immediately sized up the situation, immediately stood down, realizing that any further retaliation could lead to her and her master's demise.

Amidst the chaos, Kouji barked an order to Boss "Beast Mode the south wall, Boss! Take them south to Route 6, and hold them there until I catch up!" He made certain to get up close to the dragon, so that no one but him may hear his order.

Without a second thought, Boss began to charge the wall, parting the crowd of Grunts like the Red Sea. Kouji and the Grunts, meanwhile, combined their strength to force the hardy Ward into the nearest cell. He patted the Ward down, retrieving the lightest Pokeball from his belt, reasoning that this one was Fiona's.

He aimed the Pokeball at Fiona, returning the hound back to its ball and placing it back into the Ward's belt. "I know it's hard to believe," Kouji whispered to Michael, "but I'm actually on your side. I'm not here to steal your Pokemon, I'm here to recruit."

Michael grimaced, "Whose side your on makes no difference to me, Boy. You broke into my prison and released criminals; Mark my words, I'm gonna find you. And when I do, your ass is grass."

Fully understanding the Ward's animosity, he ordered the Grunts to use his own handcuffs to cuff him to the outer cell bars. He nodded at the not-so-inconspicuously placed security camera, knowing full well that Ether had access to the footage, just as the Grunts left the cell. By this time, Boss had totaled the wall, and began to lead the Grunts into the direction of Route 7. As the Wards cell door shut, however, the rest of the prison staff had begun to pile into the cell block.

This rush of personnel is exactly why Wattson had not participated in the battle. "You guys might wanna cover your eyes," Kouji warned the Grunts, now turning to the focused Wattson, "Blindside 'em, Wattson!"

With a resounding battle cry, Wattson unleashed a blinding Flash attack upon the unsuspecting guards, rendering them completely blinded by the attack. With their escape path now clear, Kouji, Wattson, and the remaining Grunts all made a break for the hole in the south wall. In order to better cover their escape, Wattson let loose a myriad of Thunderbolts to disorientate the already blinded guards, as well as further cover up the sound of where they were running.

After an exhausting sprint, the group had made it to the secluded area of Route 6. Kouji was surprised to see that most of the Grunts had stayed at the designated spot. He had underestimated their loyalty to their own cause- a trait that Kouji wished that he also possessed for Team Cataclysm...

"There isn't much time," Kouji began, immediately gaining the attention of all of the Grunts, "the Saffron Police are undoubtedly on our trails as we speak, so I'm going to make this as brief as possible. I'm not one of you- if it were up to me, I would have left you all in that prison to rot."

This comment caused more than a handful of Grunts to make threatening gestures and shout explitives. However, some of the smarter Grunts made motions to quell these outbursts, realizing that this was indeed their savior, and that they at least owed him the courtesy of listening. Once again garnering their undivided attention, Kouji continued.

"Be that as it may, however, today wasn't for me. And believe it or not, it wasn't even for you. I brought you out of that prison to give you a chance to be a part of something greater than yourselves. What that something is, though, is completely up to you. Some of you may choose to go home to friends, family, or maybe to even start over. If that appeals to you, then I implore you to pursue that venture without a second thought. Some of you may opt to rejoin the ranks of Team Rocket. Know that I won't stop you from returning, but keep in mind that the next time we meet, I won't hesitate to put you down where you stand."

Though obviously far more anxious, they continued to listen with unabashed interest. This kind of talk wasn't Kouji at all, but merely an act. A means to an end. Still unsure of whether he had done the right thing or not, he proceeded to conclude this mini-speech.

"However, what you have seen today is a mere fraction of what's to come. Team Rocket is losing power, and simeltaneously, a hammer of justice is rearing to quash it from its tyrannical reign. I came into that prison- alone!- to show you what one, nameless agent can do. Rockets, I am a mere Grunt like yourselves. If you want to feel what true power is, want to see what true justice is, or merely wish to join the winning side, I ask that you join the ranks of Team Cataclysm. Your status, strength, and even prior affiliation won't prevent you from joining- simply drop your 'R's' and seek us out. "

He had left the Grunts in a confused frenzy, but before anything drastic could be done, he hopped up on Boss's back, bearing his claws as a warning to any who dare approach his master.

"We have recruiters in Commerce City." Kouji explained, "If you want to join, walk into any bar and ask the bartender if they can spare a glass. You'll be approached by someone who will ask you why you need a glass. Your response will be silence- look them dead in the eye and say nothing. This will begin your walk to true justice."
With that, he nodded to Wattson, who knew to be ready for a command. "Sorry guys," Kouji apologized, "but I can't risk any of you following me. Wattson, lights out!"

With that, Wattson let out a Flash, blinding the unprepared Grunts. Amidst the chaos, Kouji quickly withdrew Wattson to his Pokeball and took to the skies mounted on Boss.

"Once the blindness wears off, split up. You'll all be caught if you travel as a large group- head away from Saffron and give yourselves a few days before you head to Commerce City. Good luck!"

Boss then took to the skies, flying towards Vermillion City at Kouji's request. As the approached the outskirts, however, he had Boss land, withdrawing him back to his Pokeball. There was a possibility that the jail break had made headlines by now, and he couldn't risk being apprehended. Tossing his jacket, tie, and mask into the sea, he approached the city, heading directly for the Pokemon Center. As he turned over his Pokemon to be healed, he headed for the PC, withdrawing Ether from the network and placing her Pokeball back with her team. She had definitely been the MVP for this op, and at this point had considered her an asset to his team.

After retrieving the rest of his now-healed companions, he walked north-east, heading towards the outskirts of Saffron. He found a rather secluded patch of grassland, and proceeded to give his superior Officer Cassandra a call from his Pokegear

"Cassandra, it's Kouji. I've just completed an op, but it's too risky for me to try and re-enter the city. I'm in need of an extraction- can you pinpoint my location from my Pokegear signal?"

After giving everyone a full day to rest (except Kouji; the sheer stupidity of breaking a bunch of Team Rocket Grunts out of prison by himself with no upper level sanction from anyone but Atomsk, who hardly counted, had landed him with cleaning duty), Cassandra had assembled the admin-level battlers in a meeting room the following evening and laid out the details of their next publicity operation: a temporary takeover of the Lavender Town Radio Tower. Contrary to Kojiro's initial hypothesis, they needed more than one or two people on this, as holding the entirety of the tower for long enough for Daisuke to hack the radio frequencies and get someone (Kojiro) broadcast over the radio for everyone to hear was going to take a small, but pretty elite, team.

For the purposes of this mission, she explained, they were dividing into two smaller groups: she, Mykeisha, and Kouji would be acting as the distraction, hopefully drawing most of the trainers and security personel on staff to the lower floor, where they'd battle if they needed to but otherwise simply hold off any interference. Meanwhile, Kojiro and Jeremy would be advancing to one of the broadcasting rooms on the upper floors, communicating with Daisuke to learn when to give their message to the public. Cass wasn't too concerned with what it was, though she had mentioned to Kojiro beforehand that he'd do well to keep the emphasis on the defeating of Team Rocket rather than any of the rest of that business he seemed to be attached to. Jeremy was there to help in case anyone happened to miss the memo about what was going on downstairs and try to fend them off-- timing was imperative, and they had only a small window to accomplish what they wanted, which meant that Kojiro had to get where he needed to be quickly.

"Right," she said, almost dreading the response, "Any questions? Let's try to keep them relevant, please," she said, flicking a momentary glance to the "dead" girl. "Otherwise, we're hitting Lavender in two hours."

"Oh no, none at all." Mykeisha answered. She was rather excited for the whole event. Despite the fact that it was right next to Saffron, Mykeisha had never been to Lavender Town in a long, long time. She'd heard it had changed quite a bit since she had last seen it. She thought it was rather disrespectful when the graves were moved and it was turned into a radio tower. She couldn't wait to 'haunt it'. After all, that was her job as a vengeful spirit.
Cleaning. Duty.

In Cassandra's defense, Kouji conceded that he probably deserved to get chewed out. To be honest, he found it quite refreshing- being yelled at had to at least have been one or two rungs above being completely taken for granted. However, the least any of them could have done was to grant him some form of commendation. True, it had been just about the most reckless thing Kouji had ever done in his life, but his actions granted Team Cataclysm quite a number of new recruits- by Kouji's recollection, about 75% of the troops he sprung from the prison turned up for employment in Commerce City. He also found her anger to be a little odd, considering she didn't bat an eyelash when Kojiro brought in Rockets to join the cause.
Regardless, Kouji had accomplished the task he set out to do. He had proved that he was a force not to be overlooked and effectively made a name for himself. Sure, it took an act of uncharacteristic brazen to get the higher-ups attention, but he was sure that, in the long run, this would prove effective to his cause.

Either that, or he would quit. He still had doubts about this entire organization; his suspicion kindled even more by the words of Atomsk.

"Atomsk..." Kouji thought to himself, still unsure of his motivations, "Just what are you up to...?"

He still hadn't quite forgiven him for assigning him the phony op. just as a way to get him off his back. A simple "we're done here" would have more than sufficed. More than that, however, he couldn't quite grasp why he took such an interest in Kouji's 'goodness,' then immediately telling him to spring a bunch of Rockets.

There were too many questions, and not nearly enough answers. The only think he could do now was to lay low until the higher-ups realized that Kouji's actions actually benefitted the Team, or until the whole thing blew over. With that, he proceeded to silently mop the HQ floors, awaiting further orders.

Kojiro had just checked up on his Kingdra, the slower method of treatment would take another day for it to fully recover but he had no complaint. On his way over to one of his favorite lounging spots, he came across Kouji mopping the floor and felt an odd desire to talk. "Kouji," to his own memory, this was the first time addressing the man by name." I ask for three Grunts and you get me a whole prison...good ambition. In fact, I'm willing to bet Cass is only mad since she didn't think of it herself. I know that I'm jealous of the battle I heard you had." He didn't stop walking until he reached a door.

"I can understand having a mere Agent mopping a floor should a Grunt not be around...but it seems beneath Cataclysm's newest Officer don't you think? After all the sudden surge in our ranks requires more people to keep them in line. Keep this up and a spot at the top could very well be yours for the taking." Kojiro left the room after that and the rest of his peers would have their own opinions on how he was trying to restucture things for the new numbers and expected growth. But short of exceptionally strong newbies, the majority of the new promotions would be within the current members. It was something of a reward for loyalty and a way to show appreciation while putting distance between the elite and the masses. His current idea for the new ranking structure was simple: The Elite, some kind of sectional leader, a tier of officers that was subdivided a bit, Agents and then Grunts. The current command structure was too small for something like this, but Kouji should get what he meant. That said, Kojiro pounded in Cass' number and hit call. First he wanted her to get a couple side things ready for the Lavender invasion: something of a fake website with code names that gives something of member stats and 'service record'. A dummy call center would also compliment his intended anouncement, he could think of nothing better to hide his plans than a rather 'legit' seeming business. If everything worked out well, the bit of stick that was this mission would work endlessly well with the bit of carrot he'd tell to the masses.

"Fine then, looks like we're ready to go. Kojiro, Daisuke said he's taking care of that extra stuff you wanted. Everyone else, let's get a move on, shall we?" Whatever else may be said about her, Cassandra was willing to put her personal opinions aside for the making of a stronger team, at least for the moment, and she certainly had not objected to Kouji's promotion, though it would have been within her rights to do so. She hated the fact that Rockets that had been out of the picture were back on the streets (and that other 25% weren't just going to go home to their families), but she was done saying anything about it. Her point had been made, and the only grudge she bothered to hold onto was the very particular one she had for the person who'd ruined her life.

Jeremy's features were set in his trademark frown. He leant against the wall at the back of the room, watching and listening. He had no intention of offering his opinion, since after all he wanted nothing to do with running the political agenda of Team Cataclysm. Now he had even less reason to involve himself. Kouji's promotion was an interesting decision and Jeremy had no concern about that either way. It was Kojiro's preogative to promote someone to an officer. The title meant nothing to Jeremy, Team Cataclysm was lead by the strong. Until this man could prove himself stronger or as stronger then one of them he wouldn't have any respect from Jeremy. Of course there was another facet to his concerns. Kouji's promotion was due to his actions that were supposably serving Team Cataclysm's needs, not his own strength. Coupled witth the fact they were now seemed to be recruiting Team rocket criminals en masse without any filter to weed out the weak undesirables it seemed that Team Cataclysm was being diluted into another criminal organisation instead of the advocators of strength and power they once were.

Regardless he would do what he had to. At least some of the members of the group had earned his respect and their visions were something he would not mind coming to be. Ultimately his goal was to bring Team Rocket to their knees. Yet they were a sizable organisation with hands in every town, city and company. He couldn't take his revenge alone. Fury wouldn't be joining him on this mission and it saddened Thrall a little to go out without her. Although in the end they were aiming for a fight her abscence wouldn't be sore, although for some reason he expected some conflict.

---

Lavender Town was almost eerily quiet at night, as one might expect from the haunted place that it was. Draped in the shadow of Mt. Moon, even the starlight from above had trouble filtering into this place, which gave them a fair opportunity to proceed under the cover of late evening. This was the time when families and trainers would be settling down for the night, and it was known as optimal airwave exposure time for radio programming, meaning that many of the most popular shows were broadcasting around now. Exactly what they needed. With a quick gesture, Cassandra signaled to the others, indicating the all-clear for their approach. In contrast to how they'd gotten to the tower in the first place, they were going to just waltz right in the front door and make a lot of noise. Or at least the three in the distraction group were going to. Kojiro and Jeremy were going to slip in behind them, likely unnoticed in all the commotion the other three were causing.

"All right. Mykeisha, Kouji, let's go." Throwing open the door with a well-placed kick for dramatic flouish, Cassandra put her cat-face on and stalked in grinning like the Cheshire she so often was. A few startled staff members shot the three Cataclysm admins surprised looks, and it was clear that she had their attention. "Ladies, gentlemen," she intoned mischievously, "Please welcome this evening's entertainment." stepping aside, she allowed her two teammates to enter. The plan was to take over the building, pure and simple, and to that end, they were going to battle any trainers that might be present and not bother too much about preventing structural damage. More power to them if they could pull this off without looking like villains, but even heroes couldn't always leave everything unblemished, now could they?

'Cataclysm's newest officer.' Kojiro's words still rung in his head like the echo of a bell in a gymnasium. He certainly expected some form of commendation for his actions, to be sure, but nothing as dramatic as a full-fledged promotion! Though anybody else would be elated to receive this honor, Kouji found himself in a quandry- Officer status brought many more limitations than privlileges, at least as far as Kouji's agenda was concerned. Not until now did he realize the boon that being a no-name agent had been to him. Gone were the days of slipping by under the radar- he was going to have to be a lot more concientious of his actions if he was going to get to the bottom of this.

Still, he couldn't help but be a little happy. He played a high-risk high-reward game and came out victorious, and 'Officer' had a very nice ring to it the more the thought about it. He had also gained the trust and respect of Kojiro; being the head of the entire operation, this was truly the only relationship that he needed. Perhaps being an Officer would bring in some perks after all.
He didn't have too much time to ponder his situation, however, as Cassandra's dramatic entrance soon called for the rest of the supporting actors. He adorned the inverted Pokeball mask he bought from Saffron- some of the Grunts he had sprung had found themselves transferred to the Saffron Branch, and most had still taken to calling him 'Mask Man,' despite the fact that he was introduced as 'Kouji Ichigaara.' He also wanted to eliminate any possibility of his activities getting back to his family. Though he knew that he was acting in favor of the greater good, he was afraid that (at the very least) his mother and Maya would highly disapprove of his actions.

He strolled into the tower in typical Kouji fashion- slouched, hands in pockets, and with complete disregard for the word 'haste.' He lazily glanced the perimeter, noticing nothing in need of his immediate attention. He palmed Wattson's Pokeball- this op called for distraction, so unleashing his entire team like he is used to would be completely uncalled for. He refrained from letting him loose just yet, instead waiting to follow Cassandra and Mykeisha's lead. He was already on Cassandra's naughty list, and didn't particularly want to give her any more reasons to chew him out.

Lavender Town, why had she'd not come back to haunt this place, like every other ghost did. Perhaps it was because she had no ill-feelings about such a place. Such a place served as her home, when she was alive, of course. Or maybe she was afraid people she knew would recognize her ghost, and she would end up hurting them, somehow.

Though, if there were one place that was deserving of being haunted was the Pokémon Tower. It was once her favorite place in Kanto, a place she had visited time and time again, until she left for the bigger world, and consequentially died. She could remember almost all the spirits, and their own little life stories, and she could remember all the pokemon as well. And now they were all moved, just so the tower could be converted into a radio tower for human entertainment. In all truth, she'd rather burn the place to the ground, but such a thought was too unpleasant for this happy-go-lucky spirit.

So there she was, in a light grey cloud-print dress, with large sleeves as always, and a pink and blue fan in her hand. She made way for Cassie, who had every right to go first, but she made herself visible to gain attention. As much as she had thought it would have been more effective if she went by herself, as humans were more afraid of ghosts than humans, it wasn't as if she had much choice in the matter, or rather, Mykeisha didn't feel like objecting to a fellow elite and creating a conflict.
"Good evening from the afterlife." Mykeisha greeted.

The sudden appearance of a trio of random strangers immediately put the security staff on alert-- they were all quite familiar with Team Rocket's antics in matters like this, and though these three didn't look to be Rockets, it didn't hurt to be cautious. The two guards at the desk in the front room stepped out from behind it, each's arm going for a pokeball at his or her waist. "Hold it," the woman said suspiciously. "There's no extra broadcast scheduled for this evening. State your business.

Cassandra's grin only stretched wider. "Honey, my only business is making yours that much more difficult."
She winked at the both of them, but yawned when the woman and her partner both tossed their pokeballs to the floor in front of them. "Nobody's any fun anymore," she drawled, rolling her cat-gold eyes to the ceiling. Turning to the other two, she shrugged. "Be my guests." Crossing her arms and making absolutely no move to reach for her own pokeballs, she stepped to the right to allow Mykeisha and Kouji the battle, personally profoundly uninterested in it.



Kouji let out a barely audible groan- the prospect of cooperating with Mykeisha seemed about as efficient as performing heart surgery with a toothpick. On the bright side, Kouji was now on the same rank as Mykeisha, meaning that he wouldn't have to put up with any antics she may begin to engage in. With a swift motion, he un-latched Wattson's Pokeball from his belt, ready to throw him into the fray.

"Wattson, Dummy Defense!" Kouji beckoned, using a code that they had practiced numerous times. Upon materializing, Wattson telepathically produced an image resembling a toy doll. This was the phenomoena known as Substitution, aiming to draw the attention of any attack aimed at Wattson until it breaks.

If this op called for Kouji to act as a diversion, then he would have to drag this out as long as possible. Outright overpowering everyone was also a viable option, though he wished to keep from harming any of the employees. With that, he slinked back, waiting for Mykeisha to make her move.

Mykeisha reached into her sleeve to grab a Pokeball with her free hand. Tossing it in front of her, it unlatched upon contact with the ground, and a Pokémon emerged. It shrieked and cackled and waved it's arms around wildly as it stood on it's two stubby legs. It's zipper-mouth sneer could have also been looked at as a frown.

"Mima, use Curse" Its trainer ordered. Mina rose her arms into the air and a ghostly pin materialized. The Pokemon then grasped it and jabbed it into its exposed stomach with a sharp thrust, and with a couple sickening twists, it pierced through the doll Pokemon all the way. From the sharp gasp emitted by Mima, one could tell it was painful for her, but only faltering a little bit, the Pokemon glared menacingly at it's opponents.

Annika gasped as Mima's curse gripped her Growlithe upon his emergence into the battlefield.

"No! Kindle, are you okay?" she worried, receiving a pained nod from the now cursed Growlithe, "We'll make him pay! Bite him!"
Annika seemed to have a control issue with her emotions, as her mind was focused solely on getting revenge on Mykeisha's Mima, and not on alleviating Kindle's curse (or the fact that she had a partner.) Her Growlithe seemed capable enough in battle though, as her fangs glowed with sinister energy as she charged towards Mima.

Nicolai, however, was far more wisened to battle, scanning the battlefield intensely as his Mightyena emerged from its Pokeball. Though Mima's Curse was a deadly move, he knew that another use would render Mima defeated as well. What was more pressing, however, was the presence of Wattson's Substitute...

"Rolf, keep your distance," Nicolai ordered his Mightyena, "take out the Elekid's Substitute with a Shadow Ball!"

This threw a wrench in Kouji's plans, as Wattson had intended to Cross Chop the Mightyena after he had disposed of his Sub. Its Shadow Ball rendered his Substitute useless, though not all was lost, as Wattson unleashed a vicious Thunderbolt upon Rolf. The shock left him injured, but still hardy enough to retaliate.

Thoughts ran through Mykeisha's head the lightening speed. Mima, already injured, would be seriously injured from a dark type attack. If Mima retaliated, it'd be easier to pull off a sneaky close range attack, such as Theif, given that she didn't flinch. Growlithe needed to be taken out of the way to make way for Froslass, as she was only planning on using ghost types. However, there was only one other option, one that rided on Mima alone, but there was a reason why she chose Mima.

"Mima, dodge it and use Frustration!" Mykeisha called. The Doll Pokemon attempted to avoid the Pokemon charging toward her, it's stubby legs taking it nowhere. Kindle, however, was quicker, and managed to bite the ghost-type, taking a hold of it's arm with it's teeth. Mima yelped, but growled and used it's free arm to pound Growlithe's face, yet it didn't release it's grip on Mima's arm. Mima continued pounding, until the puppy Pokemon couldn't take any more hits to the face and let go. Mima, however, did not quit attacking, punching it once again, then as the Pokemon faltered, Mima jumped on it's back and flailed it's arms wildly pounding on it's perch in an upset fit, each punch expressing itself and it's purpose until it felt it was enough, much to the horror of the defending Pokemon's trainer.

Annika winced along with her Pokemon, unsure of how to react to its seemingly helpless situation. Nicolai, however, kept his bearings, whispering a word of advice into the panicking Annika's face.

"Kindle...Flame Wheel!" she commanded, suddenly full of vigor. Kindle at once became ablaze, preparing to toss the ghost from its back.

Nicolai emitted a ferocious grin, simply beckoning Rolf to "Crunch it." Mimicing its masters smile, Rolf beared its darkly fangs and prepared to defeat Mima by means of a pincer attack. Kouji proceeded to scratch the back of his head ferociously, realizing that they were quickly going to throw this bout if he and Mykeisha didn't start working together. In a stroke of pure reflex, Kouji dashed towards the stalking Rolf and delivered a drop kick square into its jaw, effectively bewildering both master and Mightyena.

"U-uh-" Nicolai stuttered, having never seen a human attack a Pokemon directly, "R-Rolf, Crunch him instead!"

Faster than Kouji could leap out of the hounds way, however, Wattson sprinted between him and his assailant, taking the full brunt of Rolf's jaws. Tossing Wattson aside like a ragdoll, Rolf readied himself, now distracted from his initial order.

"We've gotta start communicating, Mykeisha," Kouji stated firmly, withdrawing a severly injured Wattson to his Pokeball and exchanging him for Croc, "Tell me what your plan is and we'll see that it gets done."

"Keep that up and you will become a ghost" Mykeisha told him, and then called an order out to her Pokemon. "Mima, Destiny Bond!" Mima jumped off the flaming Pokemon's back, already having taken damage from the attack, and started glowing in a purple aura. By now, Mima looked like an old doll on the verge of falling apart, yet it's mouth was still forced into a grin. However, now that she pulled the Destiny Bond card, she was more or less safe. Growlithe was pretty beat up, and would likely succumb to Curse, so as long as any Pokemon but Growlithe attacked Mima, she would have served her
purpose.

Then Mykeisha glanced back at Kouji. He wanted a plan. Considering he almost hurt himself trying to protect an inferior Pokemon, Mykeisha couldn't tell if he was more or less deserving of the Cataclysmic title. This caused her to smirk a bit.

"Listen, Mr. Half-Living," she told him, "Mima will be fine, she has her own magic tricks ready, she's quite the charming demon. Just do me a favour and blow out that little dying flame for me, alright?"
Had Kouji not been presently engaged in an op, he likely would have given Mykeisha a drop kick of her own. However, for the time being, Kouji would have to withhold his anger at her bizarre lack of sense and focus on the task at hand.

"Croc, let's take that Growlithe for a swim." Kouji ordered Croc, who more than willingly obliged as he immersed himself in water and blasted towards Annika's Kindle. Between the super effective strike and the curse that had taken its toll, Kindle slumped over in defeat.

"No...Kindle! Return!" Annika lamented, withdrawing her exhausted Growlithe. "Sheldon, it's all up to you now..."
She hesitantly let loose her final combatant, a far more experienced looking Cloyster.

"We aren't out of this yet, Annika," Nicolai reassured, "Rolf, Howl! We'll take as many of them down as we can!" At this command, Rolf howled as loud as he could, appearing to have become quite invigorated.

Kouji didn't imagine Croc would last long against such a strong opponent. He glanced at Mykeisha, who seemed to be unphased by the whole scenario, stating, "I'm not gonna keep Croc out here for too much longer- he can't handle these guys. It looks like your ghost is plotting something- does he need bulk or speedy support?"

"She," Mykeisha corrected, "Mima, Destiny Bond again! Mina, it's aura having faded quickly, grew bright again. Mykeisha wondered which of the two would be stupid enough to attack Mima.

"Jesus Mykeisha, TALK to me! Kouji snapped, momentarily allowing his frustration to cloud his judgement, before roughly re-composing himself, "Look, if you're not gonna work with me, then you're just getting in my way."

Nicolai grinned a devilish grin, realizing that he could use this situation to his advantage. Bannette was a dangerous opponent- Destiny Bond essentially made it untouchable, but leaving it unchecked, it could curse another one of their team members. Either way, they were down a Pokemon- unless one of the Masked Man's teammates took care of her for them...
"Annika," Nicolai beckoned, "Have Sheldon confuse that Totodile. Trust me!"

Quite confused herself, Annika obliged, ordering Sheldon to hit Croc with Supersonic. The sound waves echoed loudly in Crocs ears, and try as he might, he could not resist the waves influence and began stumbling over himself. Before Kouji could react, however, Croc had charged up a Waterfall and scored a direct hit- unfortunately, it was upon Mima, who still had her Destiny Bond primed. In her weakened state, Mima collapsed, unintentionally taking Croc along with it.

Kouji was furious, though not at Mykeisha- this old timer was far too clever to be a simple attendant. "Alright, NOW I'm pissed," Kouji steeled, withdrawing Croc, "I'm gonna send in my wildcard- do you have anything that can cover a glass cannon?"

Mykeisha put her fan over her face and frowned. A confused Pokemon tended to hurt itself easily, but for one to hurt it's own partner seemed unheard of. But then again, when one was confused, they couldn't tell anything. After all, she'd been confused before. She withdrew her broken doll.

But still, her reputation as a Cataclysm was in stake. Mima was pushed aside, having only assisted in taking down one Pokemon. She could not afford to be demoted, as Cataclysm was all she really had in the living world, the only opportunity to do anything in her endless existence, and if her rank had dropped, she would have not that closeness to the higher-ups of which she was comfortable with.

"Frosslass, Houndoom, Torterra, Gardevoir, Lapras," She said slowly. She didn't really have much choice but to ball up her dignity to speak like a normal person, not that she disliked Kouji, but she simply did not like being straight, or just interacting and cooperating with the living directly, as it was clear to her that there was an obvious boundary, even though she was only imagining it.

Kouji thought for a minute, before quickly putting Ether's ball away, instead tossing Bignacious into the fray. Ether was Kouji's only special sweeper, while Mykeisha's team had compartively more.

"Changed my mind- you should do the brunt of the attacking. I'll have Big here draw in most of the aggro, so send in something that can blast 'em.

Annika, starting to get the hang of her position, once again beckoned her Cloyster to use Supersonic. Bignacious, wily of Supersonics properties, instinctively plugged his ears as tight as he could, preventing confusion. Nicolai didn't seem phased, however.

"Rolf, show him the power of you fangs!" Nicolai ordered, adopting a much more intense demeanor. Rolf willingly obliged, charging at Big with all he had. Though he successfully sunk his teeth into Bigs arm, the gentle giant's bulk proved much too hardened to be phased significantly, and though hurt, still had little trouble throwing the mutt to the wayside. Rolf stood back up, primed and awaiting orders.

Mykeisha decided that was enough time for her to wait. She released another Pokemon. A Houndoom materialized and growled. It wasn't prepared to fail again. "Foul Play," Mykeisha said sternly. Houndoom immediately darted toward it's dark canine challenger and tackled it, sending both of them rolling.

Rolf was too focused upon Bignacious to see the darting Houndoom- he was taken completely off guard, suffering a critical hit from the strike. He limped away from his newest assailant, nearing his Trainer. With a renewed sense of focus, he simply ordered Rolf to launch a Hyper Beam in retalation. He primed himself on all fours, opening his mouth as wide as it could open. Out of his oral cavity burst a golden beam of energy, heading right for Mykeisha's Houndoom. Houndoom, however, refused to move, seeming intent on taking the attack full on, simply to protect it's trainer. Mykeisha didn't utter a single command, and simply watched the attack land.

Annika fret, knowing full well that this was her last Pokemon. In a defensive maneuver, she nervously ordered Sheldon to Withdraw. This turned out to be fortuitous, as the maneuver successfully blocked an instinctive Brick Break from Bignacious's enormous paw.

"Do you fear death?" Mykeisha asked the woman, before issuing another attack to Houndoom, whom of which was still standing, having survived the last attack. "Shadow Ball and Iron Tail!" Houndoom, taking advantage of Rolf's recharge time to attack it with a ghostly purple orb, and then dashed at the defenseless Pokemon, it's tail glowing white, and delivered a powerful blow to the hyena Pokemon.

Rolf, weakened from both battle and his most recent attack, proved quite incapable of dodging Houndoom's onslaught, and consequently succumbed to the barrage. Noticeably jarred from the recent development, Nicolai recalled his friend, beckoning his final Pokemon.

"Venus, let's end this!" Nicolai summoned. Annika, having adopted a far more observant demeanor, noticed an opening in Mykeisha's Houndoom following its recent victory.

"Sheldon, hit Houndoom with a Hydro Pump!" she ordered, to which Sheldon instinctively obliged.

Bignacious, however, was listening, and just as the cannon of pressurized water hurtled towards Houndoom, he jumped to intercept the blast, taking the full brunt of the attack. The blast left him winded, but Big still had more than enough stamina to flash a toothy grin and a 'thumbs up' to Houndoom.

Houndoom didn't give anymore acknowledgement to the big Pokemon than a glance. Houndoom never took to kindly to anyone but it's trainer, and by occasional extension, the rest of her Pokemon. However, had Bignacious not intervened, Houndoom would have shamed it's master once again.

"Tell me, does the Ichigaara wish to finish this fight, or can we do a little more haunting?" However, though normal-types like Bignacious were designed to last long times, fire-types burned out quickly, and Mykeisha knew it.
Kouji couldn't be certain as to how many Pokemon were left on the opponents side- however, judging by their sudden apprehension, he could assume that they were on their last legs.

"I think we should divide and conquer right now. Big'll hold off her Cloyster so you can take out the Plant. He wasn't too familiar with the names of the Hoenn breeds, "They're starting to look a little worried- I think we've got this."

Bignacious looked back at his trainer for further commands, receiving simply the image of Kouji pounding his right fist into his open left palm. Knowing full well what that meant, he reared back, aiming to deliver another Brick Break to the hapless Sheldon.

"Clamp!!" Annika cried out, desperate to keep her companion in the game. Without a hitch, the Pokemon opened his fortress-like shell and immediately closed it back down upon the gentle giant's fist. This move, though taking Bignacioius off guard, ultimately turned out to be Sheldon's demise. As if by instinct, Bignacious began repeatedly slamming Sheldon into the ground, using the strength of his Brick Break to systematically pound away at Sheldon's stamina. After several strikes, the battle-weary Sheldon had reached the end of its run, fainting under the super-effectiveness of the Fighting attack. Utterly dejected, Annika withdrew Sheldon into his Pokeball.

"She's not sending out any more. Looks like it's one on two now...

Despite having asked Jeremy for his opinion on going down to the front, Kojiro began walking that way anything. Apparently the question was more of a statement of intent. There was an undisguised spring in his step as he went to the stairs, and even as he began his way down them. Beneath the helmet, he had the type of happy smile that belonged to a person who was no longer sober. His stride was unrushed, but unlike his usual rushed or predatory gait his stride was instead truly casual. Like he was simply taking a stroll for the pleasure of the stroll itself. Cassandra was the first to arrive within his field of view as he finished his descent- then came the battle... a one vs two...he assumed the remains of a former double.

"Well it looks like everyone is just about ready to leave," Kojiro's voice no longer held any of its usual tones. The voice seemed like that of a spectator simply sitting back and enjoying a show without any form of urgency but manifestly enjoying himself. "So guys, in light of the sudden increase in our recruited personelle. I've been thinking a slight training camp is in order to get them up to par...does a fifteen win streak endurance battle against their fellow recruits sound enough? I'm thinking that and a battle to be graded by an active member should be enough... or do you think I'm going to easy or harsh on the prospectives?" The lack of sarcasm and apparent genuine concern should have raised a flag or two if someone was paying attention to his current mannerisms.

Kouji's intent focus was abruptly broken at the appearance of Kojiro. Nodding at his hint to vacate the tower, Kouji recalled Bignacious, deciding to address Nicolai.

"You're not too bad," Kouji commended, "Believe it or not, I'm actually on your side. When the time comes, I hope you use your power for something worthwhile..."

He then turned to Mykeisha, "I think we're done here."

"Shame," Mykeisha responded, as if she actually was having fun, "Well, I suppose no more violence needs to occur, even if it's against our morals as Cataclysms. Spirits, living and dead, should be allowed to rest. Memories too..." At that, she turned, her fan up to here face. Her canine Pokémon approached alongside her. The fire Pokemon emitted blue Will-o-Wisps from it's mouth, which circled the the two of them like spirits. The ghostly flames spun around faster and faster, until the two of them burst into flames of which lit up the entire room. Then, the two of them were gone. Twice now had Mykeisha burst into flames that week.

With Lynn now secluded back in her pokeball, although she probably despited it, Jeremy followed after Kojiro. His black shoes making wet squelches as he stepped on the soaked carpet. Lynn had preformed well, if she wasn't so energetic she would be a far greater contribution to the team. They understood each other well, as was the same with all his pokemon, but on the greater scale he can't totally predict her. He followed after Kojiro, the man went for the full face covering mask which wasn't suspicious at all, Theatrics weren't Jeremy's style.

"As long as they get some sort of test I don't really care less."

The following morning, the sun rose over the mountains and upon Lavender Town, just as it always had. There were no zombies, of course, as some tended to think of Lavender as the type of place where that happens. People asked a traveling, living girl about that all the time. But now, her spirit simply watched the quiet lavender-colored town wake up, sitting on the very roof of the Pokémon Tower, a radio tower of which broadcasted all over Kanto.

Though she'd initially came to haunt the place as the vengeful spirit she was, she learned accept that some things needed to be let go. Just as the living needed to let go of the passed, the passed needed to let go of themselves. Perhaps then, more spirits, like herself, could be put to rest.

But now, she had more present matters to take care of. With the promotion of a member in such a small group, meant that attention towards performance within the higher ranks would be slightly increased, and with that, the likelyhood that somebody falling behind would be demoted, and that pointed toward the ever so lax and carefree Mykeisha. In fact, as of lately, she'd had to win battles by cowardly methods before she could show weakness. She seemed to be causing her Pokémon to faint more often. Unless she did something impressive, she'd become overshadowed by the ever-so-daring Kouji, who was likely to only get better. Thus, she needed to consider some serious training. Only Mima and Houndoom were ever meant for combat, the rest having been trained as contest Pokémon. She just needed to find the right way.

As Mykeisha gazed upon the town, legs hanging off the side, a Pokemon fluutered in her direction. A large butterfly Pokémon, not the Kanto-native Butterfree, but of another kind, Beautifly. Mykeisha stuck her hand out and let the Pokémon land on her finger. At the sight of the cheery Pokémon, she smiled. Perhaps it was this Pokémon's doing that the Morning Sun was so beautiful.