Jeremy Thrall'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.

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.

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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.

Jeremy had known what he was up to from the beginning. He smirked, it certainly showed a lack of trust of their leader in his subordinates and allies abilities. Thrall would certainly not settle for being Kojiro's subordinate, so far it was a temporary alliance for Jeremy's own purpose. Although so far he found the ideas of these people to be somewhat interesting, the strong becoming stronger. A place where the bond between a man and his Pokemon will be tested and in testing came growth. That was at least some of what he picked up, their more immediate concern interested him far more; Annihilating Team Rocket. The criminal organisation had tried to stab Thrall in the back and they would have to pay. Suffice it to say he didn't trust these people either he would be watching his back around these 'allies'.

He watched the swarm of Spearow take to the skies, causing a little bit of chaos and drew everyone's attention to the skies. Jeremy remained stoically ignorant of the mess as he began to stalk towards the hideout. Both Argent and Spirit bounded ahead, their impressive quadruped forms taking them ahead of him. He picked up the pace when he was rather sure that no one was paying too much attention. Already he could tell that there was enough happening to keep whoever was inside the unassuming house occupied. Alongside the fluttering and noises there was the high frequency droning of Shred's diversion tactics, followed by the melodic sound of shattering glass. The Scyther dove into the upper stories, wreaking the loudest havoc he could. Jeremy, on the other hand, took the front door. Argent bulldozed forwards and smashed his powerful form into the door, the wood splintered apart and collapsed inwards.

A very shocked young woman fumbled quickly for her belt. Her blond hair neck cut above the shirt emblazoned with an obnoxious red 'R'. She managed to get a grasp on one of her Pokeballs before she was borne to the ground. Argent had a penchant on leaping on things it seemed, and this time he didn't get off. She didn't even try to struggle, not the the black furred beast pinning her down and snarling a few centimeters from her face. To her credit she didn't looked as terrified as some people might be or expect, although some could say she looked very dazed. Amazing she managed to draw her attention away from the beast and look to the master trying to put on a tough show and doing well. He was impressed, although he frowned impassively as she began her "self righteous" triage. It was standard threats, nothing Jeremy hadn't heard before and ignored then too.

"Do you know what you're doing?! We're Team Rocket! You won't get away with this, they'll find you and hunt you down..." She didn't get to rant further because Argent took anyone threatening his master very badly and currently he was posed in a perfect deadlock. Her attempts to hide her fear were not good enough, although Jeremy never intended to let an encounter escalate beyond rending his enemies incapable of fighting. He wouldn't stoop so low as to deprive her of her Pokemon though, he had other methods. Spirit was already ready to breach the next room where no doubt some grunts would be ready and waiting. Jeremy moved away, his back on the young woman and Argent stepped off her, hackles raised as the grunt tentatively stood. A flash of light filled the room and she ducked for cover. The heat flooded over the four of them and Spirit blew through the doorway.

If the pair in the next room were ready and waiting, they weren't ready for this. Wood and flicks of fire burst into the room, showering the grunts and their waiting Pokemon. They ducked to avoid the smoldering chips, although the waiting Machoke wasn't cowed. The remnants bounced of his body that was shielding his trained, although the young man was cowering. Jeremy sniffed, amused by how pathetic they seemed despite playing dress up as tough people. The Machoke was another matter, he looked as tough and as buff as everyone one of his kind and Jeremy did't miss the Granbull stalking in the back. He grinned at the two, the blond haired, buff guy seemed to be the trainer of the Machoke. The other recovered from the shock and looked more composed than her friend. She could have almost been attractive too, if she didn't spoil it by the masses of dark make-up and overdoing the leather. That and the fact her shirt blazed the hated 'R'. Oh Jeremy would be more than happy to dispose of these two. Although recovering from the surprise of the break-in they seemed they might make it a good fight. He pulled his first prisoner up beside him, gripping her shoulder with a strength that didn't match his frame. It was obvious on no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to be any assistance to her fellows. The hairs on her neck prickled in fear of the Mightyena behind her, unaware that she was server her enemy's plan to the doom of her companions.

"Let her go!" It was the biker girl who spoke out and Jeremy was somewhat impressed by her boldness. "Fight us fair." The aspiring invader realized that she was concerned about the hostage situation. He chuckled, mocking the pair.

"Well of course, I am no cheat." He paused his dramatics before any trace of humor dropped from his features. "Spirit." He commanded, his voice threatening and deadly serious.

The Ninetails need no instructions. The pair of them could be telepathic, they worked so seamlessly together. Her golden form shimmered slightly as the magic flooded her body and she dash sideways and disappeared in a blur. The others gave a shout, the male wasn't quick or intelligent enough to grasp what was happening. The female did and began to shout a command to her bulldog fairy, too slow and too irrelevant. Spirit seemed to shift back into reality as her body crashed into Machoke's bulk, her quick attack didn't take him out but he staggered from the surprise. Stanley yelped something, it may have been a command and the Machoke reacted, trying to strike out against Spirit but as soon as she hit she was gone. In the chaos, Jeremy introduced a new component to the fight. The prisoner yelped in surprise as she was shoved away, she stayed standing but the gap was open and the mighty black form of Argent bounced forward. Stanley just recovered from the madness of Spirits attack to shout out.
Counter! Now! Jeremy found it impressive that the grunt had recovered. He couldn't underestimate these two, too much. The surfer dude looked ready to panic. Jeremy's split second decision kept him ahead. Argent was not the most cunning of Pokemon and brute strength wouldn't work against a Machoke. Not yet
"Swagger. Fire Blast." His voice wasn't even loud but Spirit and Argent seemed to pick it up. They both skidded to a halt, the Ninetails dropping back from her blur of motion. Argent dove to the side, pulling up short of the giant Pokemon's range and stood up tall, as if taunting the Machoke. Confused by the sudden action, with nothing to counter he was a little lost and jolted forward to strike at Argent. He was too slow and off balance. The wall of fire smashed into his muscled sides. The fire sizzled across his skin as he was flung to the side, crashing into the wall and dropping pitifully to the ground. Argent snarled and whirled around as the Machoke struggled up, almost enjoying the sight of the creature so weak. He opened his mouth, breathing in. Stanley was hardly quick enough to return the Machoke to its Pokeball before the heavy mass of shadow thumped into the wall and dissipated, leaving shadow pasting the structure.

Of course this wasn't a victory yet. Spirit and the Granbull watched each other, the fairy Pokemon putting on a scowl that caused Spirit pause as she paced, watching like a prowling wolf. Stanley was about to release his second Pokemon when the got the breath knocked out of him. Argent brought him down and the Pokeball rolled away, knocking against the far wall. Stanley squirmed and got a face full of snarling Mightyena, although it didn't stop him squirming. Jeremy's attention was focus on the fight in front of him. The two facing off Pokemon didn't move and their trainers watching each other, carefully waiting for the other to make he first move. One team rocket member was trapped beneath Argent's bulk and one was Jeremy's prisoner.

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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.

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”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.

---

---

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."

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.

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.