Author's Note

Looks like Christmas came early this year and we're dropping two chapters for the price of one for our hundreds of readers and fans. Just kidding we only have a few, but we appreciate and thank each of them. And as always we hope you enjoy the chapter.


Vs Solrock

Corey's bond with Team Magma grows each day, but does that mean his bond with his friends are fading?

"Good job on your first Battle Tent victory." Roxanne said as Kyle stepped out the tent.

"That wasn't even a real victory. I didn't even use my own Pokémon." Kyle sighed.

"Don't think of it like that. Think of it like testing your battle skills in any situation. This tent was designed to test the trainer, not there Pokémon." Roxanne lectured Kyle.

"Yeah, yeah, brief me some more why don't you." Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Idiot, I'm trying to help you!" Roxanne hit Kyle over the head.

"I was joking." Kyle laughed.

"Well it wasn't funny I have half a mind to-" Roxanne was interrupted by the ringing of her PokéNav.

"I'll deal with you later." Roxanne glared at Kyle as she answered her PokéNav and walked away. After a few minutes she hung up the PokéNav and ran over to Kyle with a panicked look.

"We have to go to Mt. Chimney now!" Roxanne shouted.

"What, why!?" Kyle said confused.

"I'll explain on the way, let's just go!" Roxanne shouted as she called out two Aerodactyls. They each jumped on one, and quickly took off.

Meanwhile in the main Team Magma hideout, Corey, James, and Susan are getting briefed on their previous mission at Mossdeep.

"You insolent little twerp!" Tabitha shouted at Corey.

"If it wasn't for my elites you would have been caught! Did you even think that far ahead?! Have you learned nothing from the simulations?!" Tabitha barked at Corey.

"I'm sorry sir." Corey apologized.

"Sorry won't cut it, I want you-."

"Sir if I may intervene." Susan sternly said interrupting Tabitha.

"If it wasn't for Corey here we wouldn't have been able to accomplish the mission. We were faced with a powerful opponent and had no chance of winning. Corey's spur of the moment actions distracted him enough for James and me to slip away undetected so we could do what we came there for." Susan calmly explained.

"Don't try to cover for him!" Tabitha completely ignored her explanation.

"Now, now, Tabitha, you wouldn't be doubting your elites now would you?" Maxie said as he walked in the room.

"No sir." Tabitha was now completely calm.

"Good. Trust is the most important thing in this line of business." Maxie smiled as he walked up to Corey.

"I heard about your mission and it would seem you would have won if you just had a little more power." Maxie held out a Poké Ball with a black top and yellow lines coming down from each side connecting to the top of the center lining to make an H.

"I... couldn't possibly." Corey stuttered.

"Please I insist. This Pokémon is nothing rare. Just something I personally trained that I believe would be better suited to your unique battle style." Maxie handed him the Poké Ball.

"Thank you sir." Corey humbly said.

"Here is a list of the moves it knows, I'm sure you'll keep things interesting." Maxie handed Corey a piece of paper and laughed as he walked out the room.

"I won't let you down!" Corey bowed.

"Tsk, giving that kid the Pokémon within that Ultra Ball." Tabitha muttered under his breath as he also left the room.

"Thanks Susan." Corey smiled.

"I did nothing but tell the truth." Susan said.

"Heh, I was going to jump in with this, but I probably wouldn't have made a difference. Seeing as I don't truly know what it is." James pulled out the silver container he had stolen from Mossdeep.

"This could be a fancy cup of coffee for all I know." James sighed.

"Can I have a look at it?" Corey asked as he held out his hand.

"Yeah sure. I probably don't have the guts to turn this in anyway." James sighed again as he handed him the container.

"I'll try to find out what this does." Corey examined the container.

"How are you going to do that?" James curiously asked.

"Don't know but I saw something like this on TV once." Corey walked out the door as James and Susan face palmed.

"I'm gonna make sure he doesn't blow up the base." James sighed as he walked out the door.

"I'm going to train then." Susan said following behind James as they went their separate ways in the hall. After a short while, Corey started roaming the hall after having the silver container taken away by James.

"Ugh, why'd James have to take the container back? I was so close to figuring out what it does. I mean sure I guess drinking it could have killed me if it was rocket fuel, but if it wasn't! "Corey continued to vent like this in the halls until he heard loud noises nearby.

"Again!" The female voice continued to shout louder and louder. He finally tracked down the voice to the Magma Training Room where he saw Susan.

"Hey, you still training?" Corey asked as he walked in the room.

"Get out now!" Susan shouted immediately stopping what she was doing and glared at Corey.

"Whoa, calm down I'm here to help. There's not much training you can do by yourself, right? Besides Zubat and I need some training as well." Corey smiled as he pulled out Zubat's Poké Ball.

"Shouldn't you use that powerful Pokémon Maxie gave you?" Susan glared at the Ultra Ball. She was still mad at Corey for interrupting her training.

"Well there's no point in training with an already powerful Pokémon. Plus I think Ninjask and Zubat would make a good team like you and me." Corey smiled.

"Fine! Just… stop smiling at me it's super creepy." Susan sighed as Corey cheered calling out his Zubat.

"We aren't a team by the way. We only did one mission together." Susan proclaimed.

"Yeah I guess I'm not strong enough to be your teammate yet, but I promise to train hard so maybe one day I can be worthy of someone like you." Corey now fully determined to train.

"That's not what I meant!" Susan shouted but Corey ignored her as he had already started training.

The two spent the rest of the day training.

"We finally got the hang of this new move, take a well-deserved rest Ninjask." Susan panted as she returned Ninjask.

"Looks like we've gotten stronger to huh buddy." Corey panted as he returned his Pokémon.

"Wow I feel great even though I'm sweating so much." Corey laughed.

"This was indeed a very productive day." Susan smirked.

"I guess." Corey yawned.

"Well you get cleaned up. I'm hitting the hay. Cya tomorrow." Corey waved goodbye as he walked out the door.

"Idiot, you don't tell a girl that." Susan muttered under her breath as she walked out the door.

"Wow we really did spend the whole day together." Susan gave a faint smile as she passed by a window to see the starry night sky.

"I better heal up Ninjask before I go to sleep." Susan said to herself as she headed to the Team Magma Mission Briefing Room.

"There we go." Susan smiled as her Pokémon finished healing up, she then heard a light rustling sound coming from Maxie's office located across the room. The door was cracked open.

"Hello." Susan said as she walked towards the door. The rustling immediately stopped.

"Maxie is that you?" Susan slowly pushed open the cracked door.

"Lunatone!"

"Solrock!"

""Psychic!"" Two childlike voices shouted in perfect unison. Susan jumped back after hearing the name of an attack. She barely dodged the powerful invisible force that caused an explosion on impact; knocking her back. Susan quickly jumped back up and ran towards the door, but stopped when she heard two voices talking.

"I thought they said grunts not on guard duty would be sleeping by now." A boyish voice said.

"They also said these rooms are soundproof." A more girlish voice replied back.

"We must have left the door cracked open, that was very sloppy of us." The boyish voice said.

"No matter we have what we came for, now let's quickly leave." The girlish voice replied.

"Ninjask, Screech!" Susan ordered as she walked into Maxie's office. Ninjask let out a high pitched roar stopping the intruders from making commands.

"You have two options." Susan said as Ninjask stopped his screech attack so his master could be heard.

"Surrender and answer all my questions. Or be eliminated!" Susan put on her hood and gave the intruders a cold look. The intruders were just twin pale skinned children no older than thirteen. They both were wearing identical blue Chinese material art uniform with red trims and a red Poké Ball over their hearts. They both had black hair and eyes with a bun held up by a white ribbon. However, the bangs on the girl were longer than the boy.

"We have no reason to fight you!" The boy shouted.

"True, but I have every reason to fight you. Go Shedinja!" Susan threw out her Poké Ball. A brown exoskeleton of Ninjask came out. It had six tattered wings with three on each side. It also had a white halo above it and a grey abdomen with a gaping hole on its back. The two twins looked at each other and nodded; each quickly throwing down a smoke ball filling the room with a white cloud.

"Ninjask Fury Cutter!" Susan shouted as Ninjask cleared the smoke with its attack.

"Tsk! They got away, I won't be able to find them both with just myself." Susan immediately ran out the empty room and headed for James' room.

"James, wake up! Susan shouted as she banged on James door.

"What's going on?" James grunted as he walked out the room wearing his green Hoenn Ranger PJ's.

"Two kids have broken into the hideout and even went as far as to attack me!" Susan explained.

"Okay first, there's no way they could have gotten past our guards and security systems. Second, if you were attacked why didn't I hear anything?" James replied still half asleep.

"I don't know how they got in, but they attacked me in the mission briefing room which is soundproof!" Susan glared getting annoyed with James.

"Fine, fine, I'll help look but if I don't find anyone I'm going back to sleep." James yawned as he stumbled back in his room to get dressed. Susan ran too Corey's room not wanting to wait for James.

"Corey wake up!" Susan shouted and banged on Corey's door. However, there was no answer.

"Wake up Corey!" Susan shouted louder and banged harder on the door. But still no answer.

"Tsk, I don't have time for this!" Susan ran to every room telling them the same thing. After she had awoken every magma grunt she ran into James.

"Susan, I just saw some shadows around Sector 28!" A fully clothed James shouted.

"Perfect we'll cut them off at Sector 30." Susan said as her and James both ran outside to Sector 30.

"Where are the guards at for this sector?" James asked as he continued running.

"I don't know. I got bad feeling that it's tied in with those kids knowing about the soundproof room and when we'd be asleep if we aren't on guard duty." Susan answered.

"They knew all that?! How much more do they know!?" James worried. The two quickly arrived at Sector 30; a rocky area with wilting grass that leads down to Lavaridge. Just as planned they cut off the twins. The twins tried to retrace their steps but stopped when they turned around to see Camerupt blocking there path. They looked left to see Shedinja and right to see Ninjask. They were surrounded. "Liza, use the last smoke ball and get out of here with the Meteorite." The boy whispered as he pulled out a white rock and black ball.

"Be careful Tate." Liza pleaded as she threw the black ball on the ground. A puff of white smoke came out on impact.

"Ninjask Fury Cutter!" Susan shouted as Ninjask once again cleared away the smoke.

"Tsk, she couldn't have gotten far." James ran to look for her.

"I won't let you Solrock use-"

"Ninjask, use Screech!" Susan shouted as Ninjask interrupted Tate's command.

"Let's let them leave before we start our battle." Susan said as Tate glared at her.

"Xatu, use Psychic!" Tate threw out his Pokémon. A tall, green, white winged bird with red, black, and yellow tribal markings all over its body along. The Pokémon had a blank stare on his face and a hooked yellow beak. Xatu's eyes glowed blue as it launched an almost invisible force. The sheer power from it moved the wilted grass in the area and it was obvious the attack was aimed at Susan.

"Shedinja." Susan calmly said as Shedinja rushed in front of Susan with great speed having the psychic attack stop right in front of Shedinja as if there was an invisible shield in front of him.

"Did she use protect or-"

"Shedinja go up close for a Shadow Ball." Susan interrupted Tate as Shedinja rushed towards Xatu while charging up a black ball in front of itself.

"Now while it's using another attack, Psychic!" Tate shouted as Xatu launched another force at the speeding Shedinja, but Shedinja still charged forward pushing back the force in the process and launching shadow ball once it got close enough causing massive damage.

"Xatu get away from there!" Tate shouted at the weak Xatu who used the rest of his strength to fly away from Shedinja.

"It's of no use." Susan said as Shedinja quickly followed behind.

"I don't know what ability you're using, but I'll make way for my ace with Sunny Day!" Xatu flew towards the night sky as a bright ray shined upon the area they were battling.

"Shedinja, Shadow Ball." Shedinja quickly charged up and launched the attack.

"Future Sight!" Tate said right before Xatu got hit, knocking him out the sky.

"Xatu, return!" Tate quickly said returning him before he hit the ground.

"Why...?! Why are you doing this?!" Tate shouted at the top of his lungs at a silent Susan.

"Do you know what will happen if you go through with your plan at Mt. Chimney?!" Tate glared at Susan as he clenched his fist.

"How do you know about-"

"That doesn't matter!" Tate interrupted Susan.

"If you use that machine to erupt the volcano all the lives in Lavaridge will be lost. It might even reach Mauville!" Tate said getting angrier with each word.

"It's necessary to expand the land." Susan's response caused Tate to scream at the top of his lungs.

"That's stupid! I won't let your twisted ideals become reality!" Tate threw his Poké Ball and out came orange spherical rock with eight yellow spikes coming from its sides. It had large squinting eyes with red pupils.

"I won't let the flames of Team Magma spread any further. I'll stop you here and now. Solrock use Solar Beam!" Tate shouted as Susan gave a disgusted look. Solrock used the energy from the rays beaming down on the field to quickly launch its attack. Susan quickly braced herself as the beam came towards Shedinja. The impact caused a huge explosion but Shedinja was still unharmed.

"Another talkative fool who doesn't know anything." Susan clenched her fist.

"Shedinja return, Ninjask use Fury Cutter!" Susan shouted as she returned Shedinja while Ninjask attacked from the side with its crimson claws causing a critical hit.

"Solrock Flamethrower!" Solrock spewed fire from its body and aimed it at Ninjask.

"Ninjask, Agility." Susan said as Ninjask became faster; fast enough to dodge the flames. However, Solrock wasn't letting up.

"Again!" Susan shouted as Ninjask sped up even more; completely lapping Solrock.

"Tsk, the rays are dying down." Tate said as the light in the area got dimmer.

"What's wrong we can do this all da-" Ninjask fell over in pain out of nowhere.

"Another enemy?!" Susan looked around not understanding what was going on.

"Finally future sight kicked in. Now before it's too late Solar Beam!" Solrock attacked as Ninjask groveled in pain.

"Baton Pass!" Susan reacted quickly as Ninjask switched itself out with Shedinja; who took the force of the attack.

"Finish this with a point blank Shadow Ball." Susan said as Shedinja rushed forward. It pushed back the solar beam with no problem and launched its attack. The attack caused a huge explosion which Tate was caught in.

"At least my sister escaped." A weak Tate smiled. That smile quickly faded as an unconscious Liza was thrown right at him knocking the already weak Tate down.

"Guess I was too rough on the kid." James laughed as he tossed the Meteorite around in his hand.

"All this for nothing." Tate muttered with the last of his strength as he fell unconscious.

"So what do you want to do with them?" James asked.

"Leave them, they can no longer fight back." Susan headed towards the hideout.

"Well, aren't you nice knowing what Maxie will do to them if we turned them in." James smirked as he followed her.

"We have to report this immediately. There's a traitor among us." Susan said.

Sometime after Susan and James walked away. Tate regained conscious on the back of a Tropius and next to an unconscious Liza.

"Matthew." He weakly said.

"Hey little buddy." Matthew smiled.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop them and…and…" Tate started to tear up.

"It's okay I'll handle it. You save your energy." Matthew patted Tate on the head.

"But we always rely on you and now you're taking time to…" Tate cried.

"It's okay I'll make it back in time, you rest." Matthew smiled as Tate slipped back out of consciousness. Once he did Matthew's smile quickly turned into a face of pure rage.

There's a traitor among Team Magma. Who could it be and will they find out before Operation Mt. Chimney?