Aaron was sitting across from Maxie behind a large desk. He slid a few forms across the desk to Aaron and told him where to sign as he explained everything. Aaron would be starting out as a grunt, but Maxie told him that if he showed skill then he would be promoted. Aaron signed all of the forms after skimming them, and he then got dressed in the typical Team Magma grunt attire; Aaron smiled as he pulled the hood up. He was then lead to the barracks where he was given a bed and a trunk to store his personal items.
"You'll meet your bunkmates tonight when you all go to bed." Maxie explained. "Now, I have a task for you. A Durant has been spotted in the base and it has been damaging machinery and causing trouble. I want you to take care of it. I don't care how. Catch it, kill it, just get rid of it." Maxie said as he left the room. Aaron emptied the contents of his bag in to the trunk and pulled out a pokeball.
Aaron called out his Spoink. "I want you to use your psychic powers to see if you can find that Durant." Aaron told the Pokémon who began focusing its powers and began hopping off while Aaron followed closely behind it. Eventually it stopped by a wall and signaled Aaron that the Pokémon was behind it. "Psybeam." Aaron said as the wall was shattered and the Durant leapt at him tackling him to the ground. It was about to use thunder fang, but it was hit with a psywave attack knocking it off of Aaron. "Thanks." Aaron said smiling at his Spoink, but his joy was short lived when his Spoink was hit with an x-scissor attack. "Spoink, are you okay?" Aaron asked running over to it. Aaron hugged it closely ready to protect from the Durant who was charging at them.
Aaron's Spoink started glowing causing Aaron to step back as he watched it evolve. The light cleared revealing a Grumpig who immediately hit the Durant with a power gem attack. "Sweet, new move." Aaron said smiling at his newly evolved teammate. "Power gem again!" Aaron shouted as the Durant was knocked back. "Go pokeball!" Aaron shouted as he threw the ball at the Durant who put up little resistance as it was captured. Aaron looked at the watch on his arm where he pushed a button and Maxie's face appeared. "Mission completed." Aaron told him.
"Very well done. You may return to your bunk to relax." Maxie said as he ended the call. Aaron first went to the healing center where a nurse healed all of his Pokémon. She seemed nice as she welcomed Aaron to Team Magma.
Aaron returned to his bunk only to see three grunts going through his stuff. "Hey rookie. We're just making sure that all of your stuff is up to code, but it looks like we'll have to confiscate most of it." One of them said as they started pocketing Aaron's stuff.
"Put it back or I'll make you." Aaron said as the three grunts looked at him and laughed. Aaron never really came off as strong, so his threat seemed empty to them. "Durant, it's time to show me what you can do." Aaron said calling out his newly captured Pokémon who growled at the grunts.
"Two can play at that game." One of the grunts said as they all threw their pokeballs to reveal a Numel and two Koffings. "Koffing use smog." Two of the grunts called out unaware that Durant is impervious to poison attacks.
"Durant, use the smog like a fog and use iron head!" Aaron shouted as his Durant pierced through the smog and hit the Numel followed by the two Koffings. "While they're distracted, use dig." Aaron called out as his Pokémon burrowed underground while the three Pokémon clustered together out of fear only for all three of them to be hit by the dig attack and faint. The grunts all returned their Pokémon. "Give me back my stuff." Aaron said while his Durant growled at them.
The grunts were about to run when a female admin walked in to the room. "What happened here?" She asked looking at the grunts who were fearing Aaron's Durant.
"This rookie was harassing us." One of them said smirking.
"I don't believe that. What really happened?" She asked looking at Aaron.
"I walked in on them stealing my stuff, so I battled them and won. Now I'm just collecting my stuff back." Aaron told her.
"Return his things." The admin commanded the grunts who quickly ran over to Aaron's trunk and put his stuff back. "Now get out of here before you embarrass yourselves even more." She said as the grunts ran out of the room. She walked over to Aaron as he recalled his Durant. "So you defeated all three of them?" She asked while Aaron nodded his head. "Impressive. Something tells me that you won't be a grunt for long. By the way, my name's Aria." She said smiling before walking out of the room.
"Something tells me those grunts aren't going to stop messing with me. I better teach them a lesson." Aaron thought to himself as an evil smile grew across his face. Aaron walked down to Lavaridge town fully clad in his Team Magma uniform causing several people to cower and some to yell hurtful things at him. Aaron walked over to a stand selling berries and picked out a few berries. The woman told him to just take them. Aaron was not the kind of person to just take something, so he handed the woman the money for the berries causing her to look at him with a look of surprise. "I have no reason to hurt you. I just want to buy some berries." Aaron said as he took the bag and walked off. Aaron then walked to the mart and bought some flour as well as several other ingredients that he paid for before returning to the hideout. He went in to the kitchen and produced several cupcakes that he baked spelon berries in to.
Aaron put the cupcakes on a tray and sat them on his bed knowing that the grunts would see them and eat them. After dinner in the mess hall, Aaron returned to his bunk to see the three grunts eating the cupcakes. "Hope you don't mind that we're eating your cupcakes." One of the grunts said smiling as he looked up still chewing the cupcake with bits and pieces of it on his mouth.
"Why would I mind? I made them just for you." Aaron said smiling at them. Just then, their faces turned red and they all began trying to breathe fire as they screamed in agony and ran out of the room trying to find water.
"What happened to them?" Aria asked walking in to the room.
"They tried taking my stuff again." Aaron said smiling.
"Hopefully they learned their lesson." Aria said as she looked outside to see them still running around and screaming.
"I think they'll learn their lesson when they realize that there's only one source of water here." Aaron said pointing to the bathroom.
Aria smiled at Aaron. "You really are evil, aren't you?" She asked smiling.
"It's just what I'm good at." Aaron said pulling a video camera out of his pocket while all three of the grunts ran in to the bathroom and shared a look as they plunged their heads in to the toilet.
"Send me a copy of that video." Aria said as she walked out of the room.