Chapter 17: Day 4, Reverse the Ambush!

Mag and Eric were sent out early to inspect the trail ahead while everyone else ate breakfast and geared up for the day. They ran into quite a few bug Pokemon, but when investigating alternate routes, the infestation was even worse. Eric guessed that most of the kids in this exercise were from Orre and therefore not at all used to real wild Pokemon, not the ones found using Poke Spots. This was fairly decent training if they ever had to travel to other regions. Eventually Eric just had Mag dash through the path and knock out any hostile Pokemon. This meant that Eric and Mag would have to stay ahead of the rest of the group though, and he would have to send a signal to his teammates. "Send up the flare, Mag."

"Gotcha' Eric." He had been ordered to send up a Fire Blast if they were going to come back and take a new path, a Flamethrower if they were going to stay ahead and clear up the Pokemon, or just to come back and report if the path was clear and they were going to travel down the same path with the rest of the group. Careful not to burn any of the trees, Mag let out a stream of fire that lasted for a good seven seconds. If no one noticed it, they would just have to make a decision by themselves.

Eventually the scenery became boring and the duo ran out of things to talk about so they just left each other to some pensive travel time. There were hardly any Pokemon either; it was fortunate for Mag who was staring to run out of Power Points for his attacks. Eric and Mag were suddenly ripped out of their thoughts by an odd rustle. Hopefully, they thought, it wasn't another Anorith trying to rip them to pieces. "Oh, its you again." Eric turned around to see an old man dropping out of a tree like a ninja. The voice sounded familiar, but Eric never remembered meeting one of the famous Elite Four of Kanto and Johto. Indeed it was Koga, in his green ninja outfit with red cuffs and his short, billowing red cape.

"Excuse me," started Eric "Do I know you?"

"You really don't know who this is Eric?" Mag asked, shocked. "And I thought you were bright."

"Oh, shut it you."

"Ah, yes, of course you know me as Koga… former Gym Leader of the Fuchsia City Gym and Former Member of the Elite Four."

"Wait… you're no longer one of the Elite Four?" asked Eric, a tad confused as to how such a great trainer would get kicked out like that.

Koga laughed and smiled, "Unfortunately I got back into espionage and started to care less about fighting rising Pokemon Trainer stars." Suddenly Koga's face, which seemed not to have ages along with his gray hair, suddenly became deathly serious. "But that's beside the point… You probably know me better as Poiseon."

"Ah! That explains why he… I mean you helped us back in that base," said Mag.

"And I'm here to help you again, by tipping you off. The rest of the Peons were able to invade the Pokecenter and hold everyone inside hostage. They're waiting for trainers to come so they can snag Pokemon. Apparently someone was able to cut them off from their recent suppliers, so the Peons are forced to snag. They heard about this training exercise through on of their own I suppose, I assume it's just a coincidence that you're here. An expert such as Wes would have made sure you weren't in some way bugged."

"Oh my god…" Eric mumbled. "I can alert my team by going back, but you have to go check the other side of this place, my friend and her team have to know about the ambush too."

"Hmm…" Koga was obviously mulling something over. "There have to be at least ten of you per team if you're going to travel as a pack. That's more than double the current number of Peons that actually have Pokemon, and that's including me. If I fight against them when you appear and we can get both teams to fight as one…"

"We can probably take all the Peons down." Blaze finished.

"Okay, but only if you can locate the other team. If you can find them, have one of their Pokemon shoot up a fire attack. When you're near the Pokecenter, use a water attack. We'll have a water attack when we're near too," said Eric calmly. He was surprised by how levelheaded he was being about this ambush.

"You two are getting good. The peons think there are all types of Pokemon in this forest, so it won't too odd to them when they see those attacks flying out of the forest. I'll be on my way then."

With no further warning or goodbye, Koga hopped back into the trees and disappeared. Eric and Mag ran as fast as their feet would carry them to get back to the rest of the team.

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Roxie awoke earlier than most everyone else at camp. She looked at the clock on her watch; it was still an hour until they would be up. Careful not to arouse Florina from sleep, Roxie got up and looked around in her bag for her PDA. She still was not satisfied that she had learned everything she could about Godzuki, as far as battles went. Then she noticed something, Godzuki had the Rock Head ability; it was impossible for it to have been knocked out by recoil damage, the knock out was all Ampharos's doing. There was no need to tell Ash though, or so Roxie thought. That battle knocked her down a peg, which was exactly what she needed to focus more on training and to become a better agent.

Feeling adventurous, Roxie slipped away from the tent and climbed up one of the trees. The only Pokemon around were Weedle and they were not known for being over territorial, so she was not particularly afraid of being attacked by any Pokemon. So quietly she sat for all of a couple minutes before she saw fire flaring out from the opposite side of the forest. Using her reasoning skills, Roxie remembered that she had captured a Piloswine, which typically preferred cold climates, not warm ones that were typical for fire Pokemon… So it probably was a fire Pokemon, and it most likely did not come from the cold mountains nearby… Therefore it was part of the opposing team. They were on the move then… she figured they would travel straight toward the Pokecenter from there. So letting her teammates sleep for a while longer then telling them to redirect the course would not be a problem. That fire was far too far off for them to be coming soon…

After a half an hour of lazy bird watching, however, Roxie heard a disturbing rustling coming toward her. Without further warning a figure appeared on a branch a tree away from Roxie. Caught completely off guard, Roxie scrambled and lost her balance, sending her straight off the branch. Roxie heard another rustle, and the mysterious figure had grabbed her by the arms and was pulling her back up. With a sigh, Roxie allowed the person to let her go and scrambled up on to the branch again. Obviously this thing wished her no physical harm, it had saved her from death. Roxie nearly fell down again when she noticed that the face was that of former Kanto Elite Koga. "Wha- … why… why are you?"

Koga smiled as he jumped onto another branch and let Roxie spread out a bit more on hers. " I don't have much time for you to be confused. I'm going to have to go over this fairly quickly, okay?" Roxie nodded and stared, dumbfounded. "Good. First of all, I was the one who helped you out in the hexagon base; I'm Posieon. I knew they could not be up to anything favorable for Orre, so I intervened on my own. I see the chance now to take care of the rest of the Peons with the help of everyone in this exercise. You see the Colorons were planning a surprise attack on you… once you reach the Pokecenter in the center of this area. The opposing team, specifically the friend that came to rescue you at the base has been informed. After I leave, you're to send a fire attack flare. When come in upon the Pokecenter, send up a water attack flare. If you see the other flare first, go in and attack. Otherwise wait for the other water flare to attack. Understand?" Roixe nodded again and Koga disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Roxie quietly climbed down the tree as the rest of her team awoke and lazily dressed. Was she really supposed to believe that that figure was Koga? For all she knew, it was a very elaborate scheme by the other team involving a Ditto or costumes. But… he knew about everything that happened in that peon base that Eric had rescued her from… Unless Eric tipped them off about it, which did not seem like something he would do… but would her teammates believe her?

Adrian was one of the people finally aroused from sleep. Roxie cautiously made her way over to him. He smiled at her weakly and said, "Oh, I guess you got up early…" Starsteel was hovering over Adrian's shoulder, being his normal peppy self. "Anything exciting happen?" he asked with a doubtful, joshing grin.

Roxie laughed nervously, then sighed. "I wish I could say no."
Adrian nodded happily for a moment, then what Roxie said registered in his mind. He instantly became fully awake. "What happened"

"I… look, you know I was on a mission before I came to do this thing right?"
"Yea… you and a partner. That's why you were late."

"Well… it seems by a big coincidence… the people we were tying to track down have decided to Snag the Pokemon from all the up and coming kids in my brother's company. They've taken over the Pokemon Center in the middle of the area."
"How the… how do you know all this?"

Roxie sighed and covered her face in embarrassment, "Would you believe... we have a well known vigilante spy in the enemies group who has finally reached out for help?"

"Well-known?"

Roixe administered herself a good mental kick for that. "Koga… the famous ninja and former member of the Kanto - Jhoto Elite Four."

"Roxie… I believe you… but no one else will. There has to be… some way… someone they can trust more."

Roxie pondered for a moment then sighed and shrugged, "What about you?"

"I may be their leader… but no one really has confidence in me."

"Most of the girls just crush on you," muttered Roxie, but Adrian was too busy concocting something to notice.

Actually… it did not look like he was going it alone. Ever few seconds he said, "Uh-huh," or nodded. Of course, he was consulting with Starsteel telepathically. Maybe he had become a little shy, because he was not conversing with Roxie and with a quick glance to Florina, Roxie guessed that she was not in on their talk either. Suddenly Adrian flipped his mouth into a grin. " We have it. The one person everyone is gonna trust is our teacher… Gabe actually… he's supposed near the Pokecenter, but I guess he just hasn't checked in on the nurse yet… People say he has a thing for the nurse that fills in during these activities," he said with a chortle.

Roxie sighed, but she could not help but smile a bit. "Alright, we're not here to gossip, get on with it." Adrian started to speak again, but Florina got up on Roxie's shoulders and imitated the waving movement Roxie made while telling Adrian to get the point. The act scored quite a loud snicker from Adrian and Starsteel. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. But…" and Adrian slipped back into his serious face, "we send a message to Gabe, he checks it out, sends a message, and we sneak up on them as a surprise attack.

"Well… we have to make sure Gabe is going to let us do this… and that he'll wait for us to attack."

"So you like the idea? Should I send the message?"

Roxie and Florina nodded, which made Starsteel and Adrian giggle once more. Adrian grabbed his PDA out of his pocket and began typing up the message.

"Oh, and I need to send up a sort of fire attack flare," Roxie said eyeing the Pokeballs on Adrian's belt. He tossed her a Pokeball with a red sticker over the button. Roxie released the Pokemon into some nearby trees and ordered it to use a Flamethrower attack. She couldn't exactly make out the shape of the Pokemon before she returned it, but she could have sworn it was a monkey.

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Lacking control of his speed, Eric crashed right in to the "leader" of his little group, Allan. "Oof!" Alan grunted as he toppled over. Eric quickly apologized as he helped the poor guy up. While Allan nervously pushed up his glasses he said, "Since you came rushing back here, I'm assuming there's something wrong with the path ahead."

Eric nodded, but Mag shook his head. The whole group stared at them awkwardly. "Okay, fine, it's more than just a problem with the path."
"You'd better be sure of that," muttered Mag.

"What the heck could be so bad that you had to come rushing back here like that?" Allan asked.

"You've all see the Shadow Pokemon I own… I snagged them from…" Eric wondered if he should mention his parents, but decided against it, not wanting pity and sympathy. "From a broken branch of Cipher."
"What? I thought that red-head from last year took care of them!" Joshua piped up.

Brittany shook her head and stepped up to Eric and Allan. "He's right. I… was playing double agent for a while with them." Eric could see the pain of the lie in Brittany's eyes; she did not want to bother the group with her personal issues either.

"This is all great, but what does it have to do with this exercise?" pondered Kitty.

Eric gulped and scratched his head. "We've heard from another… double agent that the rest of the Peons have take over the Pokecenter here and were hoping to snag our Pokemon. In a way it may be good that all of you are there though… and that the other team is on their way. All of us will probably have to battle to take them out. Look out though they…"

"They have Pokemon with types they shouldn't have," Brittany finished. "There's no time to explain, but only Eric can tell what type these Pokemon are for sure… so you just need to judge for yourself what type they are."

"… Okay, we'll go in. Let's just go over the details first," Allan commanded. He and Eric quickly went over the signals while Brittany and Mag went over battle tactics for Delta and Shadow Pokemon with the rest of the group. In the middle of a sentence Eric heard an odd crackle far in the distance. With a quick look behind he saw the puff of a Flamethrower attack. Roxie was coming.

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While Roxie, Adrian, and the rest of their traveling troupe were walking toward the Pokemon Center all sorts of electronic communication devices went off. Excepting Adrian's message, they were all the same; they were to take on their first real mission of suppressing a surprise attack. Adrian was given a more specific message with battle plans, retreat options, and anything else that he would need to lead. "Wow, I'm just glad he took us seriously," Adrian whispered to Roxie, Florina, and Starsteel.

"I'm glad no one's complaining," Roxie added. It was surprising, very surprising to Roxie that everyone went along with their plan. They were right, everyone would have questioned Roxie, but no one would even bother if their trusted teacher gave them orders. "Okay, so everyone here is signed on, but we still have three wild cards," Roxie said as everyone started to move again.

"Oh, and what would those be?" Adrian asked as he tossed a few food pellets to Starsteel who was hovering along beside him.

"Gabe and Koga of course. He gave us all of this, but is he going to be there? He's possibly the most powerful trainer out of all of us and definitely the most experienced."
"The second?"
"The other team. What if they don't believe it? What if Eric didn't believe Koga? What if they try to fight us instead of preparing for the Peons?"

"The third?"
"I hate that I have to take it into account… but Koga."
"Koga?!" Adrian whispered gruffly. "What about him?"

"… I don't know… he just… he might not have really reformed since those days in Team Rocket."

"But if we don't trust Koga, why even take the next step in sending Gabe that message?"
"We do trust Koga, I'm just trying to be careful…"

"Eh, Koga won't be able to do anything worse than this surprise attack if he's setting us up for anything."

"We can only hope," Roxie finished with a cautious smirk.

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Koga was hiding behind the cover of a tree when he saw the first water attack go off; it was a Hydro Pump that twisted into the distance. Then the Hydro Pump was broken; someone from the other side of the forest had sent in a Surf attack, but the rider had disappeared as the two attacks collided. As the attacks fell apart, Koga saw a rainbow form and he noticed how much brighter it was then the horrid rainbow of the Hexagons. Koga thought the rainbow, perhaps, was a good omen.

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Eric's team had agreed that he would rush out ahead of the rest of the group to spring the ambush. After the Hexagons had taken Eric's bait, they would in turn come out of hiding and spring the trap back on them. It was brilliant, a reverse ambush. Of course, the whole thing would go pieces if the leader of the other group of aspiring agents did not catch on. Allan just had to hope that this person had a good head when he concocted the scheme.

So Eric went along with the plan and ran right to the center of the clearing with Mag at his side. He could hear the "Oof!" of someone running into something as he had done with Allan before, but for a few moments there was nothing else. Eric had enough time to take in his surroundings. The grass was very short and there were absolutely no trees for many yards all around. Not to far away he could see the Pokemon Center; it would take just a minute to sprint there. Then it finally caught his eye; the ground was full of holes. It was simply unnatural, he hadn't seen any burrowing Pokemon in the forest… and it hit him a second too late.

Mag had walked right over a covered hole. From underground Eric heard a muffled command and screamed, "Away from the hole!" Mag was not able to process the demand before a Pokemon launched itself out of the earth from underneath him, toppling him over. A perfectly executed Dig attack. As soon as the dirt dust cleared, Eric was able to see the Pokemon and its trainer in a blue spandex uniform climbing out of the hole. If Eric had to describe the Pokemon he would say it was a nothing more than a blue blob though it did have two large fin-like arms and two smaller fin-like feet. As it turned to its side he also saw that it had a tail, a dark blue ripple that flowed down the tip of its head to its tail, and large purple markings on its back. The face was the oddest part of all though; it was completely blue except for three specs that Eric assumed were the eyes and nose and a large frown. Eric's Shadow Visor flipped out in front of his eye and revealed the Pokemon to be a Shadow Quagsire. The peon grunted at Eric and smiled "Well, I didn't expect ya' here! Yea, I heard about you, ya' little pesky blondie." More peons came out of the holes. "You ain't seen anythin' yet!"

Eric was so glad that the other team caught on to their trap. "You don't know what you're saying." It would have made what he just said so much less sweet. He held his right hand over his head and made a small motion. Instantly nineteen teens rushed in and tackled the peons popping out of the holes. Roxie ran up to Eric and kissed him on the cheek. Eric blushed heavily and managed to mutter, "I… oh… what was that for."

"Does, it matter? We need to start battling," Roxie whispered, amused. Another peon in a lavender outfit had stepped beside the one in blue.

"Oh… right," Eric said as Florina scurried over to defend Mag. "Hey, did anyone make a loud 'oof' noise from your team."

Roxie had her turn at blushing, "I was so excited to see you I started to run out… but someone stopped me and I…" Roxie's explanation was awarded with a chuckle.

"Hey, you runts! Are you just gonna hand us your Pokemon then?!" shouted the man in blue spandex.

"You might want to return this one…" muttered the woman in the lavender spandex. "It's obviously knocked out."

"Oh, he's just playing dead," Eric boasted with a yawn. "Sky Uppercut!"

"Helping Hand!"

With amazing agility Mag picked himself up and smashed his fist right into the gut of the Quagsire and it flew straight up over the treetops. Florina scurried on top of Mag's head, waiting for gravity to catch up with the blue blotch of blubber. When the time came Florina jumped up and kicked the Quagsire squarely in the stomach; it rose to the same heights as before and smashed into the ground. Amazingly it was not knocked out; it brushed the attack off and stood shakily.

"Sweet Arceus! You've been working on her leg strength, haven't you?" Eric admired.

Roxie yawned dramatically, but she could not help but hide a proud grin. "Oh, that's nothing; you should see her Meteor Mash."

"Well go on and do it then, I definitely have to see that!"

"Okay, Florina Met-!"

"Not so fast!" interjected the woman in purple spandex. She tossed out her own Pokeball and out popped another blob of a Pokemon whose color matched its trainer's outfit.

It looked rather like a miniature blimp, highly miniature; the Pokemon had to be only around four feet tall. Atop its head was what looked like a cloud… or maybe a piece of cotton fluff. Its eyes were about a quarter of its body length down from the fluff. They were small and red, yet dark enough to blend in to the purple of its body. What did not blend in was what seemed to be two giant strips of flashy yellow duct tape strapped onto it in-between its eyes in the shape of an 'x'. The bottom fourth of its body was a lighter shade of purple and out of it came three arms which were all the shade of purple excepting the hands which were the same yellow as the "tape". At the very bottom of the Pokemon was what looked like a rupture in the "blimp" and it was red.

"What the heck is that… thing?" commented Eric. Roxie began to speak, but Eric pulled out his PDA and said "Never mind, I'll just check the List". The Pokemon was very close to the top of the list, its name began with D; it was a Drifblim. "Drifblim?" Eric muttered as he shut off his PDA and stared at the Pokemon oddly. "Flying and Ghost type… an odd combination."

"Not coming from the Sinnoh region," Roxie finally got in. "I saw a report about the Sinnoh region yesterday and I saw this Pokemon in the background."

"So do you have a strategy against it?"
"How about we just go after the Quagsire?"

"Okay… Let's try a Dynamic Punch to finish it off, Mag."

"Florina, Meteor Mash on Quagsire!"

"Shadow Type Water, the Blaziken."

"Shadow Type Flying, also the Blaziken!"

Great, a Pokemon they never heard about and two new Shadow attacks coming their way. That phase of battle was not looking great for Eric and Roxie, and it was about to get worse. The turn started out with Drifblim summoning up Shadow Energy around itself and ramming right into Mag. It was odd though… usually when Eric saw a physical Shadow move, the Pokemon kept the Shadow Energy around itself, but with this attack it stopped right in the middle of the hit. Mag, after getting up, was glowing a bright red; his Blaze ability had kicked in. Not that it mattered, he and Eric were sticking with Fighting moves against a Pokemon with resistance to Fire moves. So Mag took a swing at the Quagsire's gut, this time with his fist aimed at the side and not the gut, but the Quagsire simply bounced away and fired its own attack while Mag swung with the momentum of his own punch. Eric also found this attack odd, usually special Shadow attacks would just be synthetic versions of the types they were trying to imitate, Eric could tell because they would remain purple. This, however, seemed to be a mix or the synthetic Shadow water and a real water attack. Then it finally hit him, Shadow Type… the move was a Shadow move, but it also carried a normal type. Unfortunately, it also hit Mag, and he was down for the count. Eric was too distracted to return him right away, however. Florina had caught his eye for she was very high in the air, much higher than any Furret should have been able to jump. She was coming down quickly too, aiming right for the Quagsire. The Quagsire did not even see it coming; Florina fell right into it, bouncing off and landing on her feet gracefully, but the blue smudge of fat was left at the bottom of a crater, knocked out.

"Shadow Type Ghost!"
"Surf!"

As the women shouted battle commands, the men were fumbling for Pokeballs. Eric revved up his Snag Machine and placed an Great Ball in it. Luckily when the peon tried to take the Pokeball off his belt it fell off… and luckily the belt was not actually holding anything up because the spandex was a one piece. Just as the peon had pried the Pokeball from his belt clip, Eric had tossed his Snag Ball. The Peon scurried to return his Pokemon in a red beam, but the Snag Ball disrupted the beam and caused a failed return. The capture was perfection though; there was not a single squirm from the Pokeball before it returned to Eric's hand… Then it disappeared because he was only allotted three Pokemon during the training exercise. Eric then returned Mag and stuck his tongue out at the Peon.

Meanwhile Florina spouted out an entire wave and rode it right in to the Drifblim. The Shadow Drifblim took the attack head on and waited for Florina to come to it. Once it did, it allowed Florina to phase through it slightly then stopped, effectively trapping Florina inside it. Some crunching noises were heard and Shadow Energy gathered around the Drifblim, then Florina fell to the ground. She was relatively unharmed, as Roxie could tell when she once again made a graceful landing. Here was the disadvantage of Shadow Type moves, while they could be super effective three times over; they could also be resisted three times over if the defending Pokemon was a shadow. I this case the super effectiveness of the Shadow Energy and the resistance of Steel type to Ghost type moves had balanced out. If only Florina was her natural Normal type she would have been completely immune to the attack…

Roxie revved up her Snag Machine for a capture, but she realized that after capturing the Piloswine and Godzuki yesterday, she had run out of Pokeballs. She turned her head to ask to borrow one from Eric, but by her feet she saw a Quick Ball, something else she had learned about in the Sinnoh special. It was still early in the battle, so she figured the Quick Ball would be fairly effective. She picked it up, left it in threw Snag machine for a moment, then tossed it at the Drifblim. Roxie was surprised to see that the Quick Ball was not just name for its effectiveness early in battle; it seemed to vanish from her hand and reappear next to the Drifblim. The actual capture was the longest part of the whole process because the ball wiggles and squirmed for what seemed like an eternity. Just as Roxie wondered if she should have weakened the Shadow Drifblim longer the Quick Ball reappeared in her hand.

The two peons, obviously out of usable Pokemon tried to escape into the forest… and were immediately captured in a web trap. Eric, Roxie, and Florina followed after them and almost ran into it themselves. "Whoa, what do you thing did that?" pondered Eric as Florina hopped up on his shoulder. She licked his cheek happily and he jested, "Two kisses from to beautiful ladies,"

Roxie stifled a laugh and blushed. "I'm pretty sure there are Ariados in the woods…"
Eric looked around and saw that all exits from the clearing were sealed with spider webs. "So… wild Pokemon just happened to help us like this?"
Adrian ran up to Eric and Roxie with Starsteel sitting contently atop his head and grinned. "Nope, I purposefully only took Starsteel here with me so I could catch two Ariados for their spider web attack."

"What? But I've been with you since we set out yesterday…" Roxie commented.

"Except when we all went to our tents. While everyone else was sleeping I went out and caught the Ariados."
"But are traps really worth having less Pokemon to use in battle?" Eric asked.

"Hey, don't question what's working right in front of your eyes," Adrian boasted with a wink. Eric took another look around… nearly all the battle were done and nearly all the peons were either caught in the boundary web traps or were being bundled up by the Ariados. "Its just too bad you guys know about my trap now," Adrian added with a friendly chuckle.

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It was easy to finish up with the Peons that were left in the clearing due to the web traps. The group rushed into the Pokemon Center where they met more resistance from some peons, but none were that harmful because the Ariados were able to tie up the majority of them before they could release Pokemon. Within another half-hour the teams had rustled up all the peons but Koga and locked them in one of the guestrooms of the Pokemon Center. It took Eric another half-hour of tinkering with his snag machine to give the other kids back Pokemon that had been snagged from them by the Hexagons.

Roxie meanwhile helped the resident nurse heal all the injured Pokemon. She was amused to find out that the nurse was male and Gabe's younger half brother; she gave Adrian heck about it afterward. "So, I hear Gabe has a thing for the nurse here?" she asked Adrian faux causally.

"Ugh, look, I just heard that he stopped by this center a lot during these training things and I assu-"

"Uh-oh, that's how rumors get started, don't you know?" Roxie chided him sarcastically with a 'tsk tsk' wag of the finger.

Adrian moaned dramatically and Starsteel imitated him perfectly. Roxie and Starsteel burst out in laughter while Adrian stood staring at them. Eric walked up to them with Florina now napping on his head and chuckled. "Looks like you two are having fun."

Adrian yawned. "I'll leave you two lover birds to make googly eyes at each other." It was Eric and Roxie's turn to flush white and stare. "I saw that little peck on the cheek," Adrian said with a wink. "When you're done I'll need to see you though, okay Roxie?"

Eric, completely trying to ignore the romantic tension that Adrian aroused, said, "He's a pretty cool guy, eh?"

"Yea, he's a good leader…"

There was an awkward silence, but it was broken when Gabe rushed into the Pokecenter with his Machamp and Alakazam who looked more than ready for battle. Everyone laughed except for Allan who said, "Relax, we took care of everything!" Gabe looked skeptical the whole time, but he had the peons teleported to Wes and told everyone to have lunch at the Pokemon Center and stay there for at least two more hours until they resumed their exercise. He pulled Roxie and Eric aside for a chat.

"You guys want to keep on with this exercise, right?"
Eric and Roxie looked at one another and nodded. "Of course," they said simultaneously.

"Eh, it'll probably be a few days before we can get anything out of these guys an' gals anyway. It means that right out of this you'll probably have to get back to your missions though." They both nodded. "Okay, you two are easy," Gabe said with a smile. "I'm just going to chat my brother up a bit an' I'll be on my way then." He waved goodbye and the two were alone once again.

They, along with their Pokemon ate lunch and played out in the forest clearing with various sports supplies from the Pokecenter. It had only been an hour since Gabe left and the unity between the two teams was breaking. People stopped talking to their friends and meandered back to their teams to talk strategy. It seemed no one was really phased by the major battle they had just faced. Eric was told his team was leaving three by three so that it wouldn't be so easy for the opposing team to engage them all in battle. He would be the last to leave, alone. Adrian was releasing people at the same rate, excepting that he told people to go back to the red base instead of the opposing base. His full plan he only revealed to Roxie.

"Okay, I know it's a long shot, but…" Adrian began.

"No, you've been planning this all along with the Ariados," Roxie said as she pet Florina who was curled up, sleeping in her arms.

"It's not only that, I had someone plant a bug on Eric."

"Whoa, what?"
"They're using the same time release tactic as us; they're even pretending to be 'napping' like most of us who aren't leaving right away so it seams like we're still here when we sneak out. When I bugged Eric though, I heard that he thought he picked up what he thought might be parts of the password… and he said he was 'tired enough to take a real nap.'"

"So you're going to get Eric while he's sleeping and get the letters out of him… but how?"

"Just leave it to me."

"Okay… Sure, sounds like a good idea. When are we doing it?"

"As soon as everyone goes to the guest rooms. We have to do it fast or Eric will be missed sooner. They probably planned a place to stop and meet up like we did."

The scheme had not a flaw. Only Eric and Blaze were in the room and both were sleeping. Roxie carefully took Mag's Pokeball off of Eric's belt and returned him. "I can't believe he's a Blaziken now… and that name…" Roxie whispered and shook her head. One of the Ariados bundled Eric up and carried him on its back. There was only one story in the Pokemon Center so Roxie, Adrian, and the Ariados easily slipped out of the window and into the forest. If Eric ever woke up, the Ariados left Eric under a nest of Pokemon that produced Sleep Powder and waited for it to take effect. Even with their frequent stops, Roxie and Adrian were at the base before anyone else. They put his Pokeballs in Roxie's room and left it locked. Roxie wanted to store the Pokeballs in the PC, but for this exercise she could not. Eric was left tied up in Adrian's room.

"So what now?…" Roxie asked over a dinner with Adrian in the cafeteria.

"Now we wait for Ashley to get back with her Politoed," Adrian said as he pushed his food around with his fork.

"What's that Politoed have anything to do anything with it?"
"Everything." Adrian got up and began to walk away. "Just get some sleep, okay?" He threw the rest of his food out. "Oh, and make sure Starsteel comes back to my room when he's done."

"Fine…" Roxie hated being left in the dark, but she knew whatever he cooked up was set in motion and if she pushed too hard she'd probably break it. So she sat there and finished her dinner with Florina and Starsteel wondering how a Politoed would help them at all.

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Comments:

-Whewt, I cleaned up the peons in one fell swoop! xD

-New Shadow Type attacks that count as Shadow Moves but also have a type, "Ooooo!"

-Now where the heck could Koga have disappeared to? I'm curious to see what you all thought of him as the Poison Peon. x3 Be sure to look out for him in the future. ;D

-If anyone figures out what Politoed is for, please don't spoil it for the other readers. If you really must, you can PM me for confirmation. P

-I know the Sinnoh stuff sounds a little cheesy because I'm incorporating it right now, but I have an explanation coming up soon.

-hopes I don't get a bunch of posts about how its been forever since I last updated

-hopes I still have readers