Homika looked up at the other gym leaders and Iris and was surprised by how many stunned or devastated faces she could see. Didn't they see the same thing as she did? Iris looked like she was on the verge of tears, Skyla looked like a lost puppy, Marlon looked deep in thought and Cilan…who knew what the f*** he was thinking? She jumped to her feet and stomped her foot on the ground. "What's wrong with all of you? Are you guys just gonna sit around feeling sorry for yourselves?"

"But Homika—"

"But nothing!"

"Homika, how can you be like this? Your own boyfriend attacked you—"

"That's right, he hit me with Hyper Beam. So why the f*** am I still standing? Do I look like someone who could take a Hyper Beam to the face and laugh it off? Well other than when I'm an epic bender," she asked. None of them answered or perhaps they thought it was rhetorical. "Don't you guys see? C'mon Red, you're a smart girl!"

She looked up at her and began to answer before her eyes lit up. "Hey…does it mean what I think it means?"

"If what you think it means is that he really didn't mean any of that stuff, then yes!"

"A-all of it?" Iris asked in a meek voice.

"Well I don't know about you but I know for the rest of us, it rings true. Come on you guys, is Ethan really that cruel of a person? Huh, really? Of course not!"

"Then why did he do it?" Marlon asked. Homika put her hands on her hips.

"Well duh, isn't it obvious? Well I guess not since you guys are asking me but I bet that he's being forced to work for them against his will and he didn't want us to come and rescue him so he went full on jerk!"

Skyla jumped to her feet and laughed. "You know, you're right! The Ethan I know is a kind and caring guy. He never meant any of that."

"Even me?"

"Iris, didn't you hear me earlier? I think he meant what he said to you but I don't think he would be near as harsh about it."

Iris hung her head. "R-r-really?"

"Well of course. You really are a brat. I think he said it so you could…I don't know…maybe think about what he said and make some changes in your life. How the hell am I supposed to know? I don't do motivational speeches!"

Marlon chuckled. "So he doesn't want us to help him."

"No. F*** no. We'll just have to do without him."

"Do what?" Iris asked. Homika tapped her head.

"Uh…umm…think Roxie…think—"

"Roxie?" They all said in unison. Homika turned red.

"Hey, none of you f***ers heard that, okay? Right? Did any of you hear the name I used?" She asked and they all shook their head. She nodded and folded her arms. "Man, I suck at this thinking stuff—"

"Excuse me Homika but I have a suggestion," Cilan said. She looked over at him and leveled her eyes at him.

"First I got a suggestion, change."

"Oh, of course."

It only took him a few minutes to change back into his regular butler outfit. He smiled as he did and she could only roll her eyes. "Now you were saying?"

"Well you know how I was dressed up as Elesa? Well I remember she had gone to the Giant Chasm to rescue the other gym leaders. It's been some time so perhaps we should go check on her?"

"But…we don't have any Pokemon," Iris said.

Cilan frowned. "Oh yea, that would be an issue. It's not like we can just call Ethan up and beg him to give us some Pokemon."

"Don't you have any more Pokeballs in your hair?" Homika asked. Iris shook her head before looking down at the ground. She sighed.

"Fine fine, you guys really need to hide Pokeballs on you so you don't run into this problem," she said as she reached into her dress and pulled a Pokeball out. Cilan chuckled.

"And I was wondering why you had some sudden growth in—"

Before he could even finish the sentence, she flung the Pokeball, nailing him right between the eyes. It bounced back over to her and she grabbed in midair. "If you finish that sentence, you are a dead man. They won't find your body."

"Ahh understood."

Homika looked over at Skyla. "So do you got a plane nearby or are we gonna have to walk?"

She flashed her a thumbs up. "Stellar! Leave it to me, this flying red head is on the job!"

Thanks to her top-flight skills or perhaps her ability to scare the living crap out of them, they soon landed near the large crater that helped give the area its name. It's named always amused her, the crater wasn't all that large, maybe the size of a small car. Whoever named it had to have been pretty sarcastic. Or an idiot. "Well here we are. The chasm is to the west of us!"

Homika took out her Pokeball, summoning Scolipede. "All right, we're depending on you to take care of any Pokemon out there."

It let out a cry and began to move forward. "So…what are we gonna do without any Pokemon?"

"Iris…you're the Champion, right?"

"Ahh yes but—"

"But? But? How long do you plan to feel sorry for yourself Iris? You are the f***ing Champion! You caught your very first Pokemon without even a Pokemon of your own! I mean go****, stop moping about. I'm sure Ethan meant to motivate you, not for you to become a f***ing emo about it! F***, now you got me thinking about that motherf*****!"

"I-I-I'm sorry."

"Opposing Team Rocket without our own Pokemon will make things a bit tough but I know I should be able to finagle a few new water Pokemon into my team," Marlon said.

Skyla giggled. "Well me and the birds speak a common language—"

"Yea, gibberish."

"Honestly I think once we get some replacement Pokemon and team up with the other gym leaders and the Elite Four, I like our chances. The only thing I'm worried about is Giovanni and Ethan," Cilan said. He chuckled. "Imagine, we have to be worried about a guy who was on our side—"

"He's still on our side. Somehow…I think. I hope so," she said, though she wondered why she felt that way. He would never become as bad as Giovanni, right? She shook her head. "Yea, that f***er is still on our side, even if he did some jerkish things."

"Awww isn't it sweet how Homika defends her lovely boyfriend?"

She made a fist. "Cilan, do you want me to pound the ever living s*** out of you? I'm gonna kick you're a** so hard, you're gonna forget who you are!"

"C-could you stop cursing so much? My ears are ringing," Iris asked. Homika laughed.

"Too bad. I'm not all cuddly and sweet and warm like Ethan. I'm a brutally honest, foul mouth, dirty minded and in your face b****!"

Cilan chuckled. "Until Ethan returns, then you'll become a much more agreeable person."

Thanks to Scolipede strength, they were able to make it through without much trouble. True to form, the place was crawling with Absol but thanks to being part bug, he made short work of them. By the time they reached the crater, they found Elesa standing by it in her large fur coat, arms folded and looking perplexed. Cilan walked forward and waved to her. "Hey Elesa! We decided to come out and lend a hand!"

"Hey, quiet! Are you trying to attract attention?"

Elesa looked over at them and gave a faint smile. "Welcome. I didn't expect you guys to come out here."

Homika sighed. "It was Cilan's crack idea. A pretty f***ing reckless one considering we don't have many Pokemon?"

"Hmm, what happened there?"

Marlon cleared his throat. "Well it looks like Ethan and Jasmine have joined Team Rocket. And Ethan's first move was to steal all our Pokemon."

She raised an eyebrow. "They did? I don't get it."

"He's being forced to do it. That's all I can think of," Homika said. "The problem is we can't really oppose Team Rocket without any pocket killers so we'll need all the help we can get."

Elesa smiled. "That sounds like a plan."

"Thankfully the Elite Four still has their Pokemon but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes," Marlon said. They all looked over at him and he shrugged.

"What the f***? Are you trying to be a Debbie downer?"

"Well what do you think Homika?"

"Ahhh…well…I…f***," she said as she folded her arms. She thought over what he said and tried to figure out what he was getting at. She tapped her foot. "Ugh…do you mean now that they have Ethan on their side, they'll want to stomp out any threats?"

"Yep. Before that, he was their biggest threat, the one guy they knew who could throw a wrench into their plans but now they've got him on their side. You can bet they'll step up their efforts and crush any signs of resistance here. And the Elite Four is probably the biggest now."

"Then it's good you all came here. I've been having a terrible time trying to find the other gym leaders."

Homika grumbled. "You've been out here all this time and you still can't find them?"

She shook her head. "No."

Cilan frowned. "Maybe we were mistaken?"

"Maybe you weren't? Don't you guys remember a dirty trick Ethan likes to use?"

They all looked at her confused and she sighed. "Umm explain?"

"He has that stupid ghost candle. He often used it to turn invisible and sneak around. Couldn't they have done the same thing here?"

"An entire building?"

"Didn't you just say yourself you've searched all over? Like all over?"

Elesa shrugged. "But didn't you guys just confirm that Ethan stole all your Pokemon? If there are ghost Pokemon hiding the building from us, how do we get them to stop?"

Homika turned to Scolipede. "Hey, go see if you can fetch us an Absol! They really don't like bugs!"

The large centipede wandered off and Elesa sighed. "You're just gonna send him off like that? Shouldn't you as a trainer be out there, directing him?"

"Does Ethan?"

"He seems like a special case to be honest. I don't many other trainers who can get away with that. He just has a special…connection with Pokemon at times."

Homika shrugged. "He's just a regular guy. If he can do it, so can I!"

She brushed aside her hair. "So can we trust him to do the right thing? I mean trying to become the villain and all."

"Of course!"

"You sure? I mean if he's with Team Rocket, they're not going to be having him rescuing hurt Pokemon or helping trainers. He's gonna be stealing Pokemon, harming others and being up front about all of it."

"What? Are you trying to make me depressed or something? F***, he's not going to go bad. He knows what he's doing. Jasmine is there to keep him honest anyway. So stop worrying about stupid f****** things that we have no control over and worry about our d*** f****** selves. F***!" She yelled. She folded her arms and grumbled.

Cilan chuckled and held out a hand. "And that's our leader!"

"Not leader. HBIC and get it right?"

Elesa raised an eyebrow. "HBIC?"

"Head b****in charge!"

Scolipede returned a few minutes later, with an Absol in tow. Homika grinned and patted him on the back. "Yes, good job Scolli! Exactly what we needed! So could you explain to him what we need?"

As he did, she leaned against him and folded her arms. "So here's the other major question…what to we do if the person or persons guarding the gym leaders has Pokemon that are strong against Scollipede or Electric?" Cilan asked.

"Is that a serious f****** question? Do we really have many other choices? Ethan stole all our Pokemon."

"And if they don't have their Pokemon on them? I mean there's a good chance Team Rocket took their Pokemon away after they captured them."

She began to respond but heard Scolipede cry out to her. She turned to him and frowned. "Huh, what do you mean he doesn't detect any ghosts around here? How else could they be hiding them?"

"They aren't hiding them because the gym leaders aren't even here. We've moved them somewhere else. We just didn't feel like cluing you guys in so you could fall into our trap."

Homika looked around. "What? Jasmine? What the f*** are you talking about? Where are you?"

She got her answer as the petite gym leader magically appeared in the middle of the group as Chase floated around her. She was dressed in a female Team Rocket outfit and Homika had never felt more disgusted in her life. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry for f****** what? I hope you're gonna explain yourself! I hope you're keeping Ethan in line!"

Jasmine sighed. "That's none of your business."

"How about I make it my f****** business?"

Jasmine shook her head. "I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to take your Pokemon away. Ethan figured, correctly it seems that you might have some more."

"Did he tip off Team Rocket about Elesa being out here?"

Jasmine blushed and nodded. "H-h-he did. He told them she had come out here to try and rescue the other gym leaders. They didn't ask either-"

She grabbed Jasmine by the collar. "What do you mean he just f****** told them? They didn't even have to ask? He just casually mentioned it to them?"

"Y-y-yes—"

"What the f*** is he thinking?"

"He's trying to earn their trust! If he can do that, perhaps they won't have to threaten his family or friends with harm."

She let her go. "And just how far is he willing to go to earn their f****** trust? How low will he stoop?"

"Ahh…I…"

"You better f****** answer me Jasmine! I trusted you to keep him in line!"

She sighed. "I…"

"You aren't, are you? You've decided to go all in, haven't you? If he takes that f****** leap off the cliff, you're going with him…aren't you?"

She moved toward her and Jasmine suddenly shoved her away. Homika stumbled back but Skyla stopped her from falling. "Ethan isn't in Team Rocket because he wants to be. He has to be in Team Rocket…and if he has to alienate everyone around him to save them, so be it, I'm with him all the way! And I don't have a choice either—"

"Yea you do! You can stop him from going over the edge! You think he's a tough son of a b**** now? Watch what happens when he's taken a turn for the worse!"

Jasmine looked up at her with a glare and snapped her fingers. Suddenly her Steelix appeared behind her and let out a loud roar. "You don't understand…I don't want to do this but I have no choice!"

"You've got to f****** kidding me. They've roped you into that same deal. Either you do as you're told or he gets—"

"No, if I fail him, they'll harm his friends and family. I won't fail him, I love him too much to let him suffer like that."

Did she just say what she had heard? "What?"

"I was hoping to be there for him, to make sure he doesn't go over the edge but…it looks like for his plan to work…for him to gain their utter trust, he'll have to go over the edge."

"Is she kidding?" Marlon asked.

"No. So that's how it is? That's how it's gonna f****** be?"

"Your Pokemon please—"

"You didn't answer my question b****!"

Jasmine sighed and climbed onto Rusty. "Could you take out her little bug? It's getting on my nerves."

Homika moved out of the way as Rusty swung its large tail in Scolipede direction and before the bug could move out of the way, he was knocked aside like a toy, along with Absol. Elesa stood by in shock, unable to really help since Jasmine's Pokemon was immune to her Pokemon. "Well this took a turn for the worse."

"F***! If I only had some time, Scolipede could use his ground attacks to do some damage. He won't get that chance if he takes hits like that!"

"Actually what's gotten into Jasmine?"

"She's an idiot. Ethan's an idiot…it's like a f****** disease! Jasmine, why don't you let me talk some sense into his—"

"Sorry but I don't think he wants you around anymore…for your own sake."

"For my own…that's stupid!"

"Why do you think he's doing his best to alienate you all—"

"Somehow, I get the feeling that some of this was your suggestion. Did you just go behind my back and take back the promise you had made to me?"

"What are you talking about?" Cilan asked. Homika ignored him as she yelled some encouragement to Scolipede first.

"I mean…they both…set aside their feelings for my sake. If she f****** went back on that promise…" she said, bile rising up inside her. "Jasmine, you better answer me!"

Before Jasmine could actually answer, something fell from the sky and stomped hard on the ground, several times in fact, stirring up a bunch of dust. As the dust cleared, she saw that it was Meganium standing between her and Jasmine. "Huh? But I thought Ethan stole all your Pokemon! Did he miss one?"

She could think of one person who would have that Pokemon and she soon got her answer. "So you're the one who's trying to turn him into a villain? You're the worst! I won't stand for that at all!"

Lyra hopped down from a nearby tree and folded her arms. "Lyra…what are you—"

"The Ethan I know and love would never do that. I don't know what you've done but I'm not going to stand around and let you do it! Not by a long shot!"

"Wait…you're helping us?"

Lyra shook her head. "I'm only interested in stopping Jasmine."

"Whatever. I'm not here to talk f****** semantics."

"You really surprised me Jasmine. And here I thought I was the crazy one. Meganium, use Fissure!"

"Since when can it learn that?" Homika demanded. Lyra looked at her and winked.

"You don't know how far me and her will go for Ethan."

Homika stepped back and looked at the others. "They're both crazy, that's all I can say."

Meganium stomped its feet on the ground several times, causing a large crevasse in the ground to open up but unfortunately, it didn't come close to Rusty and veered off in a different direction, as the move was known for doing. "Oh…drat."

With the newcomer to the fight, that meant she had lost track of Scolipede. It got to its feet and she flashed him a thumbs up. While Jasmine was occupied with Lyra, Scolipede leapt into the air and slammed its feet on the ground, causing the area to shake. Rusty let out a growl as he took the attack like a champ but she knew it had some effect. Meganium jumped up and stomped on Rusty's back, causing it to cry out again. It countered with a large swat with its tail, sending Lyra's Pokemon flying. "Ahh, Meganium!"

"What are you worried about? That f****** dinosaur crushed our entire parties. I think she can handle this."

"Ahh yes! You're right. Okay Meganium, show that Steelix who's boss!"

Meganium got to its feet and let out a loud cry before it charged at Steelix. As she did, Scolipede responded with yet another ground attack, causing Steelix to reel from a ground attack. Meganium leapt up and slammed his feet on its steel body and when she noticed its loud roar, she realized Lyra had used Counter on it. Jasmine pat Rusty and began to giggle. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This…this is just a bit easier than I thought," she said as she held out her arms and suddenly a bunch of Pokeballs appeared in her arms. Elesa began to search herself and frowned.

"My Pokemon are gone."

"Exactly."

"Hey, that's not fair! You're becoming as bad as Ethan!"

"I'm not."

"Jasmine—"

"Well I don't think I can steal Meganium or Scolipede but I did get some Pokemon. I suppose this will have to do. Chase, could you get us out of here?" She asked. She snapped her fingers and the three suddenly vanished. Homika ran forward and kicked the dirt where Jasmine and her Steelix once sat.

"F***! F***! F************************************! How did we just let her get away with that?"

Elesa took off her fur coat and shook it. "Simple really. We always take her for using nothing but Steel Pokemon so when she arrived with a ghost Pokemon in tow—"

"I mean we had her surrounded and yet she still got away! F***! A fine f****** leader I am!"

Lyra walked forward and pat Meganium. "She's gonna turn him evil. She's just gonna let him go bad…I won't let it happen!"

"I thought that was my line!"

Lyra hopped on Meganium's back. "Well let's go! We need to have a talk with Giovanni," she said as the two hurried off.

"F***** didn't even let me thank her. Ugh, I can't believe I was thinking about that."

Elesa put her coat back on. "So the gym leaders aren't here. Where would they be now?"

Homika sighed. "I don't know, they could be anywhere. I guess we will have to worry about them later."

"With no Pokemon?"

"Shut the f*** up Iris, I'm trying to think here!" She yelled. She thought about it and grumbled. "Sorry. I just need to think this out."

She sat down on a stump and crossed her arms. "I may have a suggestion."

"Well Marlon, you're always full of them so let's hear it."

He chuckled. "Well since we don't have any Pokemon now, why don't we use Scolipede to capture some new ones? That way we can start to train them a bit so we aren't totally useless."

"Well that was f****** obvious…I must be a dumb f*** to not figure that out."

Skyla leaned on her shoulders. "It's okay, you must be distracted from our encounter with Jasmine, and it's okay."

"Ugh but it's not. She went behind my back and…and…you know what? F*** that b****! You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna drag Ethan out of Team Rocket, even if I have to kick the ever loving s*** out of him!"

Skyla laughed. "Well it's better than watching him become a villain on par with Giovanni."

"And what about Team Rocket?" Elesa asked.

"After I get him out of there, there won't be a Team Rocket to kick around anymore."

After a few hours or so, everyone had at least two Pokemon to work with, even if they weren't Pokemon of their preferred type. She had captured a Delibird to go along with Scolipede while Elesa went with Lunatone and Sneasel. Cilan picked out a Mamoswine and Metagross while Skyla went with Clefairy and Dewgong. Rounding out the group, Marlon decided on a Poliwrath and Excadrill while Iris went with Boldore and Ditto. She seemed most bummed about her Pokemon and insisted on asking why she got stuck with Ditto. "Ditto is useless."

"You don't get it, do you?"

Cilan chuckled. "I'm not really getting it either."

"F***! Well Ditto is the Wiggler of the group."

Iris looked up at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Oh I see. It fills the role of the wild card, you don't know what its capable of so you have to be careful with it," Cilan said.

"If it was gonna fit that role, shouldn't it be cute?" Skyla asked.

Homika looked at her as if she had grown a third eyeball. "You think that thing is cute?"

"It has it's charms!"

"It's like a f****** rabbit that lost a battle with a buffet table. And then went out for dessert."

"If you wanted to go the obnoxiously cute route, there is Cinccinno," Elesa said.

"That thing? Well…maybe. F***! Now what do we do? We can't exactly go help the Elite Four right now…uhh…f***! Think d***** think!"

"Umm could we go check up on Mistralton City? I want to see how everyone is doing?"

"Protect the airport? Yea, f*** yea! Let's go check it out. I bet that could be one of their targets!"

Skyla let out a big sigh of relief when they touched down in Mistralton again. She stretched out her limbs and took a deep breath. "Ahh, do you smell it?"

"Smells like…gasoline…f***! I don't know how you can stand it."

"Once you're up in the sky, up with the birds, your wings outstretched and the wind underneath your sails—"

"Okay okay. Get your head out of the clouds Skyla. F*** well, I guess we might as well split up and spread out. If those f****** show up, we'll be ready for any s*** they try to pull! Skyla and Iris, you're coming with me!"

"Huh but—"

"No buts! I'm the HBIC and I decide who works with whom. Besides Marlon is the brains of this suit and we can't have the leader and the brains in the same group!"

"Ummm I thought I was the brains," Cilan said with a chuckle. "Marlon is just the one with the good head and heart."

"Huh, then who am I?" Skyla asked with a wide smile.

"I dunno, probably the ditzy team mascot. Iris is the bratty tag along kid no one likes—"

"Hey!"

"Oh f***, it looks like she still has some fire in her belly! Cilan is the brains…I think. Elesa is…I don't what the f*** you would be…there; everyone's roles are defined. I think we're good here!"

"Then we'll check out the city limits. That way if Team Rocket does show, we can warn you guys in advance."

Marlon and the others left but the three remained on the runway. "Let's go check out the control tower. We can see how things are going and we can also see if Team Rocket is out there."

"Why not just send out one of your birds…oh yea…f***!"

"It's okay—"

"No, it's not. He should have never beaten us like that before. I mean I get it that he's a great trainer and all but he just showed us up like it was nothing! And the worst thing is that he didn't have to battle us! He just took our Pokemon from behind our backs!"

"He's smart," Iris mumbled and Homika grumbled.

"It just f****** sucks! I swear…that's the last time I'll take him for granted."

"You did?"

"Well I figured between all of us, we'd be able to stop him. Instead he showed us all up…that's what scares me. If he's like that when he's just f****** around, what happens when he gets serious? Will we be so lucky next time? That's why…f************************! Seriously…f************************** Jasmine! She was the one person I figured that would be able to keep him in line and prevent him from stepping over the edge but if she isn't going to do it…then…" she said as she fell to her knees. Just the thought of him becoming something akin to Giovanni sent a chill down her spine. "I won't let it happen!"

Skyla pat her on the shoulder. "Of course it won't. We won't let it happen either. He was a pretty cool guy to be around. It just isn't the same without him around."

"Y-yea, I guess. I gave him a lot of grief and all but he was nice. I don't know why he kept ragging on me though."

"Because you're a brat. And he thought you might be a better person to be around if you stopped acting like it. I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand."

Iris sighed. "Well—"

"Enough moping around you two! You're making me feel down and I hate that! Let's go check out the air control tower!"

Homika grabbed a pair of binoculars and peered through them while Skyla conversed with some of the workers in the tower. She scanned the horizon several times over but all she could see were various bird Pokemon flying above the trees and maybe the odd plane or two. By the time she set them down, the workers had left. "Man I remember when I came here after they first attacked. I was so down and depressed about it and then Ethan got annoyed at me and got me to realize that things weren't so bleak like I thought."

"Careful, that almost sounds like you're falling for the guy!"

Skyla blushed and shook her head. "Oh no. No no no no no no no! I don't think of him like that…I was just saying—"

"It's okay, I was just messing with you. What did they say?"

Skyla sighed. "Well progress is slow. Without the tower, we've had to have Pokemon fly in the parts but that isn't easy. And some of the parts aren't even made in Unova! It's a big time pain!"

"Peachy."

She smiled. "But everyone is working so hard to get everything together again, it makes me so happy! I think we should be up and running again really soon!"

"Uhh…I think we might have problem," Iris said. Homika looked over at her and noticed Iris had grabbed the binoculars she had put down and was peering through them. "Maybe it's just me but I think I see Ethan standing out on the runway. Like in the middle—"

Homika grabbed the binoculars from Iris and peered through the, "F***, it is him! We gotta get down there, like now!"

"Something tells me that's a really bad idea."

"Shut up! I'm the boss and I say we go down there and confront him!"

"I'm sorry but I think you girls got other things to worry about."

Homika spun around in time to see Jasmine slide through an open window. Then she remembered that they had all been smashed up thanks to Team Rocket. "Jasmine, what are you—"

She got her answer as Jasmine summoned Rai, who she directed to frying all the repaired and working computers that remained in the tower. As she did, Homika could see the color draining from Skyla's face. She had never seen her look so defeated before but while Skyla was devastated, she only felt a bunch of rage rise up in her. Jasmine hopped down into the cab as she summoned Rai back. "Well that takes care of that."

"You must have missed the f****** part where I was implying that you should try to stop the guy from stepping over the cliff, not helping him along the way!"

"What choice do I have?"

"The right f****** one! Are you so afraid of losing his friendship that you won't step up and do the right thing? Are you?"

Jasmine didn't answer and looked away. "I…don't know what you're talking about. I already told you why…the only way his plan will work is if he gains their trust. And I wanted to be there to make sure he minds but now I see…"

"So is that why you went behind my back and broke the promise you two made?"

She took a menacing step toward Jasmine. Right now, the only thing she felt like doing was wrapping her hands around her scrawny little neck and shaking as much sense into her as she could. Or just choke her for going behind her back like that. "You really think his only choice is to become like this?"

"Well I—"

"Do you think we're all stupid? I bet if we put our heads together, we could come up with something but what do you do? He decides to join Team Rocket on a whim and you do nothing to stop him!"

"It wasn't on a whim—"

"Shut up! I'm gonna…gonna…" she said as she continued to walk toward Jasmine, who didn't do anything to defend herself. Soon she was right up in her face, breathing down her like a Salamence would be sizing up a dinner. She reached back and felt Skyla grab her hand. "Let me go Skyla!"

"No! Please don't do it. How do you think Ethan will react if he finds out you tried to choke her? Especially if you end up really harming her?"

"I…fine, fine. You're right. I shouldn't have lost my temper there—"

"I mean I'm not saying you're wrong for being mad. I think you have a right to but this isn't the right way to deal with it."

"I….yea," she said. Skyla let her hand go and Homika immediately grabbed Jasmine by the collar.

"Now I have a message that you need to deliver to him—"

"He's here in town…you can deliver it to him personally."

Homika nodded and grinned. "You're right. We will talk in person…but you're staying here or…hey Skyla, is there anywhere we can keep Jasmine locked up for now?"

"Locked up? You can't lock me up!"

"All's fair in war. Well I guess this really isn't a war but you get my f****** idea!"

"You don't understand—"

"No you don't! I'm tired of dealing with your bull**** already. If you aren't going to do anything to save him and you aren't interested in helping us, what good are you for?"

Jasmine reached down and Homika jumped back as she summoned Rai again. This time he hopped over to the edge of the window and unleashed a large lightning bolt off in a random direction. "Was that some kind of signal?" Skyla asked. Jasmine winked at her.

"You bet. If you don't let me go…things are gonna look real bad…real fast—"

Before she could even finish, a loud series of explosions went off below. Homika rushed to the edge of the desks and could see smoke rising from the runway. "They're attacking again? After they did a number already?" Iris asked since Skyla looked near shell shocked again. All that hard work, down the drain and just like that? She felt the bile rise up in her again and she couldn't help herself this time. She turned and slapped Jasmine across the face as hard as she could, knocking her against the desks before she slumped to the ground. She looked up at Homika with a pained expression but Homika didn't share the sentiment.

"You're becoming just like f****** Lyra except she's got a legitimate reason for her craziness. Ugh, I can't believe I said that! F***! Iris, watch these two. Me and Ethan need to talk!"

"P-P-Please do. Maybe…I was wrong."