Welcome to Gaia! ::

Keiko and I hurried after Leon through the many twists and turns of Castelia's alleyways. Going through it very much resembled going through a maze, which reminded me of the invisible maze in Mirage Island.

"Crap. If only I could channel right now," I growled, remembering how I used Psion Split to cover all passages in the maze in Mirage Island. As it was, I had to follow Leon's instincts. Keiko wasn't very happy about the situation either - I didn't need to channel to tell that. Nevertheless, we both followed Leon, hoping that he'd lead us to Ulla. If he lost the trail, we'd have to split up to find her.

Keiko ran to Ulla's side immediately, releasing Audrey when she realized Ulla was hurt. The Heal Pulse wouldn't do much for Ulla's poisoning, but it would hopefully ease her pain while Leon could provide her with another Pecha Berry.

When I heard about the sewers I took a cloth mask and a pair of googles, both pure white in color, and donned them, covering my face. Though Keiko was worried about Ulla, she noticed when I put that on. "Isn't that-"

"Keep watching over Ulla. I'll head down to the sewers and see what I can't find," I told her, lifting the cloth mask so she could hear me. With a nod from her, I made my way down.

"Be careful, okay?" Keiko asked Leon, knowing that the Poison Channeler could handle himself. When the men were gone, Keiko looked down at Ulla and heard her question. Instead of responding right away, she lightly hugged her. "You worried us. You could have gotten seriously hurt. I'm glad you're going to be okay, though."

The dimness of the sewers made it hard to see things with the goggles of the Sir Dynamite costume, but I wasn't just using my eyes to follow the Rocket Grunts that knocked Ulla out. For a second, I thought one of them circled around me, but when I turned to attack, I saw Leon. I sighed when I realized it was him, and turned back around. "Sorry. Didn't realize you followed me," I said in a low voice, not wanting the prey to hear me. "They're nearby. We're probably not far from wherever they're hiding."

Keiko stifled a giggle as Leon disappeared into the sewers. She'd talk to him about it later though, focusing on Ulla instead. "I'm sorry. I know you're a Fairy Channeler and you have a lot of powerful abilities on top of having a lot of strong Pokemon that can help you fight. But I love you and because of that, I'm always going to worry about you. It's just how I've always been," Keiko explained, wanting to hug Ulla but giving her enough space to stand up on her own if she wanted and wasn't too hurt to. "Hang on, I just had an idea on how we can help Terashi and Leon," Keiko added, taking out her SNAG.



I read Keiko's message the second my SNAG beeped, so that the sound didn't echo off the sewer walls and bounce into the ears of the enemy. With a nod, I put the device away and focused on the path ahead of us. "Fair enough," I whispered to Leon without looking at him. I had a hunch we were close to whenever they were hiding. After a sharp turn, we came across a door. Giving Leon a nod, I tried to open the old-looking door as quietly as possible. No booby traps went off, which was good. Could have set off a silent alarm maybe, but I had no real way of knowing if it did. What I saw inside caught my attention quickly, however. Cages. A lot of cages. Were they holding the kidnapped Pokemon like this? "We need to find them fast," I said to Leon in a low voice, remembering the last time I saw a cage that wasn't in HQ.

I nodded at Leon and stepped forward. "This shouldn't be too hard to clean up," I said aloud, more to catch the ex-Rockets' attention than saying anything to Leon. "We'll just have to take care of them, first."

"Take care of them," one of the Rockets said, though given the dimness of the room, it was hard to tell who that was. That did leave two behind, however - one for each of us to fight. "You shouldn't have come here," one of them growled, facing me. "You shouldn't be stealing Pokemon and selling them off," I clapped back, letting Luna out of her ball. "But that's just who you are, I guess."

The grunt snarled when he saw my Psychic-type, but with no other recourse, let an Arbok out. "Use Crunch immediately."

"Hypnosis," I ordered. Luna floated out of the Arbok's biting range before focusing its Psychic energy into Arbok's mind, flooding it with suggestions that it sleep. The move wasn't reliable in that it didn't have the best success rate, but fortunately, Arbok passed out almost immediately. "Alright, that should give us some time. Luna, Psychic Terrain."

While Luna covered the small space of the black market in Psychic-type energy, the Rocket grunt recalled Arbok. "I'm not going to let you walk all over me that easily," he grunted, letting a Weezing out instead. "Use Taunt. Don't let him use any more status moves."

Sure enough, Weeing began taunting Luna in Pokespeak, causing the Musharna to curl up in rage. "Not a bad strategy, but I've used all the status moves that I need to. Psybeam," I smirked. Luna answered the Weezing's smug smirk with a Psybeam to the face, knocking back the Poison-type and dealing significant damage.

"You smug punk," the grunt growled. "Attack it's weakness! Weezing, use Dark Pulse!"

I could only smirk at this. "Trick Room," I ordered. Once more, Luna flooded the room with Psychic-type energy, but this time, it held a different effect, slowing down Weezing - and its Dark Pulse - while giving Luna the burst of speed needed to avoid the super-effective move.

The grunt, feeling backed into a corner, responded with a move of desperation. "Weezing, use Destiny Bond!" The Weezing assaulted Luna with Ghost-type energy that bonded their life forces together. "There! Now if you take Weezing out, your Musharna will faint as well. That way-"

"That's not much of a strategy," I interrupted the grunt, catching him off-guard. "I mean, it probably would be under normal circumstances, but since I'm a Psychic Channeler, I obviously have more than one Pokemon about my person," I explained, although the grunt seemed merely confused by that. "Channeler?"

"You don't know? Guess that's why you're a grunt," I said calmly, although that only seemed to agitate the Rocket grunt further. "Luna, finish Weezing with Zen Headbutt," I sighed. Luna charged forth, colliding with Weezing head-first and by doing so, assulting it with enough Psychic-type energy to make it faint. I recalled Luna as she was fainting, before she could hit the ground. "Alright, you're up," I added, letting Orion out of his ball.

The grunt glared at me, knowing that his only other Pokemon was Asleep. WIthout any other options, he relented and let Arbok out. "Orion, do our enemy a favor and wake Arbok up - by eating its dream," I ordered, surprising the grunt. Orion twirled in place, seeping his Psychic-type energy into Arbok before pulling a larger amount out, causing Arbok sufficient pain to awaken it.

"Tch. At least you're awake, now. Attack its other weakness! Arbok, use Thunder Fang!" I smirked, expecting that Orion would have no trouble dodging, but the Starmie moved as though something were holding it in place, causing it to get caught in Arbok's attack.

"Oh, right, Trick Room," I sighed, having forgot about the move that gave Luna an advantage over Weezing. "No point attacking at close range, then. Orion, Psychic."

After taking a second to float up after that shocking attack, Orion flooded the area around Arbok with Psychic energy, dealing enough damage to make the Poison-type faint as well. To the grunt's credit, he recalled his fainted Pokemon and followed his superior out without any further comment. "Must be used to losing," I shrugged. I recalled Orion at that point and leaned against a wall, waiting for Leon to finish his match before proceeding.