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Such a horrible person could exist in the world... Bill couldn't stand it. Couldn't take the existence of it. A man who would strip you of your free will, do things with your mind. His wife? His POKEMON!? Bill recalled the hornless Pinsir and thought of what other Pokemon must have been mutilated in order for it to reach a more 'humanoid' appearance. This guy stood for everything that Bill wanted to crush.

Breaking free of his nightmares, Bill jumped to his feet suddenly. Damn that guy.. Alright, I'll use this gift of yours, but you better watch out. Because I'm going to kill you, you b*****d.

Bill has a killer's look in his eyes it flashed before his expression became like stone. The soldier's look.

"Are you okay, Bill?" Chuck asked.

Bill turned. "Shut up. I need to get some training in."

Chuck stifled a chuckle. "Losing to a girl pissed you off that mu-

Suddenly he was suspended in the air, his collar seized by Bill. He was slammed up against a wall. "What the ******** do you know about losing?!"

And then a blast of dark energy slammed into them both and knocked them down.

It was K-Rok's Rant. [What the ******** you suckas doing? All up in this s**t, killin' the mood when I'm tryin' to work on mah rap. s**t, niggas, take your s**t elsewhere, will ya?]

"They certainly are lively now," Gorm observed, as the perspective changed. Leonarda looked up at him.

"It's better than it was a few seconds ago. They're better like this, arguing instead of pushing each other away."

Suddenly the doors burst open. Gorm and Leonarda turned to see Albert in the doorway, his armor a mess.

"What happened to you?" Leonarda asked without a hint of concern.

"Issei's dead. Ran into some trouble. I'm fine." He stepped passed them and Gorm watched him quietly.

"No police, boss," Issei said in passing and Gorm, seeming to accept this answer, turned away.

"That's two grunts that I've lost in two days," Gorm said.

"I'm sorry, no one was supposed to die," Leonarda said, clearly not feeling sorry.

"No, it's fine," Gorm turned toward everyone. "The war has began." His voice picked up. "Listen up! I will now introduce your new partners-

It was the first movement that did it. He didn't mind her tenderizing it with her hands, really. But it was the way she went about it. Throwing it into the air? Striking it without washing her hands first? The obese lad was there a moment later, and a large wooden spoon swung out to strike the battle girl on the wrist. "None o' that fightin' stuff in the kitchen." The spoon was lifted and the obese lad gave her his intense stare. "Wash your hands before and after working with raw meat." Another swing came down, this time aiming to strike the elbow. "And don't yell at the meat, I saw some spit fly at it!" A third swing, this one for the other arm, to hit the hand. "Anytime you mess up, ya get hit."

And that would be how the obese lad taught the battle girl. He would give her recipes, mostly beginner ones, and have her make them. If she messed up in preparation, he would swing. If it tasted off, he would swing. If she tried using her martial arts, he would swing. There would be steaks, brownies, one attempt at cupcakes, burgers, even salads and several other meals. The obese lad would, if Wukong started trying to learn, let the pokemon have at some of the ingredients and give it the same treatment, but with more of his weight behind it. By the end, the spoon would likely have been replaced at least once.

The pokemon worked hard as well. Bacon was focusing on target practice, now learning reflexes, precision, speed, and, after a certain point, differentiating between the egg and visions brought on by anger. That would probably help with target differentiating sometime later on, but the pokemon didn't really realize that. He was too into the practice. By the end, his aim and speed were increased by a fair margin, and he learned just what fatigue brought on by refusing to rest like a crazy b*****d felt like.

Roast managed to get in some flight training while she was learning this, though gliding out seemed to be the best method. She found that, the closer to the ground the drop was, the faster she could come out of the glide and land properly. It wasn't so good that she still had to rely on the glide, but her feet weren't built to land from a fast movement of aerial ace like the Pawniard's. As a result, even at the end, she had to rely on the glide. But she had managed to incorporate the speed for a temporary flight afterwords. Maybe that would help with actual flight...

Fried frowned to Salem. Something warm? Like what? That was an odd explanation for someone who was born, quite literally, the day before. For a moment, the combusken wondered how he thought so well, and understood humans, could walk, and could even focus well enough to use a few attacks properly. The thought was discarded. The very beginning of his training consisted of a lot of sneezing, which brought about ember, which brought minor fires, which resulted in him stomping them out. The exact feeling that Salem was describing was nearly impossible for him to find out, but at some point, he managed to create it, slowly, surely, and far more stable than he'd expected. Unfortunately, almost every time the light of sunny day suddenly appeared, he jumped and it faded before stabilizing fully. The one success was when he closed his eyes to do it so he wouldn't jump at the sudden appearance.

And thus the training would go, with pokemon working hard, trainer likely hitting, or trying to hit, the other one with the wooden spoon often. In fact, it was a wonder that any advancement would be made there, except that the ingredients were limited. Robby's chips, however, were not, for he managed to munch them even in this trying time. Still, after all was said and done, and the editing process of the video was gone through, the odd man with the video camera would give the two each a copy, and then Robby would head to the pokemon center to heal his pokemon. Roast had crashed a few times, Fried had literally blown up something in his face once or twice, and Bacon was generally what each of them managed to hit. A weird day for training.

((I believe you.))

"Wassa pretty young thing like you doin' out in this city so late a' night?"
"Excuse me?"
"Ahem. Sorry. I mean to ask why you'd be out alone in the city after dark. The streets aren't safe these days."

The man behind the counter sat slouched forward, his vest stained grey and wild hair hanging from his jaw, big dark rings under his eyes. Elizabeth blinked, her face a little strained as thoughts like -ew- -gross- and -I wonder if he does a discount deal?- passed through her mind.

"Oh, err, actually I'm not alone so..." she walked further into the store, inspecting the closely stacked shelves, "This is a pokémon store, right?"
"You're standing in Nacrene City's foremost - and sole - establishment specializing in pokémon merchandise and retail."
"Great," Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief, hand to her bosom with a smile on her face, "I was worried for a second when I couldn't find a real PokéMart."

Looking a little deflated, the store owner said in a flat, humorless voice, "Do you want anything?"
"I hope you have stock," she said, "'cause I have a big order to fill."

---

Wayne watched the police presence as cops milled around the pokémon center, applying cordon tape and standing around looking authoritative. From what he could tell at a distance, the Center was only allowing trainers in if they had previously booked a room or if their pokémon was in a critical condition; all the others were turned away and told to find hotels.

"Apparently somebody got attacked before," said the voice from the street behind him and Wayne turned around, "I guess they're not taking any chances after Striaton."
"Mom, what're you-" Wayne took a step back before hurrying over to Elizabeth, "How much did you buy?!"

The woman put down a pair of sacks brimming with item balls and stood up straight again, stretching her back and freeing her hair from her neck. Item Balls helped keep things lightweight - being lightweight themselves - so for them to be so hard to manage, Elizabeth must've bought a few hundred.

"I just asked for what they had," she said, "I think it'll be enough."
"For Fatass?" Wayne gave it some thought, "I thought he had like, special training that meant he didn't have to eat so much."
"He does, but that doesn't mean he can go forever without food, y'know." Elizabeth put her hand on one of the sacks; it came up to beyond her waist height, "You carry this one."
"Tch, I can carry them both," Wayne boasted, grabbing the two sacks with one hand each. Elizabeth raised her eyebrow -you sure about that?- and shook her head when Wayne's attempts at lifting were met with failure. He looked, wide-eyed, down at the bags and then back to Elizabeth with a dumbstruck expression.

Elizabeth smirked and ran her fingers through her hair, "Just handle the one," she said as her blue eyes glimmered for a moment; with one swift motion she lifted a sack into the air and slung it over her shoulder, "It's a lot easier that way."

---

"Is this really your office, Aunt Jackie?" Katelyn's eyes were open wide as she took in her surroundings. The walls were a dark grey like most in the World Government base, with shelves stacked to the ceiling with boxes and folders full of documents, paperwork. Jacqueline had a desk at one side, a screen built into the wood with another computer functioning as a desktop. The windows were wide with a far-reaching view of Unova that overlooked millions of little lights glinting in the distance.

"Yeah. Well, one of them," Jacqueline said, sitting on her leather chair and pushing a cushion deskchair over for Katelyn to climb onto. "My main office is a lot nicer than this one."
"I like it in here," Katelyn whispered to herself as her pudgy fingers crawled onto the desk and she peeked up over its surface. She lifted up her pink, rabbit-shaped toy and let it look too; and in a voice barely audible went, "Do you like it too, Jelly?"

Meanwhile, Jacqueline was clicking her mouse and occasionally typing, going through pages of spreadsheets and security locks and all sorts of other things that Katelyn couldn't make sense of until she turned around and said, "Alright, I've secured you a room in the lower east wing. It's close to the technical suite and engineering labs."
Katelyn blinked and Jacqueline frowned.

"You're staying here for the night. I'll arrange a transport to take you back in the morning." Jacqueline got out of her chair, Katelyn nodding slowly, and headed for the door. "Let's go. I'll show you to your room,"

---

"This room," Wayne spoke slowly, looking around the hotel room Zack and Elizabeth had booked, "Is awesome. How much did it cost?!"
"You're probably better off not knowing," Elizabeth said back as she found a corner to put the item ball-filled bags into, "After all, I wouldn't want you to hold it over us next time we say you can't have something."

Wayne shot her a sideways look before carrying on exploring. Zack pushed his way through the main door, greeted Elizabeth with a kiss and called over to the trainer.

"Hey. We're going to Castelia once you have your gym badge. Need a ride?" he asked and Wayne span around with a grin.
"No thanks - I was planning on walking. Travelling is way more fun that way."

"Whatever," Zack replied. He probably would've walked if he was in Wayne's position, so he wasn't going to try and convince him to do otherwise. "Oh yeah, I spoke to my father. He said we can visit him any time." Elizabeth grinned happily -took him long enough to ask- wrapped her arms around Zack's shoulders and reached up to kiss his cheek, which coloured slightly. "And err. Yeah. Wayne, you want to come along? It's in Castelia."

"I'll think about it," Wayne said as he stood on the balcony overlooking the city. When he turned around he spotted Elizabeth whispering, punctuating whatever she was saying with short kisses near Zack's ear. The man's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh, by the way, you're getting your own room tonight."
"What?" Wayne tipped his head to the side, "That'd be way too expensive. I'll just sleep on your couch or something."
"No, no," Zack shook his head, "I insist. You. You get your own room. Money is no object."

---

"Well, I guess I should be happy," Wayne's voice was melancholy as he stood alone. He observed his grand hotel suite with quiet discomfort as he felt something was amiss, "But still... oh wait, is that a water bed?!"

He raced over and dived into the covers; the bed bulged and slopped and then he settled slowly in the middle, sinking into the water bed's depths, "Ahhhh... man, this is gooood..."

Wayne flopped onto his back, arms spread like he was making snow angels, staring at the ceiling. Comfort swelled around his arms and legs, finding nooks around his back and releasing tension; he could feel his thoughts swimming away, the edges of reality blackening and the weight of the day's stresses melted off.

But then he sat up. "A water bed is too cool," he said as he checked through his Xtransceiver and connecting to the network, "I have to tell people. Err. What were their names again? Blaaah, I can't find it. Oh, there's Salier- huh? Haha, that's not how you spell forest. Okay, err, I forgot his name cause of the initial thing. Nevermind."

In the end, Wayne sent messages to Henrietta and Salieri, telling them:

[Hey, guys, I have an awesome hotel room but it's way too big for just me! So if you don't feel like staying in a crappy room for tonight come up. I know it's late, but it's cool, trust me.

-WL

PS - water beds
PPS - that's right, plural.
PPPS - oh yeah, if you're still with that foreign girl she can come. I tried looking for her name but it wasn't under O and I ran out of ideas. If you see TK, ask him too.
PPPPS - and the address is ---]

"Blaahhh, there we go." Wayne said as he finished typing up where the place was and sent the message to their Xtransceivers. "I hope this doesn't seem too weird. Meh. Whatever." He splashed back onto the bed and groaned, "Ohhhh... so good..."

((He didn't send you a message, Lukkkkaaaaa. Your ability to warp reality is frightening beyond belief.))

With the sun setting, Salieri exited the pokemon center. Floating on top of his Air Balloon beside her was Chen Zhen. “Oh, man, I have to find Moze and a DVD player! He’s going to love this.”

Although the DVD did not look impressive, being just the words “Training Montage” upon an otherwise blank surface. Salieri still look at it with satisfaction. Despite the number bruises on her arms displaying that she did not fare well in her lessons, she still felt that she learned a lot. It was motivational to have Wukong learning besides her as well, so she had someone to compete with. Although she was proud that her pokemon had been so natural at learning Robby's advanced techniques, she also felt that his success was a good driving force. Mostly though, she was in denial about how terrible of a cook she was.

“So training was good, Chen Zhen?” she inquired while putting the DVD into her bag.

The Pansage nodded from his crosslegged position, the balloon bobbing up and down with his motion. Not only had Bacon, Roast and Fried increased their skills, but Salieri’s pokemon also got in their training by teaching the others. “Awesome. Tomorrow morning we’ll get in a little bit more training and then challenge Lenora!”

The Battle Girl rose her xtransceiver up to her face. “Well, I better call Moze-oh, Wayne sent me a message?” Curiously, she opened up the message and began to scan it over, giggling a little at the end. Chen Zhen rose an eyebrow. What was so funny?

“Well, I guess I know what I’m doing tonight.”

****

A short while later, the door to Wayne’s hotel room burst open with a front kick from an enthusiastic looking Salieri, with Chen Zhen floating behind her.

“He~ey cowboy!” she called out from entrance, DVD in hand. Wow, he wasn’t kidding. This room is huge. Salieri waved the DVD in front of her face. “Want to see something spectacular?”

Salieri grinned like a child at Christmas. Wayne was making those water beds look like a lot of fun. With a running start, she leaped onto the one next to him and began to flop around, wobbling atop the squishy surface.

"Aw yeah, this is the life," she sighed contently as she turned herself over to face Wayne, holding up the DVD. If she didn't keep moving, she'd just fall asleep from the sheer comfort level of the water bed.

"I just trained that Robby kid's pokemon for cooking lessons, and he got this guy to make a montage of it. I haven't seen it yet, wanna watch it with me?" She paused, before adding as an afterthought, "Oh, and can I invite my brother over to watch it too? Don't fret, I'm pretty sure he's got his own place to stay so he won't be sleeping over. He happened to be in town and I want him to see what I learned."

Chen Zhen smiled widely at the thought of Moze coming over as he floated over Sal's water bed. With his tail, he popped the balloon, snatching the remains out the air and flopping down onto the water bed.

"Pa-pan!" he cried with glee as he secured the broken balloon in the leaves on his head. Water beds were awesome.

"Hm? Yeah, no problem. He can stay here if he wants, its not like there's no room."

Wayne's hotel suite featured four water beds lined up against the wall. To their right, it opened up to the lounge area - all in the same room - where a couch sat before a 50" plasma TV, a DVD player and a sound system that linked to speakers hidden in the corners of the room. Beyond the lounge area, several thin windows stretched from the ceiling to the tiled floor and were capable of opening outward like doors; if you stepped out you'd be on a balcony with an ornate stone rail; the view being of sparkling city lights spread over the darkening sky.

Opposite the beds were several large portraits featuring pokémon and their owners, appearing to be placed in old ages before industrialisation; roaming hills and forests, streams and lakes, old style clothing and a quiet serenity. Beneath the most prominent painting lay a fireplace, which was extinguished for the moment. To the direct left of the beds, against the same wall, was a door leading to the bathroom. Beyond the bathroom door there was an open kitchen, with a counter where the wall would be; you could sit at it and still hold a conversation with people in the main room; effectively it was all one big room anyway. There was also a refrigerator stocked full of food, cooking counters and storage units.

He raced forward and jumped off his bed, landing and turned to face the girl, "I'm gonna order room service when Henrietta and Oomy show up. There's stuff in the fridge over there," he pointed, "but I heard they do ice cream that's the same stuff you get in Casteliacones!"

Wayne grinned and when his eyes when to Chen Zhen on the bed it inspired him to bring out his own pokémon. No sense in locking them up, right? He grabbed his balls (heh) and flung them into the air, the streams of light reshaping into Petilil -who bolted behind Wayne's leg- Hitmonlee -who stood nonchalantly with his arms folded- and Solosis -who grinned excitedly-

((One more post!))