Team Rivalries

Cerebrum leisurely made his way towards his destination. Lea continued to keep her distance, but as she followed, she couldn't help but recognize the place. It didn't make sense, though. "These pathways lead to old transport tunnels," the Espeon whispered to Daphne. "They let the teams transport things easily between the two bases. But since the fighting broke out, both teams closed off their tunnels..." She trailed off, her mind trying to make something of this.

Daphne had asked Lea if he found a secret entrance. "At this point, I'd say anything is possible," she shrugged. The Persian then asked if he might have detected Team Plasma members hiding out here. Again, the Espeon shrugged. "I don't know, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he did..." Now that it had been brought up, the area was eerily quiet, the perfect place for rogue Team Plasma members to hide out. Lea turned back to Daphne. "By the way, what did you want to tell me earlier? You got cut off by that loud bang at the table."

Cerebrum opened a door and slid through it. The door opened with a creaking noise, a sign of how long it was since it was opened. Lea raced to catch up with it before it closed again; if she and Daphne opened it, the Beheeyem would certainly figure out that he was being followed! As she did, though, she came a bit too close for comfort to Cerebrum, but he remained unaware of their presence. He made a left turn into a long tunnel, with only a few lights on the ceiling to offer light. This was one of the main transportation tunnel between the two bases. Lea was still trying to wrap her head around this situation. A conclusion slowly formed in her head. It seemed far-fetched, but it was the only logical conclusion. "I think I've figured out why he's here..." she said, her voice uncertain.

 

Onyx and Zeke had told Kazuro that their battles went great, Kazuro replied, "Well, thats great! In my battle, I only got hit by a scratch. It was a critical hit though, hence the scar." A few moments later, Cleo had given Kazuro the permission to heal her gash. "Okay, but it might sting for 1 second during the process,", Kazuro told Cleo, and then proceeded to use Softboiled on the gash. The Softboiled had let out a few sparkles and that went around Cleo's gash in circles and circles, until it finally just patched part of it up. It also let out an egg, which just simply vanished when the sparkles did. Though, the Softboiled had taken away part of Kazuro's energy. But he could just use Softboiled on himself to get it back.
About half of the gash was still there, though, so Kazuro had let out Metronome.

The move it cast out was Heal Pulse, and it wasn't by luck. Kazuro is able to control if it was a healing move or not. He's able to do so, since when he found out he was a gijinka, he wanted to practice healing, hence being a Blissey. Due to that training, he can control if his Metronome uses a healing move or not. If He doesn't want it to use a healing move, though, then the move would just be random.

When the healing move had been cast, the same thing that happened with the Softboiled happened with the Heal Pulse. Some sparkles had been let out, circled the gash a few times, etc etc, but this time the sparkles had formed a star. "Ooo, a critical heal pulse!", Kazuro commented, as the gash was patched up, completely. The gash wasn't even there, not a mark. The arm was as good as new!
"Good as new!", Kazuro chanted, with a smile.
Though, the smile slowly faded when Tsukune declined Kazuro's offer. Kazuro had gasped; the first decliner! "Oh, well, okay then.", Kazuro had said to Tsukune. Kazuro wasn't really used to people declining his heals, hence Tsukune being the first decliner. Though, moments later, the Lucario had asked what Cleo and Kazuro were fused with.
"Oh, me? Im a natural gijinka. I was born a gijinka, and it was a Blissey gijinka. Its pretty cool, but the only thing I dislike is the egg.", Kazuro told Tsukune, as he got the egg out of his pouch and held it up, and put it back moments later.
Heather had gone out for a walk, and asked if anyone would come. Kazuro, even though he was slightly bored, due to eating all of the chicken he got, he declined the offer and said he might go. He was only going to go if someone else went with Heather, actually, because Kazuro is pretty social.

Onyx was going to reply to Tsukune's question, until Zeke had interrupted, and got a punch to the gut. Kazuro had to agree with Cleo; Zeke was a funny one.
Moments later, Zeke went on about how he wanted to be a Zubat gijinka, so Kazuro put out his comment. "Zubats aren't a bad choice, butt, why not a Crobat? I've never seen any of those.", he had told Zeke.

 

Kingsley hissed as Calliope applied a cold pack to his bruised cheek. "That's too cooooold!" He whined, pulling away from her but she kept it firmly in place.

"Quit whining, you baby, or else I'm gonna have to put up with you whining even more about how you messed up your face." The Scolipede rolled her yellow eyes. Kingsley pulled a hand mirror up to his face and inspected the purple welt on his face, frowning.

"You're right. It's ugly. My poor face!" He whimpered and took the ice pack from her and held it to his cheek. He set the mirror down on his desk and pouted.

"That's what you get for picking a fight with basically anyone." Calliope giggled mischievously. She stood up and headed for the door. "Now if you're done babying yourself, let's get something to eat."

"Fiiiiineeee." Kingsley huffed, but a smile was plastered to the Volcarona's face. They two had been friends long before they had joined Team Plasma and became Pokémon hybrids, and teasing and taunting each other had become their way of showing affection for each other.

They had been in the battle and Calliope had held her own rather impressively, but Kingsley had managed to get knocked around a bit, becoming perfect fodder for Calliope's sharp tongue. He hopped down off his bed and followed her out the door. They were still considered fresh recruits, but they were getting to know their way around the compound. Up ahead Calliope saw a few familiar faces, but didn't quite remember their names. She had seen them around, but mostly kept to herself and would have preferred it that way, but Kingsley, per usual, nosed his way into the conversation. He strode over to the small group, Calliope in tow. Her stilettoed boots clacked noisily throughout the expansive hallway.

"Heeeyyy! I saw you guys in the fight! You've all got some pretty great moves!" He grinned goofily. "Oh, I'm Kingsley by the way. This is Calliope. We're sorta new here."

"Hello." Calliope grumbled half-heartedly.

 

Joe took a big gulp of the soda. The refreshing carbonated drink was so refreshing! It was just something she needed! She placed the can down to look over at Ezra who seemed to be enjoying talking to her. This wasn't very often that someone willingly spoke to her. She assumed it was because she was always quiet and worried about people finding out about her being a female. She gave him a cheeky grin. "Soda is my life! I drink it everyday." Joe nodded her head a couple of times. "It's one of the few things I really like."

Ezra commented about his pants and stains not being noticed. Joe couldn't help but snicker at this. "Okay. Just making sure. I would have felt bad if they stained your pants. But at least it's on the leg and not anywhere else." Joe thought of the one time her brother fell in a puddle of mud and when he stood up, her other brothers laughed at him for 'peeing his pants.'

After a few moments, Joe finished her soda. Ezra then questioned her and she looked up at him. "Uh-sure. I wouldn't mind tagging along. I'm kinda wondering what they're planning anyways. Thanks!" With that said, she hopped up from her seat and tossed the can behind her. When it got close enough, she aimed a casual kick and the can went flying into a trash can. She heard it made it in and turned to it. "Woah. I bet I couldn't do that again." She pulled her arm up towards her chest, with her hands closed into a fist. She then did a quick fist pump before turning back to Ezra and following him out of the cafeteria.

"I kind of hope we find our Leader or someone of high authority. But even if we can find Cerebrum, that would be cool." She shrugged. Either or was fine for her. As long as no one spilled anymore of her soda, she was a-okay! "I wonder what they're going to do next. Like, we know those ruffians are obviously plotting something. And we need to show them who is boss and who is right!" She placed her hands on her hips, trying to act all macho. Joe noticed a couple other Galactic grunts give her a weird look. But none of them said anything and continued with whatever they were doing. She was relieved that they didn't try to mess with her. She was tired from the fighting!

----

Zeke pouted and stared up at Cleo. The tall lady was now taking sides with everyone else! He had high hopes for her! "W-Well! Zubats are awesome. Cuz like... No one suspects them! They're all like... 'Oh it's one of those critters. Let's keep going.' And like here I am being all 'I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!!!'"

Onyx rolled her eyes and continued to ignore the kid talking. "Don't try to reason with him, Cleo. It's like trying to talk to a rock and telling it to stop sitting there."

"Rocks can move! That's why we call them Geodude!" Zeke tried to be funny. But Onyx ignored him and turned her attention back to Kazuro and Cleo. "Well it's only a minor wound. At least you weren't treated like a throwing projectile." Onyx admitted. Though it probably would have been difficult to throw Kazuro easily, since he wasn't a tiny little pipsqueak like Zeke was. Though now the idea of using Zeke as a baseball seemed cool.

"Nice one, Kazuro." Onyx complimented as she watched the performance before her. The healing technique was quite remarkable. "Remind me to come to you when I need healing." She smiled.

"I. . . " Zeke paused at Kazuro's question. Why didn't he choose a Crobat? In truth, he had forgotten that Zubats evolve into Crobat. But he wasn't going to say that! No way! That would give Onyx something to tease him about! "I uh. . . Think Zubat looks cooler! Yeah!"

"In other words, he didn't think of it." Onyx nailed him to the board with such an uncaring and bored tone too.

Zeke frowned. "Nuh uh! Zubats are cool! Like they can fly without eyes! But the other two need them to see! And they have these cool big ears! And-" he stopped complaining when a new voice was attempting to gain their attention. The Zubat boy turned to see newcomers. He hadn't seen them before! Or maybe he did. He wasn't sure. He got battered around like a playground ball one too many times.

"Why--" Onyx went to accept the compliment but was interrupted once again by the annoying Zubat boy.

"Thank you! I know! Right? I'm so awesome! You should have seen me out there! I was all like, BA-BAM! SLAM! WHAM!" With each sound he made, he did a karate chop and high kick. "I was like a ninja! But a bat!"

Onyx held an obviously forced smile to Zeke. She had so many comments to make but decided to bite her tongue for once. Keeping her teeth clenched together she said; "Hello there. I supposed it's nice to meet you."

"I'm kinda new here too! Like, my brother is on the team! Though I haven't seen him since I transformed. OH MY ARCEUS! What if he was captured by Team Galactic?!"

"Then they took the wrong one." Onyx said through her teeth once more.

"WE'VE GOT TO FIND MY BROTHER!!!!" he grabbed a hold of Onyx's shirt. Unfortunately he grabbed a bit too high, on accident. He was immediately greeted with a punch to the rib cage and the floor again. "S-S-Sorry."

"HANDS.TO.YOUR.SELF." Onyx hissed before fixing her dress to make it look decent again. She took a breath. "So, guys. What are we going to do now? Have a nice little walk--hopefully without the mini-floor kisser down there? Or are we going to do something else. I'm interested to know~"

 

Ezra waited patiently for Joe to finish his soda. But that didn't take long! Ezra glanced away for about a minute, looked back, and Joe was done! "Man, you really do like soda!" He laughed, glad the kid enjoyed his soda. "At least the food and drinks are good here." He commented, thinking about all the fighting that was going on.

Joe said he'd like to find some type of authority, and Ezra nodded. It was probably the best idea! Lea, Daphne and Cerebrum he knew could all handle themselves. "Authority it is!" The Honchkrow hybrid stood, watching as Joe did the same. "Yeah, I'd really like to know what our next move is. Maybe we're planning on calling a truce or are going to act civilized. I'd rather not fight, but if the boss says we have to.."

He trailed off. When he was about to speak again, the speakers in the room began to blare message: "We are to have an emergency meeting. Please arrive in the meeting centre shortly."

"I guess that answers our question on what we're going to do," Ezra snickered. The rest of the group at the table began to stand as well, saying they were moving to the Meeting Centre. "Alright. Let's go, Joe!" He left the mess hall.

------

Daphne blinked when Lea asked about what she had wanted to tell her earlier. Shit, Daphne thought. I don't even remember myself. She waved it off with a smile on her face. "Oh, hehe, it was nothing!" She whispered, feeling bad that she couldn't remember what she had wanted to say.

Cerebrum headed into the old transportation tunnels, and the two women continued to follow silently. It was a wonder how Daphne possessed the skill to remain completely silent in high heels. Her warm brown eyes glanced around the tunnel. She'd been in there before, but had been a few days ago- when she first joined team Galactic and things were starting to get messy. The tunnels were slightly dim, only a few lights still working.

"W-what do you think he's hear for?" Daphne whispered when Lea said she thought she knew why the Beeheeyem man was there. In the distance, the message from the emergency meeting was heard. Daphne bit her full, red lip. "Should we go to that?"
-------------

Cleo watched in quiet amazement as Kazuro worked on her arm. It was really neat that he could partially control his Metronome. She held the cracked soft-boiled egg in her hand, before it disappeared before her eyes. It was interesting. While healing, Kazuro said he'd gotten a critical Heal Pulse, which Cleo knew was good. She offered him a small smile, and before she knew it, her arm was as good as new.

"Thank you, Kazuro." Cleo said with a small smile and head nod. She listened to him say he was a natural Gijinka. "That is interesting." Cleo commented. "You must have been a sort of...inspiration, for the creation of the machine. Did they ever run tests on you for the machine creation?" The Cofagrigus Gijinka had no idea that there were natural Gijinkas. But then again, she'd been only been in Egypt until recently.

When she came back to reality, Zeke was speaking about how he thought Zubats looked cooler than Crobats. Onyx knew that he clearly didn't think about Crobat when he'd chosen a Zubat. Cleo sighed. She found the kid funny, but he seemed to be a little..dimwitted, or just slow. "Do you think before you act?" she asked him.

"It's a wonder you can see, since Zubat don't have eyes. Do you wear contacts in something?" She and Onyx had been picking on this kid so much, it was a wonder he wasn't crying. She grumbled, attempting to offer a compliment. "At least your ultrasonic abilities will come in handy..unless you don't even know how to do that." She hoped to Arceus the kid did!

By then, two new Gijinka recruits had approached them. A peppy Volcarona named Kingsley, and a grumbly Scolipede named Calliope. Kingsley said they had done well in their battles. "Thank you, I am Cleo." Cleo called softly. "I would say the same, but I unfortunately didn't get to see you two during the fighting. But I am sure you did well- being a part of Team Plasma and all."

A screeching sound was heard before the crystal-clear voice of their leader, Ghetsis, was heard through the speaker systems of the whole Plasma Base. "Hello, Plasma. Due to the events that took place today, I've scheduled a mandatory meeting to happen this afternoon in the auditorium. We will be discussing further courses of action. Please arrive there shortly. I am embarrassed to say that one of you grunts started the physical fighting today. When I find out who did it, you will be stripped of your title and powers and be locked in a holding cell." With a click, Ghetsis was gone.

Cleo stood, eager to find out what the next plan was for Team Plasma. She looked at Heather. "Unfortunately, your walk will have to wait until after the meeting, it seems." She felt her black Cofagrigus hands seep back into her skin. She looked at the table. "Shall we head out?"

 

Tsukune sat wide-eyed at Zeke. He chose to be a Zubat? "Okay," he started, "I can see why, but shouldn't you have chosen a Crobat? I mean, you don't evolve, right?" He really hoped that was true. Turning, he was startled to see a dark shadowy arm reach out to him. "Uh, hi," he muttered, tentatively taking the hand in his and shaking it. He eyed Cleo. "Is it weird that I just shook hands with a shadow?" He listened intently as Kazuro explained that he was a natural gijinka, but his attention was diverted by two newcomers, Kingsley and Calliope. With a wave, he said, "Name's Tsukune. That's Heather over there."

The loudspeakers came to life as it was announced that a meeting was to be held soon, putting off Heather's plan of walking for a bit. "Aw," she whined, "I was hoping to get around the yard once. Oh well." She began to wander off to the auditorium. "Let's get going!" Tsukune stood up and walked after her.

 

Lea's mind froze for a moment. She couldn't believe what she thought she was seeing. "I-I think he's..." she stammered to Daphne, tripping over her own words. She heard the call for Team Galactic members to assemble for an emergency meeting. Good; that was something to change the subject to. "Y-you know what? We should go to that. It's probably important. Besides, it might raise suspicions if we aren't there, right?" She ended with a nervous laugh. She quickly moved for the door from which she and the Persian woman had came through, opening it carefully. It did creak a bit, but not loudly. The Espeon woman slipped through it and began to walk towards the Meeting Center.

From Cerebrum's end of the tunnel, he heard the call for Team Plasma members to assemble for their meeting. He silently cursed to himself. He'd might be late, but he didn't think it'd be too much of a problem if he was. He approached a door with a faded Team Plasma emblem painted on it, but before opening it, he closed his eyes, using his psychic powers to make sure he wasn't being followed. When he felt not one, but two minds nearby, his eyes flashed open. He recognized one all too well, but the other was only vaguely familiar. I was hoping you would not find out under these circumstances, he thought to himself, glancing back at the other side of the tunnel. The two minds had slipped away from his area of detection. The Beheeyem man slowly opened the door and quietly slipped through it.

Before advancing any further, Cerebrum took the patch on his tan overcoat, which featured the Team Galactic emblem, and flipped it to reveal the Team Plasma emblem. After a few twists and turns through the outskirts of the Team Plasma base, he found himself immersed in a mass of members. He didn't see any that he recognized immediately, but he was certain that he'd find some eventually. He made his way to the auditorium, but instead of finding a seat, he simply leaned against a wall in the back, his mind lost in thought.

 

Joe gave Ezra a cheeky and childish grin when he mentioned that she liked soda. "Of course! It's probably the only thing I like most in the world--other than my oldest brother. I kinda wish he was here. He's so cool! He kicks a lot of butt! You'd get along with him, I think!" Joe did a couple of punches at the air. It was as if she were trying to box against someone. "He taught me a couple cool tricks too! Some actually proved useful when I was on the battle field." Joe gave him another grin. "I sure showed them though! Their annoying Zubat kid too! He kept calling me puny! So I popped him one." Joe couldn't help the fact that she was rather short for her age. In that case, being cross-dressed as a male, she was super short!

"Yes! I want to hear what they have to say. I'm tired of waiting." She stopped to listen to what Ezra had to say. He'd rather converse with the enemy rather than fight them. She paused and thought about it for that brief moment. A shrug erupted from her shoulders. "I don't mind for whatever we do. If we have to talk out our differences, awesome. If not and we have to punch more faces in. Sounds good to me!"

The sudden announcement made Joe jump a little bit. She looked up towards a speaker and listened. So there was going to be a meeting huh? This kid couldn't smirk any more than she was right now. "To the old people!!" She pointed at the right direction. Her energetic behavior was brought to you by the lovely can of soda she gulped down. Hooray caffeine!

Just like an obedient minion, Joe quickly followed in pursuit after Ezra. "I hope they're going to talk about important stuff. Rather than talk about how their Pokémon got stolen again. I'm tired of hearing about it." She puffed her cheeks up as she tailed the taller man. In a way, she wished she found out some useful information. Unfortunately, Joe did not.

----

"Bah! Crobats are not cool. Zubats are super pro!" Zeke nodded his head to Tsukune. "I don't know if we can evolve." He scratched his head. "If we do, then I will have an even BIGGER MOUTH! THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!"

"No it wouldn't." Onyx's eye twitch irritably.

The lovely lady Cleo spoke to Zeke and this made him stop rambling just for that moment. Her voice was so mesmerizing and soothing. Such a pretty voice this lady had. She then asked him about whether or not if he thought before he acted? "Of course I do!"

"That's why he got his butt handed to him by a shrimp." Onyx interjected. "Careless mistakes will cost dearly. And I don't mean, paying by money. I mean, you being dead. Though, come to think of it, it wouldn't be such a bad idea after all."

Zeke frowned at Onyx before he looked back to Cleo. She was a nice lady. Not like Onyx. She was the mean one. Always so cold hearted to him. Zeke did wonder why Onyx was that way though. But that wasn't important right now. "I have contacts in. When I came out of the thing-a-ma-jig, I kept running into everyone and everything. So my brother got me super strong contacts. I guess I could say I am legally blind! I have glasses too but they're super thick and heavy and they keep falling off my face." He then smiled to her. "Yeah! I know how to do that! I did it against some of those monkeys we fought against! Though-it didn't work against the Pawniard kid. He just leveled me."

Onyx went to comment on Zeke's failure against someone who was much shorter than he but the announcement caught her attention. A wry smile crept across her face as she lifted up her hand to move her bangs out of her sight. "Sounds like the old geezer has something important to say. Let's all go see what he has in store for us." She grinned to Cleo.

"YEAH! STORY TIME!" Zeke shouted as he dashed down the hall.

"WRONG WAY. IDIOT." Onyx shouted.

"I KNEW THAT!" He ran passed them, in the right direction.

Onyx only left out an irritated sigh. She placed the palm of her hand to her forehead and let it slip down over her face. Who would have thought that being stuck here on an island would be such a headache? After everything was said and done, she's going to go on a long vacation. Preferably one that would be far far far far away from the Zubat boy. "Let's go." She dully said as she walked down the hall, towards the meeting place.