"G’morning people," Ivory greeted, instantly all four shot her a greeting and Daisy once more commented on their handiwork before returning to the now argument over the gym. Misty however, rolled her eyes.

She was dressed in a blue Cosmos Jersey and tight blue shorts lined with white. Her red hair down still, damp. She must have had a shower.

About twenty minutes later after a meal containing of mostly eggs and bacon, Misty led Ivory through a door, the light had already been on, revealing glass walls filled with water. Plants thrived within them, not much else.

"We used to have fish, and have public shows to help with money problems here. That was more than two years ago," Misty said, noticing Ivory’s curious glance at the walls.

"What happened? I thought Team Rocket was only after pokemon and such merchandise." Ivory stated, Misty nodded.

"Yes, but they don’t send their best troops to raid Ivory. It doesn’t take cunning and intelligence to break into an innocent home. Bandits and such ransacked the homes, not the higher ranks. When they came here, we managed to save our pokemon, but the fish…well, they were considered the fresh main course for their pokemon and themselves." Misty explained, Ivory winced. The strain voiced by Misty hurt her ears, and worse her heart. This place probably meant the world to her and has things like that happen to it, must have broken her heart.

As well as the disappearance of Ash Ketchum.

"Erm…Misty?" Ivory spoke, thinking of the pokemon champion.

"Yeah?"

"When can we battle?" she thought better of it and decided they needed some cheering up, she didn’t feel like getting depressed today. Or any day for that matter. Misty smiled.

"We battle anytime you want, there’s nothing I have to do today anyway. Besides, Ryuu’s been wanting to see how you battle." Misty replied, Ivory blinked.

"What?"

"Yep, we both want to see how well you’ve been doing. If you’re going to try and become a strong trainer, we might as well pick out your mistakes." Misty said as they came to a door.

"Welcome, to the Cerulean City Gym!" Misty cried out for the first time Ivory met her as she opened the door, walking in Ivory stared around in awe. Even though some of the paint has begun to peel and marks from the raids still remained, the large pool still sparkled and she joyfully noticed a dewgong swimming about. There were a couple of white platforms floating about in the pool and lights streamed above her. It seemed almost like a gym.

Then not far away, there was another room; a large window revealed it to be a weight-lifting room where she spotted Ryuu and another pokemon, a blaziken.

"Wow…this is so cool." Ivory muttered, eyeing everything with great interest. She took notice of the bleachers not too far off.

"We held performances and battles here, it’s funny how I still hate being dressed as a mermaid but enjoyed it all the same." Misty stated, scanning the area like she had never seen it before. Her gaze seemed far away and transfixed.

"I don’t mean to pry but-" Ivory was cut off by a stern voice.

"Well, you woke up. ‘Bout time," it was Ryuu; he walked out of the weight room with a towel around his shoulders and a tight shirt and sweatpants. Ivory growled, stupid Ryuu. Misty grinned as she looked over at the blaziken trainer.

"Would you like to take her for a bit?" Misty asked, Ivory looked from Misty to Ryuu. Ryuu smirked; she didn’t like that smirk. It seemed to be saying ‘you’re dead’ or something. But what about that battle she was going to have with Misty?

"Sure would, I think we should give her a fighting chance before she faces off against you, as your pokemon are quite at a high level." Ryuu stated, Ivory blinked. That’s right, it must’ve been hard for gym leaders to catch more pokemon and with growing danger each day, the pokemon are forced to grow stronger to survive and protect their trainers.

My pokemon have to become stronger then! She thought, she looked determined as Ryuu turned his gaze on her.

"Well, come on we’re all waiting for you. Want to join us then Misty?" Ryuu asked, looking at the Cerulean gym leader, she shook her head.

"No, I already did my laps. Right now I need to do some ‘research’." Misty said, Ryuu nodded then she left. Ivory suddenly became nervous as she realized Ryuu was grinning insanely.

"If you hate me now, wait till tonight." Ryuu said in a haughty tone, then he motioned for her to follow him. "C’mon," Gulping, she followed.

When she entered the weight room she spotted not only Blaziken, but also a sandslash, a nidoking and a houndoom. All stopped what they were doing to see the new girl that appeared out of the night. Ivory stared back, not as confidently though.

"Now release you’re pokemon, while I train you they will train them." Ryuu stated, nervously she nodded.

A few seconds later Kameko, Aldara and Panther joined them. With a quick introduction the pokemon took in Ivory’s and Ryuu stole away the younger trainer.

"You’re going to need to change," Ryuu stated simply as his pokemon showed her pokemon what each machine was and how they were used. They looked as nervous as Ivory was.

"Into what?" Ivory asked irately. He smirked as he held up a sleeveless jersey and a pair of shorts. "Fine, where?" she asked as he handed them to her.

"Here."

"Excuse me,"

"Here."

"I don’t think so,"

"Over there," Ryuu said in between fits of laughter as she scowled at him. Scurrying away towards the restroom, Ryuu heard an almost non-audible ‘Pervert’ under her breath.

"Hurry now!" he said, she glared back at him before she disappeared behind the door.

"All right," he said fifteen minutes later after she got out of the bathroom completely dressed for a workout. He was now with her over the bench press, something she did not like because one: She was under him so she could see his smirking face three feet away and two: the weight was sneering at her. That’s right, it was planning on crushing her bones and squeezing the fragile life out of her.

"Don’t look so tense, it’s easier if you just relax." He said with a grin, playfulness dancing in his eyes. She frowned up at him as she gripped the bar.

He wants me to die…I just know it. She thought, Chummy, stupid, idiotic, smug little –

"Let’s begin, you lift it off the rack and push it up and down for about five minutes then you can lift it back up and place down. Seem easy enough?" Ryuu asked.

"Let’s just get this over with," he smirked.

He DOES want me to die! "Am I done yet?" she heaved for the tenth time as she lifted the bar. He leaned against the wall, eyeing his watch.

"You have four more minutes."

"ARGGGGGG!"

"Now I know time flies fast when you’re having fun, meaning that no one looks at the clock when they’re doing something entertaining. So maybe it goes slower if you stare at it."

"RRRRRYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Her pokemon didn’t have it any easier, only Panther, whom adapted to the treadmill rapidly as she was still a baby, therefore speed would be most easily learned by a smaller body of an eevee. Kameko and Aldara on the other hand, did not have as much ‘fun’ as their younger teammate.

Forced to lift dumb bells Aldara’s hollow-boned body never felt heavier and Kameko lifted a weight bigger than her!

Needless to say Ryuu was right, she did hate him more by the end of the day. Never had she felt so sore.

The morning that followed however, was a living nightmare.

"I can’t mooooove…" she moaned, Aldara, Kameko and Panther groaned in chorus with her, not wanting to twitch let alone work out ever again. Yet Ryuu nor his pokemon and even the Cerulean sisters wouldn’t have it. Ryuu volunteered every morning since that day forward to help stretch her, she was miserable.

Instead of gaining the battle Ivory wanted badly since she arrived, throughout the week she was put through a series of exercises with every single one of them. That day Ryuu made her run laps around the pool (which was bigger from every angle) and the next day even more laps around the pool. About another three days went by when finally they woke her up in the middle of the night.

"Hiz zafter vidnife zo avay…" (It’s after midnight go away) she moaned as she buried her head into her pillow after looking at the alarm clock Ryuu ever so generously gave her. It was only a reminder of the torture he put her through every morning…

"C’mon, we need to show you something." It was Misty, making the situation a little more comfy. Groggily, Ivory forced herself out of bed and returned her pokemon to their poke’balls. "Get dressed," she ordered, unwillingly Ivory did so then followed her out of the room and eventually out of the building.

"Where are we going?" Ivory asked, slowly waking up.

"You’ll soon see," Misty stated as she led her through a dense part of the woods. Eventually it came to a small light flickering that soon erupted into more. All around her, Ivory found herself in a battle arena.

"When did this get here?" Ivory asked, Misty rounded around to look at her.

"Ryuu wants to battle you," Misty stated, Ivory then looked to her right, noticing Ryuu standing glumly on the opposite side of the field.

"Are you nuts! His pokemon will crush mine!" Ivory whispered loudly, staring Misty straight in the eye.

"They might, but I told you this before. We want to see how well you are at fighting," Misty stated. "Go on, he won’t seriously hurt you."

"Wow…that’s comforting." She growled as Misty pushed her out onto the arena.

"Finally," Ryuu said out, he looked a little tired as well. With a sigh Ivory went to the other end and glared at Misty, who was referring.

"This is a one-on-one pokemon battle, when a trainer’s pokemon is unable to fight the opponent wins. Begin!" Misty cried, Ryuu smirked as he revealed a maximized poke’ball.

"Go! Sandslash!" Ryuu cried, throwing the poke’ball. Out bounded the spiky pokemon; it cried its name and looked around for its opponent.

"A Ground-type huh? Fine, go! Kameko!" Ivory yelled, throwing her ball. Unfortunately, unlike the wide-awake sandslash, Kameko was fast asleep on the battlefield.

"Kameko!"

"Sandslash use Slash!" Ryuu shouted, the pokemon lunged at the tiny turtle. With a swipe the claws made contact with the shell of Kameko. Sending her flying with a cry escaping from her mouth.

"Kameko! You need to wake up – eh? You are awake!" Ivory cried out happily as Kameko quickly overturned herself and got to her feet, seething she glared at Sandslash. "Now use Water Gun!" a new attack Kameko had most recently learned as she rose in levels Kameko lunged a water blast as the Sandslash.

Although, it seemed strange the attack hit right on the spot. This sandslash was at a high level, she knew that (mostly because it was Ryuu’s) and wondered why he didn’t order his pokemon to dodge.

Was he taking it easy on her?

Evil person! Very evil Ryuu! She thought as she clenched her teeth.

"Squirtle!" Kameko cried as she finished the attack and eyed her challenger, Sandslash shook off drops of water before it too stared back.

"Sandstorm Sandslash!" Ryuu cried.

"Slash!" the pokemon began to spin on tiptoe, winds grew around it as well as sand and dirt and so on.

"Withdraw Kameko!" Ivory shouted, Kameko quickly drew herself into her hard shell, in an instant after her shell was whipped from the ground, her shell was seen to circle overhead. Eventually as the winds grew down and died, her shell came tumbling down and landed with a ‘thud’. When she finally came out, swirls took the place of her eyes.

"Kameko!"

"Kameko is unable to battle, the winner is Ryuu!" Misty cried, Ivory ran to Kameko waved a hand in front of her face. She was just dizzy and low on HP.

"You did well, return." She said quietly, returning Kameko to her ball.

"I suppose the exercises weren’t a complete loss after all. Good job," It was Ryuu and he offered her a hand, eyeing the hand with suspicion she picked herself up.

"Thanks," she replied roughly.

"Ah, don’t be like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like that!" he pointed out; she blink then swiveled her eyes towards the approaching Misty.

"Not bad for a first time against Ryuu, you actually kept a cool head." Misty stated, "Now we can work on that potential."

"Huh?" she was completely clueless. Were they just testing her?

"It’s been a week since you came Ivory, but it didn’t seem like you were motivated so we wanted to see what did motivate you." Ryuu said.

"And?"

"We discovered giving you a goal would be the best way to train you." Misty said with a small grin, "And putting you up against Ryuu was the best way to see if that goal was to see whether you really liked to battle."

"But I DO like battling." Ivory replied, Misty nodded.

"Of course, we’ve known that from the start when you wanted to battle me. You just didn’t appear to be prepared." Misty explained. Ivory nodded in understanding it was true that she couldn’t defeat Misty even if her life depended on it at this point in time. The gym leaders had to become more powerful to survive against the wrath of Team Rocket. So far they’ve been doing a good job.

"It’s been a while since a trainer stopped by the gym and request for a battle. The last one I battled in the gym was against Ash, that was a very long time ago, then when I came back to take over the gym no one even came then and even if I did get a challenge, no trainer last more than the first pokemon. It’s nice to have a good challenge and to see the vigor you posses, so therefore, I present to you the Cascade Badge." Misty said, revealing a blue water-drop-like badge.

"Wait a minute, I didn’t even battle-"

"There is no need for you to, I know you have ben looking forward to battling me. You’re just not ready yet, by the time you reach Vermilion you will be strong enough to face Lt. Surge, I just know it. Besides, you deserve it."

"How?"

"By putting yourself through our work-out schedules we set for you. Oh and just to let you know, Brock joined in the scheduling, he didn’t like how you ran off like that so we let him do most of it." Ryuu stated with a snicker.

"How could you?" Ivory asked, fake-crying.

"Well, he was pretty mad…" Misty said with narrowed eyes, "he probably wanted to keep an eye on you and you vanishing like that, well, he doesn’t take things like that very likely."

"And neither will I," Ryuu said, Ivory looked up at him.

"Huh?"

"Is that your response to everything?"

"What?"

"Huh?" Ryuu mimicked.

"Shut up,"

"He’ll be traveling with you." Misty stated dully, she watched as Ivory’s eyes widened.

"Why?"

"Because you need me,"

"That sounded really off," she growled, he smirked in reply. "Really off…"

"Because you need to go through an underground tunnel to get to Vermilion directly, security’s bound to be tight and Ryuu knows all about the Team Rocket Cerulean Security, he’s been spying for so long on them that sometimes one would think he was a TR agent." Misty explained as if she said it before, Ryuu grinned insanely.

"Another useful reason we keep our cool around her sisters," Ryuu said, looking at Misty, she glowered at him. "They are so talented that we had them make us Team Rocket uniforms. Down to the last stitch it’s hardly noticeable that they’re false. They made one especially for you so we can sneak through security. Oh, I have IDs and a story we both will have to go along with."

"Perfect…" Just perfect… she thought miserably, I’m stuck with the most arrogant boy in Kanto…joy.

"You can leave next week. After we get more training in, so here." Misty grabbed her hand and placed the Cascade Badge in it. Ivory shook her head, pushing it back into her hand.

"I will collect that badge the day I beat you Misty." Ivory stated firmly, her face serious. Misty gasped.

"I need something to ‘motivate’ me anyway. I have another week full of torment after all," Ivory said, Misty smiled, putting the badge back in her pocket. Ryuu even looked surprised, staring down at the ‘midget’ that complained so much during her week of working out.

"Oh, and so you don’t feel left out Ryuu." Ivory said, turning towards him.

"Yeah?"

"I’ll beat you someday too! Mark my words!" Ivory growled, her eyes flaming up at him, he smirked.

"I would like to see you try," he replied as he returned Sandslash.

"You just wait…" she snarled, she jumped when a rustle came from behind her.

"Misty-san?" Misty’s eyes reverted to the bushes behind Ivory, her lips in a tight line.

"Come on out Casey," Misty nearly muttered, she didn’t sound like she was very fond of the person interrupting them. Or maybe it was just because they were interrupting them…

"Hello," a girl greeted as she popped out from behind the bush. She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen with bright blue hair in two low ponytails and lively crimson eyes. She wore a dark cap with a yellow lightning bolt on it and adorned herself in dark clothes lined with yellow. A large, bold ‘E’ on her left breast. A black belt was secured around her waist with a few poke’balls clasped to them.

"Good evening Casey," Ryuu greeted, looking a bit glum himself. Ivory eyed the girl, she looked – odd, and energetic for this time of night. She grinned and put her hand in a small hip-pack that was tied to her waist as well.

"Same to you two, who are you?" The girl named Casey spotted Ivory and looked to Misty for an answer.

"She’s Ivory Koguu, she’s been staying with us the past few days for training." Misty explained, Casey’s eyes beamed.

"You’re the girl Brock told me about! I’m very pleased to finally meet you! I’m Casey at your service!" Casey cried. Ivory sweat-dropped.

"Pleased to meet you too," she replied back weakly, suddenly tired already just by watching this girl dispose of seemly no energy.

"Info Casey-chan." Ryuu stated, bringing Casey back down to earth.

"Oh right, Maxie said this has something about the new hideout in the electric plant not too far from Cerulean." Casey said, pulling out a piece of folded paper and handing it to Misty. She unfolded it and read it.

"Oh c’mon," she growled, her eyebrows twitching angrily. "They really think Zapdos is still there?"

"They’re probably not aiming for capturing him again." Casey said in a matter-of-fact tone. Misty looked back at her; irritated.

"But why hide out there? Who was the informant?" Ryuu asked, Casey folded her arms.

"It was Sparky, the one with the Jolteon. He’d been there on post for that past two weeks. He’s been evacuating the pokemon to Johto along with some trainers from Lt. Surge’s gym, he was lucky to get the last voltorb to Goldenrod just last week." Casey explained. Misty sighed and Ryuu ran a hand through his hair, Ivory took notice from the experience with being with the two that those signs were showing they were in thought or simply aggravated.

She should know, she saw it every time she tried to lift a stinkin’ bar.

"Now we just need positions at the Seafoam Islands and Victory Road. Wait, there are already securities on Victory Road. Well, not in it anyway." Misty said, Ivory looked at her questionably. She noticed and smirked. "Pokemon on Victory Road have become even more unruly since the champion disappeared, and even went as far as violent when Team Rocket tried to control them. Right now Team Rocket has no control over those wild pokemon, but they don’t worry about it now. They’re too ‘busy’ with other matters."

"The world has fallen that low huh?" Even the pokemon are becoming fanatic… she thought with a sigh.

"Yep," Ryuu replied, folding his arms too.

"Well, I need to get going. Anything you want me to do?" Casey asked.

"Yes, if you can send a message back to Brock that we’ll be fine for the moment. We just need to finish our little project." Misty said, Casey nodded in understanding while Ivory was completely lost.

"All right then, I’ll be – hey! You’ve got a poke’gear, can I add my number?" Casey asked, she said pointing at the poke’gear around Ivory’s neck, she never realized she put it on. Then again she probably slept with it by now.

"Um…sure…" Ivory said handing it to her after taking it off her neck.

"I’ll add the EO’s as well, never know when you might need them." Casey said, pushing buttons.

"EO?" Ivory repeated.

"The Earth Organization," Ryuu answered, Ivory blinked as she looked back at Casey. Finally she gave it back and with a ‘farewell’ she vanished back into the woods.

"Is she a ninja or something?" Ivory asked, Ryuu chuckled.

"She isn’t quiet enough, but she is stealthy." Ryuu replied.

"And a competitive sport." Misty added, making Ryuu chuckle more.

"Let’s get back home." Ryuu said, walking away. With a yawn Ivory slowly pursued. Misty, having longer legs walked faster, soon Ivory was at least five feet behind them.

I wonder what this ‘little project’ of theres is? I wonder if I can help… but the wind gave her no answers as she stopped and looked up at the sky. She suddenly felt stranded, trapped even. Here she was in the open, but still caged. The sky didn’t even look happy; the stars twinkled only to give there light. The moon was half-empty, frowning all the same.

I suppose the only way to get out of this trapped life is to get stronger to break it… then she smirked. And I’ll do just that.