~battle number/// second gym!

[;AL P H A]

Crombee nodded thankfully.
"Okay. Thankyou." He gave a weak smile, taking another sip of his tea. There was a brief but comfortable lull in the conversation, until a loud BANG, followed by some muffled shouts, could be heard from somewhere outside. Crombee stiffed, a startled expression on his face. "What on earth?..."
Rising to his feet, he moved quickly to the door, fumbling a little with the handle before turning it and peering out. A cloud of thick smoke billowed in through the doorway, and he stumbled back, coughing. "W-what in the world is going on here?"
His Vespiquen darted to his side. With powerful flaps of her wings, she blew a channel through the smoke, clearing an area outside the house. There was a glimpse of a figure cowering like a deer in headlights for a second, before he darted off. Crombee narrowed his eyes.
"D'you think that was-" He was cut off as Vespiquen zipped past him, diving off after the mystery pursuer. He gave an apologetic glance back at Sulteron. "Ah... sorry, but we seem to have a bit of a situation developing here" He gestured at a few of the Combee buzzing around. "Alright, you, you and you, on me. I won't be a tick."
With that he was gone, moving slightly unsteadily around the side of the house to where the noise had come from. Well, surely you weren't just going to sit here and drink tea? This could be interesting.

[/center]

[~/Birdybot\~]

Sulteron frowned as Crombee and a few Combees disappeared after the mysterious figure. She wasn't the sort to just sit there while something that was actually interesting was going on, so she warily got to her feet, looking at Fairo, Fiela and Festino. The shiny Charmeleon was giving her a knowing smile, the odd Espeon was staring longingly at where the gym leader had raced off too, and the Leafeon was nibbling his paw, completely ignorant of everything around him. Fiela nudged him and the Grass type jumped, before looking around in a little confusion.

"Come on. Let's go after them; it's not as if something interesting happens every day. Plus I wouldn't want Crombee to get into trouble." Sulteron said to the three Pokémon before dashing off after Crombee, wondering what she would find when she caught up with the Combee enthusiast. Her Pokémon seemed pleased to be doing something at last, and were smiling as they ran. Well, except for Festino, who didn't like the idea of being ordered around.

[/blockquote]

[;AL P H A]

Crombee didn't take very much catching up with. He was straining to move very much faster than a brisk walk, and gave a lopsided smile as Sulteron pulled up alongside him. One of his Combees seemed to pick up on something and gave a loud buzz, indicating in a direction. < There's someone just over there! I can smell them. >

After about another fifty yards the Combees stopped, using a co-ordinated Gust attack to blow a clearing around them as Crombee leant against a nearby tree looking rather uncomfortable. There was their mystery figure, though, looking rather guilty as the smoke was blown away, and as Crombee caught sight of him anger flickered across his face.
"You! You're one of the chaps who came a few days ago." He lifted himself up, eyes blazing. "What are you doing here?"
Looking rather nervous, the figure reached for two of the Pokéballs around his waist, throwing them out onto the field. "Go! Houndour and Hippopotas!"
His Pokémon emerged. The Houndour promptly sat down, toungue lolling out as it gazed around happily, and the man stamped his foot. "What the hell are you doing, Houndour? Attack!"[b/] The Hippopotas seemed rather more animated, raking the ground with its foot like a Tauros and growling. Crombee sized the situation up quickly.
"These Combee haven't been properly trained," he muttered to Sulteron, "They're just some of the domestic ones I keep in the gym. I think we can take out the Houndour, he doesn't look too dangerous. As for the other, I hate to be a burden, but could I ask for a hand?" He grinned lopsidedly, starting to look slightly green again.

[~/Birdybot\~]

Sulteron watched as the Houndour and Hippopotas were released. She smiled at the sight of the two Pokémon; she liked Houndours, and it might be nice to see how they fought. Anyway, it seemed she'd landed herself with fighting Hippopotas. She glanced at the Pokémon around her, thinking. She wanted to use Fairo and Fiela in her gym battle, so they should keep their strength up. She considered using Festino, but he was only recently caught and seemed determined not to obey. In that case, she should use one of her other three Pokémon in her party. "Prisul, you're against the Hippopotas." she said to the beam of light coming from a Pokéball she'd just thrown.

Returning Fiela and Festino (Fairo refused as usual) to their Pokéballs and out of harm's way, Sulteron looked at the red light. It had formed into an Aerodactyl, a rare Pokémon she'd had as a fossil. He enjoyed battling and while pretty wild because of being put in a strange time, he had been with his trainer long enough to obey her. The fossil Pokémon smiled before stretching his arm-wings and screeching at his opponent for no reason. This wouldn't actually do anything, but it made him feel scary. Sulteron smiled, glad he was ready at least. "Use an Ice Fang, please!" she called.

The flying dinosaur gave a slight nod, gnashed his huge jaws together, and beat down powerfully with his wings. He rose swiftly into the sky, jaws coating themselves in glimmering crystals of ice as he angled himself carefully at the silly looking hippo Pokémon. The Aerodactyl dived, ready to clamp his icy jaws on Hippopotas if his Ice Fang were to be sucessful. If it did hit, Prisul had a feeling the Ice type move would be super effective against the Ground type.

[/blockquote]

[;AL P H A]

The Hippopotas stood its ground as Prisul let out a piercing screech, snorting and staring him down. If it was a fight the rock-type wanted...

Watching as the Aerodactyl readied its attack, the Hippopotas tensed, before diving out of the way with a surprising turn of speed. It skidded round, before running forwards and opening its mouth. An offensive move would have been expected; possibly something to do with biting, but instead a small, round bubble was formed between the Hippopotas' jaws. It was shot out, moving ponderously towards Prisul. It didn't /look/ dangerous - anything but, it was rather funny-looking really - but this was a Yawn attack, and if it hit would put Prisul to sleep in a short while.

Meanwhile, Crombee's battle seemed a bit lackluster in comparison. Neither side seemed particularly enthusiastic; the Combees were flapping around the Houndour in circles, occasionally blowing a Gust attack at it, whilst the Houndour in question was barking happily and snapping at the Combees if they flew too close. Hmm.

[/center]

[~/Birdybot\~]

Sulteron watched as the battle went on. She could see that that the Hippopotas was definately going to be a tougher opponent than she had first thought- the way it had managed to dodge the speedy pterosaur had been impressive, and the Yawn had spread to Prisul. Oh dear, that probably wasn't the best of things to have happened. The Aerodactyl growled in anger as his trainer hastily thought up a reaction, knowing that by the next turn her Pokémon would be asleep. She had an Awakening, luckily, but for a turn he'd be subject to attack. This was a weakness. "Prisul, use Supersonic!" she called.

The dinosaur flapped his wings hard, curving round to face the hippo again. He opened his mouth, sending an array of yellow coloured rings towards his opponent with the hope of Confusing him. That done, he decided to add onto his turn with an offensive move. He followed the rings with frozen jaws, this time being careful to move as his opponent did. This was identifiable as another Ice Fang. Sulteron saw this, and simply shrugged. Fair enough. If Hippopotas didn't get Confused, maybe it'd feel the pain of the Ice Fang- maybe even being frozen. Or vice versa. Or both would hit. Or none... she would have to wait and see.

[/blockquote]

[{ ~ Ironhide ; ; }]

The mystery man seemed a bit angry with the Houndour, and was too busy yelling and stamping his foot at it to pay attention to what the Hippopotas was doing. Without a trainer commanding it, the Hippopotas acted on its own. While the Hippopotas attempted to dodge the Supersonic, it didn't succeed, and it was quite obvious when it was confused. However, the burning passion for fighting in its eyes enabled it to start using another attack on the flying Pokemon. With speed that you wouldn't normally see in a Hippopotas, it dove underneath the Aerodactyl, crouched, then leapt upward, glowing slightly white in the process; a Take Down attack.

"Oh, come on you mangy mutt! Attack the Combee already! It isn't that hard!" the mysterious man exclaimed. The Houndour continued to watch the Combee curiously around him, playfully dodging the Gust attacks, and nipping at them when they got too close. The only time it actually did something was when two of the Gust attacks hit it at once, and it let out an uncontrollable Ember attack at one of the Combees, directly hitting it. Quite surprised that the Houndour had actually done anything, that Combee didn't have time to retaliate, and a few seconds later was on the ground, out for the count. The Houndour looked surprised at itself, and cocked its head slightly, looking at the fallen Combee. "Well it's about damn time! Do that again on the other two, already!" the mysterious man said a little more enthusiastically and not-as-upset as he had been earlier.

[~/Birdybot\~]

Prisul smiled as he saw his opponent become confused. Perfect. He was too involved in the battle to notice the Houndour apparently accidently knock out one of the Combees. Sulteron did, however, glancing across to make sure Crombee was all right to continue. After all, if it didn't take too much to take out one of his Combees and their numbers had started going down, then that wasn't good news. Hopefully he'd be able to keep going and win, especially with an opponent like that Houndour. As for herself, she could see that the Take Down would be painful. Still, it would damage Hippopotas too, and it would give her an excellent chance of finally landing that Ice Fang. "Get down to the ground so you don't have to fall any where, then use an Ice Fang when the Take Down hits you!" she called to the Aerodactyl.

The ancient Pokémon understood why this would work completely, landing neatly and bracing himself while preparing the Ice Fang. When the Take Down struck him, he found himself stuck underneath the hippo. Not to worry. He found the nearest piece of flesh and dug his teeth in as hard as he could- or at least, tried to. The Ice Fang was probably going to hit what with the Hippopotas being so close and all, but you never knew. Would the super effective Ice Fang be sucessful at long last? Prisul sure hoped so as he snapped his jaws shut one what he hoped was Hippopotas.

[/blockquote]

[{ ~ Ironhide ; ; }]

Hmph. Was that the best this Aerodactyl had to offer? Really... just because I have a horrible trainer doesn't mean I don't know how to battle, as you'll find out. the Hippopotas thought to itself, a coy smile playing across its face as Prisul successfully made contact with the Ice Fang. However, after biting in, the Hippopotas disappeared without a trace; a substitute! From behind, the real Hippopotas was charging in with a Take Down; from this distance, it would be hard to dodge, and since the Yawn had hit, it had been two turns. Oh, dear. This would be a tricky one...

This seemed a bit much to Crombee. Why only one guy here? Unless... as he observed the Hippopotas and Aerodactyl battle, it suddenly occurred to him; this was just a decoy to something else going on. Were there others here, as he thought there might be? Or was this really it? He couldn't afford to abandon what was going on in front of him at the moment. Well... if his Vespiquen wasn't here, then obviously there was something else going on. This man before him didn't seem like he could handle the task of taking out his Vespiquen, unless he was acting... still, best to be cautious. "Combees, try using a continual Gust attack on the Houndour; don't let it retaliate. If it strikes out at you, dodge and keep attacking!" Crombee said, sinking to his knees and breathing heavily from the effort of standing up for so long. What was going on with his Vespiquen?

<You... I can't believe you're one of them.> the Vespiquen buzzed angrily, giving a glare that would scare any other human to the man in front of her. The man merely popped a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and lighted it, shrugging.
"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And the money is good. You may have known me in the past, but you don't anymore. I'm a whole new person." the man said, casually side-stepping to avoid a stray Ember attack directed at the local Combees from one of the three Houndour being commanded by the three other grunts.
<I will not allow this to continue any longer! Prepare yourself; I will take you down!>

[/color] the Vespiquen buzzed angrily, charging at the man herself. The man merely smiled and uttered a single word to stop the Vespiquen in her tracks.
"Crunch."
The Vespiquen had no time to react, no time to do anything; she attempted to speed up a little, but to no avail; a Houndoom had its jaws latched good and tight around her. She looked down at the Houndour that held her, and for a moment experienced a sense of fear from the look in its eyes. With a growl, the Houndoom reared up, turned its head to the side, then quickly shook it the other direction, letting go of the Vespiquen as it did so. That had been no ordinary Crunch attack; it was enhanced somehow. That, and this Houndoom was obviously quite well-trained. It took a few seconds for the Vespiquen to regain her stance, but as soon as she did she unleashed a powerful Gust attack at the Houndoom.
"Good boy, Grim. Now, dodge and use a Fire Fang attack." the man said calmly. The Houndoom didn't hesitate, and almost seemed to know what its trainer was thinking, as it was moving before the Trainer had uttered a word. With amazing speed and agility, the Houndoom was upon the Vespiquen, mouth ablaze with fire. The Vespiquen knew this was not going to turn out well... how could she have failed Crombee? She couldn't protect the Gym... their opponent was just too powerful this time... she refrained from crying out as she felt the painful Fire Fang attack course through her body. It took only that one attack before she went unconscious. Growling with satisfaction, the Houndoom turned and walked away from the Vespiquen.
<Pathetic vermin your old pal has here. I want a real challenge.> the Houndoom muttered.
"Don't worry, Grim. You can go against the rest of my team later today. For now, even though it's against what Boss has told me to do, I'm giving the antidote to Crombee. I may not be on the good side anymore, but I'm not a murderer." the man said, exhaling a great deal of smoke before he turned to go.
<Indeed. I suppose I get that from you... Love to battle, but I know when to stop.> Grim said, walking alongside his Trainer.
"Hey, Stark! Where the heck are you going? You aren't going to help with these Combee?!" one of the grunts exclaimed.
"I'm visiting and old friend. And of course not. The Vespiquen was too easy. Poor Grim here might fall asleep if he were to deal with the Combee. All you guys need to do is keep using Ember. Use it together, at once, against the same Combees. Should go a lot faster than randomly attacking any Combee you see." the man named Stark said. Idiots... couldn't get a simple job like this done if it weren't for me. Stark thought to himself.

[/size][/blockquote]

[~/Birdybot\~]

Sulteron watched as the Hippopotas proved to be a fake, and the real one was attacking in another Take Down. She saw the man with his Houndoom, Grim, smoking and easily defeating the Vespiquen. She saw him say that he would give Crombee the antidote because he wasn't a murderer, which made her heart surge with hope. If she could just hold off the others long enough, Crombee would have the antidote. She didn't know what the men wanted, though. "What do you want?" she called out to her opponent, whom she was now realising was stronger than her. She would certainly lose, but you couldn't win every time, could you?

Her attention was then drawn by a crash as the heavy Prisul had collapsed after staggering about, breathing deeply in a nice, relaxing sleep while his opponent crashed on top of him. She winced. Had Prisul been awake, he'd have really felt that. There was only one thing to do in situations like this; keep fighting. She ran as fast as she could to the Aerodactyl, used an Awakening on him, then hurried back and called out, "Use Roar!" After all, if she didn't do so well against the Hippopotas, maybe one of the man's other Pokémon would be weaker.

Prisul blinked, awkwardly dragging himself to his feet. Ow, he could feel pain. He felt as if he'd taken another Take Down... he had, hadn't he? He'd fallen asleep and been attacks. Well, he'd show them! This Roar meant that another member of the stranger's team would be randomly selected, and hopefully this one would be weaker or have a type disadvantage or something. He was on all fours, stretched out to look long and tall, generally huge, and let out a massive, heart-stopping, bellowing Roar. This was louder than any noise Sulteron had ever heard from the Pokémon, and you could actually hear how much devotion the Pokémon had to the battle through his voice. The Roar should do its job; it wasn't as if it could be dodged, after all.

[/blockquote]

[{ ~ Ironhide ; ; }]

"S-Stark! What are you doing here? I have everything completely under control!" the man with the Hippopotas and Houndour said.
"Hmm. Looks like you're playing around too much, in my personal opinion. Carry on, though. The others should be finishing up in a little bit, if they took the advice I gave them." Stark said, shrugging as he gazed up at the ceiling of the dome. A smile played on his face as he saw the young Trainer used an Awakening on her Aerodactyl, and commanded it to use a Roar. "Say, you weren't planning on using her, were you? You better hope it's him that comes out, or all heck will break loose, you know." Stark said. The Houndoom did a good impression of rolling his eyes, seemingly having no effect from the Roar, perhaps because it wasn't directed at it. The other man gritted his teeth in response; what was the difference between him and her? Obviously something great, because the other man seemed quite agitated now.
"Er... you have a point there... she always goes overboard..." the man said, as the Hippopotas was automatically withdrawn. He held his breath as the fourth Pokeball on his belt opened up, emmitting a bright red beam.
"Well, what do you know? You might as well get serious with Pup there." Stark said, chuckling slightly at the Houndour.
"Will you stop telling me what to do, Stark? I know, I know! ..." the man said. The man exchanged looks with his Houndour, and he nodded; the Houndour then got a murderous glint in its eye and began acting like a normal Houndour in battle should; dodging the Gusts easily and retaliating with Bite and Ember attacks until both Combee had fallen.

While the Houndour had been taking care of the Combee, the change of personality and attack style quite a shock, the beam of red light that came from the other man's belt materialized into a large form; an Ursaring. Not any old Ursaring, but a bright green one. Though the Ursaring was Shiny, the fur didn't look like it much, as it was quite dirty as if it were never groomed. The Ursaring just stood there, huffing, glaring at her opponent for a while.
<She's a pain to beat, even for me. I feel kinda sorry for that Aerodactyl.> Grim said, laying down and crossing his paws.
"Indeed. You sure about this, Oracle?" Stark asked.
"Oh, shaddap! It's not my fault she got dragged out. It was a fifty-fifty chance!" the other man said. All at once, the Ursaring took a few slow steps towards the Aerodactyl. "Err, uhh... Sadie, please use a Faint Att-" Oracle started, but didn't finish as the green Ursaring faded away, prepared to use the attack before her Trainer even said the words.

"Oh, and you were wondering what we want? Well, personally I don't really want what's here. I want what I get for getting what my Boss wants, if you can follow what I mean." Stark said. "Oracle here, and the other guys, they're here to take the honey. What else would there be to to take from here?" Stark asked, holding his cigarette between his fingers and exhaling, a coin-shaped puff of smoke coming out from his mouth. Whether it was coincidental or not was debatable.
"How could you, Stark? After all these years that everybody thought you were... dead, at the worst case scenario! Crombee exclaimed, his eyes narrowing in accusation at Stark.
"Whoa there, boy. You better take it easy. Just when you think you're getting better, you plunge downwards faster than the first time. You might need this," Stark said, taking a tube with a stopper in it and tossing it in Crombee's direction. Crombee clumsily caught it, almost letting it drop. "And what can I say? Boss is the one who saved me, after all. I owe him; and so far, I haven't done enough in my opinion. Besides, I would've never ended up with what I have now if I'd somehow managed to return here. No offense, but compared to the places I've been, this looks like a inside out apricothole now. The only difference is a few extra trees and you decorated the outside of your little cottage in here." Stark said. Grim gazed up at his Trainer, feeling the tentativeness in the words Stark had just spoken; he knew that Stark didn't really mean the words he'd said. In fact, he still told stories now and then of how Crombee and Stark used to go exploring when they were kids. Could anybody else tell, or was it just because of how close the two of them were? His attention eventually drifted back to the battle with the Aerodactyl and Ursaring, knowing that it would be interesting to see how the Aerodactyl fared against an opponent even he had issues with sometimes.

[~/Birdybot\~]

This was how Prisul was faring with Sadie the Ursaring; badly. He'd been fighting a while with Hippopotas, but this just too much. The Faint Attack struck, and he felt himself start to go. With a final effort, the ancient Pokémon knocked the cigarette out of Stark's hand and said ~Filthy habit.~

[/color] before collapsing. Sulteron was surprised by this, but returned him all the same for a well deserved rest. She could hear everything the man was saying, and from the sounds of it it seemed he and Crombee had a history together. How... interesting. It sounded like they had a sort of rivalry going on.

Having lost the fight, Sulteron was surprised that she didn't feel too bad about it. After all, someone like that wasn't exactly going to be defeated by her. Well, unless she used Valitu, her level 29 Linoone, but he was in her PC and very much a wild Pokémon. She looked at the others, wondering what they would do now all their Pokémon were out. Something was going on here, and while in movies people were all heroic and whatnot, not she was actually a little confused.

"Do you two know each other?" she asked Crombee curiously. A typical cliché was that the two would be twins or at least brothers or something. What about sisters? Ha, that would be funny. Wait, no, she should try and keep herself more focused than that. "You're not related, are you? That's so clichéd. No offensive you are. Only if you do know each other, which you seem to, shouldn't you help each other out a bit? After all, friends and family stick together and all that. Whatever, basically, I'm suggesting we make a compromise which doesn't involve harm coming to anyone." she attempted, trying to make a point. She didn't want anything bad to happen... nothing like what had happened with the poor guy on Route Two, evil or not.[/size][/blockquote]

[{ ~ Ironhide ; ; }]

"Filthy habit indeed." Stark said with a shrug, merely pulling another cigarette out of his pocket, as if he had just dropped the cigarette instead of it being knocked out of his hand and mouth and been ruined. Well, it couldn't be helped. He felt somewhat sorry for that poor Aerodactyl, putting up with that Hippopotas, managing to switch out, but then going against Sadie. Hmm... perhaps, one day, he'd meet this girl again, and she'd have a stronger team. Then he could test how strong she was. Ah... where was his mind going? He wasn't here for small talk; only to make sure the job that was given to the lower-ranking guys was done, albeit not as they had planned.

"Please come on back, Sadie girl." Oracle said. The green Ursaring returned from her the spot she had been standing at without protest, and Oracle sighed a huge sigh of relief. "Well, that's over. You sure the other three have it under control?" Oracle asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.
"I'll complain if they don't have it done in five minutes, and get them disciplined if it makes you happy." Stark said boredly.
"It... It's not that, I was just wondering. What the heck are we going to do in the meantime? About her?" Oracle asked, jabbing a finger at Sulteron. The girl's question interrupted the conversation, and Stark heaved a long sigh.

"Yeah, we know each other. Does it really look like we're related? I mean, come on. He's short and has dark hair, with glasses. I'm significantly taller than him, and have silver hair... alright, so it was rhetorical. To put things simply; no, we aren't related. And no, we shouldn't help each other out. Not that he would want to help me, or at least the guys I was asked to overlook. I had nothing to do with the poisoning; they didn't care if you lived or died. I may be bad, but I'm not a cold-hearted bastard that turns his back on innocent people." Stark said, turning around. Grim hopped to his feet and turned around as well, following Stark. "I expect that we'll meet again some day, little lady. Maybe you and I can even battle on equal footing by then. Ha, ha, ha..." Stark said, chuckling a bit. Inaudible shouts could be heard when Stark returned to where the three other men were, and the flash of red leather trench coats were seen, hauling large containers toward the entrance of the Gym.
"Ugh... he hasn't changed a bit." Crombee said, slinking down and leaning against a tree. Sweat covered his entire face, and it looked as though his clothes were pretty wet with sweat as well. "I'm betting you're wondering about who he really is, where he came from, how we know each other... well, might as well tell you now before I either lose my strength to talk or forget what I was going to say." Crombee said. And with that, he began.

"When I was a little kid, there weren't many people that liked me. I was smarter than all of them, but not as athletic. I spent most of my time with the wild Combee outside of town, and learned to understand the Pokemon language that way... or, well, most of it, anyways." he began. It didn't really seem like it had anything to do with Stark, but he continued on. "I was out in the fields one day, when I happened to see two adults; a man and woman, and a young boy with travel-worn clothes and each one carrying large bags. They had no idea they were trespassing upon the Combee's territory, and were a bit too close to the Vespiquen's nest. At the time, the Vespiquen was wild, and the Gym was a general grass-type user. The Combee, being protective of their queen, all of a sudden attacked the three. I stepped in, and merely explained to the Combee that they were travelers and meant no harm to them or the Vespiquen. They asked me questions, and I answered them. Eventually, the Combee left, reassured. The parents were in shock, and their boy was in awe." Crombee explained, taking a short pause before he continued talking again. "In exchange for me helping him understand the Combee, he became my friend... I think that even if I wouldn't have decided to help him, he'd still have been my friend. He was considered cool, I guess you could say, by the other kids in town, but since he chose to be with me other than the jocks of my childhood, they decided to leave me alone. All seemed well, for the time being." Crombee said, taking a breath and continuing on. "Nobody ever asked why they decided to pack up their things and move, or where they came from. A few asked at first, but they'd be vague and say 'From over yonder' and motion toward the east. Well... it was perhaps three years after they had settled down here in Beeville. A lot of Pokemon run wild in town and out, and not all are Combee, obviously. Every now and then you'll hear glass breaking, trash cans overturned... the usual rodent-like Pokemon getting into the trash, breaking things to get in, you know. We think nothing of it. But, on this particular night, it was more than that. I would know, because I was there. It started with the usual rustlings outside. Then, all at once, one of the windows was bashed in, and in flowed some Koffing and Poochyena, not the local type around here. After them, a few men dressed in shady uniforms and top hats hopped in silently. I happened to be spending the night that night, fortunately or unfortunately. To make a long story short, the people who had broken in had come for Stark... it seems as though his parents had been protecting him since he was a kid from some experiment that got done on every other generation from their bloodline. None of them had ever had any success, though, and had ended up, well... deceased, as a nice way to put it. Stark's parents knew about this, and decided to move out here. Unfortunately, they got caught up with, and, well... you can guess what happened. Me being me, I decided not to speak of the incident, and claimed to have woken up to the house ransacked and Stark and his parents missing. That was... ten years ago. Everyone believed him to be dead, except me. I never gave up hope... it's unfortunate that he's with that other organization now, but at least he's alive and well." Crombee said. "Now... if you don't mind... I'll be taking a nap..." Crombee said, downing the antidote, making a funny face, and then slinking down and dozing off, looking quite comfy despite where he had chosen to fall asleep at.

[~/Birdybot\~]

Sulteron heard the long explanaitions through, before frowning. It seemed a little silly to poison someone just to steal the honey, and she hoped that some day she would be able to battle Stark at an equal level- but that was pretty much where her agreeing with Stark ended. She believed Crombee's story, because after all, the gym leader was a victim in this situation, a nice guy, and had no reason to lie. She was a little puzzled about why he was suddenly so desperate to fall asleep. Knowing that people often fell asleep before dying under the influences of poison and whatnot, she would have stopped him, but he had taken the antidote so should be all right. Maybe a nice rest was what he needed to regain his strength and later on fight her in the gym battle she had come for.

Now, it seemed the three men had returned with the honey they had come for. Should she let them go? The Combee and Vespiquen had been defeated, Crombee was asleep... she had no-one to tell her if the honey was needed or not. She supposed that the Combees could easily make more honey, and if Crombee cared about it so much he wouldn't have fallen asleep. Still, on the other hand, if that were the case, why had the men gone to such length to unsure that Crombee wouldn't be able to interfere, and why had they even wanted the honey in the first place? Perhaps this wasn't about the value of the stuff after all, but rather the things they could do with it. Or maybe it was a case of taking down gym leaders or something? Sulteron didn't know much about honey or things like that, so she had no idea about how she was suppose to decide this.

Sulteron was many things, but she was not an idiot. She wasn't going to blindly charge into this; she had done that before and things never turn out well that way. She would ask Crombee. Shaking him gently, enough to wake the young gym leader, she spoke. "Crombee, wake up. They're making off with the honey. Is it worth trying to stop them, or can your Combees just easily make some more?" she asked him as urgently as he could, before glancing around at the fainted Pokémon. If any of them had woken up, maybe they would be able to tell her the answer. She would have been enough to wake up any normal person, anyway, so hopefully he had heard. This was a little bit urgent and needed to be answered immedietly, before the men got away.

[/blockquote]

[{ ~ Ironhide ; ; }]

<Don't you think you should tell them, Stark?> Grim asked, looking from Stark to the three grunts carrying bagfulls of the honey they had just stolen.
"What's the need in that? If they can't tell, then it's their own fault. They can't even do a simple job like getting honey without me. I'll let them get chewed out about it later. They're going to have to learn sooner or later." Stark said, gazing back at Beeville with a gaze that one could only guess what he was thinking.
<You're always like that... one of these days though, Stark, it'll get you into trouble as well.> Grim commented, making his way after the three grunts.
"Perhaps... but until that day, I don't really feel like helping idiots." Stark said, shrugging as he, too, turned and left, disappearing into the wilderness beyond Beeville.

It seemed as though Crombee was out for a while... how one could just up and fall asleep against a hard tree, and sleep so soundly, was a mystery. He didn't even twitch at the question directed toward him, nor at the gentle shake that was an attempt to wake him up. It appears as though he would be out for a while... perhaps for the best. Who knew when he'd be able to sleep so soundly again? Well, surely not all of the Combee had fainted... maybe there was one lucky one that hadn't been a part of the battle hidden somewhere. One could only hope.

A familiar buzzing sound filled the air, coming from the direction behind Crombee's little cottage. A single Combee, completely unscathed, and looking oddly familiar, slowly buzzed up to Sulteron's side, as if nothing had happened at all. <Well, glad that's over. Crombee always knows best.>

[/color] the Combee said; the voice gave it away completely. It was the one from earlier, that had shown Sulteron the cottage. <If you're thinking of going after the honey, don't worry about it. The honey they took wasn't really honey.>[/color] the Combee said with complete reassurance. <We don't keep our honey out in the open, really. We have a display of what it is, and it looks and feels exactly like our honey. However, it's just, well... I won't say what the display stuff is made out of, hehe.>[/color] the Combee said with a giggle. The Combee stopped giggling at the sight of his fallen comrades, though, and heaved a heavy sigh. <This might take a while... you're free to stay here if you wish. Or, you could always go train some to have a better chance against Crombee.>[/color] the Combee said, heading back to where he had come from.

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