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Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 10: Give me Fun

"We're still homeless," Leah pointed out softly while Aayla examined the merchandise she had brought from Celadon City.

Aayla was too caught up looking through the clothes to hear her, she was pleased. "Very nice, oh, I want this one!" She held up the lavender bikini over her thorn clothes confirming it was the right size. "It's perfect, you should try the yellow one, it would match your eyes. Where are the other girls? Call them over."

Team Rocket had gone out of their cave hideout after waiting some time and were mostly sitting outside at the lonely beach, with the exception of Aayla who had called Leah to go inside as soon as she returned from Celadon, so that she may be the first to go over the clothes and bathing suits, having the first choice of what she liked.

"This top... these jeans, oh yes, perfect... I'll take the sandals too; okay that's it for me. Let the girls know these are off limits, I'm going to change and hit the beach, the change room will be, this section here," she pointed towards a small tunnel that led to a dead end and disappeared into its darkness.

"I suppose being homeless isn't bad if we have fun," Leah picked her clothes, a sunflower sundress and decided to follow Aayla's advice on swimwear. Then she called the other female Team Rocket members to examine the merchandise.

xoxox xox xoxox

In another section of the cave, Luke was looking over a few bags, examining their contents. "This, this or maybe this," he was thankful that Team Rocket had uniforms when he joined, because he could never make up his mind about what to wear. All the more reason why he would rather spend his days at the beach, there wasn't much to wear there and he didn't have to worry about matching when only one article was involved.

"What are you doing back there Luke?" Just when Giovanni was hoping to get Delia away from the group for a while, Leah had called her, her little voice barely audible, but Delia noticed it anyway.

Giovanni had followed, though Leah shyly pointed out, "guys that way, girls this way," and led Delia away towards the left side of the cave.

Giovanni ventured into the right side of the cave, wondering what this was about, his curiosity getting the best of him, and there he found Luke, who looked up from his task with an expression of distressed. "Dude, Giovanni, I can't pick, man! It's like totally hard, you know? I'll just take this and like think of the rest later." Luke took a pair of bright red swim trunks with yellow flowers out of one of the bags then headed off to the designated change room area.

Giovanni examined the contents of the bag with curiosity. "What is this, a beach party? Who came up with this?" It didn't matter, relaxing at the beach for a while did sound pleasant and it would give him time to think of what to do about their lack of a formal hideout, plus the team couldn't lose their hopes now.

xoxox xox xoxox

"Stop giving me that grin, Charmander," Delia pouted and smacked him upside the head. "I'm only putting sun block on you because I don't want you to suffer with sun burn again. Don't get any ideas."

"Whatever you said Delia, I'll be happy to return the favor."

"I mean it!" She half scolded and half laughed.

The scenes around them were cheerful. Luke kept complaining about how he couldn't surf in that area, but even so he didn't stop professing his adoration for the location, his favorite place. "The ocean waves crashing, dudes, it's poetic. The bright sun shining, this like totally relaxes me. Feel that ocean breeze, it's like awesome, you know? Even without surfing, I like love this place, man!" The blindingly brightly colored lime green frisbee hit Luke right in the nose, causing him to flail chaotically and trip over his own feel, falling flat on his back on the sand.

"Pay attention Luke!" Aayla called out, while Leah giggled quietly and Binks was relieved that it wasn't him in Luke's place, as it usually was.

"In coming!" Luke jumped to his feet and tossed the frisbee, which collided with Binks' forehead, knocking him down.

"You did that on purpose!" Binks growled as he got up.

"Oh, quit being a baby and throw it!" Aayla scolded.

"You'll pay for that!" Binks started his battle charge towards Luke, but somehow slipped on the sand and fell face first, causing the rest of Team Rocket to erupt in laughter.

"Sorry dude, but that last one, was like totally not my fault, you know?" Luke joined the laughter as well.

A few additional trips to Celadon had provided the group with more supplies, such as the food currently being cooked in a rustic fire by a newbie member whose name everyone save Delia kept forgetting.

Delia couldn't help it but to smile, she was having fun and had forgotten her worries, at least for now. The pokemon played around at the beach, some even making sand castle which many researches would find fascinating to watch, though for now, Delia just thought it was adorable.

"It's your turn..."

"Huh?" She shook her head realizing what Giovanni meant, "I already put on enough sun block, thank you."

"I just wanted to return the favor."

"How kind of you," her voice carried sarcasm but also amusement, though her smile faded when she saw the police car stop at the beach side. She quickly turned her face away, hiding her nervous and worried expression from the blue haired woman who was exiting the car and walking towards them. "Giovanni, the police..."

"Relax," he assured quietly.

Delia observed the scenes around her and the way the rest of Team Rocket acted. Binks had stopped cold, which brought Luke to loudly call out, "you can't catch me!" and snap him out of his daze.

"I'll get you for that!" Binks continued chasing after Luke.

Aayla tossed the frisbee at another member, "heads up, here it comes!" who snapped into attention on time to catch it and see her discreet signal to throw it to someone else.

"Guys, help me out here, they're done and need to be moved away from the fire before they burn!" The designated cook called a few others to form a circle around the fire, taking the meat on a stick barbecue snacks and putting them on plastic plates to cool.

"We should make smores too," someone suggested, "has anyone seen the chocolate?"

"I'll find it," another replied searching through their food supplies.

Someone fell victim to stress, but another member was quick to say, "come sit over here and have some juice, I'm sure that will make your stomachache go away."

They were putting up a good act, appearing as innocent civilians and those who were distracted or alarmed were quickly saved by the others. Delia knew she had to act too. She pretended she was spending the day with her friends at the beach and nothing more, she pretended they have never done anything illegal and she pushed away all worries. She was like an invincible heroine behind a mask; no one could recognize her.

"May I have your attention please?" The officer, who was probably named Jenny and had a look alike daughter named after her, loudly called out. "Attention!"

It took a moment for everyone to look at her; some continued their activities for a few more seconds until she called out the next time. Others were apparently called to attention by their companions and some even looked surprised to see the police woman, as if wondering where she came from and how long she had been standing there. In truth they had all noticed her right away, but it would be odd for people who were supposed to be relaxing at the beach to be so alert.

"Listen up everyone, you can stay here if you want, it's a public beach, but I need to warn you not to attempt cliff diving surfing or swimming. Stay close to the shore and keep an eye on each other. The currents around here can get strong suddenly and you'll be dragged to the rocks, if you crash into them you can be knocked out and drown. Is everyone clear on this?"

A few murmurs were heard before people started answering, "yeah!" "no problem," "relax, we're not kids," "we know that," "don't worry," "thanks for the warning," and other such replies were among them.

When the officer left, muttering something about troublesome college kids, Delia breathed in relief. "That was... it wasn't really a close call after all. She had no idea." The police's communication was slow to none and they weren't followed that far. Getting away like that gave Delia a rush of power. She really did feel like a masked heroine unrecognizable as a civilian; it made her feel invincible.

xoxox xox xoxox

The day at the beach was fun. Aayla had started it out of wanting a holiday and Giovanni allowed it without complaint because he knew it would hold the team together despite the loss of their hideout and merchandise. The night was spent around a bonfire and they slept under the stars.

The next day and everyone was crowded in the cave for breakfast, most of them possibly because of the unconscious need to feel some sort of roof over their heads after a while. Others joined them following their friends or simply because the majority of the team was gathered there.

They wore their uniforms, though not the same from before. In preparation for the need to use this escape plan imperishable supplies such as equipment, first aid materials and clothes were buried at the beach long ago in a pirate style treasure chest, the location of which was forgotten, but through trial and error it was found. Seeing each other like that, in a sea of flawless black fabric with red R's, seemed to lift their morale, maybe even more than the day at the beach.

Then suddenly, "Nidoking!" "Nidoqueen!" "Roar!" The battle cries echoed as the enemy pokemon rushed to the cave.

"You'll pay for what you've done to me; you'll pay with your lives!" It looked like Venom had no intentions of laying low to recover from the recent battle. The Tempest Gang had tracked down Team Rocket much better than the police ever could and was ready for another fight. "Nidoking, Nidoqueen, attack! Onix bring this place down!"

The large rock pokemon slammed against the cave walls, causing the entire place to shake with great force, its eyes glowing threateningly. The pokemon had been clearly overdosed with chemicals to make it stronger.

"The ground is shaking... it's shaking..." Leah whispered in fright, it was as if she didn't notice anything going on around her, only focusing on the earthquake-like vibrations. "I'm sorry Han, it was my fault..."

"Leah, be careful!" Luke pulled her out of harm's way, saving her from being crushed by the Onix.

Giovanni was shouting orders to pokemon and humans alike, trying to retaliate against Tempest's surprise attack. He knew Tempest would return stronger than before, they had a base to go back to and more pokemon to send out, that's why he tried to avoid another confrontation so soon.

Tempest never ventured into the southern region looking for a fight, this was far from their usual western territory. The north belonged to Team Rocket, the south was no gang's land and the east was controlled by several smaller gangs constantly fighting for power.

With another massive earthquake caused by the rampaging Onix, the cave started coming down and in the chaos, Giovanni and Delia ended up behind a wall of rocks, separated from their pokemon and the rest of the team. From the other side, Luke could be heard shouting orders to the pokemon, trying to make them regroup after that last attack. Aayla had taken direction of the humans while Leah was still in a panic.

"Boss! Boss!" Binks called desperately.

"My pokemon egg," Delia cried; she couldn't get to it on time during the chaos. "It was in my backpack, what happened to it?"

"Egg..." Binks spotted the aforementioned backpack, which had been miraculously missed by the falling rocks. He as well as the others had gained respect for Delia, despite the events that occurred in their first meeting, thus were more likely to listen to her concerns. "I found it, it looks like it's fine!" Binks called from the other side of the wall.

"Please take are of it!" Delia requested; she then looked at Giovanni, hoping that he had an idea as to how to deal with the situation.

"Everyone needs to get out of this cave!" Tempest was outside, trying to trap them in and make the cave collapse completely. "Break through their forces, attack together; Team Rocket will not be defeated!"

"You heard the boss, and if you didn't he said we have to trash them, let's do this! Rattata, on the attack!" Binks was easily excited, but his Rattata had already been knocked out. "Rattata!" He called her back into her pokeball and recklessly charged forward to fight the enemy them with his own hands, though he too was cast aside rather easily.

"Giovanni, Delia, we're making an opening and getting out of here!" Aayla called out.

"We'll meet everyone outside!" Giovanni replied, then ventured further into the pitch-black cave along with Delia in hopes of finding another exit.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon. The Jenny that saw them is from Celadon so she didn't know them and they had gone far so the police wasn't searching that area, more so since the south was known to be low in gang activities. The Jennies that had seen them before were from Pewter and Viridian.