The S.S. Anne eventually settled down to dock at Vermillion City, and with the trio of Rocket operatives now in disguise, it was only too easy to slip off the boat unnoticed. In fact, Gabriel had even decided to chat with a couple other guests aboard the boat, although it was mere idle chatter.

Vermillion City was quite a large city, although it didn't have any skyscrapers, it was a bustling little port town. Signs were standing or hanging everywhere, directing the people to various attractions and other likewise areas. Several trainers walked passed, some with their Pokemon outside of their Pokeballs freely. The entire area had a type of busy vibration to it, but at the same time, it had a peaceful clockwork feeling emanating throughout as the residents mingled with each other and the visitors.

When the three had walked off the wooden planks of the dock, Gabriel waved them off as he took off in a random path the two grunts couldn't follow. The two Rocket grunts decided to tour around Vermillion City to waste time, and eventually ended up in a part of the city that had been flattened for the construction for several new buildings. It was apparent that the grounds were being used for battles by amateur trainers.

Currently, a large group of trainers, a bunch of children who weren't even teenagers yet were crouching in the middle of one of the marked areas of a yet-to-be-constructed building. There were a couple other kids who had fallen asleep with their Pokemon out, sleeping as well. One particular kid had an Eevee out, which immediately attracted Logan's attention.

As if reading his thoughts, Logan's communicator badge fired off, and as soon as he opened the line, Gabriel started. "Whatever you're thinking of stealing, don't. Not yet."

Logan sighed. "H-how-?"

"I have a keen intuition." Gabriel replied.

"But... It's just a bunch of kids. I can take them, and there's no one around for awhile! And even if I do have back up, I have Lavender with me!" Logan pleaded.

There was a moment of silence on the communicator before a very audible sigh sounded. "Fine. I don't want to deal with any trouble yet though, so if I do have to deal with anything, that'll be a mark for Giovanni to consider when he picks your next mission." Gabriel said slowly. "Don't get caught by any police forces either, that's annoying enough as it is." He advised, and the badge went silent.

"Logan, what are you thinking about doing?" Lavender asked cautiously.

Logan didn't reply, simply smirking when he turned his head around. With the attention of the children, who were now looking at the two strangers, he strolled over and snatched a single Pokeball off of the sleeping trainer without disturbing his sleep.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing?" One of the kids yelled.

That had naturally woken up the other children that had been sleeping, so they had the chance to press them back a bit when Logan returned in front of Lavender.

"H-Hey! That's my Pokeball! Give it back, now!" The previously sleeping kid asked. The kid's Eevee was still out of its Pokeball, but Logan forced the Eevee to return to its ball. "Hey... Come on, give it back!" The kid started to cry.

"Alright, I don't think you know who you're stealing from! You can't pick on my lil' brother like that! I'll show you to steal his first Pokemon!" The apparent leader of the kids yelled. He tossed two Pokeballs into the air, sending out a Poliwhirl and a Gloom. "Come on, we're gonna teach these guys not to mess with us!" He said to the other kids.

Five other children decided to join in on the action, however these only sent out one Pokemon, but the sudden appearance of a Beedrill, Butterfree, Seaking, Sandshrew, and a Paras all as opposition made Lavender back up several steps.

Logan crossed his arms. "Oh, what, is this all? I bet I can take you all on with a single Pokemon!" He taunted.

The leader spoke up. "You still talkin' big? We'll just have to knock you down to size! That's even smaller than we are! Send out your Pokemon!"

"Kid, do you even know who I am? You know what I'm a part of?" Logan scoffed. He pulled off his shirt, much to the dismay of Lavender and one of the girls that were in the small group of kids. Upon the loose shirt touching the ground, a black, long-sleeved shirt with a bright red 'R' attracted the attention of the kids. "How about I start things off with Misdreavus?" He announced, as his black Pokeball opened and Misdreavus appeared, dipping in and out of shadows.

"Alright, we'll show this guy! Poliwhirl! Use Body Slam!" The kid yelled.

Logan took no action, and only anticipated the next attack, while Misdreavus did the same. As it normally happened, Poliwhirl simply phased straight through Misdreavus, and he looked back at the Ghost-type Pokemon with a type of face only achieved through hindsight.

"Misdreavus, close-range Thunderbolt." Logan ordered. Misdreavus swirled around and shocked the recovering Poliwhirl on the spot, sending it skyrocketing back towards it's trainer.

Two of the kids began to give orders to their Pokemon as well. "Butterfree, use Silver Wind!" "Beedrill, back 'im up with Fury Cutter!"

"Misdreavus, dodge with Arial Ace, then use Thunderbolt on Butterfree!"

Now, the trainers of the Sandshrew, Paras, and Seaking were beginning to send their Pokemon into the fray as well, and Misdreavus was beginning to be tired out. The orders were constantly being changed on the Ghost Pokemon, but it still kept up until Logan threw out another Pokeball.

"Pidgeotto! Let's tear through their ranks...!" He called out, sending Pidgeotto hurtling through the air. "...With Air Cutter!"

The wind behind Pidgeotto began to turn white with energy, and as he executed a loop at high speed, sending various waves of energy slicing through the mostly Bug-typed Pokemon. Pidgeotto settled down by landing on Logan's shoulder, while the children returned the KO'd Paras, Butterfree, and Beedrill to their Pokeballs.

"That's not fair, you can't just send another Pokemon out!" The leader cried out.

Logan laughed. "Oh, you're telling this to a member of Team Rocket? Especially when you had me outnumbered six to two? That's just rich."

In the back, Lavender clutched the front of her shirt worried. "Logan... Don't do anything stupid..."

"Alright, then let's try this... Poliwhirl, Gloom, use Bubblebeam and Magical Leaves!" The leader ordered.

The two other trainers nodded, and gave their orders as well. "Seaking, Icey Wind!" "And last but not least, Sandshrew, use Sandstorm!"

The huge mess of various attributed attacks flew towards the two Pokemon, but Logan still seemed to keep his cool. "Pidgeotto, use Twister as many times as you can! Misdreavus, Fall back!" The two Pokemon followed orders as Misdreavus gave up ground and hid in various shadows, while Pidgeotto sent out dozens of Twisters, each of which were clashing with the various attacks from the four remaining Pokemon.

"Now, Misdreavus, Arial Ace on Gloom!" Logan ordered. A shadow lurched across the ground, completely oblivious to the large storm of whirling water, leaves, and ice. When the shadow entered enemy territory, Misdreavus popped out of the shadow and appeared directly behind the Gloom, piercing it with several black feathers which faded away.

"Pidgeotoo, finish Sandshrew off! Use Steel Wing!"

"Sandshrew, counter with Rock Slide!" The riled up kid ordered.

Logan smirked. "Dodge with Fly!" In a second, Pidgeotto paused in the air, then with a large gust of wind, shot straight up into the air, out of the path of the rocks that Sandshrew had sent up in the air. Pidgeotto spread his wings when he was clear of the rocks, allowing him to hover for several seconds before he tucked his wings in, and slashed at Sandshrew just as he hit the ground.

"Alright, both of you, return to base positions!" Logan ordered, and the two Pokemon obeyed, Pidgeotto at his left and and Misdreavus at his right side. Poliwhirl and Seaking, however, remained in their quite unorganized places as the two sides stared the other down.

"Poliwhirl-"

"Seaking-"

"Use Ice Beam!" The two trainers with conscious Pokemon ordered at once.

"Misdreavus, Thunderbolt! Pidgeotto, Fly!"

The four orders were executed, the two Water-type Pokemon sent out their sub-zero beams of energy at the Pidgeotto, who even though was dodging, was still struck down and hit the ground in a block of ice. The Thunderbolt struck its target as well, sending the fight to a mere one-on-one battle as the two KO'd Pokemon were returned to their Pokeballs.

"Misdreavus, vanish from sight!" Logan ordered. In a split second, Misdreavus could no longer be seen, and the Rocket member practically gave a mental order to Misdreavus, as in less than a few more seconds, Seaking was downed in a stream of electricity.

Misdreavus appeared to lazily float out from Seaking's unconscious form and drifted back towards Logan as he approached the group of children who were now backing up.

"Alright, I guess that's as much of a fight as you can put off against someone like us." He said, dusting off his uniform. "I didn't expect to lose Pidgeotto though, so you have my regard for that." He shrugged, then looked back at Lavender. "You know what? Leave your Pokemon here and come back for them later. I'll choose which ones I want. You can have what I don't want." He said.

The kids glanced at each other before Misdreavus drifted near them, several black balls of energy forming around him. The kids nodded and dropped the Pokeballs that they had on hand, and ran off.

"Well now, I thought I'd have to rough them up a bit more. Oh well." Logan sighed. Out of memory, he picked up the Pokeball that contained Sandshrew and debated on it. "Yeah, I don't need him. Lavender, catch." He said, tossing the ball in the air behind him.

"L... Logan! Why did you just take that kid's Pokemon?" Lavender asked.

Logan's hand pinched the bridge of his nose. "TEAM. ROCKET. You sure you were in the Operative Ceremony? You really don't seem to like the idea of stealing Pokemon, especially for yourself." He scrutinized.

"Aren't we supposed to give the Pokemon we steal to the organization though?" She asked, folding her arms.

Logan froze. "Uh... Well... About that... See..." He stammered.

"And technically, ever since the reform, we aren't suppose to call out Team Rocket! whenever we want to."

"I... How do... Hmph." Logan gave up. "Look, as far as I think, it's better for us to be unconnected to Team Rocket until we actually take Kanto over, don't you?" He asked, hoping that distraction would work.

"And so we still wear the Rocket uniforms and have contact with the base?"

"You know what? Stop making sense!"

Author's Note: This was drastically shorter than I thought it'd be. Well, live and let live, because I've decided to just merge this and the next chapter into one, so this is the Getting Into The Habit arc. The next chapter will be taking place at the start of this chapter, it's like a coin-chapter, this one was the heads, the other will be the tails.

Anyways, next chapter we have our antagonist, the good guy, who for the moment is named Prince. His two companions though won't be introduced until later, but for now, just expect several Prince vs. Logan fights up ahead. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that Lr. Surge is in the next chapter too!