Through the Mountain to Cerulean City

Rules? Fay merely watched on, taking a glance at the arriving male with nary a blink as he fiddled with a few scattered Pokeballs beneath his green coat. This battlefield would not work for a number of his companions, he would need to do something about that when his turn came up. From what he had seen before, a small number of his Pokemon would be next to useless within this gym, while those remaining would have a balance of the two. In the end, it would come down to what came next. The upcoming battle would be a perfect show to help his echo of planning.

"Water Pokemon. Impress me please."

He smiled beneath the shadows of his hair, eyes locked onto Brooke and Ty.

Akio turned to see Zeiro and blinked at the coincidence. "Zeiro, you're here too?" he said, not sure what was happening. "Did you come here to challenge the Gym? I'd stay and see, but Pikachu was hurt really bad."

Max started to jump out of the bag over and over as he yelled out, "Brooke! Its me, Max, the Poke-maniac! I need to borrow a Water Pokemon again. My equipment fried and... well I'm like this," He came out of the bag, revealing his Rattata body. Akio couldn't help but stare.

She shrugged at Ty. "Just checking that your fabulous memory is still functioning, Ty." Brooke replied, all smiles. "And nope. No badge without a swim. Rules are rules. And friends? Looking forward to meeting them."

Brooke then blinked before turning to Zeiro. She smiled as she recognized him. "Oh, hey again! I was wondering where you went off to. What can I do you for? If it's a challenge, I'm about to battle someone else, so you'll have to wait a bit."

Then she caught sight of Max...and completely cracked up.

"Max, WHAT did you do to yourself this time?" She asked between laughs and when she finally could gather enough air.

The black haired boy couldn't stop cringing at the water. "N-No...I'm not gonna challenge this gym..." he muttered before shaking his head. Ther was y no way he could do this by himself...so...

"Actually, Akio, can you help me and this...thing with something? Don't worry about Pikachu. I have a few items in this bag to heal him up in a jiffy!"

Obvious lie is obvious, but he REALLY didn't want to surf by himself...

Ty was about to respond, but could only choke on his words at the sight of a talking Rattata. It blew his mind, something he had never known existed, but with the reaction of Brooke, he realized that used to be a man! "Wha.....wha.....wha...." he shook his head, trying to regain some control. "Well......I think we should just get this show on the road!"

Max crossed his arms as he said, "The Pokemon Transporter hit a snag. It malfunctioned and I lost some equipment. I need to go back to the Power Plant, so can you lend me a Water Pokemon to Surf there, please?"

Akio looked back up to Zeiro, confused that he would actually ask him for a favor. "You... want my help?" Akio said, looking at Pikachu's Pokeball. "Well, if you have something to help Pikachu, then I guess I can help..."

Brooke gave one more giggle before nodding. "Sure, I'll lend you Timmy. Just ask him nicely and he'll be happy to help." She tossed Zeiro the Gyarados' Pokeball, as well as a second. "Just bring Nessie to the Center and we'll call it even."

She giggled again at Ty's reaction to the oddity before speaking again. "Now, can we start the battle, or is there anything else? Anything? Anyone?"

Fay had to bring his hand up at that from the sighing darkness, eying the pretty gym leader with his blue eyes. "Question. We just have to cross the water upon our turn to battle you, correct?"

He loved being a buzz-kill.

Zeiro fumbled to keep the pokeball from falling from his hands only to shove it in Akio's. "Don't worry, I'll take care of Pikachu and...the other pokemon she asked you to take to the Pokemon Center, I guess..." With a final shudder running through his body, he quickly ran out of the gym, wanting to get away from the water.

Brooke knew someone would say something.

"All you have to do is get to the other side of the pool. The method doesn't matter, you could sprout wings for all I care, but you need to reach the other side. There will be Pokemon in the pool that will try to stop you, and put you back at the beginning given the chance, but they won't attack you. If you use a Pokemon to attack them though, they will fight back."

Brooke shrugged. "That's about the gist of it. That, and pretending to drown will get you banned. Anything else?"

Favian actually giggled.

Yes, giggled.

"How simple. Thank you."

He seemed oddly uncaring of the harsh treatment of water ahead, seemingly taking it in like a day at the pool. Considering the almost bastard-like plan he had in mind to get past the little obstacle, he felt at ease. Still, that was not to say he wasn't worried about precipitating in a battle with her. Far from it, that was something he felt dread almost dance with glee around.

Akio had a confused look to his face as he walked with Zeiro out of the Gym, leaving the two still there to battle with Brooke. He tried to catch up as quickly as he could and said, "So, what is it that the talking Rattata wants again?"

Max let out a sigh and said, "My name is Max, for one thing. And I NEED to get to the Power Plant near Rock Tunnel. That place has unused equipment that could fix the machine that did this. It's a Pokemon Transporter, meant to help trainers that wish to send their extra Pokemon into storage boxes."

"Oh, well that would help a lot," Akio said, looking down to his belt as he realized that he had more then two full rows of miniaturized Pokeballs, all filled with Pokemon.

"Let's just get this over and done with..." Zeiro grunted as he picked up his pace, nearly power walking. "The sooner we get this done and over with, the sooner I can get to the next Gym and away from this place."

"You're welcome." Brooke said to the strange person. Should be interesting to see whatever this guy had in mind. Maybe he had a Pokemon that knew Teleport? Not many people seemed to think of that, despite it being such a simple solution.

"Okay then, anything else is waiting until later. Time to battle!" Brooke shouted this before jumping in the pool, swimming to the other side quickly. When she got out of the pool she grinned. "Ready Ty?"

"Of course" Ty nodded with a smile, making a sort of bow to the local Gym Leader. "To be fair, your little challengers first rule doesn't apply here, so ladies first." He awaited the Pokemon that he would have to face, thoughts already pulsing through his brain, mapping out the pool and the floats and rocks scattered through it.

"Are you... okay?" Akio said as they were walking. He was confused to see Zeiro so worked up when he was usually calm and collected.

Max shook his head and called out, "That's not the issue! Zeiro's right, you know! Let's get this done with as soon as possible!" Akio simply sighed as they reached the watery path that would lead to the Power Plant. "Okay, just Surf south with Brooke's Timmy from here and we can get there." Akio picked up the Pokeball that held Timmy and said, "Alright, are you ready then, Zeiro?"

The Gym Leader rolled her eyes. "How gallant of you. I'll choose Davie." She took the Pokeball she had brought over and threw it into the air. In a flash of red a Starmie appeared next to her. "I'm know you've seen Davie before, but you've never actually battled it. Kinda weird." She shrugged.

She bounced in place a bit, eager to battle. "Now who are these friends you were talking about before?"

"Stop delyaing and just get it out of its ball." Zeiro hissed, averting his eyes from both the pokeball and the water. "Again, the sooner this is done, the better. Let's just say...water and I don't mix. At all."

"Howdy Davie" Ty said, spinning his Pokeball on the tip of his right index finger. "Well, I might as well introduce you to one. Vulpix, it's clobberin' time!" the ball smacked the ground next to Ty, opening up into a beam of crimson light. A shadow formed within it, revealing a small red fox, six tails resting behind it. "Vul?" it spoke, looking up to Ty. Ty crouched down to a knee patted his Pokemon on the head. "Haven't given this little girl a proper name yet, but her Momma's back home waiting for her to come home strong, ain't she?" the Vulpix nudged his hand. "I'll let the local training wait for later. Vulpix has been waiting for a chance like this."

He eyed down the Starmie across from him. Water vs Fire was never a hard battle to judge on normal terms........

...but who said anything about this being normal?

Akio tossed the Pokeball as the Gyrados appeared. He looked at Zeiro as he said, "So that's what it is. You're afraid of water, aren't you?" He jumped up, onto the back of Timmy and said, "Okay, Timmy, just keep going straight... I think, right?" Max nodded and said, "Yeah, it won't be far from there. C'mon Zeiro, let's hurry!"

A shudder ran up Zeiro's body as he saw the massive water pokemon appear from the ball. "I-I'm not afraid of water!" He spat. Hesitation started to overwhelm him, but he quickly push that aside as he jumped on the Gyarados, trying his hardest both not to fall off nor make the water beast made in any way.

Davie blinked hello to the Vulpix and her trainer, while its trainer smiled. "Aw, she's so cute! I'll be sure to make this chance of hers worthwhile."

"Okay, since you insisted on ladies first, Rain Dance!" Brooke told Davie. It complied, and clouds formed overhead, rain coming down not long after. "Now, Thunder!" The Starmie jumped into the air, twirling its second set of tentacles to stay in the air similar to a helicopter. A bolt of lightning flashed from its core, aiming straight for the Vulpix.

Thunder never missed in a storm, after all.

"The same technique twice?" Ty watched the electricity streak toward his Vulpix, not offering as much as a whistle of interest. "Vulpix, Quick Attack to dodge." The Vulpix let out a light sigh before disappearing in a flash. It was speed unlike anything the mortal eye had captured, as if the creature had disappeared into thin air, reappearing on a rock underneath Davie.

"Confuse Ray, now!" The fox looked straight up as soon as it made contact with stone, eyes glowing with a radiant purple, a flash of the same escaping them, rocketing up to engulf the hovering Starmie.

As they approached the Power Plant, a large jellyfish creature was within their path. It glared at them and turned itself to attack. "Ah! That wasn't here when I came before!" Max called out as he hid in Zeiro's shirt for safety.

Akio went to one of his Pokeballs, knowing Pikachu wasn't an option, he went the only other route he could. "Spearow, Mirror Move!" He called out. The small bird appeared just as the jellyfish sent out a stream of acid at them. This bird opened its mouth and did the same, the acid cancelling out with that of the fish Pokemon's. "Now, Aerial Ace!" The Pokemon then flew into the air, only to dive down and hit the Jellyfish like a missile, directly in between the eyes.

"Drop!" She called out to the Starmie. The tentacles on its back stopped twirling instantly, and Davie plummeted into the water, avoiding the Confuse Ray completely.

"Psychic and Rapid Spin!" Brooke called out next. Davie jumped out of the water, spinning. Water gathered around it with its Psychic attack, forming a spinning sort of wall of water around it. With this in place, it shot straight towards the Vulpix.