Through the Mountain to Cerulean City

"Gotcha" Ty smirked "Vulpix, Flamethrower........" he thrusted his finger out at Davie, but then down to the pool "on the water!" Vulpix obliged, a torrent of flame erupting from it's cute little mouth onto the pool. The water bubbling, boiling under the insane amount of heat as steam rose up, quickly forming into a sight-shattering fog. "Quick attack to dodge once more!" the fox pokemon did as told just as Davie slammed into it's former position, but only the sound of moving wind could be heard, the Vulpix disappearing into the unknown.

"Now, Firespin!" from the mist came another light, parting the way onto the location of Davie, surrounding it with a tornado-like pillar of flame. ~Wait for it.........wait for it.......~

"Psychic again!" Brooke called out. The Starmie used Psychic to push the swirling flames high into the air, keeping them there so the rain would eventually put it out. Both trainer and Pokemon knew better than to send a fire attack at a Vulpix after all.

"Now, Swift!" Stars shot out of Davie's core, immediately switching direction from where they had been shot. Swift always aimed for the opponent, after all. "In that direction, Bubblebeam!" Bubbles shot from the tip of the topmost tentacle, following the path that swift had taken.

"Now! Quick Attack!" the bubbles rocketed through the mist, clearing it out........revealing nothing there! "VUUUUUUUUUUL" from the side came the flying form of Vulpix, crashing with the full force of it's strength into the back of Davie, pressing it to the rock. It's fur was distorted, beat up by the contact of the Swift that had been launched. Not every move could be dodged, afterall. "Point blank Confuse Ray!" the fox's eyes glew again, purple light engulfing the target.

Brooke wasn't sure if this would work, but figured it was worth a shot anyway. "Minimize and then hide!"

The Starmie immediately shrunk down until it was smaller than one of the Vulpix's paws. Then it used one of said paws to hide under, creating an impromptu shield with it.

"Now let's try another Bubblebeam!" Davie quickly grew back to its normal size, shooting powered-up bubbles at the red Pokemon.

"Tch! Every time I with you, something gets angry..." Zeiro muttered before Bulbasaur came out of its ball and stops both Spearow and the jellyfish in their tracks. "All right, that's enough out of you two! Can't you do this without resorting to battling?!" He tries to lean over to the Tentacruel. "Look, we're just passing by to go to the Power Plant. We're not here to hurt you or anything unlike this brainess human behind me."

"Hold it back with flamethrower!" A few bubbles connected, hurting Vulpix seriously, but not before releasing another blast of flame from its mouth. The fire would normally lose out to a water, but this attack had everything Vulpix could give, holding the beams at bay while releasing more and more steam into the air. It grew to the point one could almost not see their hand infront of their faces. "Now, use the plan, Vulpix!" The attacks cancelled out and all went quiet, the steam slowly disappearing until it reaveled.............Vulpix still standing infront of Davie, simply staring at him.

"Confuse Ray then dive!" Brooke told Davie. The Starmie's core flashed with the same purple light that the Vulpix's eyes had. Then, without waiting to see if the attack had worked, it dived back into the water.

The Gym Leader wondered what this plan of theirs was. It was quite possible that the Vulpix knew Payback, so she'd have to be careful of that. Still, she couldn't let that control the battle. "Swift!" She called out, and stars shot for the opponent once again.

The vulpix took the full force of the attacks, falling to the ground.....before exploding into smoke!

Substitute had worked perfectly.

"Oh, would ya look at that?" Ty leaned forward, tapping his finger on his chin. "I wonder where she went?" He laughed at the manuever, a blur flashing through the rocks and floats, landing on one further away. The Vulpix seemed to yawn. "So, are we going to play cat and mouse more or can I wrap this up?"

The thoughts of the Jellyfish Pokemon revealed a man in a black suit that was its trainer. It was a Pokemon of Team Rocket. It also revealed a man speaking of a legendary Thunder Pokemon that was within the Power Plant. It seemed that Team Rocket had entered Cerulean City just to capture it. The Pokemon then used one of its tentacles to hit Zeiro in the abdomen and slam him into the water below. Or, he would have, if Timmy didn't swiftly go underneath the trainer and catch Zeiro.

Akio looked down to Zeiro and said, "It looks like talking it out won't work after all... So, Zeiro, what did the Giant Jellyfish tell you before it slammed you away?"

"Gah!" Zeiro cried as he fell backwards, holding onto his stomach in pain as he glares up at the pokemon. "T-That's not a wild pokemon...Bulbasaur! Razor Leaf!" He released the bulb pokemon from its ball. As Bulbasaur landed on Timmy, leaves shot out from its bulb and straight at the jellyfish.

The Pokemon gave a glare as it stood its ground at took the attacks. It answered back by moving its tentacles to wrap around Bulbasaur. "That won't do," Max said from Zeiro's shoulder. "Tentacruel is a Water and Poison Pokemon. It has normal damage against Grass, but it has special defense so high that a Grass Type attack won't do anything!"

"You know about this Pokemon?" Akio said as he looked over to the mouse man. Max nodded in response. "I know about just about every Pokemon known right now," he replied. "The best thing to do is to use an Electric or a Psychic type Pokemon. A ground Type would work as well if we weren't in water."

"I don't have a Ground of Psychic Pokemon, though," Akio said. "And Pikachu can't fight right now... Spearow's the best bet. Go on ahead, Zeiro! I'll deal with this." As he spoke, Spearow turned and came at the jellyfish, using a flurry of pecks at the Pokemon's head.

"Bulbasaur!" He cried out as the tentacle wrapped around his pokemon. After hearing Max's deduction and Akio's complaint, Zeiro quickly snatched his Pikachu's pokeball and released the yellow mouse in his arms. "Tch...No chioce, then..." He muttered. Closing his eyes, a mysterious aura started to surround the two as Pikachu's wounds were healing and his energy was starting to restore. While that's happening, Bulbasaur let out a puff of Stun Spore upon the pokemon.

Akio and Max both looked at Zeiro with wide eyes as Pikachu began to heal right before his eyes. As this happened, Tentacruel was stopped by the Stun Spore. As it was stopped, the jellyfish moved its stinger towards Spearow and hit it with a Poison attack, bringing the bird Pokemon plummeting to the ground. "Oh no, Spearow!"

"Pidgey! Catch him!" Zeiro threw out a pokeball, allowing Pidgey to fly out and catch the falling Spearow in its grasp before flying it back to Timmy and the others. Zeiro dropped Pikachu before holding onto Akio's Spearow, checking t osee if it got poison. "why are you just standing and gauking?! Tell your Pikachu to attack!"

Akio shook his head and called out, Pikachu, use your strongest Electric shock!" The Pikachu jumped up, its cheeks sparking as it sent a powerful bolt of Lightning at the jellyfish. The Pokemon sank into the water, crying out in pain as it was defeated. "Wow, that wasn't a Thundershock..." Akio then went to his Pokedex, looking at its moves and saw Thunderbolt. He blinked lightly and said, "The Gym battle must have helped Pikachu learn a new technique..."

Max jumped up and said, "We've wasted enough time! If that thing had an owner, they must still be close by. Let's go before they get what I need!" Akio narrowed his eyes in a sour look and said, "I don't think anyone would want what you need..."

"They're after siomething bigger...Pidgey! Scout on up ahead!" The bird nodded before quickly flying ahead of them. "Now...we gotta hurry. If they get that...thing...then we're pretty screwed of beating them right now."

"That thing?" Akio said, confused about what he meant. As he said that, they continued on to the Power Plant. It seemed to be abandoned, but there was a lot of noise and commotion going on inside. "Someone is in there..." Akio said. Max shook his head and called out, "I know this might sound selfish, but I still need those parts! Zeiro, remember our deal!" Akio walked ahead and said, "I'll go on ahead. If this is Team Rocket, its better if I go, especially in your condition, Zeiro." He turned to Zeiro and said, "I saw it in the Pewter Gym, remember? And you can't be far from it now."

"I have no idea what you're talking about..." Zeiro grunted as he jumped off the Gyarados, staggering a bit before running inside the Plant with his Bulbasaur running behind. "Besides, I sent my Pidgey in tehre! I'm responsible for anything that'll happen to it!"

Akio ran back to Zeiro, grabbing an Antidote from his back and said, "This makes us even from Mt. Moon. Now don't worry about Pidgey. I'll keep it safe. You just do what you gotta do!" Akio then ran off before Zeiro even had a chance to respond.

As opposed to trying to talk and stop him, Max went to Zeiro's ear and bit down hard on it to make him stop and listen. "You're already stumbling! If you fight any more then you might get defeated. Don't you know what Team Rocket does to the Pokemon they defeat? They capture them and make them do what they want. Would you risk that just for a personal grudge?" He jumped down, standing in front of the boy with his arms out to stop him. "That Akio boy seemed capable enough on his own, even strong enough to beat Brooke. Don't burden him by going in when you aren't fighting fit. Just help me right now and we'll worry about Akio afterwards."

Zeiro hissed as Max bit his ear, holding it in pain as he staggered backwards and fell. He started to pant lightly, feeling his body growing tired as he tried to get up. "I don't...care. I won't let Team Rocket get away with what they're doing...and it's MY pokemon! I have a responsibility!"

As soon as Akio entered the Power Plant, he was quickly met with Zeiro's Pidgey in the face. Pidgey was greatly injured and was on teh verge of fainting as a figure moved in the darkness.

"Well well well...looks like we have a few pesky rats in our mist." said a female voice. "A kid like you shouldn't be in such a dangerous place~" With that said, a giant purple cobra came out and wrapped Akio tightly, baring its fangs as it threaten to bite him.

"What good are you to your Pokemon if you get injured protecting them?!" Max called out. "The only way you can protect them is if you survive... Don't do anything stupid or you'll be separated from them forever. I know you care for them, but what do you think will happen if you can't fight? You can barely stand right now!" At this point, Max was thinking of knocking out Zeiro if he still refused to listen, but he didn't want it to come down to that.

Akio stopped as a Pidgey hit him across the face. It gave the snake enough time to wrap around him. Akio grunted as he heard a female voice. "Crap, you must be with Team Rocket!" He moved to grab one of his Pokeballs, barely reaching it and dropped it onto the ground. Spearow emerged out and dived at the snake's face to stop its fangs. "I don't know what you came here for, but I'm gonna stop it!"

"I can...still fight..." Zeiro said, fighting the urge to just pass out right there. Blue powder started to float around her, causing him to grow even more drowsy until he fell down on the ground, fast asleep. Bulbasaur walked up to its trainer and curled up next to him, nuzzling under his arm.

"Oh ho, we got ourselves a goody two shoes!" The figured laugh as Spearow drew closer to the snake. At the instant, the snake turned to Spearow, opening its mouth wider as it let out a purple substance right at it. Suddenly, crackling could be heard as another's voice started to speak.

"S-Sir! We're sorry, but it escaped from us and it's hea-" The transmission cut off as it started to short out, causing the person to drop the receiver. Soon, the entire Power Plant started to light up, revealing the person to be no more than a red haired girl roughly a few years older than Akio and Arbok.

"Tch! Can't those grunts do ANYTHING right?!" she hissed as she threw out another pokeball, revealing a sort of mushroom pokemon. "Gloom! Use sTun Spore on them!" The pokemon raised its arms as a yellow trail of powder secreted from its head and over to Akio and his Spearow.

Max gave a sigh of relief that Zeiro was taken care of. He sat down lightly and muttered to himself, "I'm glad that's settled, but I hope that Akio kid is alright..."

Akio's eyes widened as his Pokemon was affected by the acidic attack. It went down, breathing heavily as the Gloom's attack came at them. "Spearow... get outta here... Don't worry about me," Akio called out." As Spearow looked at the Pokemon, it glared as its body started to glow. Its beak grew as well as its body and wings. It flew up incredibly fast, grabbing onto Akio as it did so. It was now a Ferrow.

"Spearow... You evolved! I knew you were close, but I never thought..." Akio said before he glared down at the girl. "I don't know who you are, but I won't let you win that easily!" He was released as he pointed out and said, "Ferrow, Areal Ace!" The Pokemon flew down and moved to strike the Gloom with a strong flying attack. Its speed and attack strength was much more than it was before.

"Ack! IT evolved?!" The girl cried as she took a step back, seeing her Gloom beaten with ease. "All right...if that's how you want, I'll fight you-"

Suddenly, the power plant began to shake and the ground beneath them started to bulge before being blasted away by lightening, revealing a big, spiky, yellow bird. It cried out as it sent Electric sparks all around it, not caring who it it.

"Z-Zapdos?!" the girl creid as she threw out another pokemon, revealing a large purple sort of Dinosaur to take the blunt of the electricity, doing nothing to it. "Tch! Arbok, change of plans! Restrain it with Toxic!"

Arbok focused its attention on the bird, slittering up to it before spitting out a rather deadly liquid, much more deadly than the one that hit Spearow. With a flap of its wings, however, Zapdos knocked the acidic attack away before another jolt of electricity surged throughout the building.

Akio jumped up as the Lightning came close to hitting him as well. The bird Pokemon was powerful, for sure, but it seemed so angry. He turned to the girl, realizing this was its home, and that they came all this way to disturb and capture it. He grabbed Ferrow's Pokeball to return it before it was zapped with the Lightning, holding Zeiro's Pidgey close to him as well as he tried to think of what he could do.

"Pikachu!" he called out as the Electric Pokemon was released from its ball. "That big Pokemon is the problem, Mega Punch it!" The mouse rushed forward, jumping upward and clenching a fist, aiming a mighty punch at the face of her Nidoking.