"So, Simon, how about a battle?" This question was substantialy surprising enough to make Simon at least look at Gus. What he saw made him struggle to keep his laughter in. Gus was dressed in a floor-length, bright pink furry coat. Simon was wearing a similar one in blue. After all, the crystal Path was extremely cold, so renting coats had seemed like a sensible thing to do. At least, it had until they saw the prices. So they were stuck with the bargain coats that no-one else wanted because they preferred not to look like hippy piloswine.
"Simon, come on, it'll be fun!" Gus wasn't going to let this one go. "But, er, I might need to borrow a Pokemon..."
"What?" Simon laughed,"You're challenging me to a battle when you don't have a Pokemon? What happened to your Grovyle, anyway?"
"Well, when I stopped with the whole Pokemon journey thing, I thought it would be better if my Pokemon lived wild, rather than being cooped up with me." Simon smiled. Gus had ended his pokemon journey, deciding to become a Pokemon scientist instead. He believed that more could be learned through practical experience, but still spent large amounts of time at his lab/apartment in Celadon.
"Fine, borrow Pidgey." he grinned, "It hasn't had a good battle for a while."
"Right, Zubat, let's figure out how to do this!" Simon called as he threw the Pokeball. Zubat burst from the Pokeball, and promptly fell to the ground. Simon blushed, wondering how on earth he would be able to fight when Zubat was completely immobilized.
"Pidgey, lets see what you've got!" Gus called, releasing the small bird. It hovered in mid-air, sneering down at the grounded Zubat. Simon gulped. Raising zubat to evolution point would be difficult enough without any team rivalry.
"Come on, Pidgey, start with Tackle!" Gus called. It was a standard move, but Zubat was already in trouble. Luckily, Simon had an idea.
"Roll, Zubat!" He shouted, and Zubat immediately complied. Pidgey, which had been forced to fly low, scraped the ground, then pulled up angrily. "Now, Supersonic!" Zubat screeched at Pidgey, which shook its head, looking confused.
"Gust, Pidgey!" Gus ordered, and the pigeon flapped its wings valiantly in every direction. The resulting gust was completely inaccurate, but in the small cave, it felt like a hurricane no matter where you were stood. Simon watched in amazement as Zubat was bodily lifted into the air by the wind. it flapped its wings experimentally, finding it had a little control over its direction.
"Right, lets use bite!" Simon ordered, and Zubat arched its small body, diving towards Pidgey and latching onto its wing. Unfortunately, this stopped Pidgey from flapping, and the pair plummeted to the ground. Pidgey sprang back up, and Zubat rolled away, the two facing each other defiantly.
"We'd better leave it there," Gus suddenly said, and shrank away as three faces glared at him. "We just don't want to wear out your Pokemon, straight after leaving the Pokemon center." Simon agreed, disgruntledly, and returned Zubat. Gus returned Pidgey, then tossed the ball to Simon, who fumbled the catch and dropped it. Gus smiled, then spoke again.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to travel with you for a while. I'm doing some research for a book on the Poison-type, and you seem to have a few."
"That sounds like a great idea," Simon smiled, glad to be travelling with someone he knew and trusted again. Chatting happily, the two brothers made their way through the Crystal Path.
OOC: sorry for the large post. had to sort exactly how to get a Pokemon to fight when it can't move :P