Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon or the people in my story.

After reaching the river, Steve and Mario find themselves stuck. The river's currents are moving much too fast for either to cross by foot and if they tried to cross and were unsuccessful, they would fall into the water and be swept down the river to a waterfall.

(There's got to be some way across the river. Even if we get across, we don't know where Zack will be after that. This sucks. I can think of a few ways across, but there are always some risks.)

"I could try to cross on my blastoise or my gyaradoes. I don't know if they would be able to take the current, but it's worth a shot."

"Would you chance it? We're only dealing with your life."

"Then what would you do? We can't just wait here for Moses to part the river. We need to go before we lose Zack."

Again an odd look came over Mario's face. He seemed to be calculating his actions again. Finally he sighed and sent out a pokémon. When the snorlax appeared it clogged the river and they both crossed safely behind it. When they had crossed Mario returned his pokémon with a scowl.

"You hate having to show me your pokémon, don't you?"

"Shut up, that isn't the subject. We need a clue about Zack."

"Zack isn't a real concern. He'll talk to me when he's closer. What I want to know is why you almost refuse to show me your pokémon until a situation arises and you are forced to. Are you so scared of me that you refuse to show me your pokémon? That maybe if I don't see them they'll have a greater effect on me in battle? I don't know what your problem is, but don't expect me to be nice to you when you still regard me as your enemy."

"First, I don't care if you're nice to me because in more ways then one you are my enemy. Secondly, yes. I believe that if you don't know what my pokémon are you won't be able to predict what I'll use and it'll install a certain uneasiness in you during our battle. Also, I don't think your pokémon have a chance against that mew so don't talk to me like you have a chance to save the world."

The two walked on in silence, never looking at the other until a man jumped out of the shadows.

Mario stared at the person and thought hard, with an awkward look on his face. He turned to Steve and motioned him to leave. As Steve walked away he turned a corner but stopped to listen to the man and Mario.

"Why are you facing me here?"

The stranger walked up to Mario smiling, "Leaving you alone isn't half as much fun as annoying the hell out of you."

Mario smiled, "So sorry to disappoint you but I need to move on. Talking to you is a waste of my time and breath since I now you'll squander your time with a battle that you have no chance to win. I swear, if you put a little bit of time into your thinking then you would be able to draw better conclusions without having to come out here and attempt to fight me to find them. If I must beat you then I will."

The man flushed at this and turned his back to Mario while mumbling something Steve couldn't hear. Mario regarded him and decided the comment wasn't a nice thing to say.

"When you're ready." Mario pulled out a pokéball and waited for the man to start.

"Then you're ready. Good because I've been training and won't be an easy opponent. Here we go. Pidgeot go!"

"Snorlax, its time for a fight. Greet your old friend with a nice victory."

As the two pokémon appeared, they looked at one another and got ready for the fight. Then the snorlax ran at the pidgeot and crashed into it with a body slam. The bird shook off the blow and attacked the snorlax with a quick attack, but couldn't inflict much damage on the behemoth. The bird decided that its arsenal of regular attacks wouldn't have the intended effect and would use only moves that concentrated on his ability to use large attacks. As the snorlax charged a hyper beam the pidgeot quickly used an agility attack to stay ahead of the already slow pokémon. As the beam was fired the pidgeot took the attack straight on.

Mario smirked as the bird was hit, "don't tell me you trained your pokémon to hurt themselves."

"You should know me better by now. Pidgeot, use your mirror move."

The pidgeot fired a hyper beam at the snorlax, who was unable to avoid the blast. As the snorlax took the hit he flinched but was able to hold out. As soon as the blow passed he went to sleep, resting to heal his wounds.

"Your pokémon sleep in the middle of a battle? You mocked my idea yet sleep while my pokémon can hit it with an attack?"

"Calm down. Snorlax knows what to do."

Suddenly the ground started trembling from the force that came from the snorlax's throat. As the sound reached the bird, he fell to the ground from the pain of the sound.

"The snore will handle your bird." Mario pulled out the earplugs he had for just such an emergency. "I hope you can stay here and keep your hearing. He'll get a lot louder."

"Fine, you win. Pidgeot return." The bird was transferred back to its pokéball. "I won't forget this. I will beat you someday, Mario."

"Return Snorlax. And I know you'll remember this day. I'm sure you can recount ever time I've beaten you. I would love to relive them all but I must get going." As he placed the pokéball on his hip he walked around the corner, only to come face to face with his friend, and rival, Steve.

"Nice battle, Mario. You're going to be a hard challenge later."

"I thought I told you to keep going."

"Well not really. So we need to get going. This is taking long enough and I don't want another battle forced upon either one of us."

"Fine, yet Zack's plans remain unknown. Not to mention we don't know where we need to go."

"Come on. You think Zack would give up the chance to meet us. He has yet to fight me, though he killed you."

"Shut up and keep walking. I'll beat him when I have to. Now shut up and be on the lookout. If there's a sign of a village we're going to spend the night there."

"Okay. I know where a village is near here. I mean I have this map." Steve pulled out a map from his backpack.

"Where did you get that? We've been wandering around lost when you had a map? Imbecile! Oh well, let's go to the town to stay for the night."