Chapter 20: So we got Surf

The next day emerged and Katsuie found himself approached by Wallie's father. "Good Brenden. I know you are a good man. We think Wallie is obsessed with trying to hunt you down and kill you. And yet, this hunt is giving him the energy to heal and grow stronger. So please, take this HM for Surf and never get caught!" The old man ran off while Katsuie just stood there.

The team looked over the hm disc and saw the power the surf move contained and how it would allow them to travel along waters freely. "Let me learn it!" Moto asked with gusto and passion. The bird was excited to have a stronger special water attack than water gun.

"Well we don't currently have a pressing mission on our hands, perhaps we can use this time to explore with surf some of the caves and routes we previously were not able to meet anyone on." Mitsuhide suggested. The idea caught fire with the tribe as they liked the idea of having a period of relaxed time to sort things out and not just charge around with rage in there heart.

They first went North to route 115 and proceeded to surf up the coast and found an inlet with several strong trainers which the team decimated and robbed and then a patch of grasslands tucked away deep in the woods. The party were excited as they had no received a pokemon from route 115 yet. The party searched the grounds curious as to who their encounter would be, which upset several when it was a lowly tailow. While they knew swallow could be a powerful ally once evolved the team had hoped for something more exotic. "Wow do you not want me for the gang?" The tailow said.

"No its just this inlet is so out of the way we thought maybe something crazy would be out here." Masamune replied.

"Well maybe if you didn't follow that stupid first encounter no duplicates rule." The Tailow spoke.

"How do you know about that?"

"You guys have been screaming about it for the last hour. I thought you were drug dealers so I came over to get me some smack." Tailow said.

"So you're a junkie?" Nagamasa asked.

"Nah boi, I'm a tailow." Everyone fell over in shock. Mitsuhide gave the pokemon the name "Shingen." Which seemed to fit in well with the group as they continued on their holiday tour.

The team then moved south after fully exploring the inlet toward Route 104 as they knew the path to Dewford of Route 104 and Route 105 had not been searched and had available recruitments if the team could find any non-duplicate pokemon. The routes 105 and 106 for the moment proved to be totally a random wasteland of water with trainers floating about seeking trouble and pokemon randomly popping up with a chaotic swirl of different levels. Some being very high and others being rather weak. This proved a fun floating trip for the party as they made their way to Dewford town though they were upset at not having found a new recruit on either route.

This however, did not detour Mitsuhide who sought to continue down the path toward Slateport and explore the other routes that Mr. Briney had ferried them right past previously. The entirety of all pokemon they were fighting both in random wild pokemon and trainer pokemon were all water types which gave Mitsuhide the greatest joy in his effortless beating of each of them. Providing him with massive amounts of safe training. Several of the gang were concerned about this as Mitsuhide was clearly getting large portions of battle experience and in the process leapfrogged Masamune as the battle leader of the gang. Though Masamune defended the leader stating. "The stronger the best in our gang get the safer it is for all of us." He proclaimed, even as Mitsuhide evolved in Sceptile, creating even a further gap of power as he now easily dwarfed Masamune in most all combat stats.

"Dude you are putting down some serious firepower now Mitsu." Moto and the others were nearly star struck by the power their friend was displaying now as a fully evolved 3 stage pokemon.

"This feels amazing. I promise to use my power to keep all of us safe." He said. Even Nagamasa was impressed by the power Mitsu now held. The two seemed to have reconciled their differences from earlier and Naga trusted Mitsu's opinion more after seeing the resolve of the leader to protect the others. The team floated along the route further to the east, until the found a shipwreck up agins the rock of the route.

"Dude! We should explore that place." Toshie said to the gang.

"It seems scary." Nohime proclaimed. Gozen and Kicho agreed with her but Mitsu said it would be a good idea as they had no idea what they would find inside.

Inside the ship were surprisingly a bunch of random people just hanging out on the boat, camping or running science experiments. The team looted the ship of all their good things they could find and then quickly left the place once they realized there was nothing more for the moment there than just running around in circles. The team enjoyed the break from the serious but though the boat would be more of a real quest or a dungeon, which made them slightly unhappy as they all exited the ship to continue their surfing the waters toward Slateport.

"Is it really a good thing for Mitsuhide to be so much stronger than us?" Kicho asked Masamune out of the ears of the majority of the party.

"Well, look, most all of the enemies we're facing here are just water pokemon. So really it's not a big deal. This is just his time to shine. Because out of all of us he really is the one guy on this team that has a big advantage over water pokemon. So we'll let him get super powered for now and then as time goes on things will swap around. Plus if he is strong he can help all of us rise up as well." Masa spoke truth but Kicho and several others still had concerns as they returned to the sea.

The day finished out as expected with Mitsu decimating every water based opponent seen to the cheer of the team as they finished their route of the route. As they cleaned up the area Mitsu and the other headed back up to Mauville City with goals on now surfing to the east from their across route 118.

"Uhh Brenden!" A familiar voice with a very different tone called to the slakoth as they entered the city and were proceeding East. "I am glad I found you." It was Wattson the Mauville gym leader. "Look I know I treated you like…..well….bad. But I spoke with Flannery recently who said I should not jump to conclusions…..Anyway, we have an issue nearby in our underground powerplant. And sadly I am not strong enough to handle it and the other elite trainers are occupied these days. Can I please have you go to the secret underground powerplant south of town and investigate for me. We have this plan for the place but sadly the generator is running and it shouldn't be yet. Its like someone turned it on."

"So now he wants us to do his job." Moto said.

"Could be some very serious good press if we succeed." Gozen replied. Katsuie simply took the key to the tunnel and then nodded. Wattson seemed happy as he stormed back to his gym with a trusting smile.

"Are people really changing their opinion of us this much?" Mitsu asked. "Even after we killed Norman."

"Apparently according to newspaper, they are blaming team Magma for that." Tadakatsu read from a paper. Most were just shocked he could read.

"Well that's a relief." Mitsu replied. The team saddled up and headed for the underground power plant, a slight detour from traveling to the East.

The team went down into the place and saw that it read, "New Mauville."

"Guys this seems more like a doomsday bunker than a powerplant." Hisahide said. The team agreed but were quickly excited when they saw a wild magnemite stroll out into the open.

"What are you doing in our city?" The Magnemite called.

"Your city?" Masamune was puzzled. "We were told there was trouble here and we needed to come and deal with it."

"Trouble?" The Magnemite seemed confused also. "Mite has no trouble save humans and magnetic currents." Masamune was still confused but the team saw this as a chance to recruit and also to get an electric type on the team something they had yet to have.

"Hey do you want to join our gang?" Mitsuhide called out to the electric pokemon.

"What is gang?"

"Its like a family but we don't hate each other." Mitsu replied.

"Sounds better than here. We all hate each other." The Magnemite said. "Mostly because we often get our currents mixed and then are stuck to walls….for days."

"Sounds….interesting." Moto was puzzled.

"Welcome to the team Tatsuoki." The magnet pokemon was excited and immediately was thrilled to show the team around his home. The team looked around for a hot minute before asking Taksuoki if he knew where the main generator was in the city.

"Well If you follow me I can take you there." The team followed Tatsu all the way to the back of the path.

"Hey Moto, Hisa, Shi. Why are you guys so far behind most of us." Rikei asked.

"This place is full of electric pokemon." Hisa said. "We don't do so hot if hit with any of those attacks." Rikei laughed as she understood what they meant. The team without any real trouble or interference from any people were able to reach the end of the pathing and get to the generator. They switched it off and found a thunderstone nearby.

"Oh wow! A thunderstone!" Masamune was impressed with its coloring. "Will this work on you Tatsu?"

"I don't think so." Tatsu replied. This dulled the spirit of the find as the team though the found an instant way to bump their only electric friend's power. The team retraced their steps with the help of the native Tatsu and then exited the underground city.

"That….was awkwardly easy." Nagamasa who had been fairly quiet recently said.

"Well lets not look a gift horse in the mouth." Hisahide said showing more bravery now that they were away from the electric tunnels.

"Hey Brenden." It was Wattson looking rather happy. "The screens back at the gym show the generator has been turned off. Thank you. Let me give you something as an act of contrition for my belief in you as a murderer." The leader handed Katsuie tm24 for thunderbolt. And then he waddled off back to the gym.

"It seems we're gaining back a lot of good faith these days." Kaihime spoke.

"If this keeps up we may not be seen as a murdering thugs anymore." Sanjo replied.

"Even though we totally are." Kicho pulled out her black shades and threw them on. The whole gang then followed suit. They all then nodded and then rolled over laughing. The team new that going East of Mauville was now their only main route or option. And yet the afternoon was heavy and the team was worn down from the travels. The team took the night to rest up.

Around the campfire for the night Tatsu who being a magnemite was neither male nor female. This amazed everyone as he explained the strange happenings of their society. To which no one had all of their questions answered and merely found themselves with only more confusion. "That is crazy." Thought Gozen as the conversation died down and the who team went to sleep.

"I'm glad we got that Tatsuoki on our side." Nagamasa told Mitsu. The two had been talking much more frequently since their spat in the sand stream.

"Why is that? What about that Magnet makes it so valuable, besides from being an electric pokemon?"

"Looking over the supplies that we use most frequently, we are constantly having to recover from paralysis and poison. Tatsu is immune to both." Mitsu's eyed widened when he understood that. This was a great thing for the team and perhaps a potential huge opportunity for the party to keep safer as a whole. "So you see Mitsu, we need to make sure Tatsu stays near the top of our team power and groom him for potential leadership as we aren't immune to those problems.

"Truth, but his personality is bland. I don't think if it came down to it he could lead." Nagamasa was also trouble by this thought but with their journey continuing across route 118's river in the morning they were without troubled.

"Such good friends they are." The wife says as she could see from the far shore via her binoculars the party of pokemon she had run into many times on her long vaction around Hoenn. Her husband was fast asleep in the beach chair for the night but she was thrilled to just stare at the stars and admire the open expanse of the sky. "Protect them Arceus." She says as she goes back to laying in her chair and viewing the cosmos.

….

As the morning came the Brendenites crossed the river, but without the pomp of an Exodus journey as their tribe was still a small family and not some grandiose nation of people or a swarm of invaders. They were motley but rugged from the journeys they had survived to date, but with the crossing, Mitsu and the others felt the pressure go slightly up even more. As the wild pokemon of the area seemed tougher than the other areas, though thankfully the trainers along route 118 where nothing but a gaggle of pushovers.

"Dude there are linoone and Manetric just chilling out here." Nagamasa mentioned

"Yeah, talk about great experience." Masamune was licking his lips at the sight of the evolved enemies. The mightyena took a leave from the team to battle his heart out on the route with a few others who wanted to watch and get switch training experience while the majority of the gang seeing the map took a trip over to route 123 further east to see if they could get another recruit to the party.

"Well this was a waste of time." Hisahide joked with Mitsu and the others who went down route 123 hoping to find an encounter with a wild pokemon as all the team found was a dude who grew berries and a couple kids to rob. Which Kicho happily did with glee.

"I swear if I ever die the gang will go broke." Kicho laughed.

"Eventually people are going to find out that Brenden is robbing people. Won't that hurt our rep?" Kaihime said.

"No, because we robbed them, and nobody listens to poor people."

The team made their way back to route 118 where Masamune was beating down a wild linoone like it stole his girlfriend. Masa was without equal on the route and seemed ferocious to the party as they all readied up again and prepared to head north up route 119.

"Fine anything good?" The wolf asked as he dripped blood from his jaw.

"Nah just some dude who loves berries." Mitsu told his friend. "All the paths forward are blocked by cliffs we cannot scale."

"Well cheer up, we have another chance up ahead on route 119." Masamune smiled at his friend which emboldened the Sceptile who was feeling slightly defeated from the troubles of the day.

The team approached the start of the route only to be overwhelmed by the visual of the tall grass ahead. "Okay we totally have to explore this. But carefully. Make a perimeter and stay close. Less strong team members in the center with the cart. Masamune take the lead. I'll guard the rear. Remember first encounter is a recruitment but this grass looks scary." Mitsuhide gave out the instructions to which all obliged. The tall grass excited Sanjo and Kai as they thought maybe it would be a free slaughter for them on a bunch of grass pokemon. But they were still unsure, and both had lagged behind notably in the power department.

The team was amazed as they entered. "Guys I found a pokemon or a giant tree….I am not sure." Osana called as she looked up bewildered by the sight. It was a tall Trophius.

"Our encounter! Don't let him get away!" Mitsu called.

"ITS PRONOUNCED MAM!" The trophius was offended by the team's ignorance to her species of pokemon and used whirlwind instantly ending their meeting and sending the team flying out of the deep grass.

"Great going Mitsu, you had to just offend our encounter." Rikei slapped Mitsu on the head with laughter.

"Okay but really, we had literally never seen a Tro-Tro….Trophius before. How would I know I got excited in the moment?" Mitsuhide remarked.

"Its okay dude now you can join the club of guys who botched an encounter." Motonari joked with his friend. While the party was somewhat unhappy in not making a new ally it was something they just decided as a team to get over and move on. The team was excited to now explore the tall grass absent the concern of encounters and making friends and now they could just take scalps.

The route past the tall grass was still covered in what seemed a perpetual rain, and the road forced the gang up cliffs and around waterfalls as they continued up the road northward. The team found shelter under a giant evergreen tree and decided to set up camp. The travel had taken its toll and while some pokemon like Hisahide, Motonari, and Nohime loved al the rain around them others like Masamune were dealing with swelling on their feet from the over exposure to wet ground. The team needed a chance to reset, and rest. Most of their top offensive moves were nearly out of PP as well. It wasn't so much the battles being tough but more the conditions and the length of the trek.

"Rest up guys this is fun but I know at least for myself that I am worn plumb out." Masamune called as he sprawled out under the tree. It was a large tree but it was not truly big enough for everyone to have all the dry space in the world. The water types who loved the rain decided to rest out under the cool raindrops, which did free up some space not having to shelter a Gyarados. The team tucked in for the night not knowing what tomorrow would bring but were thankful for how far they had come and how less and less trainers were approaching Katsuie with rage and a desire to avenge professor Birch and more just out of curiosity and a hope to battle.