Strong as a shield

The shell made a very harmful impact with Pidgeotto, suprising the bird and forcing him to he ground. He seemed dazed and a bit confused at what had just transpired, and was struggling to regain his wit. He was an easy and reachable target.

"Now you're getting it." Falconer said, the closest thing to praise he has said to Marcus.

"Endolith think you can get him with a constrict?" Marcus shouted, his less serious smile returning to his face. Shuckle did as he was told, getting up weakly,, obviously becoming fatigue from the constant beating and spinning. He slithered up to Pidgeotto as fast as he could, which was relatively slow, and tried wrapping his tentacles around the much larger bird Pokemon. "Probably not me best idea, but im sure you can do it Endolith!" Marcus said boisterously.

Luckily, Pigeotto was too dazed to stop Endolith's slow attack. The tentacles wrapped around the bird's fragile body, and he screeched before going limp, fainting. A burst of red light broke him from Endolith's tight grip.

Endolith gained 13 Exp! Endolith grew to level 8!

Falconer nodded toward Marcus. "You did well," he said as he took a small bundle from within the inside pocket of his jacket. He held it out toward him. "This contains your rewards: $1560, a TM for Roost, and, of course, the Zephyr Badge. It was a good battle, and I hope to say we both learned a lot."

"Good job Endolith, you deserve a rest!" A beam of light took Endolith back into his ball. Marcus happily took the money, badge and disk from Faulkner before jabbing his hand in his direction. "That was a great fight, and yea I learned a lot, so did my Pokemon!" Marcus looked at Sabishii, we have to get you a fight once we get out of here dont we? How are you going to get stronger my small little warrior?" He said with another hardy laugh.

"I'm glad," Falkner said before turning toward the line of trainers that formed, waiting to battle the Gym Leader. "A busy day today," he chuckled, before looking back at Marcus, "Maybe once you've collected more badges we can have a rematch. I'd love to see how my actual team fares against you once you've grown." He motioned toward the door, dismissing Marcus so he could battle his next opponent.

"Its a challenge then!" Marcus said, already turning for the door. He shuffled his way through the line at the door. He exited the gym to be greeted by the bright sun still high in the sky. He knelled by the wall of the Gym and began to rummage through his bag, finally pulling out a map. After studying it for a little he put it away. "I should probably be headed to Azalea town to the south but first!" Marcus shifter his head over to the restaurant near the south exit. "A little lunch never hurt anybody!" He said to himself whilst opening the door.

A waitress was leaning against a counter and looked up at Marcus when he entered."Just sit at any empty booth, hon," she said while chewin a rather large wad of gum. "I'll go grab you a menu." She disappeared into a back room, leaving Marcus with the choice of where to sit.

Nearby, a trainer glanced at Marcus curiously. He had a half eaten plate of fries on his table and a Raichu helping itself to them.

Marcus took at seat to one side of the table so he could keep an eye on the man and Raichu staring at him, whilst Sabishii sat across from him on the table, bone next to him and sitting upright waiting patiently. "You dont need to bring a menu, just give me the biggest serving of burger and fries you can!" Marcus shouted across the small diner like place. "Hope your hungry" He said to his faithful Cubone with a laugh.

After a few minutes, the waitress returned, carrying a large plate with an enormous plate on top. She set it on Marcus's table, then stepped back. "Anything else, dear? A drink?" she asked.

Marcus began splitting the meal straight down the middle, sliding half onto the other plate and passing over to Sabishii. "Ah, just some water, could he get a bowl instead of a cup?" He asked, still preoccupied by the meal in front of him. Even I cant eat all this! Well, guess whatever we don't finish we can give to the others.

"Yes, hon, it'll be out in a second," the waitress replied, retreating into the kitchen once more. The teen and his Raichu seemed to have just finished their meals, and the boy stood, his Pokemon quickly using the table as a booster to jump onto his trainer's head. Before they were out the door, the Raichu suddenly glanced down at Sabishii, swiped his tail from side to side, jumped up, and landed on Marcus's table. "Rai!" he enthusiastically said, greeting his fellow Pokemon without any sort regard to his manners. Flustered, his trainer made a swipe for the large mouse, but he quickly jumped up and onto Marcus's head, grinning mischievously. Sighing, the trainer gave an apologetic look toward Marcus. "I'm so sorry about him," he said, "he doesn't like minding personal space."

Marcus let out a laugh and promptly handed the boys Raichu a fry from his meal. "I dont mind at all. I had to work on Sabishii heres manners for awhile, he used to eat like a Tepig!" He signaled with his hand at the Cubone, now standing across from him, interested in the Raichu. Marcus reached ontop of his head, carefully lowering the pokemon onto the table as not to startle it. "Good healthy looking one you have here!"

The Raichu's tail wagged madly as he gobbled up the fry in a ravenous manner. His cheeks sparked slightly, as if he couldn't control himself when their was such kindness and sharing. Once he was on the counter, he ran and jumped back onto his trainer's shoulder and rubbed his cheek against his face, causing the teen to involuntarily shudder as a volt of electricity worked its way down his body.

"As you c-can see," the trainer said when most of the electricity had ran its course, "we're still working on a few things." He laughed. "I've never seen you around, what brings you to Violet this fine day?"

Marcus let out another laugh followed by a belch. "Yea I heard electric types can be difficult! But, I came to challenge Faulkner, I'm an Archeologist so im not around much but my house is actually just through the woods a little." Marcus jabbed with his finger in the general direction of his house before shoveling more food into his mouth.

"A little?" the trainer laughed, "I wish he was only a little stubborn! And I'll have to go check your place out sometime, er, well, not in a creepy way or anything," his chuckle grew into a light-hearted laugh. "I'm from Kanto, visiting for a bit of business on Professor Oak's behaf. For these past couple of weeks I've eaten here every day, it's just so good and different from what we have back home."

His Raichu suddenly perked his ears, sniffed the air, then rocketed off from his trainer's shoulder and swiftly out the door, leaving he teen to awkwardly stare slightly open mouthed at the door his Pokemon had made his exit out of. "Well, I'm sure we'll see each other again, but I'm taking that," he gestured toward the door, "as my cue to leave."

Marcus watched the man run out the door and looked at Sabishii. "That was... Interesting. Anyway, eat up as much as you can, we have a trip ahead of us and you cant be hungry!" Marcus dug into his plate only finishing half. He asks the lady for a to go box and the bill. "Oh!" He said remembering something, he looked around and spoke up to get the Waitresses attention which wasn't hard with his voice. "Excuse me! do you know how to reach the Ruins of Alph from here? I've wanted to check them out for awhile but always been to busy.

The waitress did come back with a box and a bill and set both on the table. Upon hearing Marcus's question, she thought for a moment. "Yeah, the ruins are just to the west of town. There would be an entrance building near there with a huge sign picturing a bunch of Unknown. Just head West and you can't miss it."

Marcus threw the food into his bag via the to go boxes, slapped some money on the table and started for the door, in an obvious hurry. "Thanks you!" He screamed whilst leaving. Cubone quickly scurried to a stand and caught up with him. He left the city onto a route of tall grass and began looking for any sign of the ruins. He was not the best with directions.

Luckily, there was a small crowd outside the buildin the waitress had mentioned earlier. It was a small crowd waiting in line to enter the ruins, and they were chattering happily and excitedly looking around. Among them was the boy and his Raichu whom Marcus had met in the diner.

Marcus pushed his way through the crowd to reach the boy with his trusty rat, Sabishii not far behind, trying not to get stepped on. "So, this is where your Raichu led you? Why is there such a crowd?" Marcus looked over the heads of crowd, unable to see anything but more heads crowding around the small entrance.

Surprise and recognition lit the teen's face as he turned toward Marcus. "Well,"he said in a cheery voice, "Someone spotted a rare Unknown just a few minutes ago at the entrance of the ruins. Everyone here is waiting to get in so they can get a peek. Raichu here almost snuck in without me, but the trainers in front of us wouldn't have let him get by for even $1000." He laughed and scratched his fellow Pokemon behind the ear. "Luckily, they're about to let everyone into the ruins again, so it may still be there."

Marcus looked at Sabishii whilst the boy talked to him, noticing the small Pokemon's struggle to not be stepping on he hoisted the Cubone up and resting him in his palm. "I though all Unknown were the same, just in different shapes?" Marcus looked back over to the boy and then started to shuffle his way near the front, in a polite way yet still throwing his weight around.

"Yeah, but the person said that this one was blue," the teen replied enthusiastically before getting a thought and extending his hand toward Marcus. "I don't think I've introduced myself yet. My name's Satoshi, and this is Raichu, though you already knew that one."

"Oh, a blue one?! Thats quite the discovery, I need to see this thing." Marcus noticed that the child in him was breaking through, he noticed Satoshi's hand. "Ah right, where are my manners?" Marcus took the boys hand with his unoccupied one, giving it a firm up and down movement. "Nice to meet you Satoshi, the names Marcus Falons." The big man gave a smile and held up the hand with Sabishii in it. "And this here, is Sabishii, my trusty warrior." The cubone stood up in Marcus's hand and held his bone in the air.

Raichu happily waved at Sabishii from atop Satoshi's shoulder, then climbed onto his trainer's head to get a better look at the moving crowd. People had finally been allowed into the ruins and were, quite quickly, filing in through the entrance checkpoint. When the people in front of Marcus and Satoshi began moving forward, the teen turned to follow them. "It's nice to meet you Marcus," he said as he walked, "and I really want to get a glimps of this thing too. It's like the red Gyrados they show documentaries of on TV, I always thought it was made up!"