Welcome to Gaia! ::

Robert left the stage and headed for the pokemon center to bring Julia back to health. As he entered in, however, he saw his grandmother standing there with a smile on her face. "Well, I must say I am impressed Robert. You've taken down two gym leaders and came in second place in your very first contest. I certainly hope your defeat has drained you of your fighting spirit." She spoke with a coy grin at the last part. Robert chuckled a bit and shook his head. "Not at all. It just showed me what I need to improve on, that's all. Julia has alot of potential. Well, all of my pokemon do. Now I need to find some counters to moves like protect and mirror coat." Robert spoke. "That's my boy. Learn from your mistakes and press on. Defeat is certain for all trainers at one point in time or another. The weak give up or take it out on thier pokemon. The strong press on and learn to overcome thier own personal weaknesses. but I don't need to lecture you on things you already know." She spoke before handing Robert a fishing rod cupon and heading towards the door. "I think you'll find fishing can be quite relaxing. A perfect way to calm your nerves and clear your mind. You might even catch a new friend or two." she spoke on her way out.

Robert smiled before then giving Joy his pokeball. With the cupon in hand, he didn't have to worry about foraging for his own food. However, foraging was still a good way to get berries for pokeblock and pokemon food. heading over to the fishing shop, Robert used the cupon to get a good rod and a few lures. Although he wanted a super rod, the cupon was for a good rod, and he wasn't going to let a gift from his grandmother go to waste. After a trip for supplies at the pokemart, Robert returned to the pokemon center. Knowing that he would try ad catch at least one new friend, he needed to send one of his pokemon to the ranch. Bringing out his pokemon, he looked all of them. "I need to have one of you guys check in on Light and Krystal at the ranch. Who wants to volunteer?" he asked. Julia stepped forward, looking a little down. Although Robert didn't take defeat hard, it seemed Julia did. "Julia, listen to me. You did your best, and I'm proud of you for that. Agianst any other opponent, you would have tore them up. We were caught off guard by Protect and Mirror Coat. But that's no more your fault than it is mine. All we can do is try harder and become better. Now you cheer up. You're too pretty to be sad." he spoke with a coy tone of voice. Julia blushed some and gave a nod, smiling slightly. "That's better. Now, are you still sure you want to go to the ranch until I ned to call on you agian?" Julia gave a nod to Robert before giving a hug. "Alright then. Julia return." Robert spoke before putting Julia back into her pokeball and sending her to the pokemon ranch for some much needed R&R.

With that done, he headed out towards Vermillion City.

Robert headed south, getting himself into a few scraps with some budding trainers who were trying to toughen up to battle Misty, while others simply wanted a battle for the fun of it. After what seemed like several hours, Robert and his pokemon came to a gateway building that connected Cerulean to Saffron City. But due to some sort of construction, the pathway was closed. "Great, now how am I going to get to Vermillion City." Robert scowled. Looking around, he finally found a sign that read 'Detour: Underground Pasage' Looking over to his right he saw a small house with a door wide open. Inside was a stairwell that connected to a rather long tunnel. It took a good two hours of walking to get through the tunnel and to the other side, which opened up into a long grassland with a few lakes. Robert's feet were starting to get sore from all of the walking around, and it was getting close to supper time. "Well, I think I'll take it easy for a while and just set up camp. The cruise isn't until tomarrow, and we should be able to make it there with time to spare." Robert spoke to his pokemon before bringing everyone out of thier pokeballs to help set up the tent. After a hardy dinner, Robert pulled out the fishing rod he had gotten and attached a Misty lure. As the rest of his pokemon rested, Lilly walked over to Robert and wrapped her arms around him from behind. "Is something on your mind Lilly?" Robert asked. Master, am I pretty too? Robert blinked a bit at the question. It was probably because he had called Julia pretty before. "Of course you are Lilly. You're quite beautiful." Robert replied before reaching back and patting her on the head. Lilly smiled and hugged him tightly. "...Lilly..." Robert mutterd. Yes? she replied. "I...can't breathe...." Lilly gasped before releasing the hug quickly, realising she was tightly hugging his neck. I'm sorry master, I... Robert placed a finger on her small mouth. "It's alright. Just relax Lilly. I love you and all of my pokemon. You should know I'm not going to play favorites. There's no way I could since you are all such wonderful friends. Even those who are back at the ranch. And trust me when I say this, everyone will have thier chance to visit the ranch and my parents, and I don't intend on keeping anyone there for an extended period of time." Lilly smiled and sat beside him, resting agianst him while Lotus and Farrah playfully romped around. Sable kept guard watch over the encampment.

Robert fished for about half an hour before he got a really strong bite. RObert's line was going all over the place as he wrestled with the unknown fish. "Wow, this one's a fighter, that's for sure." Robert stood and wrangled with the fishing rod until finally he yanked out the fish onto dry land. Much to his surprise, the fish he had just pulled out was nothing more than a magikarp. However, where most trainers would have thrown it back, Robert saw the Magikarp's fighting spirit. This wasn't the ordinary crap karp that people made so many jokes about. This one had spirit. It lept in a tackle attack at Lilly, only to fall short and splash on the ground, trying to get back to the water where it could make either a better tackle attempt or get away. "Lilly, confusion! We're not litting this one get away." Robert spoke. Lilly nailed Magikarp with a confusion attack leaving it near fainted, but even with low health, it still seemed ready to fight. Taking out a pokeball, Robert hit Magikarp with it, causing the red light to swallow it up. The ball rocked back and forth for almost a full two minutes before finally sealing closed. "Wow, that's some fighter. Who would have thought a magikarp could be so determined? But that's exactly the kind of spirit I want to join this team." Robert spoke before picking the pokeball up. Magikarp, the fish pokemon. It is said to be the world's weakest pokemon. No one knows how it has managed to survive Robert smirked a bit. he knew Magikarps were weak. Even one with as much spirit as the one he caught wouldn't even be a match for his newborn Lotus. But Robert knew better. The weakest pokemon in the world also had the potential to become among the most powerful: Gyarados. Robert remembered how strong Lance's Gyarados was when he got the chance to watch Lance battle. Although not dragon typed, a Gyarados was usually considered to be a dragon. Looking at his pokedex, he couls see it was a male with the Swift Swim ability and knew Splash and Tackle. "Alright Hogan, welcome to the team. And don't worry my friend, I'll train you to become the strongest Gyarados anyone has ever seen." he spoke before attaching his new friend to his belt.

The next day, Robert rose with the morning sun. With the help of his pokemon, he packed away his gear and cleaned up the campsite. After some breakfast, Robert brought out Hogan and got himself into his swimming trunks. Trying to raise Magikarp by battle was just karp suicide, but there were other ways to train and make it stronger. "Mathias, grab onto my waist. Hogan, I want you to pull me around this lake three times. Let's go!" Robert said. Mathias held onto robert's waist, keeping himself afloat in the water while Hogan began to swim with all of his might. After about an hour, Hogan had completed the task, and mathias was near fainted from water exposure. Takling Mathias out of the water, Robert administered a potion and a sitrus berry to Mathias to recover his health and vitality, and gave Hogan an oran berry. "You feeling ok Mathias?" Robert asked. Mathias gave a nod. After recalling Hogan to his pokeball, Robert took out the massage oil and gave a thorough massage to Mathias. "There, that should make you feel even better." He spoke before taking out Mathias's pokeball and recalling him. after then setting all of the cups up, Robert trained his pokemon on not only accuracy, but attacking multiple areas. Then, using Sable and Lilly, Robert worked hard on having Lilly master using confusion to send attacks back at the attacker. It would take a good two hours before Lilly had finally gotten it right. With training complete, it was time to head to Vermillion City and the S.S. Anne.

Once in Vermillion, Robert went over to the pokemon center to give his pokemon some R&R as well as to buy a ticket for the cruise. It would be about two hours before the boat was schedualed to leave, so after recieving his pokemon back, Robert decided to take a walk around the city.

As he did so, he came across a beauty palor for pokemon. Upon walking in, Robert was greeted by Suzie, Zane and Brock. "Oh, hey Robert. Good to see you." Brock spoke with a wave. "Robert smiled and returned the wave. "Hey Brock. What brings you here?" Robert asked. "Well, Suzie and I are good friends. I came to visit her and Vulpix. Plus I got a ticket for the cruise. After all, with all of the hot women cruises usually attract...." Robert gave a sigh and shook his head. Some things never change he thought. "So anyway, I take it you're here for the cruise as well?" Brock asked. "Yup. I came to stop in here to see what services it offers pokemon." Robert spoke.

"Well, our specialty is pokemon massages and grooming. We can have your pokemon both feeling and looking thier best. And any friend of Brock's is a friend of ours." Suzie spoke. Robert smiled and brought out all of his pokemon, with the exception of Hogan, since there seemed to be no water around inside the palour. "You have six pokemon, why not bring your sixth one out?" Brock asked. "Well, there's not water tank around here, so if I bring Hogan out, he's just going to splash around on the floor." Zane headed back to the storage room and brought out a fish tank, then filled it up with water. "Alright, there you go." Zane spoke. "Ok thanks. Come on out Hogan." Robert spoke, calling out his Magikarp.

"Wow, this Vulpix is in very good condition, and it has a beautifully unique natural coloring. I've never seen a shiny Vulpix before." Suzie said as she knelt down before Farrah. Her own Vulpix along with Zane's Nintales came out to greet Farrah. "I'm surprised you went with Magikarp. Very few trainers ever even bother since it takes alot to make it evolve." Brock replied. Robert gave a nod to Brock. "Yes, however the end result is worth all of the hard work. After I saw how much spirit this guy has, there was no way I'd let this one get away. If anything, he's going to make for a very powerful Gyarados when he evolves. He already knows tackle, so that means he's not too far away from that landmark. By the way, who's tending the gym?" Robert asked. "My father Flint is, plus Forrest is getting in practice so that he can become a gym leader when he gets older. My father lets him handle some of the gym battles. He's already good, but he still has quite a ways to go."

After a good hour and a half, all six of Robert's pokemon were rested, relaxed and looking beautiful. Even Hogan's scales had a very polished look to them. Sable ran up Robert and sat on his shoulder, while Farrah and Lotus played around with Zane's Ninetales and Suzie's Vulpix. Then Ash came into the shop. "Hey Brock, Robert!" Ash called to the duo. "Ash, Good to see you agian." Robert spoke. "So did you get your ticket Ash?" Brock asked. "Of course! A pokemon tournament and two contests, it's a great way to train. Plus I saw May and Dawn at the pokemon center, and Misty should be on her way as well." Brock laughed lightly. "Well, sounds like the gang's all here. What about Max?" Ash shook his head. "Nope. Max is back in Hoenn on his own pokemon journey." Robert blinked a bit at those names. "Wait a minute, you mean May and Max, the two kids of gym leader Norman?" Robert asked. Ash gave a nod. "You know them too?" Ash asked. Robert gave a nod. "Yeah, I know them. Thier family usually comes around once a year to help out during the yearly adoption drives down at my parents' pokemon orphanage. Though it's been a few years since I've seen May and Max. It'll be good to at least meet up with May and see how she's doing. She's already super popular back in Hoenn as a coordinater." Robert replied.

"Well then, let's not keep everyone waiting. They should be letting passengers on the boat soon." Brock spoke. After waving farewell to Suzie and Zane and Robert recalling his pokemon, Robert and company headed for the S.S Anne. However, as the boarded, Robert spotted someone from the corner of his eyes. That b*****d's here too? Robert thought as he looked over, only to find the guy he saw gone. "What's wrong?" Ash asked. "Kira's here." Robert replied in a serious tone of voice. "Looks like we're going to have to watch outr backs." Ash gave a nod. "Don't worry, if he causes trouble with us, you know there's no way he could win." Ash replied. Brock looked a little puzzled. "Rival?" he asked. Robert shook his head. "Just think of him as being like a Team Rocket thug, only worse. uses pokemon like tools, and if he deems them worthless, he thinks nothing of not only abandoning them, but also has his other pokemon beat them within an inch of thier life. He also has his pokemon attack the trainers themselves." Brock's face turned disgusted. "Wow. that's one horrible person. Someone like that doesn't even deserve to be called a trainer."

"Well, let's get our rooms for the trip." Robert spoke up. The three of them nodded and seperated, each heading to the rooms assigned on thier tickets. As Robert made his way to his Room, he saw May leaning agianst the railing, looking out at the sea with her Blaziken. "May, how've you been?" Robert asked. May turned around and almost fell down with surprise. "Robert? Wow, it's been a long time! I didn't know you were in Kanto." She replied. "Yeah, I decided to start my pokemon journey here in Kanto. Already got two badges, and once I'm done with the cruise, I'll be heading to the gym here for my third." may gave a nod before looking at Robert's Kirlia. "Wow, you're Kirlia's really cute, Just like Max's." Robret smiled. "So Max has a Kirlia as well? Did he get it from my parents?" Robert asked. May shook her head. "Nope. Back before Max became a trainer, he helped save a sick Ralts, but he had to release it to its family. But Max and Ralts promised each other they'd meet agian, and once Max got his first pokemon, he went straight back to the forest where he met Ralts and finally captured it." Robert smiled as he rested his back agianst the railing. "Sounds like quite an adventure. So I take it you're going to be competing in the contests on the boat here as well?" Robert asked. May shook her head. "I already have five ribbons for the Grand Festival here. I came here to watch all of the trainers and maybe get some new ideas for my own pokemon." She replied. Suddenly, her Glaceon came out of its pokeball and walked up to Robert, sniffing at one of his pokeballs. "Glaceon, I never said to come out." may spoke. Robert noticed which pokeball it was sniffing at and smiled. "Glaceon probably just wants to meet my Eevee. Lotus, come on out and play." Robert spoke, releasing his Eevee from her pokeball. "Oh, you're Eevee is so beautiful! Then agian, you've always been working with pokemon, so it's no surprise your Eevee is in such great condition." May replied before petting Lotus on the head. "Thanks. Your Glaceon is really gorgeous too. I tak eit you must have made a trip to Sinnoh." May gave a nod to Robert. "Yup. I wasn't going there with the intent of evolving Eevee, but while we were out and caught up in a blizzard, my Eevee evolved and helped lead me out of the storm. But what about you? Are you entering the contests?" May asked. Robert gave a nod. "Yes. I already entered the one in Cerulean and made it to the final round, but I ended up losing in the end. So I figured I might be able to score at least one ribbon here if I'm good enough. And even if I don't, I'l still walk away with plenty of experience." May smiled before she started heading towards her room, which was right next to his own. "Well, I need to finish unpacking my stuff. I'll probably bump into you sooner or later." Robert gave a nod to her before heading towards his room. "Sounds good. I gotta put my stuff away before it brakes my back." Robert jested before entering into his room.

While waiting for the boat to leave, Robert went over a routine with his Eevee, planning on using her in one of the opening round of the first contest. Once the boat had started on its voyage and Robert was satisfied with how everything looked with Lotus's performance, Robert put Lotus away in her pokeball, leaving only LIlly and Sable out, and made his way to the dinning hall for the party.

Robert made his way to where Nurse Joy was. "Welcome. What events would you like to sign up for?" she asked. "Sign me up for all three, the two contests and the battle tournament." Looking at the rules, the first conest was a bit unusual. you were allowed two pokemon, but both were to be used in both rounds. The second contest was the usual type.

After registering, Robert went to the deck. There was a large swimming pool. In the water were several trainers swimming and enjoying themselves with thier pokemon. After stripping to his swimming trunks, Robert entered into the pool and brought Hogan out. Lilly even joined in by slipping her feet into the water, sitting herself at the edge of the pool. Robert was approached by May with her Glaceon swimming alongside her. "Wow, so you're actually raising a Magikarp. not many trainers have the patience to raise one of those." Robert smiled and gave a nod, resting agianst the wall of the pool, his elbows resting on the pool edge. "Yeah. Well when I saw how much spirit he had, there was no way I was going tolet this guy escape. It two two whole minutes inside the pokeball trying to get out before he was finally captured. It even knows tackle, which means it's not too far away." Robert spoke. Lilly jumped into the pool and held onto Hogan. Hogan swam around, carrying the little Kirlia on top of it. "He's no slouch, that's for sure. He pulled me and Mathias around the lake that I caught him in three times before becomming exhausted, and it was a pretty decent sized lake. Looking over, he could see Jake and another trainer about to battle. "Looks like Jake's about to get in a fight." He muttered. "Friend of yours?" may asked. Robert shrugged. "He is, but he's also a rival." Robert spoke. "Sounds like me and Drew." May replied. Robert chuckled a bit. "Yes, so I've heard, and seen on TV." Robert simply watched, though he didn't know what stakes Jake was facing. Not to mention watching Jake would give Robert some insight on how Jake's fighting style has grown.

Robert shruged a bit as he watched. He could see the Scyther had no intention of winning at all, or to obey his master. And with the way its old master was treating him, the kid seemed like Kira, only less violent and much less sychotic. "Well, looks like Jake's got himself a Scyther now." he spoke, looking over to May. "So how long will you be in Kanto for?" He asked. "Well, I'm going to be heading over to Pallet Town for Ash's birthday party. but don't say a peep to him about it, alright?" May asked. Robert smiled and gave a nod. "I didn't hear anything." Robert said jokingly before reaching up and scritching Lilly's cheek gently, causing her to lean in agianst it. "Your Kirlia really likes you." May said while petting her swimming Glacieon. "Well, she's been with me ever since she was an egg. and I'd say she and I are very close. but it's like they say. Your first pokemon is always the most special." he replied before getting up and out of the pool. Robert grabbed a towel and began to dry off. "I need to do a bit more training, and the pool's too crowded for me to work on Hogan and Mathias." May gave a smile and waved to Robert. "Alright. I'll see you at the dinner then." She called out to him. Robert picked up his clothing and pokeball belt, recalled Hogan and left for his room to get changed into dry shorts and put his dry clothing back on.

Once in his room, Robert brought out all of his pokemon, with Hogan appearing in the small jacuzzi. "Alright, let's work on some tactics. Sable, I'm going to teach you a combination called Greased Lightning. What you do is charge in with quick attack and then used Iron Tail on your opponent. The name is somewhat meant to fool our opponents, thinking that we're going to use an electric attack. However, with your static ability, there's the chance you might paralyse your opponent during the attack. Lilly, We're going to work on your redirecting attacks. I'm going to have Sable try and hit you with a few weak thunderbolts, and I want you to use confusion to turn it around and send it back at Sable. Everytime you do it right, we up the power of the attack. Lotus, I've got a combination for you to try. It's called Painful Blessing. You're going to use Wish, then charge directly into an attack like thunderbolt and use tackle. By the time you hit your opponent, wish will come into effect and heal the damage you took." With that, all three were trained over the hours leading up until dinner, each one working hard until they got thier attacks down perfectly. During that time, Mathias and Hogan worked in the jacuzzi, Mathias on his water resistance and rapid spin and Hogan with swimming tackles. After a good several hours of hard training, as well as 90% of Robert's oran berries, Robert recalled all but the usual two to thier pokeballs. "Alright, let's head up for dinner." he spoke, leading Lilly and Sable to the main dinning hall where most of the other trainers were.