For his part, Rolf was more than a little disconcerted by the pokemon flouncing about so obviously and obnoxiously. The ghosts seemed to be doing their best to be obnoxious and set people to sleep, the sneasel seemed like a nasty little critter in its own right, and God knows why they weren't in their bloody pokeballs, but at least they seemed to get the crowd to move on for the time being. As he breathed out and stepped off his soap box, he sighed and looked to them all and completely missed the Ghastly sliding into the mountain behind him.<br/><br/>"You're studying to be a professor, eh?" He said with a raised eyebrow, running a hand over his weary face and brushing across the stubble in thought as he watched Jack. "Look, I'd love to let you in, but you'll have to talk to Prof. Cozmo. He's here from Hoenn to catalog the effects of the comet on the Clefairy, and this is his project at the moment. He should be by soon for some of his equipment, if you and your friends want to wait you can talk to him about getting in and observing."<br/><br/>He smiled a slightly weary smile and motioned for them to wait as they would around the pokemon center before making his way to the front of the cave once more to make sure nobody was trying to slip in uninvited.<br/><br/>"And get those pokemon in line!" He called over his shoulder. "If they can't behave themselves in public, they shouldn't be out of their pokeballs!"<br/><br/>------------------<br/><br/>Listening to Odd chatter on was an interesting exercise, largely because the little wacko couldn't quite decide if he was a genius or mentally retarded. On the one hand the kid sort of had a point--training pokemon and all that<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>what they were out here to do--but at the same time Isaac was pretty sure that Metronome didn't work that way. The only time he'd seen it done, which was admittedly only very briefly when someone thought up the bright idea of tossing a Clefairy at a Gyarados just because it could replicate a lightning move, it hadn't seemed like a tremendously insightful thing to him. Then again, he was a dragon tamer, not a pink-fluffy-fuzzball tamer.<br/><br/>Either way, he had zero interest in sitting around and waiting for a week or huffing it around the mountain.<br/><br/>As Odd walked off to get his pokemon all healed up, Isaac made his way towards the dwindling crowd that currently contained his companions. "I'm just warning you now," he said flatly, "if your plan doesn't get us all in, I'm checking out that short cut they were selling back there. Also, Odd wants in. Dunno if that will help or hurt the plan."<br/><br/>-------------------<br/><br/>Maggie, on the other hand, had stopped to hear them out.<br/><br/>They pair of them had gotten surprisingly little response from the trainers along the way--they had thought that it would be ripe picking, considering just how little anyone wanted to trek through the forests surrounding the mountain for at least a week, but people either had higher morals or less cash then they'd first expected. With a grin to the aspiring channeler, they pushed off their trees and made their way over with grins that, if not actually dangerous, were at least a little creepy.<br/><br/>"Step right up, little girl, don't be shy! No harm in admitting you're a lady with places to go!" Jake said pleasantly, flicking the edge of his mustache and showing off a row of pearly white tombstone teeth beneath it.<br/><br/>"People to see, things to do." Will agreed, his lips set in a slightly menacing smirk as he approached her from his tree.<br/><br/>"And all it costs you is a little cash--like a bus fair!--and we'll set you on your way quick as can be. You look like a girl who can take care of herself!"<br/><br/>"And if not we sent a couple more rube--sorry, people in before you. Ought to have cleared it out by now."<br/><br/>"So whaddaya say, kid? Onward and upwards!" Jake laughed easily, reaching around behind her to clasp his brother's wrist congenially, locking her into a pleasant three-step with them as they started towards a small path in the forest.<br/><br/>"Mind the gap." Will added with a dry chuckle as they marched her towards the woods, through the pine needles and along the forest path.