<div class="floatleft">(http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5688-670803075.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Doctor Cedony Pierce<br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Old Douglasberg, Ruins<br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Hibana, Skylar, Lexi, John, Col. Surge<br/><br/><strong>Current Pokémon:</strong>None<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Surge furrowed his brow in confusion as the other grown man in front of him addressed him as if they knew each other, but it was around the time the man mentioned not having another league in him that the officer's memory of his past career came rushing back to him. "Well, it's good to see an old champion is still in action, at least," the Electric master joked with a friendly grin. Champions weren't exactly "in charge" of the various Pokemon Leagues in the same way that each Elite Four was, but there was still a certain amount of respect shown for them by the Gym Leaders they had beaten, even after said Champion had gone on to greener pastures and said Gym Leader was busy running a new league of his own.<br/><br/>"If you're wondering about Raichu, though, you should probably just ask him yourself," he told John, pulling an old and weathered pokeball from his belt and popping it open. With a beam of red light, his signature pokemon came out, a golden mouse pokemon that came up almost to Surge's waist; abnormally large, even for a fully grown Raichu. "Chu!" the Electric type stated in greeting, its fur bearing the marks of many hard-won battles against all sorts of powerful opponents. It looked like it had seen enough combat than most pokemon saw in four lifetimes, yet the happy and confident smile it wore said that its spirit was still stronger than ever.<br/><br/>With his most trusted pokemon busy greeting John for the first time in some years, the Colonel turned his attentions to the younger folk, especially the Gym Leader who had her gaze resolutely on him. "If you keep making excuses for yourself, how do you expect to get any stronger?" he asked Hibana, not really scolding her, but making a point. "We've already got more of that stone back at the League, but we don't know what it does yet. So as soon as we're done with the summit, you two are going to go and track that thing down. Understood?" he ordered. It was clear that Surge wasn't really acknowledging how well they did in saving Dr. Pierce, just how they could have done it even better. And if it was his job to mold the Gym Leaders, could anyone really blame him for that?<br/><br/>===<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/2/20/VSMisty.png)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Misty<br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Douglasberg Casino<br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Draven, Elly, Marco<br/><br/><strong>Current Pokemon:</strong>Starmie<br/><br/><hr/><br/>With the fanfare dying down and Aerodactyl having already rejoined its master, a shared elevator ride brought the other three pokemon back up out of the maze to be praised and consoled by their trainers. As she rolled over next to Misty, it was still a bit hard to actually tell what Starmie felt about anything that had just taken place, but she certainly didn't seem too down about it. It was hard to blame the pokemon for anything when it was the trainers that had chosen the types to gamble on, and even with all of the knowledge of type advantages in the world, there was still a lot of random chance left to it. Good thing there wasn't any money riding on the event.<br/><br/>Resting a hand atop one of Starmie's arms, Misty gave a small laugh as Marco referred to her as "Miss Water-lady." If she had thought he was serious in not knowing her name, she might have been a bit more mad. "Sorry, you meet a lot of people traveling. It can be hard to keep up with all the names," she explained, trying not to offend her fellow leader. As Aerodacyl arrived, she even stepped over and joined Marco in giving him a pat on the snout. "You did good out there, too. Pretty smart for a Rock-type," she joked, figuring she could get in that last playful jibe, even in defeat.<br/><br/>With that, the cheer began to die down as the audience was shuffled out of the auditorium to go view the upcoming events, though it would be hard to top a challenge between four Gym Leaders, including one of the most famous trainers in the world. Misty sighed as she realized she would have to get moving along soon as well. "I hope whoever I get put up against next, they'll be as much of a challenge as you guys. Too bad we don't get to decide that."<br/><br/>===<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://oi49.tinypic.com/4kten9.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>? ? ?<br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Seastorm Ferry Restaurant<br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Elektra<br/><br/><strong>Current Pokémon:</strong>Chimchar, Tarift (+1)<br/><br/><hr/><br/>If the blonde trainer was mad that Elektra had let the thief go, he didn't show it. He just nodded at her understandingly, stepping aside from the doorway as the ferry's security team came into the restaurant to tend to the hypnotized passengers. None of them had really been harmed, but it was quite a lot of tedious work to shake that many people awake, especially when half of the security officers were also out getting their pokemon healed.<br/><br/>Not that theirs were the only ones that had been hurt. After stepping aside, the enigmatic trainer glanced down and saw the very exhausted little bundle of yellow and black fur in Elektra's arms. "Looks like you had to do a bit of fighting before she went away," he commented lowly, pulling a Potion out of his own back and spraying Sparkles for her. It would have been easy enough for Elektra to take care of him herself, either by taking him to an onboard Pokecenter or getting a Potion of her own, but he hated to see such a young pokemon in pain. "There are other Gym Leaders on board, right? Aside from her?" he asked, gesturing to the unconscious Rae Ann. "Maybe we should see what's holding them up."