"You'd probably manage to come back as a smelly shedinja" replied Pandora, sticking out his 4+ foot long tongue. "Or maybe us ghosts would just not let you in our club- we're a pretty exclusive bunch, you know." The food specks around his mouth didn't help prove his point.

"Man, and I thought Lighthouse was weird.", thought Static, jokingly. "I wonder where Mike went, I doubt anything happened to him, but still. Meh, I'm sure he'll be alright. "

-----------------------

"Cal! Cal!", Mike kept calling Cal's name, trying to find him. He needed to talk to him about the tounrey, where to sign up, and perhaps just to talk about strategy.

"Man, I'll never find him at this rate.", he mumbled.

Cal turned away from an Ice-cream stand to hear Mike shouting his name.

"Oh hey Mike whats up?" He called back.

((I return!))

Ginger was about to come back with a smart comment, probably something pointing out the ghost's appalling eating habits, when something large and green fell from the sky. "Holy gnar!" She jumped behind Pandora, hoping he was scary enough to frighten off whatever had rudely interrupted their mud slinging.

"Hey, Gin!" Slick said with a wave. "And, uh...Pandora was it?"

"What do you want?" the Absol snapped, glaring at the Grovyle from behind the purple Haunter.

"Actually, I'm here to talk to the trainers."

((Ugh, I've gotta read all those posts from the Sith RP. That's the only downside to vacations. x_x;; ))

Mike barely heard Cal's shouts over the roar of the oncoming crowd, and struggled to get through them to get to Cal. Eventually, he did.

"Hey Cal, where were you? We need to talk strategy; after all, we're going to need it if we're going to win the tourney, right?"

"See, there's another reason why you couldn't be a ghost- you're much too much of a scaredy cat" said Pandora smugly.

"Do you want Ginger to hear about the last time you fount a Mr. Mime?" inquired his trainer warningly, then he turned his attention back to the waiting messenger, wondering what news he might have.

"Ah, I was just here in line to get some ice-cream" He shouted back.

"This stuff is some of the best on all of the continents. Anyway, strategy huh? Here just wait for me to finished buying this stuff so we can go somewhere quieter to talk." He said as he ordered his caramel ice-cream and paid for it.
"D'you want anything?" He asked.

"Heh. Well, anyway." He turned to Cassius and Sidney. "Yeah, there's some big trouble over by the games. This guy entered his Pokemon into the Pokemon wrestling matches, limited to just normal and fighting attacks, but's he's turned them into actual Pokemon battles and he's really creating quite a ruckus. I couldn't ask Winona to take care of it 'cause she's a busy woman, so I was hoping you guys could put this disturber of the piece in his place. You're a tough batch of trainers after all."

He looked around for a moment. "I see the lightning trainer isn't with you. If you think you'll need some extra help, I can find him for you. I think I saw him talking to someone by the ice-cream stand."

"I'm sure we could manage something" replied Cassius, his eyes flashing red again for dramatic effect. Pandora grinned, then paused, as if in thought.

"Hmm, I don't suppose we could arrange to leave the darkling behind for the exciting part again, could we? We could stick her with Sidney's parents or something, or trap her under all of her trainer's plushies" Pan suggested helpfully, speaking loudly enough that Ginger was sure to here him.

"One more wise crack out of you and I'll make you wish you had gone to the afterlife!" the yin-yang colored Pokemon threatened.

"Ah, true love," the Grovyle said jokingly, causing the Absol's eye to twitch as she tried to refrain herself from turning the grass Pokemon into shredded lettuce. "I can show you where he is," he said, this time to the trainers.

"What'd he say?" Sidney asked, always the oblivious one.

"There's a trainer making trouble at a pokemon wrestling competition- he's using illegal moves against other competitors. Winona's busy, so he'd like us to help stop him from making any more of a mess" explained Cassius, lifting up one hand to stop Pandora in mid-dive for the Grovyle.

"Well, I could use a scoop, just plain chocolate. But yeah, strategy. And where are we gonna go?"

-------------

Static was staying quite, after all, he didn't care what was going on. He didn't care that some guy was cheating at the moment, but sometimes Statc got over self-centered. Nonetheless, he stayed with Sidney, Cassius, and the rest of the group.

"Hey, hey! I was just having some harmless fun!" Slick informed the other Pokemon while holding up his hands in a 'not me' gesture.

"Let's just get this over with," Ginger sighed. "This guy better be tough or I'm gonna be after your blood. Moreso after that little comment you just made."

"Ah...hahah..." The Grovyle swallowed the lump in his throat before speaking. "Follow me."

Pandora was about to say something to the Grovyle, but was interrupted by a stream of red light that drew him back into his pokeball. "Being bilingual has its disadvantages- I'm quite sure he'd be much less annoying if I couldn't understand him" he said to Sidney as he followed the grass pokemon, placing Pan's pokeball back on his belt as he went.

"Okay here ya go." Cal said as he finished ordering the second scoop. "I think there is a good place over there" He pointed to a quite area with some picnic tables and a large tree overhead.

"It looks pretty quite, so that looks like a good place to talk." He said taking a lick out of his ice-cream while he spoke.

"So, I think the first order of buisness is to determind out tag team pairings. Only four Pokemon so that gives us each 4."

"So each of us gets 2 Pokemon per battle? Anyway, which Pokemon are you going to choose for the first battle?", he asked as they both sat down on a picnic table.

"Oh yes, each of us gets two. Mistake on my part. Anyway," Cal began as he thought

"I think I might use my Heracross, his name is Goliath by the way, and either my Steelix, Demo, or my Lairon, MeatSheild. It really depends on what your half is going to be like." He concluded.

"Well for the first battle, I'll choose Shockbox, my Electabuzz, since he knows a wide variety of moves, and Quickster, for speed.", stated Mike.

"It also depends on which attacks your Pokemon know."

"Well I think my Heracross should be obvious, Megahorn, Endure, Reversal, Counter. My Demo, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Iron Defense, Slam and my Meat Sheild, Iron Tail, Iron Defense, Double Edge and Take Down." After rattelling off the list for him, Cal sat back and pondered.

"Hmm... Demo knows Earthquake but since you have those Electrics it's not going to work all that well.... Okay I think I've got it. I'll use Goliath and Meat Sheild. Now, I think I'll send out MeatSheild first for a huge defence so you can do whatever.... What's your plan?"

Well, I'll most likely send out Shockbox first for swepeage. He knowns Thunderbolt, Psychic, Ice Punch, and Barrier. Barrier is to protect against Earthquake. And my Jolteon knows, Agility, Thunder Wave, Baton Pass, and Double Team. But in that case, I'll have to send out Quickster out first. Do you think whoever you send out first can hold his own for a couple of turns?"

"MeatShield? The Rock/Steel type who knows Iron Defense? You're actually questioning that?" Cal said jokingly as if he was insulted.

"But still, what about Water types, and even with Iron Defense, it's still 4x weak to Fighting. But I'm sure your Lairon can handle it, if he's as tough as you say he is."

"Water types are a problem" Cal replied as he frowned, "But I'd like to see someone send out a water type while you're Electrics are in the arena" He smirked "As for Fighting, well. I can swear to you that if a Hitmonchan were to punch this guy while he had one Iron Defense under his belt, his hand would be broken." He finished.

"Besides, your Jolteon should be quick enough to get to Shockbox for his Psychic. And even if your Jolteon doesn't know any Electric moves, besides thunderwave, our opponents don't know that." He smiled, then frowned.

"The only problem we have is ground types, with that ridiculosly common Earthquake. I'm pretty sure MeatShield could survive more that his fair share, but Electrics don't have a reputation for their defence." He stopped, then continued "Well they do have a reputation for their defense, but that's more for it being sucky than good."

"Which is why I have Ice Punch on Shockbox. But Earthquake is our only main problem. Luckliy, I have a surprize for anyone who uses Earthquake on Shockbox.", Mike grinned.

"But I'm sure we'll be fine; in fact, I thik we'd be top candidates to win the entire thing.", Mike said cheerfully.

"Most definatly" Cal replied. "Of course, it is still up to the chances to see who will win the single tournament" he smiled, in a devious manner.

After he finished eating his ice-cream, he sat back, rather satisfied at this strategy and then said "Well, we have nothing better to do, how about you go introduce me to those friends of yours from the tower?" He asked politely.