Make A Splash! | Everett

The day was finally here. The first step on the ladder to success for Everett Mercer was taking on and defeating the Baltis City Gym! Apparently, according to the roster, Vincent was having a challenge around the same time, but he'd get to face the regular leader, Brooke Stroud. Everett, however, had to settle for a substitute in her father, Liam.

The battle today would be three-on-three, and Everett had been planning the team he would use for quite a while. Caesar, Darwin, and Faust would be battling today. The first two were for obvious, type-related reasons, but Faust was mostly just for the unpredictability he brought to the table. Wood Hammer was a good last resort, but it seemed to do a bit of damage to the poor Mimikyu when used. Luckily, they had a few alternatives now.

The young man made his way to the changing rooms near the entrance and got prepared. He left the Poke Balls he wouldn't be using in a locker that was provided, then changed into his swimming trunks. He wasn't normally one to be seen without a shirt on, so he could tell people were staring at the giant Braviary tattoo on his back. Come to think of it, a lot of the people in the waterpark were staring at him. Could they know that he was the one to be challenging the Gym today?

Once he was ready, the lady at the front desk called a few lifeguards up to take him to the slide complex in the back. On the way, they explained the rules. All he had to do was go through a series of water slides in the correct order to get to the Gym Leader. It seemed simple enough, but looking closer at the ridiculously tall tower, it seemed there were many different combinations and paths of slides that it felt somewhat daunting.

Finally, Everett reached the top of the tower, where a monitor showed the arena he was aiming for. He took note of the surroundings, right down to the color of the slide dumping its contents into the area. Hopefully if he saw a dark-green slide like that on his third run, he'd know he was on the right track.

With the okay from the lifeguard, Everett stepped up and chose the first slide. He did so slowly and methodically, tracing the paths of each slide down to their logical conclusions and seeing if he could spot anything of importance at the bottoms. Unfortunately, there were just too many paths to be taken, and it seemed that he'd just have to go on guesswork at this point. Taking a deep breath, he went down the first slide, the red one on the left.

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After an admittedly fun ride, Everett was faced with another choice. He was smack in the middle of the web of slides, so visibility was limited. Perhaps there were other ways to find clues? This was starting to become a real puzzle, and the challenge of it excited him. Two of the slides seemed simple enough, but there was something about the yellow slide on the left that called out to Everett. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that someone had carved an arrow pointing down the slide on the top of the inside of the tube. It was too rough to be put there by someone that worked at the Gym, so Everett had to wonder if this was placed by a previous challenger giving the future challengers a hint. Deciding that this was as good a cue as any, Everett took his next slide and prepared to search for clues that would hopefully lead him to the Gym Leader.

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Everett was starting to get a bit claustrophobic going through these tube-like slides. He was never a fan of them in the first place, but if that was how he had to get to the Leader, then so be it. The last set of slides was in front of him, and he was horrified to see that there were two green slides. One was on the left, and the other was in the middle. Everett tried to trace their path, but couldn't distinguish one from the other. Their shades were ever-so-slightly different, and they crossed paths more than once. This would require a little more detective work. He knelt down in front of the middle slide and found something that would hopefully clinch his success. Right in front of the entrance to the dark-green slide was a few strands of aqua-blue hair, the same color that the Gym Leader Brooke seemed to have in all her pictures. This was it! Everett braced himself and nearly shot through the last slide, hoping that he had made it successfully!