warning: its been a while, this will likely be a long update.
We last left Marcus having newly acquired surf, and on his way to Canalave city. On the way marcus met a tentacool for his first pokemon of the route, unfortunately, Bruce did a shocking amount of damage with strength, and the tentacool was OHKOd. Slightly impressed, but still very agry, marcus pushed on to the city. Upon entering, he was finally able to remove rock smash from Rachel's (gyarados) moveset, just in time for her to learn aqua tail. Having grinded his pokemon quite a bit, Marcus was confident enough to charge right into the gym. But wouldn't you know it, Steve showed up again. This battle proved incredibly easy for Marcus, Bruce, the newly evolved Medicham was dishing out tons of damage, and Rachel made quick work of monferno.
Marcus rushed into the gym, which turned out to be just as easy. A combination of high jump kick's, aqua tail's, and Earthquakes made quick work of everything in the gym, and roark's father fell without so much as a whisper of challenge. "Incredible!" shouted Marcus "You guys are unstoppable." Realizing he had completely forgotten about Iron island, Marcus set off on what would turn out to be an incredibly long grinding session. Quickly after entering, Marcus found an Onix, naming it Bruno. He fought his way to a strange man named riley, and helped him dispatch some galactic grunts. As it would turn out, Riley had an egg for marcus. carrying a full party, however, Marcus was forced to leave, and grind his way through the cave again, this extra training was welcome to his team, however, who were quickly becoming an unstoppable train of destruction.
After a visit to the library with Steve, Dawn and Rowan, Marcus agreed to set off for Lake Valor, which had, apparently, been blown up by Team Galactic. Breezing through a few trainers, he flew off to like Verity to help dawn with two galactic leaders, who quickly fled the scene at his team's great show of force. There was one more lake to visit, Rowan said, but it would prove a longer journey than Marcus expected.
Annoying as he was, Marcus knew he had to help Steve. Entering from Celestic town, he made his way to the top of mount coronet. "Finally!" shouted marcus "Out of that terrible cave". Crossing his fingers, ran through the snow to the first patch of grass he could find, hoping to find an ice pokemon. The grass rustled, and marcus turned around in excitement, only to have his hopes dashed: it was another Graveler. Unwilling to risk an explosion death, he switched in Ivan the bronzong to take the his. Unfortunately, thats exactly what graveler did. "Great" he moaned "another route with no new pokes to show for it".
Pushing through the snow, marcus battled trainer after trainer on his way up to Snowpoint city. Finding the next route marcus encountered a sneasel, and named it Sly Cooper, sending it off to the box. In the next route he found another medicham. Bruce looked confused as marcus smiled sending it to the box. Leaning in Marcus whispered "don't worry bro, i have a different plan for that guy." Reaching the city, and after visiting the pokecenter, Marcus sprinted towards the house in the top left corner of town.
Marcus:"You're the girl who'll trade a haunter for a medicham!!"
Girl: "umm... yeah. but how did-"
Marcus: "Shut up. Give me that haunter now."
Girl: "haha, ok. But heres the catch. I already gave him a stupid name and an everstone"
Marcus:" well.. whatever I have two DSs"
Girl:"Two what?"
Marcus:"I...i don't know. I'm not sure why i said that..."
Seconds later, Gaspar the haunter joined the team.
!If you're getting tired of reading, now is a good time for a break!
A few Gyro balls from Ivan and HJKs from Bruce later, Marcus picked up the icicle badge, and trudged back through the snow to help Steve. As it turned out, he had already failed, and the galactic head left the scene. Marcus, knowing they were up to now good, followed her all the way back to the HQ in veilstone. Running through what seemed like an endless amount of teleporters and galactic grunts marcus finally confronted Cyrus: team galactic's insane leader.
One long "I'm not a lunatic" speech later Marcus recieved a masterball from Cyrus. Maybe he should have listened more closely, but oh well. For some reason Cyrus let him free mesprit, uxie, and azelf, and left from mt. Coronet.
Marcus KNEW something was going down, but he couldn't bring him self to go BACK into that terrible mountain. "Come on marcus" growled Tortimer "we've fought them to long, and too hard to just give up now". "Fine" pouted Marcus "but i'm not going to enjoy it" (Marcus was wrong about that part).
Another arduous trip through the mountain left Marcus atop spear pillar with mars, jupiter, and Cyrus. Luckily, Steve showed up to help Marcus fight Jupiter and Mars. After Tortimer killed his munchlax with EQ, Steve's infernape turned out to be moderately helpful. Marcus approached Cyrus, and another long speech was coming on. It seemed to Marcus that some otherworldly power was speeding Cyru's speech up to levels he could scarcely comprehend. "Ah well" thought marcus "i'm sure its nothing important".
Using Rachel's new found ability to dragon dance, along with Gaspar's thunderbolt, Cyrus's team was dispatched with relative ease.
Next up was Palkia. Have no preset rule about what to do about this guy, Marcus felt compelled to kill it. After seeing the devastating power of its Spacial rend, however, Marcus ended up being forced to throw his masterball, lest he risk sacrificing one of his precious team members. Back in hearthome, Marcus and the team took a much needed rest.
Sorry that was super long.