Against All Odds (2011) [PG-13]

[mattbcl]

Vindicator

Part 5

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Kelly’s head tilted. “There’s no way.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “That’s what Rachel said, until she went up there and saw the fog’s not a whirling pea soup anymore. She can conduct her investigation a lot more easily now, or that’s what she says, anyway. That’s all the proof she needs to know something happened up there when I went back for Gastly.”

“You’re going to tell me you’re convinced you caught an actual bona fide ghost? Really?”

“Fine, tell it to her, then.” Jason pointed at the sixth ball on his belt. “Maybe if you convince her there’s no way, it might actually be the truth.”

“Then show me.”

He shook his head. “Not here. We need to get away from Lavender Town and somewhere there’s not gonna be a whole lot of people and Pokémon hanging around.”

“Jason, if there aren’t people around, you’re going to find a plethora of Pokémon. Or did you think wildlife was just something that happens in other corners of the world?”

“I’m talking about ones that won’t pose a threat. We head into some woods or something, there’ll just be bugs and stuff. We’re not gonna run into anything she’ll freak out at. And it should probably be at night, too. I dunno what daylight does to her but I’m not sure I wanna find out.”

Kelly’s jaw was flexing. “You sound completely deluded right now, you know that? I mean, you should hear yourself right now, it’s really something.”

“You’re stuck with me, I think you can afford to wait a few hours until nightfall to find out what I’m bringing with us.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she scoffed. She got to her feet, winced slightly, and leaned on her left foot more heavily than the right – she nearly toppled forward and into Jason, but managed to right herself before following through that potentially embarrassing trajectory.

Jason’s mask of irritation at Kelly cracked slightly at the sight of her stumble. “How’s your leg?”

“They gave me something for the swelling,” she answered, “said that was all I really needed. That and maybe a few hours off my feet, which I’ll get once we get some sleep. I should be fine tomorrow.”

“And your Ponyta?”

“She’ll be fine, too.” Kelly snorted. “Took her less time to heal up than it’s gonna take me. Wish they had the same resources for humans that they do for Pokémon.”

“We don’t heal up quite that fast even with assistance,” Jason remarked. “But physical stuff heals up easy enough. It’s what’s up here...” He tapped his temple. “That stuff doesn’t go away quite so easily.”

“Whatever.” She glanced at the local clock. “It’s not even mid-day but I think you’ve got all the adventure you came for. I know I have. So what’re you gonna do now?”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m assuming you’re going to say ‘wrong answer’ if I say anything other than ‘leave Lavender Town and go catch more Pokémon’.”

“And we have a winner.” She started towards the door, a heavy limp in her step. “Let’s get going. We both have some work to do.”

“You might be surprised to find I actually agree with you on that one,” he remarked, as he followed behind.

“What’s that, now?” She stopped and looked at him askance. “I’m not sure I heard that properly.”

“And that tells me you definitely did,” he responded, “not that you should get used to it or anything. But it’s not just a matter of capturing and training anymore... I’ve got some gyms to visit.”

She frowned. “Gyms?”

He gestured to the door and took the lead. “C’mon, I’ll tell you more about it.”

–

They traveled a fair distance beyond the edge of town; while they moved, Jason described to Kelly the illusions presented to him as rationally, concisely, and accurately as he could. He told her of the two thugs who had burned Kangaskhan alive and the “boss” who had ostensibly instructed them to do it. His description was met with consistent – though not unexpected – interruption from his companion, who spent most of her energy on questioning his sanity and the plausibility of the tale he was spinning. But he exercised as much patience as he could in the endeavor, and though it was more difficult than walking waist-deep in quicksand, he eventually got to the end of the tale – the culmination in which he realized that the murder had taken place in a Pokémon gym.

“And you think you’re just going to find this supposed murder scene by walking into a few gyms?” Kelly inquired. “I’m interested to find out exactly how you’re planning to accomplish that. Or where it’s going to lead.”

Jason shrugged. “What? Any old trainer can walk into a gym, it’s open-door policy for people with these.” He gripped his belt and shook it for emphasis. “I figure I go in, take a look around, see if it looks anything like what I saw in the picture...”

She stared at him for a moment, then let out a scorning laugh. “Just how naive are you?”

He bristled. “What’re you talking about?”

“You only go walking into a Pokémon gym to challenge people inside, and usually the gym leader at that. You want to take on other trainers in there, fine, but you better be ready to get your Pokémon beaten up and broken down, Gyarados or no Gyarados.”

“I’ve lost my fair share of matches, I’ll have you know,” he returned. “Just ‘cause I have a Gyarados doesn’t mean I’m going into any match feeling invincible.”

“Good for you. But you’re not just gonna set foot in a gym and glance around, then pop back out. That’s not the open-door policy for trainers they had in mind.”

“I’ll bet you they also didn’t set up gyms to murder Pokémon in, either,” he shot back. “I promised her I was gonna help her take care of this. This is how I’m gonna do it. Don’t think I’m gonna neglect the job I was given, I’ll do it, but I’m gonna do this, too. I’m gonna keep my promises.”

She came to a stop near the town sign and reached out a hand to brace herself against it, taking weight off her right foot. She looked hard at him for a long moment, prompting him to frown slightly. “What?”

“You really mean that.”

He blinked. “Uh. Yeah, of course I mean that. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m not sure. But whatever’s got hold of you now, I can tell, you really believe in it.” She tilted her head to one side. “Whether you made it up or not, you’re not gonna let this one out of your teeth until it’s straightened out.”

“Better believe it,” he responded. “And I’m not gonna let you or anyone else talk me out of it, either.”

“Then you’re going to have to start challenging Pokémon gyms. And you might have a problem there.”

“What’s that?”

She leveled a small smirk at him. “I think I have you pegged better than you say I do. You had to have run away from home to be in the situation you were in when you arrived at Professor Oak’s lab. And you don’t want your family to find you. But let’s assume you start challenging gyms and win – then you’ll start making a name for yourself. And sooner or later your folks will hear that name. Not terribly creative, just changing the spelling and not the actual name.”

“You’re assuming a lot.” But she’s right, he thought. That’s a complication I hadn’t thought about.

“Maybe. But I don’t think it’s too far off the mark.” Her head lolled to the other side. “So I guess the question is, can you handle what’s liable to come your way if you actually get what you’re after? For that matter, what are you after?”

“What I promised Kangaskhan I’d go after, of course,” he answered, a little hotly. “Her killers. And find her baby, too. Poor thing’s gotta be terrified out of her wits.”

“And what are you planning to do with the baby when you find her? What about the killers?”

“I’ll get the baby to Professor Oak’s lab. You made a reasonable point before about the Pokémon we capture – they go there and live great lives. She’d definitely be better off there than she is in the hands of that ‘boss’. And as for the killers...” He shrugged. “I really don’t know. But something has to happen with them.”

“Like?”

“Will you just get off me about it for three seconds?” he snapped. “I can’t think up every single little detail of a plan right on the spot! Come to think of it, listening to you talk, I can’t think, period!”

But whereas such remarks had worked on her before, she wouldn’t be deterred this time. “Look,” she said firmly, “if all this happened the way you say it did, I’m all for going after whoever did it. We might have different ideas about how to raise and train Pokémon, but we can get together on you don’t douse them in gasoline and kill them. But you have to think about what you’re going to do with them once you catch them. Do you have any evidence, or are you going to make them confess?”

“It doesn’t matter, okay?” he barked. “All I know is this Kangaskhan is hurting bad, and I wanna help her. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, and the people that did it have to pay for it somehow!”

“Jason!”

He buried both hands in his hair and groaned loudly. “What?”

“Listen to me now, damn it.” She hobbled towards him and stood directly in front of him, staring straight into his eyes. “You’re right, okay?”

“Then why the hell are you attacking me with all these questions about what I’m gonna do next?”

“Because it’s what you need to think about the most. You can’t just go running off on some harebrained quest for vengeance. If you think you can, you watch way too much television. You’ve got to figure out what your plan is going to be, or there’s no point in doing it.”

“Well, since you’ve got it all figured out, what would you do?” he asked.

“Start from the beginning,” she said, in a voice that almost sounded reasonable. “You said the guys who did it told their boss ‘it’s not like we were going to leave her in the gym’, right? So obviously it had to happen in one – but which one? Did you see any details or anything that could give you a hint, instead of just running into one gym after another?”

Jason shook his head. “No, just one light in the background. It was so bright the other guys were basically shadows. I couldn’t see a single face. All I got was their voices. But it was enough to hear.”

“If you heard their voices again, would you be able to identify them?”

“I’d say chances are, even if I couldn’t, Kangaskhan could. Pokémon are more sensitive to the differences in people than we are.”

“And that’s what you’re going to need.” She pointed at Kangaskhan’s Dusk Ball. “You’ve got something in there, and it’s definitely mad, Kangaskhan or no. It’s going to want to look for the ‘bad guys’. Obviously you can’t let it out until the time is right... but it’s been able to connect with other Ghost-Types in the tower. It has to have. They have connections like Psychic-Types can establish, just in their own way. Sharing of information and the like. Make sense?”

Jason gave her a slow nod.

“So... we keep Gastly and Haunter out with us when we’re nearing a gym. We have them look around, see if they can find any clues to hook us up with. If they get something, we’ll chase it down. If not, there’s no point looking for trouble. Sound fair?”

“All except this – I’m still going to want to see the insides of the gyms we’re visiting. Just because the guys who did it might not be around doesn’t mean it won’t be the place we’re looking for.”

She let out a long sigh. “Then you’re going to have to get yourself ready to compete. And whatever it is you’re hiding from, you’d better get ready to face up to it sooner or later, ‘cause you start battling in gyms now and your name’s going to come up in conversations outside of our earshot.”

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes to deal with that. But since that time isn’t now, I don’t think it’s something I need to worry about just yet.” He crossed his arms. “You still haven’t come up with a better solution as to what we do with the guys who did it, when we find them. We get Gastly and Haunter to tell us if they’re around – so what if they are?”

“I rather figured by that point you’d let instinct take over,” she remarked, “which, if I know you, would most likely involve letting out your Kangaskhan and using it to scare them to death. Or beat them to within half an inch of their lives. Or whatever your sense of ‘justice’ is at that point.”

“You said that’s not how it goes in ‘real life’.”

“Yeah, well, I’d be lying if I said I could think of an easy alternative. Best one I can think of, though, is to scare them so witless that they confess to what they did to spare themselves something worse happening.”

Jason snorted. “That actually might be easier than it sounds like it is. The one sounded like a meathead, and the other seemed sort of... I dunno, hesitant. Like he really didn’t want to do it, but only did it ‘cause he was told to. Only thing is, the boss told them to do it – and I’ll bet he’d be a lot harder to crack than the other two idiots.”

“It’s the two that’ll be the first concern, they’re the ones who actually did it. If you can get them to implicate him, then he’ll get in major trouble, too, one way or another. You might not even need this Kangaskhan of yours to scare him.”

He let out a breath. “Right. Okay. That makes sense.”

“Good.” She bobbed her head once. “There. We have a plan. And it only took a few minutes of chatter. See how easy that was?”

He narrowed his eyes at her as he turned towards the path and continued east, away from town. “Talk me through things, sure. But try and cut down on the patronizing stuff. I’ve gotten a pretty full stomach on that already.”

“High-calorie stuff,” she snickered, following suit. “Burn it off by learning how not to be a knucklehead. It takes some doing, but I believe in you.”

“I’m so glad.”

–

That evening, they set up camp in a field just off the beaten path that was Route 7, heading in the direction of Saffron City. Dusk had already fallen, leaving only a few stubborn streaks of sunlight to blaze for a final minute across the darkening, cloud-dotted sky. Jason had just completed constructing his tent when Kelly got the campfire established – partly thanks to her stick-gathering capabilities, and partly thanks to her Ponyta, whose Ember attack did more than just ward off unfriendly Pokémon. Jason was quick to note that she had yet to build her own tent, and he raised an eyebrow. “You do have shelter, right?”

She scowled over her shoulder. “I’m not a complete imbecile, you know. It’s important to have both shelter and a fire, and in case of emergency, yours can accommodate the both of us.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Hey, I can suck it up if you can.” She sized him up. “Not that I would expect you to know what it’s like to have a girl that close, but still...”

“Cute,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. He eyed her Ponyta, who was munching on local grass – and being very careful to keep from setting said grass aflame. Then he glanced at her belt. “You know, besides your Ponyta and your recently caught Haunter, I don’t think I’m acquainted with the rest of your team. Interested in introductions?”

She shrugged. “Not much point. You’re likely to see them in battle anyway. I told you I have a ton of training to do.”

“Yeah, but if we’re gonna be training together, we may as well show off a little, right?”

She scoffed, not even bothering to cast a glance in his direction. “Showing off is for people amped up on energy drinks, high protein diets, and testosterone. What you and I do isn’t anywhere near that. But don’t let me stop you if you want to succumb to the manly urge to demonstrate your supposedly superior power. I can assure you I won’t be all that impressed, especially since I’m already familiar with your roster.”

“Not this one, you’re not. Meet Kangaskhan.”

She turned her head just in time to see Jason launch a Dusk Ball high into the air. Orange light spilled out, but as it did, there was also a jet of purple-black smoke that wreathed about the energy beam, like a rain cloud had somehow been caught and pressurized inside the ball along with its contents. When the energized mass struck the ground, it and the smog wrapped about each other and together they congealed into an even darker cloud that seemed to be trying to take a specific shape.

“It’s all right,” Jason coaxed, and it took Kelly a moment to realize he wasn’t talking to her. “You can do it. No light, no distractions, just us. Show yourself to us.” Then he lobbed another Dusk Ball, releasing the other ghost at his disposal. “Gastly, I don’t know if you can, but see if you can help her out, here.”

“Gaas-gastly...”

Kelly saw a slightly sinister red glow in her periphery, but she didn’t take her eyes off what was directly in front of her – and the roiling cloud that hovered there sprouted legs and arms, and a tail, and a head... and then it was solid, a creature made not of vapor but of flesh and bone. Or, at least, that’s certainly what it looked like.

“Khaaan...”

Narrow eyes in Kangaskhan’s broad visage registered that there was a stranger amidst the group... and perhaps they even registered that it was a stranger it had earlier sent packing down a staircase, because the first motion it made was to take a single step in Kelly’s direction.

She would have been inclined to scream and run as fast as her legs could carry her, were she not completely riveted by what she had just witnessed. As it was, she was fastened in place – though whether by the creature in front of her or by her own fear, she wouldn’t have been able to say.

Jason saw it too, and he stepped in between the two of them and spread his arms wide. “Whoa, whoa,” he said, keeping both eyes on Kangaskhan. “She’s not gonna hurt you. You really think she could? You think I could? We’re not here for that. She travels with me, so you’re gonna see plenty of her.”

Kangaskhan came to a halt the moment Jason was there, and it tilted its head as it listened to him. A moment’s consideration, and its shoulders sagged in a heaving sigh that blew no real air at him. “Khaaan...”

“Yeah, I know, no great thrill to me, either.” He let out a wry chuckle. “You gonna be okay?”

“Kangaskhan.” Its mouth still did not move, but the tone was clear – there would be no problem... as long as no one created a problem for it.

Only then did Jason turn his head halfway away from Kangaskhan to spy Kelly out of the corner of one eye. “How about you? You all right back there?”

“I, uh...” She pressed her lips together and swallowed hard, taking a moment to properly locate her voice before attempting to use it again. “I think so.”

He looked at her for another moment, unsure of how to respond. Finally, he said, “Good.” Then he turned back to Kangaskhan and tentatively removed the other capture balls from his belt, one at a time. “All right, Kangaskhan. Time for you to meet the rest of the gang.”

–

The introduction of Paras, Rattata, and Spearow to Kangaskhan was met mostly with indifference from the much larger Pokémon. To their credit, Jason’s other companions did not demonstrate any visible signs of fear or intimidation regarding Kangaskhan; then again, what reason would they have when they were all – supposedly – on the same side?

But Gyarados was a different matter, as Jason had feared it might be. When the giant sea serpent emerged from its Poké Ball and looked Kangaskhan in the eyes, it loosed a frightful roar that resounded through the night air, and it was met with a howl from the ghostly creature that was no less agitated.

Jason’s instant response was to whip out both Gyarados’ Poké Ball and Kangaskhan’s Dusk Ball, and recall them to the recesses of those devices. His heart was pounding in his ears as two energy bolts speared out and struck his Pokémon to draw them back inside; mercifully, they offered him no resistance, but he nevertheless miniaturized them both and stuffed them back into his belt as quickly as possible.

He might have considered the look on Kelly’s face – one of abject horror – priceless were it not for the fact that he felt exactly how she looked. “Yeah,” he muttered. “Don’t do that again, right?”

By this point, she had found her tongue... and her wit. “That doesn’t even merit a response.” She reached tentatively into her backpack and withdrew a pen and a notebook, what Jason now understood to be her log on her Pokémon. Without looking at him, she asked, “So what now?”

“Now?” He shrugged. “Now we get ourselves some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll move on to Saffron City and hit the gym there.”

“You’ll have to register at the local Pokémon Center,” she reminded him. “You need to let them know you’re going professionally competitive, so they can expect to see you a little more often and give you priority when you come in.”

He blinked. “I wouldn’t have priority with a team of wounded Pokémon?”

“Teams of wounded Pokémon come in to Pokémon Centers all the time, that’s what they’re there for,” she remarked. “But the ones that just get in from gym battles are expected to have been brutalized a bit worse than your standard territorial dust-up or menial battles with bug catchers. Pokémon Centers are funded by the leagues in which they serve, so wouldn’t it make sense that they’d put a priority on the Pokémon that compete in the forums that get them their money?”

He climbed into his tent and sat down on his bedroll. “I guess that does make sense,” he admitted.

“Good. Anything else I can educate you on?”

That earned a scoff from him. “I think I’m good for now, thanks. I’m going to bed.”

“Right. Like you’re going to actually sleep while you have a Kangaskhan’s ghost as part of your team.”

He let out a wry chuckle as he laid back. “So you’re admitting it for what it is after all, huh?”

“I call it like I see it. And I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’ll be happy if I never see anything like it again. But that’s not my problem... my problem is you dealing with having her on your team.”

“That’s more my problem than yours,” he responded. “Don’t worry about it. I walked into this one, so anything that happens is gonna be on my head.”

“Well, you can say to me you understand that,” she returned, “but that doesn’t mean you know what you’re walking into. It might be something bigger even than she can handle.”

“Good thing we have you along, then.” He rolled onto his side. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He didn’t see her watch him a moment longer... nor did he hear her whisper. “Hope so.”

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© Matt Morwell, 2011

[mattbcl]

Vindicator

Part 6

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The night did not go well for Jason. During his waking moments, which were far too many for as tired as he was, he felt himself forced to admit that Kelly’s concerns might be valid after all. His dreams were less dreams than they were nightmares, no doubt a side effect of having Kangaskhan as part of his team. They were the same images it had shown him before... perhaps slightly more refined, but only marginally so. Definition to their faces still eluded him. All he could truly see of them was the deep-voiced thug was short and stocky, while his companion was tall and wiry. The boss stood somewhere in between the two.

The last straw for him had been waking in a cold sweat an hour before dawn. There he lay for a long time afterward, simply staring up at the sky, either unwilling or unable to continue the fight to sleep peacefully. The panorama above him shifted from starry evening to pale blue morning and the sun lazily peeked above the eastern horizon.

He drew in a breath and blew it out, then finally sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. His eyelids lazily drooped halfway over his eyes and he felt himself momentarily tempted to try sleeping once more... but he knew that soon enough, Kelly would awaken and they would need to hit the trail. The sooner we’re on the move, the better, he thought.

He already had most of his side of their campsite dealt with and stowed away by the time Kelly was stirring from within her tent. She poked her head out through the flap to see him securing his bedroll to the underside of his backpack. “Rough night?” she asked.

He shrugged. “About what you’d expect, I guess. You go ahead and get ready to go, I’m gonna look around, see if I can find a few Pokémon to send back to the professor.”

Jason could tell from the look on her face she was slightly surprised by that declaration, but although he was certain she had some sort of smart remark on the tip of her tongue – she always did – this time she chose not to release it.

He was careful not to even let his fingers brush across Kangaskhan’s Dusk Ball. He didn’t want to consider what might happen if he released her against a wild Pokémon... likely as not, the poor victim would run away in terror before he ever had a chance to withdraw a capture ball of any kind. Anything that wouldn’t do that is just stupid, he thought.

It was only a few minutes into his search that he heard a scuffle in the grass, followed by a yip and a growl. He turned in that direction and edged closer; he could hear more yelping and snarling in the taller grass, and abruptly there was a crackling noise and a puff of smoke that rose up in front of him.

He spread wide two fistfuls of high wheat and pushed his head beyond it to inspect the cause of the commotion. His curiosity was rewarded with the sight of two Pokémon that gave him a moment’s pause – a ruffled-looking Growlithe and a slim Vulpix, circling about each other in a clear face-off.

“Uh-oh, territorial dispute,” he muttered, before his brain could stop his mouth from working.

That was all the apparent combatants needed to look in his direction, their expressions each bearing a measure of surprise and anger... he had just interrupted their match of dominance.

...Oh, hell.

Both of them began to take steps toward him, suddenly intent upon this new and much larger intruder into their already disputed territory. His instinctive response was to reach down to his belt and withdraw the Poké Ball belonging to Gyarados; his finger jammed down on the activation stud and he tossed into the clearing in a single hurried motion. As soon as it emerged, the massive sea serpent moved in between the two diminutive Fire-Type Pokémon and blasted a roar at them loud enough to shake the ground. Instantly the Vulpix seemed to wilt from the noise without Gyarados even needing to expend the energy to look at it. The Growlithe, on the other hand, let out a defiant snarl and lunged forward to bash its head against Gyarados’ side.

Gyarados barely shifted in place. Growlithe, meantime, bounced away and let out a surprised yelp. The only reward it really earned from the attempted tackle was Gyarados’ full and undivided attention – something it quickly realized it didn’t want as Gyarados’ eyes bored into its own. It let out a whimper as Gyarados drew itself up and to full height.

“Gyarados,” Jason warned. “Go easy on these two. I want them.”

He could almost hear the dissatisfied snort in the breath of air that blew from its nostrils... but the massive snake complied with its trainer’s wishes, and broadly swept its tail around. There was no feasible way for Growlithe to dodge the attack and it had no choice but to be struck; it let out another yelp, this time of pain, and bounced once across the grassy clearing. The tail continued moving and impacted against Vulpix, as well, which even now was still cowering under the intimidating presence of Jason’s pride and joy. The small red fox landed not too far away from Growlithe and lay on the ground perfectly still – playing dead, he thought. Looks pretty timid. Maybe that’ll make it a little easier to catch.

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a pair of Poké Balls even while Growlithe looked interested in struggling its way back to its feet. “Gyarados, again for that one, but not too hard.”

Gyarados obliged; as it did so, Jason relinquished just enough trust in his Pokémon to turn to Vulpix and cast a ball in its direction. Only at the last instant did it realize the ball was hurtling toward it, and it had no time to react. The ball transformed it into energy in one instant and encapsulated it in the next, then hit the ground and rolled about for several seconds – then came to a slow stop, and vanished into a red haze.

Jason smirked, then turned around, and saw that Gyarados had actually grabbed Growlithe up in its mouth and was bearing it to Jason not unlike a pet Persian carrying a half-eaten Rattata or Pidgey to its owner’s doorstep, proud of the kill it had made. For a single moment, Jason feared that Gyarados had done the poor creature in – but no, it was still breathing, and one eye was still open. Gyarados’ jaws had caught it at the nape of its neck, effectively paralyzing it and making it unable to struggle any further.

Jason tilted his head. “Huh. Not bad. Now drop him.”

Almost before Growlithe hit the ground, another Poké Ball went flying to capture its prey. Like its predecessor, the ball did not fail its owner and kept Growlithe contained within until the Pokémon could no longer battle its own capture.

“I guess the words ‘not bad’ work well enough.”

Jason scoffed and removed Gyarados’ Poké Ball from his belt to recall his Pokémon. “Now you gonna reward yourself for hocking me into a capturing frenzy?”

“Not really in a position to reward myself for anything regarding you,” Kelly noted, and she stepped past the grass she’d been patiently waiting behind. “And I wouldn’t really call four Pokémon plus a ghost a ‘frenzy’. But I can treat myself to a few new Pokémon here and there. Just caught a Bellsprout and sent it off to the professor. I might trade in for it, though... I kind of like Bellsprouts.”

“You? Liking something?” Jason chuckled and brushed his hands off on his vest, moving to return to the campsite. “Who’d have thought?”

“Shut up.” She pursed her lips and crossed her arms while following behind him. “Anyway, I’m ready to go.”

“Good. Let’s get to it.”

–

The day was mostly devoted to traveling the path to Saffron City and finding as many Pokémon as slight deviations from that path would allow. Jason’s distinct sense of urgency relating to the mission he’d accepted from Kangaskhan was, he knew, as much from himself as it was from her. He wanted to help her find her killers... she really wanted to find her killers. He wondered if perhaps it was that urgency that was inhibiting his ability to formulate a concrete plan.

Grasses and wooded areas together created a fascinating mixture of terrain to choose from while walking the beaten path, which was paved in some areas and merely packed dirt in others. It was as though developers had considered the region with promise, but given up for some unknown reason in the middle of building what they considered a “modern” road. Jason could only imagine some Pokémon likely took issue with the polluting nature of some chemicals found in road tar. Trampling their homes... not such a good idea, he mused. He recalled hearing of at least a couple architects trying to invent some new, environmentally-friendly tar based on the gunk produced by Grimers and Muks, but he doubted it would gain much popularity unless they could find a way to extract the heinous odors present in the bodily fluids of those Pokémon.

His continued pursuit of Pokémon, further egged on by Kelly, culminated in the discovery and subsequent captures of a Mankey and a Meowth, each of which having been made to face not Gyarados, but a slightly “lesser” member of the team. For Mankey, it was Spearow – Jason saw no sense in putting any of his own Pokémon in greater danger than they needed to be – while Meowth confronted Rattata. In each case, Jason felt both pride in his own Pokémon’s abilities, as well as thankfulness that he’d had the foresight to stock up on curative items. Mankey might not have been able to deliver much of a hit on a winged creature, but Meowth had gotten in a few good scratches on Rattata, leaving Jason to put a healing potion to good use.

Jason knelt down and scratched Rattata behind the ears; the purple-furred rodent slapped a rear foot against the ground in a display of ecstasy more reminiscent of dogs than members of its various relative species. He looked up at Kelly. “Have we reached frenzy level yet?” he inquired.

“You’ve reached twenty Pokémon,” she answered. “Which I suppose might be admirable to some, but you might find that a lot of trainers, even the choosy ones, will have at least twice as many as that after the same amount of time spent on their journeys. So don’t let yourself swell up with too much pride just yet.”

He rolled his eyes. “Let’s be serious, if you saw that I had every cradle in my five hundred slots filled, you’d want me to go ask Professor Oak to give me another shelf.”

She shrugged. “Doubt it. Honestly, I’ve got really no emotional investment or interest whatsoever in your collection. Just a professional one. The sooner you’ve satisfied the professor on what he wants, the sooner the two of us can go our own ways, and I’m sure we’ll both be much happier for it. So as far as that goes, I’m glad to see you’re taking the collection business a little more seriously than you seemed to be before.”

“Well, that’s something, I guess.” He returned Rattata to its ball, then glanced at his watch. “Almost noon. Think we can make it into town before two? I wanna get this thing going.”

“Didn’t you say we’re traveling at your pace, anyway?” she remarked. “Move as fast or as slow as you want. Bet you I can keep up just fine.”

A dull roar met their ears, coming up behind them on the main throughway. They turned, and saw a pair of motorcycles tearing up the road and belching black smoke. Jason couldn’t recall offhand the last speed limit sign he’d seen on the road, but he was fairly certain these two were in great excess of it – and the motorcycles were nearly upon them in the time it had taken him to conceive that thought, looking for all the world like they might actually run the two teens over.

But then, in tandem, they came to a screeching halt, grinding the dirt even more and throwing up a tan cloud that intermingled with the dark smoke from their mufflers. The rider on the left, a muscular sort with a mohawk and a leather vest hanging from the shoulders of an otherwise bare torso, had stopped a few feet ahead of his compatriot, and he peered over his handlebars and shook a fist at Jason and Kelly. “Hey, you kids!” he shouted. “Do the world a favor and move your issues off the road!”

Jason and Kelly responded in unison. “You first!” They exchanged looks upon the revelation that they’d said the same thing, for once in complete agreement with each other.

The second motorcyclist glowered down at them from his mount. “Get lost, kids, some of us actually need the road and don’t have time to stop. Ought to be glad we did at all.”

“You expecting thanks for that?” Jason snapped back.

“I didn’t see any sign saying this road belonged only to punks with mufflers between their legs,” Kelly supplemented.

The first rider let out a spiteful bark of a laugh, and threw down his bike’s kick stand. “Sounds like fighting words to me,” he answered. He tilted his head in the direction of his companion. “What do you say, Ric?”

The other biker, who seemed almost a mirror image of his fellow rider, likewise put down his kick stand and dismounted his vehicle. He wore a smirk that suggested a wealth of self-confidence. “Sounds like they could use a lesson in manners, Jaren.”

“Manners?” Kelly spluttered, while at the same time, Jason scoffed, “Yeah, right!” But they both recognized the danger being presented to them – these two were actually rather imposing from a physical standpoint – so their hands hovered tentatively near their capture ball belts.

The one called Jaren didn’t miss the hesitant gestures and chuckled. “Actually, looks like they’re fairly itchin’ for a fight, now, Ric. Well, let’s get to it, then, we’ve gotta get back to the rest of the group soon.” He got off his own bike and stood to the left side of the road, in direct opposition to Jason. “Think I want this one, he looks like he wants a bigger bite than he can chew.”

“You have no idea how right that is,” Kelly muttered, which got her a sidelong glare from her companion; but then her attention became occupied by Ric, who had removed a Poké Ball from his leather jacket and already enlarged it.

“S’fine with me, I don’t mind seconds. Long as they’re not sloppy.” He leered at her. “I got four-sixty says you can’t handle a two-on-two.”

“Give me a break,” she scoffed, but all the same, she removed from her belt the Friend Ball in which she had captured Haunter. “You want to show me you’re not a chump, don’t put up chump change.”

Jaren let out a bark of a laugh at her remark and the scowl it earned from her opponent. “Well, she showed you,” he said, then he turned to Jason. “Mine’s four-eighty and I’m game for a two-on-two.”

“Some big spender you are,” Jason responded. “But sure, I’ll match. Bring it on.”

Almost as one, the two bikers tossed their Poké Balls into the road, now an impromptu arena for their battle. The one Jaren had chosen revealed itself to be a Grimer, a sentient purple pile of sludge that seemed as likely to collapse upon itself as perform in a battle with any hint of adequacy. To the other side, Ric had sent forth a Koffing – a porous balloon-shaped creature that, like its companion, was the dark violet color of the poisonous properties their bloods shared, and it was held aloft by a brownish cloud of even more toxic vapors.

Kelly’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Normally I might have objected to fighting in the road but now I’m glad we didn’t move out of the way. Those things kill the environment.”

“Then show us your Pokémon, already,” Ric snapped.

“Gladly.” She enlarged her Friend Ball and her Haunter was released into the air. Its eyes glowed a fierce red and the grin across its face was nothing short of sadistic; when Jason looked at it, he half-expected it to be rubbing its hands together like some fiendish arch-villain out of the cartoons he’d used to watch in his early years.

“Let’s go, slowpoke!” Jaren called, and it was only then that Jason realized he’d yet to release a Pokémon of his own into the battle.

“Uh...” Jason fumbled for a moment, leaving the other three combatants to roll their eyes and mutter various curses under their breaths. Inwardly he cursed both himself and them – himself for being so dumbfounded, them for their reactions. Fine, if they’re going to act like that, let’s see what these jokers think of this! “Let’s take it to ‘em, Gyarados!”

Gyarados let out a violent roar upon solidifying, and it had a satisfying effect on the opposing Grimer – suddenly its Poison-Type antagonist didn’t look quite like it was prepared to battle. But Jaren seemed annoyingly unmoved by the huge sea serpent, and crossed his arms confidently. “Grimer, give Gyarados a Sludge attack!”

Ric was quick to get on his companion’s heels. “Koffing, use Smokescreen!”

Although it had been Grimer to receive the first instruction, Koffing was the first to move – and it didn’t move so much as it sprayed. From each of the crater-like pores in its bulbous body there wafted a dark, inky haze that seemed to take on a life of its own and quickly spread across their side of the field like a wall. Jason exchanged a quick look with Kelly; but that was his mistake, because through the darkness there emerged a fistful of dark purple muck that struck Gyarados squarely in the face.

Jason winced in sympathy while Gyarados shook its massive head, trying to rid itself of the disgusting mess that had just assaulted it... but then the trainer realized the sludge was going to do more than that, as he saw some of the briny fluid swimming about in Gyarados’ eyes. The poison a Grimer produces can be controlled by it, to some extent, he recalled from his studies, and if it’s in Gyarados’ eyes, it’s not going to stay there for very long. Grimer will make it travel through his system and weaken him. Better get this fight overwith while I can!

Kelly was staring at Jason cockeyed over the upper edge of her glasses, reminding him a little too much of his teachers back home, and he knew what she was thinking – I’m an idiot for putting my best Pokémon out there like it’s invincible. Yeah, yeah...

But she returned her gaze to the opposing side of the field and loosed her first order of the battle. “Haunter, use Confuse Ray on Koffing!”

Haunter wasted no time in following her command, waving its hands about in front of it as though operating a marionette. Jason almost felt hypnotized by the effect himself, even though he knew that was an impossibility; it was intended only for its target. And in spite of the murky cloud between them, Haunter’s attack found its mark – Kelly’s mouth turned up in a grim smirk when she spotted Koffing suddenly spinning erratically in place.

Jason took a deep breath and looked up at Gyarados. The massive Pokémon was still futilely trying to blink away the slime in its vision; and Jason could already see an odd violet hue propagating in spider-web fashion beneath Gyarados’ translucent blue scales. Let’s try to make this both impressive and fast. Grimer’s not gonna like this one so much... “Gyarados, Earthquake!”

Kelly held up a hand in warning. “Jason, wait, not on the road–!”

But it was too late, and Gyarados – either in sympathy with Jason’s sense of urgency or simply complying with its own – was already in motion. It arched backward, and then slammed the bulk of its body into the ground, instantly creating an impact crater around it. A crag in the earth formed, and the split snaked with uncanny accuracy towards Grimer. It let out a bass cry just before the crack split beneath its oily form; the creature, with no proper bodily structure to speak of, had no choice but to leak into the crevice.

All at once, the crag snapped shut in a rolling shudder that nearly forced all four trainers off their feet entirely – and it seemed for one terrifying instant that Grimer had been forever trapped. But before anyone could react, another mighty shake of the ground forced an irregular chunk of the road to suddenly eject upward almost as high as Jason was tall.

And against one side of that chunk was a thick purple smear with a quivering face. The horrifying fluid that comprised Jaren’s Grimer rolled down the side of the newly-formed boulder and pooled amidst the rubble at its base. It did not rise back up to fight, however, and Jason could not blame it for that – he would have found it unnerving if it had.

The look Jaren cast at Jason was not one of defeat or irritation, but one of equal parts anger and horror. It seemed to say, How could you do that to my Pokémon?!

All of a sudden, Jason realized he didn’t have an answer for that question – and now he understood why Kelly had tried to warn him. Maybe she knew something like that would happen... or maybe she was just worried about what it would do to the road itself. Whichever... I’m not sure if I even wanna battle now, after that...

Grimer was already going back into its trainer’s ball, and Jaren, for his part, looked like he was out for more than just victory in a Pokémon battle. “You’re gonna pay for that, kid!” he bellowed, and he tossed out another ball. “Muk, let’s get him back for that!”

The creature that emerged from Jaren’s second ball was much in appearance as its predecessor had been, but larger, thicker, and possibly more disgusting than Grimer. Its voice was also deeper, and it belched out a defiant contrabass “Muuuk!” that rumbled the ground.

Jason narrowed his eyes at the Pokémon. “It’s just a bigger version of your Grimer, you think an Earthquake won’t beat him, too?”

“He’s my Grimer’s father,” Jaren snapped, “and I spent a lot of time an’ care on him. He’s not gonna like you splattering his kid. Muk, take it to him with Mean Look, for starters!”

Jason tilted his head while Muk affixed Gyarados with as angry and determined a stare as he had ever seen his own Pokémon give to anything else. Though it was not truly an attack upon Gyarados, Jason knew the effect it would have – Gyarados won’t return to his Poké Ball until either he’s down or Muk is. That’s not gonna be good as long as he’s poisoned.

Ric, meantime, seemed to be addled as to how to handle his Koffing, which was still spinning about uncontrollably. “Koffing, snap out of it, man! Show Haunter a Smog attack!”

Kelly loosed a sharp, unamused laugh. “What are you, brain-dead? That won’t even slow Haunter down – assuming the attack even goes through at all.”

In spite of her prediction, or perhaps because of it, Koffing seemed to gather just enough focus to straighten itself out and perform the attack: a blast of horrendous black smoke that surrounded Haunter entirely and closed about it like a vice. But Haunter’s glowing red eyes continued to pierce through even that veil, so bright that they could be seen from either side of its body... a fair enough indication that it was hardly even fazed by the attack.

“That’s it, Haunter, now use Shadow Punch!” Kelly encouraged.

The twin red jewels within the smog cloud vanished – at the same time, Koffing let out a yell and sharply tumbled backwards, almost into its trainer. As it recovered, Haunter reappeared near Kelly, chuckling and cracking the knuckles if its right hand.

Jason didn’t dare reach out to touch Gyarados in the middle of battle, but he did snap at it to acquire its attention from Mean Look. “Gyarados! You can take him, now prove it!” He stopped himself before he could instruct it to perform another Earthquake attack, however, at the sight of Kelly’s pointed glare in his direction. Pick something else? Okay, then... “Use Bite!”

He felt something in his stomach lurch when Gyarados lunged out and clamped its jaws about Muk, comprised as it was of nothing but appalling, death-tempting fluid, and knew instantly that he regretted giving Gyarados that instruction – if anything, it was simply going to hasten the serpent’s defeat by ingesting even a teaspoon of Muk’s filth. Nevertheless, Gyarados’ constitution seemed to hold out and Muk let out a roar of pain and anger.

Jaren wasn’t content to let the poisons coursing through Gyarados’ system to have all the fun, however, and while Gyarados still had its mouth clamped about Muk, he shouted out, “Muk, you’ve got him close, use Thunderpunch!”

Oh, great... “Gyarados, get out of the way!” Jason called. But there was no time for Gyarados to comply; Muk, with surprising quickness, had congealed a fist out of its mass of purple slime, and that fist was sparking with electrical fury. Just as Gyarados was releasing its jaws from its foe, Muk slammed its fist into Gyarados just beneath its gullet, and the great serpent seized and shuddered uncontrollably as thousands of volts were released into it. Jason almost thought he could see steam rising from it once the attack had taken its course, and Gyarados recoiled with its head hanging low.

He needs to retreat, he can’t keep taking this kind of punishment. But I can’t call him back because of Mean Look! Jason grit his teeth. The only way for Gyarados to win this one is Earthquake, but if I do it again...

“Koffing!” Ric shouted. “Use Assurance!”

But this time, instead of obeying, Koffing spun even more rapidly on several axes at once, and then suddenly erupted into a massive fireball that bowled its trainer over. The other three combatants winced and shielded their eyes, but the incident had taken only an instant; when the vapors cleared, Koffing was a charred, deflated pile on the ground, in no condition to battle further. The dark haze that had provided cover to the bikers’ side evaporated, leaving the field as clear to the eye as it had been in the beginning.

“I don’t think Selfdestruct was what you had in mind,” Kelly remarked, “was it?”

Ric sneered, then recalled his fainted Pokémon to its ball and tossed out another to take its place. “So maybe Koffing doesn’t cut it, but I’ll bet my Grimer can!”

When the declared Pokémon arrived on the field, looking like a cousin to its compatriot to its right, Kelly scoffed. “Nothing but Poison-Types? You guys need to change it up more. Haunter, Shadow Punch!”

Again, Haunter vanished into thin air at the command, and Grimer seemed to recoil from nothing at all a moment later; it hadn’t even had time to try to put up a guard, to say nothing of figuring out where the attack would have come from anyway.

Gyarados was lurching sickly to one side, and the dark poisons running through its bloodstream had corrupted its color almost entirely by now, but it still appeared to want to fight. Jason’s lips were set in a grim line. I’ve gotta do it. “Gyarados, Earthquake, one more time!”

“Jason!” Kelly protested.

Gyarados was not content to hear her argument, however, and it slammed into the ground full-force once more. It produced a different effect than it had before – instead of creating a fissure for Muk to fall into, the attack caused the massive boulder to Muk’s right side to shudder and crack, and then crumble into a rock slide that washed over the creature of sludge in a bath of gravel and tar. The ground trembled and quaked beneath the combatants’ feet a moment more, and then the slice of road Muk had been occupying jutted into the air, becoming more of a pedestal or monument to the overwhelmed Pokémon.

A slime-covered hand punched its way out through the rubble that had buried its owner, and a moment later Muk wormed its way out through the hole it had created – still able to fight, but obviously weakened, as its movement was less like quicksilver and more like peanut butter. It belched out a low “Muuuk...” as it emerged and slid down the side of the outcropping.

Gyarados, on the other hand, was not so fortunate; the Earthquake attack had taken everything out of it, and it now lay prostrate on the ground, unable to continue any further. Jason resisted the urge to react in a myriad of unsavory ways at having arguably his best Pokémon go down to a pile of garbage and simply held out its ball. “Gyarados, return.”

“S’what you get, kid,” Jaren sneered, “thinkin’ you can just mouth off like that an’ get away with it. Bring on your next one, I’ll take that out, too.”

Jason shot a sideways glance at Kelly, who like the others was waiting to see what he would do. She has an edge with her Haunter, he’s barely taken any damage yet and he can resist Grimer’s poison. I’d better follow suit on that one. He plucked a Dusk Ball from his belt and tossed it up. “Let’s go, Gastly!”

When Gastly emerged from its ball, it had only to take one look around the field to know why it had been called upon, and it looked eagerly at Muk. In fact, it almost looked to Jason as though it were... salivating?

“Poison. Poison all around,” Kelly muttered.

“Let’s see how it measures up to this,” Jaren announced. “Muk, use Payback!”

Jason felt himself stiffen while Muk whirled its fist about. That’s gonna hurt Gastly a lot...

The punch was thrown, Muk’s arm extending across the field like a thick, slime-covered bungee cord. And though Gastly should have been immaterial enough for the strike to simply pass through it, Muk’s fist hit its mark and clobbered Jason’s relatively weak Ghost-Type Pokémon between the eyes. Gastly could offer no resistance to the attack and it rolled backwards through the air, a beach ball amidst a hurricane. It righted itself after a moment, but it sagged in midair and for a brief moment Jason feared the strike had been a one-hit knockout. But no... Gastly stayed aloft, albeit with a loud, shuddering moan of pain.

“Gotta get you to train my Grimer someday, Jaren,” Ric said in admiration. Then he turned to his side of the battle. “Grimer, use Sludge!”

Kelly scoffed again. “Haunter, Sucker Punch!”

Just as Grimer had reared its hand back to launch a glob of gunk at its opponent, Haunter vanished from sight again, this time to reappear an instant later directly in front of its opponent. It delivered a brutal gut punch to the poison-covered Pokémon, causing Grimer to temporarily lose its cohesion and splash back into its own puddle of goo. By the time it regained control of itself, Haunter had already returned to its own side of the field.

Grimer then launched its attack as it had intended to, but whereas the sludge had proven nothing short of deadly for Gyarados, it seemed to simply absorb into Haunter’s semi-transparent form instead. The phantasm let out a belly laugh. “Honta-honta-ha-haaa!”

“You made my Pokémon laugh. Consider that your biggest accomplishment in this battle,” Kelly noted.

Jason clenched his teeth together as he prepared for his next command. Could be the last move Gastly gets in... better make it count. But it looks like Muk is almost down, so it should work. “Gastly, use Night Shade!”

“Gaaasss...” Gastly let out another quavering moan and shuddered in place, seeming to phase out of reality entirely with its movement – and then Jason’s eyes were drawn to Muk, which suddenly seemed to have a miniature black cloud descend all around it like a cloak. There was a muffled belch that erupted from it... and then the black fog lifted, to the sight of Muk collapsing upon itself and bubbling down.

Jason pumped his fist in victory. “Yes!” he cheered.

“Gaa-gaa...” Gastly also appeared elated, or at least as much as it could seem that way – but there was no mistaking it was still reeling from the pain of Muk’s Payback punch. Still, it’s over now, and a good thing, too, Jason thought. It probably couldn’t take another one of those. He pulled out his PDA and held it up for Jaren to see. “All right, you said four-eighty. An apology wouldn’t hurt, either.”

Jaren scoffed and removed his own PDA from his pocket. “Got nothin’ to apologize to you for, short stuff, but a wager’s a wager.” He tapped in a command; Jason’s device beeped a moment later, letting him know the transaction was complete.

Kelly’s reaction to the sight of Jaren’s defeat was to cross her arms and look pointedly at Ric. “If his Muk couldn’t beat a Gastly, your Grimer isn’t going to do any better against my Haunter. Maybe you want to give up now before I whomp you?”

Ric scowled at Kelly in return for a long moment, and his mouth opened to offer a response – but whatever he had to say didn’t come out. Instead, his gaze shifted from her to a point on the horizon between the two teenage combatants, which in turn caused them to likewise frown and look at whatever it was that had grabbed his attention.

Just over the next hill, they could see a trio of motorcycles much like the ones Jaren and Ric had been riding, coming from the direction of Saffron City. Even from this distance, they could see the long, disheveled black hair the lead biker was sporting, styled in a horrendous mohawk that only drew attention to his bulbous head. Perhaps more striking than this, however, was the presence of a Pokémon astride his handlebars – a Flareon whose ears were flared out from the force of the wind against them.

“Who’s that? Harris?” Ric said, squinting at the trio.

Jaren let out what sounded like a sigh of relief. “Yeah, Harris, and he’s got Zeke and Dwayne with him.”

“So what do I do? I was about to give up to this chick.”

Jaren tilted his head at Ric. Ric shrugged. “I mean, she’s right, it’s stupid to keep fighting if all that’s gonna happen is Grimer gets flattened.”

“Fine,” Jaren scoffed, “you can do that if you want, but Harris might not like it. Wouldn’t expect him to try to get that money back for you.”

Jason was working hard not to give them any visible reaction, but he was suddenly starting to feel very unsure about the circumstances. That Flareon looks like less of a pushover than Muk was. And who knows what the other two guys have? I don’t like the idea of having to face this many trainers, especially after Gyarados is down and Gastly’s barely keeping it together.

Kelly lent voice to Jason’s concerns. “Hang on,” she said. “Battling you guys is one thing, but you can’t just foist your buddies on us ‘cause you decided to be sore losers.”

“We’re not being sore losers,” Jaren returned. “We lose, we pay the wager. But we aren’t the only members of our gang, so if you wanna take one of us, you better be ready to take all of us.”

“Hey, it’s not like we wanted the fight,” Jason protested. “It was you guys that came roaring up at us like you were gonna run us over. What, you’re gonna try and push us around just because you think you can? ‘Cause that’s why we’re standing here right now.”

“Good for you, kid, you pushed back,” Ric snapped. “Now our friends can show you what it’s like to fall down.”

And then there was no more time to argue the point – the three new bikers were bearing down behind Kelly and Jason. The leader stayed directly behind them, while his wingmen went to either side of the teens, leaving them effectively encircled by the gang.

The leader hopped off his bike and stepped forward. As he did, his Flareon jumped up onto his right shoulder, posture never altering from head thrust far forward; it seemed determined to stare pointedly at whatever was directly in front of it. When the leader spoke, it was with a thick brogue. “What’s all this, now?”

“Hey, Harris,” Jaren spoke up. “We were on our way to meet you when we, uh... we had to slow down for these kids.”

“Slow down. You’re funny.” Harris’ tone didn’t sound remotely amused, and his sallow face spoke far more to irritation than anything else. “You know, maybe if you weren’t wasting your time on battling riffraff, maybe – just maybe – you might have arrived on time.”

“Riffraff?” Kelly repeated, and she started to step forward... but Jason held up a hand to indicate she should stop; his expression imparted to her his opinion that this argument was not theirs just yet.

“C’mon, Harris, we were trying to get there as fast as we could,” Ric said. “Besides, what difference does it make if we miss the appointment? You guys were there, right?”

“What difference?” Harris scoffed. “He had five ready for us, one apiece. You know dumb and disorganized it looks when two clients out of five don’t even show up? I even tried to cover for you two – I told him you’d be getting there in just a minute. But he didn’t have a minute, and he wasn’t gonna give me Pokémon that weren’t for me. So now I look like a bloomin’ idiot who can’t control the group, and you two are out what could have been really strong Pokémon for yourselves... ‘stead of that Muk you’re so fond of.”

“Hang on, there’s a reason I’m fond of him, I put a lot of time and effort into him,” Jaren returned... but the weight of conviction was not behind his words, leaving the protestation sounding half-hearted at best.

Harris seemed to seize upon that hesitation. “Fat lot o’ good that did you, you got two KO-ed Pokémon to show for it.” At the confused looks from all four combatants, he chucked a thumb at the wingman on Kelly’s right. “When we came up over the hill, Zeke saw you were already at it, so we just stopped and waited. I figured, maybe these two kids challenged you to a battle? Maybe they got in the way, wouldn’t let you past without getting run over?” He arched an eyebrow at Jason. “How ‘bout it, kid? You keepin’ my guys from goin’ where they need to go?”

Jason spread his arms wide. “Hey, they were the ones shouting at us to get off the road. We’d have moved, probably, if they’d said it nicer, or maybe they could have off-roaded for all of two seconds. They don’t own it all and we didn’t feel like being pushed around.”

Harris stroked his chin for a moment. “Well... gotta say I admire your spirit, kid. But now, you know, I have to battle you, and so do Dwayne and Zeke here.”

Kelly frowned. “What for?”

“Well, honor system, for one thing.” He pointed at Ric and Jaren, who both were looking suitably ashamed. “These guys are blockheads, but they’re still my blockheads, and I’m gonna make sure they’re fought for.”

“Their Pokémon already fought for them and lost, that should be the end of the story,” Jason answered.

Harris shook his head. “Nope, goes further than that. Brothers fight for each other, you know? Blood or not, you get your brothers’ and sisters’ backs or you don’t deserve to have any. Any one of them, they’d fight for me, or each other. We all help each other out. Got me?”

Jason held up his hand again, this time in Harris’ direction. “I don’t want to battle you.”

A dark smirk passed across the motorcyclist’s face. “Well, like it or not, kid, I’m here to battle you, and you can’t turn down a challenge once issued... and even if you tried, we’d be making sure that wouldn’t happen. So show me what you got.”

Jason felt his heart begin to race at the prospect of having to continue the fight against three more people. Even with Kelly helping out, I don’t think I have anything that can beat that Flareon on his shoulder... and if she hasn’t had this much field time, she won’t have anything that powerful, either...

He felt a shuddering on his belt.

He frowned and looked down. The Dusk Ball in which Kangaskhan had been caught was physically trembling on his waist – and its shaking was becoming more violent with each instant. Before he could even consider options as to what to do about it, the ball shook off his belt entirely and bounced to the ground.

Harris tilted his head, and Jason didn’t have to look at the others to sense them engaging in similar reactions. But it was only Harris that offered a vocal response. “What’s that, now?”

The ball shook again, and rolled onto the stud in its center, causing it to enlarge.

Then it split open, pouring orange energy and dark smoke up into the air.

–

Harris and his gang stood in the darkness of the vast room; the gang leader was feeling acutely aware of how cold it was in the open space, despite the brightness of the singular floodlight aimed in their direction – it threatened to overwhelm his vision. He restrained the urge to tug on the collar of his shirt... it seemed to be closed about his neck uncomfortably.

The sharp voice that had greeted him upon entry had not yet spoken in response to the tale he had been brought in to tell. He began to wonder if its owner had actually left the room during the story.

But then, after another lengthy moment, it did deign to offer up a reply. “I expect better from my employees... even secondhand ones. I don’t offer you Pokémon simply out of the charity of my heart. I expect you to use them. If that’s a goal you can’t accomplish, I suggest you inform me now, so that I may take back what was given you and redistribute it to those who can.”

“Hold up,” Harris protested. “Maybe you didn’t hear me say phrases like, ‘it came out of nowhere’ and ‘they disappeared’. Other than the ball falling off his belt, what warning did we have? And even then, we had no idea what was gonna pop out of there.”

“To enact momentum on a capture ball while still inside it takes an incredible concentration of will and strength. This is to say nothing of actually escaping one. You won’t find that just anywhere. That should have been sufficient warning for you. You should consider yourself fortunate the creature did not obliterate you and your cohorts where you stood.”

“Hey, you said you gave us Pokémon that would do the job.”

“Yes, to capture it, but it would appear someone else already has,” the voice hissed; Harris tried not to flinch or cringe, but only succeeded in holding back the latter. “And by himself, at that. An extraordinary feat, I should think, considering three of you in supposed tandem were unable to contain it. It should have been five of you fighting for this prize on my behalf. A shame two of your number could not seem to get their act together enough to arrive on time for their part of the transaction. But then again, given the apparently phenomenal conglomeration of incompetence that stands before me, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Harris glowered – the only word he’d understood out of that chain of big ones, and maybe the only one he needed to, was incompetence. “Let’s see you do better,” he challenged. “Go find the kid and fight him yourself, see what happens when he drops that ball on your ass.”

A dark chuckle escaped the shadows and rebounded about the theater. “That won’t be necessary. But you do give me a proper idea... I’m to understand the boy won a wager. Give me the PDA used to transfer his reward to him and you can keep the Pokémon I gave you.”

Harris looked to Jaren, who had a distinctly unhappy look on his face at the idea the leader would consider this option. “Dude, Harris, I didn’t even get a Pokémon from this guy. Now I gotta give up my PDA?”

“Hand it over,” Harris growled, and he stuck his hand out expectantly. Jaren groaned, but did as he was told. Harris extended the handheld device into the darkness before him – he felt something take it from him, but he couldn’t determine what manner of appendage had grabbed it.

Jaren couldn’t contain himself, and he called out, “What are you gonna do with it?”

“Simple data retrieval. All PDA’s retain information on the trainers with whom you make monetary transfers, such as wagers in a Pokémon battle. I want to know about this boy with a ghost on his belt.”

Suddenly, there was a loud clatter on the wood floor, and the biker gang could hear the sound of something shattering underfoot – and it took no genius amongst them to realize it was the device he’d just taken from them.

“What a terrible accident,” the voice murmured. “I hope that was insured.” Before Harris or his cohorts could summon a reply, the voice hardened and snapped. “Now get out of my sight, before I decide a similar fate for you.”

There was not one amongst them that had ever felt so grateful to see sunlight as they did when they escaped the building. Jaren cast one last, forlorn look at it before they scrambled away to their motorcycles and rode out of town.

Viridian City Gym

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© Matt Morwell, 2011

[mattbcl]

Vindicator

Part 7

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Kelly grabbed Jason’s arm, an unspoken plea to stop moving. When he obeyed the silent directive, she hunched over, hands on her knees, and gasped for breath as quietly as she could. He frowned at her. “You’re in decent shape and you walk Pokémon paths all day,” he murmured, “you can’t be that badly winded.”

“Yes, I can,” she hissed. “I’m not usually running full speed away from an ambush. What the hell happened back there?”

“How should I know?” he returned.

“You should know ‘cause she’s your Kangaskhan,” was her answer – and Jason found it difficult to disagree. “What happened?”

He shrugged helplessly. “I guess... maybe she sensed we were being backed into a corner with those guys. That’s all I’m guessing, I don’t know for sure.”

“So she senses we’re backed into a corner and she pops out to defend us?”

“Probably not defend so much as lash out. She’s been wanting to do that ever since she was killed. Now she has the power to turn it around on anyone that tries it again – if you had that kind of power, wouldn’t you want to use it just that way?”

Kelly slowly straightened up. “I guess,” she admitted. She frowned at Jason. “How is it you still have your breath in you? You had to run as hard as me.”

“I grew up on the Orange Islands, I’m used to swimming that fast. After that, running’s no big deal to me.” He crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree, then looked around in idle curiosity. “Where did you take us, anyway?”

“The sign said ‘Underground Path’, genius, I think you can figure it out from there.” She chucked her thumb at the building behind them, from which they’d made their exit only a few moments before. “I figured they wouldn’t be riding their bikes into a building like that, so it seemed like the best place to gain some ground away from them. Besides, it sounded like the group was supposed to head east from Saffron. The fog’s probably cleared up by now, they’ll be on their way and none the wiser.”

“Yeah, but that took us all the way to the other side of Saffron. Isn’t the gym supposed to be on the east end of town?”

“Maybe you’d like to rephrase that to include a bit of gratitude?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I did just get us away from those bikers. All you could do was just stand there like a blithering idiot and watch Kangaskhan rip their Pokémon to shreds.”

“Yeah, good thing you’re not speaking literally,” Jason muttered. “But yeah. Thanks. You’re right.” He shook his head. “That whole battle was just a terrible idea.”

“And I didn’t even get any winnings from it,” she pointed out. “At least you got something for your trouble.”

“What, you want me to split what I got with you?”

She tilted her head. “That’s an uncharacteristically generous offer.”

“I just don’t feel like hearing you complain about it. You already have so many other things you’re just gonna go on and on about...”

She smacked his shoulder. “Shut up. You wanted to go to the Saffron gym, Mr. I Can Swim My Running Speed In The Orange Islands, suck it up and take a few extra paces to make it work.”

“Yeah, yeah... first thing, to the Pokémon Center. Didn’t you say I had to register?”

“I did, and you do.” She scoffed. “Kind of surprised you listened to me. You’re so good at ignoring me any other time.”

“Not that good.” Jason gestured to the pathway leading toward the Saffron City welcome sign. “C’mon.”

–

Finding their way around Saffron City was more difficult than most other towns in the Kanto region had been so far, with the possible exception of Viridian City. Saffron was built on white collar industry, and boasted a series of skyscrapers in the center of town that touted exceptional names in business, law, and information technology. The greatest spear amongst these appeared to be dedicated to a company Jason had never heard of – Silph Co. He tilted his head at the sign. “What do they do?” he wondered aloud.

“They develop technology for people like you and me,” was Kelly’s reply. “Among other things, they manufacture the capture balls that make it possible for humanity to catch and train Pokémon. They also develop the repellent sprays that help trainers get away from unfriendly encounters with wild Pokémon... pretty important when your entire team is knocked out. If it weren’t for them, modern methods for keeping trainers safe in the field would be nonexistent.”

The residential district seemed to form a large donut around these skyscrapers that claimed the middle, and it represented every outer edge of the location – almost as if the whole endeavor was little more than a gargantuan ring toss left forgotten by some giant, hyperactive child. But it wasn’t the housing Jason was interested in, so much as the local Pokémon Center, where he could heal the Pokémon at his disposal and gather together a team more suited to the task ahead.

Surreptitiously, he kept Kangaskhan’s out of the tray of capture balls he handed to Nurse Joy for treatment, and went to the computer to retrieve review information while he waited for her ministrations to be completed. Kelly peered over his shoulder. “What’re you up to?” she inquired.

“Need to know what I’m about to walk into, don’t I?” he said, and he pointed to the screen. “Local Pokémon gym is called the Fighting Dojo. Kind of a little shindig on the northeast corner of town. Three guesses on what kind of Pokémon they train there, but I’m betting you’ll only need one.”

“You’re probably going to run into Pokémon a lot higher in level than yours,” she pointed out. “Even if you get the information you need, you’ll most likely lose. Your Pokémon might not appreciate you taking them in there to get their asses kicked.”

“Thanks for that ray of sunshine,” he scoffed. “Next time I need to be depressed, I’ll be sure to give you a call.”

“Don’t mention it.” He dialed in a request to Professor Oak’s laboratory. “I’ll trade in what doesn’t belong in that arena. That means Rattata and Paras go to the lab. But Spearow stays, so does Gyarados. But I should bring Butterfree back in, maybe Ekans – aha, wait.” He snapped his fingers. “Zubat. Perfect match there. I need the maneuverability of flight. Fighting-Type Pokémon don’t have that.”

“Jason, it isn’t just going to be a matter of type differences,” Kelly said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to need to consider just how powerful your enemies are going to be. Whether you like it or not, you’re about to go into gym battles. You seriously need to be ready to lose.”

“That’s probably the one thing I don’t have time for,” he answered.

Kelly opened her mouth to say something else, but Nurse Joy hailed Jason from the counter, and he stepped away from the terminal, allowing her hand to slip off him. She let out a sigh and followed after him. “And what’re you going to do when it happens?”

“I’ll figure that out when it does.” He swept the balls out of the tray and slotted them in his belt while giving her a pointed look. “Gyarados and Kangaskhan should be able to take care of a bunch of the opposition, worse comes to worst.”

“You’ve already seen Gyarados go down once. It can happen again. And you can only barely control Kangaskhan. She could go berserk on you. We’re both lucky she returned to the ball without a fight when you issued the recall.”

“Maybe, but she’s still one of the best bets I have, if I’m supposed to be obsessed with winning the matches... and I’m not, anyway, I’m less worried about winning and more worried about seeing whether that gym is where it happened. If it isn’t, then we’ve eliminated one, and we keep looking. Maybe we’ll get a clue or a lucky break.” He returned to the terminal and completed his request, then began the electronic transaction that would send Rattata and Paras back to the lab in exchange for Butterfree and Zubat.

“Jason.”

He turned around and sighed. “What?”

She looked at him with perhaps the most sincere expression he’d ever seen her wear. “Don’t get yourself lost in this. You love your Pokémon too much to be this careless.”

“Says the one who thinks ‘you train them, not the other way around’.”

She wasn’t shaken by the retort. “You know what I’m talking about, Jason. You get yourself too wrapped up in this, you let your Pokémon fall to rivals and enemies one too many times, they’ll start hating you and ignoring you. That’s not the hallmark of a good trainer. A good trainer maintains his relationship with his Pokémon, makes sure they have the best chances and the best encouragement.”

“I’m trying to give them the best chances. You think I want to go marching into a gym unprepared for what I’m gonna find there? Of course not. I couldn’t handle the badgering I’d get from you, anyway.” He scoffed and deposited his newly transferred Poké Balls in his belt. “Look, let me worry about handling my Pokémon. Kangaskhan’s the one that’s angry and eager. I know I need to rein her in. Just help me out with this, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled lives.”

She tilted her head at him. “Sound to me like you watch too much television.”

His answer was immediate. “Don’t we all?”

–

Jason’s registry into the Indigo League went easily enough. Nurse Joy processed his information as it was given on his Pokémon license, but she couldn’t help but look strangely at him for a moment. “Your license doesn’t permit you to capture Pokémon away from the mainland? That would put you at something of a disadvantage, especially for deep-water Pokémon, wouldn’t it?”

Jason shrugged in response. “I work for Professor Oak, he wants to expand his preserve territory. I’m guessing he doesn’t have a lot of deep water either in what he has now or in the area he’s wanting. May as well get more land-based ones, right?”

She rocked her head from side to side in reluctant acquiescence to his point. “That may be true, but it means you’re missing out on maybe the most wide-reaching type of Pokémon, in terms of variety. It might be worth mentioning to him if you should ever want the limits of your license expanded.”

“I’ll think about it,” he replied. “For now I’m just looking to get in on some gym action.”

“And so you will,” was her answer; she handed him his license back. “You’re now officially registered to compete in the Indigo League of Kanto. You can battle in any gym, against any gym trainer or leader, and if you defeat a leader in battle, you’ll be rewarded with a badge as proof of your skill. Collect at least eight badges and you’ll be eligible to compete in the Indigo League Tournament held annually.”

“That’s a bit far off, yet,” Jason responded wryly, “but thanks. Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it.”

“Good luck!” she obliged.

Kelly joined him as he exited the Pokémon Center and began making his way towards the northeast section of town. Their path took them diagonally through one residential sector, then the commercial core, and then another residential area. As they passed through, Jason found himself struck by how few idlers were out in the streets. “Aren’t there usually more people out this time of day, in a big city like this?” he asked.

“Not everybody outside the Orange Islands gets a siesta period,” Kelly remarked.

“Seriously, though. This is Saffron City, it’s supposed to be the biggest one Kanto has, right?” Jason shrugged and gestured around. “There’s got to be at least a few people who happen to have the day off today, but to look at it, it’s like there’s hardly anyone at all.”

She sighed but surveyed the area; to her surprise, it seemed that Jason was correct. The city seemed too empty for the middle of the day. “Nobody out to lunch? Or did they all get there already?” she wondered aloud.

“See? Told you.”

“Yeah, well, what’re you gonna do, knock on people’s doors and tell them to come out and play?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Never mind.” But when he reset his vision on the objective – a larger structure built in the manner of a training dojo for martial artists – his brow creased into a frown, and he pointed. “What’s that building next to it, there?”

Kelly blinked. The word “building” was perhaps too generous for what he was describing; it was more a frame for what would eventually become one. Easily twice the dojo’s square footage and twice its height, the place was surrounded by construction equipment and workers that looked almost to be scrambling to get the place up. She tilted her head. “Whatever it is, they’re being a bit fast for construction... usually you see a bunch of them just standing around...” She let out a wry chuckle. “Maybe that’s where all the people went?”

Jason suppressed a shudder. “Don’t even suggest it, that’d just make me want to leave town ASAP. Let’s just get to the gym, huh?”

The dojo had no true door in the front of its structure, just an open portal that led into the building. While the outer walls of the building were simple wood paneling, the interior was mostly rice paper covering the otherwise evident framework. Inside, there were five strapping young men clad in white training garb and red bandannas – four of them were evidently engaged in Pokémon battles with each other, while the fifth was standing at the far end of the training arena, apparently content to bear silent witness to the battles. All combatant Pokémon involved were Fighting-Type – Machops and Machokes, Mankeys and Primeapes.

Jason surveyed the room for a long moment, noting that Kangaskhan’s ball was not quivering on his hip as it had been just a short time ago. The light that came into the room was sunlight penetrating through open skylights, and its reflection against the white paper walls meant the room was perpetually lit no matter where the light came from. This can’t be where it happened.

But their entry into the training arena earned the attention of the warring trainers, and suddenly all eyes were on Jason and Kelly rather than on immediate rivals. But before a word was spoken by any of the combatants, a sharp directive issued from the single figure at the back of the room. “Back to your training!”

The four other young man jumped at the order and quickly turned back to face each other, but the one who had delivered the order raised his hand and gestured for Jason and Kelly to approach. The two teens exchanged looks and then carefully wound their way behind the trainers on the left side of the arena, then stepped up to the alcove in which the ostensible leader was situated. He was square-jawed, and his coal-black hair seemed to be trying to overwhelm the bandanna in it. He offered a polite smile to the two as they approached. “Please forgive the impertinence of my trainees. They’re to be training against each other, not allowing themselves to be distracted by the outside world – even when that world encroaches here.”

“Well, sorry for ‘encroaching’,” Jason said, drawing quotation marks in the air with his fingers, “but we came here looking for something. I’m pretty sure it isn’t here.”

“Yet you did enter our sanctuary, which just so happens to be a Pokémon gym. I’m certain you were aware of this.”

Jason bobbed his head reluctantly. “Yeah, I know. So we have to do battle, right?”

“That is the proper course, yes. But first, may I ask what you seek?”

Jason blinked. “Really?”

The leader tilted his head. “I may be a harsh taskmaster, but it is only in pursuit of helping others to find what they seek, as well. Perhaps I might be of some assistance.”

The teen’s face scrunched in further reluctance. “Well, it might be sort of hard to explain...”

Kelly interjected. “Not hard to explain, just hard to believe. But if you won’t try, I will, ‘cause I’m in on this whole misadventure too.” She turned to the leader. “We found the ghost of a Kangaskhan in Lavender Town’s Pokémon Tower, and we think she was killed in a Pokémon gym. We’re trying to find out where because we think people were to blame. We don’t know which one but she gave us a couple of hazy clues. There isn’t a chance you’d know anything about it, right?”

Jason winced at her blunt explanation, but the gym leader wore an expression that betrayed his piqued curiosity. “A Kangaskhan ghost... I’ve heard stories of ghosts of deceased Pokémon haunting that tower before. A Rapidash was the most recent one I’d heard of, but that was some time ago.” He gestured to the gym. “You may search the grounds, if you care to, but I would dare to conclude this is not the place you mean to find the place of the poor creature’s demise.”

Jason shook his head. “No, it doesn’t look like it, not from what I saw.” Then his eyes narrowed. “You actually believe us?”

The leader spread his hands wide. “You’ve given me no reason not to. You do not appear unhinged or unable to grasp reality as it stands before you. So I would prefer to give you the benefit of the doubt. Even if every word you just told me is entirely untrue, it does me no harm.”

“You can trust us, it’s true,” Jason responded. “But do you have any idea where we could at least start looking?”

“It appears to me that you’ve already started looking. If you believe this is not where this Kangaskhan’s death occurred, then that eliminates this place. There are only so many gyms in the world.” The leader gave them the barest hint of a smile.

“That’s not really funny,” Kelly admonished. “This is serious. We need to find the gym it happened in so that Kangaskhan can rest in peace. Is there any gym leader you know of that might be brutal enough to allow that kind of thing to happen? Or look the other way when it does?”

“Perhaps.” The leader stuck his hands behind his back. “But you have still entered a Pokémon gym, and when you do so, it is assumed you mean to challenge the leader of that gym. Should you win your battle against me, I will share with you my suspicions, as well as a wager of eight hundred eighty-eight pokéyen.”

Jason cocked his head. “Well, obviously, I have to agree to the wager, since I walked in here, but that’s sort of a strange number, isn’t it?”

The leader shrugged. “It is the wager I make with all who battle me. Sufficient funding if they win, but an amount they can ill afford to lose.” He brought his hands back out from behind him – now they each carried an enlarged Poké Ball. “The trainer whose Pokémon are still able to battle will be the winner. I am Koichi, black belt in Pokémartial arts and leader of the Fighting Dojo, and I accept your challenge.”

Jason’s hand went to his belt, and he removed a Poké Ball of his own. “I’m Jason... Pokémon trainer. And I’m gonna make things right.”

Both capsules sailed into the air.

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© Matt Morwell, 2011

[mattbcl]

Vindicator

Part 8

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Jason clenched his fist as he watched his Spearow struggle to rise from the ground. “C’mon, Spearow, don’t give up on me... give it everything you’ve got!”

To its credit, the avian Pokémon was doing its level best to comply with Jason’s command. Even through the haze of pain every spectator could see clouding its vision, even with its shaking legs threatening to buckle beneath it at any instant, it stubbornly refused to stay on the ground. “Rooowww... Speeearrr-rooowww...”

Hitmonlee, in the meantime, was bouncing back and forth on its clawed toes in perfect fighting stance, looking for all the world like it could keep this up all day. But Jason’s instincts told him it was close to falling. It has to be. Spearow’s hit it so many times, and it’s already fallen down from one of those Hi Jump Kicks. It’s got to be close. He chewed his lip. But I don’t know if I want to risk it. He thrust forward Spearow’s Poké Ball suddenly. “Spearow, return!”

Koichi didn’t appear surprised at the maneuver. “Retreating. A wise choice. And what will your next contender be?”

Jason palmed another ball and tossed it up. “Meet Zubat!”

A blue-furred, eyeless bat emerged from the recesses of the next ball and released an ear-splitting screech while it took to the air that Spearow had owned only a few moments previous. Jason could already hear Kelly’s protest in the back of his mind – I’ve barely done any training at all with Zubat. Enough to get him comfortable with battling the random odd Pokémon but nothing like trainer battles, let alone a gym fight. He’s still pretty weak. My only hope right now is that he’ll be able to outmaneuver Hitmonlee. Even then, that’s still only his first Pokémon – he’s already effectively taken out one of mine.

Koichi smirked. “Very well, then. Hitmonlee, Hi Jump Kick!”

Jason’s fist clenched so hard his fingernails bit into his own palm. “Zubat, Wing Attack!”

The two Pokémon passed each other in midair – Hitmonlee made a prodigious leap that made it look as though it could have cleared Lavender Town’s Pokémon Tower if it really felt like it – and clipped each other. Zubat’s strike landed first, a brisk slap in Hitmonlee’s exposed knees with the hard edges of its wings, but Hitmonlee took advantage of the momentum the strike gave it and turned its endeavor into a tumble that caused its toe-talons to rake across Zubat’s belly before Jason’s Pokémon could pass.

The damage, however, combined with the momentum, was enough to make Hitmonlee land most ungracefully on its back, rather than its feet. While it did struggle back to its feet, Jason saw from the way its chest heaved that it was well and seriously wounded from the hit. On the other hand, now Zubat was faltering; its wings flapped erratically, making it bob up and down in midair, and its chirp was considerably quieter than it had been when it came out. And that’s after just a single counterattack!

“Impressive,” Koichi remarked. “I can see your Zubat is stronger than it looks.” Then his head snapped to his Pokémon. “Hitmonlee, Double Kick!”

Time to get out of the way or change tack. “Zubat, give me the best Supersonic you can!”

Almost before the words were out of Jason’s mouth, Hitmonlee was already leaping once more to meet Zubat. But Zubat twisted at just the right moment for the first kick to touch nothing but empty space, swooping dangerously close to its belly once more. If it was possible, Hitmonlee barely touched the ground before turning about in preparation for its second strike.

Now, though, Zubat was prepared for its own attack, and it loosed a terrible scream that felt like a glass spike being driven through Jason’s eardrums. The brain-shattering noise caused combatants and spectators alike to clamp their hands over their ears in pain... but for Hitmonlee, the result was worse. At the moment the sound was uttered, it had been rising up to leap again, but the noise was such a jarring distraction that when it pushed off one leg and tried to sweep out with the other, its second leg collided with the first, effectively kicking its own feet out from underneath it while it soared through the air. It tumbled helplessly, end over end, until its dome-like head made a savage impact against the wooden floor that a human would not have survived.

Jason heard several gasps at the moment of impact and he couldn’t help but flinch at the sight. Koichi’s reaction was immediate; he brought up Hitmonlee’s Poké Ball. “Return!” he called.

The red beam caught Hitmonlee and dissolved it into neon energy almost before the Pokémon came to rest in a crumpled heap on the floor. Its trainer regarded Jason with a strange look on his face... in his eyes was a mixture of curiosity, and some other emotion Jason couldn’t quite identify. He’s not afraid of me, he definitely knows he doesn’t need to be... but he doesn’t look angry to me, not really. I think he knows it was an accident, that I wouldn’t have done that on purpose.

He still felt obligated to speak up regarding that matter. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. Do you want to stop the match now and make sure your Hitmonlee’s okay?”

But Koichi shook his head. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary. Hitmonlee’s cranial region is notoriously tough, and since Hitmonlees have no necks, they have a considerable advantage over those who do. But I would advise perhaps a touch more caution when you face your next opponent.” He brought forth his second Poké Ball and threw it. “Come out, Hitmonchan!”

And there it is, Jason mused, while the new combatant coalesced before him. This Pokémon was more humanoid than its counterpart, looking for all intents and purposes like it was trying to dress as a human for a boxing match. But everyone knows boxing came from this Pokémon. That’s how we developed gloves to look like what Hitmonchan’s hands actually are... even clothing to match the bulky, extra layers of epidermis they have to cover their torsos.

Jason pointed at Hitmonchan. “Zubat, let’s Astonish him!”

Zubat let out another shriek, this one not quite as ear-splitting as its last, and the edges of its wings became cloaked in murky shadow. The scream was enough to fake out Koichi’s Pokémon, which raised its fists with both arms up in front of its face in a defensive pose. Jason resisted the urge to pump his fist in victory. Faked him out!

But now he knew that Zubat’s element of surprise would be gone with that maneuver, even as it struck a glancing blow across Hitmonchan’s arms, and he had Zubat’s ball ready in case it were to fall. Koichi evidently knew he would have to pick up the pace and adapt, as well; he shouted, “Hitmonchan, Thunderpunch!”

Jason winced again. Great, Zubat’s gonna get fried if that lands. “Zubat, try another Supersonic!”

Those that were watching the match knew to cover their ears ahead of time this time, and so the noise was only half as damaging to Jason’s hearing as it had been when he hadn’t known what to expect the first time. But although Jason was proud of Zubat for having the concentration necessary to pull it off, he still felt a distinct jolt of fear shoot across his chest when he saw that the sound had apparently not thrown Hitmonchan for enough of a loop. Its bulbous red fist careened towards Zubat with all the speed of a bullet, crackling with yellow sparks; the strike landed dead center, and had they not been in an enclosed space, Jason felt confident the punch would have thrown Zubat into the stratosphere. As it was, the small bat smashed into one of the support pillars and tumbled toward the ground.

Jason hurriedly called out, “Zubat, return!” and aimed the ball’s energy matrix as best he could to intercept Zubat. The stream of energy shot just beneath the creature, but maintained itself for exactly the instant he needed in order to catch it and draw it back.

Koichi crossed his arms and tilted his head. “And our next opponent shall be?”

Jason observed Hitmonchan for just a moment while he considered his response. The Pokémon still looked quite ready to fight, but it seemed to be swaying back and forth somewhat uncertainly. Maybe Zubat’s Supersonic attack did more than I thought. I’ll need that advantage. With Thunderpunch, I don’t dare risk Gyarados, especially not after the battle with the bikers. I might be able to manage with Gastly, but he’s obviously got moves that can still hit a ghost and Gastly isn’t powerful enough yet. Butterfree wouldn’t do me much good here, either – if Hitmonchan has Thunderpunch, he’s got Fire Punch and Ice Punch, too, all of which hurt Butterfree as bad as Butterfree could ever hurt Hitmonchan.

Pretty much leaves me with one option.

He pulled his second Dusk Ball from his belt and tossed it into the arena. “Show yourself, Kangaskhan!”

As if it wasn’t enough that Kangaskhan’s arrival in the dojo had its own flair – the trademark orange bolt wreathed with purple smoke – the light within the building seemed to grow dimmer, as well. No longer did the sun seem to shine as brightly through the skylights... instead, Kangaskhan’s ground fog propagated through the training arena like a springtime morning dew. The ghost’s image within that fog developed slowly, as if it was having trouble asserting itself even with the reduced light, and even at its most solid appearance a moment later, all eyes could still clearly see through it.

But none could deny it was there... particularly not after its deep voice rumbled the floor. “Khaaan...”

Jason’s view of Koichi was considerably more obscured now, between having to look through his own Pokémon’s intangible body and the fog it was generating, but he could see the gym leader’s expression had cracked, and he knew this would be the best opportunity he was ever going to have. Let’s hope you know some moves that’ll win this for us... “Kangaskhan, Fake Out!”

Koichi visibly swallowed before offering his plan for counterattack. “Hitmonchan, Mach Punch!”

Jason allowed no cracks in his own expression as the Pokémon moved to face each other, but inwardly he felt himself smirking. That’s right, fight like you’re facing a Normal-Type Pokémon. Both of those moves are incredibly fast, and a Hitmonchan is faster, but that won’t do much good for the attack you picked. Against a regular Kangaskhan, that would be crippling. But this is a ghost... you can’t just slug her.

In the time it took for him to develop that thought, the sequence was already playing out – Hitmonchan launched itself forward with a punch that could have shattered a boulder, but instead of landing in the center of Kangaskhan’s chest, the Pokémon’s fist passed straight through it. Hitmonchan staggered almost entirely through Kangaskhan’s phantasmal image before it realized it hadn’t actually hit anything, and it spun about in confusion.

But just as its eyes landed on Kangaskhan’s image, that image abruptly vanished from view entirely – then reappeared behind Hitmonchan and brought both wide arms behind itself. It boxed Hitmonchan’s ears with its palms; the resulting sound was a thunderous clap that almost shook the building from its foundation. Hitmonchan’s outcry was drowned out by the rumble, and it fell to its knees, only barely able to maintain its balance.

Jason felt his chest swell up. Hitmonchan’s got to be dizzy from that. And now for the finisher... “Now, Kangaskhan, Double Hit!”

If it was possible, Kangaskhan became even more intangible on that command, but its image was still barely visible through the fog. The purple smoke suddenly roiled and shifted then, and gave way to an abruptly solid Kangaskhan tail that slammed into the pit of Hitmonchan’s stomach. Hitmonchan doubled over and gasped for breath, but it had only time enough for a single gasp before the tail swung around and smashed into its back, throwing it across the room. It was bowled into another support pillar, and came to rest slumped against it.

“Hitmonchan!” Koichi ran to his Pokémon’s side and touched its shoulder. “Are you all right? Can you stand?”

But Hitmonchan’s response was merely to slump down against the pillar instead, knees now too weak to carry it farther in the battle.

“Kangaskhan!”

Heads snapped around to see that Jason’s Pokémon did not seem content to leave it there; fog billowed toward Hitmonchan, and Kangaskhan’s image solidified. Now the larger Pokémon was stalking forward with a scowl on its face that declared intent to further punish its fallen opponent.

But Jason already had the Dusk Ball in his hand. “Kangaskhan, return!” he said quickly; the flame-colored energy beam wreathed Kangaskhan and drew it back into the ball before the ghost had a chance to deal any more damage.

Koichi brought out Hitmonchan’s Poké Ball and similarly recalled his Pokémon, then looked up at Jason and stared at him for a long moment. “That is the very Kangaskhan whose death you seek to avenge, isn’t it?”

Jason replied with a single silent nod.

“Even if its appearance had not been enough, I would have known from the anger surrounding it. That anger may as well have been visible.” He shot Jason a harder look. “What do you intend to do with it when your mission is complete?”

“Let her go,” Jason answered promptly.

“You would release a creature as powerful as that? It offers you no incentive to try to keep it?”

“She’s more than just a creature... and she’s not really my Pokémon, she’s just with me for this. She’ll be at peace if we get this done. And speaking of getting it done, you did offer to give me information in exchange for defeating you in battle.”

Koichi got to his feet, offering a firm nod in response. “And so I shall.”

–

Jason accepted the tray of capture balls from Nurse Joy once more, smiling politely and nodding his thanks to her. “You’re awfully fast.”

“It’s my job,” she answered simply. “Hope to see you again!”

He rolled his eyes as he turned around to leave. Maybe take after a cousin or two and find a better salutation than that... He approached Kelly, who was leaning against a wall near the door with her arms folded and legs crossed. She was giving him a pointed stare over the rims of her glasses, a sure sign that what she was thinking was not something he’d be interested in hearing.

Nevertheless, after a sigh, he bit. “What?”

“You planning on keeping a team meant for gym battling with you through the wild grasses? It might be a good idea to have a better spread.”

He planted his hands on his hips and cocked his head to one side. “Sooner or later, you’re gonna run out of reasons to bust my chops, right?”

“Not by the looks of things.” One corner of her mouth quirked upward in an almost-half-smile; then she retracted the expression in exchange for one of much greater seriousness. “Tell you the truth, though... Kangaskhan scares me. I don’t think you should be taking her with you everywhere we go.”

Jason shrugged. “She did fine in the gym fight. You were worried she wasn’t going to listen to me, but she did.”

“Only for as long as you needed her to, but she was ready to pummel that Hitmonchan into the ground. The only reason she didn’t was because you recalled her. Same for when those bikers had us cornered. I don’t think she knows when to stop. Maybe she’s even forgotten how to.”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “So you think I should send her to Professor Oak? I doubt he’d know how to handle her any better than I could.”

“He’s a Pokémon professor, Jason, knowing how to handle exotic and difficult Pokémon is in the job description. Maybe he could even find a way to help calm her down.” She tilted her head. “Who said you had to take on the burden of handling her all by yourself?”

“She let me capture her so that I’d do what I promised I’d do. I’m not going to give that burden to Professor Oak or anyone else. Nobody else volunteered for it. This one’s mine.” He turned around, moving towards the transfer terminal. “You may be right about me needing to change up the team for traveling, but I’m not gonna send her in and make her someone else’s problem.”

She let out a scorning laugh. “Are you kidding me? You risk making her someone else’s problem every time you get into a battle. What if she gets away from you before you can recall her and she decides to beat a Pokémon, or God forbid a person, to within an inch of their life?”

He couldn’t come up with an adequate response to that question, though it had occurred to him – it was why he had kept Kangaskhan’s ball clutched so tightly in his right hand while the gym battle had taken place. He hadn’t dared to miniaturize it or return it to his belt after what had happened with the bikers... even without that incident, he’d seen how close Kangaskhan and Gyarados had come to blows just by meeting each other in the flesh.

Koichi’s words rang in his ears. “You seek a gym leader capable of careless brutality. You will find the embodiment of that description in the leader of the Vermilion City Gym, home to Electric-Type Pokémon and highly charged attitudes. That leader is one Lieutenant Surge, and while his military record may suggest he commands respect from those around him, in truth he is little more than a thug and a bully who preys on all who show to be weaker than he. Even the trainees of his gym fear him greatly, knowing that at any moment, he might choose to bring callous wrath upon their heads... or their Pokémon.”

After a long moment of silence lapsed between them, he finally offered up the best reply he could think of over his shoulder. “Maybe we should be hoping Lieutenant Surge is the guy we’re looking for so that she can just take out her revenge and be done with it.”

He could feel her disapproving look boring into the base of his skull even as he manipulated the computer. “Really not funny, Jason.” She approached from behind. “You know there’s nothing you can do to the guy that did it, whoever it was, without proof. And it’s gonna be hard coming up with that proof, you know that too.”

“I know I can’t do anything to him. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna be able to stop her from doing whatever she wants to him. But all of this is pointless if we don’t find him.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be something else altogether. But for now, why don’t you focus on just keeping Kangaskhan out of it if at all possible? You know what you’re going to be up against in the next gym, maybe you should work on that.”

“Which is why I’m standing here.” He inserted the balls containing Butterfree, Zubat, and Spearow into the transfer machine and watched as they disappeared in a bright flash of light, to be replaced by three identical Poké Balls.

Kelly peered over his shoulder. “What did you get?”

He tucked the replacements into appropriate slots on his belt and flashed her a grim smile. “What I need in order to keep Kangaskhan out of the fight and give Surge a shock to his system.”

–

The little girl’s face was a mask of concentration. Jason, by contrast, was standing in the grass with an expectant look and folded arms. “You know, you’re welcome to give up at any time,” he said. “Really. I’m not going to think any less of you if you do.”

She scowled. “Bite me!” she spat out, and she tossed out the second – and final – Poké Ball she had. “Go, Pikachu!”

Jason closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment at the cry of his opponent’s only remaining Pokémon as it emerged from its ball. “Seriously, kid, you’re going to get your Pikachu hurt for nothing but a little bit of money.”

“Hey, I need the experience, too!” she returned.

“Against this?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You tell me exactly how I’m supposed to know you have an Onix with you when I challenge you to a battle!”

Jason looked up at his Pokémon, a towering snake comprised of boulder-like segments that were nearly as hard as true cave rock. Its length dwarfed that of Gyarados, and its roar was perhaps even more intimidating than that of Jason’s faithful companion. Certainly it was much deeper; the ground trembled at the noise. He looked back at the girl and her determined Pikachu. “Isn’t that kind of the risk you take when you’re the one issuing the challenge?” he asked.

“An Onix is no fair!” the girl protested. “At least give me a chance to win! You already beat my Rattata senseless with that!”

At that proclamation, Kelly spoke up. “Sorry to say, but she has you there, Jason... give her something else to fight, would you?”

He let out a sigh. “Whatever. All right, Onix, return.” It took a long moment for the sheer mass of Onix’s body to be converted into energy and drawn from the field; when the deed was done, Jason found himself feeling slightly surprised at just how much more of their impromptu battling arena he was able to see. He plucked another ball from his belt and, after resizing it, tossed it into the open space before him. “Let’s try something a little closer to your Pikachu’s size. Sandshrew!”

The new combatant resolved from its energy form and let out a chirp of pleasure at having been selected. Sandshrew edged to its left, while Pikachu did the same, the two circling about each other until they were almost entirely on the “wrong side”.

“Pikachu, Quick Attack!”

“Sandshrew, Scratch!”

Pikachu charged forward at full tilt; its speed gave it priority over Sandshrew’s first attack and it was blindingly fast. It crashed headlong into the pit of Sandshrew’s exposed belly, drawing a cry from the Ground-Type Pokémon... but with the impact came an opportunity for Sandshrew to fight back, and so it did, obeying Jason’s order to the letter and drawing a vicious claw across Pikachu’s back.

Didn’t do much to either one, Jason considered, as the two opponents bounced away from each other and continued circling. Needs a little more power behind it. “Sandshrew, Swift!”

“Pikachu, another Quick Attack!”

Pikachu’s attack again took precedence and it crashed into Sandshrew once more. But Sandshrew cast Pikachu aside, then tumbled to one side and opened its small mouth – from its maw ejected a spray of star-like rays that pummeled Pikachu perhaps worse than Pikachu had just done to Sandshrew. Pikachu bounded away with a grimace, but no less determined an expression.

“Do it again, Pikachu, Quick Attack once more time!”

Jason’s instruction was almost simultaneous. “Okay, Sandshrew, now use Poison Sting!”

This time, when Pikachu impacted Sandshrew, the response of Jason’s Pokémon was to stick its paw in its mouth, then withdraw its claws and thrust them up into Pikachu’s belly. Pikachu staggered backwards, and Jason could see the familiar violet hue of Pokémon poison dripping from the wound Sandshrew had created. Very quickly, Pikachu began to look woozy on its feet.

The girl jumped up and down in frustration. “This still isn’t fair! Sandshrew knows all these attacks and it can’t get hurt by electricity!”

“It’s more fair than Pikachu battling Onix would have been, though, isn’t it?” Jason countered.

–

“Hey, you got an Onix, bring it on and don’t be such a baby!”

Jason’s brow furrowed into a scowl. Despite the advantage his Pokémon had over the opposing Pikachu, it didn’t sound like his opponent was willing to budge an inch on condescending to him. That’s gonna change in a quick hurry if he keeps talking like that, though, he silently promised. Instead, he gave the man on the other side of the arena the best smile he could manage – strained and grim. “Sandshrew looks like he’s doing fine for himself, so I don’t see the point.”

Lt. Surge glowered at Jason across the field. “Pikachu, Iron Tail!”

In reality, Jason could tell that Sandshrew was feeling the burn from dancing about with Surge’s Pikachu. Protected though it was against Pikachu’s type-specific attacks, it was panting from the exertion. Surge had trained his Pokémon well and it had an advantage of speed over Sandshrew. Now it was applying both its speed and its power as it raced forward; its tail glistened with a strange sheen that seemed to turn it into a blade before Jason’s eyes.

It always comes down to speed versus power. That move’s a nice balance of both, and if it connects, Sandshrew might be out of the match. Let’s see you apply just a bit more power to this. “Sandshrew, show me another Swift attack!”

Sandshrew blasted another series of star-shaped energy bolts from its mouth, each one careening into Pikachu without fail. But no single ray was enough to stop Pikachu from advancing, and even the full conglomeration didn’t quite slow it down enough; it leapt into the air and was in mid-attack when the final bolt struck, causing it to go into a wild spin that only increased the momentum of its gleaming tail. The tail slashed across Sandshrew’s small chest and Sandshrew let out a pained shriek, then toppled backward and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Jason winced. That had to hurt. Back to your ball. “Sandshrew, return.”

Surge was already in the process of recalling his Pikachu, and he leveled another glare at Jason from the other side of the field. “You lucked out on that one, kid, but now the gloves are off. Go, Raichu!”

Jason tilted his head at the sight of the new Pokémon. It’s just an evolved version of what I was fighting before. Keep up the offensive I was pushing with Sandshrew and I ought to be able to come out of this just fine. It was supposed to be a 3-on-3 battle... Voltorb, Pikachu, now this, and all I’ve lost is Sandshrew. All right, then... “You asked for it. Let’s go, Onix!”

For as long as it took to return Onix to its ball, it seemed to take twice as long for the massive Pokémon to emerge from it, resolving only after a prolonged moment of energy spilling out from the capsule. It let out an earth-shattering roar that rumbled the building around them. Surge didn’t appear to be intimidated, nor did his Pokémon – but then again, Jason doubted very much a gym leader would have that particular word in their vocabulary.

Nevertheless, Jason could see Surge grinding his teeth in evident frustration. As long as I keep kicking out Ground-Type Pokémon, electricity won’t work. He’ll have to resort to moves that don’t take advantage of Raichu’s natural abilities. I, on the other hand... “Onix, Rock Throw!”

“Raichu, use Magnet Rise!”

Jason’s eyes narrowed; while Onix’s attack did strike true and a large thrown rock battered the opposing creature, Raichu’s own move still went off without obstruction, and it generated electricity that crackled all over its body, causing it to rise up into the air several inches above the ground. “What’s that about?”

“Magnet Rise allows my Raichu to levitate itself, as you can see,” Surge leered. “That means he can’t be affected by any Ground-Type moves you might have waiting in the wings! Taking to the air is so much better, at any rate.” Then he turned back to the battle. “Now, Raichu, use Rock Smash!”

That’s a problem! “Onix, Rock Tomb!”

Onix summoned up a rash of boulders, each larger than the last one, and again hurled them at its opponent – but instead of throwing them one at a time, they scattered all at once and closed in around Raichu from every angle. But it wasn’t quite fast enough to prevent Raichu from dealing its blow, a vicious slam of its axe-blade tail against Onix’s midsection that drew a loud roar from the larger Pokémon. Only after the strike was completed could Onix focus enough to retaliate properly, and Raichu was pummeled by the stones of the Rock Tomb attack, which momentarily buried it beneath a pile of rubble.

Jason blinked as his brain caught up with the moment. “I didn’t even know Raichu learned Rock Smash. It’s an Electric-Type Pokémon, not Fighting-Type.”

Surge aimed a grim smirk at Jason. “Can’t assume I got nothin’ to fight with, kid, just ‘cause Raichu can’t zap your Onix into submission. A few rocks won’t stop him from taking you down.”

“Well, maybe this might. Onix, Screech!”

Almost the instant Jason said it, Onix complied with its master’s command, and instead of belting out another bass roar that threatened the structural integrity of the gym, it ground together the glass and metal deposits within itself to release a terrible earsplitting soprano shriek that drew winces from gym leader and trainer alike. It was also more than enough to give Raichu pause even as it was struggling out of the mess of rocks that Onix had made around it, and it momentarily cowered from the awful sound.

“C’mon, Raichu, another Rock Smash attack!” Surge encouraged.

But Raichu was still making its way out of the rock pile, and Jason took advantage of the delay. “Onix, Rock Tomb again, use the same rocks!”

That didn’t require much effort from the rock snake Pokémon, and it used its mental command over the stones that surrounded Raichu to bring them up, then back down again – Jason was reminded of someone picking up a bag of ice that was stuck together and dropping it on a surface to shatter the cubes away from each other. It seemed to have much the same effect in this instance, and despite the altered magnetic field around Raichu that was allowing it to levitate, the stones still brought it to the ground.

“Looks like he’s stuck,” Jason chuckled. “Now, Onix, use Rock Throw!”

The attack order was just in time, too, because Raichu was using the Rock Smash attack Surge had demanded of it to destroy the obstructions around it. It scampered on all fours straight at Onix, bladed tail whipping about in preparation for another vicious attack – but Onix’s aim was no less true than it had been before, and it brought a boulder-sized stone to bear directly at Raichu’s head. The two met long before Raichu reached Onix, and the impact was enough to send Raichu spinning on its side for several revolutions before coming to rest a couple yards away from Onix. Between the awful knock to its head and the dizzying spin it had just endured, even if it was still conscious, it was in no shape to battle further.

“Raichu...” Surge muttered, and he heaved a sigh before bringing up the Poké Ball in which the creature normally resided. “Return.”

Jason grinned up at Onix. “You did a good job, buddy. Return.”

His Pokémon recalled, Jason stepped forward into the middle of the arena to meet Surge there. The enlisted gym leader also stepped forth, unflinching, and offered Jason a single nod of his head. “You did good, kid. You earned this.”

He held out his hand; Jason brought his palm up underneath, and Surge dropped a small trinket into it. “That’s the Thunder Badge, kid, yours along with the wager I made. Twenty-four hundred, fair and square.”

As they made use of their PDA’s to complete the monetary transaction, Jason peered at Surge. “There’s the other thing we talked about, too, you know.”

Surge scoffed. “I been through a war, kid. I know what killing’s like. It isn’t poetry in motion, just downright sick. S’why I use Pokémon that paralyze my enemies. I got no reason to kill anything or anyone if I don’t have to. But you knew that even before you walked in here, didn’t you?”

Jason shook his head. “I didn’t know it, no, but once I got here, I knew it couldn’t have happened here. The gym’s all wrong and... well, you don’t seem like the sort who’d let anything like that happen.”

“Damn straight, I wouldn’t. People don’t like me much, kid, but I got respect for life, even the lives of Pokémon. Disable ‘em, lesson learned. What does killin’ them do? Nothin’ much.” Now it was Surge’s turn to shake his head. “You came here for nothin’, kid. We both know I’m not who you want.”

“So who is?”

The larger man shrugged. “Couldn’t say, I dunno. But you want someone devious. Someone who thinks about the big picture. Me, I’m just a grunt sort, I get my orders and do my best to follow ‘em while keepin’ me and my men alive. This guy’s gonna be smart. What’s the word? Cunning.” He narrowed his eyes. “Best bet is down in Fuchsia City, kid. You want a cunning gym leader, that’s the one you’re after. Knows a lot, can suss out a lot more. Even if he isn’t who you want... bet you he can tell you who is, a whole lot better than me.”

“You know him?”

Surge closed his eyes and shook his head. “Not man-to-man or anything, but I know enough. What I need to know to steer clear.” Then he opened his eyes again and stared into Jason’s. “Hey, listen up, kid. This sounds like serious business you’re sniffin’ around. Don’t get yourself into so much trouble you can’t retreat. Live to fight another day and all.”

Jason’s mouth twisted to one side at that proclamation. “Kangaskhan’s not alive but she’s still fighting.”

“Yeah, bit of advice there – you’re no Pokémon. You don’t get a second chance at this.” He scratched his head. “Hell, I’m not even sure why your Kangaskhan did.”

Jason shrugged. “Someone thought they could just bury her without being noticed in the Pokémon Tower.”

But Surge shook his head. “No way, kid. You don’t put a Pokémon away in the Tower just to bury it. It’s got a reputation, that place. People lay their Pokémon to rest there all the time hoping they’ll come back.”

Jason frowned. “But... they were trying to hide the body there.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. You said they were takin’ orders from someone else. Maybe that someone else told them to put the body in the tower.”

Jason blinked. “But that would mean...”

–

He stared at the computer screen, fingers laced beneath his chin. From his right side came the soft purring he had come to both expect and largely ignore from his favored – if not his best – Pokémon... but this time his hand reached out to stroke its head and scratch it behind the ears.

The screen showed two files, side by side. One of Jason Crate, active Pokémon trainer and employee of Pallet Town Research Laboratory, just recently registered for competition in the Indigo Pokémon League.

The other of Jason Creight, son of Carson Creight and employee of Creight Breeding Center of Tangelo Island... listed as missing for nearly seven months.

The faintest smile touched his lips.

“I look forward to meeting you.”

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© Matt Morwell, 2011