Chapter 12
Hanna rubbed her temples. Even though they had made their escape only two hours ago, it felt like a whole day had passed. The lab was so quiet. She kept waiting for something to make her jump, but of course nothing did. Bill’s cottage was far, far away from Russo’s mansion, as was the hospital in the Cerulean where they had taken Jason. Hanna kicked herself for never having taught Marie the location of any human hospitals. It would have saved the poor kid a bumpy ride in the ambulance.
In any case, everyone was where they were supposed to be now. Jen, Derek, and Krissy were taking care of Jason’s emergency, while she, Travis, and Bill were here to handle Wyvern’s.
“Okay,” said Bill as he finished adjusting the scanner. “Try it now.”
Hanna cued up the program again and let it run. It was going to take each of the dozens of encryption keys they’d found on Russo’s PKI card and map those to the scanner’s quantum matrix decoder. Bill had found about a hundred ways to map keys to decoding schemes, so this could take a while.
The scanner whirred to life. Bill nodded in satisfaction and walked over to where Hanna was sitting. He spoke, and his voice was quiet and careful. “I have to make some calls. If you need anything, just come and get me.”
“Sure.”
Bill left the room, and Hanna leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She opened them again when she remembered she owed Travis an update. “Travis, the computer’s running. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
That was a lie. There was always the chance that none of the keys were the right one, or that they needed to find a more creative way of extrapolating the decoding matrix from them. But she couldn’t bring herself to explain that. If it didn’t work, she’d just say the program had some bugs and they were going to fix them.
Travis muttered, “…Okay.”
Hanna turned around. Travis was sitting on the floor next to Marie, who was sound asleep. He looked like he could use a few weeks’ worth of sleep, himself. With that miserable expression on his face, you wouldn’t think he was less than an hour away from getting his friend back. It was probably because he didn’t completely trust her. She didn’t blame him. For that matter, he obviously hadn’t been comfortable with staying behind while the others took Jason to the hospital. In the end Hanna was the one who convinced him that Wyvern needed somebody there when he woke up, too.
Travis pulled his knees close to his chest and hid his face. Hanna took that to mean it was time to leave him alone and check on the program’s process, but then she noticed that Marie had a damp towel on her forehead. Travis must have put it there while she wasn’t looking.
She heard Marie’s voice.
‘…Kid good.’
‘Yeah.’
Not asleep then, but just resting. She’d gone through a machine to patch up the effects of the Shadow Ball, but mostly she was just mentally exhausted, and no machine could help with that. Everyone thought Pokécenters put all the juice back in a psychic-type’s brain, but that was just because the young ones could bounce back naturally.
Then Marie put a new voice in Hanna’s head, even though she was in no shape for it and Hanna had told her over and over again to cut that out.
‘I gave up on him. I don’t deserve this. I gave up on him. He’s going to know.’
The sound was devastating. It was as bad as anything Hanna had ever heard from Derek. And just like was usually the case with Derek, Travis’s conclusion was completely wrong. Anyone could tell he hadn’t been giving up on Wyvern when he returned her call. He was just saving his friends from more immediate danger. And even if the danger hadn’t been more immediate, how could he beat himself up so much for being faced with an impossible choice?
She had to fix this. She got up, walked over, and sat down in front of him. “Hey. You did fine.”
Travis kept his head hidden.
“Listen. Just because it worked out better than you thought it would doesn’t mean it’s an accident. Sometimes giving up on nobody looks like giving up on somebody because these are hard decisions. But Pokémon can tell the difference better than humans sometimes. That’s because they don’t see the world as a big game of chess—they just see what you’re feeling.”
Now Travis looked up. “…Do you read minds?”
Hanna decided to play it up a little. She winked and pointed at Marie. “Just a little bit. Marie doesn’t like to embarrass people, so it’s usually pretty safe.”
Travis turned a little red, but to Hanna’s relief he didn’t seem too disturbed to learn this. “How does she get it into your head? Is it a move?”
Hanna smiled. “Sort of. As best as I can tell it’s a benign application of Confusion. She’s mostly self-taught. I just helped out a little with interpreting human language and some fine-tuning.”
Travis looked amazed, but that only lasted for a moment. If anything, now he looked worse than before. “You said they see what you’re feeling, right? Well, I gave up. That’s what it feels like, and that’s what he’s what he’s gonna see.”
“That’s just what you
think you feel. You’re still looking at this like chess. It’s so much simpler than that. As soon as you can hold him again, you’re going to feel so happy and relieved it’ll drown out everything else. Wyvern’s going to know how hard you tried. You’ll see.”
Travis didn’t react. His face was stiff.
‘Boy crying.’
No tears, no discoloration, no disrupted breathing. It killed Hanna that there was a little boy who could hide it this well. She patted him on the shoulder, got up again, and left him alone. This was so backwards. If anyone was supposed to be wracked with guilt over how they’d handled this whole misadventure, it was her. She could have put a stop to it before it even began.
Of course, it was possible she needed to give herself a similar lecture to the one she’d just given Travis. She’d done her best at each step and try as she might, she couldn’t predict the future. If she’d gotten their licenses taken away before disaster actually struck, she probably would have regretted it anyway. Sure, if she could go back and do it over she never would have let Travis lose Wyvern in the first place. That also would have saved Jason’s arm. And there was one stranger who wouldn’t be dead, even if he was a Rocket and even if it was an accident. That last thought churned her stomach, so she tried to stop thinking about the what-ifs.
She sat down at her workstation again. The sensor’s display still showed static inside the ball. As the program ran on, she kept thinking about the what-ifs despite herself. The worst part of it all was that letting the kids just walk away from the gym had all been for naught. The whole idea behind not telling their parents right away was that they didn’t want to put an end to the kids’ journey, but it was over anyway. Jason and Travis might not be allowed to leave Cherrygrove City again once their parents picked them up. They could be trapped there until adulthood, stewing in scars and regret and never moving on.
The screen changed, and Hanna forgot about all this. She could hardly believe her eyes. If nothing else, one thing had gone right. The sensor’s image was free of static, and in the middle of the circle was the unmistakable outline of a Seadra.
“Travis, come look at this.”
*********
Travis was sitting in the back seat of Bill’s car. They were on their way to the hospital to see Jason and the others. Hanna and Bill were talking about something, but he wasn’t listening. His attention was on the white ball that he cradled in his hands. There was a red cross on the front, and next to that Bill had written in sharpie, ‘Jun 15 5:00pm.’ That was when it was safe to open. Seven days away. The ball’s release switch was elevated, and underneath it there was a ring of foam to prevent it from activating by mistake.
There was no weight pressing down on Travis, but there was no great force lifting him up, either. It was disorienting. Wyvern was here, he was free, but he was sick. They’d told him the Rockets had put chemicals in the black Pokéball—something to put Pokémon in a constant rage and keep them from ever falling asleep. So Hanna and Bill wanted to give Wyvern the medicine the same way to be safe: confined to a Pokéball and slowly. They had let Travis watch when they transferred him from the Rocket ball to this one.
It was going to be a long week. But at the end of it he was going to let Wyvern in the water, rub his back, and tell him it was all just a bad dream.
The car pulled into a parking garage next to a long, white building. Bill found a space, and the car stopped. It was quiet, and the world around Travis seemed very small. They got out. Hanna led him to the elevators with a hand on his shoulder, probably because his eyes were on Wyvern’s Pokéball and not on where he was going. At some point they came into a bright but pale hallway, and things became noisy again. Travis looked up because the world couldn’t stay small forever. Krissy was sitting on a bench by herself. Standing not far from her were Jen and Derek.
Bill walked off somewhere, maybe to the restroom, while Hanna joined the other adults in their conversation. As for Travis, he supposed the proper thing to do would be to sit next to Krissy. He did so, but didn’t get too close.
Krissy looked dead tired at first, but when she noticed Travis her eyes were drawn straight to the Pokéball and they grew wider. “Is that…?” Her voice was small and cautious.
“Yeah.”
She smiled. Her eyes still looked so sad, though. So he asked, “How are you doing?”
“Better. How about you?”
“Better.”
Her eyes really did look sad, though. Then he realized what else it could be and he feared the worst. “…How is he?”
“They said he needs surgery. I haven’t seen him, but Jen said he’s awake with local anesthesia.”
Travis didn’t see what it mattered where the anesthesia came from, but at least it sounded better than when they put Jason in the ambulance. That was a relief, so again his attention went back to Wyvern’s Pokéball. He stayed that way for a good minute, but then he noticed more of what the adults were saying. He started to listen.
“…not gonna be able to look Jason in the eye again. Or Aunt Meg. Or Mom. Or… sh*t.” That was Derek. He sounded beyond terrible.
“Look,” said Jen, “the doctor said he’d already worn that ligament down to nearly nothing. The Earthquake just made things messier after it snapped. He was going to need the surgery anyway if he kept throwing that way.”
“No, that’s… that’s not what I’m talking about. God, what else might have happened if…”
Hanna interrupted him. “Derek,
we made the decision to bring them down there. Me and Jen. Mostly me. That’s on us, not you. And anyway, we’re all still here. Let’s just be happy about that.”
“No, I… I wanted to… I almost really… I wasn’t thinking, I just… Oh
god.”
Derek put his hand over his eyes. He ceased to be incoherent and just sobbed instead. Travis could barely believe what he was seeing and hearing. He didn’t want to know what Derek regretted so badly that it reduced him to this.
Derek began to walk off. After a few moments of hesitation, Jen and Hanna followed after him. That left Travis alone with Krissy. Now that nobody else was around, Travis remembered several regrets of his own. There were a lot of words to take back before it was too late, and very soon it
was going to be too late.
Travis opened his mouth. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pick up that conversation where they had left off. Knowing what he did now, it was too much for him to handle. But that wasn’t fair to her. He still had to say something.
“For, uh…”
“Huh?” Krissy gave him her full attention.
“…When you get back on the trail. If you join up with some other trainers, you might want to… uh…”
“…Yes?”
“…When you win a battle you’re always supposed to gloat a little. Or just cheer or something. Like, act surprised, even if you knew you were gonna win. Jason calls that ‘courtesy hype.’ It makes the loser feel like it meant something to beat him.”
Krissy was still for a beat. “…Did that get on your nerves? That I never did that?”
Travis sighed. “Yeah. Kind of. I know you were trying to be nice.”
Krissy stared at the floor. Travis stared at the wall. He thought about how stupid that just was. The closest that got to what he was really supposed to say was that he suggested she meant well. That barely scratched the surface.
“That reminds me,” said Krissy, “I don’t think you and Jason should be so hard on each other when one of you messes up. That bugged me. A lot.”
Before Travis could think to say that this was understandable, he went on the defensive like the thick jerk he was. “What? But that’s just how the game works.”
“Game?”
“Yeah. We see who does better at everything, and whoever’s been doing better lately is winning. We can’t tell who’s winning if we let stuff slide. Like… it’s how you play.”
“…That’s a stupid game.”
Travis was this close to calling something about her stupid, but he bit his tongue. They’d both rightly pointed out something the other could improve on, so they were even. “Yeah. It’s pretty stupid. But we like it.” He didn’t add,
‘I think.’
“Well, if you have to play your game all the time, do you have to be sore losers about it too? It’s like whenever one of you does something good the other has to be mad about it. Can you still play the game and be happy when
either of you gets a bunch of points? Isn’t it better to get even by playing better instead of trying to make the other guy feel lousy for doing well?”
Travis just couldn’t see why anyone should act like they didn’t want to win. Besides, it wasn’t like they
never gave each other props for stuff. She wasn’t making a lot of sense, even for a girl. Still, it couldn’t hurt to think about it. “I dunno. Maybe.”
They fell into silence again. It was a pretty lousy conversation. But then again, it was probably better than any they’d had one-on-one before. It wasn’t the worst way to handle the last time they’d ever say more than ten words to each other. Travis had once thought he’d be glad to have it over with, but that feeling seemed naïve and petty, now.
There were footsteps coming from down the hallway. Travis looked up and saw Jen coming back alone. She stopped in front of a room, shook her head quickly as if to clear something out of it, took a deep breath, and opened the door. After she shut it behind her, Travis asked Krissy, “Is that Jason’s room?”
“Yeah.”
A nurse exited the room and went about her business somewhere else. Travis supposed Jen or Jason had asked for privacy. “Wonder what they’re talking about.”
“I hope it’s nothing bad.”
“Me neither.”
Travis had a strong feeling that they ought to know what was being said, and he suspected Krissy felt the same.
*********
Jason’s back was propped up against pillows. He could see that his right arm was in a sling, but it might as well have been missing. Although his shoulder ached something fierce, past that there was nothing at all. The room was too cold, but his lap at least was warm because Rabies had his head and front paws drooped over it. He was a good boy, so Jason scratched behind his ears with his left hand.
“Um…” The nurse had the blood pressure stuff ready, and she wanted his left arm but seemed uneasy about the Growlithe in the room.
“He doesn’t bite.” Jason said it with a straight face. It wasn’t as honest as saying ‘He only bites when he’s playing too rough and we’re still working on that,’ but he didn’t want her to ask that he go back into his ball.
The nurse bought it, and for the next few minutes Jason stared at the ceiling as the endless examinations continued. It wasn’t how he wanted to spend the last hours before his parents showed up. As long as they weren’t here, he could almost pretend it wasn’t over. That was all he could think about. It should have been enough for him when they got the call from Hanna that Wyvern was saved, but it wasn’t. Maybe something was wrong with him.
As the nurse was putting away her equipment, the door opened. It was Jen, and she had the kind of encouraging smile on her face that made Jason think she was faking it. The sight was enough to make Rabies perk his head up and wag his tail. She shut the door behind her, then had a few quiet words with the nurse. All Jason heard was the nurse saying, “Five minutes.” Then she left, and he and Jen had the room to themselves.
Jen pulled a chair over to the bedside, and in response Rabies pushed down hard on Jason’s lap to get up and greet her. “Oof—” He saw a few stars. Was there anything that wasn’t going to hurt today?
“Hi, Rabies!” Jen was using a sing-song voice. Rabies stood on his hind legs and put his paws in Jen’s hands to balance. “Oh, are you glad to see Grandma?”
Jason’s face scrunched up. “…‘Grandma?’”
“Yeah. He’s Summer’s baby, and Summer’s my baby. So I’m Grandma.”
By those rules, did that make Jen his aunt-in-law? Jason decided not to do the math any further because it was too weird. In any case, Jen picked up Rabies and set him very gently back on Jason’s lap, where he stayed put and kept wagging.
“So. How’s our hero doing?”
Jason frowned. “What are you talking about? None of this would’ve happened if I wasn’t so dumb.”
Jen was still smiling. “Same here, and I’m really supposed to know better. I heard Hanna say it was all her fault a few times too. And Derek’s…” She paused and the smile faltered, but only for a moment. “Derek’s being pretty down on himself, too.”
Jason didn’t want to keep talking about this, and it seemed Jen could tell. “So. I never knew you were such a hot-shot at catching Pokémon. That’s really cool.”
It
was really cool; past-tense. And according to Jen, anyway. “It never got my team any better. I just stuck with my first three. It… it never seemed fair to take time away from them to work with a fourth. I let the new ones go after a week if I didn’t use them, and that was all of them. I heard they don’t mind getting let go if you never bring them out.”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Jen leaned forward. “How many have you caught, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“…Pokédex says fifty-four. I evolved two and there’s also Rabies, so fifty-one.” It was so embarrassing. Fifty-one caught, and other than two it was all for nothing. All he’d gotten out of it was some fleeting fun; fun he never thought he’d have to miss.
But Jen’s jaw dropped all the same. “Jason. That’s incredible. I don’t think Hanna and I caught that many combined our whole journeys. You
have to show that Pokédex to Bill later. He’d be beside himself.”
Why? Because he might have a shot at completing it? That was ridiculous. Even if he ever got his license back—which was a joke—he’d never be able to match that pace again. His eyes gravitated to his now-worthless arm.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Did she? “I wanna show you something. I don’t think you’ve seen it before.”
Jen took her shirt and pulled it up to the bottom of her ribs. On her side there was a deep-red patch of scarred, mangled skin. Jason was at a loss for words.
Jen’s smile came back. “Magmar. Fire Punch. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She covered it up again. “Took me out of commission early into my second year. I was
positive lying there in the hospital I was never going to be able to camp out on the trail again, but in the end it only cost me ten months. By the time I was fifteen, you’d never guess I lost most of a year. It always feels permanent at the time, but it usually isn’t.”
Jason didn’t buy it. The doctor had said something about taking a thing from his left hamstring and moving it to his elbow. That couldn’t possibly mean he’d be able to throw again, not with leg parts instead of arm parts. But he didn’t have to argue that point because there was a bigger issue. “Who cares if I get the arm back if I’m not allowed to use it?”
“I hear you. Actually, that’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.” Jen leaned forward again. “Here’s the thing: your parents trust me and Derek
a lot. And for all the doctors know, that Earthquake was from a wild Pokémon. Nobody knows that all six of us were in this big underground Rocket showdown. They just see three overconfident kids and three responsible adults. We can even tell the Lafayettes that Hanna and Bill got Wyvern out with hacker magic; nobody has to know how bad it got.”
Jason had an idea of what she was getting at, but she didn’t know what she was talking about. “You’re not gonna talk them into getting me licensed again. They’ll just say the arm means training was a bad idea in the first place.”
“Sure, if I asked them right now. But we can play the long game, and I’ve got a plan to ease them into it.”
Jason looked away, but he kept listening.
“You’re going to be out of the hospital well before you’re cleared for any strenuous activity. And yes, you’re going to be miserable, but your parents are going to see that and they
will want to help. They won’t be ready to let you back out in the world unsupervised, but I bet you anything they’ll like the idea of you doing what makes you happy as long as it’s in a safe environment and someone’s got their eye on you all the time.”
He looked at her again. What was she talking about?
“So how would you like to come work at the gym when you’re well enough? We can ease you into things as your arm gets better, and at the same time we’ll work on wearing down your mom and dad. You can teach the little kids how to catch Pokémon like a pro, you can take on all comers at battling, whatever you want. I know it’s not journeying, but we really do have a lot of fun up there.”
Everything clicked. He couldn’t explain how his mind could change so thoroughly just like that, but he knew Jen had figured it out. It sounded like a dream come true. That was the path back to the real trail, he knew it, and it didn’t even sound like a bad way to spend a year or more. He tried to find holes in the logistics, but they weren’t there. You could use a Pokécenter without a license if you had an adult—he just couldn’t catch anything and keep it, or leave town unsupervised. For now, the gym was perfect.
So why did it make him sad to the point of tears?
He rubbed his eyes with his good arm. Soon the answer was obvious. “…It’s not the same. It… it won’t ever be the same without them.”
Even if Travis ever got his license back, Krissy didn’t have to wait. She could leave anytime. And there was no reason for her to come back, not when Travis hated her and she knew it. He didn’t care what Travis thought; it wasn’t half a real journey if anyone was missing. They needed someone who made them aim higher, someone who knew everything but still wanted to learn everything else and teach them, someone who wanted to be there no matter how much better she was. Jason could list any number of reasons, but they were all just ways to dance around what he really thought. He liked her, and he didn’t want her to leave.
He was bent over, and everything from his shoulder to his legs ached. Rabies whined a little. Jen leaned forward and rubbed his back. “I didn’t tell you one other thing about when I was out with the injury. I was worried for a while me and Hanna would lose touch, but the darnedest thing happened. She stayed on the trail plenty, but she never went too far from Ecruteak. And pretty much every weekend she stayed over at our house. And look at where we are now: we’re still friends, even though she lives all the way out here. Now, I can’t tell you for sure what your friends will be up to or who else they’ll meet, but there’s no reason—”
The door burst open. Travis and Krissy ran over and jostled the bed more than a little. Rabies jumped up and pushed too hard on Jason’s lap again as they talked over each other.
“Can I please I work at the gym, too?”
“I wanna work at the gym! Can you talk to my parents!”
Jason was dazed. It didn’t seem real. Travis leaned over and spoke to him more plainly and directly than he ever had. “We’ll make it work. We really will, honest.”
Krissy nodded vigorously. “Yeah, promise.”
“
Bark!”
Jen tried to stifle her laughter. “Of course you can! The more the merrier! Just don’t expect much money!”
Finally a smile made its way onto Jason’s face, but he failed to stop crying.
“Whoa, wait,” said Travis. “You’re not supposed to cry when I don’t have a camera!”
Jason busted a gut laughing along with Travis. Even Krissy had a hard time holding it in. They were already on the long road back.
*********
Epilogue
August, 2018
There was nothing like tournament night in Krissy’s book, nor in Lucia’s. Her Meganium lived for the bright lights. Krissy herself was partial to having a packed house, and this month they had one and then some. The bleachers were full and spectators were sitting in the grass all the way up to the edge of the dirt arena. There was something to be said for a loud punctuation to every twist and turn of a battle, especially when the spectators caught on to a smart move.
Lucia stamped her feet and ruffled the flower around the base of her long neck. She was more than ready for a tough fight. Unfortunately, there were no fifteen-year-olds in the pool this time and other finalist was only Patrick. Unless he’d taught his Hitmontop a new trick for the first time in two years, it was a near certainty that Krissy would have her third title in five attempts. Just as the Hitmontop was flipping onto his head to start spinning, two voices from the crowd echoed her opinion:
“
Patrick sucks! Pa – trick – sucks!”
“Hey!” yelled Jen from the sidelines. “You two quit it or you’re fired!”
There were some scattered cheers and laughs from the younger members of the audience, and the chants that followed were more positive in nature. As usual the sentiment of the chants was mostly divided by gender lines, but there were definitely some boys’ voices calling for a ‘Krissy,’ ‘Meganium,’ or ‘Lucia’ victory.
Jen blew her whistle, and the necessary formality commenced. Krissy decided to practice on putting more
oomph in the commands she gave, along with some dramatic arm gestures to boot. As for Patrick, he seemed as flustered as ever, and more importantly he didn’t seem to notice that Lucia was using a tiny bit of her Sweet Scent attack every spare moment as was standard procedure. Soon enough, the long-distance Vine Whip attacks started to hit the normally evasive Hitmontop. Lucia was doing a great job of making them flashy without losing their impact, and she raised her melodious voice in a little taunt to let everyone know.
The crowd ate it up, and it was clearly getting under Patrick’s skin. He finally ordered Hitmontop to close the distance. Krissy knew his track record, and his strategy was so transparent that she decided to go for the perfect finish instead of settling for the sure win. She snapped her fingers twice to signal the next move to Lucia. The Meganium set her feet, and nobody could see the preparations she was making inside her body.
When the Hitmontop was halfway there, Krissy gave her order at the same time as Patrick’s.
“Close Combat!”
“Petal Dance!”
A wave of shock and anticipation rose from the stands. Both Pokémon were using high-octane moves that would leave them highly vulnerable if they fell short, and this was a one-Pokémon tournament. Hitmontop bounced off his point and into the air as Lucia reared up onto her hind legs. The cloud of bright pink and white flowers erupted from the base of her neck faster than anyone watching—save Krissy—would think was possible. The petals swarmed Hitmontop at full blast and visibly slowed him down even in midair. It was already over, and he’d lost enough momentum that Lucia was able to add a flourish of her own: she spiked him to the ground with one of her heavy feet. It made her own landing a little awkward, but Krissy was relieved to see that she didn’t twist anything.
The crowd exploded. It wasn’t nearly as loud as the official tournaments sounded on TV, but it might as well have been the same thing. Patrick waved his arms and walked out of the box, which led Jen to blow her whistle again. Krissy was so pleased with how they had put on a good show for the gym that she forgot to do the polite thing, which was act surprised. Fortunately, Lucia reminded her with the victory roar they’d practiced. Krissy raised two fists in the air in kind. It still felt a little fake and she was sure Jason and Travis were going to give her crap for it later, but at least she was working on it.
She walked out into the center of the arena. There was a handshake, a few obligatory words of sportsmanship, and then Patrick was out of there with Hitmontop in his ball as fast as he could walk. Lucia decided to soak in the moment a little more and lowered her head to nudge Krissy hard in the chest, as if to say, ‘Hey, we did it.’ Krissy hadn’t taught her to do that, but she didn’t mind it.
*********
Ten minutes later the stands were empty. It was late, after all, and most of their customers for these events had bedtimes. In the same vein, Krissy’s big Meganium and Jason’s little Growlithe were taking a nap on the grass. As staff, however, Krissy and her favorite knuckleheads still had to clean up. She was gathering trash while Jason and Travis were supposed to be taking down the booths from the afternoon’s festivities.
“Travis, quit f*cking around and give me a hand with this table.”
A lot had changed in the last year-plus, and among the changes were in Jason’s vocabulary and the pitch of his voice (depending on the day).
“Yeah, yeah, just a sec.” Travis was entertaining a few ten-year-old trainers who were still hanging around. Their eyes were on Wyvern, who was balancing on his tail and looking very focused. Travis held out a water bottle. “Okay, show ’em.”
Wyvern spread his fins, lowered his head, and willed the contents of the bottle to rise into midair and form into a ball, and then into a cube. The two girls gawked at it, and the boy in the group actually covered his mouth. Then the block of water shot forward like a weak bullet and splashed harmlessly on the ground. It was a perfectly impressive and delightfully worthless technique. Wyvern growled like a true showman.
“Wow! Cool!” A round of applause. Krissy stared for a moment at the younger trainers. They were so small. She didn’t remember feeling as small back then as they looked now. It really put her aspiration to defeat Team Rocket
as fast as possible into perspective when she saw the gap between herself and them. And she still had that goal, but she could wait until she was actually ready. There was a long way to go yet.
“Come back tomorrow and I can show you guys how he does it,” said Travis.
“You bet!”
After some quick goodbyes, the ten-year-olds were off to the trail again. Travis gave Wyvern a well-deserved pat on the head, and returned him to his Pokéball. Wyvern still wasn’t a fan of hanging around on land for more than an hour or so. Since Travis had gotten his license back on his twelfth birthday, he made up for it by taking him and Leviathan on regular trips to Lake Rage. If Jason minded that he couldn’t come along—Mrs. O’Connor’s strict rule that he had to be in the same town as Jen at all times was still in effect—he didn’t make an issue of it.
Travis gestured where the young trainers had gone. “See? That’s how you do P.R.”
Jason rolled his eyes and drummed his fingers on the folding-table. “Yep. Now like I was saying about this f*ckin’ table…”
“Jason, don’t swear. You’re terrible at it.”
They all looked over, and Krissy was surprised to see Derek walking up along with Hanna. She waved at them. “Hey, guys! I didn’t see in you in the stands.”
Hanna waved back. “We got here a little late, so there weren’t any seats left. Congratulations, by the way!”
“Thanks!”
Jason and Travis hoisted up the table and carried it off to the shed. It still felt great to see Jason using both of his arms. He called at Derek over his shoulder, “Just you wait! My goal is to be a goddamn Swearing Master! Like no one ever was!”
Derek shook his head. Krissy noticed that there were surprisingly few rings under his eyes. He said to her, “When you guys are done, we’ll be in the clubhouse with Jen.”
A burly man walked over. This was Carlos, one of the adult employees, and he spoke with a thick accent that Krissy found charming. “They can join you now. Francine and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“You sure?” asked Krissy.
“Yes, ma’am.” He turned to Hanna and Derek. “They make the rest of us look bad. They’ve been at it since morning, and they’ll be at it all night if we don’t tell them to quit it.”
Hanna nodded. “I can believe that.” Then she said to Krissy, “Go on in and sit down. We’ll grab the boys.”
To tell the truth, getting off of her feet didn’t sound bad to Krissy. She handed the bag to Carlos. “I owe you one!”
Carlos shrugged as if to say,
‘Like I said, you really don’t, but whatever,’ and got to work.
As Krissy walked, she took another look at the tall lights and the bugs swarming around them. She never got tired of the way they lit up just enough of the edge of the dark forest. She also never got tired of how all around the clubhouse it still smelled like popcorn for a few hours after a tournament ended. Inside Jen was sitting at the table and going through the cashbox.
She smiled when she saw Krissy. “We really cleaned up this time. It’s gonna make a good dent in the loan. That reminds me, it’s your turn to file the taxes this year.”
Krissy was this close to voicing an earnest, desperate objection, but she caught herself. You had to be careful when to take someone seriously around here. “Nice try.”
Jen snapped her fingers. “So close.” Then she tossed Krissy a can of soda. “Little celebration tonight.”
Krissy sat down. “Oh?”
Before Jen could say anything, the other four came through the door and they carried a conversation with them. Jason pulled up a chair on one side of Krissy and Travis took the other. “Okay, you can settle this,” said Jason. “I think you trained Lucia to power up a Petal Dance really quickly, but Travis says you gave her a signal to start powering up early. Who’s right?”
“Do you have money riding on it?”
Jason and Travis both broke into a stream of, “What? No. Never. Who, us? No.”
Krissy thought so. She took a dignified sip from her drink. “I’m afraid spectator-gambling is prohibited at North Ecruteak Gym. I couldn’t say.”
They were united in their retort: “
Booooooo.”
She changed the subject. “How’s your job going, Derek?”
Derek took in a sharp breath at the question, but he seemed to be at relative ease when he answered. “It’s good. They’ve still got me behind a desk, but we’re, uh… we’re starting to get things running more smoothly. Getting some other cities on board, too, so that’s good.” Some subjects were still hard for him to talk about, according to Jen, but she’d asked that they all try to nudge him along. Krissy noticed Hanna give him a little smile of encouragement from across the table.
When everyone had their seat and their drink—three beers, three sodas—Jen stood up and knocked on the table. “Now that we’re all here, a couple of toasts. First to our local battler extraordinaire for her gym-leading third tournament victory.”
Cans were raised and elbows were nudged. “Hear, hear!” Krissy turned a little red, but not much.
“And next… Uh, give me a sec.” Jen cleared her throat and smiled wide. “It took me a long chat over the phone, but we got some mail from the O’Connor house today.”
Krissy’s heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be, could it? She stared with mouth agape as Jen reached into her pocket. She pulled out a plastic card, showed it off to the room, and slid it across the table to Jason. He was speechless, but Krissy couldn’t contain herself. “Oh my god!”
“Tell me that’s what I think it is,” said Travis.
As the applause and congratulations poured out, everyone seemed to forget about the drinks part of the toast. Derek even gave the most convincing smile Krissy had ever seen from him.
“So, where to first?” asked Hanna.
Just like that, Jason laughed and ceased to be speechless. “Oh wow, I dunno. Somewhere we haven’t been yet. Wherever there’s tough Pokémon to catch!”
“Better have an ocean,” said Travis.
“You know,” said Hanna, “If you ask Bill, he could name you some Pokémon that’d break some new ground for us. We’re always on the lookout for more data on ones that nobody seems to have caught in the wild.”
Jason jumped to his feet. “Like Lugia!”
Krissy was in mid-sip, and some of it went up her nose.
“Uh,” said Hanna, “I was thinking more like ones we only see in captivity post-evolution. Like Machamp, or—”
Jason was ignoring her now. “We can look for clues around the Burned Tower first thing tomorrow!”
“Whirl Islands,” said Travis. “That’s where we’re gonna find him. Guarantee it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard he’s there too! And on the way I can catch an electric-type. That’ll make it a cinch to wear him down!”
Travis clapped his hands. “Double-weakness. He won’t know what hit him.”
“Actually,” said Krissy, “the prevailing theory is that its other type is psychic, not water.” Why was she lending this proposal any credence?
“That’s ridiculous,” said Travis. “It’s obviously water.”
While Jason started thinking aloud about his plan to catch the legendary bird, Krissy leaned over and whispered to Travis, “We’re not being serious, are we?”
Travis whispered back, “Half-and-half? If there is a Lugia and we think we’re actually getting close, we’ll start being more careful. Anyway, let’s just let him have this for now.”
That made sense to her. “Sounds good.”
“…and then we’ve got him! All we need to do is start saving for a supply of Ultra Balls.”
“I like it!” said Jen. “Oh, actually, Derek! You know your way around the Whirl Islands pretty well. Why don’t you give them a ride when you’ve got a good weekend?”
Krissy saw Hanna mouth the words, ‘Keep an eye on them.’ Was she honestly worried about them finding Lugia? No, of course not, she must have been talking about the whirlpools.
Derek held up a finger to slow things down for himself. “I’ll think about it.”
Krissy thought about it too. Maybe it was just because of Jason’s infectious excitement, but she had to admit that the legends probably weren’t based on
nothing. At the very least, there must be some strong, unidentified Pokémon out there, and who was to say one of them wasn’t uncannily similar to Lugia? So now that between her and the boys they had three licenses, one fully recovered arm, and a shared, open disregard for wasting time on gym badges, why not go for it?
Who was going to stop them?
The End
[I want to extend my deepest, sincerest thanks to you for reading until it said 'the end.' There's a lot more I want to say about this story now that it's over, but that can wait. It's been a true pleasure to write, and a true privilege to receive so much encouragement from the readers. So again, thank you all so much!]