Double The Odds
by Matt Morwell

Disclaimer: The materials herein are based on "Pokémon", a universe I choose to rip off for the purpose of storytelling. The main characters are of my own design, and may not be used without permission.

If anyone out there is curious as to why I took down the original posting of this story, it's because I choked on it. Hard. I've been in the process of redesigning it for a very long time but haven't quite gotten up the nerve, until now, to make another attempt at passing both your scrutiny and my own. I'm much more pleased with this version. I hope you will be, too.

–

The morning sunlight streamed across the horizon. It struck the clear blue waters below, the equally blue sky above, and the cliffside between them. Even the cliff seemed to sparkle as brilliantly as the sky and the water, with the ocean spray steadily streaming down.

But that wasn't all. The sunlight also lent itself to the cool green grass surrounding a modest white-painted house that sat about a hundred meters away... and, of course, the house itself. And if one were to take a look into the window, one would spot an extraordinary man. A man who, though seated in a wheelchair, few made the mistake of underestimating. He was too well-known for that. In fact, because of the reputation he'd garnered, he'd become something of a legend... thus, in some manners, he was even overestimated.

He didn't mind. As long as it meant not every kid was coming along to challenge him to a battle to test his skills, he was okay with the legends.

Well... except for the one where he became so powerful, he overcame his wheelchair. He wasn't comfortable with that one just yet.

It wasn't true.

Not yet.

Jason Creight rested his chin on his fist as he contemplated the sunrise. More sunlight was filtering through the windows facing east, of course, but it would have been blinding for him to look in that direction. He found the way the sun hit the water, the sky, the grass, and everything else at this time of morning to be absolutely gorgeous. He never seemed to grow tired of it, as perhaps might have been expected of him – but even after two years of living here, he still awoke to the same mesmerizing sight every morning and stared at it in awe.

"Jason?"

He couldn't help but smile at the voice, the one thing that could brighten his day more than the noontime sun. He reached down to the familiar curves of the titanium wheels mounted on either side of his chair, rolled the left wheel backward and the right wheel forward so he could face the woman addressing him.

Kelly Shields was leaning against the doorframe leading into the kitchen, her arms and legs crossed and a lopsided smile on her face. Her eyes sparkled as she watched the man in the wheelchair... the man she'd fallen in love with.

"You're always so amazed with the sunrise," she noted teasingly. "You spend more time in front of that window in the morning than you do with me!"

"Really, now?" Jason appeared to mull that over for a few moments. "Well, in that case, I'll have to find a way to make up for it."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," she grinned. "But I can't help being a little jealous of the window... I mean, it gets such a nice view of that torso of yours, every single morning without fail."

He snickered. "Not to worry! We're just good friends, my dear."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll believe that when you actually find the time to put on a shirt between getting out of bed and going to the window. Speaking of which..." Kelly tossed an article of clothing at Jason. "Put that on."

The wheelchair-bound man caught the article, realized it was a shirt, smirked and rolled his eyes. "You're that worried?"

"Yes!" she proclaimed.

"Okay, okay..." He donned the shirt, a simple green pocket tee. Despite the teasing, she was entirely correct – for the last two years, when Jason raced to the window to watch the sunrise, he frequently forewent a shirt. Anyone who had a mind to spy on him through that window would have been able to glimpse his upper body's rather impressive physique, a result of two things: entire dependence on it for motion, and weight-training to allow for more reliability so that such dependence wouldn't be a hindrance.

Kelly cocked her head to one side. "What're you thinking about?"

"Hm?" Jason cast a sidelong glance at the window he'd been staring through. "Oh. Nothing."

She tsked at him. "You're not a very good liar, Jason."

"What makes you think I'm lying?"

"You're playing with your ring again."

Jason frowned and looked down at his hands. Indeed, the thumb and middle finger of his right hand were twisting the gold wedding band around his left ring finger back and forth. He stuck his tongue in his cheek in annoyance.

It was a habit he'd picked up just shortly after their wedding, when the house was being built. He would spend nights in their room at Professor Oak's Pallet Town lab sitting near the window, twisting the ring around his finger, back and forth, back and forth. Kelly had caught onto it rather quickly, and ever since, he'd been trying to break the habit.

Obviously, all my efforts have been less than successful, he mused.

Kelly approached and sat down in the nearby rocking chair. "It's Gyarados again, isn't it?"

Jason heaved a sigh and nodded. "Yeah. I wish I could say I've put the whole thing past me, but every time I try, I just start obsessing over it again."

She shrugged. "So don't try. It's part of your life, Jason. You've seen how Ash loves his Pikachu. It was the same with you and Gyarados. You went through it all together. Gyarados stayed behind because he knew he'd become too dangerous for you to keep."

"We've been over this, you know," Jason muttered.

"Obviously not enough," she countered. "I've been married to you for two years and I've known you a lot longer than that. You don't have to let it go. Gyarados is part of you, and you're a part of him. But you don't have to shove him away in order to move on with your life."

"And I don't want to shove him away. But..." Jason ran his fingers through his hair, which he'd allowed to grow out to his shoulders. "It's frustrating, wrestling over this. I really do need to move on with my life. He probably already has. But at the same time, it feels like... like..." He sighed. "You've probably heard enough of this already."

"No, no, keep going. Feels like what?" Kelly leaned forward. "What does it feel like?"

"I guess... it feels like... if I move on, in some way, I'm abandoning him to my memories. And memories fade. So I guess I'm afraid if I move on, I'll... forget about him."

Kelly chewed her lip for a moment, then seemed to strike upon an idea. "You still remember Tommy, right?"

A sad smile crossed Jason's features. "Who can forget him?"

"Exactly. I know it's not an easy thing to talk about, but think about it for a moment. When that creature... well, you know... and then it disappeared, what did we do?"

Jason shrugged. "We went to his funeral, we came back here..."

"Yes, and?"

"And... Sam told me about the Atlantis League."

"And then what did you do?"

"Told you about it, and then went to participate in it."

She smiled. "Precisely. You were doing things. You weren't holing up and refusing yourself any new experiences. What happened to Tommy was tragic, yes, but you never worried about forgetting him. You knew you never would. So did I. And we knew him for a lot less time than we knew Gyarados. That said, do you really think there's even the slightest chance you're going to forget about your very first Pokémon?"

In spite of himself, Jason's face split into a slight smile. "Good point. I suppose not."

"See? I can be reasonable with the best of them."

"Well, that might be pushing it..."

A throwpillow flew across the expanse separating the two.

–

"Kelly! I see you're here bright and early."

Kelly shrugged on her white lab coat. "You know me, Professor. I like being punctual."

"Well, it's 7:31 and you weren't due until 8. I'd say this goes beyond 'punctual' and right into 'early'. What do you think?"

"I think it's your lab."

"Indeed, it is." Professor Samuel Oak handed Kelly a clipboard. "Here's the agenda for today."

Kelly flipped through the papers on the board, and her shoulders slumped. "You've got me researching the Feebas? Again?"

"Sorry, Kelly, but it's what I have."

"Why can't I keep after Scizor and Golbat? They're my Pokémon, after all. And you're the one who wanted information on how Scyther evolved. Plus you still need some insight into Golbat's eventual evolution, and it won't evolve unless I'm around!"

Oak chuckled. "If I were you, I'd calm down. Yes, I want to see you evolve your Golbat, and yes, I want more information on your Scizor, but I can get the latter myself, and the former isn't a priority right now."

"You're giving higher priority to Feebas? Feebas are about as useless as Magikarp."

"And, I'm told, they evolve into a Pokémon with all the potential of a Gyarados. I also understand they're a considerable rarity, even in the Hoenn region. A Feebas evolution is not something I want anybody here to miss, and I need people working on how it's done."

She frowned. "Giving them battle experience isn't doing it?"

"I had the latest attempt rated at approximately level 53. Doesn't look like it's going anywhere. As far as we know, 55 is the highest level for evolution, so unless Feebas is looking to break a record..."

Kelly glanced through the notes on the Feebas. "Well, it looks like that particular Feebas is certainly in the running for some gym battles, at this point." She muttered the notes back to herself. "It was taught five different moves after the first three were determined useless... feeding it PokéBlocks emphasizing enhancement of intelligence and endurance had no discernible effect..."

She looked back up at Oak. "You have your staff feeding this thing PokéBlocks now?"

Oak could only offer her a shrug. "If it's not going to evolve through the accumulation of battle experience, we have to assume there are alternative methods."

"This from the man who wrote a PokéDex entry describing Magikarp as one of the most irrelevant Pokémon on the evolutionary scale, thus causing scientists to dedicate research efforts to its existence."

"Precisely. So you tell me, if Feebas are as pointless as Magikarp on the evolutionary scale, how is it they've managed to survive their predators?"

"They haven't. You said it yourself, they're extraordinarily rare. As far as oceanographers know, they're on the brink of extinction. For all we know, this laboratory holds the last crop of Feebas the world will ever know."

"Which is why it's important to study them now, Kelly. No matter how insignificant they seem, every Pokémon has a secret... something interesting to impart to the rest of the world. I refuse to believe Feebas are really that weak. There's some sort of secret to them, as well, and I believe you're the one who can figure out what it is that makes them survive."

She tapped the clipboard. "Well, I'm not going to discover that secret with the one the staff trained up. I need to start with an infant."

Oak waved his hand dismissively. "It's in your hands, Kelly. Do what you feel is necessary, then have a report on my desk by the end of the day." He walked off in the direction of the arboretum.

Kelly groaned. "Great. I'm gonna be working on this one all day... and I'll probably be nuts for it by the time I get home."

–

Celadon City was well-known for its bustling citizenry and its cramped businesses. Not a day went by in this place without something big happening, and almost invariably, that something big tended to make its way into the news - or at the very least, into daily gossip.

For the last year, Adam Sands had paradoxically been both hoping for and praying against the day when his name would re-enter the Celadon City gossip... or the news, for that matter. He didn't particularly enjoy being talked about behind his back - some part of him persistently feared nothing said that way, and especially about him, was at all flattering - but in this case, it would be because of a phenomenon the woman currently occupying his bathroom had been waiting for since they'd begun married life.

He tossed aside the sheet cover, reached under the bed, and pulled out the new models of artificial legs he'd been imparted only a few months ago. He was still getting used to them, but he thought he had them pretty much figured out now. As with the pole-type legs he'd used during his Pokémon journeys, these were made with titanium cores; however, that was where their similarity ended. These new models were "fleshed out" with softer materials that, when worn with long pants, made it appear as though he had two perfectly natural legs. As an added bonus, the right knee took less effort to bend when he was walking than with the older model.

The bathroom door opened as Adam was affixing his right leg to his hip. Amanda Forsythe trudged through the frame, holding a plastic cylinder in one hand and staring at it as though it was supposed to have revealed to her the mystery of the universe.

Such a description likely would not have been too far off... because the cylinder was meant for use as a pregnancy test.

Adam looked up at his wife, and immediately knew what the result was. His face fell. "Nothing?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Nothing at all." Her blue eyes sparked as they looked up at her husband. "There's got to be something wrong with one of us..."

Adam sighed and attached his other prosthetic. "Not necessarily. The blood test said we were compatible. Maybe it's just going to be a while before it takes."

"I want this baby, Adam."

"I know you do." He pushed himself off the bed, approached her, took her into his arms in a gentle hug. "I know you do."

She sighed. "I know it's not exactly something you were crazy about when the idea first came up, but..."

"Truth be told, I'm still not crazy about it," he remarked. "On the other hand, I'm not going to say I mind making the attempt."

"Har har." She pulled away from the hug and looked at him. "Seriously. I really do want this baby. And we have everything we need to support one."

"Except the virility?"

"That's what has me worried." She jabbed a finger in his abdomen, making him flinch. "Who knows what other defects you have? Maybe you're the one who can't have children."

He scowled darkly. "Hey, you're the one who's supposed to carry the kid, right? Maybe it's your problem."

Amanda's expression changed as she realized she'd inadvertently hit a sore spot. "That was uncalled for. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too." He went back to the bed and sat down, then looked back at her. "Why are you so eager to have a child, anyway? I mean, I appreciate the sentiment, but we've got so much time together. Time for ourselves. Having a child would mean devoting all our time and attention to the child, instead of to each other."

"Not that I don't appreciate you saying you're devoted to me... but this is something I really want now."

"Again, why now?"

"Because."

Adam threw his arms into the air. "If I could win an argument with that response, just once–!"

"If you could win an argument with that response, you'd be the first married man who ever has." She crossed her arms. "Just because we share a bed doesn't mean I can't win every argument we have with the word 'because'."

"I'm so glad you cleared that up." He flopped back on the bed. "Amanda, we're 24 years old. My parents didn't have me until their thirties; yours had you in their late twenties. You're eager for this to happen ASAP and I'd feel a lot better if I knew why you–"

"Because I lost more than a year of my life to that league," she interrupted. "And when that happened, I lost you, too. I'm not about to let that happen again. You have no idea how alone I was, that entire time."

A heavy silence hung in the air for several moments.

"I've got some idea," he finally answered.

"I don't think you do. You at least had the freedom of walking the world and communicating with those in it. I didn't have any such luxuries. If not for you, I could have disappeared off the face of the planet and nobody would have even noticed."

Adam looked at her. "You're saying that even after being married this long, you're still lonely?"

She sighed, though the noise sounded more like a suppressed groan. "I want a family, Adam. I don't want to be the one to be taken care of anymore. I want to be the one taking care of someone else."

"You've done a great job with your Pokémon."

"And that was a start. But the opus of my achievements in raising a life would be to be the one who gives it in the first place." She sighed and looked wistfully toward the window. "I'm not completely indifferent to your concerns over the subject, but to be perfectly honest, I couldn't care any less about them than I do right now."

"So what is it you do care about, besides having this baby?"

"Building a life. You said it yourself, we've got so much time together... I think having a child would help to make the most of it." She smiled. "Think of the challenges we'd face in raising a little girl! Trying to keep her away from boys, teaching her how to read, how to spell..."

"Or the challenges in raising a little boy," he replied. "Keeping him away from mud, and trying to make him understand - without success, I might add - why too much candy is a bad thing..."

She giggled. "There, you see? Can you imagine any greater challenge, and any greater achievement?"

"Well, when you put it that way... we can always try again."

–

He had never known anything of light or dark, except that where there was warmth, usually there was light... and where it was cold, those places were as black as the oblivion he'd always lived with.

He could sense now that it was dark. He didn't need his watch to confirm it; the outside temperature was enough of an indication to him that the sun had long since set beyond whatever horizon was before him. It didn't matter to him, really; he intended to travel until he became tired. Frequently, that meant traveling until it was light, then finding a convenient shelter.

In any case, he certainly wasn't tired now. He was energized by the cool air. His cane tapped patiently and rhythmically against the dirt path, each tap like a drop of water in a calm stream. Truthfully, he didn't need the cane, but he found it to be of comfort nonetheless. It had served him well elsewhere, and he preferred to have it as a keepsake.

The sound of trickling water reached his sensitive ears, and he turned off the path and to the left, confident that he had found the place he'd been looking for. His cane always stayed two steps ahead of him, back and forth, wap-wap, until it came in contact with something that was most definitely not land – plunksh.

Well, then, he thought. He pulled out his PokéNav, aimed it at the area directly ahead of him, and pressed a button.

"Silver Rapids," it intoned in a soothing female voice. "Primary route for Pokémon trainers traveling between the Johto and Kanto regions."

He put the PokéNav back in his vest pocket. It'll have to do. There's no land route from here to Kanto. And this is probably the calmest area of the rapids. He pulled out a Pokémon capture ball whose top was green with a black grid. At each X made by the grid was a small sapphire orb inset. "Let's go, Starmie."

The ball opened and a crimson bolt of energy spewed from it, coalescing into an indigo, star-shaped creature with a massive red jewel at its center. The jewel blinked in varying degrees of intensity, its form of speech.

"Yeah, this is probably the best spot. We're almost there. I need you to take me across."

He was on a mission. Others had been known to call it an obsession.

He was comfortable with that.

Just as long as he attained his goal.