Chapter 2

All You Wanted

The next day, Joe and Giselle were enjoying a meal at the Pokémon League headquarters. While Joe marveled at the high-class service that Giselle received, she acted as if it was nothing unusual.

"This is amazing," Joe said to Giselle. "You have pretty much everything you want here."

"Almost everything," Giselle responded, hinting at the fact that Joe was still at Pokémon Tech, but Joe missed her hint.

"What do you have to do as the champion of the Pokémon League?" Joe asked.

"Oh, well, I have to keep those Elite from tearing the place down," Giselle joked. "No, seriously, there isn't much to do. Sure, I battle from time to time against some challengers, winning every time. But otherwise, there haven't been any problems since the bombing of Mahogany Town several weeks ago. If there was something big that happened, I'd have to make an important decision, and of course it would be the right one, but that situation hasn't come up."

Joe rolled his eyes as Giselle did her usual bragging. It only took Giselle reaching out her right hand and grasping his in order for him to forget about her attitude.

"You know, Joe, once you graduate from Pokémon Tech, I could find a place for you to live here, and not just something small like that hotel room you stayed in last night," Giselle said. "I'd love for you to be with me more often."

"You wouldn't, uh, want to, um-" Joe began.

"Wouldn't want to what, Joe?" Giselle asked, looking perplexed. "What's wrong with my idea?"

"Well, I was just thinking… oh, forget it," Joe said.

"No, I must know," Giselle said, letting go of Joe's hand. "You've got to tell me."

"I just thought that maybe if we traveled somewhere, we could get our Pokémon stronger, and maybe-"

Joe was cut off by an indignant Giselle. "You think my Pokémon aren't strong enough?" she asked with a bit of irritation. "You think the Pokémon League Champion, who cruised to her first of many championships, needs to get stronger? You think I'm weak? Want to battle and find out if I'm strong enough?"

"I didn't mean that, Giselle-"

"You better not have!" Giselle responded. "I realize you want to become stronger, but isn't that what Pokémon Tech is for?"

"I guess so," Joe sighed. "I'm sorry for mentioning it."

Giselle looked at the downcast Joe sympathetically. "No," she said. "I'm sorry, Joe. I shouldn't try to control your life. If you want to do something like that, I'm open to it."

"Really?" asked Joe.

"Yes," Giselle replied. "Our relationship isn't all about me, after all."

Joe looked at Giselle with a bit of shock. Was Giselle really saying something unselfish? Was she actually implying that she was not the most important person in the world?

"Of course, it would just make my second league championship easier if I were to become any stronger, if that is even possible," Giselle laughed.

I guess some things will never change, Joe thought. She's always going to be arrogant, but I still love her.

Giselle and Joe were then interrupted by an employee at the Pokémon League headquarters who came over to their table.

"Yes?" Giselle asked.

"Giselle, we have a visitor who wants to talk to you," the employee said.

"Tell him to go away," Giselle replied. "Can't you see I'm busy here?"

"He says it's really important," the employee said. "If not, I'll have to direct him to the Elite-"

"No!" Giselle interrupted the employee. "I'm not letting those four run things around here. They'll do something stupid, because they aren't as smart as I am. Excuse me, Joe, I have to take care of some business."

"It's fine, Giselle," Joe said.

If the Elite are doing this just to bother me, I'm going to be furious, Giselle thought as she followed the employee out of the room.

----------

Jasmine ran to her door, hearing the sound of knocking. She opened it happily, seeing Silver standing there, as she expected.

"Good afternoon, Jasmine," Silver greeted her.

"Same to you," Jasmine responded.

Silver followed Jasmine inside, where they sat down together on a couch. Jasmine then saw Silver had something in his hands.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"I saw this was in your mailbox," Silver answered, pulling out a letter from the Pokémon League.

"Oh, you know I don't care about that," Jasmine said, as Silver opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Yes! I told you this would happen!" Silver said. "Look who's #1!"

Jasmine sighed. The Pokémon League sent out quarterly reports to the Johto gym leaders, which ranked them 1 through 8, according to their statistics in gym battles as well as their performance in the league tournament. Silver had been predicting to her for weeks that she would be ranked #1 of Johto's gym leaders, which she was. The humble Jasmine took no pride in this, however; it made no difference what she was ranked.

"Aren't you happy about this?" Silver asked Jasmine. "You're now considered the best gym leader in Johto!"

Jasmine sighed again. "First of all," she replied, "Pryce was killed, and I wouldn't be ranked above him had he still been alive. And besides that, my goal is just to be the best that I can be; I don't care about being ranked high."

"Oh, come on," Silver said. "You ought to be celebrating over this! Being the top-ranked gym leader is something else, especially considering you passed Clair."

Jasmine looked closer at the piece of paper, seeing the Johto gym leader rankings, which went as follows:

1. Jasmine

2. Clair

3. Gold

4. Whitney

5. Morty

6. Chuck

7. Falkner

8. Bugsy

"Your top-eight finish in the Pokémon League tournament put you over even Clair," Silver explained. "And you know how good she is."

"I still think she's the best gym leader in this region," Jasmine responded. "I'm just glad the Pokémon League is pleased with my performance."

"Pleased? They're thrilled!" Silver replied. "Come on, Jasmine, you've got to be excited about this! Although, I have to wonder… how did Gold get ranked so high after such a short time as gym leader?"

Jasmine sighed once more. Not only was Silver incredibly competitive, he also was a bit over-supportive of her, meaning that he wanted her to gain more and more recognition, while she simply wanted to do her jobs as a gym leader and as a lighthouse keeper. Yet there was something she still could not explain about him, something about his presence that would calm and reassure her. She could not understand it, but for whatever reason, she would open up to Silver, but to no one else. And it was nonsensical, when she really thought about it; after all, Silver was a former thief who had lived a rogue lifestyle before meeting her.

"Come on, I'll take you out to dinner," Silver offered to Jasmine. "I know you don't want to celebrate this, but you wouldn't mind me doing something like this for you, would you?"

"No, no," Jasmine said with a slight smile. She followed him out of the house, wondering exactly what it was about Silver that made him so attractive to her.

----------

Sabrina was sitting alone in her house, when Will teleported in right next to her. She looked at him sadly.

"Liza hasn't returned," Sabrina said to him.

"Well, she did use to have a life in Hoenn," Will responded. "I mean, she's probably just living the way she used to. You weren't planning on her living here forever, were you?"

"No, that's not it," Sabrina said. "If Liza was planning on staying in Hoenn for good, she could have teleported back here to tell me."

"Maybe she forgot," Will supposed. "Or maybe she's having trouble teleporting- I mean, even I didn't know how to teleport until recently."

"No," Sabrina replied. "That can't be it. I feel something bad has occurred to her, and I think we need to do something about it."

Will looked at Sabrina with a bit of anxiety. "You do realize that the last time you got us involved in one of these situations, we were trying to solve some murder mystery, which nearly caused us a lot of trouble?" he said.

"Will, as a psychic, there's more that we can do besides read other people's minds," Sabrina replied. "Sure, it's a nice perk, like the fact that I know exactly what you're thinking about right now."

Will looked embarrassed as Sabrina gave him a cold stare. "All you came here to do is try to kiss me," she said angrily. "Sometimes I wonder how much you really do care about me as a person."

"Oh, I honestly do care about you, you can read my mind and know that's true," Will said frantically. "I'm sorry, Sabrina."

"Go away," Sabrina stated coldly. "We'll talk again tomorrow."

Will stared at the ground in sadness, then slowly teleported away.

I really do love her, Will thought as he arrived back at his house. Why does she have to be so cold towards me? I can't help the fact she's so beautiful.

Will has got to get his priorities straight, Sabrina thought. I know he's so attracted to me, but he's going to have to keep himself under control.

----------

The Pokémon League employee led Giselle to a room where a man was waiting to talk to her. Giselle and the man sat down, and the employee exited the room.

"So, what is this all about?" Giselle questioned. "I'm pretty busy right now."

"My name is Cyrus," the man told Giselle. "I am a scientist who would like do some research on the Pokémon of the faraway land of Sinnoh."

"So what?" Giselle snapped. "This isn't a science center; it's the headquarters of a league for Pokémon battling! I couldn't care less about your research!"

"Miss- I'm sorry, what is your name?" Cyrus asked Giselle.

"I'm the Pokémon League champion! You should know my name!" Giselle retorted.

"I'm sorry-"

"You better be!" Giselle then saw that Cyrus looked sincere in his apology, and she sighed heavily. "It's Giselle."

"Miss Giselle," Cyrus said, "the Pokémon League offers to sponsor several people per year who are willing to do research on Pokémon. Since no scientist has yet gone to Sinnoh from Kanto, I thought your league would be incredibly willing to sponsor my mission."

Giselle stared at Cyrus with annoyance for a minute. She then stood up.

"Maybe the Pokémon League used to waste its money on pointless missions such as yours in the past, but under my watch, it won't!" Giselle shouted at the stunned Cyrus. She stomped out of the room in a fury.

Unbelievable, Cyrus thought. Wasn't this girl supposed to be naïve?

----------

Giovanni sat in his "prison cell," receiving a call from one of his employees. He relaxed on his recliner while using his laptop computer to look at various locations around the Pokémon world.

"Yes?" Giovanni answered the phone. His face turned red when hearing the response on the other side of the line.

"What?!" he screamed. "I told you not to start the operation until I said so!"

"I'm sorry," the voice on the other side of the line replied. "I thought the time was right."

"You idiot!" Giovanni yelled. "Of all the people to kidnap, why them?"

"They seemed to be a genuine threat to us," the voice responded.

"There's someone else who's going to get involved because you did this, someone very powerful," Giovanni explained. "And are you sure they're even still in your custody?"

"Absolutely," the voice answered. "I have psychic Pokémon guarding them, so they can't escape."

"You better hope not," Giovanni told the employee.

"Relax, boss," the employee told Giovanni. "Just trust me. I'll have all of Hoenn under Rocket control in little time."

"I hope so… Steven," Giovanni replied before hanging up.