A/N: Hi, it's me, shadowsquirl. Anica'll talk at the end. I know I've been kind of absent, but it seems that my job writing this fic is to think the big thoughts behind-the-scenes. (grins) Anica's job is to actually write the story, and to think up all the stuff that actually makes it interesting in the meantime. I see that the fic's gotten some good feedback, so I'll try to just keep on manipulating the game to suit my own ends and hope you keep liking it. Enjoy.

The Hero's Curse

Ch. 2--Unwanted Acquisitions

Katie wiped her forehead with her sleeve and leaned back against the trunk of the towering tree under which she was sitting. The bark felt cool on her cheek, a welcome relief from the sweltering June heat that had forced them, or at least her, to stop and rest frequently during the few hours they'd been traveling.

She was too worn-out to look down at her watch just now, but she guessed that it was around six o'clock. Ben stood in the shade of another tree a few feet away, staring out across the dirt path and apparently lost in thought. Raptor, who she'd let out for company, seemed to enjoy the sunlight and was sniffing around in a patch of the white flowers that grew along the roadside.

After a few minutes of watching him, Katie decided she might as well be doing something productive, so she pulled out her pokedex and, after figuring out how to work it, asked it for information on bulbasaur. It presented her with a few paragraphs of general information, an attack list, and a type match-up chart with the words "grass" and "poison" highlighted whenever they appeared. Katie bit her lip. She wasn't sure she'd been aware that bulbasaur were poison types, although it wasn't too surprising now that she looked at him. Despite knowing little about type advantages, she had figured that she could probably guess which types were good against grass—fire and probably ice, for a start—but poison made less sense to her. She supposed she had better look over this chart so she wouldn't get a nasty surprise in battle.

Ben had walked over to her, and was looking over her shoulder. "You'll get it," he assured her, correctly interpreting the look on her face. "It looks like a lot, but once you start using it in actual battles it'll get easier to remember."

"And I just make a fool of myself in the meantime, huh?" Katie couldn't help smiling.

Ben grinned back. "Yeah, basically. But you learn faster with trial and error than with trying to memorize it all at once. Speaking of…" He looked up at the sun, shielding his eyes. "We may as well go ahead and eat. Why don't you see if you can find a few pokemon to battle while we're here? We'll probably start meeting other trainers once we hit Viridian, and you should probably have some experience in case you get challenged."

Katie nodded, seeing the sense in this, and got to her feet, grimacing slightly as she brushed flecks of bark from her hair. She recalled Raptor and set off somewhat nervously into the grassy fields that surrounded the scattered trees on Route 1. She had been skeptical of the whole thing at first—surely, pokemon wouldn't come out of hiding just because she was looking for them—but Ben had assured her that most pokemon seemed to enjoy battles and some would even seek out trainers. Sure enough, she hadn't been searching long when a small purple creature she recognized as a ratatta scampered out of the grass to her right and fixed its eyes on her, its whiskers twitching as it sized her up.

Katie cautiously reached for Raptor's pokeball and tossed it a few feet from the ratatta, afraid that the pokemon might run if she spooked it. Raptor appeared in a flash of red light and took in his surroundings, regarding the ratatta evenly. He glanced back expectantly at Katie, who suddenly realized she needed to tell him what to do. The ratatta bared its teeth and prepared to lunge.

"T-tackle," Katie called, somehow afraid he might not listen. Raptor immediately took off at a run and slammed headlong into the ratatta. It stumbled and hissed, the wind obviously knocked out of it, then rushed back with a tackle of its own that didn't seem to faze Raptor too badly. Tackle was the only move Katie was sure of at this point, so she ordered another one. The ratatta took even longer to stand back up this time, and when it did it stayed back and began waving its tail back and forth, its eyes fixed on Raptor.

Katie watched the attack, a little anxious. Raptor looked slightly sick for a few seconds, but appeared to shake it off fairly quickly and tensed as if he wanted to attack again, so Katie called for one more tackle. At this point the ratatta fell to the ground, panting, and didn't get up, which Katie took to mean they had won. She walked over to check on Raptor, who plodded up to her enthusiastically and nuzzled her hand, making her grin. He was a little dirty, but didn't seem to be hurt, so she recalled him and walked on, looking left and right for movement in the grass.

Raptor defeated three more ratatta and, with a little more difficulty, two of the bird pokemon called pidgey before Katie decided they needed a break. She made her way back to the side of the path, where she could see smoke rising into the sky. When she emerged from the grass, she found Ben stirring a pot of soup that was cooking over a fire he'd made.

He laughed when he saw her. "Have fun?"

She realized she was covered in grass and grinned back, brushing a little off her clothes as she sat down beside him. "Yeah, it went a lot better than I thought for my first time. We beat five or six pokemon, but Raptor's pretty tired now."

"Let him rest till we get to Viridian tomorrow. You can train a little more after he's healed." Ben ladled some soup into a bowl and placed it in front of her, then scooped some out for himself. "If you run into an emergency there should be a potion in that bag Professor Oak gave you."

Katie sipped her soup gladly, only just realizing how hungry she was. After a minute, she remembered that Raptor needed to eat, too, so she let him out again and gave him a bowl of food, which he devoured right away. He yawned widely when he had finished, and Katie recalled him and stretched, leaning back to look up at the darkening sky.

"Shouldn't we get going?" she asked Ben, although more walking was really the last thing she felt like doing just now. "It'll be dark soon."

Ben shook his head. "We'll stay here tonight. The fire's already made and this is a nice spot to camp. I know it's a little early, but we should go on to bed in a little while so we can get up early tomorrow. If we start a little after sunrise, we'll probably make it to Viridian around dinnertime."

Katie covered a yawn. "Since when do you get up that early?"

"It's best to walk as far as you can each day when you're between cities like this," he answered as he gathered the dishes. "And believe me, it's more pleasant to travel while the sun's up."

She watched him stoke the fire and remembered how she used to tug his pillow out from under him, pulling him grumbling from his bed and into the kitchen for breakfast, giggling as he dragged his feet.

Five years is a long time, isn't it?

Her eyes filled suddenly, and a soft laugh escaped her lips at her silliness. Her brother looked up at her curiously. "What is it?"

She shook her head, the urge to cry vanishing as abruptly as it had come. She looked across the fire at him, smiling a little. "You've changed, Ben Sakura."

He regarded her with surprise for a moment, then smiled back, a little ruefully. "And you haven't changed at all."

"I won't," she promised, and this time it was his eyes that turned bright.

….

"This is a very bad idea." Lance's tone was even. "I thought you had more sense than this. Why didn't you stop him?"

The Professor met his gaze innocently in the vidphone. "I think you give me too much credit. My pokemon aren't nearly strong enough to keep him from doing anything."

"Don't give me that," Lance snapped, starting to get annoyed. "You could've talked him out of it if you'd tried. You wanted him to go with her."

"I did," the Professor agreed cheerfully. "They've missed each other. It will be good for them to have some time together to—"

"That's sweet," Lance cut in sarcastically. "But they won't have much to talk about if they're dead. I suppose it never crossed your mind that they're both in a lot more danger now that he's with her?"

"I should think the opposite would be true," Professor Oak returned mildly. "He's quite the trainer, after all. I'm sure he's capable of protecting her until she's ready to fight for herself."

"That's the point," Lance answered, frustrated. "He's a very strong trainer, and I'm sure the person behind this crisis is on the lookout for anyone who might get in the way. He'll draw attention to himself if he battles, and our enemy might just decide to wipe them both out."

"That is true," the Professor admitted. He paused. "What about you, then? And the Gym Leaders? You're all in danger too, by that logic."

Lance nodded. "I know. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do until we find out a little more about what we're facing. The best plan for us right now is probably to stay put and take our chances. As far as we know, the enemy isn't aware that we're on to him. If we start acting too strange, he might suspect something." He frowned. "Besides, better us in danger than that girl right now. Has she even been training for a day yet?"

"Katie's always been a fast learner," answered Professor Oak. "And despite the danger, I think Ben will be a help to her."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Whatever. My only comfort is that this has all probably occurred to him, too. Hopefully he won't go throwing his pokemon around recklessly."

"I'll pass the message along," the Professor said. "He's supposed to check in with me when they reach Viridian. Don't take offense, but he'll probably be more likely to listen if it comes from me."

Lance smirked ruefully. "You almost make it seem like we don't get along."

Professor Oak rolled his eyes a little. "In any case. You're not happy with him for pulling this stunt, don't battle if he can help it. Is there anything else I need to let them know?"

A boy of twelve standing opposite him in his arena, trembling before his dragons, defiance flashing in his eyes…"Tell him I said don't die," Lance said shortly, and hung up.

Katie had been to Viridian before. Her mother had often taken her there on her birthdays to shop at the big bookstores and movie stores Pallet didn't have. She had also spent the past five years living in Vermillion, a good-sized city, so it didn't faze her too badly when they reached the top of a hill and the city line suddenly appeared before them.

More than anything else, she was happy to see restaurants and hotels. She felt a little pathetic for feeling this way after only two days on the road, but she had to admit that she was very much looking forward to having a bath later on, and a meal that she didn't have to cook.

The pokemon center was easy to find. The gigantic red-and-white sphere that formed the building's roof was visible from a block away. Katie nearly moaned in delight as they stepped through the sliding doors and were met with a burst of cool air.

Her eyes adjusted to the soft light and she looked around curiously. She had never had a reason to visit a pokemon center, but it looked more or less the same as they always did on TV. The Nurse Joy was giving instructions to two chansey wearing white hats, who bustled off cheerfully toward the elevator. The open space that took up the rest of the building was littered with tables and chairs, of which about a third were occupied by chattering trainers. More trainers were gathered around the TV in the corner, some watching the news, others admiring a clefairy that was apparently the newest acquisition of the girl with the long blonde braid standing next to it. A delicious smell of frying chicken permeated the room.

Ben wandered off to watch TV, and Katie made her way nervously to the counter. There was no line, and Nurse Joy smiled at her encouragingly. "Hello there. I don't think I've seen you around before."

Katie shook her head. "No, I…I've never been here before." Was she supposed to just ask? "Would you…um, please heal my bulbasaur? I don't think he's very hurt, but…"

"Of course," Nurse Joy replied, and held out her hand. Katie parted somewhat reluctantly with Raptor's pokeball. Nurse Joy laughed when she saw her face. "You're new, aren't you? Don't worry, you'll have him back before you know it."

Embarrassed, Katie muttered a thank you and turned to scan the crowd for Ben. She walked over to the television area and found him lounging in an armchair, glaring with mild annoyance at the blonde girl Katie had seen earlier, who seemed to want something from him.

"You're being rude," she snapped, taking an aggressive step forward.

"I'm tired," Ben answered flatly, unfazed. "I've had a long day. And it's not like there aren't ten or fifteen other people here who'll fight you. Go away." He smiled at Katie as she made her way over to them. "Hi. All set?"

"Raptor's with Nurse Joy," Katie answered, gesturing toward the counter. The blonde girl strode over to her. She looked about Ben's age, or maybe a little older, and her blue eyes were forceful and haughty. "How about you?" she demanded. "Battle me? After you get your pokemon back? Three-on-three, okay?"

Ben threw the girl a sharp look. Katie took a step back, intimidated. "I—I don't have—" she stammered, going red and looking wildly around as if hoping for a rescue. "I—I only have one."

The girl frowned, then rolled her eyes. "I hate when people just train one. It's so boring." She flipped her braid over her shoulder. "Whatever. Just let me know when you're ready." She turned to walk off.

"Wait!" Katie called, and the girl turned around again impatiently. Katie swallowed and said, "I—what I meant was, I'm not sure I can battle you. I just got my first pokemon yesterday."

The girl raised her eyebrows. "What are you talking about? You've got to be older than I am!"

"I—I know," Katie answered, going even redder. More people were starting to look over at them curiously. "I just…I didn't start at the normal time. I had…other things to do, so…" The girl was still staring at her incredulously. "I'm sorry, but…I don't think I could possibly win against you, so…there's really no point."

The girl studied her for a moment, her piercing gaze making Katie uncomfortable. The girl's lips curved slightly, and she shared a look with a brown-haired girl who had come to stand beside her while they had been talking. "What do you mean?" she asked Katie coldly. "You're not allowed to say no if someone asks you to battle. They could take away your license for that." The brown-haired girl started to giggle.

Katie's fists clenched. They were obviously laughing at her, but what if they were telling the truth? She didn't know anything about how battles worked. She said nothing, staring at the blonde girl, who was still looking at her with her eyebrows raised, and her friend, who had clapped a hand over her mouth and was shaking with silent laughter.

"That's enough," said a low voice to their right. The blonde girl finally took her eyes off Katie to stare arrogantly at Ben, who stood beside them with his hands in his pockets, unimpressed. "If you don't have anything better to do than this, you'd probably be better off spending the time training. That clefairy you took out earlier needs work."

The brown-haired girl stopped laughing. The blonde girl flushed a little and narrowed her eyes. "Prove it. Fight me."

Ben met her eyes and held them. The blonde girl flinched. She intensified her glare;

Ben's expression didn't change. Finally the girl snorted and turned, marching away from them and beckoning imperiously to her friend.

"Katie Sakura!" came a voice from across the room. Katie turned automatically; it was Nurse Joy, leaning over the counter in order to see her. "Your pokemon is ready!"

Ben turned, smiling, to Katie. "They've started serving dinner. I'm starving after all that walking today. Do you want to just eat here? It's best if we stay here tonight, anyway; it'll be cheaper than a hotel."

"That sounds good," Katie answered, uncomfortably aware of all the eyes on them. Ben stood on tiptoes to see over the crowd.

"It doesn't look like there's much of a line right now," he said. "Let's go ahead." He started to edge his way past chairs and people, Katie trailing behind him.

It was an uneventful night after that. Neither one of them was challenged again, and they spent the evening watching TV and talking with other trainers. When Nurse Joy suggested that the trainers who would be staying overnight get ready for bed, Katie sought out the bathroom and took a long, hot shower before sinking into the soft warmth of her cot.

Ben told her he had some things he needed to take care of after breakfast the next morning, and suggested that she do some more training outside the city limits, though he warned her not to try to go too far. Katie was curious, and a little nervous about going out alone, but she knew she needed to train, so she agreed to meet him for lunch back in the pokemon center and ventured out into the misty morning, heading west toward Route 22.

Here she met several pokemon she'd never seen before: male and female nidoran (Katie had halfheartedly tried to capture one; the creature had burst out of the ball and fled) and an odd, stout little pokemon her pokedex informed her was called mankey. Raptor did well, defeating each opponent as it challenged them. Katie felt sure he was at least stronger than he had been when she'd left Pallet.

They left another defeated ratatta and moved on through the grass, Katie on the lookout for another nidoran—she'd liked the pale blue of the female. A little farther down the path she once again heard movement ahead of her and tensed, her hand tightening around Raptor's pokeball.

A bird pokemon she'd never seen before trotted out of the grass, preening itself and not paying her any attention. Everything about this pokemon was sharp; red feathers jetted out aggressively from its wings, and its claws and hooked beak, built for ripping and tearing, ended in wicked points.

Katie approached cautiously. She would have liked to have taken out her pokedex and asked for information, but the pokemon, who still had not taken any notice of her, looked as though it might bolt at an unexpected noise. She drew out Raptor's pokeball and tossed it as gently as she could.

Raptor appeared in a flash of light, and the strange pokemon turned its head sharply. It glared unblinkingly at Raptor for a moment, then suddenly puffed up and took flight, launching itself toward him like a missile.

Caught by surprise, Katie didn't have time to order an attack before the pokemon slammed into Raptor, slashing at him with its beak and sending him stumbling backward into the grass. It backed up, preparing for another attack.

"Leech seed!" Katie yelled, and Raptor struggled to his feet and fired a volley of pellets at the airborne pokemon. It squalled and propelled itself higher, out of range of the attack. The seeds fell harmlessly to the ground, and the bird pokemon shrieked again and hurled itself down at Raptor, its claws outstretched.

"T-tackle," Katie called for lack of a better idea, but the pokemon was in the air and Raptor didn't seem to know what to do. They were within a foot of each other now, and Raptor made a haphazard sort of lunge for the pokemon, but it dodged him easily and maneuvered around behind him, digging its claws into the bulb on his back and ripping at the back of his head with its beak.

Katie stood paralyzed. What should she do? She couldn't think of an attack that would help Raptor out of this. He cried out in pain, and Katie snapped out of her panic and grabbed his pokeball, preparing to return him. Raptor wailed again, and two vines shot out of his back to grab the bird pokemon, who screeched in surprise and struggled to get loose. Raptor flung the pokemon as hard as he could away from him, and it slammed into a tree a few feet away and struggled to stay airborne, dazed. Raptor ran at it, swaying a little from side to side, and smashed it once more against the tree, grunting with the effort. The pokemon dropped to the ground but kept its balance, favoring its right leg.

Raptor, however, was visibly panting. He had already been in six or seven battles that morning, and his legs trembled as he crouched to prepare for another attack. A green liquid Katie took to be blood oozed out of the cuts on his head and back. "Raptor?" she called uncertainly, but the bird pokemon was already moving. It flapped hard to get off the ground and rushed at Raptor, slashing and tearing with its claws and beak. Raptor collapsed and fell to the ground, unconscious. The pokemon took no notice, and continued to attack him viciously.

"No! No!" Katie yelled, fumbling for Raptor's pokeball. "Quit it! You won, get away! Return!" She jerked the pokeball off her belt and stretched out her arm; Raptor turned red and was pulled back inside. Katie sighed with relief and turned to run back to Viridian and the pokemon center. Before she'd taken four steps, a searing pain down her back made her cry out and stumble, going down hard and feeling her ankle twist. She gasped in pain and jerked her head around, searching for the source of the angry screeching coming from somewhere behind her.

The bird pokemon was hovering five or six feet above the ground, beating its bruised wings wildly and glaring furiously down at her. When it saw her look up, it shrieked again and plunged. Katie screamed and threw her arms over her head; the pokemon hovered over her and tore at the backs of her hands with its claws. She thrust her arms wildly every which-way until it flew out of range of them, and struggled to her feet. She started to run again, but the pain in her ankle made it impossible; she fell again and felt a rock cut into her elbow, drawing blood.

She forced herself to turn around. The pokemon was coming at her again, this time from straight ahead. She screamed again, more out of anger than out of fright this time, and pushed herself up with her arms and, ignoring the pain in her ankle, lunged toward the pokemon, allowing it to slam into her chest and wrapping both her arms around it as her momentum carried both of them down to the ground in a heap. The bird screeched and struggled as they rolled, scrabbling against her arms with its claws and drawing a line of blood across the bridge of her nose with its beak.

They finally slowed, and Katie pinned the pokemon's wing to the ground with her elbow, letting her whole weight fall behind it. She heard a snap, and the pokemon shrieked in pain. Katie rolled off the bird and scrambled on her hands and knees toward her fallen backpack a few feet away. She yanked it open and felt wildly around inside for the bag she'd gotten from Professor Oak. Her hand closed around one of her pokeballs, and she jerked it out and hurled it toward the pokemon, praying her aim was good enough.

It was. The pokemon's screeches faded away as it was pulled into the pokeball, which closed and fell to the ground, wobbling violently. Katie seized her backpack and forced herself to run, praying that she could get far enough away before the pokemon escaped and came after her again. She ran for a full thirty seconds before her leg finally gave out and she fell once again to the ground and stayed there, gasping for breath.

She lay still for a few minutes, shaking, before she realized the bird was no longer chasing her. She drew herself up and stood slowly, scanning the field for signs of movement. When she was satisfied that she was quite alone, and that Raptor's pokeball was still attached to her belt, she stood still for a few moments as something else occurred to her.

Slowly, she turned back the way she had come and limped back down the dirt path until she found the small red-and-white ball, now perfectly still, lying on the ground as if discarded. She stared at it numbly.

After a few minutes, she knelt to pick it up and began to make her way slowly back to Viridian.

Ben stood with his hands in his pockets in front of the Viridian City Gym, the morning sun warm on the back of his neck. The city was beginning to wake up, but the area around the gym was completely deserted, bare even of trainers coming to stare nervously at the building as they worked up the courage to make a challenge.

He narrowed his eyes. He had stayed in the center that morning to make a call to Professor Oak (who'd had little to say that Ben hadn't already worked out) and as he'd turned off the phone two trainers a little younger than himself had trudged inside, talking and looking disappointed about something.

"After we came all the way here," one boy had said indignantly, throwing himself into a chair by the window. "He didn't even leave a note saying when he was coming back. He could've done at least that much so we wouldn't have to waste our time waiting for him."

"Don't Gym Leaders usually put the senior trainer in charge when they leave the gym anyway?" his friend had asked, sitting down opposite him. "So people can still get badges?"

"Yeah, but not even the trainers are there," answered the first boy. "It's all locked up. I wonder if they're shutting it down for good."

Ben had left the pokemon center immediately, heading north to the gym. He'd found the door locked, the windows covered, and the sign out front ripped and unreadable. Now he stood staring at the deserted building, biting his lip pensively as he debated what this meant.

"Lance thinks the Gym Leaders are in more danger than you are right now," Professor Oak had said. "Just try to keep your head down."

He suddenly realized that he was no longer alone. A boy with a red crew cut was approaching the gym from across the street, walking with a deliberate, confident stride that told Ben he was an experienced trainer. When he reached the building he stopped and scowled, fingering the pokeballs on his belt absently. He crossed his arms, apparently deciding what to do next.

"Damn," he muttered, and kicked the locked door halfheartedly. As he turned to leave he spotted Ben, who was still watching him from a few feet away. He walked over to him. He looked to be about Katie's age.

"You a trainer here?" the boy asked, not bothering to hide the fact that he was sizing Ben up as he approached.

Ben let him. "No."

The boy threw the gym a dark look. "I've been trying to get in there for a month. It's the only Kanto badge I need." Ben glanced down at the boy's jacket, which was tied around his waist, and saw eight badges he didn't recognize pinned rather ostentatiously to the sides, and underneath them, seven from Kanto gym leaders.

The boy saw him looking and grinned smugly. "I'm from Hoenn. Lavaridge. I finished all the gyms there, figured I'd try for another eight." He rolled his eyes. "Blew through most of them, you know, since I'd already trained so much. But I heard this guy's pretty good, if he'd ever actually show up. People here say he's been gone for forever now."

"I got the badge from an under-trainer, and that was two years ago," Ben said, thinking out loud. "Maybe they have decided it's not worth it to keep the gym running."

The boy raised his eyebrows. "You've got all eight, then?" he said, eyeing Ben with a lot more interest than he'd had earlier. "This is usually the last one people get here, right? How come you're still hanging around Viridian? You gonna go fight the Elite Four, or do you just live here?"

Ben shrugged, mildly annoyed. Something about the way the boy was looking at him made him uncomfortable. "I'm with my sister," he said evasively. "She's starting."

The boy grinned knowingly. "Babysitting, huh? It sucks being the oldest. Parents expect you to take care of the others, like you've got nothing better to do." He scratched the back of his hand. "My sister's the same age as me, so at least she wasn't just dead weight. We won the badges together, you know. Two-on-two."

Ben shrugged again, wishing he could walk away without being rude. Double battles weren't quite as in-fashion in Kanto as they were in other regions, but they weren't that uncommon.

"Yeah," said the boy. "She got bored waiting here and went on to Pewter. They're doing something with pokemon fossils she wants to hear about." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at Ben expectantly. "So what's your name?"

"Ben," he answered shortly. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I need to get back to the pokemon center. I'm meeting my sister there for lunch."

"Well I guess there's no use in me standing around here any longer," the boy replied, oblivious to Ben's rudeness. "I wonder what they're having today. Yesterday it was some chicken crap with orange sauce all over it."

Ben sighed and started walking, eager to get to the center and Katie as quickly as possible. The boy started jogging and caught up with him. "So, your sister. What's her name?"

"What's your name?" Ben returned, resigned to polite conversation. "Sorry I didn't ask earlier, but…"

The boy's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Seth. Seth Starling."

Katie took a long drink of warm tea and leaned back in her chair, wincing as her clothes rubbed against the bandaged cut on her back. The bruises she had gathered that morning were beginning to ache, and the bag of ice Nurse Joy had given her stung on her swollen ankle.

She was more worried about her pokemon. The bird—the spearow, she had learned from her pokedex—had injured Raptor heavily, and between them they had done some pretty serious damage in return. Nurse Joy had assured her that she had seen much worse and that both pokemon would be all right, although she warned her to be more careful in the future about challenging pokemon like spearow with only a weakened bulbasaur in her arsenal.

She had then insisted that Katie take a bath and let the center's chansey clean and bandage her cuts. Katie had obliged happily. Now, forty-five minutes later, she sat in an armchair by the television, trying not to think about her propped-up ankle and wondering how long it would be before she and Ben could start traveling again. Her eyelids grew heavy, and the chatter of the other trainers faded into meaningless background noise as she drifted toward sleep.

She was jarred abruptly out of her almost-doze by the sound of hurriedly approaching footsteps. "Katie! What in the world happened?" Ben's voice, somewhere on her left, sounded frightened. Another, unfamiliar voice demanded, "That's your sister?"

"Shut up," Ben snapped, and Katie opened her eyes. Her brother knelt beside her chair, taking inventory of her bruises and bandages. "When did this happen? Did someone attack you? Did they say anything to you?"

He was, she thought drowsily, much more worried about a few bruises and cuts than he should be. His eyes were wide and anxious, almost panicked, and he suddenly looked like the fourteen-year-old boy he was. He gripped her hand, and she squeezed it reassuringly. "I'm fine," she told him. "No one attacked me. Well, not a person, anyway. I got into a battle with a spearow and lost. I recalled Raptor, but I guess it just wasn't done fighting."

Ben let go of her hand, visibly relieved. "I'm glad you're all right," he said, moving to examine her injured ankle. "I should have thought to warn you. Spearow can be dangerous."

"There was a thing on the news a few months ago, when we were in Fuchsia," said another voice, and she jumped—she had forgotten about the other boy. "Some trainer got into it with a whole flock of the little bastards down on Route 17. Ended up losing an arm."

Katie sat very still. She didn't want to think about what might have happened to her if she'd been up against more than one of the creatures. Ben shot the boy an irritated look, and Katie forced a shaky smile. "I guess I'll be more careful from now on, huh?" She turned to examine the redheaded boy, more to escape Ben's concerned gaze than anything else. He wasn't particularly attractive, but something about his eyes held Katie's attention. They were dark blue, and made her think of icy water.

He smiled, the expression sudden and fleeting. "I'm Seth Starling," he informed her, holding out a pale hand. "I met your brother this morning."

Katie shook it, noticing that it was unusually warm. "Katie Sakura," she answered, smiling back uncertainly.

Seth's eyebrows shot up. "Sakura?" he repeated incredulously. "You're not related to Norman Sakura, are you?"

"Yeah, he's our father," Katie replied, surprised. Not many people at the university had known or cared about a gym leader in a distant region.

"Your brother didn't tell me," Seth said, with a reproachful glance at Ben. "I'm from Hoenn. I battled your dad a few years ago."

"You fought Dad?" Katie asked eagerly. "I've never seen him battle. What was it like? Did you win?"

"See for yourself," he answered with a slight smirk, untying his jacket from around his waist and tossing it to her. She caught it and ran her fingers over the many badges pinned to its front. Eight were polished, with sharp edges, contrasting with seven plumper, more rounded badges underneath. Among those on top she found her father's badge: a set of scales, perfectly balanced. She lingered over it for a few seconds, fingering its polished surface and wondering if her mother had talked to her father lately, told him about her becoming a trainer.

"You guys headed to Pewter?" Seth was asking Ben, who nodded warily.

"As soon as Katie's ankle can handle it," he answered. "It could be a while."

Katie raised her eyebrows at Ben. Seth smiled at her. "Mind some company? It doesn't look like I'm going to be fighting a gym battle anytime soon, so I may as well go meet up with my sister. Viridian Forest isn't much fun alone."

"Sure, if you want," Katie agreed. Trainers in stories invariably met up with people on the road and traveled with them. It always worked to their advantage. "That'd be fun."

Ben crossed his arms. "I seriously doubt there's anything in that forest you need to worry about," he said dryly, glancing at all the badges on Seth's jacket, which was still draped over Katie's lap.

Seth smiled disarmingly at him. "Maybe I just want some company," he said, and Ben frowned. "It's just for a few days. Is there some reason you don't want anyone with you?"

Ben flinched and stared hard at Seth, who continued to smile pleasantly. Finally Ben broke eye contact and dropped into an armchair next to Katie, turning deliberately away from Seth. "Do what you want," he said coldly. "We'll leave in a few days."

"Katie Sakura!" Nurse Joy's voice carried over the babble of conversation. "Your pokemon are back to full health. Please come and pick them up at the counter."

Katie took hold of her injured leg, preparing to move it off its cushion, but Ben shook his head and stood up. "I'll get him. Don't move that ice."

He disappeared into the crowd, and Katie handed Seth's jacket back to him. "Did you talk to Dad much, when you fought him?"

"I'll tell you the whole thing if you want, once we're in the forest," Seth answered, running a hand through his orange bristles and yawning. "We'll get bored fast, just walking. My sister's half of the fight was more exciting."

"You fought together?" Katie asked, but Ben was making his way back over to them, and he pushed past Seth to get to her. "You never said you'd caught it," he said accusingly, dropping the two pokeballs into her hand.

"It really was an accident," she answered, holding the spearow's pokeball up to the light. "I'm not even sure I want to keep it. I don't like the thought of even taking it out, much less battling with it."

Ben took the pokeball from her and without so much as a warning pointed it at the ground and popped it open. A flash of light later, the spearow had materialized on the floor of the pokemon center. It jerked its head left and right, watching other trainers' movements intently.

Ben knelt to look it in the face matter-of-factly. "You hurt my sister, huh?" he asked, and the bird fixed its beady eyes on him. "You'll learn soon enough, but she's really the last person you'll want to get mad at once you give her a chance."

He quickly recalled the spearow before it could slash his face and returned the pokeball to Katie. "You'll have your work cut out, but I think it'll be worth it." He stared thoughtfully at the pokeball. "I wonder why she was alone. Spearow do usually travel in packs."

"It's a she, then?" Katie asked him. She looked down at the ball in her hand. Alone…

"Um, okay, then," she told it, feeling a little foolish and wondering if the pokemon could hear her. "I think your name's going to be Charon, all right? Just so I'll have something to call you besides spearow."

"Okay," said Seth, hanging over the back of her chair to stare at the pokeball too. "What's charon?"

"Pluto's moon," Katie mumbled, going a little red. "Its only one."

Ben stood up abruptly. "I'm going to get us some lunch," he said to Katie. "Wait here." He walked off again.

"Like I could do anything else," Katie said with a sigh, attaching her pokeballs to her belt with some difficulty.

"I'm guessing he's not going to bring me any," Seth said dryly. "Be right back."

Katie took a sip of her now-lukewarm tea and glanced halfheartedly at the television, which was playing the news. She wondered if she would ever have as many badges as Seth did, and how long it had taken him to get them all. Would she ever face her father in battle? She couldn't imagine it, and she was glad, for probably the first time in her life, that he lived in Hoenn. She felt her eyes closing again, and hoped Ben would wake her up for lunch.

"In other news, no headway has been made in the search for Shannon Leigh, who was reported missing by her family three days ago after she failed to return home from a shopping trip in Saffron City," the news anchor said, her face solemn. "Sixteen-year-old Leigh was a native of Lavender Town, and had gained considerable fame throughout Kanto as a pokemon trainer. Whether this disappearance is in any way connected with that of Celadon City's Samuel Current, another well-known trainer, has yet to be determined."

A/N: A couple of things.

First off, I know a lot that when a lot of people describe the tail whip attack, they make it an actual attack—the pokemon goes up and whacks its opponent with its tail. We just decided we'd make it what it is in the game as best we could, and felt like the pokemon would probably notice its defense being lowered, which is why it made Raptor sick. Also, before someone asks how Katie would know about Pluto, we also decided that we're going to treat the world of pokemon as some kind of alternate earth, since there are humans running around and it has a yellow sun, one moon, etc, and since as far as we know there's no answer to the question of what planet they're on anyway. If someone does know somehow, tell us. We're curious. Oh, and the fried chicken…we're also just going to assume that there are, um, other animals besides pokemon on this planet, since we get a little squeamish at the thought of eating a pidgey and then going out and training one. I know people keep pet pigs and things, but…hopefully it's not that big an issue. (grins)