Samantha and the Golden Boy

- "Teenagers and their secrets."

We lived in a universe of many dimensions, and the two that were at war at present didn't even scratch the surface. Those two universes—the one Pokemon and people and boys and girls and corrupt politicians live in, and the one with the Unseen—exist in parallel. That was the general idea, at any rate. It's how both worlds could co-exist in the same reality context without overlapping.

"That's what's happening now?" I asked, topping off my hot chocolate with a few generous spritzes of nutmeg. "They're not parallel anymore?"

"Yeah, but they're not acting as wonky as you'd think," Henry said. "If I can make an example..."

He set the drink on the small round table and bent his arms up straight, then inched them together ever so slightly.

"That, right there," Henry nodded to where his thumbs touched at the very tips, "would be Goldenrod City."

Only a handful of Pokemon have the power to warp the dimensions.

"There's the Jirachi Wishmaker, that alien Deoxys guy, Arceus, the elemental birds put together could probably do it," Henry counted off.

"That brings us to Celebi?"

"That brings us to Celebi," Henry agreed. "This part requires some Goldenrod backstory. You know about Ilex Forest, right?"

I shook my head. Pika sat on my lap and mimicked the motion.

"You're kidding. How about the GS Ball?"

Another negative. Henry's jaw dropped.

"The relationship between Celebi and Suicune? How Pokemon Master Ethan fought alongside Suicune in a total gambit play to get him to work with Celebi, who brought him three years into the past to defeat Giovanni and prevent a second Team Rocket insurgency?"

"I think you got spit on my glasses," I said kindly.

Henry did his adorable blushing thing again. "Sorry. But...what, did you grow up under a rock?"

I forgot, he didn't know I was still clocking in my first seventy-two hours on this side of the continent. Before he could ask any uncomfortable questions, I hurried the conversation along. "So, what? Did Celebi decide one day to wreck this...what did you call it, reality context?"

He got quiet, breaking eye contact and stirring his coffee with a lame hand.

"It's okay if you can't tell me," I said indignantly. "I'm not going to beat it out of you—"

"Nah, it's not that. It's that we have no idea whyCelebi specifically has anything to do with this.

"See, it starts with Celebi, and Celebi is tied to the GS Ball myth. Back when Azalea Town first started making Apricot Balls—wait, you know what those are, right?"

"Pokeballs...made from...apricots?"

He made a face.

"Moving on. The GS Ball was designed to capture Celebi specifically, and nobody else. The Johto Prime Minister trusted the technology to whomever could claim the title of strongest Pokemon Master between Kanto and Johto.

"Bit of fun history, that," Henry showed a hint of a Johto brogue. "When Ethan beat Red at Mt. Silver, everyone thought it was just some 'there can be only one' battle of the titans, right? Wrong. The Prime Minister used some bogus judicial power and ordered Ethan to either play along or go to prison for the rest of his life."

"I find that hard to believe," I said. "He's a Pokemon Master. What did the government have on him?"

"No clue. What we do know is, the Kanto President came after Red the same way and Red ran. Ethan and Red battling it out wasn't a final showdown, Sam. It was Ethan hunting Red down on government orders.

"In retrospect, I probably should have said that a little more quietly." Henry hushed himself.

"Wait, don't stop now. You were starting to make sense. So Ethan beat Red at Mt. Silver, and he...what, he took the GS Ball and went to catch Celebi?" I paused. "Wait, though. You said Ethan worked with Celebi before..?"

"They beat Giovanni together, right," Henry said. "You know how Ethan has been at the Battle Frontier for the last four years?"

I did the math. I can do some math, give me some slack.

Four years ago, Ethan and Red duked it out. And three years before that, Red became the first Pokemon Master while Ethan, from the future apparently, went and beat the Team Rocket guy.

"My head hurts," I whined.

"I can tell. I think there's smoke coming out of your ears."

"You're not helping with the mind-screw-y-ness, Henry!"

"Here's the screwdriver," he said, remembering to be quiet this time. "The Battle Frontier in Hoenn is a political cluster. Hoenn owns the land, but Kanto financed the buildings and keeps the publicity running. Steven and the Frontier Brains took Ethan's side in the conflict, and since Kanto and Johto don't really want to start a war..."

"I feel like this isn't on topic."

"It totally is!" Henry downed the rest of his coffee in three rapid gulps. My hot chocolate was still steaming. "That's how Celebi got the technology for its own Pokeballs, because Ethan, all the way at Battle Frontier where he's basically a refugee, gave Celebi the GS Ball tech."

When he saw my look of abject confusion, Henry added slyly: "I said it was a cyclical kind of story."

We took the discussion outside. The main strip of fancy boutiques ended at a ten-foot-tall fence with Miltank statues on both sides. The road was paved with fancy stones, commemorating the Gym Leaders before Whitney.

I knew we were finally in the country when the grass crinkled under my sneakers. Pika bounced off of my shoulder and ran in circles, his energy overflowing into the surroundings.

I massaged my temples.

"Ethan gives Celebi the tech for making a super Pokeball that can catch something that warps dimensions," I said.

"That's how it went, yeah," Henry said. He took the advantage of being outside to stretch his arms in the air and take long, wild steps. "Hey, there's a lake this way. Walk with me?"

I followed. The lake had frozen over. Pidgey and Spearow walked along the icy surface, occasionally nipping at the frosty surface and jolting back up. Henry paused at the lake's edge and shoved his hands in his pockets with enough force to suggest some complex inner turmoil underneath the white beanie cap and anxious smile.

We stood there for a minute, watching our breaths form shallow clouds and disappearing.

"Right, so we left off with Celebi. Now, he's a dimension warper. He controls space and time and whatnot. When our world bungled into the other one, he was one of the first to know."

I made an effort to ignore that cryptic 'one of'.

"There are a ton of gaps in the story, but somehow, Celebi got involved and decided to change the playing field—

"Wait, I messed up. I should probably explain the other dimension first."

I shrugged again and this time, Henry pouted. "You know, if I'm boring you, you're free to leave and not know what in the world is going on tomorrow..."

"Don't be so touchy! Explain this other dimension bit," I prodded. I was getting more bored than I was confused, but admitting that was rude.

"We don't have a name for the other world, so it's just kind of...I don't know, referred to?" Henry said. "Its rules are pretty similar to our own. It has humans and Pokemon co-existing, building societies and kind of advancing the general well-being of the world. Written language, technology, Pokeballs...the works. It's got two things we don't have over here."

"The Unseen, right?"

"That's the first one, yeah," Henry nodded. He reminded me of Hannelore when she would explain Pokemon Center or lab work. Total engagement in the material, but total devotion to explaining it effectively. They would both make great teachers. "Though Conner's theory, they came second. The first thing that other world has is a very literal bond between humans and Pokemon."

"Bond," I said again. "Like...bond-bond? Like in those dopey songs? 'You'll teach me and I'll teach you' and all that jazz?"

"Exactly! In that other world, when a Pokemon is bonded to a human, that Pokemon's power is ramped up. It doesn't seem like there's a constant to how much more powerful a Pokemon gets—Conner's Staravia can't hold a candle to Amber's Liligant—but that boost is essential.

"Conner doesn't have a clue what happened to the bonded Pokemon and their Trainers, but the Unseen are going after separate humans, individual Pokemon without bonds. The Unseen aren't of that dimension, but they were there before they came here, so Conner treats the Unseen like they're native to that dimension for purposes of conversation."

I took a breath.

"I'm being a poindexter, aren't I?"

"Just a tiny bit." I held up my finger and thumb, an inch apart. "I get the gist...but if you asked me to explain what you said back to you, I'd probably go home."

Henry laughed. "I'll take your word on it."

"The Unseen attack individuals," I said, trying to pull my weight in the discussion. "Why don't they go after bonded opponents? You know, someone their own size?"

I remembered how the Unseen from yesterday had no qualms against killing Pika and me, but when Henry showed up, it recognized a worthy adversary and took a stance. A very creepy, alien-geometry-stance, but still.

Henry's response was to raise an eyebrow.

I wonder if he saw the exclamation mark over my head?

"You don't mean...the Unseen didn't kill all—?"

"That's the theory we're subscribing to, at least," Henry said gravely.

"Walk with me, it gets the brain churning." Henry started down the bank, and I followed along. I never noticed how long his legs were before. Two of his steps to every one of mine; I felt like I was four and stumbling after Hannelore. "This is the part where I lay down the rules and try to bring it together."

"Key word being 'try'," I said.

Henry waved a hand between the two of us. "I like this, Sam. We're on the same page. It makes my ridiculous explanations and your droll sarcasm flow." We traded smiles.

"When the dimensions intersect, we call that the Twilight. It's at four o'clock on a handful of days. It casts the Dome over a specific part of Goldenrod, and if you're a normal person, you just go into a negative space until the Twilight ends.

"If you're like me, like Amber and Conner, and like a few others...which you are," Henry nodded, "Then you don't disappear. You're stuck in the Dome, running from the Unseen along with the sensitive people from the other dimension. The Dome doesn't time-out or anything, mind you."

"You're talking about Mission Clears," I offered.

"Bang on. The catch is, only a bonded Pokemon and Trainer can take on a mission, and if the condition is failed, the Dome just stays up."

I didn't ask what would happen in that condition.

The scenery gradually changed from grassy plains to shrubbery and taller trees. Weedle and Kakuna hid up in the branches, and those infamous patches of tall grass started to surround us more often than not. Pika didn't want a fight any more than I did. He walked along the ground barely an inch behind me, watching out all the time for obstacles on the path with his beady eyes.

"Here's an example," Henry said. "The Dome for yesterday went up in the Village at four. You were there, and you were sensitive, so when everyone else went away, you remained. The condition was to keep all the un-bonded humans alive while defeating the Unseen. It was just you and that other guy, so if it had been only him and he died, who knows what might have happened."

"But you saved me," my voice caught. "You saved me and the Dome came down."

"Mission Clear," Henry said.

The trees covered the sky now. In a few minutes, it would be pitch-black around us. We had entered Ilex Forest sometime back, and I never noticed. Way to let a boy lure you into the middle of nowhere, Samantha.

"There's one thing I left out," Henry said. "Conner would probably stop here, push up his glasses and ask if you can figure it out. If it were up to Amber, she would have wrecked him the first time he pulled that...So!" He smiled, asking the same question without asking it.

I looked at my hands, fidgeted with them. They were becoming colder and harder to move as the sun went down and the temperature dropped.

"I guess if there's a stupid question to ask..."

"There are no stupid questions," Henry said predictably.

"If I had to ask one...What does that have to do with Celebi?"

I must have gotten it right: Henry shot a fist in the air.

"And Dad says I'd make a terrible manager," he said jokingly. "Check this out, it'll blow your mind."

"My mind's been pretty blown so far," I said honestly. None of this would even sink for hours, by which point I'd be scared out of my skin.

"Humans and Pokemon don't have that same bond in this dimension because our Pokemon, not us as people, don't have the capability. Genetics, or even magic, whatever. But to stand a fighting chance against the Unseen to bring the Domes down and get Mission Clears, the sensitive humans here have to get Pokemon from that other dimension."

I did a little hop as I pieced that it together.

...Then, I stopped dead in my tracks.

It had started to sink in.

By 'it', I mean 'the colossal mess I had wandered into, which had every intention of claiming my life.'

By 'it', I mean how that colossal mess was so much bigger than myself and my daddy drama, so much bigger than Hannelore wanting to one day go back to school and bigger than the Boss and our mother and the reason he became the way he is now.

By 'it', I mean the real reason Henry showed so much interest in me.

"Celebi is behind everything," I awed.

"The three of us—Conner, Amber, and I—found our Pokeballs at Celebi's altar not far from here. We used them to catch the Pokemon from under the Dome. The Celebi Balls activate the Pokemon's bond, and it keeps them here when the Dome closes.

"The Unseen probably could have destroyed the world in the first Twilight if the three of us weren't ready for them," Henry said. We took a sharp turn. "The altar's just up this way. I'm thinking you'll have a Celebi Ball waiting for you. Running around with a Pokemon that fights an Unseen for you...it's exactly like me and Hammo."

"What is Hammo? Or...Star..?"

"Staravia is normally native to Sinnoh, according to Conner's data. And Amber's Liligant is from Unova, same as my Tepig." Then, with a smirk: "I just call him 'Hammo'."

...I caught him in the lie, then.

"You knew that Pika wasn't mine," I said.

"Come again?"

"Back at Conner's lab, when you defended me to keep Amber from hurting me. You made it sound like Pika and I were long-time friends, or something."

"Wait, you're not? Sam, you lied to me!" He put a hand to his chest and gasped.

I'm not sure who smiled first that time.

We walked along in silence. Henry pulled the collar of his beanie down so it covered most of his head, and he kind of resembled a walking sock. Not that I blamed him: I pulled up the hood on my sweater and yanked the chords tight. It was probably snowing outside the cover of the forest.

I had never seen the altar before, so like when Henry took my phone and gave it back with his phone number, I expected something more than what I actually got. For everything Celebi did in this story, you'd think its altar held cloistered nuns. In the real world, it was a sad little brick structure that barely reached my waist.

That's exactly when Pika decided to jump in front of us and charge up its cheeks.

I called for him. "Pika!" Then, like a parent: "What do you think you're doing? Get back here!"

A pack of Weedle blocked our path, and Pika must have seen them coming. The four Weedle meant business. You could tell from the way they stopped and bent themselves upright, only bending just at the neck to jab their pointers threateningly.

Pika refused to back down. The electricity flowed wildly, a torrent of blue light.

"Great timing," Henry said drolly. He pulled his own Celebi Ball and tossed it. Hammo—known to most as a Tepig—burst onto the scene. Hammo was a hair too late: Pika zapped the ground and jumped into the air to avoid a counter-attack. The pack of Weedle froze and collapsed, probably cooked to a satisfying medium-well.

Cue the pair of Beedrill racing out at us from the trees, eyes red like molten-hot rage. Pika landed in a branch and jumped again before one of the Beedrill could catch it with its humongous stinger. But Pika wasn't attacking...what was it waiting for?

"Sam?"

"What?" I asked, refusing to turn away from a Pika in peril.

"You know how to battle, right? You've battled before?"

"Like a Pokemon battle? No," I answered curtly. Pika dived past another rushing tackle, but cut it too close for comfort.

"Sam, you're a Trainer now. You're a team. It jumped out to protect you, and it needs orders—Hammo, great dodge. Ember attack!"

I pulled away just long enough to watch Hammo slide past the one Beedrill's attack, open his little jaw, and launch the flaming missiles from before. Beedrill fell like an anchor, weighed down by its burning wings and seared flesh.

Hammo turned to the other Beedrill, but Henry held a hand out. Hammo stopped in its tracks.

Great.

"You're going to make me do this on my own, aren't you?"

"It's either here or inside the Dome tomorrow," Henry said coyly.

Pika jumped out of the way of another attack, but there were no more branches for it to leap to. He hurtled to the ground, catching himself at the last second and back-flipping into a stance. For a bunch of fat mice, you wouldn't think Pikachu are so graceful.

I ran through the attacks a Pikachu probably knew.

Note to self: thank television later.

"Pika!" And when Pika's ear perked up: "Thundershock it!"

True to form, Pika shut its eyes and seemed to flex every muscle in its being. The electric torrent in its system turned to a pointed rocket, shocking the flying insect and bringing it down.

I took a moment to catch my breath.

"The fighting's over," I said. I meant to relax Pika, but we all knew I was talking to myself.

"That's your first battle," Henry said. Hammo took a familiar position, walking no more and no less than six inches behind him. "How did it feel?"

"Pika didn't attack," I said in awe. "He could have been hurt..."

"Yeah, battles can end like that."

I ignored the sarcasm. "But he attacked that first time..."

"Its in Pika's nature to attack first, I suppose. Every Pokemon has a different nature. Hammo likes to just take it slow. Right, buddy?"

I swear, Hammo shrugged exactly like Henry would.

Henry smirked when I pointed and my jaw hung. "That's the bond, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, close your jaw unless you want more bugs coming at us, yeah?" He nudged my mouth shut with the tip of his finger.

We walked the last few paces to the altar in silence. Pika took the lead now, glaring back and forth with a stare that meant business. Hammo, meanwhile, brought up the rear and had his head so far in the clouds, he probably saw airplanes go by.

"Here we are," Henry said. "Moment of truth."

I didn't want to see it.

I didn't want to believe it, either.

I mean, help me here. Be in my shoes for a second. You just move someplace and some kid says you're part of a team that has to protect the world, and it occurs to you right then—right then—that a Celebi Ball waiting for you means you're like him.

And you're torn, because on the one hand, you're a sane person. You know that you don't want any part in saving the world from evil abominations from the hell planet, because you could end up dead. D-e-a-d dead.

...But something wants there to be a Celebi Ball anyway.

Part of you wants to belong.

Because part of you hasn't belonged to a group of anything—not friends, not classmates and not family—for so long that even joining up with a veritable suicide pact makes sense. You can't explain it, but you want to be able to relate to other kids your own age. You want something to bridge the gap between yourself—your fat, lazy, acne-infested, four-eyed self—and the first boy who was ever nice to you in your entire life.

...And there it was, under the altar. Shining all of the colors of the rainbow, waves of color dancing and twirling into and outside themselves like a pool of all existence.

There was me. The future me, and all that it would entail.

Pika nudged it with his tail.

"That's mine, huh?"

"All yours," Henry said.

I nodded.

Then: "This is the moment of truth, right? So what, if I touch the Celebi Ball, there's no going back and I'm stuck fighting Unseen for my entire life?"

"We don't know that," Henry said truthfully. "They could be gone after the dates are up. Though to answer your question, the moment of truth is when Pika goes in the ball."

"Because then it bonds to me?"

"Well," Henry drew the word out. "That depends. He's already bonding to you, by our definition."

Henry used Zig-Zag! It's super effective!

Pika stopped poking the ball and started sniffing it. When he was sure it wouldn't jump out and get him, Pika opened his tiny mouth and almost bit it.

"Cut that out," I chided. Pika didn't pull back, but he didn't bite the ball, either. I inched closer to the altar, fighting off the angels on my shoulder telling me whether or not this was a good idea.

Good angel You're helping save the world.

Bad angel: You're being a martyr for the world.

Me: Would both of you be quiet?

I felt the Celebi Ball's weight as soon as my fingers made contact with it. I had never felt a Pokeball before, but right away this one was special. The colors twisted depending on where I placed my fingers, almost like a mood ring, if that makes sense. The lock and line going around the ball were entirely transparent, meaning that if you didn't know any better, you wouldn't think it was a Pokeball at all. It was a ball of endless color, moving on its own into infinity.

I picked it up and stood slowly. Henry and Hammo had been eying me the whole time.

I cracked a wry grin.

"Ta-daa."

"You don't have to make Pika go inside right away," Henry suggested. We had taken the same train to get to our homes. According to Henry, it was actually quicker to take my train, get off with me, and transfer at the station to another train that ran infrequently. It reeked suspiciously of BS, but I could use the company. "I get that this is a lot to take in. You should take your time."

Henry showed me how to minimize a Pokeball, and so I put it in my hoodie pocket and fiddled with it. He had retired Hammo back to its ball once we left the forest. "What are you smirking at?" He asked accusingly.

"I don't have time to take in," I said matter-of-factly. "Tomorrow is a Twilight, right? So I'll be there with you whether I like it or not."

"Hey, I did make sense!" Henry beamed. When he came back to earth: "Tomorrow is a Twilight, but we're used to working as a group of three. Think of tomorrow as a trial run. You'll just shadow one of us."

"I'm like an intern," I groaned.

"I wasn't going to put it quite like that," Henry shrank. I knew I wasn't being the most optimistic or conversational girl in Goldenrod, but I was one of the two girls with a Celebi Ball and some crazy battle with destiny, so I felt I was entitled to a hissy fit.

The train pulled in to my stop. I got up fast, but Henry sat up slowly. He patted Pika on its head with one hand and pulled his beanie down with the other.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked.

I nodded. I caught a glimpse of the train schedule, darting past on the display above us. Henry's train came in the next minute or so.

Henry stole my attention again. "I'm not in any hurry," he confessed. "If you need me to walk with you or anything..."

"I'll be fine," I said dryly.

Henry pursed his lips and nodded once, twice, a third time was the charm.

"Come on, Pika," I said. He jumped to what was quickly becoming his assigned seat on my shoulder. "Let's get home."

My legs carried me to Hannelore's apartment building on their own. My nose knew not to react to the cigarette smoke, and my hand pressed the call button on auto-pilot.

I banged my head against the elevator door as it closed behind me. Pika poked me in the second chin with his small paw. It tickled just a bit.

"I'm fine," I told him. "Just...I'll be fine. It's starting to sink in a bit, that's all."

The door opened, and by dint of sheer willpower—that and wanting to ball up under the covers and never come out—I made it to the front door of our apartment. I heard laughter from inside, but was too drained to think one step further. Hannelore's laughter was so ingrained in my psyche, it was probably unhealthy...who was the male voice?

I pushed the door open.

"Sam!" Hannelore sat up quickly. She sat at the table across from a man her age, with a five o'clock shadow and a suit that obviously cost more than the entire apartment. The slick haircut and fancy watch told me he worked for the Company. The bright smile from Hannelore said he was a friend, if not more than that. "Sam, I didn't think you would be home so late. It's past one in the morning."

"Sorry," I said weakly.

"I tried calling you," Hannelore said urgently.

I apologized again, this time even more lifelessly than before. Hannelore's eyes narrowed—one of the few signs that her temper was rising—but she remained her sweet self.

"Sam, this is my boss, Mr. McCall," she said.

"It's nice to meet you, Samantha," Mr. McCall said. His face and body looked no older than twenty-two, but nobody told his deep baritone voice that. "I've heard quite a bit about you, and your Pikachu friend as well. How are you liking Goldenrod?"

"It's nice." I mentally added: it's going to try and kill me tomorrow, but it's nice.

"Hey, I'm going to knock out?" I asked Hannelore. I knew better than to just walk out of a conversation, especially since it would make Hannelore look like she's housing some hoodlum. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. McCall," I said politely.

"Certainly," he said smoothly. I left before Hannelore could protest.

I pushed my bedroom door open by pushing my whole body weight against it. It flew open, and I collapsed onto the bed.

"I hope she's okay," Hannelore said.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Teenagers and their secrets, you know? I remember what I was like at her age," McCall said.

"I suppose so..."

"Pika?" I whispered. "Do me a solid, buddy? Close the door?

"Thanks, pal," I said when the door slid closed. I pulled my clothes off and dove under the fresh sheets, balling up just like I wanted. All I had to do now was sleep and never come out.


Thanks for reading this far! This story is hard to write, so anyone enjoying it makes it worthwhile.