A new chapter finally! Took longer than I intended, couldn't decide how I wanted to end the chapter. Plus, Chapter 5 most definitely isn't written yet. See the author's note at the end for important information!

Chapter 4

"You don't really want us around, do you?" Blake asked. Jade and Blake were finally close to the counter when he broke the thirty minute silence that had existed since his sister left. It hadn't necessarily been an awkward silence, though, as the room was too loud for casual conversation. Both had been occupied watching their surroundings, anyways.

"I wouldn't say that, exactly," Jade said, deciding that things had now become awkward. "I'm just not that comfortable with the situation is all." She knew it wasn't the best answer or the most honest, but she hoped he'd accept it. While she spoke, she knew he was watching her and so she kept her gaze averted. When she finally glanced up, she found understanding in his green eyes instead of the accusatory expression she expected to find.

Blake smiled slightly, probably trying to reassure her, she decided. "I can't blame you; I'm not entirely keen on the situation either. I mean … trainers usually go on their own when they start out, and here we are following you around." After a moment he added, "I'm not really sure why Lissa is so okay with it, actually."

"I don't think she's as interested in the 'trainer' aspect of it," Jade pointed out. She was relieved to hear that she wasn't the only one that didn't like the situation. This new info made her all that more certain that they'd be parting ways soon.

"True…," he said in agreement, his voice quieter than before. He muttered something after, but he was almost too quiet for Jade to hear and she'd just reached the counter. She was fairly sure he'd said something about his mother, though.

"How may we help you today?" an exhausted looking nurse asked when Jade turned her attention to the counter.

Jade dropped her backpack onto the ground and pulled out the bag of Poké Balls her mother had handed her earlier. "I was hoping I could get these pokémon healed," Jade replied, smiling slightly at the overworked nurse as she handed over the bag.

"Could I get your name, ma'am?" the woman asked, counting the Poké Balls inside of the bag.

"Jade Marr," Jade responded, watching as the nurse counted out the seven Poké Balls and then wrote her name on a tag which she attached to the bag.

"Alright … If you come back in approximately two hours they should be ready." Upon seeing Jade's surprised expression, the nurse added apologetically, "We're swamped at the moment, so it's taking longer than usual to process all of the requests."

"Thank you," Jade said, trying to hide her irritation as she picked up her backpack and stepped out of the way for Blake to hand over his Mudkip.

She considered just walking away and leaving Blake, but decided that it would definitely be impolite. Plus, she now had plenty of time to get the items on her list done.

As she was waiting, two men walked into the building wearing old, stained work clothes and tool belts. Both had the logo of some company from Rustboro City printed on the back of their shirts. The first one looked almost like he'd washed his face with dirt that morning with the number of smudges that marked his tanned face. The second, and definitely the senior of the two, looked much cleaner, though it was clear it had been a while since he'd shaved. They completely ignored the large line, and walked right up to the front desk.

"Where's the electrical room," Jade heard the first one ask, cutting off Blake in the process.

The nurse looked extremely relieved to see the two workers there. "I'll call the manager out, she can show you to the way and answer any of your questions," she replied, hitting what Jade assumed was a button under the desk.

The first man nodded slightly in thanks before he and his companion stepped out of the way. Not even ten seconds had passed when a small woman came hurrying out of a back room. Jade was certain she couldn't have been more than four foot six, but she certainly carried herself like she was much taller with her brisk stride. The woman looked more than a little stressed and exhausted with strands of brown hair mixed with grey falling out of a bun and circles under her eyes. Had it been a normal day, Jade was fairly sure the woman would have been completely composed with not a hair out of line.

"Follow me, please," the woman said in as business-like a tone as was humanly possible, her voice much louder than should be possible for such a small body. Jade was fairly sure the woman wanted to add the words, "And it's about time you got here!" but she didn't. Instead, she turned on her heel and hurried away with the two men following her.

"Guess we both have a long wait, huh?" Blake's voice came from right beside her, pulling her attention away from the workers and manager who had just disappeared from sight.

"Oh, uh, yeah, we do," Jade replied, still somewhat distracted. "Do you think someone intentionally set the fire?" She had to look up slightly in order to actually meet his gaze as she asked.

"I think it's possible, but why? Who would want to do something like that, even? It doesn't really make sense to me. I mean, places like this are here to help trainers and pokémon." Blake looked like he wasn't as certain about his answer as he would have liked to be. She could also see the concern that she knew was reflected in her own grey-blue eyes.

"Yeah, I guess."

Jade couldn't count the number of times she'd been to the various Pokémon Centers across the region, and she'd never heard of something like this happening before. Small thefts were fairly common, but the criminals responsible were almost always caught quickly. Someone basically shutting down a Pokémon Center, though, just seemed ridiculous and unrealistic. She was definitely going to be telling her mother about it. If anyone had heard of something like this before it would be her.

"We should probably go outside, it's crowded enough in here as it is," Jade suggested, gripping the strap on her backpack with her hand and pulling to adjust where it sat on her back.

Blake nodded and led the way out, weaving around people to get to the door. The biggest difference once they were outside, Jade decided, was the noise level. Outside of the building everything was peaceful and fairly quiet, which was a relief to Jade and Blake after being in the loud, busy building.

"I need to go print off some posters to hang up," Jade informed Blake. Her gaze shifted so that she could see his expression. Before he could say anything, she'd made up her mind. "If you want to tag along, you can."

The surprise he felt was evident to Jade from the widening of his eyes and the way he studied her expression. He must have decided that the offer had been sincere, because he smiled slightly and said, "If you really don't mind, sure."

Jade returned the smile, hoping she wouldn't regret her decision. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't mind having the boy around as much now. She wouldn't go so far as to say she enjoyed having him around, though.

"I don't," Jade reassured him. She turned and headed down the street, knowing he'd follow.

Sure enough, he was keeping pace with her within seconds. If he'd wanted he could have easily outpaced her with his extra height, she knew. Neither spoke as they walked, comfortable in the silence.

They passed several small stores. Signs advertised the different items available, everything from medicines to Poké Balls, to berries. Some of the shops even had members of their staff outside trying to convince people to enter the small buildings. Others had small tables set out in front of their building with some of their wares laid out, probably hoping to catch the attention of passersby.

They ignored the shops, and when salespeople tried to address them directly they turned them down as politely as they could so that they could continue on their way.

Jade slowed down her pace, scanning the shops more carefully now. Without giving Blake any warning, she suddenly changed direction and crossed the street. He was back at her side almost immediately, though.

Before them stood a small building painted a startling sky blue. It lacked any signs besides a small poster hanging in one of the windows that read, "Danny's Post and Print Shop. For all your paper and mail needs!"

As they pushed the door open a small bell rang out across the small room, alerting anyone inside of the building of their presence. Across the room a young girl with chin length red hair glanced up at them briefly from behind a desk before looking back down at whatever she was reading.

The room they'd entered was small, but more than made up for it in personality. One wall was lined floor to ceiling with mailboxes and had been painted blue and white to create a scene of clouds and sky. On the opposite side of the room there were several bright blue chairs pushed up against the wall, all three slightly different shades. The rest of the room was painted an off-white colour with sea blue trim. Behind the desk there were several stands, most of which were empty. Two of them, though, had pokémon on them. The first was a sleeping Taillow, its small head tucked against its chest. As they watched, the second, a Wingull, shook itself out and spread its wings before settling back in.

Jade crossed the small room to the desk while Blake walked over to the chairs to sit down. Upon reaching the desk, she pulled her backpack off her shoulder and set it on the desk. "How much will it cost to get fifteen posters printed out?" she asked the girl at the desk while she searched through her backpack for the sample poster she'd been given that morning. Upon finding it, she pulled it out and set it on the counter beside the girl's magazine.

The girl pushed her magazine aside and moved the poster so that it was directly in front of her. "It'll be about sixty Poké Dollars," she said after a moment.

"Alright," Jade mumbled, digging out the envelope from her backpack. She pulled out the correct amount and handed it to the young girl.

"Perfect. Give me a few minutes and I'll have them all ready for you," the girl responded. She picked up the poster and headed through a white curtain into the back room.

Jade closed up her backpack and walked over to sit with Blake to wait. "So do you know where you're going from here?" she asked him as she sat down.

It took Blake a moment to recognize that she was talking about the city and not the building they were in. "We're gonna head to Rustboro City from here," he replied, adding as an explanation, "That's where the first gym is."

Jade nodded slightly, having expected the answer. She didn't understand the desire that he, and many others had, to obtain the various gym badges. There were enough trainers who were set on achieving such a thing that it no longer surprised her. Not all of those trainers were overly nice, either. Many of them were so set on their goal that they could be quite rude if you got in their way, or if you turned down their request to battle. Not only was she not keen on battling, she also wasn't fond of putting Crescent into battle as the little pokémon wasn't overly strong or focussed. She'd grown sick of her and her Skitty being used as training fodder for arrogant and new trainers. She'd taken to using her mother's pokémon to battle when the trainers would absolutely refuse to leave her alone. Unlike Crescent, her mother's pokémon didn't lose to the young trainers and more often than not, they'd leave with their egos in check.

Her mother often pushed her to try training and battling, despite Jade's arguments. Maybe she would eventually, but Jade was more than happy with how things currently were and saw no reason for that to change. No reason to intentionally put Crescent through pain.

"I guess we'll be taking a very similar route across the region," she said after a moment of thought. There'd be some notable differences, she knew, based on the location and order of the gyms, but there would be a lot of similarities.

His eyebrows rose slightly at this bit of info. "That could be kinda nice, possibly seeing a familiar face once in a while … well, besides Lissa, of course," he mused, partly to himself it seemed.

They were interrupted by the return of the young girl holding the requested posters. Jade jumped up and hurried over before she could be called. With a quick thank you she grabbed the posters and led Blake out of the small building.

Once outside she stopped and separated the posters into two piles. She offered the smaller stack to Blake.

"You have a PokéNav right?" she asked him once he had the posters.

"Oh, yeah I do," he answered after a moment, clearly having been caught off guard.

"I'll give you some locations for those posters, and we should probably register each other just in case." Jade pulled a small, worn out, grey PokéNav out of her jeans pocket and flipped it open.

"Alright, good idea," he said, his voice becoming muffled when he looked down to search his pocket. He pulled out a seemingly brand new, blue PokéNav and flipped it open.

Jade narrowed her eyes, examining the small device he'd just pulled out. "I don't think I've ever seen that model before," she said.

"Oh, um, it's the newest model," he said after a moment of hesitation. "Anyways, we should probably do this so that we can get those posters up."

"Yeah. We'll meet in front of the Pokémon Center when we're done."

…

Over an hour had passed since she and Blake had parted ways to deal with posters. In that short period of time the sky had clouded over, completely blocking out the sun and shadowing the city. Jade was almost back at the Pokémon Center when the first raindrops began to fall. She sped her pace up, hoping she could avoid getting too wet. The rain was just starting to come down harder as she ducked into the building. She grimaced slightly, knowing she'd have to go back out soon whether it stopped raining or not.

She paused in the doorway to fish an elastic band out of her pocket and pull her chestnut brown hair back from her face. When it was wet, it looked much darker, enough so that the thin black streaks blended in nearly perfectly.

The building was even busier than before. The line had been shifted so that it ran along the wall, and there weren't many empty seats in the small waiting area. It seemed as though more nurses had shown up to help deal with the queue that had developed as there were now two desks open and the nurses coming in and out didn't look quite as rushed or stressed as earlier.

Jade walked across the room through the open doorway that led into the cafeteria. She'd thought that the main room was busy, but upon seeing the open cafeteria area she realized just how wrong she was. The place was full of trainers, other travellers, and even some of the townsfolk all of whom were either trying to avoid the rain, just waiting for their pokémon, or just grabbing lunch.

Across the room Elizabeth was waving, trying quite successfully to get her attention. Both her and her brother were sitting at a table by the windows where one could clearly see the deluge of rain coming down. Jade returned the wave, acknowledging them, before turning and heading for the line.

She'd skipped breakfast that morning and after all the walking around she'd done, she was starving for lunch. Pokémon Center food wasn't her favourite, but for a place that had to serve such a large number of people it was surprisingly good. The staff behind the counter was busy building and cutting up sandwiches. There were a few salads laid out on the counter with stacks of bowls sitting in front of them. None of the kitchen appliances were in use, in fact, they didn't even appear to be functional at the moment.

Jade picked up a tray and followed the quick-moving line down the counter. She picked up a sandwich and grabbed a granola bar from a basket. Upon reaching the fridge stationed at the end, she paused in surprise. Only the top two thirds of the fridge held drinks and a few fruit containers. On the bottom, however, was a Snorunt. It was sitting in the bottom of the fridge quite comfortably with a wide, upside-down grin. It took a moment for Jade to recognize that the fridge, like the other appliances, was not running and that the ice type was the only thing keeping the drinks and fruit cold.

With the addition of a cold bottle of water to her tray, Jade paid for her food and headed across to sit with the siblings. Jade sat beside Blake so that she could face the window, her backpack on the ground under the seat beside her.

Blake had already finished his lunch, and Elizabeth was just finishing which left Jade as the only one eating. Not that she really minded since it gave her a good excuse to just sit and listen.

"This weather is awful!" Elizabeth stated, sounding more than slightly annoyed.

"The rain should let up soon," Blake replied, trying to reassure her. "Did you get any of the items we need?"

"Oh, um, no." Elizabeth looked away from her brother's gaze briefly when she answered, her cheeks taking on a pink colour.

"No? Did you buy anything?" he asked incredulously.

"No, I didn't…"

At this point Jade looked up from her already half-empty plate to watch the siblings. The colour in Elizabeth's cheeks seemed to be turning redder by the moment. Blake on the other hand seemed to be in shock.

"Well what have you been doing for the last two hours then?" Blake asked, his voice coming out slightly harsher than he'd probably intended it to.

"I ran into a friend," Elizabeth said after a moment of hesitation. She kept her gaze carefully averted, seemingly studying her slender fingers.

Before Blake could reply and ask who she'd run into, he was cut off by a piercing alarm. Lights began flashing red above doorways and the Center's staff began hurrying about.

"What's going on?" Elizabeth tried to yell over the racket, her eyes wide. Her words were drowned out by the alarm and the sounds of everyone around them moving.

Jade shrugged, grabbing her backpack and swinging it over her shoulder as she stood up. Both her companions rose as well, looking as confused as Jade felt. She grabbed what remained of her sandwich and her drink and headed in the direction that everyone else in the room seemed to be going. Out.

Few new developments. Also tried to throw in some details about Jade, and I'm considering editing some into the first chapter. Next chapter should be more interesting, and should hopefully be where more plot-stuff gets going. As always, I love any and all feedback about the story and my writing.

Tomorrow morning, I am leaving on a week long trip. I doubt I will get any writing done for this story or for A Legendary Cure. When I return, I am moving to start a summer job. At this point, or shortly after, it is highly likely that my computer will be sent away for repairs. I will still be coming online, checking notifications, et cetera from my phone. For the remainder of the summer, I will likely have little to no access to WiFi, so until the USB drivers on my computer are fixed it will likely have no internet access.
All of this basically means that I most likely won't be posting new chapters very often, at least not until some issues are resolved... Sorry.