Uncertain Principles

By the time it was 6:07, Janet had already been awake for over an hour. The florescent light that hung next to the window had prevented her from falling back asleep, but that had stopped awhile ago. It was the buzz of her own thoughts that kept Janet awake now.

Janet turned to a more comfortable position, trying to be as quiet as possible. Marcus had always been a heavy sleeper so she had little to worry about, but she was still afraid she would wake him.

"He looks so peaceful in his sleep," Janet thought. Marcus always had that uneasy air about him."Twenty-two minutes and I'll end that peace," thought Janet. She couldn't stand the sight any longer and shifted back to the other side. "I'll end his peace," she repeated in her head.

She still felt a little responsible for their growing apart, it was her reaction that made him avoid her. She wanted to suppress that memory, but it lingered and tore her up inside. "If only I had paid attention," she thought bitterly to herself. Instead of paying attention to that speaker, she had been trying to control her expression. She had missed a lot of the presentation as a result. All she could remember from it now was the ridiculous catch phrase the presenter had used. "Maybe I could ask Paul if he took any notes," she thought to herself. She looked back at her sleeping cousin.

"Mark is psychic," she whispered faintly. She had been denying it for such a long time.

Psychic pokémon had been studied intensely, with many researchers eventually giving up and calling the phenomena unexplainable. It was like dark matter for astronomers or the brain for doctors. Psychic phenomena was every physicists embarrassing problem. For a long time biologists and physicists alike had declared that psychic pokémon were vastly more intelligent than humans, but experiments had proved otherwise.

Janet tried reaching out with her mind. She tried to access that extra appendage, the psychic appendage. Nothing happened.

She felt relieved. She had never feared Marcus. She feared for him, but she never feared him. Psychic humans were almost always frauds, but those who weren't almost always went insane and died prematurely. She didn't want to see her cousin become corrupted by his ability.

She watched him sleep for a little bit and thought about the way he acted. "How could I think that, he saved Tracy for arceus sake!" she yelled at herself mentally. Somebody who saved someone's life could not be corrupt.

This thought process made her return to her greatest fear. The fear that psychic ability was genetic. That she had the same power as he did. She still had an occasional nightmare in which strange men took Marcus or her off to some secret lab where they would perform bizarre experiments. That she would sit in a cage and be tortured. Being part of the scientific community did not put her at ease. She would sometimes imagine her well-meaning peers examining her, cutting little pieces out of her and Marcus to see if they could cure some disease. Curiosity is man's greatest ally and foe after all.

"Probably why I never liked biology," she mused to herself. The small joke was of little comfort."Maybe I ought to talk to him, see if I can help him," Janet thought. She glanced at the clock. Three minutes left. She got out of bed a shook him gently.

"Mark you get the first shower," she told him. He looked at her and smiled. "Thanks Jan," Marcus said. She said nothing as he went to take a shower. "Damn it, I'm such a coward," she chastised herself. She thought of his smile. "Maybe I should let him decide," she told herself. She devised a little test and waited for him to get out of the shower.

"Okay your turn," Marcus said, that same stupid smile plastered on his face. "No, I'll take one after breakfast, you took way too long in the shower," Janet said. "Oh, sorry about that," Marcus said, he opened the door. "Hey Mark wait," Janet called out. Marcus turned around and saw her holding out something. "If you want to get back into the room, you'll need a key," Janet said, her voice was extremely shaky. Marcus took the key cautiously. "Thanks Jan," he said quietly. She watched him walk down the hall then started to follow. "Guess he isn't ready," she thought.

All she could do now was wait for him to be ready.

Breakfast was enjoyable. The bagels were stale and the food was undercooked, but it was nonetheless enjoyable. "Well I better be off," said Paul. The dining area was beginning to fill up with people. The four followed Paul outside, Tracy helped him carry his bags. He released his skarmory into the clearing and Marcus helped him attach his bags to the pokémon. "Hey, I'll stop by when I get to Goldenrod," Marcus told Paul. "Yeah, I hope you do well with your gym battle," Paul said. The three waved goodbye as the skarmory took off. "Till we cross that river again Marcus and Tracy," Paul called out.

"Okay what's the plan Mark?" Janet asked. "We're going to get some better road clothes," Tracy said. "I'm going to clean up and get you a visitor's pin," Janet said.

"Great, meet us at the store, you know the one, right?" Tracy said. Janet indicated yes and hurried back to the hotel.

"So what are you going to do all day Marcus?" Tracy asked.

"Jan said that the some of these conference people carry pokémon," Marcus said, "so I figure that I can convince at least one or two to hold a little battle with me." Tracy smiled at him and he gave a little smile back. The two reached the shop.

The shop was clearly new, it had that proud quality in its architecture. Manikins were on display throughout the shop, forever frozen in 'active' positions. There were no other costumers in the shop.

"Hello, is anybody here," Marcus called out. A man in a uniform ran out from the back. "Welcome, have you ever been here before?" the uniformed man asked. "Uh, no" Tracy replied. "Get me two!" the uniformed man shouted back to someone at the counter. "All you have to do is point them at what you'd like to see and you'll get all the specs you need," the uniformed man explained. Another uniformed man holding some playing cards gave them scanners.

"Dude, let's get back I'm winning," the other uniformed man said.

"Some of us actually do our job," the uniformed man said to his coworker, "Just holler when you need something."

"If they have these then why do they need to hire those clowns?" Marcus asked once they were out of earshot. Tracy was already running around and scanning things. Marcus examined the scanner. "Aha, a catalog feature," Marcus thought to himself. Marcus flipped through the database, feeling smart for actually looking. His smugness soon faded when he saw all the catagories. "Flammability? Who's looking for that in a shirt?" he thought to himself. By the time he found a few items he liked, Janet had arrived with Tracy's visitor's pin.

"What about that one?" asked Marcus. "Nope" said Tracy. Marcus figured he could use Janet's help picking out clothes. "That one looks nice," Janet said. Marcus looked at the shirt. It was perfectly compatible with him. "Can I see this one?" Marcus asked the clerk. "That one's just in," the uniformed man said. He pulled out the shirt in Marcus's size and stood outside the changing booth while Marcus changed. "…advanced wicking, fire retardant and it doesn't wrinkle," the uniformed man finished his long list of memorized shirt properties. Marcus looked at himself in the mirror. It suited him perfectly. "How much for it all?" Marcus asked. "For everything 237.89$," said the uniformed man.

Apparently, the shirt didn't suit his wallet as well as he thought. "Uh maybe I'll have to find something cheaper," Marcus said. He only had 106$ and a cent on him. "Come on Mark, you're not going to be buying any more clothes for your entire journey," Janet said.

"Jan I don't have enough cash on me," Marcus whispered. "Oh, I'll cover for you," Janet said. She gave the clerk her bank card. "No I have to pay for my own stuff Jan," Marcus cried out angrily.

"Consider it an investment, just pay me back when you finally win," Janet said. Marcus reluctantly accepted, he didn't like incurring debt, but Janet always got her way.

"Tracy I'm done," Marcus called out.

"Well give Marcus a gold star he's a big boy now," Tracy called back. Janet stifled her laughter. "Hey mind if I ask you for a favor?" Tracy asked.

"Yes," replied Marcus.

"Can you take care of Blackjack for the day? He's been really moody and I-""Yeah I'll take him along," Marcus interrupted.

"Thanks, he really seems to like you," commented Tracy. "Yeah I like him too," Marcus said. Tracy tossed him her spare room key. Marcus caught it and ran off to get Blackjack. "I swear that pokémon is practically his," Tracy muttered to herself.

"So what do you think?" Tracy asked Janet. "It looks great," Janet said. "Then I'm good for the day," Tracy called over the uniformed clerk and got him to start ringing up her clothes.

"What's adventure like?" Janet asked Tracy. "Okay, that was kind of random," Tracy said. Janet's face went a little red. "How is it? Out on the trail with Mark," Janet asked cautiously. She didn't want to make Tracy suspicious. "Oh Marcus," Tracy said, "He's pretty quiet, a little bit immature at times, but quiet mostly." The uniformed man brought back Tracy's new clothes. Her old clothes had been torn a little when Paul and Marcus carried her and she didn't need that.

"So he's just quiet then huh?" Janet asked. She was mentally taking notes. Ever since that morning, Janet had been picturing various ways to encourage her cousin to talk to her. Most of her hypothetical situations involved talking together to a roaring campfire under the blanket of night. Janet had always loved the outdoors. She loved the smell of the air. She loved the way the leaves rustled in the wind. She loved that waves helped prove that heavenly bodies act upon each other with a force inversely proportionally to their distance squared.

Janet rarely spent time outdoors as a child, one of the side-effects of her parents working on the weekend.

"Marcus isn't some crazy killer is he?" Tracy asked, "I'm not going to wake up someday with a knife at my throat am I?" Tracy and Janet laughed. "No! He's promised he's stopped," Janet said in mock outrage.

Tracy and Janet wandered aimlessly through the streets. This was certainly going to be an interesting day.

"Hey Blackjack I brought you a muffin," Marcus said as he opened the door to Tracy's room. Blackjack lifted his head slowly and said nothing. "I hope you like blueberry, you'll need to eat it on the floor so you don't get crumbs on the bed," Marcus said, cheerfully offering the muffin. Blackjack gave Marcus a weak smile and went back to lying on the bed. "Blackjack what's wrong?" Marcus asked, "We didn't talk at all yesterday."

"Were not supposed to be able talk," Blackjack pointed out.

"You didn't answer the question," Marcus said. He was growing concerned.

"I'm just tired that's all," Blackjack responded. Marcus decided not to press him further. "He probably just misses the wild or something," Marcus reasoned.

"So did you come just to get me a muffin or are you going to do something else," Blackjack said, getting off the bed. "Yeah we're going to go do some training, Tracy asked me to babysit you, so I'm taking you along," Marcus informed Blackjack. "But first I have to ask my mom to send me some cash, I had to borrow money from Jan and it was really embarrassing," Marcus said. Blackjack looked confused.

"Oh Janet's my cousin, she was the person I was with yesterday at dinner, you'll like her she's really nice," Marcus said.

"I can't believe I never thought about his family…" thought Blackjack. "I'm sure she is," Blackjack said.

"Great," Marcus smiled, "After I call my mom we'll get lunch and then go train okay?"

"Lunch is fine with me," said Blackjack.

"… it's going to start soon," Tracy said. "I know but this stupid map is too complex," Janet said. After a light lunch Tracy had insisted that they get Janet's only requirement checked off her list. Lunch had taken longer than they had anticipated and thanks to Janet's lack of navigational skills, they were now in danger of missing Professor Woodrow's famous 'On doing research' presentation.

"No! I don't care about population density, just give me the map!" Janet yelled at her pokedex.

"Janet maybe I should hold the map," Tracy offered nervously. "No," Janet put her pokedex away, "Let's just ask someone for help." Tracy scanned the area for people who could help them and found a small group of boys standing in a circle, laughing. "They'll help us," said Tracy. "Tracy, let me-" Tracy had already ran off.

"Excuse me, do you know where Professor Woodrow is?" Tracy asked the shortest student. The students completely ignored Tracy, they were too busy paying attention to the student in green.

"Ahem! Excuse me," Tracy said.

"…So then he says to the doctor: I thought you said every half-hour!" the student in green finished telling some joke. The group busted out into laughter.

"Tracy I don't think they're going to be much help, we should ask someone else," Janet said, catching up to Tracy.

Tracy wasn't giving up, she tried a new tactic.

"Why is six afraid of seven?" Tracy called out confidently. The group of boys turned and looked at her, stunned by her intrusion. After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence the student in green said, "Because nobody's perfect!" The group's laughter became an uproar.

"Janet I don't get it," Tracy suddenly felt very intellectually small. "C'mon let's go Trace," Janet started pulling her away from the jeering crowd of boys.

"Janet Green?" the student in green said, "The Janet Green?" Tracy prevented Janet from getting away. "Yeah what of it," Tracy said, she was ready to pick a fight. "My friend told me she was the slut of the school," the student in green said smugly. Neither Tracy nor Janet had any response prepared. The student in green turned to his friends.

"He said she came in every flavor but charm: strange, top, bottom…" the student in green made an obscene gesture, "Up and down!" Some of the friends gave a little chuckle, but they were starting to feel uncomfortable. "You take that back!" Tracy yelled. Janet held her composure.

"What do you do?" Janet asked. "Applied mathematics, why need some help counting one dollar bills," the student in green sneered.

"Dude knock it off, you're going over the line," the shortest student told his friend.

Janet gave a wicked little grin. "Applied mathematics huh? How'd you get in without knowing Calculus? I bet you've never integrated a natural log," Janet said with a smirk. A few of the boys laughed at Janet's comment and the student in green went red in the face. Janet pulled Tracy away from the crowd and left before the student in green could come up with a comeback. "I didn't understand a word anyone said," Tracy said.

"Hey, did you say you were looking for professor Woodrow?" the short boy inquired. "Why do you care?" Tracy asked. "Look we're sorry 'bout Mark, he's just a little grumpy after this morning," the short boy explained. "He's a little something alright," Tracy thought. "It's fine," said Janet, "Can you tell us where he is?" "Yeah he's just down that road by the pink building, you can't miss him," said the short boy.

"Thanks for your help, I guess you all aren't assholes," Tracy said to the short boy as he ran back to his friends. Janet gave Tracy a little smile that Tracy returned. The two followed the short boy's instructions and found themselves where they wanted to be.

"Charles return," Marcus said, putting the spinarak back into its ball. The small crowd that had gathered was already beginning to dissipate. "Thanks for helping me test my theory; I think there is an anomaly in the…" Marcus did not pay attention to what the researcher was saying. He was floating on the high of his first victory. "No problem," Marcus said with a smile as he shook the researcher's hand. The researcher wandered off, muttering to himself like a crazy man.

"Blackjack it worked! You're a genius!" Marcus could barely contain his excitement. "Hey, keep it down. There are people staring," Blackjack said. A few people gave Marcus a weird look, but they soon dismissed him as a crazy person and turned to their affairs. Marcus pulled out his pokedex and pretended he was talking to someone on the phone. "It actually worked I won, this is the greatest feeling ever" Marcus said giddly. "It was a pretty basic strategy…" Blackjack said modestly. "It was a great strategy," Marcus replied.

Marcus had finally won a battle. After being crushed in his first two battles of the day, he was on the verge of quitting and going home with his tail between his legs. When Blackjack stepped in and gave him a few pointers, Marcus managed to defeat his third opponent.

"Don't get cocky, you made a lot of mistakes," Blackjack said. "Can't you let me have my fun?" Marcus asked playfully. He picked up Blackjack and gave him a hug, then put him back down. "You think I'll be ready for Falkner?" Marcus asked. "No," Blackjack said bluntly, "Not unless you do some serious training this week." Marcus's smile turned into a disappointed grimace. "He didn't have to say it like that…" Marcus thought. "You'll help me train right?" Marcus asked. "We'll see," responded Blackjack.

"That was amazing," Janet beamed. "Yeah, I didn't understand it all, but what I did was pretty good," said Tracy. "I'm glad you enjoyed it girls," the professor said, "Though, I do think I botched the collaboration metaphor this time." Janet was stunned. She couldn't believe she was speaking to one of the greatest scientific minds of modern times. She began to shake a little with nervous excitement. "I thought it went well," Tracy said. "Ah, yes Tracy was it? I was just talking to a colleague of mine about you, I take it Paul couldn't get you to Goldenrod. How are you holding up?" the professor asked.

"Tracy knows professor Woodrow? Paul knows professor Woodrow!" Janet thought. "More and more comes back each day," Tracy responded. "That's good to hear," the professor said, "I see you've made a friend." "Yeah this is Janet," Tracy said. "H-hi, its n-nice t-t-to m-meet you," stuttered Janet nervously. Her voice went up about seven octaves. "It's good to meet you to," the professor said, "Well I have to give another presentation now, hope you get better soon Tracy."

"Janet, you're freaking me out," Tracy said. "What do you mean?" Janet asked incredulously. "Er… you kinda," Tracy looked at Janet and sighed, "never mind." "No! Tell me!" Janet demanded. "Tell you what?" asked Marcus. Janet nearly jumped out of her skin at Marcus's sudden arrival. "Marcus what are you doing here?" Tracy asked. "I just wandered over here when I saw the professor, I wanted to see how S…" Marcus cut himself off.

"We were listening to a lecture by him," Tracy explained, "He just wanted to check up on me.""Does everyone know him but me?" Janet thought. "How was Blackjack?" Tracy asked. "He was good luck, I won three battles today," Marcus said with a smile. "But, you still lost to that kid," Tracy said.

As Janet watched the two bicker, she realized how little she shared in common with the two. Although they didn't see eye to eye, Marcus and Tracy were bound by shared experience. Tracy's experiences with Marcus were all she had now. "We've both changed," Janet told herself. Janet felt as if a churning gulf separated her from her cousin. Guilt had oppressed her for far too long and Janet needed to feel at ease again.

Being with nature would just be a fringe benefit.