—10—
PokéGram Famous
JOSH

"And you don't remember anything after the incident?"

Josh shook his head.

The doctor aboard the S. S. Anne shined a flashlight in his eye and moved it back and forth to follow. Josh did his best not to blink or let it bother his eyes. He sat on the table covered with paper and waited while the doctor took his vitals.

"The other passengers hit with the same energy suffered serious injuries. One woman and her Pokémon are dead. From what your friends said you were hit by more energy than any of them. How do you explain that?"

Josh shrugged.

"You're lucky to be alive—your Pokémon too. I recommend making an appointment with your primary care physician as soon as we make port in Vermillion City, young man. We don't have the equipment and staff here to adequately diagnose you."

"Diagnose?" Josh inquired. "You said I'm fine."

"I said you appear to be fine," the doctor corrected. "You certainly fared better than most of the others."

"So…am I free to go?"

The doctor chuckled. "You're not a prisoner, young man. Take it easy."

"I'm on vacation," Josh said with a grin. "That was the plan before Team Specter showed up and ruined everything."

Josh waited until the doctor left and took advantage of the privacy to change out of the hospital gown and slippers back into his clothes. He gathered his PokéBalls and put them on his belt where they belonged. He took a long look at his reflection, failing to see anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied, he moved from the infirmary into the waiting room where his friends waited for him.

"Hey, guys!"

Caleb jumped up from his seat and rushed over to wrap him in a big hug, so tight a squeeze it made Josh grunt. He smiled and returned the embrace. When Caleb let go, Tanner approached to take a turn. After him, a girl he recognized straightaway stood across the room offering a friendly wave.

"You must be Josh," she said, approaching with her hand extended.

Unable to form a response, Josh managed to smile, blush and nod. Fumbling for words, nothing of noteworthy articulation followed.

"Josh, this is Ace Trainer Kate," Caleb said.

"I know who she is!" he snapped. "I follow you on PokéGram and I'm in love with everything you do. It's so great to meet you, Ace Trainer Kate."

"Please, call me Katie," she said. "All three of you. Fans call me Ace Trainer Kate; friends call me Katie."

"Katie," Josh said, tasting the name on his tongue. "It will take some getting used to, but I think I can adapt."

"What did the doctor say?" Caleb inquired.

"That I'm lucky to be alive," Josh replied. "I feel fine except I don't remember anything."

A curious, skeptical eyebrow crawled its way up Caleb's face as he gave a reluctant nod. Hands in his pockets, he started a nervous pace across the floor, the way he did when something didn't add up in his mind. Josh wanted to press him, ask what's wrong, but decided to save it for later.

"How do you feel?" Tanner asked.

"Hungry," Josh admitted. That got a round of laughs from his friends. "Stupid Team Specter attacked before we could finish our lunch."

"There will be food at the ceremony tonight," Katie said. She opened her phone and looked at the time. "It starts in an hour. Why don't we see about getting a table for four? I trust you boys have something appropriate to wear."

"Appropriate?" Caleb asked.

"It's a gala," Tanner interjected.

"A gala?! I don't have a tux!"

"Better hurry to the boutique before it's too late!" Tanner said.

"Come on, Josh," Caleb said, taking him by the hand. "We'll meet you there."

The two of them rushed to the boutique. With all the commotion, they found no other customers with which to compete. Everyone was probably spooked because of what happened a few hours earlier. Rather than get their suits tailored, a they found a matching set to fit. Caleb went with a classic tie while Josh chose a bright purple bow tie to set him apart.

The tuxes cost a pretty penny but made the two of them look like a million dollars, so Josh thought it worth it. The employees wanted to sell them dress clothes for their Pokémon as well. They nearly hooked Josh, but Caleb reminded him they were running late and didn't want to keep Ace Trainer Kate waiting.

"It's Katie," Josh corrected. "She said to call her Katie."

"Whatever," Caleb huffed. "Let's hurry down to the main dining room."

"I want to stop by the cabin first."

"Josh, that's in the opposite direction!"

"I'm going to be eating dinner with my celebrity hero and you're not going to rob me of the opportunity to take pictures!"

His tone left nothing in the way of discussion. Caleb rolled his eyes and grumbled the whole way, but Josh didn't mind. They made it to the cabin, retrieved the camera, and walked back to the main dining room with two minutes on the clock left to spare. They found Katie and Tanner waving them over. Josh took the lead to sit down at the table. One look at the dishes, silverware, and white linen tablecloth and he knew they were in for a treat.

"You boys look so spiffy!" Katie said. "Everyone, look this way!"

She held her phone up in front of her. They leaned together to fit in the frame as she snapped a selfie and busied herself with her next social media update. Josh took the opportunity to retrieve his camera and start taking pictures.

"Oh wow!" Katie exclaimed. "I love your camera! So vintage."

"Thanks," Josh replied with a blush. "It belonged to my dad."

He almost explained more, but changed his mind not wanting to damper the experience with the topic of dead parents.

"Are you boys going to participate in the tournament?" Katie asked.

"Josh and I plan to," Tanner replied. "Caleb is still on the fence."

"What's the matter, Caleb?" she inquired. "Battling not your cup of tea?"

"I like it just fine," he replied. "It's just that this is not regulated. There're no limits to level, number of badges for a trainer, Pokémon used in battle. I prefer sanctioned matches."

"With the exception of the prize money rule," Katie countered. "You defeat one of these snotty rich kids in a Pokémon battle, and they have to forfeit half their dough to you on the spot."

"Snotty rich kids have the money to buy the rights to use legendary Pokémon," Caleb argued. "It's all fun and games until one of them calls out Lugia and wipes the floor with your whole team."

"What's your plans after the cruise?" Katie asked.

"We're traveling Kanto together, acquiring the badges, and making our way to Indigo Plateau to compete," Josh replied. "We didn't take on the gym Vermillion City on our way in because we would have missed the cruise, so I guess we'll do that when we get back."

The four of them enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the opening ceremony. The three of them took turns being Katie's dancing partner. Josh was the best dancer, of course, but he was surprised to find Caleb had no trouble keeping up. He asked to partner up with Josh, but he was too embarrassed to dance with a boy in front of everyone and declined. Instead, he and Tanner danced with each other when it was time to pair up, no shame between them

They talked Caleb into competing in the tournament. It was a doubles tournament and none of them won. Some hotshot trainer from Unova cleaned house with a fearsome Volcarona. Instead of snubbing his nose at the "snotty rich kid," Caleb wanted to know if he could meet the trainer's team and add their entries to his PokéDex. Josh shook his head and rolled his eyes. He neglected using his most of the time and knew he was falling behind in entries but didn't care. His goal was to be a trainer, not a researcher.

Josh made sure to take as many pictures as possible and emailed some of the good ones to his mom to keep his promise. Many of the others, he posted to PokéGram and PokéConnect, making sure to tag Ace Trainer Kate in any of the ones she or her Pokémon appeared.

"Caleb!" he exclaimed. "Look! I got two thousand new followers overnight."

"That's amazing!"

"Before too long, they'll start calling you JosherXD to your face instead of your name," Katie promised. "The donations and fame are cool, but it comes with some downsides."

"Does TrainerToday follow you?" Josh asked. Katie nodded. "I think half of my new followers came from them sharing my post of the tournament."

"Keep your photos good quality, showcase a variety, and don't use filters. They'll share you with the masses every time."

By the end of the cruise, JosherXD was PokéGram-famous. The world might not know his face or his real name, but the social media community in Kanto got a taste for his photography. He planned to stop by the specialty shops in Celadon to get a tripod and find ways to take snapshots of his battles.

"I could take them for you," Caleb offered. "I know how to work a camera."

"You're supposed to take them yourself," Josh explained. "That's the whole point."

When the S. S. Anne made port in Vermillion City and it came time to say goodbye to Kate, Josh found himself more emotional than he anticipated. They traded numbers and screennames. She planned to journey to Fuchsia City and visit the Safari Zone. They all hugged a million times and said their goodbyes. Josh wiped a tear from his eye when they parted ways.

"We'll see her again," Caleb assured.

"I know," Josh replied. "It's just hard to say goodbye after a week of having so much fun, you know?"

"What do you say we stop by the Pokémon Center and then head to the gym to take on the leader?" Tanner suggested. "Winning badges always makes you feel better."

"He's going to schedule a follow-up appointment with the doctor," Caleb said sternly. "That's what the doctor on the S. S. Anne said to do."

"Caleb, I'm fine!" Josh complained. "I need a win after that tournament."

Complaining and scolding the entire way, Caleb trailed behind as Tanner and Josh went to the Pokémon Center and then the Vermillion City gym. True to its reputation for being an annoying kind of gym, Josh found the lobby full of trainers ready to battle and trash cans. Yes, trash cans. Some old army vet named Lt. Surge hid switches in the cans that kept the gym leader hidden behind two electric beams.

This is stupid.

He let Tanner and Caleb battle the trainers while he dug through the trash cans one at a time looking for switches. It took the better part of fifteen minutes to go through every single one, but after a while he found them both and the beams came down.

The gym leader was a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. With bright blond hair, tan skin, and green eyes, she looked a lot like the trainer portrayed in the picture behind her. Dressed in brown boots, army green short-shorts, and a black belly shirt, she showed off an athletic body tanned to perfection. She might have been pretty, but the short, spiky hair and bigger muscles than most men gave her an intimidating, masculine demeanor.

"Challengers from Pallet Town!" she greeted. "The name's Dazzle."

"How did you know we're from Pallet Town?" Tanner inquired.

"Call it a woman's intuition," she replied. "I'm kidding. I follow JosherXD over there on PokéGram. Love your work. Are you as good in battle as you are behind a camera?"

"You're about to find out!" Josh challenged. "Nidoran, go!"

Josh worked with Nidoran a little aboard the S. S. Anne. After making sure she practiced her moves, Katie let him use a technical machine to teach her the Dig attack. Many trainers posted Diglett Cave on the online forums as a solution to help counter the Electric-type Pokémon at the Vermillion gym. After their misadventures in Mount Moon, Josh decided he didn't enjoy caves. Wandering around in the dark in hopes a wild Pokémon with an ability preventing trainers from escaping sounded terrible.

Dazzle chose Voltorb as her first Pokémon. Its Sonicboom attack gave Nidoran some trouble to start, but after feeding her some protein supplements on the cruise, her attack proved top notch and knocked it out with a single hit. When her Pikachu came out next and used Quick Attack, Josh really thought he was in trouble. Luckily, Nidoran survived the attack long enough to administer a Potion. In another stroke of serendipity, her Poison Point ability affected Pikachu. Between it and a well-placed Dig attack from Nidoran, the Pokémon fainted. At last, Dazzle brought out Raichu, her champion.

This Pokémon hit harder and faster than Josh's Nidoran, but Poison Point came through for him again. He administered Potions to keep Nidoran in the match, letting the poison run its course. Dazzle proved willing to sink some Super Potions on her Pokémon but had not thought to prepare against poison. Taking a page from Caleb's battling handbook, Josh remained patient, willing to wait until Raichu weakened.

"Nidoran, use Dig!"

The attack was super-effective and fainted the opponent's Raichu, ending the match. Dazzle called her Pokémon back to its ball and stood with a smile on her face. Nidoran glowed with a familiar light and Josh smiled too. After training hard with Nidoran earlier, he expected this and hoped it would happen after his match. After a few sparkling moments, Nidoran evolved into a Nidorina. He came over and patted his Pokémon in congratulations, careful to avoid her poisonous barbs.

"I'll take my Thunderbadge, please!"

"There's one more thing you have to do," Dazzle said.

"Bullshit!" Tanner exclaimed. "He won fair and square; you have to give him a badge. It's like the Kanto League rules. Tell her, Caleb."

"I'm not sure you're allowed to refuse a trainer a badge who beat you in a sanctioned Pokémon battle," he replied with an official tone. "I suppose we can consult the rules if there's some confusion here, of course."

"You'll get your badge," Dazzle said. "Just as soon as you pose for a selfie with me!"

"What?"

"Huh?"

"For real?"

"Come on!" Dazzle pleaded. "It will take like ten seconds. Come over here. We'll get Nidorina in the background and I'll hand you the Thunderbadge just like this."

Happy for another photo opportunity, Josh let Dazzle put her arm around him and snap the picture as he reached for his Thunderbadge. Nidorina looked fierce and happy in the background offering a photogenic pose.

Dazzle posted the photo to her pages with a million and one hastags, one of which was Josh's screen name. It cascaded into more followers and friend request. A few dozen came in every minute. It looked like it might go viral.

Caleb and Tanner took their turns battling Dazzle. Josh made sure to take plenty of pictures and post the good ones to his pages. The photos not featuring him or his own Pokémon didn't perform as well, but people still liked the hell out of them, shared them, and fetched him some more followers.

"This is crazy!" he exclaimed.

Pokémon evolution was such a rare and beautiful thing, people rarely caught it on camera. Unless one counted documentaries or scientific study footage, and Josh did not count those. Caleb's Bulbasaur evolved into Ivysaur, and Tanner's Charmander evolved into Charmeleon. After the battle, Josh set his camera up on a table (he needed a new and better tripod than the one in his bag) so the three of them could pose with their evolved starters.

"It's a good picture," Caleb said. "Are you going to post it?"

"Nope," Josh said. "This one is special. It's not for everyone, just us. I'm sending it to Mom and she's going to frame it and hang it on the wall."

Josh stood in the middle with Wartortle at his feet. Caleb knelt by Ivysaur to the left, and Tanner held Charmanda (yes, he still insisted on calling her Charmanda) in his arms with a big cheesy grin. Glad he took his mom's advice and started taking pictures and seeing them pay off in a way he never expected, Josh knew he'd been taking a lot more pictures.

"Hey, Josh," Caleb said. "Something's wrong with the picture."

He pointed to a purple silhouette around Josh. With a frown, they tried taking another one. The same silhouette appeared hovering around him.

"Let's try another one with Tanner in the middle since he's the tallest," Josh suggested. He expected the overexposure to show up in the middle of the frame where he once stood, but instead it followed him to the right. "That's weird. Let's try it with my phone."

Finally, they managed to snap a photo without the weird hovering light surrounding Josh and sent the digital photo to his mom's email. He went through the other pictures from his dad's camera and found a similar halo floating around him in every picture. It troubled him more than he expected, fearing it somehow connected to what happened with Team Specter aboard the S. S. Anne.

"Everything okay?" Caleb asked.

"Yeah," Josh lied. "It's fine. I think I'm going to have to replace the lens on this old thing. Dad took good care of his stuff, but everything wears out eventually."

"I'm sure we'll find a place in Celadon to get you set up," Caleb said. "Shall we stay the night and plan to head that way?"

"We're not going through Rock Tunnel and into Lavender Town?" Josh pondered.

"No amount of money in the world could possess me to take that route with Team Specter having taken over," Caleb replied. "No time for sight-seeing when you're busy becoming a champ and a social media star. Celadon, here we come!"

"Can't wait," Josh said, forcing a smile. When Caleb turned away Josh started going through the photos again, deciding the silhouette around him formed an awfully familiar shape. It looked like a Haunter was hovering around him. He wanted to say something to Tanner and Caleb but didn't want to worry them. He tucked his camera away and decided to keep it to himself.