Pokémon Crimson

Chapter 29: At the End

(Jason Fremont)

It was just the slightest flash, and it happened so quickly Jason only had time to twist in the swing seat and crane his neck after it, squinting in the gusts of wind off Grumpy's wings. Beside him, Gina called "what?" but her voice was lost in the flurry of flapping. Jason said "nothing!" back to her, though he still stretched to try to follow it.

For just a moment he thought he'd saw a flash of red fabric, something small, hanging from the cliff side as they streaked past to join the others. Something like a red cap.

Then there was the sun, bright, blinding, in his face and overwhelming every single one of his senses. The others who had been dropped off up ahead already were whooping and hollering at them, the last two to be collected, and through his streaming, stinging eyes Jason felt the warmth on his face from the honest heat of day match the fire in his cheeks from grinning too wide.

Hands closed around him as two friends pulled him closer to stabilize his landing. Two more sets of hands undid the latches of Grumpy's harness seat at his hips and chest. Blinking rapidly, Jason lifted an arm up to shield his eyes and saw only backlit images of his team, a messy ponytail over a shoulder, a hand scrubbing over a face, the curve of an enormous smile and the flash of teeth.

"So, we died, right?" Blake asked, his voice wavering slightly with emotion, exhaustion, or both. "We died and this is heaven or something? I'm actually perfectly okay with that."

Now that Jason's eyes were adjusting he could see that they were in a narrow tunnel, blessedly, blissfully leveled out, and that the too-bright light was leading to a round exit ahead. Jason had to give the others massive credit for not tearing off and leaving Gina and him in the dust. He didn't think he had ever seen anything so gorgeous and welcoming in his life.

"It does sort of look like 'the light at the end of the tunnel,'" Gina said, laughing hoarsely and doubling up to rest her hands on her knees. "You have my vote for the 'we're actually all dead' theory."

Victoria—or he thought it was Victoria—put a hand over her face and peered out. "Just… don't get your hopes up," she said, but Jason could just hear it leaking out of her own voice. Hope stained every word. "It could be another section. Or we could not be quite done, I mean, it's Victory 'Road' and nowhere does that say it means only the tunnel—"

"Vee," Beth said, rubbing her sister's shoulders and dropping her head onto Victoria's back. "Shhh. We're free."

"So who wants to carry me while we run wildly to the exit?" Gav asked, his grin making him look years and years younger. Three different Pokémon were deployed for the job at once and there was screaming laughter as the others repositioned and quickly negotiated the "winner" of the contest.

"No," Jason said, taking a few steps back and releasing Venusaur. Kaylee yelped and leapt back from the red light, surprised. "No, let them out, let them all out, as many as you can. They deserve this, too."

"You're so cheesy, I love it," Gina said, unhooking five Pokéballs from her belt as the others shouted and ran off to avoid being smashed up against the walls of the tunnel by deploying Pokémon.

In the end they rode the last 300 meters in style, mud-caked, battered, injured, gross and exhausted, triumphantly aboard their mounts, fresh from battle—or so Jason narrated aloud for them like their VR bard as they walked.

"Sir Gav Harrison, courageously wounded in the Battle of the Diglett," Jason said from astride Venusaur, while Kaylee and Beth gasped for air, waving at Jason to stop. "Also known as 'the Battle of Catching a Pokémon with your Butt.'"

Gav, from his usual spot on Golem, burst out laughing at that one and looked at Jason like he was insane. "That's the worst description ever, that could be taken way out of context and I demand a new title."

"Oh," Victoria said, lifting her eyebrows at him and smiling a broad, mischievous smile, "but 'the Eternal Metapod' is alright for my story?"

"He's not eternal anymore!" Gav insisted, then paused. "I mean, not a Metapod anymore. I'm sure he's still eternal."

"Butterfree will outlive us all," Blake said wisely, nodding his head. His dark hair was shaggy now, and every few moments he had to flick it to get strands out of his eyes.

Jason's Rhyhorn was serving as a taxi for Victoria and Gina, who didn't have Pokémon quite big enough to ride (or in Gyarados' case, Pokémon too big for the tunnel). Beth had opted for riding on Starmie and had convinced Zahlia to sit with her, the two of them floating along like they were on a magic carpet ride. Amaris sat on Blastoise's shell while his evolved starter lumbered along on four legs and Kaylee rode her larger Growlithe, petting her fur and promising her she'd be an Arcanine just as soon as they found a "goddamn Pokémon Center" and got some "goddamn rest." Blake was riding Grumpy, their conquering hero, who was proving that he was a little less adept at walking long distances than he was at flying. He tended to want to hop the way most birds did, but Blake had managed to soothe him into a more normal gait. Still, his enormous, plumed tail twitched up and down for balance and he flapped every so often randomly, which had earned Blake and his mount a spot near the back of the group.

Interspersed throughout their footfalls were their smaller, but no less magnificent team members. Nidorino and Nidorina roamed up ahead, Charmeleon alternating between looking at the path coming or pausing for Rhyhorn and Gina to catch up. Charmeleon gave her a tired glance whenever she passed by him and she'd reach out and rub his head, which he seemed to enjoy in spite of trying to play it cool. He'd spat embers at Blastoise in a bad-natured way early on and Blastoise had done something similar to a low, rumbling chuckle. Jason wondered if there had been some evolution teasing going on.

Sandshrew was utterly enamoured with Diglett, bounding ahead and sniffing at the top of Gav's new Pokémon's head. Diglett seemed mortified by this, ducking low and burrowing ahead whenever Sandshrew got too close, and Jason remarked that Gina's Pokémon had finally found something more nervous than he was. Venomoth, a newer addition in the grand scheme of things, flapped lazily about, careening in the wild and unpredictable way moths did. It upset Amaris' Doduo greatly and there was squawking and squabbling to be heard often.

Oddish rode in Victoria's arms while Butterfree flapped ahead, occasionally landing on Weepinbel. For Butterfree's part he seemed completely unafraid of mingling with something that looked like it was designed to eat insects. Eevee hitched a ride on Blastoise before long, curling up at Amaris' back to rest. He did, however, keep one keen eye open at all times, guarding his trainer from any danger. Cubone and Psyduck alternated from walking and hopping up on Venusaur to ride. Cubone seemed to enjoy hiding amongst Venusaur's enormous leaves whereas Psyduck was a little leery. Jason knew why—he'd used Venusaur to train his younger Pokémon many times and he was sure Psyduck remembered the Grass-type moves that had been used against him.

Haunter was experiencing some sort of manic episode. He would disappear and reappear at random, sometimes trying to spook one of their members but most of the time just popping up and making faces. Shellder, held in Beth's arms to get her used to the new team members around them, seemed utterly horrified by him and "clammed up," locking herself away in her shell whenever he was close. Beth's others had been spared traveling in floating bubbles of water and remained in their Pokeballs for the time being. Onix, too, was in Gyarados' "too massive for the cave" category.

An unlikely trio had emerged consisting of Beth's Poliwhirl, which was making gestures at Amaris' perturbed and irate looking Exeggcute which floated along hovering directly over Kaylee's youngest Growlithe. Why a Grass-type had opted to hover above something that breathed fire was beyond Jason: Growlithe looked more interested and curious than anything and appeared to be watching Poliwhirl and Exeggcute argue in gestures over something. He kept waiting for it to get ugly but it never did. Maybe they were discussing sports or politics, he joked to himself. Meanwhile the two Alakazams were walking along among their group, watching for anything strange like serious, gold sentries. Farfetch'D, Golbat, Fearow and the other two Pidgeots had flown ahead and out of the tunnel exit, and the fact that they weren't back yet was deemed by Gina as a good sign.

"I don't think Golbat's coming back," Blake reasoned. "He's probably made a break for it."

"Oh, come now," Beth said. "You weren't that lame a trainer when you caught him." Blake turned back to give her a blank stare and she grinned. "You were just a little lame." She lifted her fingers to show how much and Zahlia gave the two of them a complicated, sweet smile with a tinge of confusion.

Kaylee was closest to the front, just before Jason and Venusaur, and as a result she saw it first. She collapsed over the front of her Pokémon and muttered something into her fur, but a second later Jason saw it, too.

"Dear god," he said, feeling himself sag just as Kaylee had. Venusaur put up a vine for Jason to lean against and Jason did, looping his arm through his starter's offer of support. "We're done."

Jason wasn't sure he could be objective, but he was willing to say in that moment, the sight of the long road to the Indigo Plateau Pokémon League was the most unabashedly beautiful thing he had ever seen. The shadow cast by the imposing lip of the tunnel ended about fifty feet out into the grassy field dotted with smaller bushes. As Jason approached the ledge which lead down to roughly-hewn rock steps leading out of the tunnel and down to the path, he saw that dense, tapered pine trees lined each side of the road to the Plateau. In the far distance, perhaps another 300 feet away, were the enormous white stone archways that lead in procession to the massive, copper-colored structure that housed the League Championships.

Jason's eyes stung, and he knew it wasn't just because of the light. Soft exclamations and sighs turned into sniffles, and he even heard a sob that sounded like it might have come from Beth.

"I was actually starting to wonder," Kaylee said, shakily, "if we were really ever going to get out of there."

"You aren't the only one," Jason said, and then it struck him like a bolt of lightning through the top of his head. In an instant he had his Dex out and was re-assembling it as the others began to make their way down the steps. Kaylee, dismounting from Growlithe, tried to run it but quickly found she could not.

"We're too screwed up for a slow-motion run through the grass," Blake said, walking to stroll beside her in the sun, his pale face turned up to the light. Gina gave a heavy, wet sniffle from behind them and someone else gave a watery laugh as Jason's Dex finished booting up.

He could hear Gav's PDA booting up beside him and the little beeps of other phones doing the same from around him. Jason watched his screen anxiously, waiting as it thought about whatever deep things technology had to consider after being off for an extended period of time. As soon as three of his five bars of service lit up Jason was punching in the speed-dial for Edith's phone.

Edith picked up before the phone had even rung once. "Jason," she choked out, her voice thick with emotion and a heavy waver.

Jason let out a breathless laugh, his own eyes starting to prickle. "Edith, what, how are you crying already?" He asked, and he could hear her shaky, sudden laughter on the other line and spoke louder to compensate. "You picked up on like the first ring, what have you been doing, sitting by the phone with a sliced onion, just—" he broke off midway and laughed again, shaking his head and closing his eyes. "It's like, how is that even possible..."

"Oh my god, it's really you, you're really—oh, god." Edith heaved a breath and emitted another half-laugh half-sob sound. "Everyone, is everyone—how is, are you okay?" She asked, mashing sentences together.

"Yeah, we're—I mean yeah. We're okay, we're all here. Wait wait," he said suddenly, lowering his Dex and punching a key command. His screen showed him a little ticking clock icon while it made the switch to speakerphone. Jason held the device out in front of him, aiming it at the others. "Edith, you still hear me?"

"What? Yes, what, Jason?"

"Eeeedithhhh!" Kaylee hollered with both hands cupped around her mouth. Edith burst out into delighted laughter.

"Kaylee! Tell Kaylee I say hi!"

"I don't have to!" Jason said, his sentence coming out on a guffaw. "You're on speaker, she can hear you!"

"We're all alive!" Blake shouted at the phone. "All eight of us!"

"Eight?" Edith exclaimed at once. "Eight? But there are nine of you!"

"Blake," Zahlia said, shooting her brother a disapproving look. "That was very mean of you." To Edith she said, "All nine of us, ignore him."

Jason's connection wasn't all that great, apparently, and he had to repeat Zahlia's message to Edith a few times. In the meantime he noticed that she, Gav and Victoria were wearing expressions of, if possible, even starker relief than they had been upon discovering the cave had ended. It could only be because they were back in touch with Edith successfully, but he wasn't sure why they seemed so grateful to hear her voice—they were the ones being attacked and crushed and drowned for months.

Though he'd had his Dex off for 99% of the journey, something or other must have been draining the battery while it sat in its nylon bag. He'd only been catching up with Edith for a few moments when it beeped at him in warning of its impending death. Jason swapped back to handheld mode and lifted his Dex to his ear, where Edith's voice was already starting to crackle.

"I love you, I'll call you, okay? As soon as I find an outlet, I'll charge my Dex and I'll call you. Alright? Yeah, we're almost there, nothing dangerous, just grass. Grass. Gr—yeah, grass." He laughed and plugged his other ear, trying to hear what she was saying about treacherous shrubbery. "I love you. I'll call you soon. Okay. Bye."

"Guys," Kaylee murmured, smiling back the way they'd come. "Check it out."

Jason put his dying Dex in his pocket and looked back where she was indicating. At first he couldn't spot what she meant, but then he saw the first scrawled message.

Congrats! Now the real challenge begins…

"Oh," Gina said, walking back a ways to take a closer look at the wall. "Oh, holy crap, there's tons of them."

Jason thought of the numerous messages at the beginning of the trail, scrawled hastily over one another with little regard for what was written below. The anger, advertisements, warnings and bitterness had been foreboding and little more than tagged graffiti, but what he saw here was entirely different.

If you're reading this, you're lucky

I did it! And so it seems, you have too.

Don't discount what you learned long ago.

- KH

"KH…" Gina murmured. "KH, KH…"

Farther down the line were clumps of messages, all carefully written so as not to overlap or blot out past hands, some long, some short. Jason found a few that looked like advice to trainers interspersed with personal testimonials or one-liners of congratulations to fellow VR survivors.

Don't let your partners fall, be sure to always catch them. Even if it costs the victory, the alternative costs far more.

Made it. E4, prepare yourself. - HB

Form is not what matters, but the respect you have from your partners.

No one wrote over anyone else, and though there were some somber messages, some memorials, and some sorrow, by-and-large the messages were all bright and full of hope, encouragement, victory and the sort of energy the ones at the beginning had lacked. Even the writing, sure and bold, or small and cramped, or messy or slanted or neat, felt different, somehow. Jason roamed around the edge of the tunnel, watching as the messages spilled down onto the sides of the rock stairwell, etched themselves over onto the walls surrounding the exit, and whorled neatly even so high up above that they had to have been penned while perched on the back of a Flying Pokémon. He paused at a longer one and tilted his head to the side to read it.

Go to the Pokémon Center ahead, and forget this ever happened, at least for a time. Collapse into a bed, and shut out the world for a few days. I didn't, and I regret not taking the time for myself and my team. Let your loved ones know what they mean to you. Cherish the strengthened bonds you have gained through your journey.

Beth was reading over his shoulder and her sniffle caught his attention. He glanced back at her and gave her a wry, but fond smile. "Awww," he said, and she flipped him the bird with a pouting, embarrassed half-smile.

"Shut up! It's sweet."

Over on the other side Kaylee and Gina burst out laughing in unison. Jason looked over at them and saw that Blake was smiling at one of the messages, eyebrow lifted. "I like this guy."

"What?" Jason asked, but by then he was close enough to see it.

2 months. Fuck this place. Never again. Congrats to you. Beware of sunlight. -Zayne

Jason doubled up and laughed too, shaking his head. "Oh man. I'm surprised no one blacked that out. What, you think this—"

"Gotta be Zayne Roberts," Gina said, grinning. "And I think HB must be Heather Bard."

"Zayne?" Beth called from over by the touchy-feely post. "Someone say Zayne?"

"Here we go," Victoria said with a fond chuckle, rolling her eyes. "Rei better watch out, if Beth ever meets this guy in person she'll probably elope with him."

As they started their walk to the Indigo Plateau building and the Pokémon Center and actual, hot food that awaited, Jason took in their physical surroundings more. There was open sky in a large, perfect circle all around them, the valley rock walls curving up in a mouth-of-a-volcano sort of way. They were nested within it, the IP building set at the very back, on the opposite wall from the tunnel exit from Victory Road.

"I don't see how certain sorts of trees can grow up here," Zahlia commented, unusually "chatty," which for her constituted two conversational exchanges in the last ten minutes. "It's cold… thinner air. We must be, what, 10,000 feet high?"

"Over 12,000," Gina and Amaris answered in unison. Amaris continued. "The Indigo Plateau is the highest point in Kanto."

Jason breathed in a lungful of the cold, crisp air as the others discussed that fact. It baffled him that it was so chilly with the sun still so bright up ahead. The rays of light warmed his skin in a superficial way, but the cold was pervasive and snuck in to steal whatever warmth he could garner. Other than the altitude, noticeably thinner air and the fact that they were inside a large crater, though, it looked surprisingly normal.

"I wonder why they call this the Indigo Plateau and not the Indigo Caldera or something," Gina was saying, but Blake, who was staring at the open sky with something like hostility, spoke up next.

"What I wonder is why the hell people don't just fly their damned Pokémon all the way up to the top of this 'caldera' opening and swoop right down into the League."

"You could try," Amaris said at once, "But the summit of IP is one of the most famous cases in the world of an unnavigable location. People have tried to do just that and have gotten lost time and time again. They'll fly what they think is straight up the mountain side and end up right back around the other end. No one has ever been able to fly directly up and over the Plateau."

"Why?" Blake countered at once.

"No one knows," Amaris said with a shrug. "It's just how the terrain formed, it creates a natural series of twists and turns that even Pokémon can't figure out. There are theories, of course. Some think a den of Alakazam actually psychically interfere with travelers who try to get past Victory Road that way, and that they were planted there by the original Four to protect their headquarters."

Blake paused for a second before answering. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"All I know is no one comes up over the top. Every contender for every Championship in history has come through Victory Road the way we just did."

"Plus, I'm sure if we arrived up over the top they'd have some way of knowing. I'm pretty sure that disqualifies whoever does it from competing. VR has always been a rite of passage," Gina reasoned.

"Alright, fine. I'm just saying it's stupid as hell," Blake grumbled, looking back down and holding out his arm as Farfetch'D swooped by to land on it.

Up above Jason could see Fearow flying in wide circles, the two Pidgeots cartwheeling and diving farther beneath. Sandshrew and Diglett had pulled up ahead, along with many of the others, and were digging or sniffing around shrubberies and the beaten path to the archways. Nidorino found something and squabbled with it, butting it in the head, and Jason perked up as he watched a Raticate streak away from the fight, wanting nothing to do with his team member. There was a pool of water off to one side and Nidorina went off to drink from it. Jason lifted his eyebrows at Beth. "Guess we know where you'll be."

"My 'mons, maybe, but I'm going to actually be staying away from the water for a while. Unless we're talking shower water," she added, nodding sagely. "Then I'm all over that."

"Showers," Kaylee groaned. "Oh don't talk about showers until they're right in front of us, please."

In the distance Jason could make out figures hewn from stone, the first ones smaller, the next ones a little bigger, and the last set positively huge. He thought he counted nine but it was hard to tell with the sun starting to set behind the upcoming building, casting everything in strange, coppery shadow.

"Oh," Gav said, laughing slightly. "It's the starters."

Not for the first time wondering how Gav could still have such keen vision after years of staring at tiny screens, Jason squinted and focused on one of the three statues closest. A second later a grin broke out on his face.

"Hey buddy," he said, nudging Venusaur in the side. "Check it."

The small stone Bulbasaur was crouched low, seed facing an unseen enemy before it, and two thin but apparently very strong vines were in the process of whipping out of its granite back. Its face was pulled back in a snarl that Jason was sure his own starter had never worn in his life.

"And that's you! Or, little you," Gina said, pointing to the Charmander across the way which was curling its body in a complicated pirouette, its tail flame spinning out in an intricate flare right before an attack. Its tiny claws were bared for a Scratch Attack and Charmeleon looked down at the statue, tilting his head in vague interest.

Blastoise made a sound at Charmeleon and Charmeleon huffed steam and smoke at him, which Amaris waved away from his face while exclaiming in displeasure. The Squirtle was up next and Amaris said nothing, looking down at it as Blastoise did while they walked right past.

"What?" Gina asked, grinning. "You aren't going to be Captain Obvious and point out the statue to your starter?"

"No, I think not," Amaris said simply. Jason stopped by the Squirtle, which was hunkering down, its head halfway protected by its shell, small legs coiled beneath it as if it would leap forward for a Tackle at any moment. Its tail was poised like a question mark, tense and providing balance while two shrewd eyes peered out from its belly, assessing the enemy.

The Ivysaur statue was poised to leap, thin lines of Leech Seed bursting out of its back. Jason wished statues had the ability to defy gravity—his Pokémon's best techniques tended to be of the Powder and Leaf variety, and of course it was impossible to show the sheer might of that sort of elemental ability in statue-form.

Charmeleon was blasting fire from its mouth, the flames executed shockingly well for stone. They caught the setting sun a little differently than the rest of the statue, igniting the stone flames from within with a golden light. Gina grinned and snapped a pic on her Dex, then demanded Charmeleon go and pose by it. While they grappled Jason looked ahead at the Wartortle, which seemed to be executing some sort of breakdancing move, spinning on its shell with its limbs stretched out for a side-swipe and a kick. Its tail was swirling around it in a hypnotic way.

Then came the Venusaur statue. Jason stopped in front of it, hopping off his starter and staring up at the roaring figure hewn in midnight black marble. Each of the Pokémon's teeth was about as tall as Jason's hand. The Pokémon had a similar posture to the Bulbasaur statue, its enormous flower facing front with the petals curled as if in the wake of some amazing energy. Its leaves whipped in the nonexistent wind, and Jason ran his hands over a detail that struck him in a way works of art normally didn't—the force of whatever attack the Venusaur was using was actually pushing some of its skin in a gentle wave, like cartoons of dogs with their heads out car windows, the smooth rock forming a slight ripple as the enormous Pokémon hunkered itself down against its own power.

"Aw," Gina said. "It looks like it's using Solar Beam but there's no… beam."

"Guess that would be hard to capture in stone," Kaylee reasoned.

Jason looked up at the place where the attack should be, also feeling a little disappointed, but he remained there, hand on the statue, until his real Venusaur bumped him with his head from behind.

"You want a photo op, buddy?" Jason asked, and Venusaur lumbered in place beside the much larger statue.

"See?!" Gina gestured angrily to Charmeleon. "Venusaur wants a photo." Charmeleon just blew a smoke ring at her and rolled his eyes.

Jason lifted his (still horribly dying) Dex and said "hurry, do something badass or adorable!" Venusaur gave a huge yawn and Jason snapped a photo. Then he looked at him, affronted, as if to say "I wasn't ready!" and he snapped another. Finally Venusaur rolled his eyes and did Poké-stretching, and Jason, laughing his ass off, took shot after shot of his Pokémon doing yoga and looking over at the other Venusaur as if judging it for trying so hard.

"I love you, man," Jason said, still chuckling, though his voice was softer. Venusaur grumbled at him but narrowed his eyes, a Pokémon version of a smile.

The Charizard was also missing the cool flames that the Charmeleon had sported, which Jason found odd. The enormous rock lizard was impressive enough even without it, though. With a wide stance and both its arms spread out in closed, clawed fists, the Charizard's head was reared back in a terrifying howl, mouth spread wide. Its jawline was a sharp angle, almost painful to look at, and the intricate wrinkles of concentration across its snout and eyes showed, again, the Pokémon's reaction to its own sheer power.

Amaris and Blastoise seemed less-than-impressed with the statue of the Blastoise, which was crouching down with both its turrets facing outwards in a clear preparation for Hydro Pump. Once again Jason was bummed by the lack of stone water gushing out from its back. Each of its enormous feet was gripping the ground so tight that its toes were gouged deep into the "floor" of its pedestal, and small cracks from the sheer force wound away from its claws. Gina tried to get a picture of Amaris and Blastoise in front of it, but Blastoise kept on walking stubbornly on so the other Initiate had to jog and angle her Dex in certain ways to try to get shaky pictures of them passing by. "Would it kill you to hold still?" she asked.

"Yes," Amaris drawled. "But in all seriousness we can come back outside and oggle these later. I, for one, am severely malnourished and crave food that isn't beef jerky."

Jason couldn't argue with that, but they had barely taken another few steps forward when the Harrisons froze in place, their keen vision showing them something up ahead that Jason hadn't spotted yet. He stared at their grave profiles and looked around to see what it could be that had stopped them dead in their tracks.

That's when he saw the next series of statues; rows and rows of Gym Leaders.

Brock was the first, his stature a little larger than a normal human's but nowhere near as enormous as the final evolutions of the Pokémon they had passed. He was shirtless, his hands on his hips and his head thrown back in an expression and stance that managed to be confident without looking cocky at all. He was squinting in the light, his smile broad and easy, and Jason smiled a little as he saw the way his ears stuck out a bit. The stonemasons hadn't spared any details for fear of offense. Brock sported a scar across his left pec that trailed, delicately, up to his shoulder and though he was clearly in the state of puberty where he was putting on muscle, his arms were a little on the scrawny side and his hip bones were clearly visible under the band of his plain, long cargo pants. He couldn't be older than eighteen.

Jason glanced over at the Harrison siblings, unsure of what to say. He felt a warm fondness, a sort of respect and reverie looking at the stone face of Brock, but to his grandchildren this had to be an entirely different experience. Gav reached down off Golem as Kaylee reached up, and they squeezed each other's hands for just a moment while they paid their silent respects to their grandfather.

"It's dad," Kaylee murmured, nodding down the line. "He's next."

Ando Harrison was definitely older than his father at the time of the sculpting. His eyes were half-lidded, severe and thoughtful, and Jason thought he recognized the mountaineering vest he wore as Gav's, or very similar to his. Ando's hair was pulled back in a ponytail similar to the one Gav had worn when they'd all first met, though it was much shorter, the tail of it barely reaching the bottom of his neck. He held a Boulder Badge in his right hand, pinched between his thumb and forefinger, and looked down at it as if in deep repose.

"I think his ponytail was shorter," Kaylee said softly. "Though I mean, what do I know."

"No, you're right," Gav said. "It was."

That was all they said, and though Gina was taking photos of the statues they passed she didn't ask for them to pose next to their relatives. Gav and Kaylee were markedly quiet as they journeyed on, and Jason glanced back at the Harrisons over his shoulder.

"No Armstrong yet," Beth noted. "Maybe because they kept calling him the 'temporary' Leader?"

"Maybe," Gina nodded. Beth sang a different tune when the next statue appeared.

"Oh," she said, and Jason could have sworn that was on the verge of being a swoon. "Misty!"

"Contain yourself," Victoria said, fondly.

Misty had one hip cocked in a way that reminded Jason strongly of Victoria, and the arch in her eyebrow and the way she was spinning a Pokéball on one finger like a basketball reminded Jason more of himself. She was in swim shorts and a bikini top, her messy hair pulled into a side ponytail, and she winked mischievously down at the group as they passed by her. Beth did take a photo with Misty, latching onto her waist and grinning like a little girl.

Violet, Lily and Daisy were grouped together, a little ways up ahead from Misty, and the way they were posed together, as if fresh from a synchronized swim dive, made Jason laugh out loud. "They were called the Sensational Sisters," Beth insisted, hopping up on the podium and striking her own glamorous pose. "And that was for a reason!" Jason tried to see the elderly woman with the crows-feet laughter wrinkles and the big plastic bracelets they had met in Cerulean but only saw the stone visage of a curvy young woman winking and blowing him a kiss. It was surreal to say the least.

All too suddenly they came across the form of Surge, his large stature made larger in stone, and Jason grimaced at him. He knew he had no reason to dislike Surge himself, but he was a reminder, like everything else about Vermillion. Surge's close-cut hair and serious, aquiline nose seemed to be made for stonework, and he was one of the first statues to be displayed with a Pokémon, his signature Raichu curled up around his shoulder and perched there, tail wrapped around one of his biceps for balance. Jason could see Warren up next, his long, tangled hair captured in embarrassing honesty along with the bags under his eyes, visible even under the thin shades he wore. He even had his missing tooth in his large, languid smile and the tattoos on his arms were displayed by etchings in the marble.

"Oh," Gina said, pausing, and that was all the warning Jason got.

Standing there, clear as day and staring as if straight at him, was a statue of Nathan Fremont. Even as Jason stared into his father's face, frozen as if by a Gorgon's gaze, he did math in his head. Had it really been that long since his father had been sworn in as Vermillion's permanent Leader? Yes… he reasoned it had been long enough to warrant a statue here. A curl of dread mixed with hatred chilled his insides. His father must be so happy to have made it big, found himself immortalized here after he'd burned everything else in his life to ashes to attain this stature and fame.

Gina moved in on his left and put her arm around his shoulders briefly. Jason blinked, slowly, breaking the gaze his father's face had over him, and while he still took in the details—the wide, staring eyes, aggressive even though inanimate, the way his hand was clenched in a fist at his side, the horrible way he was starting to look like Orion to him—he also slid his hand into Gina's and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

The other Leaders didn't hold quite as much sway for them after that. They paused briefly, slowing but never stopping, before Erika, then the twins who had taken over after her retirement, Zoe and Joe… Sabrina, with her long, signature black hair blowing in the wind, her serene face looking, not down at them, but off at something in the middle distance… Kaylee made a face at Whittaker-Cheng, his hands in his pockets, still looking so normal and unassuming amongst all these titans. It didn't even look like he'd brushed his hair for his statue pose. Koga was wrapped in his cloaks like the ninja he was, Janine was poised on one toe, her hand hidden in the folds of her short coat, and Jason wondered how they had carved her like that without sending the whole thing toppling down in a pile of marble. Blaine looked mild compared to the Fuchsia Leaders, his considerable mustache and large round glasses dominating his calm face, and Avery, too, had his hands in his pockets and was relaxing in a way that seemed very strange for a Fire Leader.

When it came time to look at the Viridian statues and there were none, the group paused for the first time since Fremont. Jason glanced down at the ground where huge, dead patches of grass were the first things that looked even remotely off in this idyllic, perfectly sculpted place. Each patch of dry earth looked like it had once held a statue, which, for whatever reason, was gone now. All that Viridian had to sport was Yuji, placed farther away from the rest, his smile enigmatic and perhaps a little uncomfortable.

Before they had even reached the doors of the building proper they burst open and Jason and his group froze. White-adorned people poured out, looking angry and worried, and for a wild second Jason thought they'd already been identified and would have to fight. Then he saw the red crosses on the arms of their scrub tops and put two and two together.

They honed in on Gav at once, two women branching off to one side of their group, two men to the other, and a man and woman making a beeline straight to the eldest Harrison sibling. Jason clammed up and stayed still while he was given cursory glances, but he seemed to pass the initial inspection. An equally angry pair of Chanseys bounded out of the open doors after them, lagging a little behind since they were wearing white fanny packs with red cross emblems that looked positively stuffed with supplies.

"Do we have any emergency situations here?" an elderly woman asked, her severe, thin-lipped mouth making Jason feel like that question was an accusation.

"Um—he, uh, his knee's probably busted. Or something," Jason said, feeling a little guilty, like he was ratting Gav out. The woman raised her eyebrows slightly at his medical terminology but moved off to help Gav off Golem, which gave Gav definite pause. She didn't look strong enough to do that.

"Oh, I'm not that old," the woman insisted, but her younger male assistant moved over to help too, and Gav seemed a little less nervous about that. They lifted him down off his Pokémon with the utmost care and grace and Gav didn't even wince as one of the Chanseys came bouncing forward with a wheelchair—produced out of thin air, it seemed—and shuttled him off inside without a second to spare.

"Other injuries, any minor?" the assistant asked, his face pale in a way that suggested some sort of vague illness.

"Um… my hip got hurt a little," Kaylee mentioned, uncertain, but quickly tacked on, "but I can walk!"

"Too bad," the man said, and another wheelchair was produced for her. Jason seriously wondered if they were yanking these out of a hole between worlds. "Sit." Kaylee looked like she deeply regretted speaking up as she, too, was carted away.

The others looked between themselves. "Just bruises and cuts," Victoria answered for them, looking anxious as Gav had vanished through the doors a full minute ago. "We can walk. Promise."

They were ushered in through the doors of the Indigo Plateau Pokémon League and had no time to admire anything as they were abruptly banked left and lead into a side hall which turned out to be an immaculate medical wing. Jason craned his neck and only had time to see a few signs leading them to different areas—Pokémon Mart, Hall of Fame, and, his heart leapt, Elite Four Challenge—and then he was being led to a seat and told in a borderline-aggressive way to sit.

"Name?" one of the aides asked, looking tired as well but not nearly as upset.

"Brian Waite," Jason said. He'd lost his first fake name, Sam, in light of the security breech in Saffron, and had yet again been denied his real preference, Sergio. "W-A-I-T-E."

"Initiate?" the woman asked.

"No," he said, hoping he could keep up that charade. His brain was already sluggish and slow, the effects of going from months of fight or flight mode to suddenly feeling remotely safe. He had almost been about to ask for a wall outlet to charge his Dex, but busting that out right here would be a dead give-away. He only hoped they wouldn't question the Venusaur, Blastoise and Charmeleon the team carried with them.

Jason had never enjoyed hospitals, and this one was even less comfortable due to the tight-lipped, agitated faces all around. Gav had been taken to a separate wing while the others were largely being questioned in the lobby, their voices quietly overlapping one another. It occurred to Jason that they ought to have arrived in smaller groups to throw off the scent of their tell-tale group of nine, but it was a little late now. They hadn't expected to be greeted by an entourage before they even reached the doors.

Soon they were being called into separate exam rooms for full checks, though, and Jason heard his fake name called all too soon. "Waite?" an irritated male nurse asked the room, and Jason took a gamble.

"Wait for what?" he asked, grinning at the man. He could hear Gina's face-palm from across the lobby, and the man gave him a look that was clearly not impressed. The smile fell off Jason's face as he slinked his way into the room past the man.

Jason sat on one of the riotously uncomfortable, hard medical beds and put his arms out, a little self-conscious of how badly he must reek as he was poked, prodded, assessed and examined. He zoned out at his reflection in the small mirror mounted on the inside of the door until it occurred to him to make small talk. After all, that was part of what they were here for—to get information. Might as well warm himself to the natives.

"So," Jason began, clearing his throat as the nurse tested his reflexes, "Why is everyone who works here so mad?"

Jason expected to get a glare for his efforts. The nurse seemed surprised by his question for a second, but then offered him a small half-smile and a sigh. He sat back and crossed his arms, waiting for the computer to spit out some records for him. "We don't like seeing all you kids come through here beaten half to death. You bunch are lucky, you know. In recent years it's gotten so much worse than this."

Jason nodded. "I was wondering about that." He paused, as the printer had choked out the pages, and the nurse was looking over them. When he put them down in a pile on the desk, Jason continued. "I mean, was it always that brutal?"

"No, not even close," the nurse answered. He washed his hands and snapped on a pair of purple rubber gloves, which made Jason immediately nervous, but it turned out it was just ear-exam time. He stuck the little black instrument into Jason's left ear and continued. "I mean, I don't know personally—I've only been working this job for a year or so. But my supervisor's been here eons. She says it was never this bad, and she's been trying to get the League to do something about it. I mean, I get it—they want this to be a challenge for young trainers. I just don't see where you have to kill a bunch of kids to make a point."

Jason hadn't expected such a wealth of information, but he supposed the guy needed to rant. "Hey, I'm with you there," he assured him. "It's weird, for sure." The man scoffed, as if he'd use a different descriptor, but then he was asking Jason if he'd had any persistent discomfort in his jaw and ear since it looked like he had a mild infection. Jason answered the questions that were asked of him after that, not pushing the topic. He recalled all too clearly what Gav had said: get information, but don't draw attention. He only hoped he and the others would be able to keep that up in the days to come.


Author's Note: So it begins... the splitting up of certain chapters because they are too monstrously long. Warning though! There will be a chapter coming soon that is just going to be huge and long and that's just how it is going to be XD If your Champ testimonials aren't in this chapter they will be in the next one. Also, stay tuned for the Hall of Fame! I'm nowhere near done with your OCs yet! :)