Me: Well, I made it; I had to stay up most of last night and work on it all of this morning, but I got this chapter finished in time to upload it.
Jack: Just barely.
Me: Oh, you're back are you?
Jack: I'd think you'd be a little less happy to see me, considering you dropped me down a bottomless hole.
Me: I believe we've already established what happens when we really fight, but I don't think either of us would be happy if we couldn't take pot-shots at each other every now and again; for comedic effect if nothing else.
Jack: That's true, I suppose. So, like this? *Kicks me in the groin*
Me: *doubles over* You *wheeze* son of a…
Jack: *kicks me again* Please, mind your language; and don't insult my mom. Anyway folks, enjoy the chapter.
Katana grinned in satisfaction as her opponent, an abnormally large Charizard, crashed to the ground; out cold. Their second round match was against another trainer they'd never met before, and Jason and Katana made short work of his team; even while being careful to only use four moves from their respective arsenals.
Jack's match was one of the first of the day so once it was over, not a long wait, he and his team headed up to the competitors' seating area; a reporter-free zone, thankfully. Unfortunately, it seemed that the other trainers there had all heard of Jack; and they seemed to have heard nothing but bad news.
Jack had long since learned to ignore these kinds of borderline-hostile glances, but he knew his team felt them acutely; especially Lucy, Wendy, and Cap. Although Thomas looked like he couldn't care less about how people were looking at him, and Katana was giving back just as good as she got.
"Are you guys okay, or should we just go back to the room?" Jack telepathically asked his team.
"We'll be fine," Lucy said. "Sticks and stones, and all that."
"Yeah, she's right," Jason agreed. "After all, you have to deal with this all the time; the least we can do is endure this much."
There was a general chorus of agreement, and Cap even managed to hold his chin a little higher; Jack felt himself getting a little too warm and fuzzy inside for his tastes, so he turned his attention back to the matches that were currently happening. One in particular caught his eye, and we all know how painful that can be.
"Ouch," Jack exclaimed, flinching a little.
He'd looked at one of the screens lining the upper wall of the arena, which were displaying the matches going on in the other two small arenas, just in time to see an enormous Snorlax land on a Grumpig in a Body Slam attack which, understandably, left Grumpig seeing stars.
"Death by Snorlax butt," Jack commented to himself, wincing. "That can't be pleasant..."
The screen flashed to a different view, which showed a familiar face.
Jack grinned. "So, Ash made it to the second round; and now he's qualified for the third too. I wonder who else made it…"
Just then, Jack noticed a face on another screen; his grin faded as he recognized it. Paul had also won his round two match, and without a single Pokémon knocked out.
"Well," Jack mumbled sarcastically, "That's all I needed; first Tobias, now Paul's still in it too; with my luck, I'll be fighting one of them next round…"
Jack watched the rest of the matches closely; all thirteen of them. He didn't recognize any of the other winners except for Tobias, who once again won with only his Darkrai; aside from him, Ash, and Paul, none of the other round two winners would be much trouble to beat as they were. Then the last round two match started, and Jack suddenly knew he'd forgotten someone on that list.
"Nicholas," Jack said with a nod. "Let's see how strong you've become."
The answer, quite frankly, was somewhat frightening; Nicholas not only won his match but he won only using two Pokémon. The red-haired trainer called out Sunspot first, and the Infernape blew through his opponent's first two Pokémon like it was nothing; Nicholas then recalled Sunspot and sent out Frostbite, who made short work of their opponent's last Pokémon.
In all, it was obvious that Nicholas was in a completely different league from the other trainer; in fact, Jack was almost as apprehensive about fighting him as he was about Tobias. At least with Darkrai he had a fairly good idea what he'd be up against; Nicholas's team, however, had obviously absorbed quite a bit of his power. The trouble was, Jack had no idea how much; Nicholas's team might very well be almost as strong as Jack's, but he wouldn't know until they actually fought. Hopefully, it would be a while.
Now that the second round matches were complete, people were sitting at the edge of their seats; the round three match-ups were about to be announced. The screens lit up like before with the faces of the remaining competitors on cards, which were then shuffled and paired up.
The first thing Jack noticed was who he was facing next round; it was Nicholas.
"Well, this is just great," Jack muttered to himself on the way back to his room. "No sooner do I find out that Nicholas is might be a match for me, than I find out I'll be fighting him tomorrow. And then there's Tobias and Darkrai… If that Darkrai is actually the real deal, then something funny is going on."
Well, that really went without saying but he also knew a few things about Darkrai; having run into him once before. And what he'd seen of Tobias's Darkrai just didn't fit in with what he knew of the original; then again, maybe there was something he didn't know.
In either case, he needed as much intel as he could get; Darkrai alone would not be an insurmountable challenge, but it begged the question of what other Pokémon Tobias had on his team of six.
"And while I'm gathering information on Tobias," Jack said to no one in particular, "I might just be able to dig up something on Nicholas's team as well."
To find said information, Jack headed for the Pokémon Centre located near the stadium; more importantly, the second floor computer room. However, as he turned a corner and spotted the door to the computer room, the door opened and out stepped the one person he'd hoped not to run into.
"Paul," Jack said grimly.
"Jack Storm," Paul replied; his demeanor was calm and cold as always, but Jack could see fear in his eyes. Paul was still afraid of him after all this time, and he had good right to be.
"I suppose running into you was only a matter of time," Jack said.
"Indeed," Paul replied. "I knew it was inevitable from the moment I saw you in the first round match-ups."
"I'll never forgive you, you know," Jack said sharply. "I'll never forgive you for how you treated Lucy, the Absol I rescued from you all those months ago; you never even knew how much she'd already suffered when you found her, and yet she suffered more at your hands than at anyone else's."
"If she suffered so much, then TELL ME!"
Paul half-shouted the last two words in Jack's face, as though challenging him to react in anger; Paul stared into Jack's eyes and Jack saw the boy's fear, but he also saw defiance. Disbelief even; Paul didn't believe him, or didn't want to believe.
Jack came to a decision. "Follow me," he said, turning and walking back down the hallway to the main sitting area; somewhat to his surprise, Paul followed him.
Jack and Paul sat opposite each other at a table, and Jack began recounting Lucy's story. How her peaceful, happy childhood was shattered by poachers, who killed her parents and separated her from her older brother; how she got shunted from one cruel, abusive trainer to the next before eventually being abandoned at a Pokémon Daycare.
He told Paul how, at that daycare, Lucy finally found some friends and was happy again for a time, until he came around.
"You were the worst of any trainer she'd ever had," Jack said. "You took her away from the only happiness she'd known since she lost her parents, and you forced her to 'train' every day until all she could do was collapse on the ground, with bleeding welts on her back from enduring so many attacks. She isolated herself from your other Pokémon because she didn't want to be betrayed again; she assumed that anyone who tried to get close to her would hurt and betray her eventually, because pain and betrayal were all she knew! From what she told me, you were even planning on having her breed with one of your other Pokémon; as though she were just a dumb animal!"
By the time he finished, Jack was almost shouting in barely-restrained fury; but then he calmed down, and stared Paul in the eyes.
"I can only thank God that I won her from you before you could do that, or anything else to her," Jack said, his anger going from intensely hot to bitterly cold in a matter of seconds, as he stared Paul down.
The purple-haired trainer took in Jack's words silently, and then stood up without a word and walked away from Jack towards the door of the Center; Jack watched him go, but didn't try to stop him. He'd gotten himself all worked up, and he didn't trust himself not to let his anger manipulate him. But then, just as the door closed behind Paul, Jack saw a flash of light reflect off the boy's chin; as if it were wet.
Jack's anger faded away like fog before the afternoon sun, and was replaced by confusion; had his story actually... gotten through to Paul? If so, then this was not the same arrogant trainer he'd met in the forest all those months ago; Jack just hoped he was actually right about that.
Seeing no point on dwelling on it further, and remembering his reason for coming here in the first place, Jack got up and went back to the second floor computer room. As he opened the door, he saw Ash, Dawn, Brock, and two other boys talking over at the computers; one had straw-blond hair and was wearing an orange and white striped shirt, and this other had dark green hair, glasses, and was wearing a green shirt and jacket.
"Tobias?" Ash asked the green-haired boy.
"He's the trainer who won both his first and second round, using only his Darkrai the whole time," the green-haired trainer replied.
"Only Darkrai for the second round too?" Ash said.
"True," the trainer said. "And that's not all; Tobias won all eight of his gym battles using only his Darkrai as well."
"That's what I heard," Jack said, walking over to them. "Is there any good information on him?"
"Jack," Ash exclaimed. "You're here looking for Tobias's data too?"
Jack nodded and was about to say something when the other trainer, the blond one, interrupted him.
"You… You're Jack Storm, aren't you!" the blond trainer exclaimed.
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much; apparently my reputation precedes me."
"I'll say," the trainer said excitedly. "Aside from this Tobias guy, you're all anyone ever talks about around here."
"And you would be…" Jack asked him.
"My name is Barry," he said. "Remember it, because I'm the guy who's gonna beat you."
"And my name is Conway," the other trainer said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Jack nodded. "Likewise. Now then, what can you tell me about Tobias."
"Not much I'm afraid," Conway said. "There's barely any info on him in the database, and nothing about what other Pokémon he might have."
"By the way Conway," Dawn said. "Why were you looking up Tobias's data anyway?"
Conway smiled and nodded towards Jack. "For the same reason he is, I'll bet; because at some point, we might get matched up. After I beat Ashy, of course."
"What was that?!" Ash exclaimed, springing from his seat.
Conway chuckled. "Well anyway, have yourselves a lovely night; bye Dawn."
With that, Conway disappeared behind one of the dividing walls separating the rows of computers; Jack didn't even see the trainer leave the room, although a quick scan with an auric probe told him that he had.
Dawn sighed; apparently she didn't like this Conway guy as much as he seemed to like her.
"I give up," Barry said, standing up, "No sense in making myself nuts."
"Now that's the spirit!" Ash said enthusiastically. "Just go for it!"
"You're right," Barry agreed, equally enthusiastic. "Just go for it!"
"Like you're going for broke," Dawn commented, although she didn't seem to share the boys' enthusiasm.
"Wanna go for a run?" Barry asked Ash.
"You bet, that's a great idea!" Ash replied.
The two trainers raced out of the room like a pair of Linoon, leaving everyone else slightly confused.
"What are they running for?" Dawn said, clearly not amused.
"They're trying to burn off some of their excitement," Brock said.
"Are they always like this?" Jack said.
Dawn sighed. "Barry is, and he rubs off on Ash whenever they're near each other."
"I see," Jack said with a grin. "They're good friends then?"
Brock nodded. "Yeah; we ran into Barry a long time ago, literally ran into him, and he and Ash struck off well."
"They're too much alike not to," Dawn said. "They're both children at heart."
Jack grinned. "I hear all the best people are."
"Anyway, we'd better get going," Brock said. "It was nice seeing you again Jack, good luck with your next match."
"Thanks," Jack replied. "Tell Ash I wished him good luck with his; that Conway guy looks like he could be trouble."
"He's definitely trouble…" Dawn said ruefully.
"We'll tell him," Brock said. "See you."
After Brock and Dawn were gone, Jack turned to the first computer he saw.
"Now then Nicholas," he said to thin air. "Let's see what the internet knows about you."
Jack: Because the Internet knows all!
Me: It certainly seems to; a lot more than it should anyway.
Jack: Don't give me that; you use walkthroughs just like everybody else.
Me: Shut up. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter; don't worry, the action will be picking up again soon. I just wanted to build the tension a little more first.
Jack: You are an evil person; you know that, don't you?
Me: Oh believe me; you haven't seen the half of it. I'll see you in your nightmares! *laughs evilly*
Jack: I thought you agreed not to do that any more...
