Me: Don't. Say. Anything.
Jack: Anything.
Me: I hate you so much right now…
Jack: You have to admit though, I was right; that madcap pace was too much for you. You fell behind.
Me: I know, I know. Believe me, I'm already beating myself up about it; you don't have to rub it in.
Jack: I'm just trying to tell you that you need some sort of regular schedule; otherwise it's just anarchy.
Me: No, I can do this; I have to do this. If I need a regular schedule, then I'll write a certain number of words per day; whether I feel like it or not. How does 2,000 sound?
Jack: If it actually works, I'll be the first one to congratulate you; but if it doesn't…
Me: I know. Anyway, let's move on; enjoy the chapter, folks.
If there was one thing at which Lily of the Valley Town excelled, it was serving the influx of visitors who came there for the Conference. Lily of the Valley Town had more restaurants, diners, pubs, and Pizza places than Jack had ever seen before in his life; and all on the same street. It was a long street.
Even so, they had to look around for quite some time before they found a restaurant that was willing, or even able, to seat all nineteen of them together; and even when they did find one, they were forced to eat outside on the patio. Strictly speaking, their Pokémon were forced to eat outside; but to the three trainers, it amounted to the same thing.
On the other hand, eating outside wasn't exactly a hardship; the evening air was crisp, clear, and refreshing. It was still plenty warm out as well, which actually made eating outside a more appealing prospect than sitting in a stuffy, crowded restaurant. It was so nice out in fact, that they hadn't even bothered changing out of their swimsuits.
Jack, Nicholas, and Maylene were all at the same table, and their respective Pokémon were lounging around the patio in their own little cliques; the girls were all sitting together and chatting amongst themselves, which came as no surprise to anyone else, but aside from that everyone pretty much split up into groups of two or three.
"Alright then, Jack," Maylene said, after the three of them had placed their orders, "Do you want to tell me what's going on with you?"
Jack's expression must have been pretty good, because Maylene cracked a smile and Nicholas busted out laughing.
"Oh come on," she insisted. "You've known me long enough to know I don't miss much; you've been looking at me weird all evening, ever since the beech."
"She's got you pinned, man," Nicholas commented with an impish grin. "I suggest a tactical retreat."
Maylene gave him a sidelong glance. "You know, he's been looking at you the same way."
"What?!" Nicholas exclaimed in mock-astonishment. "You've got a crush on me too?"
Jack sighed and facepalmed. "Look, Nick, could you please stop joking around for five seconds…"
Nicholas nodded. "Sure. One… two... "
"I'm serious!" Jack exclaimed, forcing himself not to shout. "This is important, and I'd appreciate it if you'd just listen to what I have to say."
Maylene had known something was up, but now even Nicholas was a little worried; Jack sounded almost… angry for some reason.
"We're listening," Maylene said calmly. "What is it?"
Jack sighed and folded his hands in front of him. "It all started back when I challenged the Oreburgh Gym; Jason learned a new move, Counter."
"What's wrong with that?" Nicholas asked.
Jack gave him a look that said, 'shut up and I'll tell you'.
Nicholas winced. "Sorry, shutting up."
Jack sighed. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Jason learned Counter during the battle; trouble was, he already had a full moveset and Counter was his fifth. But he didn't forget any of his other moves."
Maylene nodded. "I noticed that he knew more than four moves when you were staying at the gym. It's rare, but not completely unheard of."
"Among Legendary Pokémon maybe," Nicholas countered. "But that's pretty much it."
Jack nodded. "Precisely; and all the research I did on the subject turned up the same thing, the only Pokémon ever known to be able to use more than four moves at a time were powerful Legendaries. But that was only the tip of the iceberg; soon, more of my team started learning extra moves, even ones that they shouldn't have been able to learn normally. You remember that old joke about Scyther not being able to learn Fly? Because Katana has been able to use Fly for a while now."
"Okay," Nicholas said. "That's weird and all, but what's that got to do with us?"
"I know what you're getting at," Maylene said.
Nicholas groaned. "Why am I always the last one to know these things…"
Maylene turned to the red headed trainer. "I saw your battles, and your Pokémon are almost unbelievably powerful; as we found out today, they're almost as powerful as Jack's, as are mine. And if Jack's Pokémon are abnormally powerful, to the point of knowing more than four moves, then what does that mean?"
Nicholas's eyes widened. "You can't be serious..."
"I am," Jack replied. "Both of your teams have been affected by the same thing that's made mine so strong; just not quite as strongly. And what is my team in close proximity to twenty-four/seven, but that yours only come into contact with occasionally? Something that is already abnormal in its own right."
Nicholas stared blankly at him for a second, then he got it.
"You," Maylene said. "You think that you're causing all this somehow."
Jack shook his head. "No, I know I'm causing all this somehow; if you need another example, who of my team has been with me the longest? Jason; we grew up together. And next to him are Cap and Katana, who are the first Pokémon I met on my journey. And who do you think is the strongest Pokémon on my team, by leaps and bounds? Jason; and for sheer raw power, even though they don't often show it, Cap and Katana are second only to Jason."
"So you think that Pokémon can become more powerful, even to the point of ignoring normal limitations, just by being near you for extended periods of time," Maylene summed up.
Jack nodded. "It's the best theory I have; although I have absolutely no idea why it happens, or how. But what's even more troubling, is that I don't think it's just Pokémon who are affected."
Maylene's eyes narrowed, as a suspicion started forming in her mind. "What are you saying?"
Jack sighed; here was the hard part. "The volleyball game was, at least in part, a test; I wanted to see if I was right, as much as I hoped I wasn't. I first became… concerned, when we had our little sparring match the other day, Maylene; I'm not going to sugar-coat it, what you did was impossible."
Maylene started to object, but Jack held up his hand. "I know, I know; you 'trained your butt off'. But no amount of training could've let you move that fast, or hit that hard; your abilities have, quite simply, passed beyond normal human limitations. Just like mine have."
Maylene scowled in frustration. "So, you're trying to tell me that I'm a…" she stopped suddenly, realising what she'd almost said.
"A freak like me?" Jack finished for her, his expression unreadable.
"I… I wasn't going to say that," Maylene said, hating herself for even starting that sentence.
"No, it's fine," Jack said. "It's a lot to take in, I'm sure anyone would have a hard time accepting it."
"So…" Nicholas said, his expression grim. "Am I like that too?"
Jack nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so, although you're not quite as far along as Maylene."
Nicholas nodded with an air of resignation. "Alright, I understand. But I just have one question; and I'd like you to give me a straight answer."
"Ask away," Jack replied.
The red-headed trainer looked him in the eye. "How long do I have to wait before I can catch lightning bolts too?"
Jack and Maylene stared at him blankly.
"Oh come on, guys," Nicholas exclaimed, an excited grin spreading across his face. "You're making it sound like we've all been diagnosed with a terminal disease or something, but what's really happened? We're living every kid's childhood dream; we have bona fide, honest-to-goodness superpowers! Personally, I think this is pretty awesome."
Jack couldn't help but smile a little at Nicholas's almost boyish enthusiasm, and he let out a small chuckle.
"Leave it to you to look on the bright side, Nick," Jack said.
Maylene's look of shock switched from Nicholas to Jack, and back again. "Are you kidding me? Superpowers might be every kid's dream, but it's also just a lot of pseudoscience; in real life, things don't work like they do in comic books. There are no aliens, or sentient robots, and people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation don't survive; much less turn into giant green rage-monsters. It's all just made up for fun."
Nicholas shrugged. "It's worked out pretty well for Jack so far, and his Pokémon. Speaking of which..."
"You said something about sentient robots?" Thomas said, hovering beside Maylene's head.
Maylene nearly jumped out of her skin, which elicited hastily-smothered snorts of laughter from both Jack and Nicholas. Maylene glared at them, but realised that they had a point; Jack had grown up with these powers, and Jason had grown up being steeped in them. And aside from a few Legendary Birds, and fangirls, there didn't seem to be any unpleasant side-effects so far.
"Alright, fine," the Gym leader said, crossing her arms. "I guess there's no point in being all 'doom and gloom' about it, since there's nothing we can do about it anyway. And… well," she she shrugged, and one corner of her mouth curled upwards in a rueful grin, "I guess it is kind of cool."
"Ha," Nicholas exclaimed triumphantly, clapping his hands together. "Finally; for a second there I thought you'd never look on the bright side. I was thinking to myself, 'am I really the only one who sees how awesome this is?'"
"You were," Jack said. "And thanks, by the way; I for one really needed a good laugh right about then."
"But you never did answer my question," the trainer said. "When do I get to catch bolts of lightning and eat them?"
Jack chuckled. "Not for quite a while, I can tell you that; it's a fairly recent trick even for me, and I haven't nearly mastered it to its full potential yet."
"You mean that what you did when you were sparring with her," Nicholas said, gesturing to Maylene, "Was just the tip of the iceberg?"
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."
"Dude," Nicholas said with a grin, leaning away from Jack in mock-fear, "I am legitimately scared of you right now."
Jack shrugged again; he wasn't about to tell them, but he was more than a little relieved that Nicholas and Maylene took it as well as they did. He had been afraid that they'd… actually, he wasn't sure what he had been afraid of necessarily; the uncertainty of it all, he supposed. Still, the discussion had gone well; and it looked like their food was ready.
The waitress walked over to their table carrying two plates of food; Jack's chicken-fingers and fries with a Caesar salad on the side, and Maylene's double-decker cheeseburger with the works.
Nicholas's jaw dropped when he saw Maylene's burger, which looked about two inches too tall.
Maylene grinned at Nicholas's shocked expression. "At the dojo all I usually eat is 'healthy' food," she explained. "So when I eat out, I make it a point to enjoy myself."
"The dojo food wasn't that bad," Jack said.
"You had it easy since you were a newbie," Maylene replied. "Us veterans are practically expected to survive on dew and the energy of the universe; or something like that. Still, I have to admit; the diet is pretty effective."
Jack could think of a few dozen snappy retorts to that, but he managed to restrain himself from using any of them. Nicholas wasn't quite so self-controlled; the red-headed trainer started to say something, but Jack telekinetically, and none too gently, flicked the back of his head before he could.
Nicholas turned to look behind him and, seeing no one there, he turned to Jack with an expression that clearly said, 'dude!' The only response he got from Jack was a look that would've frozen water.
"Okay, fine," Nicholas said, holding up his hands in surrender.
"What?" Maylene asked, somewhat confused.
"Nothing," Jack and Nicholas said in perfect unison.
"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence…" the gym leader commented.
"Yeah, well… Aw yeah, my food's here!" Nicholas exclaimed excitedly.
The waitress placed a plate in front of the starving trainer, and disappeared back into the restaurant again. Nicholas's meal was the same as Jack's; chicken fingers and fries, but with a few large pieces of cheesy garlic bread instead of a salad. Nicholas immediately dug into the chicken, and the three of them agreed to split the garlic bread between them.
In all, it was a satisfactory meal; and as the three trainers looked around, they saw that their Pokémon were almost finished their own meals which mostly consisted of 'fancy' Pokémon food. And by fancy I mean slightly better tasting than the leading brand, and about twice as expensive.
"So," Maylene asked once they'd finished their food. "What now?"
Jack shrugged, still busy reading the bill. "I don't know; it's still light out so I guess we could hang out at the beach a while longer, or we could head back to the hotel… That's a lot of numbers."
Nicholas shrugged. "Well, I don't have any ideas; although I guess I wouldn't mind spending some more time at the beach."
"Me neither," Maylene agreed.
"Okay then," Jack said, getting up from his chair. "I'll go and pay the bill, and then we'll head back to the beach for a while. Be right back."
Jack headed into the restaurant, summoning a wad of bills from his bag back at the hotel. As he walked into the building, he noticed a large television screen hanging on the wall opposite him; the screen was currently displaying footage from the Lily of the Valley Conference. More specifically, it was showing the results of the third round matches; aside from his own, the only faces Jack recognised were Ash, Paul, and Tobias.
Jack went up to the front desk and payed his bill, making sure to get change back. As he turned to leave he took one last look at the screen; which was now showing the match-ups for the fourth round. He was a little disappointed to see that he hadn't been matched up against anyone he knew, but that feeling went away when he saw who Ash was fighting; for the fourth round, in which only the top eight trainers competed, Ash would be fighting Paul in a full six-on-six battle.
