Jason Creight awoke to the sound of a ship horn blaring.
It wasn't the horn of the Colossal.
Jason knew exactly what ship it was.
It was the Insurmountable. The second ship of the series.
He opened his eyes and saw darkness reigning in his room. No surprise there; the docking had been planned to take place at night. And the Atlantis ships were nothing if not punctual.
Jason reached over to the bedside table and grabbed his PokeGear, to see that it was almost 2:30 in the morning.
"Good," he muttered. "They're right on time. Punctual, indeed."
He began wrestling himself out of bed. He knew that the docking procedures would take about half an hour, and then the population of the Colossal would move to the Insurmountable. The only ones aboard the Insurmountable were crew; they'd docked with the third ship in the series some time back already.
Kelly was also up, awakened by the horn as Jason was, and for a few moments she watched Jason fumble out of bed and into his wheelchair. He was already wearing the pants he'd planned to wear during the transition, saving him the trouble of having to get into them at the last minute.
In fact, their things were already packed, save for the change of clothes they'd planned out for themselves. They'd both known that the Colossal would dock tonight, of course. They were both excited by the prospect, perhaps Jason more so than Kelly, but that was natural; Kelly wasn't participating in the Atlantis League, whereas Jason was.
Jason grabbed his black sweatshirt and matching vest, pausing for a moment to eye the Shadow badge hanging on the inside of the vest.
He grinned. Battling Darth had been every bit as tough as Adam had let on, but he'd succeeded with a little luck and a lot of experience.
Gyarados, too.
"Think we should call Adam to see if he's awake yet?" Kelly asked.
Jason waved the notion away as he pulled on his shirt. "He's probably already up and ready to--"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Jason was interrupted by a soft rapping on their door.
"--go," he finished.
He wheeled over to the door and opened it, to be greeted by Adam.
"Speak of the devil," Jason said, smiling. "Come on in."
"Thanks,:" Adam responded, accepting Jason's invitation. He carried a light backpack on his shoulders; he was obviously one who believed in economy of size. "Thought I might drop by to see if you guys were ready yet. Guess not."
"Not quite," Jason admitted, "but close enough. We're packed, we're just not properly attired yet."
"I'll say," said Kelly, hiding under the sheets of her bed as she got herself dressed. "You've got a knack for subtlety, Jason."
Adam shook his head, grinning.
"So, think this new ship'll feel any different?" Jason asked, as he pulled on his capture ball belt.
"Dunno. The blueprints are the same, but maybe it'll have something different to it. But I wouldn't know, since I've never been on these ships before."
Jason shrugged. "Then we'll just have to find out when we get there."
"I won't have a lot of time to get the feel of the Insurmountable, though. My gym battle's scheduled for tomorrow afternoon."
"That early?" Jason was surprised.
"Yeah. I was one of the very first to get a ticket for this trip. Bought it last year. I was too late to buy tickets for last year's trip, so I bought them for this year instead. Been looking forward to this trip for a long time."
"And now you're here," Kelly responded, emerging from the covers of her bed.
"So I am. And I plan to enjoy myself."
"What? You haven't been?" Jason chuckled.
"Of course I have. And I've been enjoying it with good company. What else can I ask for?"
They had spent nearly two months aboard the Colossal now. They had challenged other trainers, and they had been challenged by other trainers. Even Kelly had gotten into the spirit, participating in a battle or two. All three of them had had their triumphs and losses aboard this ship, all for gaining experience and having some fun.
True, it might be less than fun for the Pokemon, and especially those that lost. But it was all done good-naturedly, and they considered themselves all the better for the experience. Even the Pokemon were upbeat.
Jason briefly recalled his battle with Darth. Adam had honored the Atlantis League rule to not reveal the Pokemon carried by gym leaders, and not to discuss it with anyone. Jason felt they were keeping an unnecessary secret. They'd both battled Darth now, and they'd both received their badges fairly.
Jason kept a small journal file in his Pokedex to give the barest of info on Darth. Gym leader name, gym leader's revealed Pokemon, and location of the gym were all he was concerned with. He wanted to remember that, at least.
Jason had looked up the rules for himself, and indeed, Adam was bound by those rules not to reveal the Pokemon. And now, so was he. However, the one exception was Pokemon professors. They had apparently proven their trustworthiness to the Atlantis League, though how this came to be so was a mystery to Jason. He didn't really care, though; he'd have something new to give to Professor Oak.
He picked up his pack and set it across his lap. Then he looked up at Adam. "Well, you ready to go?"
Adam shrugged. "I'm ready whenever she is." He gestured vaguely in Kelly's direction.
"And I'm ready right now," she said, picking up her own pack. "So let's get going."
***
The boarding took little time, as it turned out, and soon, the trio had gone to their cabins to retire for the rest of the night.
Jason and Kelly were asleep by 5:00 in the morning.
And Adam was still wide awake.
He sat on his bed, his titanium prosthetics discarded almost carelessly on the floor next to the bed. The stump of his left leg moved back and forth idly, his poetry notebook sitting next to the stump. Lying on top of it was his pen, and the notebook was open to the last page in which he had written.
Adam believed he was developing a good relationship with Jason and Kelly. Even as stoic as he had been in the past, he would be the first to admit that their friendship was blossoming nicely.
Still, he was worried.
Worried that he was concentrating more on Kelly than on Jason.
He'd idolized Jason, and he'd set his standards according to those that Jason seemed to have set for himself. He'd trained as hard and as well as he could.
He'd lived throughout his training in the hopes that someday he would be able to equal, perhaps even surpass Jason.
And here he was now, as a direct result of that victory over Jason and his vaunted abilities as a trainer.
What did that leave Adam?
It left him nothing else to live up to. No expectations to rise above, no aspirations to someday meet.
He was his own trainer now.
Suddenly, he very much wished that he hadn't beaten Jason that day.
And now the worst was happening to him because he had.
Adam had no idea how to combat these new feelings. He didn't like being mentally aroused by Jason's girlfriend.
*Jason's* girlfriend.
He'd told himself that phrase over and over again. He'd made it as much a part of his conscious thoughts as he could, then tried to bury those thoughts with reflections on training, possible techniques against future Atlantis League trainers, and more poetry.
But every time he came back to that last page, he rankled at the final entry.
For others, it could be just any girl he was talking about.
But he knew the truth.
It was Kelly he'd written about.
Ever since the night he'd written those four lines, he'd felt the drive to write intensify a thousandfold. His inspiration was growing exponentially.
And all of it involved a single, central theme.
A girl so stunning it almost hurt to see her.
A girl so intelligent and quick-witted it boggled the mind to talk to her.
Namely...
Kelly.
Adam ran a hand through his blond hair, which had by this time grown out to more than twice the length it had been when he'd first met Jason. His darker roots were in evidence now, and he was having to wash it much more thoroughly to get it as clean as he wanted it. It was also becoming a bigger hassle to manage; it kept catching in his comb.
It occurred to him how much his hair and his new thoughts had in common.
He resolved to get himself a haircut after the gym battle. Maybe, by getting a haircut, he could also somehow carve out a second chance for himself, a chance that involved getting to know Jason and Kelly equally.
He sighed, put his notebook and pen away, and tried to sleep.
***
A month came and went. Adam got his chance to battle, and received a new badge for his efforts. Jason didn't need to see the badge to know that Adam had won it; it was the look of gratification on the boy's face that had tipped him off when they'd met for dinner the evening after that battle.
The haircut also seemed to give something away, too, although Jason wasn't quite sure what.
None of them were bored unless they wanted to be. There was simply too much to do to have a good excuse to be bored. There were video game arcades, open "come-one-come-all" challenges to the general trainer public, dance halls, even a movie theater for those who wanted to keep up on recent releases.
The evening of Jason's battle, he and Kelly sat in their cabin in silence. Both were reading. Kelly was reading a mystery novel, while Jason was keeping up with the latest Pokemon discoveries, no matter how mundane.
Kelly turned to Jason. "Have you noticed anything strange about Adam recently?"
"No," said Jason, not even looking up. "Not unless you think hanging on our heels like a hyperactive Eevee is strange."
"Has he been doing that to you?"
"Hasn't he been doing to you, too?"
"No," she responded matter-of-factly. "He seems to have gone out of his way to avoid me, and I was just wondering if he might have told you why."
Jason looked up and frowned. "That's weird. He's done all he can to learn as much as he can about me. I've told him all I've felt like telling him, and then some. He's real persistent."
"I hope it's not something about me he doesn't like," she said. "I mean, I'm trying my best to be courteous and polite to him, but he just keeps pulling away. Do you think he doesn't like me for some reason?"
Jason scoffed. "What's not to like? You're funny, intelligent, pretty, and you train and study Pokemon. More likely it's jealousy."
"What would he have to be jealous of?"
Jason laid his manual pages-down across his lap and beagn ticking off his fingers. "Well, for starters, you're the only one of the three of us that can walk by natural means. You're a Pokemon researcher, so that means you probably know more about Pokemon than he does. You're not obligated to participate in the Atlantis League, and you don't feel obligated, either, as you're not aspiring to be a Pokemon master. Not last time I checked, anyway." He stopped. "Are you?"
She shook her head. "Not since I met you all those years ago. I wanted to watch, to study more than participate, and I came to realize that when we met."
He nodded appreciatively. He liked being right. "Okay, then. Next-- "
There was a soft knock at the door.
Kelly got up and answered, to see Adam standing there with a very awkward expression on his face. "Hey, Kelly."
She smiled. "Hey. Jason and I were just talking about you."
Adam winced. "Ooh. With that grin, I hope it's all lies." He paused for a moment and took on a more serious composure. "Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you out here."
She shrugged. "Sure. What about?"
He didn't respond; he simply gestured for her to come out to the deck.
Curious, she exited the cabin, closed the door behind her, and took a seat on the protective railing. Her long brown hair waved in the slight ocean breeze.
Adam rubbed at the back of his neck, then bowed his head and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. He was clearly nervous. Kelly cocked her head to the side. "Something wrong?"
He shook his head quickly. "No, no, nothing wrong. I... I just wanted to ask you something. Since there aren't any spectators allowed to watch Jason battle, I thought that with him gone you might be a little lonely. So I was wondering if you might like to come with me to the forward dance hall while he's battling. It'd only be for a little while."
She half-smiled. "You're asking me on a date?"
He waved his hands around emphatically. "No, no! I'm just asking a friend if she'd like to spend some time with me. It just occurs to me that I haven't really tried all that hard to get to know you, and I think I'd like to."
A bit of a smile returned to his features. "Call it what you want. Would you like to go?"
She gave it only a moment's thought.
"Absolutely."
***
Jason looked up as Kelly came back inside the cabin. "So what was all that about?"
She shook her head and grinned a skeptical grin. "I think he likes me more than we thought. He just asked me to the dance hall with him tonight."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yeah." Kelly sat down on her bed.
"What did you say?"
"I said yes." She looked at him. "I hope you're okay with it."
"Depends. You said tonight, does that mean during my battle?"
"Yeah."
Jason nodded. "Then I'm okay with it. I'm... sort of surprised at the audacity, but I'm all right with it." He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It'll get him off my back and give you a chance to get to know him."
"That's what he said." She sighed out her nose and glanced around the room, perhaps out of exasperation. "He's so confusing sometimes! First he's pushing me away as far as he can, then he's asking me out? And when I've already got a boyfriend?"
"Well, how exactly did he put it?"
"He put it along the lines of 'A way to get to know him better.'"
"Then just think of it that way. If he wasn't asking you out on a 'date', per se, don't take it that way. Otherwise you'll be bogging yourself down in what-ifs and whys. You said yes; it's been done. So just go with it and see where it leads you."
She half-smiled. "You're encouraging me to go on a journey I'm not sure I want to go on."
"Deja vu."
"I guess." She paused a moment, then asked, "Seriously, are you okay with it?"
Jason's face contorted just slightly. "I'll confess to feeling a bit... put out. Excluded. Adam's asking you to the one place aboard this ship I'm least likely to visit."
"Oh? How's that?" Kelly asked.
Jason glanced over at his empty wheelchair.
And suddenly Kelly felt a pang of guilt for even having to ask.
For a long time now, she'd looked beyond the anorexic legs and even the chair. She saw only Jason, not his disability.
But there were things she was sorry that they might never experience. Standing next to each other, walking a path, seeing each other eye to eye on her level.
Dancing.
She looked down at her shoes.
Jason sighed. "Look, just go with him. Get to know him. I think you'll have a good time. He's great to hang around with."
Kelly looked up and smiled. "All right. I'll do it."
***
The doors to the gym were large, nearly five meters tall. They were built to intimidate the hardiest of trainers.
They didn't intimidate Jason. He'd seen bigger. True, he'd been intimidated by those, but after seeing so many, he was used to it.
But when he enteres those gargantuan doors, he was baffled by the innards of the room.
Because it didn't look like a room at all.
The walls, ceiling, and floor of this particular gym had been outfitted with holographic projectors. Those projectors were active, and they displayed vibrant blues, reds, and purples, with grayish matter interspered bewteen the bands of neon color.
Jason realized that the projectors were projecting a sky.
He looked down at his wheels, to see that the bottoms of the treads on his wheels were under the projection cast by the floor, thus making his treads look as though they'd disappeared into thin air.
"So. Another challenger."
The holograms covering the far wall near the corner suddenly melted around an emerging form, then retreated to reveal a young, spry-looking woman with wavy blond hair and purple eyes glowing with contentment and mischief.
*This can only be Leslie, the next gym leader,* Jason thought. He gave her a once-over; she wore black shorts, a black tank top, and a purple jacket hanging open, revealing a very fit form.
Jason chose not to appraise her figure. He'd come to battle, and battle he would.
A small smile passed over her features. "I've heard of you. You're Jason Creight, the vaunted wheelchair-bound trainer who beat the Indigo League."
He nodded slightly. "Yes."
Leslie reached behind her to the wall and hit a control hidden by the holograms. She turned back to Jason and started walking to her left. "Well, I think it's only fair to tell you, Mr. Jason Creight, that I'm no pushover."
Two platforms made themselves visible just above the holograms on the floor, one at either end of the gym. Leslie was apparently heading for the platform on her end.
Jason followed suit and smiled grimly. "Neither am I."
She returned the grin and exaggerated it by squinting her eyes speculatively as she pulled out a capture ball and enlarged it. "We'll see about that."
Jason also pulled out and enlarged a capture ball.
They threw the balls into the arena at the same time.
Leslie's revealed a Murkrow.
Jason's revealed a Charizard.
Leslie was on the offensive immediately. "Murkrow, Faint Attack!"
"Charizard, Fly!"
As Charizard moved to execute the two-turn maneuver, Jason wondered if it was such a good idea. He was putting Charizard at Murkrow's mercy for one of those two turns, and without knowing Murkrow's speed, that could mean the entire match.
The question was which turn it would take.
Murkrow began to match Charizard for rate of ascent, but then it vanished from view. It reappeared a moment later, bashing its curved beak between Charizard's wings.
"It occurs to me," said Leslie, almost casual and certainly flippant, "that a trainer in a wheelchair wouldn't know anything about speed, and so neither would his Pokemon."
Jason glared. "Then a blonde wouldn't know anything about anything. Charizard, complete the attack!"
Charizard was upon Murkrow almost before it had time to blink. Murkrow had been flying around in a rather cocky manner, but it stopped as soon as it saw the huge bulk that was Charizard barreling straight for it.
Murkrow was smacked to the side and barely able to keep itself aloft.
"Now, follow up with a Flamethrower attack!"
Charizard's response was instantaneous; a stream of liquid fire sprayed from its mouth almost uncontrollably, such was its desire to prove Leslie wrong. The sidewise pillar of fire flash-burned the top of Murkrow's head, and embers shot off to catch its leg and wing. It squawked in protest.
Leslie's face clouded over. "Tough guy, huh? Take this! Murkrow, Drill Peck!"
Murkrow's beak suddenly flattened out and seemed to sharpen before it began to twist around and around... a seemingly impossible ability to possess, but for Pokemon, nearly anything was possible, and so it was with Murkrow. Its beak whirred around in the manner of a drill bit, and it charged forward and stabbed at Charizard with the suddenly extremely deadly protrusion.
Fortunately, Charizard's skin was not so soft as to allow entry of the beak into its flesh, but that didn't stop Murkrow from trying. It dug in and caused Charizard to growl with something below extreme pain, yet above discomfort.
"Charizard, use Fire Blast!"
The innards of Charizard's mouth began to glow with white hot flames licking up from its throat.
Leslie squinted and grinned. "Murkrow, Night Shade!"
Murkrow suddenly backed off from its last attack and psychically called for night to be cast around the entire arena. Charizard was abruptly, violently knocked backward by a flash of blazing bright darkness. It's wings flapped less frequently, not so much concerned with staying aloft as with recovering.
But it returned the favor with its last command, Fire Blast. The character symbol flared across the ring and consumed Murkrow in a raging inferno.
Murkrow squawked in defiance, but its defiance was short-winded. It dropped below the emitted imagery cast by the projectors on the floor.
Leslie growled the recall and managed to hit Murkrow with the vacuum beam even through the illusion. She looked up. "Well, it seems you do indeed know a thing or two about speed. But can you handle this?"
She tossed her second and final capture ball of the match.
A Skarmory appeared.
Jason could now see why Leslie had chosen Murkrow first; Skarmory had a weakness to fire. But against a weakened and slowed Charizard, it stood a much greater chance of knocking its opponent out of the simulated sky.
And he wasn't sure if he liked his backup plan.
But he'd have to go with it now.
"Skarmory, Steel Wing attack!"
Skarmory immediately swooped in and slapped at Charizard with its six metallic wings. The assault was swift and vicious, and it didn't look as if Charizard could take much more damage.
Skarmory took to powerful flight, flapping its wings so quickly that they were a blur against the projected clouds. It glared down at Charizard from its higher position.
Jason deigned to try anyway. "Charizard, Flamethrower!"
Again, a ribbon of flame burst across the distance between the two warring Pokemon. It splashed against Skarmory's left wings, but didn't catch any more substance than that.
Leslie snorted. "You'll have to try harder than that. You may have the type advantage, but I'm all over you when it comes to speed this time around. Skarmory, Swift attack!"
Skarmory beat its wings forcefully against the artificial wind and pinpricks of light shot out from them, striking Charizard across its full length.
Charizard roared in defiance, flapping its wings even harder to stay aloft...
...but then it dropped below the holograms across the floor of the gym.
Jason didn't waste time exchanging his Pokemon. "Charizard, return! Go, Fearow!"
Fearow appeared in a spray of neon light, ready to battle.
"Quickly, Fearow, Drill Peck!"
Instantly, Fearow rocketed forward, its beak twisting impossibly to resemble a drill. It bored straight through Skarmory's defenses and into its metal skin, causing a shower of sparks and a highly pained, highly irate opponent.
"Follow it up with a Swift attack of your own!"
"Skarmory, Steel Wing!"
The two bird Pokemon circled each other, then made their moves as one. Skarmory blasted in with its razor-sharp wings, ready to reduce Fearow to so much mince meat.
Fearow sprayed Skarmory with spikes of light.
The attacks didn't stop either one from passing the other in the air.
They both stopped after moving about ten meters away from each other.
Fearow squawked and beat its wings defiantly.
Skarmory squawked...
...and hit the floor.
Leslie groaned. "You poor baby. Return."
She glanced up at Jason. There was a scowl on her otherwise faultless face. "You've won, but don't think I'm happy about it."
Jason shook his head. "I wouldn't expect you to be."
"I sure hope not. There are a lot of trainers out there who've gone out of their way to make an atrocious finish to their battles. I've almost gotten to hate battling."
"Why?"
Suddenly, the look in her eyes changed from one of anger to one of sorrow. "We gym leaders are restricted to the boats during our careers. We can't even set foot on land, much less 'see the world' as you trainers do. We aren't even allowed to pursue... personal... relationships with others."
Jason frowned. "Then why stay a gym leader?"
She shook her head. "I shouldn't tell you."
He hesitated, then said, "What if you were to consider the wager money null and void in exchange for that information?"
She looked up and frowned. "Why do you want to know about it so much?"
"Because I'm human, and believe it or not, I do care about my fellow humans. If there's trouble, I want to know how I can avoid it, or how others can."
She stared at him for a moment, touched by his insistence.
Then she nodded. "Fine. Half the wager money."
"Done. Now, why are you still a gym leader, if you want to pursue relationships?"
And as she spoke...
Jason Creight listened on.
To Be Continued
It wasn't the horn of the Colossal.
Jason knew exactly what ship it was.
It was the Insurmountable. The second ship of the series.
He opened his eyes and saw darkness reigning in his room. No surprise there; the docking had been planned to take place at night. And the Atlantis ships were nothing if not punctual.
Jason reached over to the bedside table and grabbed his PokeGear, to see that it was almost 2:30 in the morning.
"Good," he muttered. "They're right on time. Punctual, indeed."
He began wrestling himself out of bed. He knew that the docking procedures would take about half an hour, and then the population of the Colossal would move to the Insurmountable. The only ones aboard the Insurmountable were crew; they'd docked with the third ship in the series some time back already.
Kelly was also up, awakened by the horn as Jason was, and for a few moments she watched Jason fumble out of bed and into his wheelchair. He was already wearing the pants he'd planned to wear during the transition, saving him the trouble of having to get into them at the last minute.
In fact, their things were already packed, save for the change of clothes they'd planned out for themselves. They'd both known that the Colossal would dock tonight, of course. They were both excited by the prospect, perhaps Jason more so than Kelly, but that was natural; Kelly wasn't participating in the Atlantis League, whereas Jason was.
Jason grabbed his black sweatshirt and matching vest, pausing for a moment to eye the Shadow badge hanging on the inside of the vest.
He grinned. Battling Darth had been every bit as tough as Adam had let on, but he'd succeeded with a little luck and a lot of experience.
Gyarados, too.
"Think we should call Adam to see if he's awake yet?" Kelly asked.
Jason waved the notion away as he pulled on his shirt. "He's probably already up and ready to--"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Jason was interrupted by a soft rapping on their door.
"--go," he finished.
He wheeled over to the door and opened it, to be greeted by Adam.
"Speak of the devil," Jason said, smiling. "Come on in."
"Thanks,:" Adam responded, accepting Jason's invitation. He carried a light backpack on his shoulders; he was obviously one who believed in economy of size. "Thought I might drop by to see if you guys were ready yet. Guess not."
"Not quite," Jason admitted, "but close enough. We're packed, we're just not properly attired yet."
"I'll say," said Kelly, hiding under the sheets of her bed as she got herself dressed. "You've got a knack for subtlety, Jason."
Adam shook his head, grinning.
"So, think this new ship'll feel any different?" Jason asked, as he pulled on his capture ball belt.
"Dunno. The blueprints are the same, but maybe it'll have something different to it. But I wouldn't know, since I've never been on these ships before."
Jason shrugged. "Then we'll just have to find out when we get there."
"I won't have a lot of time to get the feel of the Insurmountable, though. My gym battle's scheduled for tomorrow afternoon."
"That early?" Jason was surprised.
"Yeah. I was one of the very first to get a ticket for this trip. Bought it last year. I was too late to buy tickets for last year's trip, so I bought them for this year instead. Been looking forward to this trip for a long time."
"And now you're here," Kelly responded, emerging from the covers of her bed.
"So I am. And I plan to enjoy myself."
"What? You haven't been?" Jason chuckled.
"Of course I have. And I've been enjoying it with good company. What else can I ask for?"
They had spent nearly two months aboard the Colossal now. They had challenged other trainers, and they had been challenged by other trainers. Even Kelly had gotten into the spirit, participating in a battle or two. All three of them had had their triumphs and losses aboard this ship, all for gaining experience and having some fun.
True, it might be less than fun for the Pokemon, and especially those that lost. But it was all done good-naturedly, and they considered themselves all the better for the experience. Even the Pokemon were upbeat.
Jason briefly recalled his battle with Darth. Adam had honored the Atlantis League rule to not reveal the Pokemon carried by gym leaders, and not to discuss it with anyone. Jason felt they were keeping an unnecessary secret. They'd both battled Darth now, and they'd both received their badges fairly.
Jason kept a small journal file in his Pokedex to give the barest of info on Darth. Gym leader name, gym leader's revealed Pokemon, and location of the gym were all he was concerned with. He wanted to remember that, at least.
Jason had looked up the rules for himself, and indeed, Adam was bound by those rules not to reveal the Pokemon. And now, so was he. However, the one exception was Pokemon professors. They had apparently proven their trustworthiness to the Atlantis League, though how this came to be so was a mystery to Jason. He didn't really care, though; he'd have something new to give to Professor Oak.
He picked up his pack and set it across his lap. Then he looked up at Adam. "Well, you ready to go?"
Adam shrugged. "I'm ready whenever she is." He gestured vaguely in Kelly's direction.
"And I'm ready right now," she said, picking up her own pack. "So let's get going."
***
The boarding took little time, as it turned out, and soon, the trio had gone to their cabins to retire for the rest of the night.
Jason and Kelly were asleep by 5:00 in the morning.
And Adam was still wide awake.
He sat on his bed, his titanium prosthetics discarded almost carelessly on the floor next to the bed. The stump of his left leg moved back and forth idly, his poetry notebook sitting next to the stump. Lying on top of it was his pen, and the notebook was open to the last page in which he had written.
Adam believed he was developing a good relationship with Jason and Kelly. Even as stoic as he had been in the past, he would be the first to admit that their friendship was blossoming nicely.
Still, he was worried.
Worried that he was concentrating more on Kelly than on Jason.
He'd idolized Jason, and he'd set his standards according to those that Jason seemed to have set for himself. He'd trained as hard and as well as he could.
He'd lived throughout his training in the hopes that someday he would be able to equal, perhaps even surpass Jason.
And here he was now, as a direct result of that victory over Jason and his vaunted abilities as a trainer.
What did that leave Adam?
It left him nothing else to live up to. No expectations to rise above, no aspirations to someday meet.
He was his own trainer now.
Suddenly, he very much wished that he hadn't beaten Jason that day.
And now the worst was happening to him because he had.
Adam had no idea how to combat these new feelings. He didn't like being mentally aroused by Jason's girlfriend.
*Jason's* girlfriend.
He'd told himself that phrase over and over again. He'd made it as much a part of his conscious thoughts as he could, then tried to bury those thoughts with reflections on training, possible techniques against future Atlantis League trainers, and more poetry.
But every time he came back to that last page, he rankled at the final entry.
For others, it could be just any girl he was talking about.
But he knew the truth.
It was Kelly he'd written about.
Ever since the night he'd written those four lines, he'd felt the drive to write intensify a thousandfold. His inspiration was growing exponentially.
And all of it involved a single, central theme.
A girl so stunning it almost hurt to see her.
A girl so intelligent and quick-witted it boggled the mind to talk to her.
Namely...
Kelly.
Adam ran a hand through his blond hair, which had by this time grown out to more than twice the length it had been when he'd first met Jason. His darker roots were in evidence now, and he was having to wash it much more thoroughly to get it as clean as he wanted it. It was also becoming a bigger hassle to manage; it kept catching in his comb.
It occurred to him how much his hair and his new thoughts had in common.
He resolved to get himself a haircut after the gym battle. Maybe, by getting a haircut, he could also somehow carve out a second chance for himself, a chance that involved getting to know Jason and Kelly equally.
He sighed, put his notebook and pen away, and tried to sleep.
***
A month came and went. Adam got his chance to battle, and received a new badge for his efforts. Jason didn't need to see the badge to know that Adam had won it; it was the look of gratification on the boy's face that had tipped him off when they'd met for dinner the evening after that battle.
The haircut also seemed to give something away, too, although Jason wasn't quite sure what.
None of them were bored unless they wanted to be. There was simply too much to do to have a good excuse to be bored. There were video game arcades, open "come-one-come-all" challenges to the general trainer public, dance halls, even a movie theater for those who wanted to keep up on recent releases.
The evening of Jason's battle, he and Kelly sat in their cabin in silence. Both were reading. Kelly was reading a mystery novel, while Jason was keeping up with the latest Pokemon discoveries, no matter how mundane.
Kelly turned to Jason. "Have you noticed anything strange about Adam recently?"
"No," said Jason, not even looking up. "Not unless you think hanging on our heels like a hyperactive Eevee is strange."
"Has he been doing that to you?"
"Hasn't he been doing to you, too?"
"No," she responded matter-of-factly. "He seems to have gone out of his way to avoid me, and I was just wondering if he might have told you why."
Jason looked up and frowned. "That's weird. He's done all he can to learn as much as he can about me. I've told him all I've felt like telling him, and then some. He's real persistent."
"I hope it's not something about me he doesn't like," she said. "I mean, I'm trying my best to be courteous and polite to him, but he just keeps pulling away. Do you think he doesn't like me for some reason?"
Jason scoffed. "What's not to like? You're funny, intelligent, pretty, and you train and study Pokemon. More likely it's jealousy."
"What would he have to be jealous of?"
Jason laid his manual pages-down across his lap and beagn ticking off his fingers. "Well, for starters, you're the only one of the three of us that can walk by natural means. You're a Pokemon researcher, so that means you probably know more about Pokemon than he does. You're not obligated to participate in the Atlantis League, and you don't feel obligated, either, as you're not aspiring to be a Pokemon master. Not last time I checked, anyway." He stopped. "Are you?"
She shook her head. "Not since I met you all those years ago. I wanted to watch, to study more than participate, and I came to realize that when we met."
He nodded appreciatively. He liked being right. "Okay, then. Next-- "
There was a soft knock at the door.
Kelly got up and answered, to see Adam standing there with a very awkward expression on his face. "Hey, Kelly."
She smiled. "Hey. Jason and I were just talking about you."
Adam winced. "Ooh. With that grin, I hope it's all lies." He paused for a moment and took on a more serious composure. "Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you out here."
She shrugged. "Sure. What about?"
He didn't respond; he simply gestured for her to come out to the deck.
Curious, she exited the cabin, closed the door behind her, and took a seat on the protective railing. Her long brown hair waved in the slight ocean breeze.
Adam rubbed at the back of his neck, then bowed his head and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. He was clearly nervous. Kelly cocked her head to the side. "Something wrong?"
He shook his head quickly. "No, no, nothing wrong. I... I just wanted to ask you something. Since there aren't any spectators allowed to watch Jason battle, I thought that with him gone you might be a little lonely. So I was wondering if you might like to come with me to the forward dance hall while he's battling. It'd only be for a little while."
She half-smiled. "You're asking me on a date?"
He waved his hands around emphatically. "No, no! I'm just asking a friend if she'd like to spend some time with me. It just occurs to me that I haven't really tried all that hard to get to know you, and I think I'd like to."
A bit of a smile returned to his features. "Call it what you want. Would you like to go?"
She gave it only a moment's thought.
"Absolutely."
***
Jason looked up as Kelly came back inside the cabin. "So what was all that about?"
She shook her head and grinned a skeptical grin. "I think he likes me more than we thought. He just asked me to the dance hall with him tonight."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yeah." Kelly sat down on her bed.
"What did you say?"
"I said yes." She looked at him. "I hope you're okay with it."
"Depends. You said tonight, does that mean during my battle?"
"Yeah."
Jason nodded. "Then I'm okay with it. I'm... sort of surprised at the audacity, but I'm all right with it." He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It'll get him off my back and give you a chance to get to know him."
"That's what he said." She sighed out her nose and glanced around the room, perhaps out of exasperation. "He's so confusing sometimes! First he's pushing me away as far as he can, then he's asking me out? And when I've already got a boyfriend?"
"Well, how exactly did he put it?"
"He put it along the lines of 'A way to get to know him better.'"
"Then just think of it that way. If he wasn't asking you out on a 'date', per se, don't take it that way. Otherwise you'll be bogging yourself down in what-ifs and whys. You said yes; it's been done. So just go with it and see where it leads you."
She half-smiled. "You're encouraging me to go on a journey I'm not sure I want to go on."
"Deja vu."
"I guess." She paused a moment, then asked, "Seriously, are you okay with it?"
Jason's face contorted just slightly. "I'll confess to feeling a bit... put out. Excluded. Adam's asking you to the one place aboard this ship I'm least likely to visit."
"Oh? How's that?" Kelly asked.
Jason glanced over at his empty wheelchair.
And suddenly Kelly felt a pang of guilt for even having to ask.
For a long time now, she'd looked beyond the anorexic legs and even the chair. She saw only Jason, not his disability.
But there were things she was sorry that they might never experience. Standing next to each other, walking a path, seeing each other eye to eye on her level.
Dancing.
She looked down at her shoes.
Jason sighed. "Look, just go with him. Get to know him. I think you'll have a good time. He's great to hang around with."
Kelly looked up and smiled. "All right. I'll do it."
***
The doors to the gym were large, nearly five meters tall. They were built to intimidate the hardiest of trainers.
They didn't intimidate Jason. He'd seen bigger. True, he'd been intimidated by those, but after seeing so many, he was used to it.
But when he enteres those gargantuan doors, he was baffled by the innards of the room.
Because it didn't look like a room at all.
The walls, ceiling, and floor of this particular gym had been outfitted with holographic projectors. Those projectors were active, and they displayed vibrant blues, reds, and purples, with grayish matter interspered bewteen the bands of neon color.
Jason realized that the projectors were projecting a sky.
He looked down at his wheels, to see that the bottoms of the treads on his wheels were under the projection cast by the floor, thus making his treads look as though they'd disappeared into thin air.
"So. Another challenger."
The holograms covering the far wall near the corner suddenly melted around an emerging form, then retreated to reveal a young, spry-looking woman with wavy blond hair and purple eyes glowing with contentment and mischief.
*This can only be Leslie, the next gym leader,* Jason thought. He gave her a once-over; she wore black shorts, a black tank top, and a purple jacket hanging open, revealing a very fit form.
Jason chose not to appraise her figure. He'd come to battle, and battle he would.
A small smile passed over her features. "I've heard of you. You're Jason Creight, the vaunted wheelchair-bound trainer who beat the Indigo League."
He nodded slightly. "Yes."
Leslie reached behind her to the wall and hit a control hidden by the holograms. She turned back to Jason and started walking to her left. "Well, I think it's only fair to tell you, Mr. Jason Creight, that I'm no pushover."
Two platforms made themselves visible just above the holograms on the floor, one at either end of the gym. Leslie was apparently heading for the platform on her end.
Jason followed suit and smiled grimly. "Neither am I."
She returned the grin and exaggerated it by squinting her eyes speculatively as she pulled out a capture ball and enlarged it. "We'll see about that."
Jason also pulled out and enlarged a capture ball.
They threw the balls into the arena at the same time.
Leslie's revealed a Murkrow.
Jason's revealed a Charizard.
Leslie was on the offensive immediately. "Murkrow, Faint Attack!"
"Charizard, Fly!"
As Charizard moved to execute the two-turn maneuver, Jason wondered if it was such a good idea. He was putting Charizard at Murkrow's mercy for one of those two turns, and without knowing Murkrow's speed, that could mean the entire match.
The question was which turn it would take.
Murkrow began to match Charizard for rate of ascent, but then it vanished from view. It reappeared a moment later, bashing its curved beak between Charizard's wings.
"It occurs to me," said Leslie, almost casual and certainly flippant, "that a trainer in a wheelchair wouldn't know anything about speed, and so neither would his Pokemon."
Jason glared. "Then a blonde wouldn't know anything about anything. Charizard, complete the attack!"
Charizard was upon Murkrow almost before it had time to blink. Murkrow had been flying around in a rather cocky manner, but it stopped as soon as it saw the huge bulk that was Charizard barreling straight for it.
Murkrow was smacked to the side and barely able to keep itself aloft.
"Now, follow up with a Flamethrower attack!"
Charizard's response was instantaneous; a stream of liquid fire sprayed from its mouth almost uncontrollably, such was its desire to prove Leslie wrong. The sidewise pillar of fire flash-burned the top of Murkrow's head, and embers shot off to catch its leg and wing. It squawked in protest.
Leslie's face clouded over. "Tough guy, huh? Take this! Murkrow, Drill Peck!"
Murkrow's beak suddenly flattened out and seemed to sharpen before it began to twist around and around... a seemingly impossible ability to possess, but for Pokemon, nearly anything was possible, and so it was with Murkrow. Its beak whirred around in the manner of a drill bit, and it charged forward and stabbed at Charizard with the suddenly extremely deadly protrusion.
Fortunately, Charizard's skin was not so soft as to allow entry of the beak into its flesh, but that didn't stop Murkrow from trying. It dug in and caused Charizard to growl with something below extreme pain, yet above discomfort.
"Charizard, use Fire Blast!"
The innards of Charizard's mouth began to glow with white hot flames licking up from its throat.
Leslie squinted and grinned. "Murkrow, Night Shade!"
Murkrow suddenly backed off from its last attack and psychically called for night to be cast around the entire arena. Charizard was abruptly, violently knocked backward by a flash of blazing bright darkness. It's wings flapped less frequently, not so much concerned with staying aloft as with recovering.
But it returned the favor with its last command, Fire Blast. The character symbol flared across the ring and consumed Murkrow in a raging inferno.
Murkrow squawked in defiance, but its defiance was short-winded. It dropped below the emitted imagery cast by the projectors on the floor.
Leslie growled the recall and managed to hit Murkrow with the vacuum beam even through the illusion. She looked up. "Well, it seems you do indeed know a thing or two about speed. But can you handle this?"
She tossed her second and final capture ball of the match.
A Skarmory appeared.
Jason could now see why Leslie had chosen Murkrow first; Skarmory had a weakness to fire. But against a weakened and slowed Charizard, it stood a much greater chance of knocking its opponent out of the simulated sky.
And he wasn't sure if he liked his backup plan.
But he'd have to go with it now.
"Skarmory, Steel Wing attack!"
Skarmory immediately swooped in and slapped at Charizard with its six metallic wings. The assault was swift and vicious, and it didn't look as if Charizard could take much more damage.
Skarmory took to powerful flight, flapping its wings so quickly that they were a blur against the projected clouds. It glared down at Charizard from its higher position.
Jason deigned to try anyway. "Charizard, Flamethrower!"
Again, a ribbon of flame burst across the distance between the two warring Pokemon. It splashed against Skarmory's left wings, but didn't catch any more substance than that.
Leslie snorted. "You'll have to try harder than that. You may have the type advantage, but I'm all over you when it comes to speed this time around. Skarmory, Swift attack!"
Skarmory beat its wings forcefully against the artificial wind and pinpricks of light shot out from them, striking Charizard across its full length.
Charizard roared in defiance, flapping its wings even harder to stay aloft...
...but then it dropped below the holograms across the floor of the gym.
Jason didn't waste time exchanging his Pokemon. "Charizard, return! Go, Fearow!"
Fearow appeared in a spray of neon light, ready to battle.
"Quickly, Fearow, Drill Peck!"
Instantly, Fearow rocketed forward, its beak twisting impossibly to resemble a drill. It bored straight through Skarmory's defenses and into its metal skin, causing a shower of sparks and a highly pained, highly irate opponent.
"Follow it up with a Swift attack of your own!"
"Skarmory, Steel Wing!"
The two bird Pokemon circled each other, then made their moves as one. Skarmory blasted in with its razor-sharp wings, ready to reduce Fearow to so much mince meat.
Fearow sprayed Skarmory with spikes of light.
The attacks didn't stop either one from passing the other in the air.
They both stopped after moving about ten meters away from each other.
Fearow squawked and beat its wings defiantly.
Skarmory squawked...
...and hit the floor.
Leslie groaned. "You poor baby. Return."
She glanced up at Jason. There was a scowl on her otherwise faultless face. "You've won, but don't think I'm happy about it."
Jason shook his head. "I wouldn't expect you to be."
"I sure hope not. There are a lot of trainers out there who've gone out of their way to make an atrocious finish to their battles. I've almost gotten to hate battling."
"Why?"
Suddenly, the look in her eyes changed from one of anger to one of sorrow. "We gym leaders are restricted to the boats during our careers. We can't even set foot on land, much less 'see the world' as you trainers do. We aren't even allowed to pursue... personal... relationships with others."
Jason frowned. "Then why stay a gym leader?"
She shook her head. "I shouldn't tell you."
He hesitated, then said, "What if you were to consider the wager money null and void in exchange for that information?"
She looked up and frowned. "Why do you want to know about it so much?"
"Because I'm human, and believe it or not, I do care about my fellow humans. If there's trouble, I want to know how I can avoid it, or how others can."
She stared at him for a moment, touched by his insistence.
Then she nodded. "Fine. Half the wager money."
"Done. Now, why are you still a gym leader, if you want to pursue relationships?"
And as she spoke...
Jason Creight listened on.
To Be Continued
