"Cody! Wait up!" Screeched Max. He ran haphazardly down the hall, rushing to keep up with his newfound friend. The halls were crowded since a lot of kids were rushing to get first dibs on school lunch. He jumped up to get a better look. Cody was still a few feet and several people away. He ducked under a few arms and managed to catch up to Cody. The slight brown haired boy walked easily down the corridor, with no problem at all, unlike Max that had looked like he was trying to run a triathlon to get to him. "I finally caught up to you," he wheezed.
Cody grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I promised a friend I'd save us some seats."
"It's ok. Where is the cafeteria anyway?"
"Just a little farther." They reached a wall of multiple double doors. "Here we are." Cody led him inside, this time slower so Max would be able to keep up. He claimed a seat by the window and tossed his book bag down on it. Max seated himself on the other side.
"So, where's the lunch line?" asked Max. The other boy pointed to a line off to the side. "Uh, are you sure? The line looks kind of small."
"Most kids bring their lunches," said Cody. To demonstrate he pulled out his plastic container lunch and box of juice.
"That's weird. At home most of us bought lunch." Max scratched his head.
"Cody!" Max and Cody turned towards the voice. A girl around their age was running up to them. She had long brown hair with two green hairclips pinning them in twin ponytails and was dressed in blue flares with a green tank top. She waved at them. "Great! You got the window seat!" She eyed Max. "Hi! Max right?"
"Uh, yeah. You're in our class, right?"
"Yup. I sit behind Cody and you during homeroom. I'm Ikari Jinjo." she stuck out her hand. Max eyed the purple glitter nail polish before shaking it.
"Uh, I'm Max Fernando...er, Fernando Max. Whatever." Jinjo grinned at him.
"Where were you anyway?" asked Cody. "You were late to homeroom."
"Oh, well, I had a gymnastics team practice before school and the girls' locker room door was stuck." explained Jinjo.
Cody grinned at Max. "Jinjo's on a dozen different teams."
"I must concur, not a dozen," corrected Jinjo. "That's an exaggeration."
"Sure Jinny, sure." teased Cody.
"Hey! Only Sefie can call me Jinny," protested Jinjo. "I will definitely not tolerate it from you!" she stuck her tongue out at him.
Max inched back from the pair. "Uh, I'm going to get lunch now." he stood up but hesitated. "Uh, just tell me which one of these weird coins is 100 yen." he pulled out a few coins from his pocket.
"Don't worry about it Max," said Jinjo. "My treat, you being the new kid and all. I already got our lunch." She pulled out a plastic bag from her book bag. "I got here early and nabbed the best ones." she tossed a tuna sandwich at Max. He caught it, after it rebounded off his nose. "Chocolate or white?" she held up two milk boxes.
"Chocolate." Jinjo tossed it at him too, but this time he was ready and caught it.
The three dug into their lunches with Jinjo and Cody trading off stories of their weekend.
"So Sefie climbs up on the couch, hangs her father's sock on her ears and her brother's sock on her nose and yells 'Lookie I'm an elephant!' but she ended up collapsing from the smell." Jinjo screwed up her face. "Ieew, she forgot to check if they were clean before playing with them."
"Yuck, I feel bad for Sefie." laughed Max. "Whoever she is."
"She's a kid I sometimes baby-sit for." explained Jinjo. "Cody too, though not as much."
"Travis is the one who usually looks after her," said Cody. "He's this 8th grader we hang around with a lot. He's more or less Sefie's surrogate big brother. He's really nice; really cares for the poor kid."
"Her real brother's a yucky stinky head." scowled Jinjo. "He's a pesky dork who thinks he all that because he's in college. Baka."
"Yucky stinky head?" echoed Cody. Jinjo shrugged.
"So what did you do this weekend Cody?" asked Max.
Jinjo answered before Cody could. "He disappeared off the face of this planet and hung out with his older cooler friends."
"No I-" Cody frowned. "So what if I did?"
"You're always disappearing with them. What the heck do you do with them?" teased Jinjo.
"Nothing illegal, I assure you," said Cody. "She's talking about the kids I was walking with this morning. I've known them for a long time, that's all. Don't think that I think they're cooler than you Jinjo."
"Oh I think they're cooler, but I wont take it personally," grinned Jinjo.
A sudden beeping interrupted the camaraderie. Cody slapped at his belt and looked at a hand held device. It looked like a walkie-talkie, with a small digital screen, stubby antenna, and yellow handgrips. A message flashed across the screen that Jinjo and Max couldn't see." My...uh, beeper." Cody stood up. "I'll be right back. I have to make a phone call." he rushed towards the exit of the cafeteria.
"He's always doing that. Rushing off like that." said Jinjo with a sigh.
"You mean like superman?"
"Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a double life." Jinjo tipped her milk carton on the table. Not a drop was left. "So Max, you just moved here?"
"Yeah."
"Do you like it here?"
Max shrugged. "I don't know. I guess. I don't know. I've only been here two days." He made a face. "I can barely speak Japanese. I'm lucky though. Our teacher felt sorry for me and she's letting me do part of my homework in English."
"That's cool." nodded Jinjo. I know how you feel. I'm a navy brat."
Max scowled at her. "You don't look like a brat to me."
Jinjo sweat dropped. "Uh, I meant that I move around a lot."
"I knew that."
"Of course you did." Patronized Jinjo. "Anyway, my mom and dad are in the military."
"What do they do?"
"Err," Jinjo rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, I...actually, to tell you the truth, I don't really know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" demanded Max. "They're your parents. You have to know."
"Not exactly," said Jinjo. "See, what they do is kinda top secret. They can't really tell me too much, and I can't tell anyone too much. All I know is that they're with some obscure government agency and a lot of it is hush hush. Oh, I also know they're pilots."
"Of what?"
"I don't know," said Jinjo. "It's really annoying, not knowing you know?" She shook her head. "Where was my point? Oh yeah. Cuz they're all-important and stuff, we have to move around a lot. I was born in Tokyo but when I was 4, I think, we moved to Germany. Then when I was six we went to America. After that we moved to Australia for a year then China. Then I think we ended up back in Tokyo but we got transferred here to Odaiba."
"Wow, that's a lot."
"Yeah, tell me about it." said Jinjo.
"So, you know English, Japanese, Chinese, and German?"
"Yup. So each time I went to a different school under a different language, I went nuts trying to learn it."
"That's really cool," said Max in awe. Somehow, his situation didn't seem as bad, but Jinjo seemed to be okay with it.
"Where did you say you moved from?" asked Jinjo.
"Uh, from the Kanto Islands."
Jinjo's eyes went wide and she coughed up some milk. "What? But that's government restricted."
"A little."
"That sure beats Germany and America," muttered Jinjo. She leaned forward eagerly. "Hey Max, tell me something, why is it restricted?"
Max frowned. "Uh, well...Lets just say we have a lot of different...' He racked his brain for one of the fancy terms his sisters threw about when explaining the Pokémon islands. "Exotic species of animals."
"Oh, so they're minimizing contamination?" asked Jinjo.
"Er, yeah." Too many big words.
"What kind of animals?" asked Jinjo.
Max scratched his head and remembered the lecture Monahan gave him before boarding the plane to Japan. He wasn't really supposed to say anything. "Oh, uh...
Luckily, Cody returned to the table. "Sorry about that."
"Don't tell me," said Jinjo, mocking seriousness. "Another crisis."
"You could say that." Cody fidgeted, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to tell his friends the truth.
"Did I ever mention that I hate gym?" asked Max.
"Several times." Confirmed Jinjo. She Cody and Max were following their class out onto the athletic field to play soccer, much to Max's dismay. It's not like he wasn't good at it, which he so forcefully proclaimed, but he just wasn't his thing.
"What now?" asked Max.
Cody looked around. "We have to wait until the other classes get here."
"Huh?"
"The JH combines the elementary school classes with ours." Explained Jinjo. "It's supposed to give the little kids experience with kids of different ages, and us an opportunity to develop leadership skills and to learn to look out for each other, especially the younger ones."
"Well put Jin." Laughed Cody. "Seriously, all they want to do is free up some time for elementary school teachers for coffee breaks. It's for." He made quote marks in the air. "The psychological wellness of the teachers."
Jinjo huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Well, it's my theory, alright?"
"Theories." Muttered Cody. "The only theories I'll listen to are Izzy's, at least they make sense."
"Who's Izzy?" asked Max.
"He was one of the kids I was walking with earlier. He has matted down red-brown hair, and was talking with the girl with the purple hair. He's a major computer nut. He's really cool. He's kind of my mentor in a way." Explained Cody.
"Computers, huh?" Said Max. "My sis would love to hear that. She's a major computer freak."
"Nuh uh." Said Jinjo. "Phreak, not freak. P. H. "
"Does it Matter?"
"Yes!" yelled Jinjo. "Say it with some respect!"
Cody sweat dropped. "Don't mind her."
Jinjo was about to retort when Max pointed over their shoulders. "Hey, here come the littler kids."
A party of eight year olds paraded out lined up in size order. One of them, a short girl with flipped out black hair, and a yellow jumper waved to them excitedly. "That's Sefie." Explained Cody. "Another one of our little school hangout group. She's an all right kid, a bit hyper and happy go lucky, but that's ok."
When it came to Jinjo's turn to select another teammate she made a big show of tapping her chin and considering all of the other kids, deliberately not looking at Sefie. She pouted and whined. "Jinnnnnyyyy…."
The older girl laughed then beckoned at the girl with a flick of a wrist. "C'mon Sefie."
"Yay!" cried Sefie. She skipped across the field with a giant grin on her face. "Super duper mega cool!" Sefie gave Jinjo a hug around her waist. "Hiee Jin-Jin!" She detached herself from Jinjo's waist and latched onto Cody's leg. "Cody! CodyCodyCodyCody!"
Cody pried her off his leg and patted her head. "Hey Sefie."
Sefie giggled then looked around. "Ooh," she said, her eyes locking on Max's. "Good witch or bad witch?"
"Huh?"
Cody leaned his elbow on Max's shoulder. "This is Max. He just transferred into our school from the Kanto islands."
"The what islands?"
"Forget it." Groaned Max.
Sefie looked around. "Hey! Where's Travis?"
Jinjo shrugged. "I dunno. I don't think his class came out yet."
"Who's Travis?" asked Max. He was meeting a lot of people today.
"He's yet another one of our little group." Explained Jinjo. He's a 7th grader, so we don't get to seem him a lot during school except for Gym."
"He's my aniki!" piped Sefie.
"Your what?"
"You're flip, right?" asked Jinjo.
"Flip? What?"
"Filipino, right?"
"Yeah."
"Aniki's the same as your Kuya, except not blood related." Said Jinjo.
"Enough with the linguistics Jinjo." Said Cody. "He's over there." He pointed.
A tall 7th grader with dark blue hair was facing off some sixth grader for the soccer ball. He was wearing gray windbreaker pants and a dark red shirt with the capsule corp. logo stenciled on it.
"Let's go!" Jinjo yanked Max and Cody's arms and dragged them towards Travis. "Travis!"
The boy turned around and waved. "Hey guys." Sefie pounced at him. "Oof, nice to see you too Sefie." He, Cody and Jinjo traded weird complicated high fives. He looked at Max. "Hey."
"Uh, hi."
"You're new, right? I'm Travis. "He held out his hand.
"I know." Max stared at the offered hand; he awkwardly mimed the funky high five. Jinjo smothered a laugh behind her hand.
Ms. Hooch, their gym teacher, blew her whistle, starting the game. Travis and Jinjo kept the ball zipping around the field while Max stayed by the goal, ready to make the winning kick, plus it was the safest place, next to the goalie position. Travis, Cody and Jinjo kept the ball in play so much those positions had no action. Sefie already had that one covered. Soccer wasn't his favorite sport. Maybe video game soccer…
It was Sefie's turn in the field. "Lemmie get the ball Travis! I can get it in!" Travis glanced her and smiled.
"Get ready kid. Let'er rip!" he yelled. He trusted her, as long as he wasn't in the ball's path.
"Yay! Super duper mega-" She let loose a wild power kick at the ball, sending it flying across the field. It was heading out of bounds when Cody intercepted it five feet in the air.
"Hah!" Cody jump kicked the ball in a pure martial arts move at Travis, who had run down the field to help. "Yo Travis."
"Got it!" Travis ran at top speed, flipped into the air and kicked the ball. "Jinjo!"
"Yup!" Jinjo went to kick the ball into the goal when Sefie accidentally intercepted it and power kicked it again. It flew towards the goal. Sefie's eyes went wide. "Hey Max! Heads up!"
"Huh?" Max looked up just in time to see the ball careening towards him. "Ack!" The ball hit his hard head. Luckily for the ball, his head was angled so that the ball flew past the other team's goalie and into the goal.
"Yay yay!" yelled Jinjo. "You got it in! You did it Max! We won!"
Max held his head and tried to bat away the stars and birds flying around his head. "Uh. I did?" Darn birds…
"Sure did, man," Grinned Travis. "Good work."
"Uh, right." Said Max, shooing the last bird away.
"Thank goodness school's over." Said Cody. The two of them walked out of the school building. They had just finished their last class and were walking home. "I was going to burst if I heard another math equation."
"Same here." Agreed Max. "Hey, we're meeting Travis, Sefie and Jinjo right?"
"Yup." Said Cody. "Travis is picking up Sefie. See?" The two in question walked towards them. Actually, Travis was speeding at them on his skateboard while Sefie ran at his side.
"Cool." Suddenly, two hands grabbed at his head and covered his eyes. "Gwa!" he pulled at the hands, but they wouldn't budge. "Jinjo!" The hands released him and a sheepish looking Jinjo grinned at him.
"Gee, how'd ya know?"
"You're the only one missing.".
"Aw shucks." Said Jinjo, snapping her fingers.
"Hey, so what's our plans?" asked Sefie.
"I dunno." Said Travis. He skidded his board to a stop. "I don't have band practice, so I'm free."
"You're in a band?" asked Max.
"Sure am!" said Travis. "I just help out Matt a bit whenever he has gigs and needs a third guitarist."
"Just don't ask Travis to fix equipment." Stage whispered Jinjo. "He's got a bad rep for blowing them up."
"Not all the time." Protested Travis. "I only do it cuz Matt's a cool guy. I'd rather be skateboarding.
"Hey, wanna go to the arcade?" asked Jinjo. "I hear they have an arcade style PS3 hooked in. It looks real cool.""
"Kewl!" yelled Sefie "Let's go."
While walking, Jinjo tried to strike up conversation with the new kid. "So, Max, do you like video games?"
"Do I ever!" Yelled Max. "Ever play Tetris attack?"
"Yup. Mastered it in a day."
"Me too! How about Banjo-Tooie?"
"Yeah! Do ya play Mario tennis?"
"Who doesn't? That game sooo rocks!"
Travis, Sefie and Cody exchanged looks. "Here we go." Sighed Travis.
The two got into a heated argument about which was better, Banjo-Tooie or Banjo-Kazooie when a voice interrupted them. "Cody!"
"Huh?"
A boy in his late teens with spiked red-brown hair approached them. "Prodigious, I thought I'd find you here."
Cody mouthed a quick 'excuse me' to his friends then turned to the older boy. "What's going on Izzy?"
"We have a…computer club meeting." Said Izzy. "We've got something important to talk about."
"Trouble in the Digiworld?" whispered Cody. Izzy nodded. Cody turned back to his friends. "Sorry. Something important came up."
"Can we come?" asked Sefie, latching onto Izzy's leg. "Pweese?"
"Sorry." Said Izzy, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Next time. Important stuff."
"What kind of important stuff?" Sefie planted her hands on her hips and pouted.
"We are gathering to come to an agreement over an extremely important subject Matter in which an immediate decision must be made." Sefie blinked up at him.
"Huh?"
"We gotta talk 'bout important stuff that's gotta be settled ASAP."
"Oh."
Cody laughed. "Well, we have to go now, so I'll see you guys tomorrow, kay?"
"Yeah." They chorused.
Cody waved one last time before following Izzy.
"That's Izzy?" asked Max.
"Yup." Said Travis. "Legendary. He and his friends are known throughout the neighborhood for their antics. Uh, well-known to the kids who actually pay attention."
"Meaning us three." Said Jinjo. "Ever since, I think, six years ago, a lot of weird stuff has happened. Like monsters taking over."
"And mind controlling us." Said Travis.
"And don't forget the weird sky." Said Sefie.
"And the nuclear bomb threat." Added Jinjo.
Only one thing caught Max's attention. "Monsters?"
The three nodded. "Big ones," said Travis. "Not like Godzilla or whatever, but still freaky."
"Figure the kind you see in Final Fantasy." Said Jinjo.
"My sister loves that game." Said Max. Inside, his mind was yelling "Pokémon, Pokémon, Pokémon… Maybe it is possible." Aloud he said. "Do you know what they were called?"
"Not a clue." Said Sefie. "I asked Cody once, but he got real quiet. I bet he knows something we don't."
"Yup," said Travis, pulling back to the previous subject. "Whenever one of those monsters are around, Cody and his friends were always there. Before it used to be Cody's older friends, but he didn't know them yet. Now it's Cody and his younger friends." He scratched his head. "Uh, did that make sense?"
"Whoa," Muttered Max. He suddenly their walking had taken him to his apartment building. "Whoops. There's my apartment. See you guys later." He bounded up the steps of the building.
Max wandered into his room and threw his bag onto his bed. Like he was really going to do his homework that early, hah! He lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. If he were back in Kanto, he'd be training his Pokémon right about now. He wouldn't have nay homework either. He'd be hanging out with a few trainers or helping out at the labs with professor Hart. That was always a lot of fun. Max sighed. But he was stuck here, in Tokyo. Sure it was nice, he had made a bunch of new friends and he was picking up Japanese pretty quickly, sort of. It wasn't the same. And about what Travis, Jinjo and Sefie said about some kind of monsters. What were then? Were they real? Were they, gasp, Pokémon. Was there a chance of actually brining his Pokémon here? If they did it, so could he-
"Max…" called his mom.
"I know. I'm doing my homework!" yelled Max back. Pondering had to wait. He'd probably give Professor Monahan a call later. No, his dad found out about his little long distance call and prohibited him from making any more for a week. Maybe he'd ask his sister when she got home. He leapt off his bed and cracked open his books. "Agree or disagree…Yuck! Oh c'mon!"