III

Shiri gazed out the passenger side window of Ashton's car as the wall of deep green passed by them. They were taking the road which bypassed the Viridian Forest, a relatively new road which improved the commerce between Viridian and Pewter City. An upbeat synthy song played from Ashton's radio, coming out tinny from the cheap speakers.

The drive between Viridian and Pewter was only about twenty minutes. Shiri did not have her own car, however. She knew how to drive, but her job was within walking distance to her home, so she never felt the need for one. She would just borrow her mother's if she had need.

Shiri could have borrowed her mother's car for this trip; she had even suggested it. But the two of them had gotten into a small disagreement the evening before, and Shiri felt a little put out, so she had called up Ashton and asked if he could give her a ride.

She knew she had been in the wrong. Shiri had woken up around eight o'clock in the evening. Her mother had already had dinner but sat with Shiri and caught up with her. Shiri had mentioned the favor Joseph had asked of her.

"That sounds like a nice little break from the routine," Elise commented. "It's not a very long commute, but will you be reimbursed for travel costs?"

Shiri raised an eyebrow. It had never occurred to her to ask. "I don't know."

"You should find out," Elise said. "You'll be using significantly more energy to travel over to Pewter for the next few days."

"I doubt Joseph will agree to that," Shiri said noncommittally.

"You should at least inquire," Elise said, her tone a little shorter. "You really need to think about these things, hun." That was the phrase her mother used every time she was disappointed with something Shiri had done, and so Shiri shrugged off Elise's suggestion.

"Maybe I can just stay in Pewter," Shiri said offhand, her indignation growing.

"So you'll be looking at hotel costs," Elise responded. "That's going to be more costly than just commuting. That should really be reimbursed."

"It doesn't really matter," Shiri snapped. And that had been the end of it. Shiri had shut the conversation down, and she sunk into resentful silence the rest of the evening.

In the back seat, Ashton's pachirisu Patches scrambled between the two windows to watch the passing trees outside the window. She chattered happily, but the sound was irritating to Shiri.

"You okay, Shir?" Ashton asked, pulling Shiri from her thoughts. She realized she was slumped in her seat, so she made the effort to sit up correctly.

"Mostly," she answered, glancing at his profile. She noticed he had added a new ring to the collection along the cartilage of his ear. It hadn't been there when they last hung out a couple days ago. "You do that piercing yourself?"

"I did it the right way this time," he said, a grin on his lips. "This one ain't getting infected."

Shiri smiled, amused by Ashton's cocksure attitude. She watched as he ran a hand through his long dark hair, silky and straight as it fell between fingers with black-lacquered nails. She loved Ashton's alternative style. He was resourceful, and he could take almost any article of clothing and tear it and sew it and dye it until it looked like it was made just for him.

She glanced down to the fitted v-neck shirt he wore which he had strategically distressed in places. Safety pins were placed over the holes, not to hold them together, but for aesthetic purposes. She could see glimpses of the brown skin of his muscular chest, and she forced herself to gaze out the window again to avoid staring at her best friend like a piece of meat.

Shiri's mom had always wanted Shiri to pair up with Ashton, and truth be told, Shiri wanted it all the more. He was absolutely sexy, from his body to his style to the Johto accent he had. But Ashton was not a tree which Shiri could bark up.

"So you're going to stay in Pewter?" he asked. Shiri nodded. "You got hotel money?"

She had to force herself not to roll her eyes at the question. It was genuine, concerned. "I called the Pokémon Center there. It's been slow on gym challenges there too, so there's plenty of rooms. I asked if I could stay even though I'm not a trainer, and they said it would be fine as long as no real trainer needed a room. So, unless a sudden flood of trainers come through Pewter in the next three or so days, I should be fine."

"Sounds like a fine plan as any," he said with a chuckle. Shiri smiled again.

As they pulled into the city limits of Pewter, Shiri's mind flipped back to her encounter the day before. "Hey, Ash, did you encounter many ditto in your trainer days?"

He took a moment to think. "Not a ton," he answered. "They're tricky little shits, so you really don't see them often. Most kids can't really wrap their heads around that sort of strategy." He pulled into a small parking lot. Pewter was more of a walking city than Viridian these days, and the streets were narrow. "Why do you ask?"

"I saw a ditto yesterday," Shiri answered, her gaze distant as she replayed the fight between it and Simon's houndoom. Ashton gave her a quizzical look, which Shiri noticed only after a moment. She shook her head and smiled. "I just never see them. It was different."

Shiri got out of Ashton's old but reliable car and retrieved her backpack from the floor. Ashton got out as well and rounded the hood to scoop Shiri up in a hug. "You kick ass, you hear?"

Laughing, Shiri wrapped her arms around Ashton's slender waist. "It's not likely to be very eventful," she responded.

"Well, different place, different management. You never know what might happen." He grinned as they pulled away from each other. "And hey, if you want to raise hell up here a little later, just give me a call, yeah?"

"You know I will," Shiri said. She waved him off as he crawled back in his car and backed out of the parking lot. Shiri turned toward the walk which would take her to the Pewter City Poké Mart, her heart racing and her cheeks deep red.

Simon did his best to ignore the dull ache behind his eye as he walked into the Pewter City gym. A couple of drinks from a hole-in-the-wall Viridian City bar the night before sure hung on longer than Simon was used to. It was far from unbearable, but it was yet another reminder that he was not quite young anymore.

He was met in the gym stadium by the leader, Liam, who exuded youth from his very pores. The guy was maybe twenty at the oldest, having taken the gym over from Brock just a couple of years ago. Just as it had been in Galar, the Gym Challenge business in Kanto was the business of the young.

One thing Kanto had going for it, though, was the sport wasn't quite as commercialized. Not yet, anyway.

Liam greeted Simon with a friendly, open face and a smile that betrayed just a touch of arrogance. A perfect, if generic, persona for a gym leader. The cocksure youth, the stoic veteran, the wise elder. Simon had observed many of the well-worn cliches in gym leaders—and he had known their true personalities behind the scenes.

"Did Marlena give you any details?" Liam asked as he led Simon through the brightly-lit stadium toward an employee-only entrance near the back.

"The boss usually doesn't," Simon answered.

Liam didn't say anything until they had entered his office, a small but well-furnished room that looked down on the stadium. Simon imagined the young man didn't spend very much time there. It was cleaned, well-organized—almost unused. A sleek, almost new flat screen monitor and its black keyboard were the only items on the dark surface of the wooden desk.

At Liam's cue, Simon settled down into one of the plush-cushioned chairs arranged by the desk while the gym leader took his seat behind it. The arm rests of the chair dug into Simon's meaty thighs and hips, and he tried fruitlessly to find a position that was more comfortable.

"So," Liam said, tapping his fingers on the desk. He was nervous. The cocky persona had slipped a little. "I guess we're going to try a distribution here."

Simon forgot about the uncomfortable chair and sat forward. "When's it starting?"

"Today, really," Liam answered. "The promotional materials have already gone out. It's going to be an all-weekend thing."

"What are the terms, exactly?"

Liam blew out a breath, then tapped the space key on his keyboard. The light from the monitor showed on his smooth face as he gazed at the information displayed there. "Any challenger who defeats the Pewter City gym from Friday twelve o'clock to Sunday, seven PM," he read.

Simon raised his eyebrows. "Any challenger. That's potentially a lot of winners." Liam's brow twitched and furrowed for a moment. Perhaps he took the comment too personally. "You got a list of what's being handed out?"

"Yeah, yeah," Liam mumbled, clicking around on his screen. "I think it's almost twenty."

"I'll need you to email that to me," Simon said, shifting in his seat so that he could pull his cellphone out of his pocket. "Have they sent anyone else, do you know?"

"You're all I've been given," Liam responded. Simon was careful not to react to that. It was going to be a long weekend.

Thirty minutes of coordination later, Simon stepped out of the gym and back into the glare of the day. He quickly slid his sunglasses over his eyes before his headache worsened. A couple of young trainers were already waiting by the door, poké balls in hand. A check of the cell phone told Simon it was a quarter to twelve. Things were about to get busy.

He had some time, and he spotted a Poké Mart just down the walkway. He figured he might grab a quick snack there—a couple of energy bars and a bottle of water. Enough to keep him going, but not really good for the soul. Not that Simon did much good for his soul these days.

The automatic door slid open silently as Simon walked in, but a doorbell sound announced his presence. His eyes were already drawn to the refrigerated drinks toward the back of the store, so he didn't look at the cashier behind the counter, but the voice that greeted him and the strikingly familiar way the words were delivered made him freeze. "Hey there! Anything I can help you with?"

For a moment, Simon thought he was losing his grip on his sanity as he looked at the young woman behind the counter. The same customer service smile. The same pretty eyes. The same Poké Mart -branded polo shirt that hung off her slender frame in an awkward way. He wondered if maybe the Poké Mart company had entered the cloning industry, but recognition dawned on the woman's face. The customer service fakeness melted away, replaced by genuine surprise.