Chapter 3
Bleep-bleep. Bleep-bleep.
Kelly scrunched her eyes tighter, her only defense against the noise of her PokéGear's phone application ringing at her. She groaned, then turned over in bed – only narrowly avoiding whacking Jason in the face – and grabbed the gear off her bedside table. She depressed the Talk button. "Whoever you are, it's awfully late, so don't try to sell me things and let me sleep, would you?"
"Kelly, it's me."
She blinked. "Amanda?"
"Yeah. I need to talk with you about something. You're not with Jason right now, are you?"
"Well, we share a bed and I'm in it right now."
"Sorry. I don't think Jason should be hearing this."
"Okay." She got up and felt her way toward the living room. "I'm in the clear. What's the problem?"
"... It's sort of a personal thing. When I was with the Atlantis League, they had a policy of administering mifepristone to their gym leaders."
"Mifepristone is...?"
"A sterility drug. A single injection can potentially render you infertile for life."
Kelly was taken aback. "Why the hell would they do something like that?"
"They didn't want their leaders to be parents during their tenure aboard their respective ships. Some of the first to be impressed into the league tried to use a loophole involving becoming a parent to weasel their way out for the sake of their children. So they came up with a solution."
"And you were given that drug?"
"Yeah. The idea was that once a gym leader was ousted, they'd be given the antidote and that would be that."
"So what happened?"
"I was stupid. I left the ship immediately after being told I was free to go, instead of waiting to be discharged the way they usually do it. As a result, I never received the antidote."
"When did you get the initial injection?"
"Four and a half years ago. It runs its full course in five years."
Kelly shook her head. "I don't get it. You and Adam have been trying to conceive. How did you not know what they were pumping into you when you joined the league?"
"I used to be prone to seasickness, and being out on that water for that long tends to put a foreigner at greater risk for health problems. I'm from Kanto just like the rest of you. They gave me a battery of injections and all the paperwork, I just... didn't review it until I spoke with my doctor. I was still too much in shock at the idea of being made to be a gym leader. And I was uncommonly good at it, Kelly – I'd have gotten out a lot sooner if I hadn't been."
"I'm still having a hard time seeing a problem here. You're not too late to get the antidote, why don't they just give it to you?"
"The moment I debarked, I abdicated my status as a gym leader and all the privileges that come with it. That includes the antidote. The only chance I have to get it now is..."
Kelly frowned. "Challenge the Atlantis League for it?"
"...Yeah."
"What can I do, then?"
"I'm not sure I can do it myself. I'd like you to help me... if you could."
The brunette raised her eyebrows. "Just me? You don't want Jason along?"
"No offense to him or his status as a Pokémon master, but he hasn't trained in quite some time. The Atlantis League is always at their peak. Sorry to say, I don't think he is."
"If that's where we're going, neither am I," Kelly replied drily. "What about Adam?"
"Adam's got his head in his next book and that's where it should be. He's already gone up against the Atlantis League twice. That was more than enough and almost more than he could handle. He and Jason both had to take incredible amounts of care in how they conducted themselves during their challenge because they didn't want to be trapped by the gym leader clause."
"No need to remind me. But what do I bring to the table that they couldn't?"
"Unpredictability. And knowledge of Pokémon, both general and specific, that trumps theirs. While they've been writing their memoirs, you've been doing endless research. You'd probably be better at battling now than ever before – you know the precise limitations of what you're going up against, even on the fly."
Kelly offered a chuckle of incredulity. "I'll grant the part about unpredictability, but I think you might be investing a little too much confidence in my knowhow. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've trained a battle-worthy Pokémon? Never mind a team of six that could take on the Atlantis League. I avoided that mess altogether."
"I'm not that naive, Kelly. You have Pokémon in your lab whose maximum potential you're seeking out to this day, and some of them came from your own collection. You may not have trained them in any recent battles, but trust me, they'll remember how to fight." A sigh crackled over the line. "I know you avoided the league before. I'm asking you to fight it with me now. I think my chances are better if you're along."
–
Jason scrunched his eyes tightly, yawned, then turned over in bed and sought out Kelly's hand with his own. And he sought it for several moments, then came to the dazed realization that she wasn't there.
His eyes cracked open in confusion, and he squinted through the darkness. "Kelly?" he said softly.
He heard a sigh from across the room; now he saw his wife's silhouette, a faint trace of an outline against the dark backdrop of the night-stricken house. She was standing at her closet and donning a shirt. "Was hoping to avoid attention until after I left," she muttered.
That statement, quiet though it was, nevertheless drew Jason's attention fully to her and made him open his eyes a little more widely. He stifled another yawn. "Going somewhere?"
"Sort of. I just got a call from Amanda, she's on her way here."
"Right now? It's past midnight."
"Right now, yes."
"Adam's not coming?"
"It's kind of a girls-only thing."
"Oh." He propped his head up on one arm. "I'm guessing that's where the questions stop, right?"
"Right. Dunno when I'll be back, but don't worry about it too much. I'll call."
He blinked at the vague statement. "Okay... well, then, take care, I guess."
"Naturally." She reached for a belt, strapped it on, then made her way to the door. She stopped just long enough to look back in Jason's general direction. "Love you."
"Love you, too." He let his head fall back to his pillow, unable to see the strained smile Kelly was giving him.
She didn't fancy keeping secrets from Jason and Adam, but on the other hand, she'd described it about as truthfully as she could – it was, as far as Amanda was concerned, a girls-only thing. She was still trying to digest the information. Why would the Atlantis League sterilize their gym leaders? What if their leaders stayed on for more than five years... does that mean they're doomed to a barren family tree?
She fingered the belt she'd just cinched into place. More specifically, she fingered the six empty slots in the belt she'd just cinched into place.
Amanda had described her only hope of getting the antidote to Kelly as entailing grueling Pokémon battles. Kelly knew herself to be fairly intelligent, and believed it to be no stretch of the imagination that only some of the battles would be taking place in gyms.
Atlantis League gyms, at that. Because that's where Amanda had gotten the inoculation in the first place.
She shut the door quietly behind her and made her way along the well-trod path to the Pallet Town Pokémon Laboratory, headed up by Professor Oak. She chewed her lip at the cool breeze tugging at her clothes; she'd dressed hastily and was ill-prepared for the chill gust. She wrapped her arms about herself and set her jaw.
Only a few assistants and laborers were bustling about the lab at this ungodly hour. The third shift was not a remarkably active one to begin with, as more than two-thirds of the Pokémon at the lab chose that time to sleep. Kelly wondered if some of the researchers didn't sometimes follow suit on that account.
Guess I'll find out, she thought, as she swiped her passkey through the front door's card reader and entered the building. A soft tone drifting through the complex informed its occupants that someone had entered; she had no sooner entered the network of hallways to the Pokémon nesting areas than she was greeted by Vincent, one of the more dedicated researchers in the facility and currently the senior technician for the night shift.
He blinked in surprise. "Kelly. Isn't it sort of late for you?"
"Matter of perspective, Vince. Something's come up, I'm here to pick up some of my Pokémon."
"By 'your Pokémon', do you mean the ones you're researching, or your personal catches?"
"Both. And I really need as little fuss as possible on the matter, this thing's kind of urgent."
He gave her a disapproving look. "We can't just release Pokémon to you on the skinny, Kelly. I'm assuming the professor doesn't know anything about it, since you're in here talking about urgency in the dead of night while he's sleeping."
"Sooner or later you'll make an incorrect assumption, Vince."
"Yeah, well, for now, I'm evidently on a roll. You can take your own catches any time you want, of course, but lab Pokémon need controlled environments in which to grow so that we can examine them properly."
She cocked her head at him. "Have I done something to make you think I'm stupid?"
"You want to take lab Pokémon out and you've yet to show me any sort of eagerness to explain why. 'Something's come up' just isn't good enough and you've said that to interns any number of times. Play smart and I'll treat you smart."
She pursed her lips. "It's a private matter."
"Then how about we start with which ones you want."
"You got the Feebas to breed, I want one of theirs. Also the female Snorunt. And the Porygon that you guys found poking around the professor's private accounts."
Vincent blanched; he and she both knew that while the professor was aware of that Porygon's existence, he had yet to be told about that little detail. For two minutes that day, he'd been the proud owner of two hundred thousand shares of stock in MooMoo Manure. But he didn't acquiesce completely. "Feebas and Porygon, fine. Snorunt's a problem."
"I want her, Vince."
"She's the only female we've got access to, you want to just snatch her away?"
"Yeah, I do. She has the strand, males don't. Getting her out there might give us a few helpful clues."
"Take her out of this environment and you'll most likely have more questions than answers, assuming she even evolves the way you think she will."
"If you didn't think I have something to my theory, you wouldn't be fighting with me over her. I'm going to be away for a while, Vince, and this is how I intend to continue contributing to this laboratory while I'm gone."
"By making yourself the only witness to their advancement? No recording devices, no controlled experimentation?"
"They aren't amoebas, Vincent. They don't like being poked and prodded twenty-four-seven and I think they'd honestly appreciate some time out of this glass jar. Gonna help me out here, or do I need to call the professor at 1:30 in the morning to get the authorization you know he's going to give me?"
Vincent crossed his arms, then sighed. "Fine. But I'm referring him to you tomorrow morning when he asks me what the hell happened."
"More likely he'll ask you why the hell you held me up," Kelly responded snappishly. She pressed past him and up the hall toward the pens. Of all the nights to get caught up in bureaucracy...
Her arrival in the aquarium was greeted by a pair of interns whose eyes looked bloodshot. She remembered seeing them on the Feebas case, as well, though their names were eluding her for the moment – and whether that was due to being awakened so abruptly at such an odd hour or due to simply having not been around them long enough for them to make a lasting impression, she couldn't be certain. She mentally set aside the list of possibilities on the rather trivial matter and began consulting the spreadsheets on each specimen.
Looks like the strongest rated one is... tank 4? Okay. But it can't just be a strength thing or they'd have evolved by now. She glanced up at the individual tanks; each Feebas was swimming about within them, looking even more oblivious than garden-variety Magikarp, if that was possible. Most of them looked about the same – same sickly pallor, shredded-looking fins, hideous puckering faces. She wanted to flinch just looking at them.
But one seemed to stand out among these in the category of appearance. Kelly blinked when she realized the difference; the Feebas in tank 6, although its measurable stats were noticeably lower than most of the others, seemed to be not quite as ugly. Its blue fins didn't have so many holes and rips in them, and the brown spots that dotted the puke-like coloration of its scales seemed more faded, not nearly as noticeable. For that matter, the coloration itself wasn't as nauseating as that of most of the others, either.
She turned to the two researchers. "What've you been doing with this one?" she asked, pointing at the tank for clarification.
The younger of the two already very young researchers scratched at a wispy patch of stubble on his chin. "Uh, we started giving it PokéBlocks with emphasis on enhancing physical stature and appearance."
"Why?"
He gave her a look as though to say the answer couldn't have been more obvious if it had been written on his forehead. "Because Feebas look really grotesque?"
"Any practical reasons?"
The other assistant glanced up from his clipboard. "The professor wants us to look into all possibilities. That's what science is about, isn't it, Dr. Shields?"
She arched an eyebrow; it was rare that anyone around here used that particular designation. "Yeah. But it doesn't seem all that likely to do much."
"Who cares what seems likely? Every other method has flopped, so we have to start exploring the less likely and the more fantastic. Undirected research is the sort that ferrets out the most useful information. The parent Feebas have been breeding, now we have enough spawn to test each theory out individually – and not only do the children help the research, the reverse is also true."
In spite of herself, Kelly quirked one corner of her mouth upward in a not-quite-smile. "That's a fair point. Do you have any Feebas that you haven't started in on yet?"
The second assistant rubbed the back of his neck – Kelly could hear at least one of his vertebra crack. "Well, a few eggs hatched yesterday and we're sorting them out. They're just infants, though, we were gonna give them maybe a week before trying to sort them out into categories for study."
"I'm going to be gone for a while, and I'm planning on taking one with me. I'd just as soon it be one that isn't already involved in experimentation. So would Vince, for that matter, and probably the professor, too."
The two exchanged looks. Kelly impatiently placed her hands on her hips. "Guys, it's not that hard. Just pick one and I'll take care of the rest."
"Um, no offense, but it sounds like the professor hasn't signed off," said the stubbled assistant, suddenly looking nervous. "Not sure how he'd feel about–"
"Guys," she interrupted, holding up one hand to stop him. "I've already had this chat with Vince. The professor isn't in here and I am. I don't like pulling rank but I think the two of you are smart enough to know that I'm about fourteen rungs higher on the ladder. I'll take responsibility and the professor is free to call me if he thinks I've overstepped."
The two exchanged another look, but didn't spend another moment debating with her. Both made their way further up the hall and stopped in front of the final tank on the right, where a school of small fish were flitting about here and there – no real rhyme or reason to their movement, other than to learn how to swim as a group. It was a singularly ugly lot and all were indistinguishable from each other.
The one with the clipboard pulled a light pen from his pocket and indicated one of the fish within. "Let's go with that one. C'mere, you..."
The Feebas on which the light shone was instantly distracted by the sight of the beam and trailed towards the glass, until it bumped headlong into the casing. Both assistants let out a chuckle and even Kelly found herself having a hard time keeping a straight face. But hers wasn't a response of amusement so much as an attempt to suppress a flinch. I hate trying to solve mysteries. Study and hypothesize, sure. But I wasn't ever into the whole trainer-to-trainer "mystery gift" idea. I don't like surprises.
She leaned forward and squinted at the subject. "Think you could've picked an uglier one?"
"You're the one who said 'pick one and I'll take care of the rest'," responded the stubbled intern. "So... deal with it. Doctor."
Her eyes narrowed at the unneeded emphasis but she chose not to comment as they programmed a series of commands into the keypad adorning the wall next to the tank. The keypad beeped in response and an overhead projector sent a neon beam of light in the direction of the chosen Feebas. The Pokémon dissolved in the glow as it was tractored into the complex's digital suspension system.
The clipboard-bearing assistant turned back to her. "You'll find it in Box 324."
"Thank you. I'm also here to get the female Snorunt."
He arched an eyebrow at her. "Anything else while we're at it?"
"Not unless somebody let that Porygon out of Box 411."
The shorter intern coughed – he also knew about the incident. "Uh, no, that's been sealed off and encrypted. It's not going anywhere unless... well, unless someone takes it. Like, far away."
"Hm." If you only knew.
–
He could hear amazement in the boy's voice. "Whoa, mister. I really didn't think... I mean... wow."
He smiled. "If there's one thing I'm used to, it's being underestimated. I take advantage of it. As you can probably tell. Say, how about we go to the Pokémon Center? I imagine yours could use some fixing up right about now. Mine probably could too."
He felt the little one skitter up the leg of his pants. He'd never known it to be discomforting but her friendliness wasn't always appreciated by others, though she meant no harm by it. Of course, there was no discomfort here – he smiled again as he felt her seek out a perch on his shoulder. He reached up and ruffled her rough hair affectionately, to the tune of an equally affectionate declaration. "Smoochum!"
"So, uh..." There was hesitation in the boy's voice. "Need to take my hand or anything?"
He shook his head. "No thanks, just walk ahead of me and I'll follow."
"The closest Pokémon Center's kind of a ways from here."
He nodded. "I know. Viridian City, right? I'm headed that way anyway."
"Really? You gonna challenge the gym there?"
Another shake of his head and a smile to accompany it. "No, the Pokémon I've brought on this trip aren't quite good enough for that yet. Powerful, sure, but not that powerful."
"Then why're you going to Viridian?"
"I'm not, really. It's just on my way to where I need to go. I'm going to Pallet Town."
"Really? There's a Pokémon lab there. Professor Oak built it."
"He sure did."
"That why you're going?"
He smiled once more. "Not exactly. There's someone there I'd like to meet."
"What's his name? Or her name, I guess, if it's a girl..."
He chuckled. "Definitely not a girl. His name's Jason."
"A friend of yours?"
The sound of his cane tapping against the ground was the only noise offered in response to the boy's question.
I hope he will be.