Over The Limit

Jeremy took a deep breath as he stood across the alleyway from Zack Winters. They were set to have a battle despite the fact that everyone had been ordered to keep their Pokémon inside their Poké Balls due to the virus. Jeremy knew what he was putting his Pokémon at risk by doing this, but he also knew that Zack would not leave him alone until someone shut him up. Jeremy's gaze shifted to Zack's gang. There were at least seven of them there looking on while the only person that Jeremy had with him was Blake.

"Ready when you are," Zack remarked arrogantly.

"Alright, Marowak," Jeremy said as he grabbed a Poké Ball. "Let's go…"

"Hitmonchan, time for battle!" Zack ordered as he tossed a Poké Ball.

"Marooowaaak!"

"Hitmon!"

"Mach Punch!" Zack commanded.

Before Jeremy could react, Hitmonchan landed a blow right on the skull of Marowak. Marowak stumbled backwards, but quickly regained his balance.

"Bone Club," Jeremy said. "Hit him hard!"

Marowak immediately began bashing Hitmonchan repeatedly with his bone. The fighting Pokémon struggled to block the hits, but before he could come back with a defense, both of them collapsed onto the ground. The two trainers knew all too well that it was the virus acting on the two Pokémon. Zack immediately recalled Hitmonchan and hurried off with his gang.

"Jeremy!" Blake yelled as he knelt beside Marowak. "We need to get to a center fast!"

Jeremy clenched his fists. He couldn't believe that he had let himself be fooled by Zack Winters of all people. He had fallen right into a trap. Jeremy tried to remember what his friend, Kaylee, had told him about being the bigger person, but at this point, he didn't care about making peace with Zack.

"Take Marowak to a center, Blake. They might be handing out vaccines, but I'm not sure yet. I have some business to take care of…"

Tossing the keys to his truck to his friend, Jeremy bolted after the band of thugs. He knew that they had a car and were likely on their way back to Louhearst. Being several blocks away, Jeremy decided that he could take his time to get to the academy since he already knew where Zack would be. Slowing down his pace, Jeremy stuffed his hands into his pockets and began leisurely strolling through the streets of Goldenrod. The expedition would be leaving for Ecruteak in a few days and he could not wait to get there. To him, anything would be better than Goldenrod. His thoughts were all over the place, but his primary focus was to put Zack Winters in his place. Jeremy's mind drifted to the night of the party once again and he felt his blood boil. He remembered the smug look on Zack and Vic's faces as soon as they had walked in the door of Rietta Mackenzie's house. Everyone knew that the two Seathroul thugs were going to cause trouble, but they had given them the benefit of the doubt and Jeremy realized that was an act of stupidity on all their parts.

"Almost there…" Jeremy said to himself as the Louhearst building came into sight.

After crossing the street and jumping a fence, Jeremy had finally made his way back to the academy. He immediately began looking for Zack and the rest of his gang. They weren't too hard to find as they were already causing chaos in the courtyard. Zack, Percy, and Tifatillah were harassing the first years.

"Give it back!" one of them shouted as the trio continued passing around the young trainer's cell phone.

Jeremy quickly approached the scene and a crowd formed as he gestured at the phone in Zack's hand.

"You heard him," Jeremy said clearly. "Give him his phone back."

"Or what?" Zack asked as he tossed the phone in the air. The young boy quickly caught his phone and let out a sigh of relief. Zack smirked as he gave Jeremy a quick shove. "What are you going to do, Jeremy? Take the high road?"

"Not this time…"

Before anyone could react, Jeremy threw a fist at Zack, hitting him in the middle of his nose. He threw another right hand, this time hitting his rival in the eye. The force of the impact sent Zack stumbling towards the ground as the crowd looked on in absolute shock. Jeremy locked eyes with Percy and Tifatillah, daring them to make a move, but both stood frozen in their positions. Jeremy looked around the crowd and saw the stunned faces of his friends, but they didn't say a word. He noticed that Zack had landed near Melanie's feet. Jeremy had been trying to impress her all day, but from the look on her face, he could tell she was unsure of what to think. Throwing the hood on his head, the senior turned and began walking towards the inside.

"You son of a bitch!" Zack yelled as he jumped off of the ground, blood running from his nose. In a moment of absolute rage, the delinquent reached inside his pocket and retrieved a switchblade. Percy and Tifatillah immediately went into action and grabbed Zack in an attempt to hold him back. "Walk away! That's right, walk away!"

Jett fiddled his thumbs as he and the rest of his band sat on the large couch in the office of the Kooley Brothers. Despite the convincing amount of confidence he appeared to have, Jett knew that he was probably the most nervous one of the bunch. Roux was doing her make-up, Rolen was doing his make-up, Ethan was munching on a bag of potato chip, and Mike was staring out of the window.

"Hello…"

All at once, the five of them tensed up as the two brothers of the record label walked in the room. The older brother was a stocky man with large arms, tanned skin, and salt and pepper hair. The younger brother was a bit taller and very thin with dark brown hair and fair skin. They both shared the same blue-green eyes and the same indifferent expressions on their faces. Behind them, two Granbull strolled in with their heads held high.

"In case you don't know," the older brother started. "My name is Clayton Kooley and this is my brother, Kent. You may have heard of my daughter-"

"Kelsey Kooley!" Roux interrupted cheerfully. "I am like her number one fan!"

Clayton smiled as he and his brother took their seats in the office. He was a man of business and he definitely wanted to get straight to the point, but he knew that he needed to ask the teenagers a few questions.

"Why the name, Superego?" he asked as he pet his Granbull.

"Because…" Jett started. "Because…we're the best!"

"I like that attitude!" Clayton stated. "That's how you succeed. Now, before I continue, I wanted to let you all know that I had planned on scheduling a meeting with you last month…We heard about what happened to one of the students at your school and we wanted you to know that we are sorry for your tragic loss…"

"The party…" Ethan mumbled. "It…just got out of hand…"

"You don't have to talk about it," Clayton assured him. "Now, let's brighten the mood. I received your demo and I wanted to know what the inspiration was for two of your songs, CPR and Over the Limit?"

"CPR was actually Jett's idea," Mike explained. "He took a class during this summer and got certified. It's basically a song about rebirth and starting over…"

"Over the Limit…" Jett began. "That's mostly a song written through frustration. Everyone has a breaking point and we thought we should make that clear."

"Excellent," Clayton replied. "I-"

He was interrupted by the door to the office opening. A young woman with blonde hair and hazy blue eyes stormed in. She had a very thin build and her nose was reddened. To Jett and the others, she looked like a complete mess.

"I'm sorry," Clayton sighed. "This is my other daughter, Cassie…"

The five of them waved at Cassie, but she simply rolled her eyes.

"My Pokémon are sick, Dad," she explained. "I need some money."

"Can't you see that I'm in a very important meeting?" Clayton said angrily. He sighed and reached into his wallet as his brother looked on. "Take my credit card."

Cassie grabbed the card and immediately strolled out of the office without any goodbyes to her father and uncle whatsoever. Clayton sighed once more, obviously embarrassed at his younger daughter's actions.

"Back on topic," he continued. "We don't usually even consider contacting garage bands, let alone actually signing them, but in this case, I think we should make a consideration for Superego because Daisy recommended you. You all look marketable enough and if we sign you, the first thing we need to do is get you really known by the public by scheduling some concerts, making some merchandise and doing some media stuff. After that, we can focus on tours and such, but that will have to be arranged with your parents."

"Let's say we do sign with this label," Jett began. "What's the…offer in the-"

"My brother and I were thinking a two-million dollar contract would suit this band for starting up," Clayton finished. "Does that sound agreeable?"

The teenagers, save for Rolen, nearly fell out of their seats when they heard how much money the Kooley Brothers were willing to negotiate into their contract. Since Rolen already came from a wealthy family, two-million dollars didn't really impress him much, but he was happy to see that his bandmates were excited.

"Will we have to leave school?" Mike suddenly asked.

"Well-"

"Who cares?" Jett interrupted. "I mean seriously, who honestly cares? Being a rockstar owns being in a dingy academy…"

"Well…" Clayton started again as he stood up from his seat and snapped at the Granbull. "We'll give you some alone time to talk it over with yourselves. Kent, let's go get a latte…"

The two brothers exited the room with their Pokémon, closing the door behind them. Almost immediately, the five of them started chatting loudly about their big break.

"Alright," Roux finally said. "We need to make an agreement. We're going to take our egos out in our music not on each other. It should be all for one and one for all. Who's with me?"

"I'm in…" Ethan responded.

"Me too," Mike added.

"Yeah," Rolen said. "I'm in too…"

Everyone looked at Jett and he simply nodded his head at them.

"But let's keep this a secret for a bit," he told them. "It'll be a better surprise then…"

Z.K. looked around the deserted hallway nervously as she approached the small supply closet. Making sure that there was no one in sight, she took a deep breath and walked into the closet to see Becca leaning against the wall.

"I was almost worried that you wouldn't show…" she stated simply.

"This is already awkward enough," Z.K. shot back. "So we might as well get to the point. What do you want?"

"I want to talk about what happened between us at the Martins place. We can't pretend like it didn't happen."

Z.K. groaned as she ran her hands through her hair. "Becca, it was a heat of the moment thing. We had just had an argument and…listen, it's just not right. We're girls. We like guys, not each other."

"Alright," Becca sighed. "Be honest though. Did you feel anything? I did…"

"I told you that-"

"Just answer the question…truthfully…"

Z.K. opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She found herself staring into Becca's blue eyes and her thoughts traced back to the last time that she was entranced by them. In her mind, it was wrong, but there was something that was telling her that it didn't matter. Reaching out, Z.K. gently grabbed Becca's hand, her gaze never leaving the sight of Becca's ocean blue eyes. Becca simply smiled back at her causing Z.K. to take another deep breath. She felt that if she went forward, there would be no going back, but the more she looked at Becca, the less she cared. Slowly, Zoey Kross moved forward, her eyes shifting to Becca's lips as she puckered her own. The moment that their lips touched, Z.K. was flooded with memories of their last time together. However, she knew it was different this time and she could tell that Becca was having the same thoughts. Z.K. felt the other girl's tongue slide into her mouth and a blush formed across her face. As they continued their passionate embrace, the two girls failed to notice the sound of the door opening. After a few moments, the intruder decided to make their presence known.

"I think that's enough lezzing out for one video…"

Z.K. and Becca immediately moved apart and their eyes widened in horror as they came face to face with Sadie Yanes and her camcorder.

"You're that girl!" Becca shouted. "The one that Logan beat in Ilex Forest. What are you doing here?"

"My school closed down, genius," Sadie answered in disinterest. "But let's talk about you two. I have to admit that I got a weird vibe from you two back in Azalea and this pretty much proves me right…"

Z.K. reached for her Poké Balls, but suddenly remembered the virus and moved her hands to the inside of her pocket. The familiar clicking noise was heard as the blade came out of the handle. She waved it around, hoping to intimidate Sadie, but she didn't flinch.

"If you know what's good for you-"

"If you know what's good for you," Sadie interrupted as she held up the camcorder, her tone calm as ever. "You'd listen to me. Isn't this a cool camcorder? I stole it from one of the first years. I've been recording all sorts of things, but today, I found something really interesting and that's you two making out. Now, it would be a shame if this somehow got uploaded to the school's website. Obviously, you two aren't ready to…come out of the 'closet' if you know what I mean. In short, I own you now. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, shut it…"

Rietta could not believe that she had decided to schedule an appointment with a therapist. She felt as if she could solve her problems on her own, so she could not figure out why she had decided to seek help. Furthermore, her therapist was a Pokémon who was talking to her through a plastic bubble. The Slowking smiled at the girl in an attempt to ease the tension.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I am in this bubble?" Dr. King asked. "Well, it's because the virus that is going around…"

"I guess that makes sense," Rietta replied. "I mean, you are a Pokémon…"

"Indeed I am," he replied cheerfully. "But let us move the focus on to you. I understand that you've been stealing alcohol and drinking it?"

"I just need to figure out what's making me do this," Rietta said. "After that, I'm sure that I'll be able to stop."

The therapist nodded his head. "Well, you and the other students of this academy as well as the Pokémon have all been under a significant amount of stress as of late."

"The stabbing…" Rietta started. "Emma was killed in my backyard while I was inside the party getting drunk. I haven't even been to see Logan once since his suicide attempt. It's just too hard…"

"Maybe that's what you need?" Dr. King inquired. "Before we go on though, tell me about your relationship with Logan Martin."

"Where should I begin? I mean, Logan was the very first person at Louhearst to not hate me. I've been through a lot, but I can definitely say that he's always been there even if I'd been acting like a witch. He tolerates me and generally treats me like a sister…"

Dr. King nodded his head as he jotted some notes down on the clipboard inside of his bubble. "I think what you need is to go pay Logan a visit. That may be the root of your drinking problem. The expedition is leaving for Ecruteak soon, but I can tell Professor Pine that you took the Magnet Train to Kanto to visit your friend. Is that what you would like to do?"

"I think that's exactly what I need…"

Jeremy sat alone on the bench on the outside of the school. He had been chewed out by the Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center for exposing Marowak to the virus. Luckily, Marowak was able to be treated with the vaccine. Jeremy had also been chewed out by half of his friends and his brother. However, most of the students of Louhearst had been cheering him ever since his confrontation with Zack Winters earlier that day. He had been receiving threatening phone calls that he was certain were from Zack's gang.

"Can I join you?"

It was Melanie's voice, but Jeremy didn't turn in her direction. He simply nodded his head and she took a seat beside him.

"Guess you saw what I did?" he stated.

"Listen," Melanie started. "I've known Zack Winters for a long time and you're the first person I've ever seen actually knock him to the ground. Honestly though, just let it go. You really don't have to prove anything…"

"You're a girl, you don't get it," Jeremy responded as his phone went off. "One second…" He clicked the answer button and stood up.

"Who is this?"

"Who do you think it is, idiot?"

"Look Zack or Percy or whoever this is-"

"Are you scared? "

"Not at all."

"Well, if you want to prove that you're a man, come behind the building right now and we'll record you getting your ass handed to you. That is, if you're man enough…"

"I'll be there…"

Jeremy hung up the phone and headed directly behind the building of Louhearst, ignoring Melanie's pleas for him to let it go. When he finally reached his destination, Jeremy saw about fifteen of the Seathroul thugs smoking, drinking, and chatting amongst themselves. When he finally saw Zack, Jeremy sprinted over towards him and slammed him directly into the wall, causing the bully to fall to the ground.

"You want a fight!" Jeremy shouted to the thugs. "Turn on the camera and you'll get one! What's the matter, Zack? Scared?"

"That's it!" Zack shouted as he jumped to his feet. "Your ass is dead!"

He charged at Jeremy only for the other boy to duck and tackle him onto the ground. Jeremy began unleashing a flurry of punches as Zack tried to protect his face to no avail.

"Is this man enough for you!" Jeremy shouted as he continued pounding his fists into his rival's face.

Realizing that things were getting out of hand, Percy and Tifatillah grabbed onto Jeremy an attempted to him off of their leader. They managed to get him to his feet, but Jeremy shoved both of them back with a great amount of force.

"Someone's coming!" one of the thugs shouted.

"Next time!" Percy said as he and Tifatillah began dragging Zack away. "It's me and you!"

"I'll be waiting!" Jeremy shouted. "I'll take all of you!"

Rietta took a seat at the train station and searched through her purse before she found her rail pass. Before she could get comfortable, she noticed a familiar face sitting a few seats down from her.

"Jett?" she said as she moved closer. "Jett?"

He had earplugs in and the music was so loud that Rietta could hear it. She took the plugs out of his ears and called his name once more. Jett looked around for a second and a confused expression formed on his face when he saw Rietta.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I'm going to Fuchsia to talk to my dad about some stuff," he explained. "And then I'm going to see Logan. You?"

"Logan…"

Jett nodded his head as he put his earplugs back in. Rietta simply stared at him. There was something about him that was different. He seemed very calm and a bit distant and while she wanted to figure out what was going on, she knew that it would be best not to say anything that would potentially upset him. The sound of the train approaching alerted the people standing around the station.

"The…train is here…" Rietta said as she tapped Jett on the shoulder.

Jett simply nodded as he stood up and made his way towards the boarding area. Rietta followed him and tried to get his attention, but he simply wouldn't talk. She thought that maybe he was in some sort of weird mood, but he didn't appear angry. It was a strange kind of peaceful and Rietta knew that if she questioned it, he would probably go off on her about how she hated other people being happy or some nonsense that she had become accustomed to hearing over the past year and a half. However, her curiosity was starting to get the better of her as they took their seats on the train.

"Jett?"

"What? I'm trying to listen to music…"

"Oh, never mind…"

Jett simply shrugged his shoulders and put his earplugs back in. He was on top of the world in his mind and there was nothing that was going to change that…

Shane stood in his room as his Pokémon made a row in front of him. None of them had been infected with the virus and they actually seemed to be healthier than they had been before the virus started. There was something suspicious going on and he knew it, but Shane couldn't figure out what exactly it was that made his Pokémon so healthy.

"Hey, sweetie!" Jewel said as she poked her head in the room. "Don't forget your meeting with Professor Pine!"

"That's right…" he said to himself as he began recalling his Pokémon. "Pine wanted something…"

Shane made his way towards her office and as he passed by a large group of students, many of whom had been his enemies in the past, they smiled and waved at him. He wasn't sure how to respond, but he gave them a half-smile. When he reached Professor Pine's office, Shane simply walked in and closed the door behind him.

"There you are…" Pine started. "I wanted to tell you some exciting news!"

"Exciting news?"

"Yes. Since the tournament was cancelled this year, Mr. Everston decided to make up for it by holding a battling event at the Whirl Islands. There will be several battles between students and their Pokémon and the main event which will crown the Champion of Louhearst…"

"Champion?"

Pine nodded her head. "In the past, there was a champion of the academy. Whoever was the best trainer was the champion and now we're bringing it back. I don't have all the details yet, but I figured you would love to know especially since you've made a major improvement this year…"

"Um…thank you…" Shane replied. "It certainly sounds like it'll be interesting…" He felt his phone going off in his pocket and he excused himself from the office.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Shane. It's your father. I was wondering about you and your Pokémon. How have you all been?"

"I've been doing well. My Pokémon have been exceptionally well despite this virus going around. In fact, they seem to have gotten stronger…"

"So the virus has not affected any of your Pokémon and they've actually gotten stronger? Hmm, I see. Excellent…"

"Excellent? Wait, do you know-"

Shane was immediately cut off. He tried dialing his father back several times, but he didn't get an answer. He came to the conclusion that his father knew more about the virus than he was letting on. Shane sighed as he walked back to his room, his father's voice ringing through his head.

"Remember your loyalties…"

AN: Yeah, that chapter had a LOT going on in it, but it's all leading up to the Whirl Islands. There's going to be a timeskip after this chapter, so be ready.

It may take me a while to upload the next chapter, but after that, I'll definitely be uploading more frequently.

PM me if you want to talk or come to my forum.

Later!