An Age of Valour

by the Lady of the Mists

Chapter Thirteen: Festivals and Phone Calls

"Remind me why I agreed to this?" Lydia grumbled as she trailed through the festival that was in the streets of Azalea. She had long lost sight of Jesse, who had disappeared soon after they got there, excited about the games and stuff to wait for her to catch up, and she had been looking for him ever since. It probably would've made more sense to just have some fun and wait for him to catch up to her, but she couldn't help but have the feeling that she was being watched and she wanted to find Jesse as soon as possible.

Eevee, Poliwag, and Cyndaquil all trailed after her, looking for Jesse. "You guys getting tired?" she asked, looking at them. They all three looked exhausted. "All right, I give up. That boy is just going to have to have an earful when I find him again. Let's get something to eat. Then we'll have some fun."

That was easier said than done, because the lines for the food stand was over two miles long and tickets were about double that. Lydia groaned as she tried to find another food stand, one that wasn't so long, but they all looked about the same.

"Why do people find some fun in this stuff?" she wondered, shaking her head. She sighed as she pushed through the crowd, managing to claim a vacant bench, laying her head onto her hands as her Pokémon climbed onto it. "I don't know how Jesse did it. This place is completely crazy." She looked at her Pokémon as they climbed into her lap. "I'm sorry, you guys."

But they all protested, insisting that it was all right. She smiled as she pet each of them tenderly, looking around at the crowd again. Maybe it was just because she wasn't used to festivals that was making her feel so flustered. That was a very real possibility.

"All right, what do you say that we give it another try?" Lydia asked as she climbed up. "Let's vote. Anyone who wants to go back to the Pokémon Centre—" Almost instantly, all three Pokémon raised a paw—except for Poliwag, who lifted her tail higher—and Lydia shook her head. "Okay, let's go. I'm sure that we can find something else to do that doesn't include getting trampled."

Almost the minute that she said that, she was shoved sideways by a group of tourists who succeeded in knocking the young trainer into a tent, where she landed on her stomach, groaning slightly. She glanced up as her Pokémon came running in to make sure she was okay.

"It's all right, guys," she told them, pushing herself to her feet. "No permanent damage." She sighed as she turned around and stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh, boy," she groaned, spotting the girl that was behind her. "Sorry, didn't mean to barge in . . ."

The girl only smiled as she sat down at the desk. "Don't worry about it; I know these festivals can be really hazardous. Come on, sit down," she instructed, waving her hand.

Almost instantly, the boxes that had been covering a seat lifted up and dropped across the room. Lydia sensed the telekinetic energy coming from the girl, though this didn't stop her from gaping at her.

She looked up to see Lydia's expression and grinned. "Oh, don't act so surprised," she told her. "You're just the same as me."

"Yeah, but I don't go flaunting it all over the place," Lydia retorted, staying where she was. The girl grinned, but didn't respond. "And how did you know that, anyway?" She was becoming very suspicious of this girl, even though she didn't know who she was.

"All psychics are joined telepathically," she replied, waving her hand in exasperation. "Don't you know that? I thought that all psychics knew that." She raised her eyebrow considerably. "What kind of a psychic are you, anyway?"

"The kind that doesn't use her powers," Lydia responded angrily. The girl looked at her and shook her head.

"Okay, now that is ridiculous," she said in amazement. "Why would anyone not want to use our gifts? They were passed down to use through our ancestors and to not use them would be to dishonour our ancestors."

Lydia stared at her, torn between exasperation and amusement. "Who are you?" she asked, bewildered.

"Kirsten Anderson," she replied with a smile. "My psychic Pokémon and I are going to be doing a show pretty soon." She glanced towards Lydia's Pokémon, frowning slightly. "Don't you have any psychics? We've always trained psychics, ever since the beginning."

"Not interested," Lydia said flatly. "I train Pokémon, not a certain type. And I don't care about dishonouring my ancestors. They'd be proud of what I do, not how I do it."

Kirsten stared at her. "Don't you know that you've been given a remarkable gift? One that people would kill to have? Why toss it aside so carelessly?" She looked at Lydia in interest, obviously finding Lydia much more interesting than Lydia found Kirsten.

"Because the only thing that it ever did was make people look at me differently," Lydia said quietly. "All it did was push more people away from me." Her thoughts drifted towards Rosewaters Isle, back to how alone and lonely her life had been.

But that was before things had changed. Before Eevee had appeared in her life and she'd become a Pokémon trainer. Maybe things would be different now. Maybe she should practice her power.

"Welcome to the world of psychics, Lydia Talon," Kirsten said with a shrug. "Truth is, we're all different. No point in pretending otherwise. People are always going to treat us differently because of our special abilities. No sense in diminishing our gifts because of that."

Lydia shook her head, exasperated with this girl as she headed out of the tent, her Pokémon at her heels as she walked across the festival, trying to get out of it and head to the Pokémon Centre.

"Hey, Lydia! LYDIA!"

Turning around, she saw Jesse running towards her, his Pokémon right behind him. He slowed to a stop, gasping for breath. "Where have you been?" he asked. "I've been looking for you for hours. Hey, are you okay?" he asked, looking worried. "What's wrong?"

Lydia shook her head. "Nothing," she told him. "Just some psychic trainer I just met." Jesse stared at her. "Listen, I'm just going to head back to the Centre. You can stay, but I think I want to go back."

"I'll come with you."

"No, that's . . . that's sweet, but it's not necessary," Lydia assured him. "I know the way back and you should stay and enjoy yourself."

Jesse sighed and rolled his eyes. "Maybe I want to stay with you," he told her. "The whole point of this festival was to enjoy it together and there's no point in doing it if you're not going to have fun. Come on," he said with a smile as he wrapped his arms around her and they headed back to the Centre. "Let's get out of here."

--

In the end, they went to a park not too far away from the Centre, letting their Pokémon play while their trainers sat on the bench, watching them. "So what exactly did she say to you?" Jesse asked after a long while. "That psychic that you were talking to?"

Lydia sighed. "Nothing, I was just being stupid," she said, shaking her head. Jesse looked at her sideways, a disbelieving smile appearing on his face. "She was just going on about . . . how I don't use my gift and I'm dishonouring my ancestors because of it. That I was different, no matter whether I used my gifts or not. There was no point in not using them, because in the end, I'm always going to be different from everyone else."

"Everybody's different," Jesse pointed out, stretching his arms carelessly. "But you know, she might be right. You've got a gift some people only dream of, Lydia, maybe you should use it more often."

"I know." Lydia's voice was quiet as she spoke. "But I've been denying that part of me for so long, Jess. I'm not sure if I can use it like I could when I was a kid. Besides, I'm . . . there are other things that I want to do. Like getting into the Johto League. There's . . . there isn't enough time for psychic training, not with everything else that we've got going on." She knew that she was trying to convince herself as well as Jesse.

"If you say so," Jesse responded, standing up. "It's your life, Lydia, but even though your powers scare me, I think you're only denying a part of yourself by not using your powers. They're a part of you and they always will be, remember that."

Lydia glanced at him sideways as he dug into his pack. "Weren't you the one who told me that you would only come with me if I promised not to use my powers?" she asked.

"Yeah, well, I know you a little bit better now, Lydia," Jesse responded with a grin. "Besides, as long as you don't use those freaky powers on me or to win gym battles, then we're cool."

With a small nod, Lydia glanced towards her Pokémon, her eyes falling immediately on Cyndaquil, who was playing chase with Eevee and Poliwag. "Do you think that Cyndaquil is going to be all right tomorrow?" she asked, looking up at Jesse. She knew perfectly well that Cyndaquil was her best chance of defeating the gym leader.

Jesse nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, she'll be fine," he told her. "Look at her, she's already relaxed and at play. That's all she needs to be at full recovery. You'll be fine tomorrow."

Lydia nodded once as she watched him dig into his bag. "What are you looking for, anyway?" she asked him.

"Restaurant guide," Jesse said, producing a guidebook with a food symbol on it. "It has all the best restaurants in every city and town in Johto. My eldest sister, Jennie, gave it to me before I left. Mom had just enrolled her in the same school that I was at when I left town. It was her way of telling me that she understood why I was doing it."

"You miss her," Lydia said, picking up on that at once. Jesse said nothing, just stared at the guidebook without even looking up at Lydia. She suppressed a sigh, trying to think about what she could do for him about that, but couldn't come up with anything. "Well, you find anything good?"

Jesse, startled out of his revenue, looked down at the guide, flipping through the pages until he got to Azalea Town. "Uh, let me see here . . ." he said, looking down at the guide. "There's supposed to be a good pizza place not too far from here." He looked up and saw the happy look on Lydia's face and grinned. "Guess it's pizza, then," he said with a laugh.

"You're mean if you're just torturing me," Lydia complained. Pizza was her favourite food in the whole world. "Come on, let's go!"

After the Pokémon had been gathered, they headed over to the pizza parlour on the other edge of town. At the moment, they were no more than just trainers out for a good day. But tomorrow, they would be heading for the battle for their second badges.

--

It was early the next morning when Lydia snuck down to the lobby, heading straight for the phone. She had thought about it all night and this was the only thing she could think of doing, even though she felt a little bad for going behind Jesse's back.

Once she got a hold of the operator and located the Turner number, she dialled it into the phone, waiting for someone in Alyson City to pick up. On the second ring, a female voice answered. "Hello, this is the Turner residence."

"Hello, may I please speak with Jennie?" she asked. This had to be Jesse's mother; she didn't sound very nice.

"One moment." Mrs. Turner put her on hold and Lydia waited patiently, holding Eevee in her lap as Jesse's mother went to go retrieve her oldest daughter, who was probably still asleep. It didn't seem to take very long until another voice came onto the line.

"Hello, this is Jennie?" The girl that appeared on the video looked a lot like Jesse; they had the same green eyes and there were a lot of Jesse's features in her face, but instead of his dark hair, she had long blonde hair that fell down to her waist. She looked at Lydia with interest.

"Hi, Jennie, my name's Lydia Talon. I'm a friend of . . . one of your friends," she finished, realising that her mother could still be on the other line. "Jessica?"

Confusion filled through Jennie's face, then realisation. Her green eyes went wide and she looked around. "Mom, I'm gonna take this upstairs." She was put on hold again and a second later, Jennie reappeared, looking as though she'd just run a marathon. "Oh, thank goodness!" she said. "How's my brother doing? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Lydia told her. "He's asleep right now, but what else is new?" Jennie smirked; apparently Jesse's sleeping habits hadn't changed much. "We're in Azalea Town right now."

"Oh, he's made it that far?" Jennie was smiling as she leaned back. "I'm so glad to hear he's okay. I wish that I could see him—wait, you guys are in Azalea Town right now?"

"Yeah," Lydia answered, bewildered. "After we're done with the gym here, then we'll be heading up to Goldenrod. Why?"

"This is perfect!" Jennie exclaimed. "I'll be in Goldenrod next week doing a field trip with my school. I can tell Mom that you're an old friend of mine and I'd like to see you. She can give me permission to get some time away from the rest of the school—it's a two-day trip, anyway—and then I'll be able to spend some time with my brother!"

"Keep your voice down!" Lydia suggested. Jennie grinned, but conceded her point. "Okay, I think that'll work. We'll be done with the Azalea Gym tomorrow and it shouldn't take us more than three or four days to get through the Ilex Forest. We should in Goldenrod in time to meet you."

Jennie laughed. "I cannot believe that somebody actually had the guts to call here. You do know all about what happened with Jesse and Mom, don't you?" she asked, suddenly worried.

"I know some of it," Lydia admitted. "Jesse wasn't too keen on talking about it. All he told me was that he was enrolled at some elite Pokémon School that his great-uncle got him into. After awhile, he wanted to go off on his own and your mom wasn't too cool with that."

"That's pretty much it, but what he didn't tell you was that Mom disowned him when he told her that. She told him that he couldn't come home, ever, and that she would never again claim him as her son. It was terrible; I can still remember the look of Jesse's face when she said that." Jennie's face was sad. "Jamie's not too happy about it, either, she's with Mom on this one. Sometimes, I think about leaving her and going to find Jesse, but . . ." She sighed. "It'd be easier if I had someone like Jesse does."

Lydia frowned. "Who's he got?" Jennie gave her a look. "Oh, right. Me." She chuckled. "Maybe you should come with us. I know Jesse would love it."

Jennie's eyes bugged. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. The more, the merrier. It'll be nice to have another woman along for the ride."