Tess.

A Few Afternoons Later.

"Flint. Flint, stop-stop poking me. I swear to God."

"Am I bugging you? Huh? Huh?"

"The hell is the matter with you? Gotta use the potty or something? Your finger smells awful, you filthy monkey."

After a few days of being on the road to Oreburgh City, Flint was even getting on my nerves. We were all anxious to get there, but he really needed to cool it.

Flint finally stopped poking Volkner's face when Pikachu zapped him with a jolt of electricity. Nerves settled, and things were quiet between the three of us.

I fit in well enough between the two of them; although, I liked Flint a little better than Volkner, personality-wise. Volkner was so serious, so methodical, but Flint was more easygoing. He knew how to tell a bad pun, too.

We came to a rocky hill, about fifty feet or so, soon after that. The whole area, for days, had been barren and rocky. We had the option of climbing, or walking up a path at the side.

Volkner snorted. "Oh, hell no. I'm walking." He already headed for the path.

Flint laughed. "Race you, Volk!" He reached up and grabbed a rock jutting out, already starting to climb. Chimchar followed his trainer. "C'mon, Tess!"

I flashed Volkner a weak smile, and followed Flint's lead.

Even with a heavy backpack, Flint was fast. He climbed quickly, without hesitating for a second. I wasn't nearly as nimble as he was, and took longer to reach the top.

Not too far from the top, a foothold gave way under my right foot. I slipped, and only held only my hands.

Flint watched. He reached down, towards me. "Tess, grab my hand!"

I grabbed his hand, but his palms were really sweaty. When he tried to pull me up, I slipped out of his grip and came crashing fifty feet back down to the hard ground.

"Shit, Tess!" I think I'd hit my head, but mostly just my foot hurt. The ankle. I laid sprawled out of the ground.

Flint and Volkner both raced down the hill, to me. Their pokemon skittered at their feet.

"Tess!" Flint cried again. "Tess, oh God, are you okay?"

"I told that was a bad idea, Flint!" Volkner growled accusingly.

Flint had me remove my backpack, which had thankfully taken a lot of the impact. I had some scrapes on my hands, but it was the ankle that worried me. I told him, and Flint frowned.

"Volkner, take her boot off," Flint instructed. Volkner removed it, and my sock. My ankle was bruised, and already swelling.

Flint took off his own backpack. "God, I wish we had something to make an ice pack..."

He felt my ankle, and his fingers pressing against the injured bone was excruciating. But, for the most part, he must have known what he was doing.

Flint wrapped up my ankle with a roll of cloth gauze, apologizing constantly for dropping me. Volkner checked his electric map, which showed we weren't too far from Oreburgh.

The boys had to have me half-carried, with my arms over their shoulders, just so we could keep going. It was a little awkward, because Volkner was taller than me and Flint was shorter, but we managed.

"Tessie, I'm so, so sorry...I didn't mean to drop you...we should've listened to Volkner, oh my God, I'm so sorry..."

Flint kept apologizing, of course. He just wouldn't stop, until Volkner yelled at him to "cut the crap".

Astro.

The Next Morning, in Floraroma.

"What the hell, Stone! You and Volkner promised you would take care of her!"

The morning after we arrived in Floraroma, I happened to wake up to Dee screaming at Flint on the video phone. At eight in the morning.

Riley, sleeping in the bed closest to the far wall, groaned and turned over. "Somebody hit the snooze button."

I watched Flint puff up at the accusation. "Look, I said I'm sorry! I didn't mean to drop your friggin' sister! At least it's only a sprained ankle, she could've broken it!"

"If I can't trust you two to keep her safe, then how could I trust you at all?" Dee growled. "You better do a better job of it, you damn hippie!"

"Don't call me a damn hippie, you useless dyke!"

"Walking jewfro!"

"You bitch!"

"Asshole."

I curled into a tight ball at the foot of Amber's bed, clutching my head in pain. Amber's bed was closest to the phone. She could sleep through it, and Riley had drifted back off to sleep, but I could barely move. Dee's anger was crippling me.

"Stop it!" I finally screamed at her. "Stop! Stop, stop, stop!"

Silence fell. Amber shot right up in bed. Dee turned around in the chair where the video phone was.

"Flint, hang up," Tess' voice rang out from the background of the call. "Nurse Joy will be back any minute. Go wake up Volkner."

"Okay," Flint agreed, and the screen went black.

I always had that effect when I screamed like that. With every part of my mind projected into the voice in a fit of total anger and agony.

"Astro?" Amber called, sounding sleepy. "Azzy bear? Are you okay? Astro?"

The pain in my head began to recede. I felt like I could finally relax my tight muscules, just a little.

"Yeah..." I murmured. "Yeah. I'm okay. She stopped. I'm okay..."

"Sorry, Astro," Dee murmured. "I didn't know you were awake."

Amber.

A While Later.

Riley and I didn't wake back up until ten that morning. Dee filled us in on what happened to Tess outside of Oreburgh.

We got dressed(Riley dressing in the bathroom, of course), then went downstairs to sign Dee and I up for the contest the next day.

Nurse Joy frowned when I asked. "I'm afraid the contest has been postponed," She admitted to me. "The contest dome has been having some electrical problems, so it's cancelled until further notice."

"What?" I asked. "What's wrong with the power?"

"It seems that a pokemon has been chewing on some wires at the Valley Windworks outside of town. That's where all of the town's power comes from."

We left the Pokemon Center feeling pretty crappy. Riley kept complaining about havingvto postpone his Eterna City gym challenge.

The town really was beautiful, though. Huge, filled with flowering fields and houses scattered here and there. Even an orchard way over in another part of town. Floraroma Town was filled with mid-summer gorgeousness.

We all sat down in a field for a few minutes to consider whether it was worth it to even stick around. For a while, not a word was spoken.

"We've gotta find the pokemon who's chewing on the wires," Dee finally announced.

Riley blinked. "We what?"

"Think about it!" Dee urged. "Remember how determined you'd been to sniff out that Galactic grunt? Well, we've gotta be in that contest! If we don't find that pokemon, who's to say those bozos at the windworks will?"

I nodded. "So, you just think we'll find it? What if it's a group of pokemon? What if we're outnumbered?"

"So? We got Astro, and Snorunt, and even that wimpy Riolu of Riley's."

"Hey!" Astro and Riley chimed in together.

Dee stood up. "C'mon, you lazy sons of bitches! Let's get it in gear!"

I sighed. "Alright, Dee-Dee."

A Little While Later.

"This is probably illegal. I'm pretty sure we're breaking at least ten laws."

"Riley, do me a favor. Shut up."

The windworks was actually fairly self-sufficient. There was nobody working there, and everything was powered by the windmills outside. Volkner would have loved the place.

We came to two hallways, going in opposite directions. Dee turned to face us.

"What to do now, oh exhaulted empress?" Astro snipped at her.

Dee rolled her eyes. "We obviously split up," She retorted.

I raised my hand. "Uh, question? We don't know what we'll find in here. Shouldn't we not split up?"

"Okay, I'll head by myself down this hall," Dee muttered to herself, pointing down the hall on the right and generally ignoring me. "Riley, Amb, you two can take the other hall. If anything happens, call my Pokegear, alright?"

I sighed. No use fighting. "Alright, Dee-Dee. Anything happens, I'll call you."

Dee grinned. She let her Snorunt out of his pokeball, and they raced down the hallway.

Riley sighed. "Is she always so...ambitious, I guess?"

I laughed. "You can get used to it, Riles. I promise."

We walked down the dimly lit hallway together, quietly chattering. Astro and Riolu hung at our heels. I could feel the air buzz with Astro's excitement about this small, weird powerplant.