Roy and Antonia

by Besprizornye

Roy and Antonia are two new pokémon trainers who have found themselves traveling through the Kanto region together. Roy is impulsive and excitable while Antonia prefers to do everything by the book. Their personalities and approaches to pokémon training often clash, but they will need to learn from each other if they want to beat their common rival, Roy's brother Jesse.

5. Chapter 5

It took all three of the trainers a moment, but Jesse was the first to recover. He acknowledged Antonia with a nod and held out his hand to Roy who clasped it eagerly. "It's good to see you guys," said Jesse, and the others were quick to agree. "The rest of my group is at the pokémon center getting ready to battle the gym leader," he continued, "but I thought that I'd stretch my legs a bit."

"We already battled him," said Roy eagerly. "That's why we're out celebrating."

Jesse's placid expression sharpened as he asked, "Celebrating? So that means that-"

"Oh yeah, Toni was just great! You should've seen it, Jesse, her bulbasaur was awesome!"

"It was nothing," Antonia said quietly as she examined her clothes for any trace of the spilled ice cream, but neither of the brothers seemed to have heard her. Roy was beaming at Jesse and he continued to give the play-by-play of Antonia's match with Brock, while glossing over his own performance against the gym leader. The whole time Jesse's blue eyes, the same color as Roy's but different somehow, darted back and forth between Roy and Antonia.

Finally, he put on a genial smile and said, "Well, the others should be just about finished with dinner by now. How about you come back to the pokémon center with me, and then you can watch us go up against Brock?" Jesse's smile turned up at one side into the barest hint of a smirk. "Unless you two already have plans?"

Roy and Antonia fell over each other trying to accept his invitation, and, after Roy paid the bill for dinner, they set off towards the pokémon center through one of Pewter City's main street. Jesse did most of the talking as they walked, detailing battles he had fought and explaining how he and his companions had gotten held up in Viridian Forest looking for pikachu. In return, Roy relayed some of his and Antonia's journey thus far, but things like catching a weedle, almost losing Charmander, and going hungry hardly seemed worth bringing up.

Back at the pokémon center, Jesse's friends were even more surprised to see Roy and Antonia than he had been. "You two are really traveling together, huh?" asked a narrow-faced boy named Zach.

"For now," Roy replied with a sidelong glance at Antonia, who appeared to be intently examining her shoes at that moment.

Their pokémon were rested and their bellies were full, so the freshly enlarged group of trainers wasted no time in heading north to the Pewter City Gym. Roy was proud that he was able to lead the way, and soon he was falling back into his usual pattern of behavior with Jesse and the other boys. It was as if all of the bad feelings of the past few days were forgotten, and they were back to being an inseparable gang of friends. Antonia, for her part, hung in the rear of the group, dragged out of her own thoughts only when she noticed that one of the brothers was looking back at her. When he was doing so, Roy was trying to bring her into the conversation, while Jesse tended instead to see how she reacted to a question or a statement that someone else had just said.

When they reached the gym and its outdoor arena, all six of the young trainers were visibly excited. They weren't the only ones. The crowd which had been dismissed after Antonia's battle with Brock had returned in anticipation of watching more battles with the gym leader. This time they had food and drinks with them and were lounging on blankets and chairs brought from home as they talked amicably with each other, giving the park the atmosphere of a picnic. There were not as many children as there had been during the day, and those that were there tended to be trainers hoping to challenge Brock. Many of them had been present when Brock had unleashed his ferocious onix, and this had resulted in a general reluctance to approach the gym leader.

Jesse didn't hesitate, however. He strode across the clearing to Brock and asked, "You're the gym leader, right? Well, my name is Jesse and I'm here to challenge you."

"All right, Jesse, I accept your challenge," Brock said, flicking his eyes over to where Roy and the others were standing before coming back to the boy standing in front of him. "Are you related to that boy over there?"

"Oh, yeah," Jesse said offhandedly. He gave a look over his shoulder that lasted only a second and explained, "That's my brother, Roy."

"He challenged me earlier today. Did he tell you what to expect?" Jesse just shrugged his shoulders in answer, so Brock said, "Well, I hope you can give us a good workout. Get in position and we'll get this started. That end of the arena is for challengers."

Jesse stepped onto the battlefield to the destination which had been marked by Brock's outstretched finger and Antonia was struck by both the similarities between him and Roy and by their differences. The setting summer sun gave a reddish tint to Jesse's blonde hair and he carried himself in an unconscious imitation of his brother with his arms hung heavy at his sides while his head tracked Brock's progress onto the field. But although they looked similar at rest, Jesse did not move like Roy. His actions were more restrained and he descended into the dugout on his side of the arena as easily as if he had done it countless times before. His arm moved slowly to his pocket and when he brought up his poké ball steadily, not like Roy's wild excited movements.

On the other side of the arena, past the forest of jagged stones which had replaced those that Brock's onix had demolished earlier, Brock produced his own poké ball and held it out in front of him.

Halfway between the two pokémon trainers, the referee in his striped uniform announced to the gathered spectators, "The match between the gym leader Brock and the challenger Jesse is about to commence! The battle will be a two-on-two pokémon match, with only the challenger allowed substitutions."

"Ready, Jesse?" Brock called across the battlefield.

"Ready!"

"All right! Let's do this, Geodude!"

A beam of red light shot out from the poké ball in Brock's hand and took the shape of his craggy-skinned geodude. The rocky creature flexed its arms and then held its fists up in front of its round body like a boxer.

Jesse wasted no time in calling forth his own pokémon. A flick of his wrist sent his poké ball spinning into the air where it erupted to release his pokémon, a blue pokémon with a round head, stubby limbs, and a brown and white shell encasing its torso. Its long tail was curled up at the end and twitched as the pokémon took in its opponent and surroundings.

"Let's go, Geodude, tackle his squirtle!" Brock ordered and Geodude obeyed by springing towards Jesse and his pokémon.

"Slow him down with a bubble attack, Squirtle!" commanded Jesse, and his pokémon quickly spewed a stream of bubbles from its mouth until the path between Geodude and Squirtle was littered with a minefield of floating globes of water. Geodude was unable to easily avoid the hazards, and so relentlessly plowed through them, wincing in pain as each bubble exploded against its rocky skin. Before Geodude had reached Squirtle, Jesse was already giving his next order, "Now sweep his arms with water gun!"

While the bubbles that Squirtle had produced had drifted lazily through the air, the jet of concentrated water which the small blue pokémon fired from its mouth was delivered with much greater power and control. The water gun attack connected with one of the arms that Geodude was supporting itself on, and threw the rocky pokémon off-balance so that it fell over onto the battlefield. Its dogged attempts to right itself and pull itself towards Squirtle were hindered by the other pokémon keeping up a steady rhythm of attacks to keep Geodude focused on trying to defend itself.

But it was to no avail, as Geodude was limited in its movements while Jesse's squirtle was able to dart across the battlefield to seek out the weaknesses in its opponent's defenses and then land a blow before moving onto another advantageous position. Squirtle's continuous assault proved to be too much for Brock's pokémon to handle and, after only a few short minutes, Geodude collapsed to the ground and was still.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" declared the referee from the sideline of the arena. "The winner is Squirtle! The gym leader will now call out his next pokémon!"

Squinting against the setting sun, Brock returned his unconscious pokémon to its poké ball and said, "That was very impressive, Jesse! You didn't hold anything back! But how will you handle my onix?" Then, the gym leader repeated the same throw of a poké ball that he had used in his battle with Antonia and once more a giant serpent made of stone appeared roaring and crashing onto the floor of the battlefield.

Roy and Antonia were both watching Jesse eagerly to gauge his impression of Onix's size and ferocious appearance. Jesse did not bat an eye, and instead immediately set Squirtle to the task at hand with a series of sharp orders. The smaller pokémon darted around the field, peppering Onix with alternating bursts of bubbles and water while nimbly dodging its opponent's counterattacks. When Squirtle was finally cornered and Onix was about to hammer it with its tail, Jesse ordered his pokémon to protect itself. In an instant, Squirtle retracted its head, limbs, and tail inside of its shell, and Onix's blow fell brutally, but ineffectively, on Squirtle's defenses. Frustrated, Onix tried a few more attacks before slamming its tail against Squirtle's side, sending the little pokémon sailing across the battlefield, where it emerged and resumed attacking Onix with more bursts of water and bubbles.

It was a fast-paced battle, and soon neither trainer was issuing many orders to his respective pokémon. There was no time to think too deeply about the moment-to-moment blows, so both Jesse and Brock had to trust in their pokémon's instincts and training instead. Roy, Antonia, and the other spectators watched the battle with wide, awe-struck eyes, especially when Onix ensnared Squirtle in the coils of its body and began trying to squeeze the life out of Jesse's pokémon.

While its shell held fast against the crushing pressure of Onix's body, Squirtle managed to attack from inside of its refuge and blasted Onix with water at close-range. The gigantic pokémon bellowed, first in annoyance, and then in pain, and soon enough it slackened its hold on Squirtle. Not long after Squirtle had been released from Onix's bindings and took up the offensive again, the referee was announcing, "Onix is unable to battle! The winner is Squirtle and the winner of the match is the challenger, Jesse!"

The picnicking crowd roared its approval, and among the loudest voices was Roy's. The rest of the group of new trainers from Pallet Town waited for Jesse to return his pokémon and speak with Brock before they swarmed him and bombarded him with compliments and questions. Roy put his arm around his brother and was always in his ear, something which Jesse took in stride. Soon though, the other members of his clique wanted to approach Brock for a challenge and they demanded more and more of Jesse's attention as they asked him for his advice.

Then, Roy saw Antonia standing a way off from the others and he approached her, smiling widely. "That was so cool, Antonia, did you see that? Jesse was incredible."

"Yeah, he was!" agreed Antonia, a little breathlessly. She was still watching Jesse. "He really knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, he's a natural."

Finally, Zach was chosen to be the next of their number to challenge Brock and Jesse's group sent him on his way with plenty of back-slapping and words of encouragement. Then Jesse walked over to Roy and Antonia.

"The others are going to stay to challenge the gym leader, but I think that I'm going to head back to the pokémon center to take care of my pokémon."

"Can I come with you?" asked Antonia.

Jesse shrugged and said, "Yeah, sure. How about you, Roy?"

Roy looked over at the other trainers from Pallet Town and then said, "Nah, you guys go ahead, I want to stay here and watch the battles." Then, with a quick wave farewell to Jesse and Antonia, Roy rejoined the others from Jesse's group and quickly had them smiling and laughing while they waited for Zach's battle with Brock to begin.

Antonia knew the path back to the pokémon center better than Jesse, so she wasn't able to stay as quiet she would have liked. But after a while, giving directions had given her enough confidence for her to say, "That was a great battle, Jesse. You and your squirtle are really good."

"Thanks," said Jesse, "it helped that you and Roy gave me an idea of what to expect. The way that your bulbasaur tripped up Geodude gave me the idea to have Squirtle do the same thing." He folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the still unlit streetlights lining the road. "Honestly, I don't know how Roy did it."

"What do you mean?"

"How did he beat Brock?" When Antonia didn't answer, Jesse continued to talk, "I mean, from what you told us, it doesn't sound like you did any exceptional training, and he's only got his charmander, right? So he must have come up with something pretty amazing to take out both of Brock's pokémon. That just doesn't sound like him."

The girl's hands were wringing the hem of her shirt and her tongue seemed too big for her mouth as she started to admit, "Well, the thing is, Roy didn't-"

When she didn't go on, Jesse laughed and said, "No, I should've guessed that much. Did you help him, Antonia?"

"I-I- No, he actually battled Brock first."

"Oh, well," Jesse trailed off. They walked for a while in silence before he said, "Thank you for traveling with Roy, Antonia. I never would've thought it'd happen in a million years, but whatever is going on between you two, I think it's good for him."

Although Antonia couldn't will the earth to open up and swallow her, the next best thing happened when they reached the pokémon center. Antonia made a semi-coherent excuse to Jesse and then darted inside the sliding glass doors before him to stake out a hiding spot in one of the center's complimentary dormitories. In the safety of her room, Antonia could play things over and over again in her head and come up with different things she could have done or said. But none of her reproaching convinced her to leave her room, and so she spent the rest of the evening there, eventually falling asleep.

The next morning, Antonia was lying awake on top of her bed when she heard a series of harsh whispers just outside of her door. Curiosity banished the last traces of sleep from her mind, and she rolled out of bed and crept carefully to the door to find out what was being discussed so clandestinely.

"But he beat Brock, Jess!" one of the voices said. "That has to count for something!"

"No," another responded curtly. "He might have won by some kind of fluke, but he's still the same old Roy, and when things get tough he's going to give up the same way that he always does."

Antonia hated herself for eavesdropping, but she lingered by the door taking in every word as Jesse and his friends argued about Roy. Whether he could join their group or whether they should leave him behind. They didn't reach a conclusion within earshot of her. Instead, they left for the pokémon center's cafeteria when one of Jesse's friends, Zach, whined, "I'm starving. Let's decide over breakfast." The spell holding Antonia in place suddenly broke and she found herself getting dressed for the day with an urgency that she didn't understand, as she had no idea what she was going to tell Roy, or if she should tell him anything at all.

Roy's room was down the hallways from hers, and Antonia padded across the carpeted passage to knock on Roy's door. When her initial hesitant knocks did not summon him, she resorted instead to hammering blows which echoed in the narrow confines of the pokémon center's hallway. The change in tactics bore fruit, and Roy opened the door dressed in his pajamas and rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Toni? What's up? Where's the fire?"

Seeing Roy so carefree and clueless almost left Antonia speechless, but before her throat could tighten up into another hard knot she made herself blurt out, "Jesse's going to leave without you!"

"What?" Any and all sleepiness vanished from Roy's face and he resembled more and more the angry boy that Antonia had stumbled upon outside of the pokémon center in Viridian City two nights ago. When Antonia didn't say anything, Roy asked her, "Why would you say that, Toni?"

"I heard him," she squeaked, "outside of my room. He was talking about it, with the others."

Roy's brow was still pinched together, but the longer he looked at Antonia the more his temper seemed to cool. "You must've misheard them," he said after a few moments' silence. "Let me get dressed and we'll go talk with him. You'll see." Then, he disappeared behind his door, not quite slamming it shut. Antonia stood there motionless save for the hands fidgeting at her sides until Roy returned, ready to go albeit in a slapdash manner with his blonde hair still sticking up and his red t-shirt partially tucked into his jean shorts. Wordlessly, the two trainers walked to the pokémon center's dining area.

Jesse and his friends were there, eating silently, but the quietude felt as though it had been suddenly imposed by the approach of Roy and Antonia. Without any preamble, Roy threw himself into one of the table's open seats, directly across from Jesse.

"Hey, Roy, good morning," the narrow-faced boy, Zach, said.

Jesse didn't feign pleasantries though. "What did you all hear?" he asked his brother simply.

"Enough," Roy said. "You're not going to ditch me again, are you?"

"Call it what you want, but we're not going to travel with you. You and Antonia seem to be having fun together. Why do you want to throw that away?"

"Actually-" Antonia started to say, but Roy spoke over her, "I want to battle you."

Jesse's lips curved into a small frown. "Why?"

"I bet that you think I'm a weak pokémon trainer, that I'm just a loser who's never going to get better, right? Well, you're wrong! Let me show you!"

The other boys and Antonia shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "Come on, Jesse," Zach said, "just ignore him."

But Jesse and Roy locked eyes and something passed between the two brothers. "Fine. Let's get this over with," Jesse said. He stood up first, but Roy was only a split second behind him. They headed out the backdoor of the cafeteria to the playground behind the pokémon center, leaving Antonia and the others scrambling after them. Some of Jesse's friends still had food in their hands and their mouths, but the promise of a pokémon battle was an irresistible draw to the boys.

It was already shaping up to be a colder morning than the previous few days, with a stiff wind blowing through the city streets hard enough to set the playground's swing set creaking on rusting chains. There was an area of the blacktop perfect for sports, games, or pokémon battles. Roy and Jesse took up positions on opposite end of the arena with a solemnity which belied their cheerful surroundings. "How does one-on-one sound to you, Roy?" asked Jesse, and when his brother nodded, Jesse turned to their audience and called out, "Antonia! Would you be our judge?"

"Me?" asked Antonia, but she was already walking around the others and making her way to a point in the middle of the asphalt court's sidelines. "Um, all right, this will be a one-on-one pokémon battle, ah, with no switching out, I mean substitutions."

Neither brother paid Antonia much mind, or said anything to each other, either. Roy was the first to draw his poké ball, the only one he had. He did not throw it or add any other flourishes this time. Instead, he brandished the red and white sphere like it was a weapon and brought forth his pokémon.

Freed from his poké ball, Roy's charmander sprang forward and snarled at Jesse and his friends. Taking little heed of his brother's pokémon, Jesse brought out his own poké ball and held it above his shoulder. In a burst of red light, the beam which the poké ball emitted took the shape of a smaller creature, a bird with sharp, unfriendly features and short stubby wings which it had to flap rapidly in order to become airborne and to stay aloft.

Roy's face fell when he saw the pokémon that his brother chose. "But what about your squirtle?" he asked, trying not to let a whine creep into his voice but falling short nonetheless.

"Squirtle still needs some rest after yesterday," Jesse explained laconically. "And I thought my spearow would be a fair match for you."

Behind him, Zach snickered, but Jesse silenced him with a single look. Roy still looked crestfallen, but as he looked up at his brother, the spearow, and Jesse's friends, Roy's face grew red. His brow furrowed and he clenched his teeth and his flesh. "Fine!" spat Roy. "We'll show you! Charmander! Attack!"

His pokémon did not need to be told twice. Charmander charged wildly at his smaller opponent, swinging his claws in front of him and spitting out licks of flame through his snarls and snapping teeth. Charmander was not fast enough to catch Jesse's spearow before it had taken wing and, just as had happened in the forest, he was left to rage impotently at a foe out of reach of his claws.

In contrast to Charmander and his trainer's blind rage, Jesse and his spearow were calm and collected. Charmander's initial charge had been a little startling, but it had not stopped Jesse's pokémon from enacting its training and getting out of danger without so much as a ruffled feather. Now, the time had come for an attack.

"Dive bomb him, Spearow!" Jesse ordered with a ringing shout. His pokémon did not give any outward sign of having heard its trainer's order except by immediately obeying it. After flapping its wings harder to gain a little more altitude, Spearow tipped its stumpy body forward and brought in its wings tight as it soared down towards the earthbound charmander, letting gravity add to its speed. From its deceptively awkward appearance, Spearow had transformed itself into a feathered missile, tipped by a sharp curved beak.

Rather than stand and fight, Roy's charmander had the sense to try and get out of the way of Spearow's attack, but he had hesitated before doing so, and paid the price as Jesse's spearow left a painful cut on the other pokémon's side as it zipped past him like a bullet. Charmander roared and lashed out at the pain, but he was too slow. After Spearow had completed its pass, Jesse's pokémon spread its wings and flapped them to fly over to perch on the top of a two-story play structure. A few bursts of fire from Charmander left black scorch marks on the molded plastic of the slide below it, but Spearow remained unperturbed.

The two pokémon glared at each other while their trainers exchanged their own angry looks.

"Come on, Roy!" Jesse said sharply, "show me that you didn't beat Brock through dumb luck! Prove me wrong!"

"Shut up!" was all that Roy ground out from between his clenched teeth. Then he ordered Charmander, "Try and hit it with your fire! See if you can get closer to it first!" Roy was grateful when he watched his charmander fire off a few obliging bursts of flame at Spearow, but then he gave up on that tactic in favor of a headlong dash towards the slide leading up to the other pokémon.

Roy tried to think of what he should do next, but it was hard for him to wrack his brain for solutions when he was so angry. If only the battle didn't have an audience, if only it wasn't Jesse. If only, while he was entertaining other what-ifs, he was a pokémon training genius using a full-grown charizard instead of an ill-tempered charmander. Even in his mounting frustration, Roy knew that this wasn't helping him, but that knowledge didn't stop him from having one more regret: if only he had worked harder with Antonia to train his pokémon.

Thinking of her caused Roy to turn his attention to the girl. At first, Antonia continued to watch the pokémon squabbling in the playground, but she turned to look back at Roy. Antonia's brown eyes looked troubled, but Roy didn't know what was the cause. There wasn't time to think about that now, anyways, not with Jesse's spearow plunging through the air to slash at Charmander's side again.

Roy's pokémon did not try to get out of the way of Spearow's attack this time. Instead, Charmander snapped and clawed at the pokémon flying at him as he stood at the top of the slide. For his efforts, Charmander earned only a few loose feathers and a new nasty-looking cut across his face. Across the field from Roy, Jesse twirled his finger in a small sharp circle in the air and said in a bored tone, "Again, Spearow."

The bird pokémon swooped through the air and then angled its body for another diving attack. Roy yelled, "Charmander! Just like the forest! Wait for it to get close, then use your fire!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Jesse rolled his eyes but otherwise didn't react. Charmander didn't look over at Roy either, but under the bleeding cut on his head his eyes narrowed and he curled his claws and gritted his teeth. When Spearow dove at him again with its wings tucked in and its beak brandished like a dagger, Charmander stood his ground again at the top of the slide and then fired a single burst of fire at his enemy's head. Jesse's spearow let out a squawk of pain and confusion, but it had built up too much speed to stop the attack and so Spearow plowed into Charmander's chest, blinking away ashes and embers from its eyes as it did so. Spearow lashed out with its beak and flapped its wings awkwardly, but Charmander grabbed the other pokémon and threw it to the surface of the play structure. There, Spearow rolled around on the black plastic twisting and squirming, trying to get away, but Charmander grappled with it and began raking Spearow's body with his claws, more furiously than methodically.

The sounds of Spearow's cawing turned from angry to pained to quiet as its struggling ceased. Charmander stood over his unconscious foe and roared his triumph to the sky. Both Roy and Jesse looked expectantly at Antonia who seemed to snap out of her trance and said rapidly, "Spearow is unable to battle, the winner is Charmander and Roy."

On the victor's side, the boy and his pokémon felt none of the elation that might have been expected, and Jesse himself showed no signs of anger or disappointment. Instead, both brothers simply recalled their pokémon back to their respective poké balls without saying anything to them, or to each other. Instead, Roy and Jesse merely stared each other down, both of them pictures of defiance to the point where it wasn't clear who had won and who had lost. The silence between the two pokémon trainers stretched on until Antonia and the other onlookers grew nervous and began to shift on their feet.

"What does this mean?" asked one of the boys.

"Are they going to fight?" asked another.

Slowly, but confidently, Jesse started walking towards Roy, closing the gap with easy strides of his long legs. Only belatedly did Roy move to meet him and as a result the two brothers met closer to Roy's end of the battlefield than its midpoint. "Well, done, Roy," Jesse said as he offered his hand. "I underestimated you."

"Yeah, you did," agreed Roy, but he took his brother's hand in a short handshake. His insolent expression softened at the contact and something new and hopeful shone through his blue eyes. "I beat you. I really beat you, Jess."

"Yeah, you did," Jesse echoed back.

"Does that mean," Roy trailed off, ending the last word on a hopeful lilt.

But Jesse just shook his head. What was worse was that he was smiling as he did so, a tight, perfect little smile. "I think that you and Antonia traveling together has been good for you, Roy, I really do." Then, to that familiar observation he now added an unpleasant coda, "But nothing's really changed. You beat one pokémon gym and you've trained one pokémon, but you're still the same Roy. I don't think that you're weak or a loser or any of that, but I know that you aren't going to stick it out." Jesse glanced over at the other boys.

"You're wrong," Roy growled as his hope was replaced with anger in an instant, "I'm going to prove you wrong."

"I hope you do," replied Jesse easily. Then he walked away, gathered his entourage around himself, and headed off in the direction of the pokémon gym.

Roy and Antonia were left alone in the playground behind the pokémon center. Tentatively, the girl approached the boy. Antonia's hands were tucked inside of her folded arms and her eyes were wary, but she still came up to Roy. The two of them stood there, neither of them saying anything, just letting time pass.

Slowly, Roy's anger ebbed and his body relaxed. He still did not look up at Antonia when he asked her, "So, what do I do now? What are you going to do now?"

"I-" Antonia looked off towards where Jesse and the others had departed, then she looked down at Roy's shoes, which was where his focus was also directed. "I'm going to go to another pokémon gym, the one in Cerulean City. I'm going to get my next badge. What are you going to do, Roy?"

"Should I stay here?" he asked. Now he had taken Charmander's poké ball out of his pocket again and was turning it over in his hand. "Should I keep trying to beat Brock?" He looked to Antonia for an answer, but her round face betrayed none of her thoughts to him. One of Roy's feet kicked back and forth on the ground as he thought. Then, Roy shook his head and smiled weakly at Antonia. "You're going to keep traveling and challenging gym leaders?" Roy asked.

"That's right."

Roy's body began to stiffen again, but this time his face didn't turn red and his hands remained unclenched. Instead of yelling, his voice was a small, uncertain thing. "Can I come with you?" Then, Roy's talking picked up speed, and increased in volume as he explained, "I mean, there's a lot more that I can learn from you. I know that you said that you only wanted to stick together this far, but I mean, if we're going the same way, we might as well travel together, right? And, besides, you still don't have anyone else traveling with you!"

Roy's excitement hung in the air, but Antonia managed to escape its shade. She chewed the inside of her cheek and looked again towards where Jesse had gone. Then, she looked at Roy, her wary eye contact so unlike that of the visibly thrumming boy standing across from her. "I suppose-" she started to say, but then Roy fill Antonia's vision, and she felt his hands clasping hers.

"Thank you, Toni! You won't regret it! I mean it! So, when do we head out?"