The air was electric as Jesse and his wartortle squared off with the other finalist in the pokémon martial arts tournament. The older boy's contempt had been focused from the whole competition down to only Jesse, sneering at the blonde trainer while his gangly pokémon next to him directed a matching expression at Wartortle. The pink-skinned Mr. Mime rolled its shoulders and flexed his fingers under his white gloves while Wartortle prepared for the coming battle by hopping a little bit in place and performing a few light jabs in the air. From the sidelines, Roy, Antonia, Charmander, and Bulbasaur held their breaths and waited for the fight to start.
They did not have long to wait. Kenji, the tournament's organizer, furrowed his heavy brow and then chopped his hand down through the air and, without any further ceremony, bellowed, "Begin!"
Unlike so many of the bouts which had preceded this match, the two pokémon did not launch themselves at each other right away, but instead continued to examine the other. Jesse was not sure that Wartortle would be able to break through Mr. Mime's defenses, and his opponent's cheating had been exposed so the element of surprise on his side was gone. Still, as the stalemate could not last forever, it did not.
Jesse snapped his fingers like a cracking whip in the quiet of the park, and his blue-scaled pokémon dived at Mr. Mime's midsection. When the other pokémon lowered his hands to block Wartortle's advance, the attacker angled his body and glanced off Mr. Mime's palms and continued its path to a section of the arena off to Mr. Mime's side. As soon as he landed, Wartortle spun around to adjust his body to face Mr. Mime again and, with a dogged expression on his flat face, sprang at his foe again. This time, he aimed higher, at Mr. Mime's head, only to be batted away again.
Wartortle landed on all four limbs on the ground opposite where he had started. Mr. Mime was looking at him warily, but still holding his ground. Mr. Mime's trainer's sour expression had been overtaken by one of combined curiosity and concern. Jesse looked thoughtful, as well, before he said, almost casually, "Let's try this," and then waved his hand in a tight little circle in the air in front of his chest.
Wartortle's eyes had darted to his trainer at Jesse's voice, and once the gesture was completed, he attacked Mr. Mime again with one more lunging dive. This time, however, when the Mr. Mime's broad hands fended off Wartortle's assault, the blue pokémon withdrew his limbs inside of the protection of his shell and let the blow from the frustrated Mr. Mime set his body spinning so that the shell and its occupant became a deadly projectile careening around the narrow confines of the arena.
Jesse's opponent jumped up and clung onto the rope barrier beside him when Wartortle's trajectory brought him close by the older trainer, but Jesse regarded the path of his pokémon around the space with cool detachment. Meanwhile, Mr. Mime struggled to keep track of the ricocheting pokémon and turned this way and that from his position in the middle of the arena, never fully committing to a move before having to change his orientation to address Wartortle's latest pass. The whole time, Mr. Mime tried to keep his large hands between him and his spinning foe, but there was a growing uneasiness in his efforts as he jerked this way and that, unsure of when the final blow would come. Finally, Wartortle, still inside of his shell, made a straight shot at Mr. Mime. The larger pokémon brought down his hands to protect his thin legs from the attack, but before his hands, and the invisible barrier coating them, could meet Wartortle, the two stout legs emerged from the side of the shell and Wartortle leapt over Mr. Mime's laced fingers and towards his unprotected face.
The shell struck Mr. Mime square on the forehead and sent the pink pokémon reeling backwards until he found purchase on the rope barrier behind him. Wartortle landed by one of the corners and emerged completely from his shell, only to stumble around dizzily until he too was able to hold onto the ropes and keep himself upright.
"Shake it off, Mr. Mime!" Jesse's opponent barked, but his pokémon only rubbed his aching head with one of his gloved hands.
"Are you ready, Wartortle?" asked Jesse at the same time. His pokémon tried to nod, but the bobbing of his head caused another bout of dizziness and he too continued to rely on the arena's structure for support.
Urged on by his trainer's increasingly harsh words, it was Mr. Mime which first moved to resume the fighting. Still swaying on his feet, the wild-haired pokémon advanced on Wartortle, arms and hands outstretched as though he was going to deliver a hug to his still-dazed opponent. "It likes being in its shell, huh?" spat the Mr. Mime's trainer. "Well, let's see how it likes being stuffed in there!"
Although his movements were still unsure, Mr. Mime tried gamely to follow his trainer's instructions. He neared Wartortle, and used his long reach to seize one of the stumbling blue pokémon's limbs and wrench it and stuff it back inside Wartortle's brown and yellow shell. The other pokémon grunted his pain and discomfort, but was unable to break free from his larger foe's clutches.
Jesse watched impassively as Mr. Mime held his hand over the opening in the shell so that Wartortle's arm could not get out, and then he began to work on the corresponding limb on his foe's other side. Again, Wartortle struggled but was unable to keep Mr. Mime from locking a second arm inside of his shell.
"There!" Mr. Mime's trainer said. "Now, pick up that wartortle and throw it out of the ring!"
Mr. Mime was still struggling to stay on his feet, but he wrapped his fingers tighter around Wartortle from where they were placed over the smaller pokémon's shell and started to lift it. It was difficult for him to keep a grip on the struggling wartortle and the rounded surface of his shell, and all at once one of Mr. Mime's hands slipped and Wartortle's fist came flying out of the suddenly uncovered opening to slam into Mr. Mime's face. The sudden reversal had Mr. Mime clutching his nose and dropping Wartortle back to the ground. The blue pokémon's feet landed on the surface of the arena one second and in the next he was pummeling Mr. Mime's exposed body with a combination of punches which were delivered with heavy grunts as Wartortle worked himself to exhaustion.
Before he could fall, Mr. Mime did so first. The spindly pokémon had feebly tried to block Wartortle's attacks, but he was too dazed to make an effective defense and every time that he halted one of the other pokémon's punches with the invisible barrier coating his big hands, another three blows would land on Mr. Mime's unprotected body until his arms were hanging limply at his sides, his mouth was slack-jawed, and he was swaying on his feet. With a heavy thud, Mr. Mime fell backwards on the mat and for a moment it was silent in the park's clearing which was hosting the tournament.
Then, Kenji began his count and Mr. Mime's trainer came to life, shouting at his pokémon, berating the fallen fighter to get back up, but to no avail. When Kenji announced "Wartortle is the winner!", he returned Mr. Mime to his poké ball with a look of disgust.
"Whatever!" he said with more force than the word deserved. "This whole contest, your whole gym, are just a joke!" To Jesse, but loud enough that Roy and Antonia could hear him to, he said, "Come by Saffron City's real pokémon gym when you want an actual challenge!" Then, he sprang from the arena and tried to walk away from the others as quickly as he could without being seen as outright running away.
Kenji watched him go without a word, only a grunt of derision at the teenager's retreat. To Jesse, he nodded and held open the ropes for Jesse to emerge from the arena. Both Roy and Antonia wanted to congratulate him, but they were stopped by Kenji holding up one giant calloused hand. With his other, he pulled a red and white poké ball out of his white gi and placed it solemnly in Jesse's upturned hands. "To the winner goes the prize," Kenji said. "This is one of the pokémon we prize at our dojo. I am sure that you will be able to use it to its full potential, and I hope that you remember, that all of you remember," he amended as he turned to Roy and Antonia as well, "that there is more to pokémon battling than tricks and flashy displays. At the end of the day, it is the pokémon and the trainer who are willing to work the hardest, who are willing to the get back up one more time than they were knocked down, who will triumph."
Then, he stepped back and looked at Jesse and said, "Congratulations," and then he turned away and started to work to dismantle the lone arena which remained after the day's tournament.
If Jesse felt as though the exchange was lacking in ceremony, he did not show it, instead looking down at the poké ball he had received and turning it over in his hand. When Roy, Antonia, and their pokémon came to him, he smiled a little and put his prize in the back pocket of his jeans.
"That was amazing, Jesse!" said Roy. "You and your wartortle are so cool! I mean, the way that he went rocketing around and then, bam!, popped out and knocked that cheater flat on his butt! Oh man, that was the best thing ever!"
"Congratulations!" Antonia added when Roy paused to take a breath, and did not say anything more after that. Though she might have wanted to, her joy was more than adequately expressed by her wide grin and her bouncing up and down as Roy talked.
Jesse took all the praise in with good humor, saying, "Hey, thanks, I'm just glad that our plan worked." Next to him, Wartortle looked up at Jesse eagerly, breaking off his adoration only to aim a glare at Charmander when Roy's pokémon snorted contemptuously at the others' excitement.
The three pokémon trainers continued to chatter for a while longer, or at least the two brothers talked while Antonia watched them with a smile and her eyes shining behind her glasses. Finally, she did speak up again, this time saying, "Should we get back to the pokémon center and get your pokémon patched up?"
"Hey, that's not a bad idea, Toni," agreed Roy at once. "What do you think, Jesse? Plus, you can show off your new pokémon while the nurses are taking care of Charmander and Wartortle!"
Something passed briefly over Jesse's face, but then it was gone and he shrugged. "Yeah, that could be a good idea. Let's head back."
They retraced the path that they had taken from the pokémon center to the park that morning. They moved a little more easily through the bustling streets of Saffron City, although their comfort still did not stop the three of them from jumping as one body when an emergency vehicle came screaming around the corner in front of them with sirens blaring and lights flashing. After the initial shock had worn off, the trainers were able to share a laugh amongst themselves, while their pokémon were slower to relax. As they walked, they talked, mainly about the next steps in their journeys. Roy was disappointed that Jesse was already planning on moving on before the day was done.
"I figure that I should collect the badge from the Cerulean City gym leader and get a little stronger before tackling this city's pokémon gym," explained Jesse when he was pressed for his travel plans. "I've heard that the gym leader here is really strong."
"That's right," Antonia offered. "I read that she's put an end a lot of new trainers' journeys."
"Well, do you want us to come with you to Cerulean City?" asked Roy.
Antonia looked at Roy, but then both of them looked at Jesse when the other boy laughed and said, "No thanks, Roy. I appreciate the offer, but I think I can beat the gym leader without your help! Besides, what else is there for you in Cerulean City now that you've already got your badge from her?"
Now, Antonia's eyes grew wider, but she did not say anything and instead of correcting his brother, Roy hastened to point out the nearby pokémon center.
The conversation was put on hold as the three traveling trainers finished walking to their destination. Roy and Jesse both returned their pokémon to their poké balls and handed them over to the on-duty nurse while Antonia and her bulbasaur found a spot in the lobby where they could all sit comfortably on the plush couches and chairs provided by the pokémon center. When the boys returned, they sat on opposite ends of one couch where Antonia could see them both from her own seat on an armchair into which she kept threatening to sink.
"How about you show us your new pokémon?" asked Roy.
Jesse hesitated, and he said, "Maybe I should keep it a secret for our next battle, Roy." It was hard to tell if he was joking or not.
Roy did not seem to care one way or the other. "Come on, Jesse!" he insisted. "I know you're itching to see it too!"
"Well, you're right about that. Okay, here it is." Jesse pulled the red and white poké ball which Kenji had given him out of pants' pocket and depressed the button in its center so that a beam of red light shot out and formed into a shape in the open space on the other side of the coffee table in front of the couch.
It was a tall pokémon, taller than Roy or Jesse, and it stood on athletic legs which led up to a dull purple tunic which stood in contrast with the rich color of its skin, something like coffee with plenty of cream. Its head was flat and functional, to the point where it did not have a visible nose, but the most attention was drawn to the corded muscles of its arms and the two red boxing gloves which it wore on its hands. The pokémon did not even bother to look around its surroundings before it delivered a quick series of jabs in the air in front of it. Only after that performance, so much more expertly and beautifully conducted than any of the clumsy punching that had been on display during the pokémon martial arts tournament, did the new pokémon deign to look at its new trainer.
"Is that a hitmonchan?" asked Antonia. "Did he really give you a hitmonchan?"
"Looks like it," Jesse said. He stood up from the couch and circled his new pokémon, examining it from all angles while the hitmonchan basked in the attention. It preened and flexed its muscles more with every sound of approval which Jesse made.
Roy had leapt up from his seat as well, and exclaimed, "A hitmonchan! That's so cool! Do you want to try battling with it? I bet Charmander wouldn't mind going up against your new pokémon after he's all rested up! What do you say?"
Jesse gave his new pokémon one last look and then he raised the hitmonchan's poké ball up and recalled it, to the dismay of both the pokémon and Roy. "Thanks for the offer, Roy, but we'll pass on a battle this time."
"Well, what about battling Toni, then? If you don't want to wait, her bulbasaur's ready to go right now."
"No," Jesse said again, and then he laughed when Antonia let out the breath she had been holding, "although thanks for offering on her behalf. Once Wartortle is ready, I think that I'm going to get on the road. I don't want to dawdle here. Like I said, there's another pokémon gym to get to in Cerulean City, and then I'll have to backtrack through Saffron anyways. If I want to keep up with you two, I'll have to keep moving."
Jesse laughed to show just how seriously he took the idea of his falling behind, and both Roy and Antonia joined in with uneasy little laughs of their own. He ignored them and looked over expectantly at the nurse's station. "It shouldn't take them too long. Wartortle might have gotten rattled a little bit inside of his shell, but he didn't take any serious damage like your charmander did, Roy."
"So, what?" asked Roy. "You're just going to get your pokémon and go? Just like that?"
"That's the plan," Jesse said immediately. Now he looked at his brother, the twins forming mirrored images of one another with Antonia sitting off to the side. "I was impressed by what I saw today, Roy. It wasn't always what I would have gone with, but you and your pokémon did pretty well today. I wish that it had been the two of us facing off in the final round."
Roy interjected, "But we could still have a battle," only for Jesse to start talking over him again.
"But from what I saw, you still have a ways to go. I don't want to travel with you, or even battle with you, until you've developed that more. As long as you keep chasing after me, you're never going to find your own footing."
"How can I stop chasing after you, Jesse? You're my brother!"
Jesse let Roy's protest pass without comment. Instead, he fixed his intense eyes on the girl still sitting on the armchair in silence with her bulbasaur. "Antonia, you've helped Roy a lot, probably more than I know. If you can finish turning him into a serious pokémon trainer, well, then it'll be impossible for me to say that you're not the best in our class, even without having to battle you."
Her face colored and Antonia looked intently at the hands folded in her lap. "Thank you," she said quietly. When she dared to look up, Jesse was smiling easily at her, and that brought on another wave of shyness.
The three of them did not move or speak until their tableau was intruded upon by the nurse who had earlier taken Roy and Jesse's pokémon. "Excuse me," she said, "but I wanted to let you know that we've gotten both of your pokémon patched up. They should be ready to be picked up."
"Thank you," Jesse said and he started to follow the nurse back to her station, pausing only to invite Roy to follow him with a raise of his eyebrows and a tilt of his head. Roy dragged his feet at first, but walked in his brother's wake, leaving Antonia by herself with her thoughts and her hand reaching out absentmindedly to stroke her bulbasaur's head.
"Sorry, it's not every day that we see two trainers who look so similar. You had the wartortle, right?" the nurse asked Jesse when they had assembled at her desk. "And the charmander was yours, then." Both boys nodded and held out their hands so that the nurse could deposit their poké balls into them. "Now, your pokémon are doing fine, but they're still not at a hundred percent. You can travel with them, maybe even engage in some light training, but I wouldn't let them battle anything tougher than a pidgey without getting a good night's rest first. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Roy and Jesse said at once. Then, Jesse added to Roy, "Looks like you wouldn't have gotten that battle anyways."
Roy just shrugged and he started back towards the pokémon center's lobby where Antonia was waiting for them to return. When Jesse did not follow, he stopped and asked, "What's the matter?"
"I'm actually going to get on the road."
"Just like that?"
Jesse put Wartortle's poké ball into his pocket as he said, "Yeah, I want to get a good start on the road to Cerulean City. Gives me more time to find a good campsite before night falls."
"A campsite? Jesse, you'd rather spend the night sleeping on the ground than in a pokémon center?" Roy laughed, "Wait, I take that back, you loved our camping trips with dad just as much as me. I just forget about that with Toni, you know? She's so different."
At the sound of her name, Antonia had started towards the talking boys. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Jesse's going to get going so he can get his next gym badge."
"Oh," said Antonia, "well, um, goodbye, I guess." She noticed that her hands had found the hem of her shirt and she forced them to let go before looking back up at Jesse. "When will we see you again?"
Jesse did not have an answer for her, not right away. Instead, he swayed on his feet a little before saying, "I guess you'll see me if our paths cross again. It's a big region, though. It might not be until the league championships in August."
"And we'll definitely battle then!" exclaimed Roy, his eyes blazing with excitement, only to have it doused by the nonchalant way that Jesse chuckled at his enthusiasm.
Sure, Roy, we'll have our battle then, but in the meantime, keep working hard. Oh, and Antonia?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for helping, Roy, it means a lot to me."
Then, having gotten the last word, Jessie turned on his heel and strolled out of the front doors of the pokémon center without waiting for a goodbye from either Roy or Antonia.
The two trainers watched him go in silence, heedless of the looks of confusion and concern that they were receiving from the on-duty nurse and from Antonia's bulbasaur respectively. A thousand thoughts rushed through each of their heads, but they were things that they did not want to share with the other. Instead, they were hoarded away in the most private spaces of their minds.
"Well, Roy," said Antonia with artificial cheer, "why don't we go check out the pokémon gym? We still have some time before dinner, and I would like to see what our next challenge looks like."
"That's a great idea, Toni!" agreed Roy. "Talking with Jesse always gets me fired up, and seeing his pokémon in action does too. What did you think of his hitmonchan? Wish that I had gotten a pokémon like that."
"Well, you might have if Charmander had been able to keep his head."
Roy led the way to the pokémon center's entrance, retracing his brother's steps. "Do you think that Charmander could have beaten Jesse's wartortle?"
Antonia paused to recall Bulbasaur back to his poké ball before she caught up with her fellow trainer. "Not really, no. I mean, you saw Jesse and his pokémon. He had Wartortle trained very well and he has that hard shell that Charmander would have a lot of trouble breaking through those defenses."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. But Charmander still did pretty good, right? I mean, he was able to take down so many of those pokémon using just his claws and his attitude, wasn't that awesome?"
They waited for the signal to cross a particularly busy intersection, and Antonia said, "Yes, Charmander did a really good job. It was similar to watching him fight that pidgeotto in the Viridian Forest. I mean, without getting too much direction from you Charmander could just do what he does best, and do it fast too."
As the crossed the street, Roy added, "That's what I said, awesome, right? Too bad that he couldn't stop himself from using a fire attack on that cheating pokémon, though. Even though it was what he deserved."
"Well, that's a problem of training," said Antonia simply, and she did not notice Roy's sidelong glance at her. "But we can work on that. Let's check out the gym first."
Located only a few blocks away from the pokémon center where Roy and Antonia had been staying, the Saffron City pokémon gym was an imposing building, but it lacked any of the immediate appeal that its counterpart in Cerulean City possessed. The reason was that, while the other pokémon gym served as a kind of community hub by providing swimming facilities for residents of the city and their pokémon, Saffron City's gym did not host any of those amenities, and, judging from the brutal façade of the imposing building, it was thought that there was no sense in pretending otherwise. As soon as Roy and Antonia stepped in through the building's double doors, they saw that this pokémon gym was devoted to training pokémon and nothing else.
The interior of the gym was noticeably lacking in ornamentation when compared to the pokémon center with its elaborate meals for traveling trainers. The doors from the street opened into a small lobby, but that quickly gave way to a large center for pokémon and their trainers to train. The walls were coated with a simple coat of yellow paint, and the floor was marked with a few rudimentary boundaries for half-a-dozen arenas for pokémon battles. It was easy to miss them due to all the activity which was taking place a top of them. Trainers were barking orders and pokémon were obeying them, moving, leaping, attacking, all with an undeniable power which made Roy and Antonia's eyes go wide.
Some of the pokémon were more physically imposing, like a heavyset, dull-eyed pokémon with pink fur and a conical shell covering its tail, but others were slighter of stature, including, the two young trainers noted with distaste, the same Mr. Mime and his trainer which they had seen at the pokémon martial arts tournament. Some of the pokémon, Mr. Mime included, were not moving themselves but were rather concentrating intently on objects which were zipping through the air around them. Roy looked at Antonia and she said, "They're all psychic pokémon, Roy, that's what this gym specializes in. It's supposed to be one of the toughest in the region because no one's used to battling against pokémon with such incredible powers. They're supposed to be able to move things around just by thinking about it, put your pokémon to sleep with a single gesture, or even read minds."
"And we're supposed to battle against all of that? With our own pokémon?" Roy asked dubiously.
"It's not just the pokémon who are capable of great things, either," said a voice behind them, and Roy and Antonia both spun around to see who had spoken to them.
They found themselves looking at a young woman, old enough to be a university student, with long black hair which, even while tied back, reached down to the waist of her magenta and black outfit. Her features were elegant and refined, but there was a harshness in her dark eyes which made her seem unapproachable, like a famous work of art. When the corners of her mouth tugged up into a small smile, it still looked more predatory than welcoming, even though her words were polite enough, "Are you two here to challenge my gym? My name is Sabrina, and I'm the gym leader here."
Roy was about to say something, though he was not sure what, when Antonia said, "That's right. I'm Antonia and I'm here to win my third gym badge."
"Very well," Sabrina said, "let's see what you've got." Her smile widened by just a fraction, but it was enough to make Roy's blood run cold.