-7-

Half of the team was deeply asleep.  Vera was away, meditating somewhere awkward, while Vincent and Theodore discussed finances and other things.

"So, in summary, Tio, we have two badges to earn, one week to earn them, and four days of room-and-board in our pockets."

"Not gonna make it, Boss."

"Nope.  We might win this gym if we're lucky, but... there's always next summer."

"And summer courses."

"There's gotta be a gym near the university.  We'll watch the schedule to catch a couple wandering leaders that we can get numbers seven and eight from, then it's just a matter of taking extra courses during the next spring so I can free-up a summer term and head to the finals."

"I had to learn half of your class material and teach it to you to keep your grade point average over 3.5 in high school, Boss.  I don't think you can handle the extra load."

"Well, then you do my coursework and I'll chase after the league title without you."

"Okay, but I get your diploma."

"I can't wait to see you shake hands with the Pres'."

"Jackie is going to college this fall, too, isn't she?"

"Yeah, a much nicer one, too."

"Rich-people-private, all-girls', and reasonably near yours?"

"I think so."

"Jackie is going to get cabin fever--fast--cooped up in a place like that.  Isn't it about time you started owing each other dinners instead of lunches?"

"I don't know.  I mean, yeah, but, I can't do that to Carl.  He'd go nuts and have to be committed."

"Just go for it, Boss.  My nose is better than yours; she's holding out just for you.  Don't let her down."

"I'll try not to, but it's gonna feel weird."

"Going to dinner with Jackie won't feel weird, compared to explaining that your typhlosion is part of the package.  That's going to require precise wording."

"Ha!  She loves fluffy, cute pokemon like you, and I'm sure we can afford a king-size bed.  No problem!"

Both Vincent and Theodore began to imagine the situation that their discussion had wandered into.  The images they visualized were quite dissimilar, but neither one was implausible.

It was a strain of her powers, but Vera was successfully eavesdropping from her position near the pinnacle of Hexyloxy Harbor's radio tower.  "Don't forget about me, boys.  I would feel left out if you skipped my turn."

After a moment of shock from her bold psychic intrusion, since Vera rarely admitted to monitoring the thoughts of others when they were alone, Vincent and Theodore slowly faced each other and simultaneously asked, "what were you thinking about that made her say that?"

Theodore admitted to being the one at fault by finding his way out.  "It's after seven.  I think I'll see if this place's promise of breakfast is any good."  Tio made his way to a small room next to the motel's lobby that served as a communal kitchen for the guests.  Glancing at the pool area, his emotions raised and lowered as he noticed a hot tub and a sign that read "no pokemon allowed in the water."



Shade was concerned about his master and roused the hiker with great effort.  Zap provided Irish coffee and aspirin.

"Thank you."

That statement was directed at the ninetales.

"You better not be lying to me."

That statement was directed at the ampharos.

"You can trust me, Master.  There is no way he will get to eight badges and qualify for the league playoffs.  It took him five years to get five badges, and you said he struck out again last week.  There's only time for him to try one more gym before he heads back.  Vera isn't the type to give him an airlift home unless his life depended on it, and she keeps him out of that kind of trouble.  Hal refused to learn 'fly' because he's afraid of heights; falling, actually.  Just wait, Master, he'll walk right up to you."

Mortimer finished his drink.  "That xatu; quite a beaut'.  I wonder if I can get my hands on her, too."

Zap's expression soured at what the hiker was suggesting.  "Maybe, Master, but you won't be able to catch her by surprise, Sir."

The hiker waved his mug around in a small circle.  "We'll see about that.  Well?  Refill!"

His waiter swiftly handled the order.

"Gonna' be ready, Shadey?"  His ninetales barked sharply.  "Thought so.  When I get that little shit back in this cabin, she's all yours; no limits.  I've been inconsiderately selfish; Feathers was your friend, too.  I should-a let you get it over with a long time ago."



Theodore entered the lobby's extension, where a free continental breakfast meant weak coffee and a mini fridge with boxes of frozen breakfast products next to a microwave with only three functional number buttons.  He received dirty looks from other guests until he confessed with mixed honesty that he was getting the food and coffee for his master and not for himself.  By speaking to them, he merely transferred their displeasure from his using their kitchen to his addressing humans as though he were an equal.

Returning to his room, Theodore left a couple microwaved sausage patties on the table near Vincent and went to the television to see if anything campy was on.

Fiona awoke with a start.  The scent of Tio's coffee caused her body to expect to be bathed in joe.  Theodore glanced at her momentarily while surfing until he found a channel dedicated to reruns.

Fiona rolled off of the bed and sauntered toward Vincent.  She reached up slightly and squeezed his shoulders as she walked by.  "Are we going to pick some fights today?"  Her hopeful demeanor was undermined as he described a day of travel instead, though at least she was promised to get to play in the event of field challenges.

Vincent was hoping to avoid any and all, since he had little time to spare should he hope to get more than one shot at the next gym before beginning his journey home.  He stuffed the remaining half of a sausage patty into his mouth and offered the second patty to Fiona, who accepted it eagerly.  She slipped into his chair as he left for the washroom to awaken Phil and make himself presentable.

As Fiona swallowed her sausage, the trainer's telephone rang.

"Answer it, Shorty," said Theodore without breaking clicker-rhythm.  "Did all the networks decide to go to commercial together?  It's like women and public toilets."

Fiona fumbled the device before figuring out a way to hold it stable and operate its buttons.

The phone's display identified the caller as Jacqueline.  "Vinny, you aren't on the road yet, are you?"

Fiona hopped onto the bed and did her best for a first-timer.  "No, he's in the shower with Phil."

Jackie tried to not laugh, but suppressed giggles distorted her speech nonetheless.  "That sounds like fun.  I hope Tio isn't jealous.  Listen, I'm taking the bullet train because I've already beaten all the leaders that are hosting locally this weekend.  If you guys want to come with me to Tartaroyal, I'll buy the tickets and you'll buy the meals."

Fiona bounced to her feet.  "I better ask him right now, hold on."  She discarded the telephone against the bedspread and dashed to see Vincent.  She gave no consideration to tact as she threw open the shower curtain.  "Hey Vin, Jack--wow, your thinger's a lot nicer looking than his--Jackie wants to buy us train tickets if you buy her food; say 'yes'?"

Vincent froze with a blush for a moment; he had been nude around all of his pokemon at one time or another--Phil in particular could not be kept away from a running shower--but this was the first time that he had been exposed to Fiona, and he had hoped it would be a more dignified image than himself washing his upper legs and ass-cheeks.  "Uh, well, ask her to hold for two minutes."

Phil lost his composure and began to whistle a chuckle as Fiona trotted out of the washroom nonchalantly to find Theodore in impression-mode keeping Jacqueline occupied.

"That's right.  Don't trust no pokedex and be ready for anything.  T pities the fool who ain't expecting the unexpected.  Then T gives 'em the bite and counts to twenty."

Jackie had been keeping an eye on the Pokemon League mailing list through her father's account, and noticed a message from Iwamoto-sama petitioning for poison-fang to be added to typhlosion's recognized techniques; his message was posted the morning after Vincent received his badge.  Tio seemed eager to proudly confirm her suspicions.

Vincent emerged in a towel and received his phone from Theodore.  The terms of their agreement were settled, and the team prepared to rush to Hexyloxy Terminal, as there were only twenty minutes remaining to make their departure.

Vera watched from afar as her friend dashed away from the motel.  He would be expecting her traditional last-second appearance, and he would be disappointed.



Vera took flight and did not touch ground again until she landed in a little village in front of a rustic general store that permitted no pokemon within its walls.  Her motionless stance once again drew muttered complaints and stares from the locals, all of whom she ignored until a man with a ninetales approached.

He again imitated the sensei's aide's humble inflection.  "Excuse me, Madame Xatu, is the one I seek another of your kind, or the one standing before me?"

Vera chirped haughtily, "the one standing before you will serve you well-enough."

The hiker rubbed his stubble.  "Your master I take it, with the weavile, is he near?"

Vera turned to face toward the miles-distant train station.  "Near enough, but he will soon be headed home.  His next gym will be his last for this season."

Mortimer smiled deviously, "that's good to hear.  From what I heard, he's not exactly champ material.  Maybe he ought to let you and them go."

Vera went fishing.  "And where would I go?"

Mac took the bait.  "Well, I know a little place not too far from here, a little way up the mountainside.  Nice 'n quiet, peaceful like, got a pond, no one comes and goes up there but a chubby guy and his dog."

Vera raised her right wing and read his now-opened mind, and saw what he was visualizing, consciously and unconsciously.  "A nice place to visit.  But, I wouldn't want to live there."

Mac felt insulted.  "An' why not?"

She stepped towards the hiker, wrapping her right wing around him while raising the left as a barrier between them.  "Because that place is not as peaceful-like as you wish that it were."  Vera knelt down and slowly stroked Shade beneath his chin with an oddly-compassionate expression before taking flight, leaving Mac and his companion alone to watch her form recede and vanish beyond the treetops of Allylidene Forest.



Vincent blasted through the automatic doors that narrowly cleared his way and almost crashed into the ticketing counter, not seeing Jacqueline anywhere and not having time to try to find her.  He slapped his trainer card down, expecting to get his usual discount and be paid back later, but instead received two tickets that were apparently reserved in his name.  Finding a few square feet of empty space, Vincent released Theodore and was about to hand him one of their tickets when a conductor intervened.

"I'm sorry Sir, safety regulations forbid large and/or dangerous pokemon from boarding our trains unless they are sealed within their balls at all times during the journey."  Theodore reluctantly agreed to be recalled.

Vincent soon discovered that the seats reserved for himself and a companion were in a private room, currently half-occupied by Jacqueline and Jean.  "Jackie, you know you're spoiling me."

She huffed, "not at all.  Just the whim of a spoiled girl who has plenty of cash to throw at the problem of being bored on a train ride.  You didn't get in such a rush that you left your pokemon behind at your hotel, did you?"

Vincent took the seat across from his host.  "They said Tio had to stay in his ball while on the train."  He turned to face Jean with a look of combined disbelief and confusion.  "Something about him being a dangerous pokemon."  Jean returned the look, though he did not narrow his eyelids as Vincent had.

Jackie giggled, knowing what Vincent was insinuating.  "Oh, yeah, it's probably the fire thing.  Even though they make great starters, the cyndaquil family is usually tough to teach to control their vents at all times.  Packed into a train like this, one good surprise and someone's clothing is on fire.  I think you can let your weavile out, though."

She handed Vincent an information pamphlet that included a list of pokemon forbidden to ride.  Phil was an "elemental hazard" like Theodore, and Hal broke both height and weight restrictions.  Vera was eligible, had she chosen to make an appearance.

The other seat was paid-for, anyway, so Vincent triggered the release on his luxury ball.  Fiona immediately took a defensive stance, as her field of view was filled with gallade once she materialized.  The last time one was so near, she suffered a concussion; and was deeply relieved when Vincent plopped her into her seat and informed her that this was not going to be a battle.  Nonetheless, she did not feel much interest in befriending the warrior that sat across from her.

She spent much of the ride looking out through the window, having never seen a landscape speed by so quickly.  Additionally, the only thing else to look at inside the rail-car was Vincent and Jackie, who did not seem to be interested in including her in their conversation.  Jean sat motionlessly and emotionless.  That his blank expression was exactly the last thing that Fiona saw before he knocked her unconscious made it even more unnerving.

Vincent's curiosity overcame his resolve.  "So, why do you have Jean with you?  I thought Carl hated letting--"  Jacqueline interrupted with an indignant outburst.

"Ah!  Caz is a bratty, self-absorbed, impatient jerk-face is why.  I was over at Caz's suite last night splitting a pizza.  I knew something was wrong when Jean ran out of the other room with his hands on his head and hid--"

Jean quickly became embarrassed, and while he and Jackie did not share an empathic bond, she was near and familiar enough for him to mentally beseech her to rephrase.

"What happened was Caz checked the rankings, saw that you got a badge somehow when he didn't, and went on a tear.  I've seen him lose his temper before, but this was the biggest outburst I've seen since he was a child in body as well as mind.  He threw stuff, broke stuff; give him credit for having some guts, though, since he even punched Lucas in the jaw, blaming him most of all for their losing to you and Sensei.  When he finally calmed down a bit, he started sending his team back home over the network.  I asked if I could take Jean with me and Caz just signed him over to my account.  Then he got his wallet and stormed off, heading for the game rooms probably, and for all I know he's been living there since.  He won't answer his phone."

Jacqueline's expression shifted quickly from somber concern to a cheesy smile, once she found a way to make light of the situation.  "So, right now that dork is sitting at the slots, losing his ass and smelling like a bum--" she leaned forward, invading Vincent's personal space somewhat, "--while I'm riding around like a princess with her handsome bodyguard."  She quickly broke eye contact to kiss Jean on his cheek, and a beat later--after Fiona's eyebrows had risen--decided to suffix a hasty, "oh and you, too, Vinny."

Vincent felt his breakfast sausage settle sideways, and excused himself to find the privy.

Alone with Jacqueline and Jean, Fiona felt like the center of attention and nervously tried to start a conversation.  "So, uh.  I guess you're pretty good at fighting."  She had not really decided if "you're" was addressing the gallade, the trainer, or both.

"Jean has a respectable record, if you disregard a few incidents.  You know how it is when you get too excited in the circle.  And, I know you know because I checked your records.  Quite a first day you had."

Fiona did not like being reminded.  She looked at Jean.  "Do you like fighting?"

Jean's blank forward stare suddenly shifted to Fiona, staring her in the eyes.  He wanted to answer honestly, but even if he tried to force his thoughts into her mind, Fiona's dark nature would prevent it.  He looked forward again and Fiona shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

Jacqueline took over for him.  "Don't mind his silence.  Jean hasn't said a word to anyone in a long time.  I'm pretty sure he wants me to tell you that he likes making Carl proud of him, and does everything he can do to achieve that."

Fiona hoped to express something they had in common, but she had not been paying attention to the earlier conversation that would have made her aware of recent events.  "I want to make Vincent proud of me, but I haven't been doing too good.  I hope I can get good at fighting and make my trainer proud, like you did."

Jacqueline flinched as a flash of emotion shot through Jean.  He quickly turned to look out through the window.  He had never seen a landscape speed by so quickly, since Carl almost never allowed Jean to travel outside of his ball.

Vincent returned to find a chamber filled with three dark auras instead of the singular one he expected.  He sat and activated his pokedex, calling up information on his destination city.  With Jean keeping the window occupied, Fiona watched Vincent first study a city map and later play a built-in pokemon-themed video game while Jacqueline leaned against Jean's side and napped until the train arrived at their stop.

Disembarking the train, Vincent attempted to breach the food-related half of their agreement.  "I guess I owe you dinner, I--"

The princess cut him off yet again.  "I know just the place!  It opened up a couple weeks ago, and they got all the best sushi chefs around.  We'll go there after our gym matches tomorrow night."

Vincent smirked.  "So that's why you came out here.  It had nothing to do with the league, you just wanted to check out a new fish joint."

Jackie slugged his right arm.  "I wasn't lying.  It's not easy for me to find a leader whose badge I don't have yet.  So, when one shows up near a place I want to have dinner, I gotta' seize the opportunity."

Vincent did not want to look like a wuss, but his arm wanted to be rubbed, "why not tonight, though?"

Jacqueline's expression became downcast again.  "I need to take care of Jean.  He may look like a rock, but he's a sponge when it comes to Caz.  He's bonded with Caz so when the jerk flipped out, Jean couldn't help but try to draw off his negativity, but that only made Caz angrier because he wanted to be angry, and they both kinda overloaded.  Jean's feeling completely rejected right now and he needs someone close to connect with and lean on.  That's why I took him with me when Caz said he was sending his whole team home; at home by himself, he'd fall apart and then Lucas would, too.  This isn't something that you need to be worrying about, but I appreciate your listening."  She hugged his arm and rubbed the spot where she had punched him.  "Get some sleep; you gotta' be ready for the games, tomorrow."



The next morning, Vincent headed straight to Tartaroyal Gym to get registration over with before lines could form.  Tartaroyal was the largest city Vincent had ever visited, and its gym was sized proportionately.  Its center-ring was recessed into what would have been a second basement level, surrounded by auditorium seating in the style of the ancients.  Above it hung massive display screens to present elevated viewers an option between direct viewing and a cinematic video feed.

Vincent and Theodore prepared to return to their usual arguments over move-sets, but after overhearing other trainers sharing a rumor that it was going to be an exhibition event intended to promote some new pokemon-related invention, they no longer felt like bothering; they had enough trouble with normal matches, and these exhibition events often turned the rules upside-down.  Some would argue that it leveled the playing field, but many trainers felt that it simply meant you were better off being lucky than good.

Theodore looked over Vincent's shoulder and rolled his eyes.  "Sunny-day, again.  You know, I miss the good old days, sweeping with 'eruption', not wasting time casting spells."

Vincent finished Hal's card.  "Yeah, the minor leagues were a blast, weren't they?  Maybe we could go to the park and rough up some middle-schoolers like the skinheads do when they get bored."

Theodore rolled his eyes again, groaned, stretched, leaned near Vincent, and yawned, exposing his fangs carelessly.  "Ahhhh, you know what I want to do."

The trainer walked toward reception to submit his paperwork.  "Yes, I know what you want to do, and if it were legitimate, I'd be all for it."

An attendant began to stamp Vincent's forms, but stopped when she saw Theodore's card, and recited a memorized line of script.  "Before I stamp this, would you please confirm for me that the information entered is what you wish to submit?"  Vincent took the card back and asked what was wrong.

"Well, I saw your badges, and with the new rule change that was just approved, I thought maybe you might have meant to write 'poison-fang' instead of 'toxic' on your typhlosion's move selection."

The trainer did not know what to think, so Theodore assisted by putting a pencil in Vincent's hand and guiding it across the form.

Kimberly resumed her verification of the paperwork.  "Have you dropped a card, Sir?  I count only five."

With a touch of arrogant pride, Vincent replied, "I only use five pokemon."

The attendant smiled brightly and returned to her script.  "For tonight's event, all participants must register six pokemon.  I will set your papers aside for now; please acquire a sixth and return before registration closes."

Kimberly continued, "don't worry too much about it, anything will do, really."

Vincent exited the gym and released Hal from his ball.  "Hey big guy, how would you like to spend a few hours on the town before our match-ups?"

Hal tried to keep his excitement contained, but it had been longer than he could remember since he alone had been asked by his trainer to share time that was not attached to a contest.  "Wow, I'd love to spend--"

Vincent shoved a few bank notes into Hal's hand while walking over his sentiment.  "A few hundred on a buffet line.  Well, here's what I can afford; don't eat it all in one place.  Tio and I have to pick up a sixth because the gym's running a stupid special event, so we're going to go shake some bushes.  Have fun."

Hal waited patiently until Vincent and Theodore were well out of earshot before continuing.  "--more time with you, Master."



Despite Tartaroyal's sprawling design, Hal quickly found a local game corner.  Things at the arcades had not changed much over the years or the miles.  A row of cases displaying pokemon available as prizes to people willing to blow away their afternoons flipping cards and their money on heavily marked-up snacks and refreshments lined the front window.  His eyes met with an eevee's.  He knew well its look of longing hopefulness, and he knew that he would react to it just as had every human to which he had once given that look: glancing downward and away before leaving with a hurried step.  Every human except for Vincent; not his current trainer, though, but a four-years-younger Vincent.

The dragonite continued down the sidewalk, not really looking where he was going.  Pedestrians naturally stayed out of his way and his antennae were sensitive enough to detect when the row of buildings to his left paused to make way for a street, alerting him to check for traffic.  He was not even sure what he was thinking about until a familiar tune captured his attention.  It was coming from a small shop wedged between a kosher deli and a store that advertised novelties exclusively intended for adult humans.  A disheveled man exited the strange shop with a cardboard box.  The air that followed him was thick with patchouli oil.

Hal caught the door and looked inside.  The aisles were cramped, but wide enough for his frame to pass through as long as he was mindful of his tail.  He asked the proprietor if he could enter, and was greeted warmly.

"Yeah, man, come on in.  If you're polite enough to ask, I ain't worried."

A bell above the door chimed as Hal entered.  When the door shut behind Hal, the store owner slid his yellow sunglasses down his nose.

"Hey, man, where's your trainer?"

Hal expected to be ordered to leave.  The store was even smaller than it looked from the outside, and he began to seek a place to turn around without his tail sweeping anything over.  "He let me go by myself, today."

"Sounds like you got a pretty cool dude, Dude."

"I guess so."

The store carried many kinds of merchandise, but what was most familiar was a table covered with milk crates, each filled with vinyl audio-discs.  In the garage at home was a similar cache.

Hal flipped through them, unable to pass over ten without seeing a band name that was familiar.  Many of these albums featured artists that Zap sought but could not find, due to scarcity.

"Zap would've loved this place."

Howie asked who "Zap" was.

"An old teammate.  He loved old music.  If he were still with us, he could have been here."

"Did your trainer trade him off or something?  That's not cool, man."

"No, but he did something that made Zap upset, and when Zap told him off, he let him decide to stay or go.  He chose to go."

Howie leaned forward over the counter.  "Bummer.  I take back what I said about your dude.  When someone blows their top, you're supposed to be cool and help 'em through it, not tell 'em you couldn't care less if they take a hike."

Hal stared at an album cover for a few long moments.  It matched the description of one that Zap once said he dreamed of finding.

Howie noticed that Hal seemed to be speaking, though he could not hear any words.  "You know, if you want one of those, you can just have it if you promise to get it to your friend someday."

"No.  Thank you.  I don't think I'll ever see him again, and even if I did, I would be seeing that part of him."  Hal pushed the that album he was holding into a small gap between two other albums, and turned to face Howard.  "The part that left us all just because things weren't going the way he hoped.  Do you know of a place nearby that will serve food to a pokemon without a trainer?"



A rattata seemed to be chattering a giggle as it used its tail to whip a pokeball aside before running away.

Theodore applauded violently.  "Exemplary work, Boss!  You threw one close enough to have a tiny chance of capturing before the rodent knocked it out of the park.  Forget college, we're going to sign you up for the big leagues."

Vincent pantomimed bashing Tio in the belly with a baseball bat before picking up his dud ball.  "Marketing genius, making these things only work once, and sticking a deposit on them so you'll bring back misses to be 'recycled' when all they do is reset the chip, buff out a couple scratches, and sell it again like new.  Well, I do have the premiere ball left, I guess if it doesn't stick, we'll just watch Jackie play and head home.  I miss my own bed."



Hal was on the second of his seven jumbo hot dogs.  Normally that would mean that he started his meal only a few seconds ago, but he had been seated on a park bench for almost ten minutes.  He felt like there was something stuck in his throat, blocking the path between his mouth and his stomach.  It was a distraction so great that Hal's antennae failed to detect the gallade that walked by, stopped, and seated itself on the bench's other end.  His guest remained unnoticed until Jean presented hot dog number-three to the dragonite.

Hal unwrapped it slowly.  "If your master is looking for a fight, Vincent isn't here for--with--with me."

Jean needed a moment to remember how to make words with his mouth, as it had been years since he needed to speak to anyone, having learned to communicate with the family of his trainer and his comrades directly.  "I have been--reassigned."

Hal offered his guest the fourth hot dog, but it was declined.

Hal set it aside and began eating Number Five as Jean continued, his words coming slowly and with great concentration.  "If Vincent released you, what would you do?"

The dragonite swallowed hard.  "For the first day, this.  Buy a cheap meal and eat it as slowly as possible."

Jean relented and accepted Hot Dog Number Four, asking "and after that?" before taking his first bite.

Hal was about to finish his fifth dog, but hesitated, gesturing to Jean with its last inch of beef and bun.  "I will wish that I could eat more slowly."



Vincent's new premiere ball burst open, and a re-materialized plusle darted away.

Theodore gave Vincent a warm hug instead of the typical smart-alack jibe.  "I miss our bed, too.  Let's go home.  You've got to start paring down your stuff for your move to the dorms."

The route back to Tartaroyal forced Vincent to walk into the glare of a setting sun, making seeing one's imagination more comfortable than the road ahead.

"Zap was the only one, wasn't he, Tio?"

Theodore hummed in confusion.

"Zap was the only pokemon I ever caught.  You came to me, Vera came to me, Hal and Phil I bought, Fiona chose to stay, at least for now.  I don't really train pokemon at all.  I just shepherd the ones that want to crash at my pad."

The typhlosion halted his friend's advance by resting a heavy paw on the young man's left shoulder, forcing him to lean back and twist slightly as his legs took a half-second to notice.

"Vincent--"

The man addressed was startled to the bone by the sound of his given name crossing Theodore's lips, as Tio had never before spoken that word except to refer to other persons who happened to share that name.

"--what you just said insulted every one of us."

Vincent had never seen a typhlosion on the verge of tears before, but the gentle twitching of lower eyelids and broken, wavering tone of speech created a Theodore that the trainer had never met and would never forget.

Tio's other paw found Vincent's other shoulder and re-aligned his body.  "Don't you see all you've done for us?  You got Hal and Phil out of those cages.  You gave that weavile far more than she deserved.  But above all: you--saved--my--life.  If you hadn't taken me in, given me a home, taken care of me; when I got sick I would have crawled behind a garbage can and died in bind agony."  Theodore wrapped his arms around the stunned trainer and pulled him into a cold hug with almost crushing strength.  "Every day of my life is a tribute to you, my hero.  To say that I just crash at your pad... it hurts me all the way, Boss.  It means that I am nothing to you, and I don't think I can survive that."

Vincent began to have difficulty standing as the weight that he was now struggling to support seemed to be collapsing slowly.  "Theodore, I never meant that.  I can't imagine for a second what my life would be or have been like without you, and I don't want to."  The trainer's arms slid upward and wrapped tightly against the typhlosion's flame vents.  "I'm sorry, Tio.  Please believe me; I will never intentionally do anything to hurt you or our friends."

After a moment, their embrace broke.  Theodore's expression had become somewhat more typical as he turned to face the city that stood before the setting sun.

"I know.  Deep down, I know; but I meant nothing to my trainer once before, and I don't think that it will ever stop haunting me."



The words, "I wish I could eat more slowly," fell into an empty sack.  Hal slowly rose from his bench and discarded the bag.  "I guess I'm headed back to the gym.  Vincent must have captured a sixth so we can fight tonight; he's probably upset that I let it get so late.  I've disappointed him too much."

Jean had not found all the right words and gotten them arranged yet, but Hal was making his exit; the gallade spoke again as best he could.  "Does he want away, you--to go?"

Hal turned around partially.  "I don't know.  I want to say that I hope not, but I'm not sure what I hope."

Jean abruptly sprang to his feet as the reptile resumed his departure and leapt, landing straddling a bulky orange tail with a unique blue tip, and captured Hal's head with both of his green palms and his forehead, intent on injecting a vision without respect for permission or tact.

Hal cringed at the onset of a crippling sensation that suddenly coursed through his mind and his soul.

Jean spoke with anger and frustration in his voice, punctuating each word with a pulse of emotion.  "Hope that he never wants you away.  This is--the shadow of how it feels; how I feel."  Jean released his grip on Hal and marched away.

As he passed by the hot dog vendor, who was briefly concerned that two powerful pokemon were about to battle near her cart, Hal could not resist talking to himself.

"And, he says that that's a shadow?  How could Carl put him through that?"

Hal's journey back to the gym was interrupted by a visit to a pharmaceutical market to pick up headache medication.