-9-

The cabin's front door groaned as it opened before Mortimer and Shade.  Zap had perfected his sense of timing, and was exactly twenty minutes from placing dinner on the table.  If he was early, the hiker would complain that he was not ready to eat, and then that his food had become cold.  If Zap was late with the meal, he would be blamed for putting the entire evening behind schedule, as if sitting in a chair and listening to a radio was difficult to squeeze in.

The hiker discarded his hat and slumped into a lazy-ass recliner chair with a day-old newspaper in hand.  Confident that it would be waiting for him, he reached over the small table near its old photograph and picked up a fresh cup of coffee that was always supposed to be there when he returned home.  His newspaper offered no surprises until he reached page three, the League report, which had atypically resorted to really big headline letters.  Mortimer's eyes widened and he called out to the two pokemon that he let wander within his cabin's walls.  "Wow-whee, that doesn't happen too often.  Listen up, guys, I'll read it to ya'."

"For the first time in five years, a pokemon died in combat during a League-sanctioned gym event last night.  The pokemon, a vaporeon named 'Phil'--"

Zap dropped the silverware that he was placing on the table.

"--died instantly when his neck was broken by his unidentified opponent.  Last night's contest was already controversial amongst gym leaders because it was the debut of a new Devon Corporation technology.  Promoted as a training tool, many gym leaders expressed concern that this technology, which prevents pokemon from being able to identify other pokemon connected to the device, could be a cause for accidents."

"While public complaints were vague and tactful, leaked correspondence from gym leader mailing lists reveal that some master trainers were adamantly opposed to the experiment.  One such mail, written by the most-senior active leader in Pokemon League, Masato Iwamoto, specifically warned against using the device on psychic-type pokemon."

"'Despite his reluctance,' writes Iwamoto, 'I convinced one of my psychic pokemon to trial this gimmick.  It turned him into a frightened animal.  He knew who I was but he was terrified of me and everyone else in the room, and I was forced to have another pokemon faint him so I could remove the transponder.  The high level of intellect we see in our psychics is rooted in their powers.  When we cripple their senses with this terrible thing, they cannot feel who is friend and foe and they become panicked and defensive, falling back onto primitive survival instincts.  Do not use this machine publicly until it is proved to be safe.'"

"A spokesman for Devon stated only that the incident is under investigation and that the sensory-deprivation device involved will not be used again until thoroughly redesigned.  All activities at Tartaroyal Gym were immediately suspended, but League events will continue according to schedule."

Mortimer sat at the table and began his meal.  Zap was now allowed to serve himself a proper portion, but he only picked at his plate.  Mac flung a meatball at his ram.

"Do you always lose your stomach when someone dies, or did you know this 'Phil'?"

"He was a member of my--Vincent's team.  Not my team, really.  He replaced me as the electric guy because he is--was--more useful than me and his hidden power is electrical."

"It's all that little shit's fault.  Death follows her around.  If she ain't doing a killing, she's getting folks killed one way or another.  Well, that's good news for us.  One pokemon less to stand in our way.  Shadey isn't a big fan of vaporeon scum, is he?"  Shade yelped, licked his master's face, and accepted his master's affectionate embrace.

Zap nursed a second bite before bending down with a napkin to clean up the meatball and the trail of sauce that it left along the floor.

Mortimer leaned over the table's edge.  "Ah, don't worry about that shit, Zap.  Eat your dinner.  We've got a big day coming soon, and I don't want you going in all malnourished."  The ram's appetite had not returned but he was in no position to disobey.

"The way I figure it, Shadey's got the little shit covered, so other than keeping your old teammates occupied, your job's gonna be to bring me that xatu.  I don't care what you have to do to get her ball from the boy, just light her up, get her recalled, and get that ball out of his hands.  I want her and the little shit in this cabin by nightfall when they come through."

The hiker reacted to Zap's shifting facial expression.

"Hey, don't look so glum, chum.  If she's wearing that chain, you won't be.  Plus, you'll earn your guard duty stripes, just like Shade."

Zap finished his meal.  "I always liked Vera, even if she turned against me that night.  We were sorta close.  I don't know how I'll feel seeing her--kept."

Mortimer plunked the last meatball off of Zap's face, "then you better get used to how you feel wearing that chain, because it isn't going to go to waste.  Clean this shit up, and don't forget the floor."



Jean materialized standing in the corner of Room 8, physically blocked-in by a wall of orange and green.  Peering between them, Theodore stood staring back at him, his shoulders burning with low teal flames.  The gallade immediately understood that he was being treated as hostile, but he was not certain why.  He nervously and slowly leaned a bit to get a look around the room.  He could not feel Carl or Jacqueline nearby, but he really hoped that he was just not sensing them for some reason.  Jean's mind began to speculate; had he been stolen, or did Jacqueline discard him just as Carl had?

In the most soothing voice she could summon, more to keep Hal's temperament even than to comfort the confused gallade, Vera began a debriefing.  "Jean, do you remember what happened at the gym, after you were equipped with this," she plucked a small transponder from his forehead that was left attached by scientists who did not want to risk releasing a murderer, "and sent into battle?"

Jean remained disoriented.  "Battle?  I had nightmare after I was back ball, not fight gym."

Vera raised a wing to his cheek, "slow down, calm yourself, and surrender your mind to my care; I will show you what you did not see."

Jean glanced briefly at the tense, furious dragon, and knew that he would rather let Vera explain what had happened.  Her wings and his cheeks came together for twelve seconds before she released him and he collapsed into the corner, his left hand on his forehead and right arm resting on his knees in front of his face, leaving only his right eye visible.  The pose was alien to this team, but would have been familiar to Jacqueline, as she had seen it every time Jean became overwhelmed by Carl's emotional swings.

He began to speak through his arm in a slow, deliberate pace.  "I... I thought I was having a nightmare.   It looked like what I see when Master is angry.  It would make me do things, bad things, but this time it was hitting me."  Jean looked up at the dragon and the bird, now joined by a cat, a wolverine, and a human.  "I thought if I killed it, it could not control me again.  I thought wrong."

Vincent looked down at him with cold eyes.  "It's a long way home.  You have plenty of time to think about how you will make up for what you did to our friend."



The group left Room 8 behind to fend for itself as they began their trek into the heart of Allylidene Forest, following a familiar path through Yureido Cove.  Its numberless route felt deserted, as most trainers were now at home preparing for classes to resume, or on their way to League headquarters to attend championship matches.

None of Vincent's friends traveled in a ball this day; Hal and Tio flanked their master, Fiona and Jean lead the way, while Vera picked up the rear, puffing away at her pipe.  Vincent was concerned, being unable to discern if the correct adverb to describe her smoking would be "diligently" or "nervously."

As they passed a young girl playing with her butterfree, Vincent turned partially and asked Vera if his team should be recalled before reaching the village, concerned that a parade of powerful pokemon might be taken as a deliberate offense.

His green bird hesitated before replying.  "You should recall your team and, as my trainer and master, order me to fly you home despite the awkwardness that would be entailed, but I request that you do not.  I have been walking this path since before you were born and it still extends somewhat before me."

Vincent nodded, and continued onward.

Fiona fell behind the rest of her group, drew close to Vera, and whispered, "just how old are you?"

Vera chirped haughtily.  "Quite; but that is no matter, I'm just getting started.  I would appreciate your assistance, if you would do a favor for me, since your hands are more useful than what I have.  Remember the tree I was standing beside the last time we came through this forest?  I have hidden a nest ball there.  When we pass that tree, get it, and do not draw any attention to yourself."



Vincent stopped by the store to resupply.  The shopkeeper seemed almost happy to see him and offered him a slight discount by rounding-down the total bill.  As Vincent and his team departed, the shopkeeper reached for his telephone and dialed an old acquaintance.

"Morty, they just came through.  No, he's got five with him.  The badger, dragon, and bird you mentioned are there, plus the feathered cat you want back, but there's something else too that I ain't seen before.  He was green and white like the bird, but he looks like a real slugger.  Yeah, no problem, just don't forget you owe me a case of ale when poker night comes around next week."



After they passed a weathered and destroyed sign that marked the village boundary, Vera came up behind Vincent and wrapped her wings around him, cooing gently, to accustom him to her distraction.  Soon, the little thief popped Vera's ball from his belt and replaced it with a dud of matching design, before carrying the original away and hiding it within a hollow in a tree that the green bird once used as a blind while eavesdropping on a conversation about post-evolution stature.  Once her collaborator returned to the fold, Vera halted the group's advance by strengthening her embrace until Vincent could no longer move.

She reluctantly released her master once all eyes were upon her.  "I'm sorry to make this so abrupt, but the time has come for me to leave you all."

Vincent looked at her with hope in his eyes, "will we meet again, some sunny day?"

Vera faked a downcast expression, "no," and waited for Vincent's expression to follow, before brightening up.  "It will be raining on the day of your graduation from college, despite the weather forecast.  Theodore, you have three-and-a-half years to buy a poncho."

Her friend offered Vera what he thought was her ball; she refused it, asserting that she would not be needing it where she was going, before ascending into the sky through a break in the canopy.  What remained of Vincent's team continued moving along their homeward-bound path.  They heard him mutter something indistinct, but did not pry for clarification.



Hal had to be dealt with first because he knew how to use earthquake.  Zap pushed a bush aside to get a look at his target.  "I hope you can forgive me."  He stepped into the trail behind his target and quickly built a powerful charge in his head and tail's gems.  Using his fore hooves as a conduit, he reached behind himself, allowing his electricity to arc between both gems and his horns, and swung his arms forward, directing all his energy forward with astounding precision.

Amongst them, only Jean had the perception to notice Zap's attack, and only after it was too late to react.  Because the group was walking so closely together, all five were stunned by the most powerful bolt of lightning that an ampharos wearing a magnetic necklace could summon.  Vincent recovered and knelt at Hal's side for a second, but was grappled and drug away by Theodore, who saw Zap readying a second strike that soon shocked the dragon into paralyzed submission.  Tio cast sunny-day as he rushed toward Zap, allowing him no time to ready a third attack.

The ram knew that he was too slow to have any hope of outrunning his pursuer, but he could at least draw Theodore away from Vincent and give the rest of his new team a chance to complete their ambush.  Thick foliage scratched against the wounds on Zap's ankle caused by the chain, each stroke reminding him that he would likely be unable to get Vera's ball, and should expect to be punished.  Glancing behind himself, Tio was making up the distance quickly, burning to ash and charcoal every bush and sapling that moments before impeded the ampharos's advance.



Vincent and Fiona were giving a futile effort toward getting Hal back on his feet when the hiker emerged from the tree line.

"I told you before; you can't escape, you little shit!"

Vincent gave up on Hal and recalled him before looking around to see what had become of Jean.  "Fucking deserter," he spat, as the grass shark was nowhere to be seen.

Mortimer tauntingly displayed a thermos to Fiona.  "I brought your favorite brew, it'll be just like old times.  Shade, Malachite!  Inflict some wounds."

A dime-store dinosaur blocked the path ahead with its body and a localized sandstorm, while a ninetales burst from the bushes and charged towards Fiona, only to discover that she had become the faster one, after enjoying proper nourishment for a month.  Mortimer looked in the direction that his quarry was running and shouted, "Zeke, cut her off!"

Fiona's options were constrained when a nidoking stepped into the path's other exit.  She turned-heel with a flourish, splashing the unprepared ninetales with a small wave of water, allowing Fiona clear passage back toward her trainer, though there was little he could do to defend her.  Shade shook the water from his fur and continued after Fiona in hot pursuit.

Vincent tried to get the hiker's attention, demanding that he call off his pokemon, but Mortimer ignored his voice and watched the show.

"Vinny! What are we going to do?" Fiona cried as she ran past her master and clawed her way up the trunk of a large tree.

The hiker winked toward apparently nothing, signaling his kecleon to do the other half of Zap's job.  Chamo dropped his disguise and snapped his tongue at Vincent's belt, snatching away Vera's nest ball, catching it in his mouth, and bolting toward the bushes while mimicking their mottled appearance.  As Vincent turned when he felt a tug from the lizard's tongue lashing his belt, Shade altered course and pounced onto the human.



Theodore was not so much fighting against the ampharos anymore, whose weakened frame was now propped against a tree, as he was venting his anger with his fists.

"I knew you were upset but I can't believe you turned on us!"

Zap was too exhausted and battered to fight back; his only defense was static discharge, and it was not slowing Tio down any.  The typhlosion was becoming distraught and threw a punch at the end of each of his sentences.  "He's been so good to us.  Screw the League; he fought for you week after week to get you into those karaoke competitions just because he knew you would enjoy them.  He bought you every album you ever wanted, even tracking down that ancient, expensive vinyl stuff and the hardware to play it.  You are disgusting!"

Theodore was about to re-double his assault when he faintly heard his name being called in the struggling voice of his master.  By the time Zap realized he was not being struck or yelled-at anymore, his assailant was gone.  Tio crashed through the scrub along his singed path, his mouth agape, feeling the poison glands that had years ago developed in the roof of his mouth bulge and pulse in-time with his elevated heart rate.



Fiona was a cat up a tree.  Surf was the only technique that she knew the ninetales would even notice, but she was too far away to use it effectively, and she knew that if she descended, she would be chased down, burned up, and taken prisoner.

Vincent struggled against the fox's attack as it attempted to subdue the trainer by entangling his limbs with his tails and using summoned flame to scald his lungs and force his surrender.

Hearing the typhlosion bursting through the bushes, Mortimer stopped laughing to himself and reached into his jacket but hesitated, concerned that it was not yet necessary to play his trump card, since Shade's flash-fire ability would harmlessly absorb Theodore's most-powerful attacks.

He had only time to shout, "Shade!  Get off of him--" before Theodore grappled the ninetales, stripping him away from Vincent, and causing both to roll along the path as Tio savagely buried his fangs into the fox's neck and injected every drop of toxin he could muster directly into its blood stream.  The hiker ran after the rolling couple, "Kite!  Get that fucker off of Shade!"

As Malachite began to advance, Fiona looked up, hearing motion amongst a branch higher than her own.  Jean dropped from the canopy with his hands clenched together, bashing Malachite with all his might and sending the monster to the ground.  Despite its efforts to regain its footing, Jean continued his assault and Mortimer quickly estimated that the gallade would be victorious.  The hiker rushed to help his precious vulpix while his nidoking approached from the other end of the path, expecting to join their melee.

Theodore yelled through his teeth, "gno uun huurts ghee goss uun glivefs," refusing to release his grip on the ninetales until well after both Mortimer and Vincent's combined strength pulled them off of the ground.  Mortimer fell to his knees, drew up his vulpix, and cradled him in his arms.  His fox's eyes had grown dark and cloudy, and a putrid foam was bubbling up from his throat.  As the hiker drew his life's second best friend closer, Shade struggled to lick the man's cheek, before falling limp and exhaling one final, tiny wisp of flame.

Never before had the fox's kiss burned cold and slick like alkaline.

The nidoking trod up to his trainer and, in his confusion regarding what was happening, poked at the limp animal that his master cradled.

"Fuck off, Zeke!" the hiker wailed as he gripped the slowly-cooling body more tightly.

Theodore stood and began to regain his senses.  "Did I--I killed it, didn't I?"

Vincent hummed in low affirmation.

"Are you alright, Boss?"

Vincent hummed in low contradiction.

"Then, I'm sorry; but, I will do anything to save you, like you--"

Vincent interrupted Theodore by recalling his starter to its pokeball.



Jean had finally defeated the stone basilisk and looked to Vincent for a cue, not knowing if the nidoking was posing a threat.  It seemed more confused than aggressive, and the opposing trainer was clearly indisposed, though Jean could easily sense that the man was on the brink of doing something violent.  He could also sense that he was not the only psychic nearby, monitoring their situation.

Mortimer recalled his ninetales, pulled a black marker from his pocket, and painted a ribbon around Shade's ball.  Despite his tears, his voice took on the characteristic of mad laughter.  "That little shit.  Everywhere she goes, she finds a way to kill my friends."  He glanced up at the cat in her tree.  "Well, so be it.  Because everywhere I go, I can find a way to kill hers."  The hiker reached into his jacket to put the pen back into his pocket.  "Every single one of 'em."  When his hand came out again, it held a rusty revolver.

Vincent had no time to react and no cover to protect him.  Fiona had no idea what she was seeing, and Jean felt a strange force somehow holding him back and preventing him from intervening.

As the hiker's arm swung forward to extend and align his weapon, a green bird fell through a hole in the canopy above, wrapped him within her wings with all her might, and before the pistol could be accurately fired, both the xatu and the vengeance-seeker vanished in a glowing flash.  Mortimer's weapon fell to the ground, and became the center of attention for all members of its silenced audience.

Zap limped along a charcoal path that Theodore created, and tried to stay hidden while surveying the scene.  Zeke was trying to get Malachite standing, but she was too dazed to respond to Zeke's prodding and shaking.  Jean stood directly beneath the low tree branch, beckoning Fiona to descend, and catching her when she dropped into his waiting arms.  She giggled a couple times; it was fun to be "up there," even if for only a couple seconds.

The ampharos was so unusually successful at being stealthy today that Chamo did not hear Zap walking up from behind, and became a stumbling block.  Struck from behind, Vera's bogus ball popped out of the lizard's mouth and rolled near Vincent's feet.

He looked it over, realized that it was a fraud, and glanced at Fiona with a smirk.  "Do you know anything about this, little thief?"

Fiona smiled deviously.  "Vera told me to not get caught, so, 'no'."

Vincent ruffled her crown, pitched Vera's prop ball into the bushes, and approached his abused ram.

As Zap came to his feet, he was confronted by three familiar faces.  He swallowed hard; this time, he was going to face the music whether he liked it or not.

"I didn't hurt Hal too badly, did I?"

Vincent delayed with a breath.  "His body is tough stuff, but he's probably going to be very sad when he finds out it was you who attacked him."

Zap started to look downward, but stopped as his gaze passed a ball with a black ribbon that was attached to the trainer's belt.  "My new master read the article in the paper to me.  It really was our Phil.  I was still hoping it was a mistake."

Jean took a half-step forward and confessed.  "It was a mistake.  If someone could offer, I would choose to die to give Phil--life back.  Against Mast--Carl's--feelings, and what he made me do, I have felt all--you as my friends."

Vincent released the deactivated ball from his belt as Jean continued in almost a whisper, "he felt that I did; it made him unhappy--sometimes."

Zap raised his arms to borrow the ball from Vincent.

"Say goodbye.  I think it is time for all of us to choose our path home."

The ampharos held Phil's ball against the gem in his forehead and choked slightly.  As he motioned to return the ball to Vincent, he noticed and read its inscription.  "I think that's the right way to remember him."

Malachite was finally on her feet, and on Zeke's, as he was the only thing keeping her within forty-five degrees of vertical, trudging slowly toward the group.

Zap almost broke a smile.  "I am slow like you said, but it looks like I'll be the one leading the way this time.  Please do me one favor, Master: take my electronic player with everything on it to college with you.  I would appreciate it if that's the way you remember me."

Following the path that would lead to Mac's cabin, Zap blinked twice, slowly and faintly, before disappearing behind the foliage with his new team following loosely behind him.  Chamo was last to leave the scene, after taking a moment to recover the ball that Vincent threw to the wayside.



"Where are we?"  Mortimer looked at eerily familiar surroundings.  He was standing near a wooden picnic table, upon which a green bird sat and smoked a pipe decorated with tiny natu feathers.  The table, and a nearby stone hut, was from the Ruins of Alph's visitor center, but how it came to be in the backyard of the house Mortimer grew up in was perplexing.

"We are at our homes.  To be more exact, a hybridization of those places we imagine to be our homes."

Mortimer sat on the table bench.  "This can't be real, can it?"

Vera puffed a smoke ring.  "It is as real as it needs to be, and for now, what you see is all you need to be concerned with.  I brought you into this illusion to give you an opportunity to make peace with the past and to enter a future I wish to offer you.  Mortie, I know that you've felt a strange familiarity when you've been near me and heard my voice.  That is because we met about thirty years ago, when your parents took you on vacation and visited the Ruins of Alph, back when this table really was as freshly-painted as it looks now.  After you left, I saw a vision, and laid plans to meet with you again, here and now.  Finding this opportunity was difficult, and this is the only chance.  If you are willing, I shall counsel you for the next few years, to help you to grieve for your loss of Feathers and Shade, to forgive Fiona, to denounce the monster you became, and to start a new life unburdened with the hatred, regret, and pain that you have allowed to suffocate your soul."

The hiker looked toward the house he grew up in.  A young boy with a pidgey on his shoulder exited its back door to investigate a faint whimpering sound.  Beneath three stairs that led down from the back porch to the grass below, the boy found a small animal, sienna-colored, cowering with his six tails wrapped tightly against its body.

"You say this is the only chance.  You think I'll believe there was no way for you to bring me here to your little psychic dream-world without letting Shade die?"

Vera wrapped her left wing around Mortimer's left shoulder.  "Shade would have anchored you to your history had I come to you before his death.  I saw Shade's fate when we met in Yureido Cove.  He was going to die, today or another day, but if it were another day, it would have been at your own hand, and that would have destroyed you."

Mortimer rose and shouted through the stream of smoke rising from Vera's pipe.  "Bullshit!  Nothing could make me hurt Shade."

Vera beckoned him closer and shared a vision.  "If you had drawn your weapon against Theodore, Jean would have intervened at that moment and given you his emotional pains to incapacitate you and to force your team to retreat.  Coupled with your already-damaged psyche, it would have infected you, and after failing to recapture Fiona, you would have lost control, and you would not notice until it was too late."

The vision ended abruptly as Mortimer saw himself on his knees next to the bloody, gashed carcass of Shade, the murder weapon--a bloody spade--at his side, realizing what he had done, reaching for his revolver, and turning it upon himself.

The young boy had finally succeeded in coaxing a vulpix from beneath the stairs, after noticing its reaction to his shadow.  The vulpix seemed afraid of standing in the sunlight, but was willing to come out as long as it could stay within the bounds of the shadow that the boy cast.  Little Mortie had to move slowly so his vulpix could stay inside his shadow's realm, but soon he and his pidgey had led the fox cub up the stairs and into the home, where shade reigned everywhere but near windows.

"I don't want to let them go, Madame Xatu.  I never had any friends before I met them, or other than them.  None that wouldn't turn on me when I needed them.  I don't--I can't be alone again."

Tapping its seat with her left toes, Vera gestured an invitation to sit on the bench once again to Mac, who had taken a kneeling pose as he saw his alternate self do while he watched Vera's vision of a potential future that almost came to pass.

"You will not be alone.  You will have me, for a time.  You will have Zap, who has burned all of his bridges to earn your approval.  And, you have the remaining members of your team and all those pokemon you have trapped as trophies.  Fiona's claims indicate that you have quite a collection."

"But, I don't know them like I know Feathers--"

"Knew."

"And like I know Shade--"

"Knew."

"Stop that!"

Vera drew heavily on her pipe, scowling at him through half-lidded eyes before slowly venting all its smoke through the tiny nostrils at the top of her beak and continuing.

"Listen, Trainer.  Ultimately, this is all your fault.  You never trained Feathers to defend herself; all the cuts and scrapes you wanted to protect her from caught up in one tragic instant.  You set your team against an innocent trainer because you wanted to torture and murder a soul whose motivation was survival when she wronged you, and as a consequence, with his entire body boiling with poison, Shade died in your arms.  I love all my boys despite their imperfections, but you are a terrible trainer, Mortimer, and I can only offer you this one chance to redeem yourself, so their deaths won't be a complete loss."

With a forceful flourish, the green bird extended her white wing toward the mirage of a faux Victorian styled house, blocking Mortimer's view of her face below her eyes, that stared into his with a cold, piercing gaze.

The hiker sitting upon the bench turned and listened to the faint, distant voice of a young boy happily introducing his new puppy to the rooms of his home, a small brown bird chirping an addition to each of the boy's statements, and an occasional whimper or yelp from a nervous kit.

"I don't want to live knowing I wasted all the friendship and loyalty Shade gave me for nothing.  For his sake, please, help me, Madame Xatu."

Vera blew hard through her pipe and flapped part of her right wing, sending a plume of smoke and ashes against Mortimer's face, causing him to recoil.  The conjured plane faded and collapsed.

Mac looked around to see himself sitting on a tree stump in front of his cabin with Vera standing behind him.  Night had begun to fall, but an ghostly light shined from the narrow and obscured path that led to the hiker's home.

An ampharos guided the way for a limping tyranitar, a still-confused nidoking, and a kecleon balancing an empty nest ball on the tip of his nose.  As Mac's team approached the cabin, Zap became concerned.  Feeling Theodore's reaction to his treachery in every aching inch of his body, he was deeply terrified by what Mac would do to him, since Vera was obviously not the one on the chain.

Vera walked slowly to Zap as he approached and touched his cheek as though she were apologizing.  "Unbelievable as it may seem, you made the least-bad decision."

The ram continued inside to begin dinner while Chamo dropped the ball at his master's feet and climbed into his favorite sleeping tree.  Malachite and Zeke paused when Vera beckoned them from the doorway as she followed the hiker inside.

Zeke dug his toe into soil.  "He needs to use our balls.  We're not allowed in the house."

Vera scoffed.  "Don't you want to be there for your master when he needs you?"

Malachite and Zeke nodded in affirmation.

"Then enter and keep him company like a good pokemon should.  Old rules no longer apply here."



Fiona panted heavily.  She was wearing a collar that she convinced herself was fashionable.  From it hung a laminated card with arcane symbols written upon it in what was most likely someone's or something's blood.  "This is exhausting, but kinda fun."  The weavile moved like a speed skater across the river's surface despite the burden of Vincent awkwardly riding on her shoulders and back, too terrified of throwing her off-balance to move a muscle.

"I'm just glad you're fast and intimidating enough to keep the jellyfish away.  At this rate, we'll be at my home before sunrise."

The riverboat captain groaned.  "Your bed had better be the most comfortable bed ever, because after a few more hours of this, I'm going to sleep for two days straight."

"You'll get hungry and wake up.  Besides, we can take the foot path after this next bend in the river."

Transitioning from water to land was traumatic as their forward momentum became the downward force of Vincent and his gear riding atop her.  She wanted to at least come to a stop and let him down properly, but she collapsed at a half-gallop.

Vincent was able to put his feet down in time, and barely managed to steady himself before falling over, too.  "That was amazing, girl.  Maybe those vitamins do pay off."

She had become delirious again.  "I told you you'd be proud of me.  Beat--assessss."

Vincent recalled her as she passed out, remembering the orientation of her ball so he could release her onto his bed without needing to reposition her.

He looked around.  He remembered the first time that he was allowed to go this far from home alone.  Not alone, technically; Theodore was with him.  Despite his parents' reluctance to his keeping a pokemon--especially one that could burn the house down--once they realized that the animal would keep their son safe, Vincent gained a freedom to travel that children without pokemon would wait a few more years to enjoy.  On the other side of that coin, he was a graduated high-school senior before the first time in his life that he stood alone overlooking the river outside of the town he grew up in.

The liberating sensation of standing alone, strong and independent, in the wilderness was tainted somewhat by a longing to have someone to share the feeling with, and by soreness in his arms and shoulders, a result of being bitten, brazed, and clawed by a large fox that he could not himself overpower.

Vincent began to speak to no one.  "Fiona, ball.  Zap, walk.  Vera's Vera.  Phil, dead.  God damn it.  Tio, ball until I'm ready to walk and talk.  That leaves Hal, and Jean."

Vincent released Hal and offered him a few berries to help him recover.

"What happened, Master?  I just remember getting my ass fried off."  The two began down the path leading home.

"In short, we were ambushed by Mac.  He wanted to get Fiona back, and Zap was helping him.  Zap electrocuted you two or three times; I'm not sure, we all got hit by the first one.  Tio went after Zap, that ninetales went after Fiona," Vincent remembered Hal's amicable attitude toward Shade, and decided against breaking the news, "it was a mess but in the end Vera teleported Mac away just before he tried to shoot me."

Hal was unaware of Mortimer's connection to Fiona, having only known him as some guy that Vincent, Vera, Tio, and Fiona were socializing with at a gym one day.  Hearing Vincent say that he wanted her back caused his eyes to widen with surprise, realizing that the timid fox too scared to take a bite of hamburger from him was also the savage enforcer that Fiona described.

"Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about.  Hal, a dorm room is not a home; I don't want you to come to college with me."



Jean approached a large, ornate gate and pressed a remote call button.  Mr. Valley was initially upset to be roused at 3-o'clock in the morning, but mellowed when he realized who was visiting.  The gate opened and Jean marched up a long driveway that lead to the Valley's petite mansion's front door.

"I have come to gather my few belongings and to say goodbye to Lucas."

Mr. Valley was unsteady.  "My daughter said that you were now under the care of that boy she met when she was still in public school.  I've been in the pokemon business for a long time and I've never heard of a member of the ralts family abandoning a trainer like this."

The gallade reached out to Mr. Valley and showed him a censored version of what happened the night that Carl disposed of him.

Mr. Valley shook his head.  "That boy.  But, still, it's your duty as his pokemon to--"

Jean had never interrupted Mr. Valley before, vocally or psychically, and never would again.  "I am doing my duty: I am fulfilling my master's wishes."

Jean climbed the stairs and entered Carl's old bedroom.  It was mostly bare, since Carl had taken up a life on the road to pursue pokemon excellence year-round, but his closet was still stuffed.  Lucas was sleeping on Carl's bed, as he always did when the team was sent home, usually because Carl was in a hurry and did not want to be challenged to battles by route twerps.  Jean placed his hand on the feraligatr's brow, and implanted a melange of sensations that accurately reflected Jean's sadness from leaving his best friend and his hopefulness that he will one day form a true bond with the new trainer that has forgiven his trespass and allowed him the opportunity to prove himself trustworthy.

Jean turned away, opened Carl's closet, and rummaged through a number of old shoe-boxes, until he found one that contained two game house pokeballs.  He placed them into another shoe-box that bore Jean's name and contained four shiny leaves, a photograph of himself with Lucas and Carl taken on the day he evolved into a kirlia, a darkened discharged dawn stone, the first spoon he ever bent, and a folded sheet of old paper.  The page was lined with guides for elementary students and bore the penmanship of a novice hand.

"My name is Carl and I am all most 7 years.  I have 2 pokemon becus my dad works with pokemon and give me them.  I give them names from favoret tv mans.  One is totodal I call him Luke he is strong and some time mean but he get sory when he hurt me so its ok.  Two is ralts I call him Zhan and he is smart and we can talk a little with no saying and trik my sister.  Dad say when Zhan grow up he can be more smart or more strong and I can pick but I will give Zhan pick so he is happy.  When we grow up we will win pokemon jims and get famus on tv!"

Jean folded the photograph into the page and placed it on Carl's desk, using his exhausted dawn stone as a paperweight, before exiting Carl's room with his shoe-box and leaving his erstwhile home behind to begin a new journey.



Vincent peeled back the sheets of his childhood bed and placed Fiona's pillow next to his own before aligning her luxury ball and triggering it, such that she rematerialized just above its surface and plopped down in a sleeping position.  She was as incapacitated when she was released as she was when he recalled her at the river's shoreline, and seemed to be already dreaming as he drew the sheets over her.  He smiled as she snuggled up to her pillow and faintly talked in her sleep, "they don't know how good this feels."

The retired trainer descended a flight of stairs and entered his living room, illuminated gently by a shoulder-mounted candelabra burning with colorfully-tinted flame.  His typhlosion had dutifully unfolded a sofa bed and prepared it for his master.  He was distracted by his thoughts and jumped with a start before snuffing his vents as he felt Vincent's arm wrapping around his upper back.

Theodore looked into the young man's eyes as Vincent whispered, "like I would to save you."

Theodore nodded gently, stepped away from Vincent, and re-ignited his shoulders to illuminate the room once again.  He bit the narrow edge of a spare pillow to hold it while he slid a pillow case over it from below.  When he opened his mouth, he noticed two tiny green stains where his fangs poked into the pillow's fabric.

"All this time, Boss, I was looking for excuses to see just how powerful this stuff was.  Now that I know--"  Tio looked up from his pillow and into Vincent's eyes.  "It scares me."

Vincent approached, took the pillow, and tossed it onto their make-shift bed.  "It should scare you, but it doesn't scare me."  He licked two fingers and ran them along Tio's head against the lay of his fur, creating a subtle mohawk.  "Because I know that, just like your fire, you've learned to be careful with it."

With as little noise as possible, Jean entered the home holding a shoebox and asked where Hal was at.

Vincent addressed his question while Theodore climbed into bed.  "He said he wanted to spend some time alone to think.  He probably went across town to find a pond to sleep in.  He'll be back in the morning; we'll hear his stomach rumbling just before he knocks on the door."

Jean nodded with acknowledgment, secured the home's locks, and sat in a large chair with the shoebox securely held on his lap, and joined his new family in calming rest.