Chapter Twelve Back on the Track If the river is too wide, I’ll get through it. And if the mountain is too high, That won’t stop the stream from running. I’m on my way, I’ve got a plan. I’m makin’ my way, Any way that I can < Nick’s Point of View> <7th of Sharmishira> It was warm. VERY warm. Brendan was next to me, sweating buckets. He had a long- sleeved T-Shirt on and three-quarters jeans. I was in shorts and an armless shirt. We had left Arw City two days after Sam and Katrina had. We’d taken another day to recover, and then we spent another day beating the gym. I had had a bit of trouble, but not as much as Brendan had. He’d had to fight fire with fire, which hadn’t worked too well. He’d only won because Vixen the Vulpix had tripped over Blair’s Magmar and sent it into the tomato soup. Stretching out my arms, I yawned, and then scratched my head. It felt great to be stretching my legs again. I’d taken a couple of runs around the city to let out some stress, but now that we were back on the road, my legs were getting a good stretch. The flapping off wings caught my attention. Looking up, I saw a flock of Jorei taking off from a tree near us. Their multicoloured-wings seemed to form an ever-changing picture which only lasted a minute. Smiling, I shaded my eyes and looked at the way they were going. “That’s unusual.” Brendan muttered. “What is?” “Those Jorei. They shouldn’t be flocking together right now. It’s Spring, so that flock should be at least half its size. The females should be roosting and looking after their young.” Brendan explained, watching the Jorei as they disappeared from sight. I frowned. That didn’t seem right at all. Jorei were very particular Pokemon. They had to have their eggs within a month of the snow melting, or there’d be trouble. For example, a whole bunch of them chasing away intruders near their nests. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I muttered, and watched as the whole flock of them wheeled around. Brendan took a step back. I followed suit, but I took it a bit further. To say it plainly, I ran for my life. Jorei were very matriarchal Pokemon, their whole flocks being run by the females. The males did what they were told, which also included fighting. That was why the whole flock were leaving their nest. I dashed as fast as I could. While Jorei weren’t particularly dangerous, they did have a couple of painful attacks, Drill Peck being one of them, and I fully didn’t intend to be acupunctured. Brendan raced ahead of me, faster than I had any hopes of going. I stared at him, half-amazed half-angry. I put on a short burst of speed, but I still wasn’t anywhere near to Brendan. I frowned, and looked ahead, dodging potholes in the road, until it struck me. I dived to the side, off the path and rolled. Standing up again, I ran into the forest. I kept running. I was a long-distance runner, not a sprinter. Chances are that Brendan was slowing down right now. I stopped and changed direction every so often. A few squawks of outrage behind me seemed to come from the birds that ran into branches and leaves. I would have stopped and turned, maybe even laughed, but fear kept me running. Suddenly, the forest thinned out, and I was in a meadow, blinking from the sunlight. The tress had blocked some of the light in the forest, but not a lot. In front of me, a large caravan was resting in place, people walking around it, and a few satellites sticking out of the roof. I stopped and blinked, wondering what was going on. Fluttering of wings reminded me of why I had been running. I twisted around, and released Sparx. The Pichu came out of his ball yawning. “Sparx, Flash!” I said, panting as I tried to calm my heart. Sparx blinked, and instantly began to charge up for the attack. Just as the first multi-coloured Jorei burst from the trees, Sparx released a bright wave of light. The Jorei screeched in surprise, and turned on their tail. Some smashed into one another in their hurry to get away from the light, but within seconds, the whole lot had gone. I breathed a sigh of relief, and collapsed to the ground. Sparx bounced over to me, clapping his hands and giggling the whole way. I smiled at him and scratched between his ears. His foot tapped the ground in time with my scratches. I’d discovered he loved being scratched there. “Thanks for that Sparx.” I told him. He gave me a thumbs-up and bounded up to the top of my head. “Excuse, but can you please be quieter?” I turned and looked at who was talking. A man, only a few years older than me, looked down his nose at me. “Uh, sorry.” I said sheepishly. “Flock of Jorei, they didn’t seem to be happy with me.” More like on the verge of wanting to kill me. I thought silently. “Well, be more careful. We have to stop you from going ahead any further on this route in any case. We’re filming an episode of Trainer Games, and the trainers in question are near to us. You can come and watch if you want. I’m Rick by the way.” Rick offered a hand down to me. Grabbing it, he pulled me to my feet. He winked, and went back to the caravan. I dusted myself off and sighed. Sparx was still on my hair, and I could feel a stream of electricity flowing down my body. I sighed again. I couldn’t stop him from generating the electricity at all. Not that I’d tried very hard. Shaking my head, a jogged after Rick. I had recovered from my run, but I was still a bit short of breath. Now that I was closer to it, I could see that the caravan was actually a modified T.V crew-car. A small T.V screen mounted on the side showed what the camera was focused on, and it was showing an empty patch of ground between two hills. I rolled my eyes, and looked into the car itself. I wasn’t overly interested in landscape shots. Inside the van, several small desks had been installed, with lots of equipment on them. There were video screens everywhere, and standing just inside it, Rick was receiving a piece of paper from another person at a desk. When he saw me, Rick grinned. “Sorry, I forgot. Guys, this is a trainer that just came out of the woods. Can you guys show him what’s going on? I’ll be back soon, uh?” Rick trailed off; suddenly realising he didn’t know my name. “I’m Nick.” I said, with a grin. I pointed up to my hair, and said, “And this is Sparx.” “Ok. I’ll be back soon Nick, I won’t be more than five minutes.” Rick assured me, giving me a smile of his own. Before I could ask, he disappeared in a green flash of light. On my head, Sparx gave a small squawk of annoyance. I shook my head; I was starting to get sick of psychics. A man at one of the desks looked over when Sparx made his opinion clear about teleporting. He grinned at me. “Does he actually know what the noise means?” “He knows what most of the sounds he makes mean.” I replied. Climbing into the car, I went to the station the man was working at. It too showed the same screen as what was on outside. “So, why are we looking at this particular place? Are we expecting anything interesting to happen?” “Actually, yes. Two of the kids we’re doing the Trainer Games with are psychic. We’re expecting them to teleport or land there. We don’t know where exactly, so that’s why we’ve got the large view here.” He gestured at the screen itself. I nodded my head in understanding. It made sense. “We’ve also got some challenges set up for those two hills. They used to be gold-mines, but they were cleared out ages ago. Now there are a lot of tunnels and a huge cavern in the ground beneath them. We’re gonna see if we can get the kids to climb the hills, and if they do, we’ve got trapdoors at the top which will make them end up in the chamber. We blocked off a lot of the entrances, and we’ve got a load of Alakazams and other psychic types casting a load of illusions and things. And if the kids can figure out how to get out, we’re going to set up the ending for the show there.” “Ok, but how will they get out?” I asked, curious in spite of myself. Sparx seemed to be interested too, because the stream of electricity from him was lessening slightly. “See that small line of ground where there isn’t any rocks? If you look closely, you’ll see it.” Leaning in closer to the screen, I looked for the particular line they were trying to point out to me. Try as I could, I couldn’t see it. “Can’t see it?” I shook my head and looked closer at the screen. “Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s hard to find unless you know where it is. Anyway, we hooked up the cavern so that the ground would open up there. It wasn’t easy, believe me. We nearly had a couple of cave-ins, but we got it eventually. That’s where they’ll come out. We’ll be hiding a small cube in the cavern, one that can hit into a small hole in the ground. Put the cube in the hole and it’ll start up a huge fan, one that won’t kill, but one strong enough to blow the trainers up above ground. We’re going to hide it pretty well, so they’ll have a hard time finding it.” “Ok.” “After that, yours truly will be hiding nearby, and I’ll challenge one of them to a custom match, one where you’ll need to play pretty well to win. And then, if they keep following clues, they’ll end up at a Waterhole, and then a huge tree, and then back here eventually.” The man finished bluntly. I could tell he was getting bored. I nodded my head again, and turned back to the screen as a flash of blue light suddenly filled it, and then disappeared. Three people were there, but they were too small for me to see properly. I grinned, and got ready to watch the game play out. “And cueing the Pokemon stampede slash rockslide….. NOW!” The man said, pressing a button on the consol of the computer. Something on the screen seemed to rumble. Two people form the group and leapt unnaturally up the cliffs at the base of the hills. Watching closely, I saw the third person disappear from sight. The face of a Golem appeared on screen and I jumped back with a yell. Sparx however, went a bit further. He let loose electricity, until I could sympathise with a cooked sausage. The man at the computer laughed, as did everyone else nearby. Flushing red, I grabbed up Sparx’s Pokeball and returned him, stowing his Pokeball on my belt and walking back to the screen, determined to ignore the laughing. A green flash made me jump again; landing on the toes of the man sitting at the computer and making me hit my head on the roof. Rubbing my head, while the man rubbed his toes, I glared at Rick. He blinked in astonishment, and then grinned. Shaking his head, he turned to the screen. “How are our Trainers doing?” Rick asked the man. The man groaned, and pressed a button on the consol, and then went back to rubbing his toes. On the screen we got the view of the back of a girl. I blinked, and frowned. There was someone ahead of her, who seemed familiar. The person was there for only a few seconds before they disappeared, with a yell, judging from the fact that the girl who was closer to the camera looked up, and started scrabbling up the hill. The man pressed another button on the consol, and the view changed. The screen was entirely dark. Pressing a green button, the camera suddenly turned to infra- red and two people appeared on the camera. My heart leapt, and I looked in amazement at the screen. “It can’t be.” I said. “What?” Rick looked at me. I turned to him, and shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure, but I’ll tell you when I’m sure.” Rick gave me a strange look, and turned back to the screen. A third person had joined the other two. They were looking over the cavern, and with a pang, I realised that I should be there helping them. The girl I didn’t know tripped over, and her torch rolled away from her. It settled on the ground a little way away from her. I shook my head in bemusement, but Rick swore quietly. “Pure accident, of course. They couldn’t have found it that quickly otherwise.” He said. I frowned at him, wondering what he was on about, when the girl scrambled forward and seemed to pick something up. “Come on Ed, we need to go.” A woman’s voice sounded behind me. The man, or Ed, stood up and nodded. Grabbing two Pokeballs from his desk, he grabbed the woman’s arm and they disappeared, this time in a purple light. Rick instantly took Ed’s chair, and his fingers became a blur as he typed things into the consol. “Good one Ed, leave things to the last second.” He murmured, and pressed the Enter key. On the screen, a small red light lit up in the girl’s hand. She then knelt and placed whatever she was holding into the floor. A few seconds later, her feet, and the feet of the others left the ground. I laughed, they looked funny. Rick switched the view back to the one of the hills, where a large hole in the ground had appeared. Three people flew out of it, but I knew what I was looking for this time. Two of the people landed on the ground, but a third person simply floated down, a blue shimmer around them. “Thought so.” Rick turned to me again. “So, figured out what it is yet?” “Yup.” I answered. A huge grin appear on my face. “I know them. I was travelling with them before. We were going to catch up in Romanc or Rorroh.” I laughed. “I can’t believe I missed this!” Rick’s face lit up. “You know them? Great! We can have you make an entrance when the game finishes.” “Well,” I trailed off. “I know two of them. The blond girl there, her name is Katrina Churchill. Her Uncle is Lance, from the Kanto Elite Four. And the red- head is Sam Sapphire. We’re starter trainers; we won the contest that the International League did.” Rick’s eyes widened and he turned back to the screen. “Well, I hope they’re good physically, mentally, emotionally and at Pokemon Training.” “Oh believe me; they should be able to do whatever you throw at them.” I said with pride. “Sam and Katrina can do quite a lot. Just don’t tell them I said so. I’ll never hear the end of it.” Rick nodded his answer, and watched the screen. Sam had begun to battle Ed, Artemis versus a Pikachu. I sighed with relief, Artemis should be fine. He was a Water-Ground type, which meant electricity wouldn’t work. He was brown too, which meant he had either been on the end of a bad Conversion move or had covered himself in mud. The Pikachu disappear, and then reappear, slamming into Artemis. Artemis flew through the air, but managed to land on his feet. The Pikachu didn’t stop there, he kept going, and narrowly missed Sam. “Wha? What’s going on?” I asked eyes wide as I looked at the screen. “Ed told you it was a custom match, right?” I nodded. “Well, those are part of the rules.” “Hey, look at that guy out there.” Turning away from the screen, where Sam had just beaten Ed, I looked out the window where Rick was pointing. There, do what looked like a strange dance, was Brendan. I blinked a few times, and then burst out laughing. After I’d gotten over my hysterics, I leaned out the window, and yelled, “OI! Brendan!” Brendan did a half-turn, before continuing his dance. He made his way slowly towards the caravan, and the instant he got clear of the long grass around the clearing the caravan was in, he shot towards us, followed closely by bunch of Rattata and Raticates. I stared in disbelief, when Rick stepped up beside me. Extending his arm and pointing at the rat Pokemon, a green barrier appeared, circling around the caravan and the other surveillance equipment. I looked at him with admiration. I didn’t know if Sam was even capable of extending a shield half as big as this one. The first Rattata ran head-first into the barrier, and jumped back, hissing. Its brethren encountered the same resistance. After a few minutes, they fled, knowing they weren’t going to win this battle. The ones that stayed however kept attacking the barrier, trying to bite it. I shook my head at the Pokemon and turned to Brendan. “What’d you do that made them all attack you?” “Entered their territory.” “Ah.” “Pokemon have a thing for attacking me today.” Brendan said, before looking around the caravan. “What’s all this for?” “Well, our good ol’ friends Katrina and Sam managed to get picked to participate in Trainer Games.” I told him wryly. Brendan raised an eyebrow, and turned to Rick. “Wow. I love this show. What obstacles have you set up for them? I’ve never managed to figure out how you can come up with so many ideas for these games. I remember when you made that trainer, Serena, I think, go over that old, wooden bridge over a lava stream. She never guessed that she had those Magcargo under her, I still laugh at the look on her face when she fell!” Brendan let out a whooping laugh, and doubled up. I shook my head. Even though he knew all kinds of useless facts, Brendan obviously never read that the girl had been traumatised and sued Trainer Games for mental anguish. She’d apparently been afraid of Magcargo before then as well. Rick was obviously thinking the same thing as I was. Shaking his head, he proceeded to explain what Sam, Kat and whoever else was with them was doing for their challenges. Ignoring them, I already knew what was happening, I watched as Sam and Kat sat down on the ground, followed shortly by the other person. By the looks of it, they were all munching on something, but I couldn’t tell what. And then they all seemed to decide to go to sleep. I shook my head and turned around. Rick had just finished explaining everything to Brendan, and then looked at the screen, and then his watch. Swearing loudly, he teleported away. Brendan and I just looked at the spot where Rick had been, wondering what was going on. The computer screen suddenly beeped, and on, it, the unknown person was getting up. About to sit on the computer chair, Brendan was in it suddenly. I turned slightly and scowled. He merely grinned, and paid attention to the screen. The unknown person was climbing up a large tree when footsteps sounded behind us. “You know, I’ve heard of getting square eyes form sitting too close to a television screen, but that’s just ridiculous.” The speaker was a young woman, followed closely by Ed. She seemed a bit pale than people usually are, but she was grinning anyway. I jumped away from the screen. I hadn’t realised I’d been that close. I grinned sheepishly, and stood up. “Uh, yeah, sorry about that.” I let out a weak laugh, that probably only served to make me sound stupid. The woman let out a laugh of her own. “It’s ok, don’t worry about it.” She walked over to the consol to where I’d been and looked at the screen. “I’m the one that attacked your friends here. That girl climbing the tree there is a real Wonder Woman. She managed to fight back against me, figure out the first puzzle, gave your friend’s Pokemon their checkups and now she’s climbing that tree.” “Uh, yeah. I guess. I don’t know her, but I’ll take your word for it.” I said. “So, she’s psychic as well?” “Obviously.” I rolled my eyes. There were far too many psychics in this region for my liking. The woman reached forward and twisted a small knob. The view telescoped in, showing the girl in detail. She was about three quarters of the way up the tree, but she was clinging to it like her life depended on it. The woman frowned. “She can’t have acrophobia. If she did, she wouldn’t have made it nearly this far.” She murmured to herself. She fiddled with the knob again and the view swung around, showing the girl from the side as the cameras changed. The girl had an expression of terror on her face. Her arms trembled and she reached up to the next branch. The woman reached into her pocket and fished out a black comlink. Pressing one of the buttons, she spoke into it. “Rick, you need to take her into the blimp. She isn’t going to be able to climb down. From the looks of it, she has acrophobia.” She stopped for a minute, obviously listening. “Not Rick, not Arachnophobia, acrophobia, the fear of heights. No, I don’t know how she made it up this far without freezing up. You’ll need to take her into the blimp, ok? And don’t even try that falling scare you tried last time-! Rick, are you listening to me?” The woman swore and released the button. “Great, he’s gonna let them fall, and just as they’re about to hit the ground, teleport them into the blimp they’re with.” She sighed and shook her head. “And then he wonders why we get sued so much.” I grinned. It sounded like something I’d do. “It’s all fun and games.” “Well, those fun and games cost the network almost a million a year.” The woman retorted. “I’m Lulu by the way.” “I’m Nick.” “And I’m Brendan.” “Nice to meet you.” The woman said shortly. The girl was at the tip of the tree now, and from the looks of it, she was trying to beat Rick to grab a flag. A moment of quiet tension in the air happened, and then passed as the girl grabbed the flag a few millimetres before Rick tried. I breathed out, a breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding. Beside me, Brendan did the same. And then it happened. Rick spent roughly a minute trying to convince the girl to get into the blimp. At least, I think that was what he was doing. The tree suddenly seemed to bend, and the girl started falling. From the looks of it, Rick tried catching her, but he fell as well. Beside me, Lulu shook her head and sighed. Purple light suddenly filled the screen, and Rick and the girl had suddenly disappeared. Silence reigned supreme in the caravan, until Lulu burst out laughing. “Ooh, I wish I could have seen Rick’s face when she did that!” Brendan and I exchanged looks of confusion. Lulu and Rick seemed to have a rivalry. Thinking back, I realised that I had seen Lulu before; she was a fill- in host for when Rick couldn’t do it. I then shrugged. She had never seemed too happy when she had to do it. Lulu’s comlink suddenly beeped from her hand. She brought it up to her ear, and pressed a button, listening for a second, she gave me and Brendan a glancing look before she spoke. “Yeah, they’re here. Ok, we’ll go there now. You’re taking her with you? Fine, but you’ll need to let her drop off a message to her friends. Yes, yes, ok, alright, I’ll see you there.” She clicked the comlink off and looked at me and Brendan. “Ok you two, we’re going to the finishing spot, ok? Do you want to come with us, or leave your friends alone?” I looked at Brendan. I wanted to go and meet up with Sam and the other two, I didn’t know what Brendan thought though. He frowned for a moment, before he nodded his acceptance. :Ok, let’s go!” I said, punching the air in triumph. <5 and ½ hours later> "Well, nobody can't say that I didn't earn my Polienix!" Sam said, looking up at Ashlee and Kat, grinning. I smirked and gestured to Brendan. Moving quietly, we stole up behind Sam, before surprising him from behind. Sam let out a loud yell, and whirled around. Catching sight of mine and Brendan’s grinning faces, he stopped, and stared. “Hi Sam!” I said, waving. He didn’t say anything, and just blinked. “So, Sam, which way are we going? To Romanc? Or Rorroh?” I asked him while he was still too shocked to answer. He remained still, his mind trying to process what was going on. I sighed. I had the sudden feeling of foreboding that meeting up with Sam, Kat and Ashlee wouldn’t be as fun as I thought it’d be.