Chapter 3: Jenn's Little Battle


     It was almost sunset when we finally got outside. Of course, not
before Mrs. Pickens cooed on how well we got along. That woman was
weird, I tell you, weird.

     Nathan was smirking as he enlarged his only Poke'ball. I knew he
thought he could beat me, simply because he didn't know my history. He
probably didn't know who Team Rocket was anyways, the Hoenn region has
never had problems with them.

     "You think you can beat me?" I said with a little smile. Suddenly,
I wished I had my Johto Pokemon with me. I could blow him out of the
water with those.

     "Of course. Like you have any previous training experience. My dad
is a well-known Pokemon researcher in the Hoenn region, I've gotten tips
and tricks from the best of the trainers."

     "When I was in sixth grade, I defeated the head of Team Rocket, who
happened to be the eighth gym leader, with only a little trouble. In
fact, I would've beaten him with no trouble if he had aimed for my
Pokemon instead of trying to kill me!"

     "Who's Team Rocket?" he asked. "Are they like Team Aqua and Team
Magma?"

     "Who are Team Aqua and Team Magma?"

     "They're these teams in Hoenn. Team Aqua is passionate about the
water, but Team Magma is equally passionate about land. At the moment,
Team Magma is getting more ruthless than usual. They're trying to make
the world all land."

     "But what about the water Pokemon? They won't have a place to live!
They'll die with no water!"

     "They don't care. They have all fire Pokemon. The less water
Pokemon, the less chance they have of being beaten."

     I shook my head. "That's horrible. Even Team Rocket wasn't THAT
bad..."

     "Who are they again?" asked Nathan. I was right in guessing that he
had never heard of them. The Hoenn region had never had to deal with
them, they had Teams Aqua and Magma instead.

     "Another evil group, only they try to use Pokemon for domination.
They tried to take over our town... twice. They kidnapped my brother and
sister, only we thought they were dead. There were a lot of people that
they DID kill, and they tried to kill me. When I was in battle with the
leader, instead of using hyper beam on my Pokemon, he aimed it at me. I
thought I was going to die."

     "So you DO have previous experience... And we're forgetting about
our little battle! Come on, Jenny, let's get moving!"

     That kind of stung, simply because no one had called me Jenny after
I had left Taylor.

     "Okay... okay... Patience, patience..." I enlarged my own
Poke'Ball. "Go Torchic!" After a beam of light, my favorite little fire
chicken popped out, looking fierce. I don't know, maybe she had too much
sleep or something. She fluttered around a bit and then flew to my
shoulder. Chickens are so cute.

     "Come on out, Torrent!" Oh how impressive, he had already given his
Pokemon a nickname... I rolled my eyes at my own sarcasm. There was no
point in being sarcastic in my head.

     A little Mudkip popped out of the PokeBall. Even I had to admit it
was really cute. But my Torchic was cuter... And the Pokemon always
takes after it's trainer! Oh crap, did that mean I was calling Nathan
cute? Stupid me...

      "Okay, Torchic, scratch!" The little chicken fluttered off my
shoulder and scratched the little blue thing.

     "Tackle, Torrent!" Stupid nicknames... The Mudkip tackled Torchic
and at such a close range, it did quite a bit of damage. 

     "Crap..." I muttered. "Torchic, scratch it again!" The chicken,
being weak, did minor damage to the mud cat. 

     Nathan, taking advantage of the close range once again, told
Torrent to tackle. Torchic fainted.

     I was not prepared for a loss, especially not to Nathan. "Oh my
God, Torchic! Return, you did great!" I recalled my fire-type and walked
over to my opponent, who was quietly gloating.

     "Great battle," I told him with a fake smile plastered on my face.
We shook hands.

     "Yeah, you did well for your first Hoenn battle, Jenn. Here, take
this." He handed me a Potion to heal Torchic. "No, actually... keep that
but come on!"

     He dragged me by the hand to the largest building in Littleroot,
the Pokemon research lab. "What are we doing?" I asked him.

     "Going to heal your Torchic at the Pokemon lab. There's a machine
in there that will revive it completely. I'm not supposed to use it, but
nobody's there right now."

     "Are you sure? Won't your dad find out?" I questioned him.

     "No, it works like the machines at Pokemon centers, only this is
quicker." He took a key out and put it in the lock. The door opened and
we quietly walked in. 

     "Let me see Torchic," he whispered, in case one of the workers
hadn't left. I handed him my only PokeBall and that jerk left me alone
in the dark. I couldn't see him, but I heard buttons being pushed behind
me. 

     Someone started running and they grabbed my hand. I panicked at
first, until I realized it was Nathan, making a quick getaway. He shut
the door, locked it and ran back to his house, knowing my mother was
still there.

     When we arrived at the Pickens household, the adults all seemed to
end their conversation. "Jenifer... Nathan... Just the kids we wanted to
see," cooed my mother. My mother NEVER coos. 

     "Should we run now?" I whispered to Nathan. He kind of laughed but
then stopped, remmebering the presense of our parents.

     "We've been thinking. Nathan, you've been pestering your father to
go on a Pokemon journey for years..." started Mrs. Pickens.

     "And Jenifer, you've been begging me and your father since we were
in Johto..."

     "And we've decided to let you both go... Only you have to travel
together," finished Nathan's father.

     "What do you mean, travel together?" I cried. There are so many
cruel, unjust things that go around in my mother's head sometimes, like
me having to move and my siblings getting to travel. I felt I had a
clear picture of Nathan anyways, and besides for the fact that he was
cute, I didn't like what I saw. Bobby wouldn't like him anyways.

     "We've made up our minds," said my mother firmly. "You both are
thirteen with almost no image of the world. Just go out and experience
it all!"

     I couldn't believe it. She was serious! Whatever happened to not
letting me go out unless it was someone she really trusted? She can't
really trust Nathan! I don't even really trust Nathan!

     And speaking of Nathan, why wasn't HE protesting? While me and my
mother were arguing, he was standing next to me saying nothing!! 

     Was it possible that he wanted to go travelling with me? I know
that somewhere in my mind, I wanted to go with him. I just didn't want
him to know that. And more importantly, I didn't want my iron resolve to
break.

     "So it's settled!" finished my mother. She handed me some money and
told us to go, if we hurried we could get to Oldale by 10:00. 

I wished my mother had no friends.

     Nathan pulled my arm then. "Come on, let's go!" Our parents waved
goodbye and after we stepped out, we were on our own.

Happy happy joy joy.