Chapter 36: Connect


     "Ow!" I yelled. "I don't like the idea of the moving floor thingy!"
I was suffering a lot of pain already to just get my seventh badge.
"That hurt my knee!"

     "Do you want me to kiss it for you?" Nathan joked.

     "Ha ha, very funny. Just because you're my boyfriend, you think you
can kiss my knee for me."

     "I can't? Then why did I even ask you out?" he said indignantly. 

     "Because I'm cool."

     "Sure, if you say so, Jenny."

     "I do say so," I shot back.

     "Welcome," interrupted to high-pitched voices at once. The two of
us looked over. Identical twins. Great, just great. 

     "Thank you," I said unsurely. They kind of scared me. 

     "Does it scare you-"

     "That we can talk to each other-"

     "Inside our minds?" they finished at the same time.

     "Well, in a way..." I said. "This is scary," I whispered to Nathan.

     "I know, huh?" he whispered back.

     "And I thought Wattson was crazy."

     "He's not crazy," Nathan argued. "He's senile."

     "Okay, I can deal with that," I said with a grin. 

     "You're so stupid that it's cute," he said, slipping an arm over my
shoulders. I looked up at him.

     "I know," I replied casually. And then I realized that the two gym
leaders were watching us, which kind of freaked me out.

     "Do you wish to battle us?" asked the girl. 

     "Yeah, sure," I answered. "Why not?"

     "INNW?" questioned Nathan and I shook my head.

     "You're a dork."

     "Go figure."

     "Is a 2-on-2 battle with no items okay?" asked the other gym
leader.

     "Sure," I said with a grin and I put my head on Nathan's shoulder.

     "What are your names?" asked the girl gym leader again.

     "Oh, I'm Jenn Frost and this is my boyfriend Nathan Pickens. Who
are you two?"

     "I'm Tate and this is Liza," introduced the other gym leader.

     "It's great to meet you," I said. "Are you ready to begin?"

     "That'd be nice, Miss Frost," said Liza.

     "You guys can choose your Pokemon first," I said pointedly.

     "That's fine," said Tate. He let out a Solrock and Liza brought out
a Lunatone. Nathan and I, with only one simultaneous glance, chose
Torrent and Shadow, my new Absol.

     Tate and Liza looked at each other and cringed. "You two can go
first," said Tate.

(AUTHORESS NOTES: It has been a LONG time since I've battled Tate and
Liza in Ru/Sa. I don't remember a whole lot of attacks. Just to let you
know ahead of time.)

     "Okay," I agreed. "Shadow, Future sight!" Ah, my favorite move. 

     "Sunny Day!" yelled Tate. I wasn't going to mention how confused I
was. Because I didn't want to seem stupider than I already am.

     Vicky, Zach and Sam exchanged a look. Vicky whispered something in
Zach's ear. Zach nodded.

     "Surf!" called Nathan and Tate and Liza cringed again. 

     "Psychic!" exclaimed Liza and it knocked Torrent back. Ooh, that
had to hurt.

     "Shadow, use Shadow Ball!" Ahh, my second to favorite move.

     Lunatone looked pretty injured with that move. "Solrock,
solarbeam!" A powerful ray of sunlight hit Torrent and he fainted. Ooh,
this sucks.

     "Bingo, let's go!" Nathan shouted, calling out his new Banette. I
hoped he knew what he was doing.

     "Rain Dance!" I never knew my boyfriend was so smart.

     "Calm mind," Liza commanded. Then suddenly the Solrock started to
glow. The future sight was working! With the impact of that and the surf
that Torrent had used, Solrock fainted.

     "Shadow Ball again!" I demanded. 

     "Psychic!" The powerful attack hit Bingo, but it didn't do much
damage.

     "Shadow Ball!" commanded Nathan. I raised my eyebrow. "What? I like
that move too."

      "That move" was enough to faint Lunatone. "Nice one there,
Pickens," I commented.

     "Congratulations, you two!" exclaimed Liza as she handed us each
the Mind Badge. Wow, what an appropriate name.

     "Miss Frost, may I speak to you really quickly?" asked Liza.

     "Sure. And call me Jenn." Liza took me over to the side. She had a
worried look on her face.

     "I had a vision, Miss- I mean, Jenn." I gave her a skeptical look.
"I'm very serious. In this vision, Team Magma had the blue orb- the one
that will awaken Groudon. But they are missing the red orb- the one that
can control the ancient Pokemon. They will use Groudon to strengthen the
sunlight and wipe out the oceans."

     "Why are you telling ME this? Wouldn't you want to alert the
police?"

     "Jenn, the vision told me to call upon you. And watching you battle
made it clear. You're the only one who can stop them. Now listen to me.
I'm going to take you to the underwater cavern that they are using as
their base and you must battle for the orb."

     I was set now. "Okay, let's go."