Random story fact of the day: This story is a follow-up fic to "The Downfall of Team Rocket" and "Team Rocket Strikes Back". Yes, Jenn is the main character in those too. There will be two more after this too. I'm not sure what they'll be called, but one of them is set in Kanto, the other one set in Johto. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 9: An Offer I Hate to Refuse I hate to admit it, but I had yet another sleepless night on my first night in Dewford. Part of it was that I was really freaked out, like Team Magma would come for me in the middle of the night and the other part was due to Nathan. But it was due to the first part of my fears that Nathan and I shared a room at the Pokemon Center. Well, that was part of the reason. The other part was just that they had one room. But as Nathan snored on the couch, I thought back to our talk earlier. He had said I was worth putting himself in danger. What did that mean? That he liked me? He had already proved that by the fact that we almost kissed. Well, sorta. Maybe he just got caught up in the moment. Besides, didn't he knew he was putting MY feelings on the line? What if Taylor hurt him? I couldn't bear with that! I had already fallen too hard for him. I know I said I wasn't going to do that, but apparently, I lied to myself. Finally, after two and a half hours of thinking, I fell asleep and I awoke to Nathan snoring. Fortunately (for my eardrums) he woke up about fifteen minutes after I did. "Good morning, sunshine!" I cried out, throwing a pillow in his face. "Ugh," he replied. "Come on, get up! We need to beat Brawly!" I said enthusiastically. It was almost as if we had switched roles, as he is a morning person and I am not. "Okay!" he bounced back, jumping up. It was kind of scary, but hey, whatever floats his boat. We got up, took turns using the bathrooms (to get dressed), grabbed our Pokemon from the nurse here and left. It took us about five minutes to get to the gym and I was kinda freaked out when we got in there. "Ahhhh! I'm blind!" I cried. "No, you're not. It's just dark," Nathan said logically. "I can't see a thing," I complained. "I can. You must have really bad vision," Nathan commented. "Yeah, I do. That's why I wear contacts," I told him. "I never knew that! You mean your eyes aren't naturally blue?" I shook my head. "Nope. They're brown." Nathan grabbed my hand and I swear, I almost passed out. "Come on, we're going to find Brawly!" he announced. I think I was more focused on the fact that Nathan was holding my hand than the actual gym. But he made a sudden stop and I crashed into him. "Are we at the gym leader?" I asked, confused. "Yeah, that'd be me! My name is Brawly, and it's been awhile since I've had such a pretty challenger come in!" he exclaimed but as he noticed Nathan, his grin fell. "With her boyfriend." This time, we didn't correct him. It would be better to just go along, get our badges quickly and get a ride to Slateport. "Yeah, well I'm Jenn, and as you noticed, this is my boyfriend, Nathan." I knew he understood what I was doing, so he didn't correct me. "Would a double battle be okay?" Nathan asked politely and to kind of prove our story, he put his arm over my shoulder and I thought I was going to die of happiness. "That'd be fine! Go Machop and Makuhita!" the enthusiastic gym leader called out. "Go Gully!" I called, knowing that I could use my new psychic Pokemon (I had finally caught a Ralts) if I needed to. "Come on out, Flappy!" He let out a Taillow that I never known he had. Go figure. "Umm... Supersonic!" I yelled, using my tactic from my battle with Roxanne. It worked, and the Makuhita was out of it. "Wing Attack!" called Nathan, and the Taillow hit the Machop dead on. It was left with very little health, but it still had enough to do some damage with Low Kick to Gully. "Water Gun!" I said matter-of-factly and it was enough to knock out Machop. "Peck!" called Nathan again, and the bird did some big damage to Makuhita. "Arm Thrust," Brawly demanded but it hit itself, leaving it with very little health. "Water gun!" I commanded and it was enough to knock Makuhita out. "Congratulations!" Brawly said, handing us each the Knuckle Badge. "You guys did really well. I hope to battle you again sometime." The room was now fully lighted and Nathan started to walk off. "Hey, Jenn," Brawly whispered. "You know where to find me if you and your boyfriend ever break up." "You bet I do," I whispered back, but then ran to catch up with Nathan. When we got outside, who did we run into but Archie. "Do you guys need a ride to Slateport?" he asked us. "Yeah, but don't we need to heal our Pokemon?" I asked. "I'll do it," Nathan volunteered and with that, he ran inside. "Jenn, I have a proposal for you," Archie said and immediately, my sarcasm and humor got the best of me. "I'm sorry, I'm only thirteen. All I'm interested in is dating," I joked and Archie laughed. "Hey, you're funny! No, I mean a business proposal. How would you like to be part of Team Aqua?" "Me, a member of Team Aqua? I don't know, Archie," I said, feeling unsure. Gangs aren't my type of thing. "Think about it, Jenn. You'd do extremely well," he urged. Thinking a moment made up my mind. "I'm sorry, I can't do it," I told him and he asked me why. "I have way too much to lose. I'm all about saving the world and stopping Team Magma, but I just can't do it. I'm sorry." I may not have had a lot here in Hoenn, actually the only family I had pretty much was my mom, since my dad worked entirely too much. I knew I was tough enough, I knew I was perfect for it and I knew that I believed in everything they wanted, but one thing was holding me back, and I knew what it was. I couldn't let Nathan down. He believed in me so much, and tried so hard to help me, and it was all I could do to give him a reason to believe. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hope you liked! Sorry if that was short and lame! ~TORCHICK~