“I-I’ve got it!” shouted Tate, as he jumped up and pulled the old, battered leather briefcase down from where it had been hidden amongst the baggage compartments.

  Everyone wanted the serum and the formulas on Doctor Hannibal’s research, including them! With Doctor Hannibal’s serum they could save their dad!

  All they needed to do now was survive and somehow get it to the people at the hospital.

  “Get down!” Liza shouted before frowning in confusion.

  “We’re somehow stuck in here!”

  Tate didn’t understand what she meant but there wasn’t any time to think about it. He looked to the side and had a split second to see the man further down the empty plane’s aisle.

  Adler was right there, looking really upset to see them again, and he had his gun pointed right at Tate!

  Bang!

  Barely in time, Liza managed to pull her brother towards her, falling back on the empty seats of the airplane. He’d barely escaped the bullet fired from the man standing further down the aisle, the terrorist trying to blow up the United Nations.

  “Th-thanks,” Tate gasped out.

  “Don’t mention it,” Liza replied.

  He pushed himself off his sister, keeping a firm hold on the briefcase.

  They needed to get the bomb off the plane! But they were trapped by the terrorists. There was barely anywhere to hide. It was just them and him now, but Adler still had his handgun and a knife in his other hand. There was no way they’d be able to fight him like this.

  “Lucky, lucky, little boy,” Adler taunted. “But it’s all over now. Why don’t you hand me the briefcase. I’ve already said I take no pleasure in killing children but as I have already demonstrated, my patience has run quite thin and I will if I have to.”

  Tate really didn’t believe that for a second. There was no way the guy’d just let them go if they gave up the briefcase now.

  But they couldn’t just sit still. Tate looked into his sister’s scared eyes. He could tell she was of a similar opinion to him. They had to do something.

  Tate dared to pop his head up over the back of the seat.

  Adler was there, striding slowly towards them. He had his gun levied and he fired almost immediately.

  Tate ducked down again, just in time to avoid death for a second time.

  He was about to make a quip about having nine lives, but the sound of glass shattering caught everyone’s attention.

  The bullet had missed Tate, but it had continued on and somehow struck one of the windows. An explosion of decompressing air as the rest of the window pane broke the rest of the way away.

  The plane was depressurising!

  The entire compartment lurched to the side, dragging Tate back to his feet along with the briefcase. Adler, having been standing up was sent flying too, providing enough of a distraction that Tate wasn’t going to get shot straight away.

  “We need to get out of here!” Liza shouted as another gunshot sounded out, still audible over the rushing wind.

  Whoosh!

  Papers, from where she had no idea were fluttering about, probably from some of the other hand-luggage that had fallen out of the overhead compartments.

  “Gah!” complained Adler, struggling to push himself back up.

  “Run!” Liza shouted.

  They made a mad dash down the corridor. Their smaller frames finally came in handy because they didn’t have to worry about banging against the abandoned armrests.

  “What the fuck’s going on out there!?” Came the shout over the audio. The pilot, one of Adler’s accomplices, was struggling to keep the small jet in the air.

  “Those goddamned kids, that’s what!” Adler shouted, even though the pilot wouldn’t be able to hear him.

  Several of the overhead compartments burst open, letting the discarded luggage left there by the passengers before burst free. At the same time Adler fired his gun again.

  Bang!

  Adler fired again, but the bullet went wide as the luggage struck his arm. The bullet hit one of the headrests instead but both of the kids knew there were more than just a couple of bullets in that gun.

  Liza ducked her head, trying to make as small a profile as she could as they raced to the back end of the plane.

  The plane lurched again, making the next shot go wide too.

  That was five lives, maybe six if you counted nearly being run over yesterday morning, Tate silently thought.

  The two kids reached the far end of the plane. It was more open back here with some equipment for the stewards. Not that there was anyone here to make use of it with all the passengers having been forced off before.

  “N-now what?!” The boy asked, desperately hoping that his brainy sister would know what to do next.

  Liza bit her lip, looking around them. It wasn’t like there were any weapons or anything.

  But then her eyes lit up as she saw something.

  “I have a plan! Grab that parachute!” She shouted over the still rushing wind.

  Tate wasn’t given any time to think about what he’d been told to do because his sister was already going for the door. The door leading out of the plane!

  “Are you crazy!?” He shouted. It was bad enough she’d convinced him to get on another plane and now she wanted him to jump out of one?

  “Do you have a better idea!?”

  Bang!

  The bullet pinged off something, sounding like something out of an old western.

  Adler had recovered and was standing straight, both hands on his gun as he aimed it at them.

  He looked super serious. Tate wasn’t going to bet on the guy missing again!

  Tate jumped out of his line of sight and went for the parachute. There was no time to argue about getting out of here, wherever here was. Because he’d certainly never travelled on a plane before!

  Tate blinked, feeling dizzy suddenly but shook it off. The depressurization was making his head spin.

  Liza went for the red handle on the door. They had to rotate it to make the door open, that was what the instructions had said on the flight manual on their way here to South America.

  But when Tate turned back to see his sister she was struggling.

  It’s stuck, help!” She bit out, pulling with all her might but a ten year old girl on her own wasn’t strong enough to make the handle move!

  Holding the suitcase and the parachute in one hand, Tate went to the other side and went to try pushing on the handle.

  “Just give up! Can’t you see it’s over!” Adler shouted with exasperation and fury.

  “It’s no-not over until the fat la-lady sings…” Liza bit out, glaring defiantly at the man as he came around and with one final shove the handle suddenly moved all the way.

  Adler only had a second to widen his eyes as the door burst open and an even bigger rush of air saw not just him but Liza and Tate being yoinked right out of the plane and into the air!

  “Oh crap!” Tate cursed as he tumbled, letting go of the suitcase and barely managing to keep hold of the parachute.

  “Aaaah!” Shouted Liza as they all entered freefall.

  They’d escaped alright, but they were still stuck with the impending doom of going splat once then touched the ground!

  The green trees of the Amazon were belo-

  Tate and Liza finally managed to pull themselves out of the vision, both kids' heads practically ringing from whatever the heck that was just now.

  “W-what was that!?” Liza said as she leaned against Tate, both of them struggling to keep their feet under them.

  It felt kind of like when Granny had shown them how to fight with other psychics for the first time.

  The Gym Leaders across the room had expressions of confusion and worry as they beheld the Psychic type Gym Leaders.

  “Are you both alright?” Winona asked.

  “We’re fine,” Tate said. He looked at Harry Hemming.

  “What the heck was that? What sort of psychic defenses are those!?”

  They’d never seen anything like it, or even read any descriptions of anything like it. Most people were either invisible to detection or had some kind of wall up that prevented anyone from reading into their heads.

  Instead of that, it was like the Fairy type trainer had taken everything you were supposed to do about protecting or hiding your mind and turned it on its head!

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Harry replied, looking as confused as everyone else. “I don’t have any psychic defenses.”

  The heck he didn’t!

  Tate didn’t need to look at Liza to know she was feeling as bemused by the situation as he was.

  “That, just then. We barely touched your mind and… I don’t know what happened but it was weird,” Liza said.

  They’d been on a plane, there’d been a formula for some medicine or something and a guy with a gun. Who used guns anyway? If you were a bad guy and wanted to hurt someone you’d use a Pokemon, duh!

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  I’m sorry,” Harry said again, looking worried as he glanced at the other Gym Leaders present for help. “I really don’t know what you're talking about.”

  “Perhaps you both could use a sit down for a moment,” Wattson said with concern.

  “Y-yeah I guess,” Liza said, speaking for both of them.

  Winona and Wattson guided them both down to sit at one of the tables. Moore brought them both a glass of water each and the twins both took a drink. It sort of helped in that psychosomatic way Grandma had taught them about.

  “Well, welcome to Fortree,” Winona said weakly. She looked to the other Gym Leaders for support.

  They couldn’t feel the minds of the others but both Tate and Liza weren’t so dumb they couldn’t tell they’d made a bad impression and embarrassed themselves majorly in front of everyone else.

  It was a good thing Brawly wasn’t here to see them make idiots out of themselves.

  Liza’s annoyance at the subtle barb made Tate wince. Usually when they irritated each other across their link it wasn’t painful.

  “We’re okay,” Tate said. He tried to smile, making sure to keep his psychic senses off the guy with the glasses. “It’s nice to meet you Mr Hemming.”

  “Likewise,” was Harry Hemming’s dry reply.

  ***

  I had no idea what had just happened. It was pure dumb luck and my own introverted behaviour that had probably prevented me from encountering a human psychic before now and instead I was discovering this at the worst possible time.

  We’d encountered a Psychic Pokemon or two as well, but not any that were known to use telepathy and had been hostile.

  Liza and Tate both looked a bit pale, but they were recovering quickly from whatever I had apparently done.

  “Do people usually need psychic defenses?” I asked curiously. I’d known it was possible, but it had never been an issue I’d had to think about before.

  “For big businesses and government work, yes,” Wattson said. “It’s not exactly common for a psychic to try misusing their abilities and not many are good enough to be able to get away with trying something like that either, because it’s normally very obvious when they do try and abuse their abilities. But there is a general understanding that people in certain positions need defences against psychics…”

  He was looking partly at Moore when he said that for some reason. The Fire type trainer nodded. Apparently he was the expert on this sort of thing.

  “We didn’t mean to try reading your mind,” Liza said. “Like, the moment we sensed your mind we just got sucked in, or something.”

  “It looks like you have psychic defences covered,” Moore said dryly. “I was going to suggest Liza and Tate maybe teach you how to defend your mind if they were willing, but… that seems unnecessary now.”

  As if in agreement, the boy and girl minutely shook their heads as if in denial of trying to enter my head again.

  “I had no idea this would happen,” I said honestly. I mean I’d interacted with some psychic Pokemon. Leah and Kira both had touched my mind with their abilities even if it had mostly been limited to empathy rather than direct communication. I didn’t have psychic abilities so I’d had to accept that there wasn’t going to be an easy cheat to direct communication like that between us.

  “It might be…” Wattson began thoughtfully. “You’re a Fairy type trainer and it’s not unheard of for Dark type trainers to be invisible to psychics. Take Sidney for instance.”

  “You think Fairy types interact in a similar way?” Moore asked, just as interested in the idea.

  “It is a supernatural typing. So there’s a precedent for it.”

  “Well that’s another thing to inform the researchers about,” Winona said.

  “As long as it doesn’t cause any major problems,” I said, looking at the twins.

  “I-I think it should be alright,” Liza said.

  “We’re basically always having our minds open because of our bond,” Tate explained. “It shouldn’t happen to other psychics unless they actually try to read your mind.”

  “Just what did happen, if you don’t mind me asking,” the Fire type trainer enquired.

  “Once we touched Harry’s mind it was like we’d entered into a divination vision, but obviously not a real one,” Tate said.

  “We were on a plane, and there was a guy with a gun, and we jumped out of the plane with a formula for a drug or something,” Liza said.

  Bemused, I shook my head.

  “I have no idea,” I said honestly.

  “Well as long as you’re both okay,” Winona said kindly. “Why don’t you both bring out some of your Pokemon, I’m sure they’d like to chat with ours for a bit before me and Harry have our battle.”

  The twins seemed surprised by the suggestion but then their eyes simultaneously lit up.

  Both of them withdrew Pokeballs and summoned their Lunatone and Solrock in front of us.

  Kid me had struggled against them in the games. I hadn’t had enough brains to realise their main Pokemon were rock types, obviously, and so they would be weak to my Sceptile’s Grass type attacks.

  I withheld a rueful expression as the two floating Pokemon appeared. Their large eyes turned to their trainers with faces that didn’t give away any expressions.

  I didn’t know what was said between the lunar and solar Pokemon and their trainers either, it was done via psychic powers. But both of the kids smiled at them and the two Pokemon turned to float over to the rest of our Pokemon.

  They… didn’t talk, not like other Pokemon, what with the lack of real mouths. Instead they just hummed, for lack of a better description. Whatever the noise was it seemed to work because Leah nodded in response to whatever one of them had said and responded verbally.

  It seemed we wouldn’t be moving onto the battle just yet. I silently chastised myself for being anti-social.

  “So you guys are in charge of Mossdeep,” I began. “What’s it like there?”

  “It’s okay,” Liza said disinterestedly.

  “Other psychics are a nuisance,” was said by Tate, agreeing with his sister.

  Wattson chuckled.

  “Mossdeep is the centre of psychics in Hoenn for a reason. It would take the best psychic, or psychics in the region to keep them all in line.”

  The implied praise seemed to buoy the kids a bit. Moore chuckled.

  “We all have our responsibilities. Harry will have to look forward to finding out what his are going to be wherever he winds up.”

  “He’s not a Gym Leader yet,” Winona said slightly archly, although her amused tone belied any kind of criticism. “Are you ready for Roxanne’s exam? She seems pretty excited about it last we spoke.”

  I shrugged.

  “Maybe?” It was impossible to know before I got to see exactly what this test would look like. “I lost the documents she gave me to study. I’ll have to apologise to her.”

  Tate and Liza both simultaneously pulled a face, the exact same expression.

  “Exams are annoying,” Liza said.

  “We’re agreed on that,” Winona said, surprising me at the apparent about face.

  “I have to help manage the tests for people wanting a licence to fly their Pokemon, and believe me it’s no fun being the examiner either,” she said dryly.

  “We have to do tests for psychics,” Liza piped in. “We have to figure out what they’re good at and help them train and stuff.”

  “Sounds annoying,” I nodded in sympathy although I appreciated that I probably didn’t know how frustrating it might be.

  “It is!” The twins agreed, once again at exactly the same time.

  Now I was looking at them more closely I could see there was something uncanny about the two psychic children. They were reacting more or less the same way, or at last the same time to what we were saying with the same little ticks and mannerisms, sentences following on from each other. It had to be their psychic bond connecting them together.

  “I’m sure she’ll have mercy on you, considering everything,” Wattson said kindly. Apparently Winona had told him about the robbery.

  I sighed and was about to address it but I was distracted from discussing it further by the enthusiastic kids in the room who began to tell us what their exams were like.

  The twins also regaled us with explanations of what it was like to be a Psychic type Gym Leader. I wasn’t sure how helpful any of their explanations were but it was certainly interesting. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to deal with people who either had more ego than self restraint, or more personal power than sense.

  The subject moved on from there to talking about the responsibilities of the other Gym leaders.

  Wattson mentioned having to manage New Mauville and the many electric types that were housed there. Moore likewise had to manage the volcanic region around Mt Chimney, apparently this was mainly stopping the Slugma from burrowing in certain areas and causing a lava leak. Winona had the wilderness to either side of Fortree that needed regular monitoring.

  “I’ll accept any responsibilities I need to take, but I think I’d prefer to keep my Gym small if I can,” I told them. “Assuming I get to be a Gym Leader, of course.”

  My statement seemed to amuse Wattson and Moore, but Winona’s arched eyebrow spoke of a challenge.

  “You might have convinced the men,” Winona said humorously. “But don’t forget you’ll have to prove yourself to the rest of us too.”

  Wait, was she not counting Wallace? I thought in confusion. Then I had another thought.

  “Norman likes me?” I asked hopefully. “After Leah… broke into his Gym, I wasn’t entirely sure what he thought about me.”

  Wattson let out a bark of laughter and the twins both giggled.

  “He wasn’t too upset,” Moore hedged.

  “He thought it was kind of funny,” Tate told me, to my relief.

  So that was Brawly, Wattson, Moore and Norman whose endorsement to become a Gym Leader had been acquired. Roxanne, Winona, the twins and Wallace remained.

  Although I only needed two more of them to make this work, I’d definitely prefer if everyone was happy with me joining their ranks. Which was why I was here now.

  Regardless of the events before I got here, Winona had already known what she wanted to see to know I was fit for becoming a Gym Leader and she was sticking to that.

  And of course, it was going to be another Pokemon battle.

  Mentioning the Gardevoir had caught her attention and she got up from her seat with the other Pokemon to join us.

  “Garde?” She asked curiously, slipping her arm around mine. She wanted to know if we were going to progress to the highlight of the visit to Fortree.

  With Leah joining us, the other Pokemon returned to their trainers’ sides too. The Altaria looking far more dignified than she had last night after being out in that horrendous storm.

  “Well,” Winona said, her tone becoming more serious.

  “Harry, if you want my support to become a Gym Leader then you know what I want. Battle me and show me the bond between you and your Pokemon. If you impress me today, then you will have my support.”

  “Let’s do it,” I said, feeling anticipation build up in my chest.

  She led us through the Gym and I figured out exactly how Winona’s Gym was able to accommodate Flying types as we were taken to an elevator.

  Instead of building up, the Fortree Gym had built down.

  The arena we came out to had to be taller than a football stadium, maybe fifty metres high leading me to my next question which was what they did with all the dirt that must have been shifted to clear out this structure. There were some stands and also two tall podiums for the two trainers to stand for the battle.

  “Damn,” I said, not able to hide how impressed I was. So far I’d seen Brawly’s fairly casual arena, Wattson’s arena for lower tiered battles and the traditional looking arena at the Lavaridge Gym but this was modern, like something you’d see in a major sports stadium back in my previous life. I didn’t think that I’d have an engineering marvel as impressive as this for my future Gym, but this was a benchmark I would have to measure my future home against.

  Why the heck did Fortree have such a fancy stadium? It was a big, well established city but surely there were better places for something like this? Some of the other Gyms must have similar sized arenas, I thought more rationally.

  I could see that there were also mechanisms in the roof that probably let it open to the sky too.

  That was fortunate. Because while it had stopped raining now, I remembered the clouds outside were still dark and threatening on our way here. By tonight it was going to be bad again, maybe just as bad as last night had been and I didn’t fancy having to have another Pokemon battle in the rain.

  “I’m thinking a three on three, sound good?” Winona asked. “I’d do more but I need some of my Pokemon fresh for tonight.

  “Sure,” I said. “Are we allowing substitutions?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Winona said. She gave me a wave before heading across to the other side of the arena.

  I went to find my place. There was a sort of mini lift that brought me up to the top of my podium. It was only big enough for one person though. That wound up not mattering when my Gardevoir took it upon herself to teleport us to the top of the podium.

  She had an impish expression on her face when I looked at her. I gave her a raised eyebrow but decided not to comment.

  The other Gym Leaders had found themselves good seats to watch the battle. Their Pokemon were still out too, making for an impressive sight for someone who knew what they were looking at.

  Winona appeared on her podium at the other end of the arena, cutting an impressive sight despite being quite far away from me.

  “This is just a friendly match,” she said. “But I still want to see everything you’ve got Harry Hemming! It’s by striving for excellence that we have the power to soar.”

  Winona tossed forward a Pokeball that burst open to reveal her first Pokemon.

  “So show me what you’ve got!” She shouted as her Swellow appeared on the arena.

  The blue and white Pokemon flared it’s wings challengingly and called out its name. It’s tail feathers were standing at attention, which I knew signified that this Pokemon had been well cared for. Not that I expected any less from the foremost Flying type trainer in the region.

  “Alright let’s have some fun,” I said, feeling my lips pull back into a grin as I pulled out a Pokeball. I knew already which Pokemon I was going to start us off with.

  “Go Bud!”