After a change of clothes and a quick shower Jet met Jade on the back porch. He jumped on the back of her hover-bike and she drove all the way into town. Soon they were in front of the Ummoja Town mall.
“What are we doing here?”
Jade sighed. “How do I explain this to you…” Jade rubbed her chin. “Your vibe is waaay off. You need to refocus. Relax. Enjoy yourself.”
Jet thought about what she said. She wasn’t wrong. Bodybuilders needed a rest day for their gains to set in. He had read that scholars and students needed the same for the knowledge in their brain to accumulate. Maybe Pokemon trainers needed the same. He had been going kind of hard for the last week.
“Okay, so what are we doing?” Jet relented.
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Jade took Jet through the mall. Their first stop was clothes shopping. Jet wasn’t going to spend any money. He was still saving up for his license, but he still didn’t mind trying on clothes. Especially since he got to see the beautiful Jade model for him.
Jade tried on several matching outfits with Shadow. They had an old-school hip-hop inspired look. Jade was dressed in baggy clothes and a yellow beret turned backwards. Shadow was wearing the same thing. A business look where Shadow was dressed in a blue tie he obviously hated. And finally a kimono from Kanto that Jade looked fabulously in but she absolutely hated.
Jet flipped open a book and saw some looks for Eevee including a sailor outfit. But they were all super corny. Did Pokemon really need clothes?
There were Pokemon all around the Mall. Some guy had a Mankey like the one at the Ranch. There was a store for Zebstrika accessories and a grooming salon for Pokemon. Jet noted to himself that Eevee needed a fur cut and marked it on his to-do-list for later.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6f17418f-c2f8-4acb-a748-15c3c94aca3f/dfh3otc-9cac32ad-5fbf-4ef7-afdd-71cba64ee804.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzZmMTc0MThmLWMyZjgtNGFjYi1hNzQ4LTE1YzNjOTRhY2EzZlwvZGZoM290Yy05Y2FjMzJhZC01ZmJmLTRlZjctYWZkZC03MWNiYTY0ZWU4MDQucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.pVtx1QmWjaWhYp-KdulqtbiX5BrlmVggu5Y33hCF5P4]
Next they left the store and Jade found a photobooth. Eevee was not happy with the photos he took. Jet and Jade kept putting him in weird positions with his little prosthetic leg in the air. The fact he was angry only made the pictures that much cuter. Finally he had enough and kicked Jet in the chin as he had done before during training.
The photobooth caught every moment.
Jet and Jade left the photo-booth laughing. Jet slammed into something hard. It was a person. A boy about 18 or 19 years old. He and all his friends were dressed in all black with black leather jackets.
“Watch it freak!” The guy yelled grabbing Jet by his shirt. He had a jagged scar across his right eye.
Oh-no. Jet thought. Team Obsidian goons.
“Hey, let him go it was an accident,” Jade said.
The boy eyed Jade up and down. “I’ll let him go if you take his place, Thickness.”
“Gross dude.” Jet said. His mouth was moving before he knew what he was saying. “You’re like 5 years older than her.”
“How about I beat your ass then KID?” The guy held Jet up by his shirt until Jet was on his tippy toes. Evee barked protectively.
“Okay… I’ll fight you. But we have to set up some rules.” Jet said. He was stalling but honestly he couldn’t think of anything.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. And the first rule is…THERE ARE NO RULES!”
Jet swung his leg upwards and it connected with its target. Right in-between the guy’s legs. WHAM. One-hit KO!
“Jet run!” Jade grabbed Jet’s hand and the two of them and their Pokemon dashed down the mall aisle. His friends were too busy laughing to give chase.
Around the corner Jet and Jade collapsed.
“Wow Jet. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Well, when it comes to Team Obsidian I tend to pop off.” Jet admitted. He could only think of his dad. He felt himself zoning out.
“Look at this!” Jade smiled, bringing Jet out of his doldrum. She took out a square card. It was a card for the arcade! “I stole it from that guy!”
“When did you do that?”
“I told you. I’m a N-I-N-J-A.”
The first game they played was a basketball style game. Jade dominated this game. She would pass the ball to her Froakie and he would kick or slap the ball. The ball would go sailing into the hoop. Jet tried to keep up but he couldn’t match.
“That’s double teaming no-fair!” Jet yelled.
“The only rule is there are no rules!” Jade mocked Jet's words from earlier.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Eevee just watched as Jet lost several matches in a row.
Next came skeeball. Shadow and Jade were once again dominating with their teamwork. In fact, Shadow was excellent. He was better than Jade and Jet put together. Jade and Froakie dominated with 300 compared to Jet’s measly 120 points.
“Rematch!” Jet said.
They went for another match. Jet was serious this time. He rolled the wood balls down the path, nailing the innermost rings. Eevee watched him roll ball after ball. Soon his scores were right behind Jade and Shadow. He only needed 10 points for a tie. He reached for another ball but his fingers only felt air.
“Aww. You should watch where you put your balls.” Jade joked.
“I’ll show you where I put my balls,” Jet grumped. The words were out of his mouth before he recognized what he was saying.
Jade gasped. “Oh my god. How vulgar. DID YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE! THIS KID JUST THREATENED TO SHOW ME WHERE HE PUTS HIS BALLS!”
Jet jumped and tried to cover Jade’s mouth. Shadow, wanting to protect his trainer, leapt onto Jet’s shoulder and pulled at his hair. Jet Jade laughed and Jet laughed in response. Eevee watched amused.
They played a few more games. Jet’s only real win came from a FPS game where you’d shoot zombies and Ghost Type Pokemon.
Then they played Whack-a-Diglett. Hitting Diglett was worth 10 points and Dugtrios was worth 15 points. Jet raised his mallet to strike and swung down but something brown and fuzzy jumped in his way. Jet managed to halt his swing. Only through sheer will did Jet not slam down against Eevee’s head.
“Dude, Eevee what are you doing?”
Eevee was trying to swat at the Diglett that would pop up from the holes but he was missing. Adn missing bad.
“Looks to me like he wants to play.” Jade said.
“Looks to me like he sucks,” Jet joked.
“Eee-veee,” Eevee growled.
“Here! I got a better game!” Jade picked up Eevee and grabbed Jet’s hand. She led them to a huge machine. There was a large platform and two screens. Both platforms had two sets of arrows like a video game controller. Up arrow, down arrow, left arrow and a right arrow. Music blasted from the machine.
“DANCE BATTLE EXTREME! Yeah! Yeah!” The computer voice screamed.
“Is this a dance game?” Jet asked.
“Isn’t that what the game just said?” Jade said sarcastically. “You have to play with your Pokemon! You and Eevee vs Shadow and I!”
“But Eevee’s leg…”
“So what? It won’t matter if you’re just having fun.” Jet looked at Eevee.
Jet shrugged and he jumped on the platform. Eevee nervously jumped right beside him and on the second set of arrows. Jade and Shadow got on the other platform.
“Are you READY! GOOO!”
Music blasted from the machine and arrows flew by on the screen. Jet tried to match his steps with the position of the arrows. Eevee was a little bit harder. With its leg it was a step behind the beat. It was only a minute or two before the joint health bar hit 0.
“OHH! Everything went black! Sorry Team One, Team Two Wins!” The electronic voice called out,
“Ohh Eevee you suck! Did you lose your rhythm along with your leg?” Jade teased.
Fury gripped Jet in his chest. “Shut up Jade.”
“Don’t get mad at me, cause you lost. Either shut up or rematch.”
Jet shook slightly and he was pissed. Why had her attitude changed so quickly? She was usually somebody who teased but it was always goofy and nonsensical teasing. She had never teased Eevee over his missing leg before.
“Run it back one time,” Jet said, pissed.
“Eevee,” Eevee said in agreement.
Jade slid the card with the credits on it. “Are you READY! GOOO!” The machine screamed.
“Let’s go Eevee,”
Jet began slamming on the arrows. He was hyper focused on winning. Eevee couldn’t keep up and slowly the health bar began to dip.
Jet began to slam on the arrows with intensity. If he got all perfect scores then he could cover for Eevee who was lagging behind.
“PERFECT! PERFECT! PERFECT! You’re on fire!” Finally the song ended and Jet took a breath.
“Ha! In your–”
“STAGE TWO! Are you ready?! GOOO!”
Jet stumbled as he focused back onto the machine. He tried to keep up but the second level was harder and faster. Not to mention he was already exhausted from hyper focusing on the first level to cover for Eevee.”
“OHHH! Sorry! Better Luck next time Team One. Team Two Wins!”
“Damit!” Jet said, kicking the machine.
“OW!” The robotic machine exclaimed.
“Eevee can’t do this, he's missing a leg. Let’s go back to Whack-a-Diglett.”
Jade sighed and looked at Shadow. “He still doesn’t get it.”
“Fraokie,” Shadow said in response.
“What does that mean?”
“You don’t like it when people make fun of Eevee. You got mad when Amber talked trash to him and you got mad a few seconds ago when I did it. But you’re the one who attacks Eevee the most.”
“What?”
“You keep saying he can’t do it. You keep saying that Eevee doesn’t have a leg and he can't do anything. How do you think that makes Eevee feel? His own trainer doesn’t believe in him. No wonder he doesn’t like you.”
Jet opened his mouth to speak but then shut it again. He looked at Eevee. Then to Shadow and Jade. Eevee said nothing. It just sat there with his ears down.
Fuck… Jet thought. He was right. Jet had doubted Eevee at Every turn. In fact he had even doubted Eevee when they first met.
He was waiting for this time to be up so that he could get his “real” starter Pokemon from the Professor. But Eevee was still technically his Pokemon and unless he wanted to catch a Wild Pokemon or one from his mom’s Ranch then he was stuck with Eevee and Eevee was stuck with him.
Even if he found a wild Pokemon he’d have to weaken it before he could catch it (or throw an insane number of Pokeballs until one stuck). And he could only do that if Eevee listened. And Eevee would never listen to a trainer who kept putting him down.
Jet walked over to Eevee. He swallowed every bit of pride he had. “Hey, Eevee… I’m sorry.”
Eevee looked over to him.
“Eevee,”
Jet didn’t understand what Eevee was saying. But he had begun picking up on the tones behind his sounds. Yes. No. Angry. Sad. Scared. Eevee had specific sounds for every word he made.
This last word though. It was one that Jet hadn’t heard before. The best word Jet could come up with to describe it was ‘acceptance.”
“Alright! We got enough credits for one more match. How about it!?” Jade said.
“Let’s do it.” Jet said. “Eevee are you with me?
“Eevee!”
“Alright! Are you READY! GOOO!”