The next morning, James and Jen said their goodbyes to Hunter before leaving Blackthorn.
“Are you sure you don't want us to stick around?” Jen asked, as Hunter scratched Typhlosion's ears. “We don't mind waiting for you to take on Clair.” Hunter shook his head.
“Nah, you guys can head out. Like I told you, I want to train a bit longer before I go after the badge. I have even less to take out a dragon than you guys did, and it's going to take a lot of work to get ready for this one.”
“If you're sure...” Jen mumbled, but Hunter grinned.
“I'm sure, Jen. You guys should keep moving. The Silver Conference starts soon, after all.” James nodded.
“If you say so. We'll see you in Silver Town.” Hunter shook hands with both of them, gave Typhlosion's ears a final scratch, then headed towards the Pokémon Centre battlefield, while James and Jen headed for the videophones.
After a few moments, Andrea Enfield's face appeared on James' screen. Her green eyes widened as she looked at her youngest son.
“Oh, my goodness, you need a haircut,” she said with a knowing smile. James grinned sheepishly and brushed some of it out of his eyes.
“I'll get one once we get back home, Mom. How's everything with you guys?”
“Oh, we're fine. Your brothers have been wondering what you've been up to lately. Did you win all the Johto badges yet?” James held up the Rising Badge.
“Yeah, Jen and I won our last badges yesterday. Clair wouldn't give Jen a badge at first, but...well, I'll let her tell it when we see everyone.”
“You two have been looking after each other, then? That was the point of you both traveling together, after all.”
“We have. Well, Jen's been keeping me from doing anything dumb, for the most part.” Andrea nodded.
“That's good to hear. It's important to have somebody watching your back on a journey like yours. How about your Typhlosion? Last time you called, you told us he'd evolved.”
“He has,” James said, grinning as he motioned Typhlosion into the frame. The Fire-type grinned and raised a paw in greeting. “You should have seen him at the Cianwood Gym. He was amazing.”
“I'm sure you'll tell us all about it when we see you. Make sure you're careful coming home, the route from Blackthorn back to Cherrygrove is treacherous.” James nodded, and Typhlosion raised a paw in farewell.
“I will. Thanks, Mom.”
Meanwhile, Jen was chatting animatedly with her parents.
“It's been great, traveling through the region and learning about all the Pokémon that live here. I've put together a good team so far, and we're gonna really go for it at the Conference.”
“That's good to hear,” John Richards said, smiling at his daughter. “We worried that you might have trouble adapting to new surroundings, that's why we suggested you and your friend team up. It looks like you've taken to Johto well.”
“It feels more like home than it ever has.” Jen smiled. “I'd love to travel around Sinnoh eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I just can't wait to see you guys in person again, it's been too long.”
“And we'll be waiting for you, dear,” Emma Richards told her daughter. “We can't wait to meet your team and hear even more about your travels.”
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A few hours later, the two youngsters began the treacherous journey down Route 45. James wanted nothing to do with the Dark Cave again, so the trip mainly consisted of scrambling over rocks and picking their way through ditches. The trip was punctuated by intermittent encounters with irritable Graveler, but Golem was usually able to talk his pre-evolved comrades down before things developed into a full-on fight. The most frightening encounter on the journey was when they ran into a large, particularly violent Skarmory two-thirds of the way down the route, and it took both Typhlosion and Magmar working in concert to finally drive the Armour Bird away.
“And stay away!” James shouted as the metallic creature retreated to a nearby outcropping. He scratched Typhlosion's ears, breathing hard.
“James, was that really necessary?” Jen asked, recalling Magmar. “What if it comes back later? It's already mad, the last thing we need is to make it angrier.”
“Well, maybe it needs to go bother somebody else,” James answered, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “I just want to get home in one piece.”
“Don't we all?” Jen muttered, as they continued down a hill.
Eventually, they passed a signpost marking Route 46, and from there dashed through a gatehouse to Route 29. James grinned even though he was tired out.
“I caught my first Pokémon on this route. Things have changed a lot since then.” Typhlosion gave a tired, annoyed growl. “Okay, first one besides you. And you helped.” Jen rolled her eyes.
“Don't forget who had to remind you to weaken Pidgey first,” she said with a yawn. James shrugged, and they began looking for a place to camp for the night.
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After a relatively quiet trek from Cherrygrove, the gatehouse to Violet City finally hove into view. To James and Jen, the City of Nostalgic Scents was the most welcome sight they'd had in weeks. After nearly two years, they had returned home. The trip from the eastern gate to their neighbourhood seemed to take no time at all, and as they turned into their street, James and Jen looked at each other.
“Good thing we live next door to each other,” James grinned.
“Yeah. I might get lost otherwise,” Jen answered with a giggle. “I guess I'll see you when we leave for the Conference.”
“I guess so. We don't know how our parents have coordinated.” They reached Jen's house, and James patted Jen's shoulder. “Say hi to your parents for me.” Jen nodded.
“You too.” She scratched Typhlosion's ears, then turned and walked to her door. James watched her go, then ran for his own door.
Jen watched James run with Typhlosion—“always in a rush,” she muttered to herself—then knocked on the door. After a few moments, Emma Richards opened the door and smiled.
“Welcome home!” she cried before hugging her daughter. “John, Jennifer's home at last!” John Richards emerged from a side room, a smile on his own face.
“You're quite the sight, my girl,” he said as he hugged her. “You've grown so much since you left.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Jen said as she took her bag off her shoulders. “It's good to be home. I can finally sleep in my own bed again.” She looked around at her house and grinned. “Why don't I drop my stuff in my room, then I'll tell you all about my travelling.”
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Meanwhile, Andrea Enfield had James in a tight hug, while Shane grinned from the couch.
“Let him breathe, Mom,” Shane said with a laugh. Andrea let James go, and looked him over.
“Like I told you, you need a haircut. You also need a shower.” James groaned, but his mother stood firm. “Don't argue with me. You can rest today, but you're going with your brother for that haircut tomorrow; he needs one too.” Shane frowned and felt around the back of his head. As if able to read his thoughts, Andrea gave him a meaningful look. “Yes, it's that long. I told you to get it cut last week.”
“Doesn't miss much, does she?” Shane mumbled as he and James headed upstairs. “I hoped she'd forget this time.”
“It's no big deal,” James answered, pushing open the door to his room. The room looked just as it had when James had left. A pile of books sat on the desk, and several posters of the Electabuzz baseball team hung on the \walls. James dropped his bag by his desk chair, then flopped down onto the bed. Typhlosion lay down next to the bed, closing his eyes for a nap.
“Typhlosion's calmed down a bit since you guys left, huh?” Shane said, sitting down on the chair. “He was all over the place when he was a Cyndaquil.”
“I mean, look at him,” James said sleepily, waving a vague hand towards the Fire-type. “He'd knock everything over if he was racing everywhere.” Typhlosion gave a sleepy growl. “Easy, buddy. We're gonna sleep soon.” Shane grinned at his brother.
“Well, you've got a few days to relax before we head off to Silver Town. Hey, Mom never told you, but Dad's entering this year too.”
“He is?” James sat up quickly. “I thought he retired from training long ago.”
“I guess he wants to test himself again. He did win the title when he was young, after all.” James raised an eyebrow, then realized what Shane was talking about. Matt Enfield had indeed won the Silver Conference once, before he'd met and married Andrea. Shane continued. “If he won it before, he'd probably get in automatically, right?”
“Maybe.” James yawned again, and Shane ruffled his hair.
“Catch a nap, little brother. I'll wake you up for dinner.”
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Nestled in the foothills of Mount Silver, Silver Town wasn't very big at first glance. Small houses dotted the landscape, and a small, rustic Pokémon Centre was the most modern building there. Large tracts of undeveloped land lay across the area, and a sizeable wood dominated the north of the place.
On the other side of the wood, however, a massive complex sprawled over the land. A hypermodern Pokémon Centre sat at the end of a wide road, and a variety of shops, dorm buildings, training facilities and auxiliary battlefields were situated in neat rows along various side roads. In pride of place was Silver Stadium, a circular building with large archways surrounding it. Inside the stadium, giant video boards were positioned at either end, and an unlit torch sat at the top of a wide stairway.
“You can fit sixty thousand people in that stadium,” Matt Enfield said as the Enfield and Richards families walked around the perimeter. “It was built so every spectator could see the battlefield clearly, and the video boards are the latest high-definition technology. They weren't quite as sophisticated when I was young.”
“Heck, when Matt and I were young, the vidscreens were still in black and white!” John Richards added with a laugh. Matt chuckled at the bad joke.
“I'm not sure they'd invented vidscreens yet, John.” They reached the Pokémon Centre, a three-floor building that looked more like a human hospital than the typical Centre. The bulk of the group stayed outside with Typhlosion, and James, Jen and Matt went inside and looked for an open registration counter. Smartly-uniformed assistants were directing competitors around the Centre's lobby, and each of James' group joined a separate line to register.
James reached the front of his line first, and a bored-looking woman gazed at him over the desk. “Trainer card,” she said in a flat voice. James handed over the card, and she swiped it through a reader on the desk. “James Enfield, Violet City, registered a little under two years ago, correct?”
“Yes,” James answered. The woman typed a little on a keyboard, and the monitor next to her flashed his picture, along with images of the eight Johto badges. The woman handed back his trainer card, then took a smaller card from a printer behind her.
“That has your ident number on it. Try not to lose it. Next!” James nodded, and he walked away from the desk, and waited in a small hallway for Jen and his father.
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After they'd signed into a dorm building and left Typhlosion to take a nap, the two families headed back towards the Centre to find a place to have dinner. Matt shook hands with various competitors and attendees who recognized him as a past champion, and James and Jen took time to learn their surroundings.
“After all, we might end up on separate battlefields,” Jen reasoned as they headed towards a sleek, many-windowed dining hall. “This competition would last six months if every battle happened in the main stadium.”
“You're right, Jennifer,” Matt said as theey entered the building. “As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they don't even hold battles in Silver Stadium until the Victory Tournament. That's when things really get interesting.” As they entered one of the smaller dining areas, a blond-haired man called out to them.
“Matt Enfield?” he asked as they approached. “Is that you?” Matt looked surprised, then grinned.
“Rick Swinson? I haven't seen you in ages!” The two shook hands, and Matt indicated the group. “Guys, Rick is an old friend of mine, from when I was travelling. Rick, this is my wife, Andrea,”—James' mother nodded—“my sons, Darrell, Shane and James,”—all three brothers waved a hand in greeting—“and my neighbours, John and Emma Richards, and their daughter Jennifer.”—John nodded as well, Emma smiled, and Jen waved.
“Man, you've been busy since we last saw each other,” Rick grinned, acknowledging each member of the group. “Why don't we grab something to eat and we can catch up a little?”
“Sounds good,” Matt answered, and before long, all nine of them were sitting at a long table near a window. The adults exchanged stories, while the others discussed the upcoming tournament.
“Hey, Matt,” Rick said after a while, “one thing I've been dying to know. How is it that you ended up with a Tyranitar as a first Pokémon?” Everyone turned to look at him.
“You know, I'd quite like to know myself,” John said. “It's an unusual circumstance, after all. All but the most skilled trainers usually don't acquire them so early.”
“It's kind of an odd story,” Matt admitted. “The first thing you should know is that my dad was quite the adventurer. He wasn't really into the whole travelling thing, but he liked to visit major landmarks and explore them. He used to take me with him, when he could convince my mom to let me go. When I was nine, we traveled here, to Mount Silver, and tried to reach the summit. The weather was pretty bad that day...”
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Snow whipped the mountainside, threatening to swamp anyone foolish enough to be out in it. The two figures scaling the mountain rested on a ledge, catching their breath.
“We should turn back!” the adult of the pair called to his son. “The high winds could blow us off the mountain!”
“Okay, Dad!” the youngster called back. He began to climb carefully back town, gently sliding down the rope he'd secured. He dropped down to a wider ledge, and waited for his father. As the older man slid down his own rope, the boy heard a muffled cry to his left. “Dad! I heard something!” His father landed on the ledge and listened too.
“I don't hear...” he began, but another muffled cry silenced him. Both of them looked over towards a small rockfall, which quivered a little. The boy ran over and began trying to shift rocks aside, and his father helped. Eventually, their excavation revealed a small green creature with red eyes and an odd, blunt spike on his head. Boy and father looked at one another.
“Is that...a Pokémon?” the boy asked.
“It is, indeed.” his father answered. “I believe that is a Larvitar, a creature that lives on the mountain. It must have gotten buried under those rocks while it was eating.”
“But what's it doing here? Are its parents around?”
“I...I don't know, son,” the father admitted. “If they are, we'd better get out of here. Its fully evolved form can be quite violent.” The Larvitar gave another plaintive cry. The boy looked from his father, to Larvitar, and back again.
“We should take it with us. If we leave it out here, it might get buried again.” His father gave him a worried look, then handed him a Pokéball.
“Ask it if it wants to come, and do it quickly. We can't battle it, the weather's getting worse.” The boy walked over to the Larvitar, who looked at him with quizzical eyes.
“Hey, do you want to come with us? When I turn ten, we'll travel and become the best team ever.” The Larvitar looked at the Pokéball, frowning. “If you don't want to come, that's okay too. It's your choice.” Larvitar looked up at the boy, and a smile crossed his face before he tapped the ball. A few shakes later, and a chime indicated its capture. “Okay! Larvitar's mine!”
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“That's incredible,” Shane said as Matt finished his story. “How'd you know his parents weren't around?”
“That, I couldn't tell you,” Matt answered. “They could still be looking for him today, for all I know. I just knew that I couldn't leave him there in the wind and snow.”
“You picked up a heckuva powerful partner, that's for sure,” Rick said.
“That I did,” Matt said. He looked around at the group. “Well, we'd better catch some sleep. The tournament opens in the morning.” Rick shook hands with everyone at the table, and the group headed back to the dorms to prepare for the next day's events.