Before Tommy realized, it was time for class on Monday. He cooked breakfast for everyone as he had done all of last week and then walked over to the rec center where Zach held class. After a two hour workout and a quick shower Tommy walked into the lecture hall and took a seat beside Nessa.
Zach had donned his white lab coat from the beginning of the year and Tommy had never seen the man so excited before. He rubbed his hands together and grinned infectiously. “We got a lot of good stuff happening today!”
He gestured to an enormous cardboard box that was resting on the table at the front of the room. “I have gifts from the school! Quite a few of them!”
He reached into the box and began producing PokéNavs, calling each student up one by one to collect their tech. “They’ve all been configured to each of you already so there’s no need to go through the registration process like you did earlier in the year when you first got them. The Pokédex feature has been updated with all of the latest information as well as the encyclopedia of Kanto and Johto. We also installed a communications device inside so that you can communicate with each other. It should be especially helpful when we go on an expedition.”
“Do we get to keep them this time?” Krista asked. Tommy could practically see the gears in her brain turning as she eyed every inch of the device.
“Yeah, they’re yours to keep,” Zach told them. “The tracking device has been turned off so no need to worry about that either. They’re gifts from the school, no strings attached.”
“Wasn’t the tracking device helpful in finding lost students though?” Ashley asked. “I would have thought the school would be tracking our every move at this point.”
Zach shrugged. “They decided that with the communication feature we didn’t need the tracking device anymore. You should be able to check in with the school from any Pokémon Center and you can talk to anyone who’s in a five kilometer radius of you.”
“Anyway, that’s not all the school is giving out,” he reached into the box again and pulled out new traveling packs. “Here are some brand new backpacks, the school has been hard at work on designing them, they’re pretty incredible.”
“What’s so great about them?” Jon asked. “They look like the bags you gave us at the beginning of the school year.”
“Yes, but looks can be deceiving!” Zach grinned broadly. “Some of the assistants in the lab have been hard at work for us, this bag here is mine. Check this out!”
He reached into his backpack, jamming his whole arm inside well past his shoulder and started pulling out anything and everything that Tommy could conceive. He pulled out a massive carton containing liters and liters of water, more outfits than Tommy could count, and a random assortments of food stuffs. There were Potions and Pokéballs and after a solid minute of random items with no end in sight Krista finally spoke out.
“That’s incredible!” She shouted out. She was on her feet leaning over her desk, craning her neck to get a better view. “Did the lab alter the inside of the bag somehow? How did they do it?”
“I have no idea,” Zach laughed. He started loading everything back into his backpack one item at a time, now that his point had been proven. “One of the assistants said something about combining the bag with a Pokémon move somehow? I think he called it Trick Room or Wonder Room, I can’t remember. Anyway the point is that the backpack has plenty of free space inside. The lab all but assured me you could pack enough items for up to a month on the road and still have room left over! How cool is that!”
He started pulling more bags from inside the box, beckoning everyone up to come and claim one. “Come on, take your pick. They’re yours to keep, of course!”
Tommy grabbed a bag that was a handsome forest green and opened up each compartment, trying to see if he could look inside and see the bottom. To his surprise he could.
“Why can I see the bottom?” He asked. “I was expecting a bottomless pit or something. It looks like a regular backpack”
“Just reach inside and imagine you’re pulling out whatever it is you want.” Zach told them. “Try it with a Potion, the school gave everyone a set of five.”
Tommy reached inside again and imagined that he was grabbing a Potion bottle, half expecting it not to work. To his utter amazement his hand closed around a small spray bottle which he pulled out and started at disbelievingly. The small purple bottle had a spray nozzle on top, a Potion, and he gave it a spritz, eyeing the small mist of medicine that was expelled from the tip of the nozzle.
“The backpack contains a handful of empty Pokéballs and some Potions, as well as a thousand dollars cash for everyone. We’ll go to the Mart next weekend and let everyone spend the day shopping for whatever they need,” Zach told everyone.
“What about preserving food?” Tommy asked, immediately wondering how feasible it was to be able to stay out on the road for over a month. “Can I pack perishable items? Raw chicken or fish?”
“Yeah!” Zach beamed. “The backpack keeps cold foods cold, and warm foods warm. I don’t know how it works, but it’s pretty incredible!”
If it was true, then Tommy couldn’t wait to test it out. He would get some perishable foods at the Mart and store them in his bag for a week. Hopefully everything would remain fresh, it would change how he could pack for every trip and excursion that the class would go on.
“Also, Spencer and Max. Your bags should have something extra inside,” Zach told the two boys. “Courtesy of Professor Camphor. He said you would know what that meant.”
Spencer and Max shared a look and then plunged their hands into their bags. Tommy looked on excitedly as Spencer pulled out a glowing red rock. It was sleek, shiny and pulsed a deep, burning red every few seconds; a Fire Stone. Max pulled out a Moon Stone, a pale and translucent rock that sparkled like the starry sky on a clear night.
“Wow,” was all Spencer could say as he held the rock worth a small fortune carefully in his hands.
“Are you going to use them?” Tommy asked excitedly. He hoped that he would get to watch the process whenever one or both of them decided they wanted to evolve their Pokémon.
“It’s not time yet,” was all Max said as he put the Moon Stone back into his bag. Spencer nodded his head and followed suit, and Tommy looked around to see that everyone else was just as disappointed as he was.
“Well, with everything taken care of, let’s go ahead and get started with our lesson this week.” Zach told the class. Everyone took the opportunity to return to their seats and store their new bags under their desks.
“This week we’ll be talking about illegal Pokémon moves.” The smile that was on Zach’s face just moments ago was nowhere to be seen and he had a look of uncharacteristic seriousness now. “There are four moves that have been banned outright by the Pokémon League because they’re so incredibly dangerous. Use of even one of these moves in an official fight would cause the League to revoke your trainer’s license permanently. There aren’t many Pokémon that learn the moves and there are even fewer people who have actually used them in a fight, but every few decades there is one person who does the unthinkable. Does anyone know what any of the four moves are?”
No one said anything for a few seconds, looking at Krista expectantly until she sighed and finally spoke up. “I haven’t ever heard of any of these moves. I’ve never even read about them in any book before.”
“That isn’t surprising,” Zach said. “By order of one of our past kings the League purged all written knowledge of the moves long ago. They no longer exist in print and exist now only in memory. None of you have really ever heard of any of them though? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Sheer Cold…” Nessa whispered, loud enough so that Tommy who was sitting on her immediate left barely heard her.
Unfortunately for Nessa, the room was quiet enough so that Zach also overheard and he promptly called her out. “Can you repeat that a bit louder for everyone, Nessa?”
Her eyes widened in surprise as she realized that her mumbling had been overheard. “Sheer Cold,” she spoke again, barely any louder than her first utterance.
“That is correct,” Zach nodded his head at Nessa. He looked like he wanted to ask a follow up question but ended up just looking at Nessa awkwardly for a few seconds. In the end he couldn’t help himself though. “Have you seen the move performed before? You have a faraway look in your eye.”
Nessa was staring at her desk with eyes unfocused. She nodded her head in affirmation at Zach’s question. “I’ve seen it used only once…”
Zach hesitated again. “I won’t ask you to elaborate unless you want to, but are you willing to tell your classmates the aftermath of the move? Was it a league sanctioned match?”
“It was…” Nessa trailed off. She refused to look up and meet anyone’s eye. After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence, Zach looked like he was about to move on only to be interrupted by the girl.
“It was horrible to watch,” Nessa started. Her eyes were red and she was trying to hold herself together. “It was the worst day of my life.”
“You don’t have to elaborate, Nessa,” Zach waved his hands and tried to quickly apologize. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s fine,” Nessa sniffed. She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath to try to steady herself. “It was a gym match. The gym leader was on his last Pokémon but didn’t want to lose. So he used Sheer Cold out of desperation and it hit.”
“I’m sorry,” Zach offered lamely. “That must have been horrible to watch.”
“What happened to the Pokémon that was hit by the move?” Krista asked, her inquisitive nature getting the better of her.
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“It died,” Zach offered the answer, now trying to spare Nessa’s feelings.
She followed up anyway. “It didn’t just die, it was erased from existence. It was frozen totally solid within an instant and then shattered into an uncountable number of pieces. The challenger couldn’t even bury his partner, there was nothing left.”
The room fell deathly quiet as everyone processed the information in their own way. Ashley eventually spoke up, “What happened afterward? With the rest of the match I mean?”
“The official immediately called the match in favor of the challenger,” Nessa offered. “But it was a poor consolation without his friend to celebrate the victory with. And the gym leader was forever stripped of his title and his license. After standing trial before the King of Galar he was exiled to the Crown Tundra and hasn’t been heard from since.”
“Thank you for sharing Nessa. It must have been difficult,” Zach said meekly. “Does anyone want to take a guess as to why we’re discussing these moves?”
“Because of Team Rocket?” Tommy asked. He shuddered at the thought that any one of those villains had a Pokémon that knew Sheer Cold. “Does someone on Team Rocket actually know about that move?”
Zach shook his head, “We can only hope they don’t, but it’s best to prepare you if they do. I’m sure Team Rocket wouldn’t hesitate to attack you or your Pokémon with that move in a heartbeat.”
“You said there were four moves in total though?” Harper broached. “Are you going to tell us what the other moves are? Are they all as dangerous?”
“Yes,” Zach told everyone seriously. “The four moves are Sheer Cold, Fissure, Guillotine, and Horn Drill. A Pokémon that is hit by any of these four moves will die instantly. Do everything in your power to prevent this from happening.”
Zach continued with his lesson for the rest of class, discussing how best to avoid the moves and which Pokémon could learn them. When he was finished he dismissed everyone to go eat lunch and get ready for their afternoon classes.
Tommy looked around as the group was walking to the cafeteria, noticing that Nessa was nowhere to be seen. He turned to Harper, “Hey, have you seen Nessa?”
She nodded and spoke softly, “She said she was going to go back to the dorm to eat and that we shouldn’t wait around for her.”
“Thanks,” Tommy smiled. He took the next opportunity to slip away while everyone was having a heated discussion about illegal moves. He wanted to go check on her, just to make sure that she was okay.
He entered the dorm and, after not spying Nessa in any of the common areas on the first floor, made his way upstairs to the second floor. He paused at the foot of the stairs, debating if it was worth the risk to take the stairs to the third. He looked around, and not seeing a camera anywhere, decided to risk it.
The third floor was exactly the same as the second, just like the professors said, and he was nervous he wouldn’t be able to find Nessa’s room until he saw that there was a nameplate on her door. He knocked softly, silently willing Melanie not to hear him knocking if she was in her room still. Nessa opened her door and poked her head out, yanking Tommy inside when she realized he was standing there.
“What are you doing?” She hissed. “Melanie is in the shower! Did she see you up here?”
“Sorry, I just wanted to check and make sure that you were okay,” Tommy said. “You looked pretty upset in class.”
Nessa sniffled and sat down on her bed, patting the spot beside her, inviting Tommy to sit down. He sat beside her, trying his best to keep his hammering heart silent. Nessa was looking for a friend and just needed someone to talk to.
“Do you want to talk?” He asked her. “I don’t mind listening if you need an ear to listen.”
“I just thought I was past it, you know?” She was crying again, her breathing coming in shallow gasps. “It happened so long ago, but my life changed forever that day.”
“Were you the challenger?” Tommy asked. She was caught off guard and gave him a sideways look; he grinned despite himself. “Sorry, it’s just you’re such a good battler. I wouldn’t have been surprised if you were challenging gyms at the age of five.”
She smiled weakly and slugged him playfully in the shoulder. “You haven’t even seen half of what I can do yet.”
“I believe it,” Tommy laughed. “So what happened then? Are you willing to tell me?”
She leaned her head on his shoulder and was silent for a while. Tommy closed his eyes and listened to her breathe, content to sit here with her.
“Being a gym leader is difficult,” Nessa spoke softly, after a few minutes. “The League expects you to be good enough to beat all of the bad trainers who challenge you, but at the same time they also expect you to lose to a certain number of trainers each year. Otherwise the League at the end of the year won’t have enough participants for their tournament. That’s not to say that you should throw fights either though.”
“Hmm,” Tommy grunted. “I guess I had never thought of it that way; that as a gym leader you’re expected to lose sometimes.”
“It’s a delicate balance,” Nessa continued. “Lose too much or win too much and the League can strip you of your gym leader title.”
“It was my tenth birthday, and my father…” Her voice broke again. “My father was on a losing streak. He was in danger of having his title stripped, so I told him that all I wanted for my birthday was for him to win the match. He took my words literally and killed the challenger’s final Pokémon before he could lose the match. Then he was exiled to the Crown Tundra, an eternally frozen wasteland where it’s next to impossible to survive.”
“He’s probably dead now and it’s all my fault!” Nessa sobbed uncontrollably into Tommy’s shoulder. He didn’t have any clue what to say to her so he just wrapped her in a hug and let her cry for a little while.
There was a soft knocking on her door after a few minutes and Tommy’s eyes widened in horror at hearing Melanie’s voice call out. “Nessa, can I come in?”
“Get under the bed!” Nessa whispered, all but shoving him to the floor. He scrambled under as quickly as he could and barely got his feet out of sight as Melanie let herself into Nessa’s room.
“Is everything okay?” Melanie asked. Tommy watched his teacher’s feet as she crossed over to the bed and sat next to Nessa. “Wow, your eyes. Have you been crying? And I thought I heard yelling in here?”
“Sorry, I didn’t think anyone else was here,” Nessa lied. “I was just venting out some frustrations.”
“I get it,” Melanie chuckled. “Well, listen. If I can help with anything let me know okay? In fact, why don’t you take a break from class today until Larkspur’s class this afternoon. Take a nap for an hour or two okay?”
“I appreciate that!” Nessa said. “Tell everyone I’ll see them this afternoon.”
Melanie stood from the bed and Tommy watched her feet retreat towards the door where she paused. To Tommy’s horror she stopped right next to his shoes that he had removed when Nessa invited him onto the bed.
“You have some big feet,” Melanie said. Tommy watched her feet spin back around to face Nessa on the bed.
“They’re Tommy's,” Nessa said evenly. Tommy wondered what the hell she could possibly be thinking by admitting that. “I spilled some food on them in the cafeteria the other day. I insisted I would clean them for him.”
“Mhmm,” Melanie droned. “Well, you want me to take them to him during class? Won’t he need them?”
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to inconvenience you with something that was my fault,” Nessa replied. “Besides, I’m sure he’s wearing another pair.”
“Alright then, I’ll see you tonight,” Melanie bade Nessa goodbye and closed the door on her way out. Tommy exhaled but didn’t dare move otherwise until a few minutes had passed and Nessa told him to come out.
“I should go,” Tommy said as he clambered out from underneath the bed. That had been too close of a call and he didn’t want to get in trouble for being in Nessa’s room. He walked over to his shoes to grab them but Nessa grabbed his arm and stopped him.
“Stay with me,” was all she whispered before she pulled him down onto the bed beside her and started kissing him.
His first kiss had been with Aubrey just a few months ago, but this was nothing like that. Nessa had her arms wrapped around the back of his neck, running her fingers through his hair, and one of her legs was wrapped loosely around his torso.
Her lips were the softest thing that he had ever felt as she planted soft kisses onto his own. Tommy reciprocated gently at first, tasting faintly the fruit that she had eaten for breakfast, until he couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and their kisses became more passionate.
“Touch me,” she breathed, grabbing his hands which were idling awkwardly, and placing them inside her shirt onto her lower back. He ran his hands up and down her back, grinning as she shivered in pleasure under his light touches. He took a chance and ran his hands lower, cupping her ass through the sheer fabric of the exercise pants she was wearing. She moaned softly and started kissing his neck, tracing her tongue along his collarbone. His mind whirled in ecstasy and he knew he needed to stop before he went too far and couldn’t anymore.
“Nessa, wait,” he panted, placing his hand onto her chin and tilting it so he could look into her eyes. Her beautiful sky blue irises stood in stark contrast with the whites of her eyes that were streaked red from her crying. He could feel his mind protesting vehemently at what he was about to say so he swallowed and took a deep breath. “Let’s take a break. Let me make you some lunch, okay?”
She stared at him hard for a moment but ultimately nodded her head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have thrown myself at you like that if you also didn’t want it.”
“Don’t apologize please,” Tommy quickly told her. He grinned awkwardly at her and kissed her lightly on the lips again. “I definitely did want that, trust me; I’ve wanted that for a while in fact. I just want to do it the right way, you know?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she nodded and smiled sweetly, causing Tommy to almost lean back in for another kiss; he was able to stop himself short though.
He threw on his shoes and went downstairs so that he could fix lunch for the girl of his dreams. He was already late to class by this point so he figured he would just stay with her and keep her company; they ate lunch together on the couch, laughing with one another as they watched a television show about a detective and his Smeargle.
Tommy was having a great afternoon with Nessa on the couch until the front door slammed open and Ashley stormed into the room looking furious.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Ashley seethed through gritted teeth. “Have the two of you been here by yourselves the whole time?”
Tommy opened his mouth to reply but didn’t manage to stammer out anything coherent. Nessa lightly patted his leg and stood up to face Ashley’s wrath.
“Come with me Ashley,” Nessa smiled. She grabbed the girl by the hand and led her out of the room.
Tommy sat there wondering what that had been about until Spencer walked into the room laughing his head off.
“I was hoping Ashley would have screamed at you some more,” he chuckled. “You should have seen her in weapons class. Absolutely fuming I tell you, no one wanted to go anywhere near her today.”
“She was mad at me?” Tommy asked.
“You don’t know anything do you, bud?” Spencer said. “Whatever, how did everything go with you and Nessa? Is she alright?”
“Yeah she seems better now,” Tommy told Spencer, not elaborating any further as it wasn’t his place to. “I think she just needed someone to talk to, so I listened to her story.”
“Is that all that happened?” Spencer grinned broadly. He sat down on the couch and threw his arm over Tommy’s shoulder. “Your bud Spencer can keep a secret.”
“Was Melanie mad at me?” Tommy tried to dodge the question. “Did she ask where I was?”
“She did ask but we told her you had explosive diarrhea,” Spencer howled with laughter. “So if she asks, that’s your excuse.”
“You’re a good friend Spence,” Tommy laughed with him. “What would I do without you?”
“And good friends tell each other secrets, right?” Spencer tried a second time.
“Some secrets,” Tommy stood and offered Spencer a hand. “But not this one. Come on, let's get you a sandwich.”
“I won’t say no to that,” Spencer rubbed his stomach and licked his lips.