Tommy’s body shook violently when he recalled the look in Scizor’s eyes. He had come face to face with his mortality multiple times this year already, but he somehow knew each time that he would always make it through. This time was different. He had stared straight into Scizor’s eyes and they had promised only one thing; death. If his father hadn’t been Scizor’s trainer and hadn’t called the Pokémon back, Tommy knew he wouldn’t be breathing.

He sat in the dirt trying to collect himself. It was the unmoving forms of his three Pokémon, Houndour, Yanma, and Solosis, that snapped him back to reality.

He began to drag himself through the dirt because his legs still refused to work. He reached his Pokémon and sighed in relief; they were all still breathing. He awakened them with the Revive his father had given him to use and then recalled them all to their Pokéballs so that they could rest.

He massaged and slapped his legs until he was able to feel his toes again. With a great heave, he stood and began to walk slowly back home. Scizor was undoubtedly the strongest Pokémon that he had ever come face to face with and he had no idea how he could possibly fight back against it.

The strongest Pokémon except for the island…

He paused and scratched at the itch in the back of his mind.

His stomach rumbled and he set off again, wondering what his mother had prepared for lunch. He was berated by her the moment he stepped in the house; she gave one look at him and insisted he go and shower before she would allow him to sit at the table for lunch.

When he came back into the kitchen, his father was seated at the table reading the day’s newspaper. Tommy saw the headlines still talking about the incident that had happened at the school over two months ago. A handful of students had turned up in various cities throughout the past few weeks, but many more had been found dead. The tracking devices on the PokéNavs proved immensely helpful in finding the students, but more often than not, school officials were only able to bring back and cold and stiff body.

He and his father ate in silence and just as he was about to excuse himself from the table, Dad looked over at him.

“I’m leaving this weekend,” he said. “Some of my contacts have reached out to me.”

Something had changed between Tommy and his father, he didn’t know how to talk to him all of the sudden now that he knew how strong the man was. He opened his mouth to reply but no words came out; he chose to nod instead.

“Rest for a few hours, then I have one more thing to show you,” Dad said to him.

Tommy nodded again and headed to his room. He laid down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with the Pokémon egg resting under his arm and thought of his father. How had Dad managed to keep his training days a secret for so long? What else was he hiding?

It seemed as if he had been lying there for only a minute when Dad came in and shook him awake; it was time for dinner. Tommy didn’t feel hungry at all so he ate only a little bit while waiting patiently for his father to finish. Once he was done eating the two of them headed back outside.

The sun was hanging low in the sky now, only another hour or two until it set completely. They returned to the same spot and Dad called Scizor forth again. He reached for his belt and pulled out his staff, extending it to its full length.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said. “I wish that it didn’t have to be this way, that you could have enjoyed your school days with all of your friends for just a little bit longer. But our hands have been forced and that was the quickest way to show you the type of people that you will someday be up against. They will show you no mercy.”

“You mean Team Rocket, you know them?” Tommy asked. “Who are they?”

“Yes, I am familiar with them,” Dad said, electing not to elaborate any further. “Now after that overwhelming display of power earlier you might be wondering how you could ever stand a chance against such ruthless people, especially since they may have powerful Pokémon of their own. I’m going to show you how, or at least the beginnings. But first, a demonstration.”

Dad held his staff out above his head, gripping it tightly between his two hands. “Scizor, strike me! Full power!”

Tommy watched his father expectantly. Scizor scraped his red claws together then one of them began to glow white. He swung his claw in a circle and brought it down onto the staff in a wicked overhead chop. The metal claw struck the staff in between Dad’s hands with a deafening boom and Tommy watched as his father was slammed face first into the dirt. He yelled and ran over to help his father stand but halted instead when he saw Dad holding out his hand to keep him back.

Dad took a moment but eventually rose back to his feet. He inhaled deeply then suddenly thrust his left palm into his right shoulder. Tommy heard a pop and his dad grunted in pain. “That was a display of the power of a Pokémon, although believe it or not, Scizor held back. Thanks old friend.”

“The power of a human pales in comparison to the power of even the weakest Pokémon, never forget that,” his dad continued. “Now, let me show you how you can stand a chance if you find yourself under duress, how you can extend your life if you are ever targeted.”

Dad took the same position and nodded at Scizor who repeated his move. The Pokémon brought his claw down again in an overhead chop and this time Tommy’s dad angled the staff to the side when Scizor’s claw connected. The claw slid off to the side, though Tommy’s dad still grunted under the strain.

“Never try to match your power against that of a Pokémon, even the ones you believe to be weak,” Dad said. “You will lose almost every time. Of course these obvious tricks and tactics will only delay the inevitable. The truth of the matter is that if a Pokémon was to try to kill you with all of its might it would undoubtedly succeed. So that is why it is important to train up your own Pokémon as well. If you are put in an unfavorable situation and can buy yourself just a few seconds of time, that may make all of the difference. You could survive just long enough to be saved by your Pokémon.”

Tommy nodded, he was itching to start training up his body again. It was incredible how out of shape he had gotten after just two months of not exercising.

“So now that brings us to the last bit,” Dad continued on. “I am sure that you recall earlier Scizor moved too fast for you to follow with your eyesight. So even if your Pokémon are strong, and you have trained up your body to be strong, what can you do in the face of this overwhelming disadvantage? Afterall the strongest man in the world could still be killed in an instant by a Pokémon. Allow me one last demonstration.”

He took in a breath one more time to center himself and closed his eyes. He readied his staff in front of his body and then nodded at Scizor. The metal bug became a blur, too fast for Tommy to follow with his eyes, but he watched disbelievingly as his father desperately spun and twisted in place, using his staff to somehow deflect every hit that Scizor threw. Strike after wicked strike was mercilessly thrown, but still his father always blocked each strike Scizor threw with perfect placement of his staff. After five minutes Dad finally collapsed to the ground, panting in exhaustion. Scizor clamped down on the back of his trainer’s neck with a giant red claw.

Dad tossed his head back and laughed, “Yes, you win Scizor! Even after all of these years you’re still so petty! You’ve never let me win even once!”

Scizor hooked his claws under Dad’s arms and helped him to his feet.

“How did you do that?” Tommy asked incredulously. “You blocked every strike with your eyes closed!”

“Because I can sense Scizor, I feel him at all times,” Dad explained. “He and I are connected, we have shared our very beings with one another.”

“He and I are soul-bonded.”

“Uh, what?” Tommy asked, having not the slightest idea what his father was talking about.

“Didn’t you wonder why Team Rocket was after you?” Dad asked, looking at Tommy inquisitively. “You said that you found out they were in Mahogany Town to kidnap you.”

Tommy nodded his head, “I just figured it was because Pokémon seem to flock to me, or because I’m related to you. Mom told me you were a strong trainer at one point. I didn’t know how strong you actually were though.”

Dad smiled and put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “All of those reasons are the same reason. That Pokémon are drawn to you is the budding of your power, you have that power because you are my blood; because I have that power too.”

Tommy stared at the ground numbly, it all was starting to make sense. “Tori? What about her?”

“Yes, it is genetic,” his dad said. “The gift is inherited through generations, though sometimes it can be known to skip over someone, my father for example.”

“So are we the only ones who can do this then? The people in our family?” Tommy asked excitedly. “Can anyone else do it too?”

“All fantastic questions,” his dad smiled. “I have met only a handful of others who can commune with their Pokémon as I, and eventually you and Tori, can. I spent my younger days traveling all over Johto, Kanto, even Sinnoh for a little bit, looking for answers to those questions and more. Unfortunately, all I found were more questions. If you want answers you will have to find them yourself.”

“Wait, what about Pokémon that aren’t my own?” Tommy frowned. “In your demonstration you sensed Scizor’s soul. But he is your Pokémon. Will this technique work on Wild Pokémon? On other trainer’s Pokémon?”

“To an extent,” Dad shrugged. “The bad news is that it is very difficult to use on another trainer’s Pokémon. But I’ve been practicing for a long time and I can sense an enemy Pokémon’s being in a fight to a certain degree. Not as clearly as my own Pokémon’s of course, but still it is there.”

“Well, what about…” Tommy started again, but stopped when Dad held up his hand.

“You have to walk before you can run,” Dad said. “And you have to crawl before you can walk. Focus on sensing the souls and bonding with your own Pokémon first.”

“I-I have,” Tommy realized. He called Houndour out of her Pokéball and she immediately bared her fangs upon spying Scizor. “The night I caught her, you made me return to the place where her mother died. Remember how I said that I fell asleep?”

His dad nodded his head and grinned, “I do remember that. It was something more?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t realize at the time,” Tommy frowned. “I felt… Houndour? I don’t know how else to explain it. It was like I fell asleep, but I wasn’t really asleep. I remember standing before a raging firestorm, so hot I felt that I would be consumed.”

“Well, you have a good place to start then,” Dad said. “I had no clue how I was going to explain any of this to you, but it seems that I no longer need to. All you need to do is reach there again.”

“But how?” Tommy asked. “How long will it take?”

“Who knows,” Dad laughed. “Try to meditate. Clear your mind. Feel everything and feel nothing. Feel yourself and feel your Pokémon. It is a journey that you must undertake yourself. It cannot be rushed and no one will be able to assist you in your endeavors.”

“Well that isn’t helpful at all,” Tommy smiled.

“I know,” Dad recalled Scizor to its Pokéball. “I’ll train with you in the mornings. Spend the afternoon and the evenings trying to connect with your Pokémon. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while. It took me many years to learn how to do it properly and I believe I have only just scratched the surface of this wonderful mystery.”

With those final words Dad left, leaving Tommy all alone with Houndour. He sat down in the grass beside her and spent the next two hours unsuccessfully trying to clear his mind. There were a million things running through his head, a million questions he wanted answers to, and he had the impression that his father had purposely told him only the bare minimum amount of knowledge he needed to know. He gave up and headed back to the house to turn in for the night when he opened his eyes and saw the crescent moon beginning her ascent into the night sky.

The rest of the week was thoroughly miserable. Dad and Scizor didn’t ease up in the slightest and Tommy grew increasingly frustrated as his meditation proved unsuccessful, yielding no discernable results. He wanted to replicate the circumstances that led to seeing Houndour’s soul the first time, but her mother had already departed this world and even if she was still alive he felt sick at the thought of killing the Houndoom again.

True to his word, Tommy’s father left on Friday. He didn’t know when he would return and told Tommy to look after Mom and Tori. Tommy swore that he would and swore that he would be stronger when Dad returned. He had not been able to land a hit on Scizor once the entire week, though his three Pokémon had definitely gotten stronger. They could successfully dodge or defend against Scizor about a quarter of the time when Dad and Scizor left on Friday.

December passed and the New Year rolled around. No one felt like celebrating with Dad gone, they weren’t a whole family at the moment, so the day passed like any other. On Sunday Tommy gave each of his Pokémon a final health checkup before getting ready to return to school the next day. Solosis hadn’t grown much more, hovering right around the Pokédex average, but Houndour and Yanma had each gotten a little bit bigger and they were now larger than average if they hadn’t been already.

He had kept up with his training as he promised his father, he had just recently started to feel strong enough to run again and had been doing so for the past week. In addition, he trained with the staff everyday and could now swing it for close to half an hour without getting tired. He didn't feel very confident about being forced into a fight, and he certainly didn’t feel confident standing up to a wild Pokémon with nothing but his staff to fend it off, but he felt that he could at least deflect a hit or two if he was in a pinch.

His Pokémon had also leveled up as he had been training them with Dad every morning. Yanma had learned Double Team so he was at Power Level 11, Solosis had learned Psybeam so he was now Power Level 12, and Houndour had learned Roar so she was at Level 13.

Overall Tommy felt good about everything he had accomplished in the last month with one exception. His meditation was still frustrating him to no end. He didn’t know what he was doing wrong and every night, the two hours that he spent meditating felt like a colossal waste of time. He sat there trying to clear his mind, but got more and more frustrated with every passing minute, which of course kept him from further clearing his mind.

He woke up Monday morning and got ready for school. Mom had withdrawn Tori, not wanting her to go back, so he rode his bike into Goldenrod alone that morning. He had not traveled into the city much since he left the school, just the handful of time he had to visit Nurse Joy in the Pokémon Center, but he could tell that the city was not the same as it once was. Though the hustle and bustle of cars, buses, and bicycles could be heard, the noise was subdued, like a dark cloud hung about the city, muting sound and strangling the light. He pedaled his bicycle onto the school grounds, noting the absence of laughter and children. His watch said 7:30 so he chained his bike in front of the main office and strolled inside.

His student ID still worked, allowing him access into the building and he strode across the lobby, through the doors and out into the courtyard. The campus was devoid of sound; the few younger students Tommy saw walked silently to their classes with their heads down. He strolled around the grounds, slowly making his way to the amphitheater and, not knowing what else to do with his remaining time, he simply chose to head inside and wait.

Exiting the hallway out into the amphitheater proper, Tommy looked out at all of the empty seats with a heavy heart. He recalled not too long ago that the seats had been filled to bursting with students, now there were only four.

Spencer and Max were seated in the front row, right in the center and Spencer raised his hand, beckoning Tommy to come and sit next to him. As Tommy made his way across the stage his gaze wandered to the two other students who were sitting in the second row behind Spencer and Max; he stopped dead in his tracks and grinned as relief flooded over him.

The first was a very tanned girl that he didn’t know. She had sandy brown hair and brown eyes and though she was sitting, Tommy could tell she was tall. She was half a head taller than the already tall boy she was sitting next to and would probably be taller than that when she stood. Her toned arms were shredded and despite the soft features of her face, Tommy still found her incredibly intimidating. She looked like she could take both him and Spencer in a fist fight at the same time without breaking a sweat.

The lanky dark haired boy sitting beside the girl was what really drew Tommy’s attention though. When they made eye contact, the boy stood and leapt over the first row chairs and Tommy wasted no time racing up to him, clasping forearms and sharing an embrace as only long lost brothers could.

“Jon, thank the Mother that you’re alright!” Tommy clapped his friend hard on the back and winced in pain as his friend reciprocated. He grinned as he held his friend at arm’s length. “I was so worried I would never see you again. I’ve missed you man!”

The two of them shared another embrace and Jon chuckled. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you too, Tommy!”

They broke apart and Tommy looked around once more, wondering if he had overlooked his remaining friend.

Jon must have read his mind. “He’s not here. The fucker tried to kill me. I only barely got away in time because Honedge was out of his ball at the time.”

“You’re saying that Darius also…?” Tommy trailed off, refusing to believe that his nicest friend had actually been an enemy all along as well.

“What do you mean ‘also’?” Jon asked, not missing the way Tommy had chosen his words. “Was it Aubrey? She was in a group with you, wasn’t she?”

Tommy chose only to nod his head and Jon swore under his breath. “Come and sit down, I want to hear about it.”

He followed Jon to the second row and took a seat behind Spencer. The boy held his forearm out and the two of them clasped hands enthusiastically. “It’s great to see you out of the wheelchair and moving around again Tommy.”

“Thanks Spence,” Tommy smiled only slightly, internally distraught over the news that he had just heard from Jon. “I’m glad to see you and Max again. Hello Max.”

“Tommy,” Max said, giving his customary succinct greeting. He didn’t turn his head to acknowledge Tommy at all.

“He missed you,” Spencer took a shot at his friend. “He’s been looking forward to seeing you again though he would never admit it.”

“Your jokes have never been funny Spencer,” Max said lazily. He finally turned and regarded Tommy, “How much stronger have you gotten?”

“Honestly?” Tommy asked. “I’m scared you two have widened the gap even further. It took almost the entire three months for my leg to heal. I just started training again this past month.”

“A shame” Max sighed, he returned his gaze back to the wall at the front of the classroom.

The door opened and Nessa walked in. She saw Tommy, smiled and waved, but then as if taking in the room for the first time, she quickly lowered her hand. She walked briskly across the stage to the first row and sat directly in front of him.

“It’s good to see you again.” Tommy smiled. “Thank you for helping out and taking care of me while I was injured.”

“Of course,” Nessa smiled coyly. “I was more than happy to help take care of you. I’m glad to see that your leg has healed. One hundred percent?”

“Yeah,” Tommy nodded.

“Good,” Nessa said. “And Jon! I’m really glad to see that you made it back. Tommy, Ashley, and I were worried about you and Darius.”

“Thank you, Nessa. It’s great to see you too,” Jon smiled. “As far as Darius goes though, you should just forget all about him.”

The door opened again, cutting off Nessa’s response and Ashley walked into the classroom. She strode over to where everyone was seated and sat in the chair on the other side of Nessa.

“Tommy, it’s great to see you again! And nice to see you out of the wheelchair of course,” Ashley grinned. “Hey Nessa! And wow, Jon too!”

“Good to see you too!” Tommy smiled. “Thank you for all of your help when I was otherwise indisposed.”

Professor Larkspur chose that moment to walk into the room and he was quickly followed by Zach and the blue-haired girl Melanie. Zach made to close the door but stopped, a moment later one final student ran in through the door.

Tommy had never seen her before, she had dark skin with curly black hair and blonde highlights. She was extremely short and she hustled across the stage and sat in the seat on the left side of the tall girl. He wanted to look and see the height difference between the two of them but didn’t want to be rude. Zach closed the door and walked across the stage to stand next to Melanie.

“It is excellent to see so many of you came back,” Professor Larkspur growled. He looked as terrifying as ever, coat still unbuttoned and massive scar displayed for the world to see. “I only expected to see half this number.”

Tommy looked at the pitiful 8 students including himself who were currently seated in the first two rows and tried to imagine just how much more depressing the scene would be if Jon and the two new girls hadn’t shown up.

“Well, let’s introduce ourselves,” Professor Larkspur rumbled. “The three of us will begin. You all know I am Professor Larkspur. This is my 19th year as a professor and I graduated as the number one ranked student in my graduating class when I graduated thirty years ago. I got this scar from fighting with a Garchomp and I swear here and now before my colleagues behind me that I will lay down my life in defense of you students who have chosen to return to my care.”

Zach stepped forward next, “Zachariah Stillman, call me Zach. I graduated seven years ago and was ranked third in my class. I look forward to working with each of you.”

“Melanie Wells,” the girl with electric blue hair stepped forward. She had very fair skin and piercing blue eyes that matched her hair color. She couldn’t have been much older than the students in the classroom were. “I graduated last year, ranked second in my class. I apologize that I was not strong enough to save everyone when that is what I was charged with doing.”

“No one blames you Melanie,” Professor Larkspur said gently. “On that day, you saved the most students out of anyone, half of your class! I forbid you from hanging your head!”

Melanie wiped at her eyes, nodded, and took a step backward.

“The three of us will be your instructors for the rest of the year,” Professor Larkspur continued. “In these last three months the school has been purged of all of the filth that was residing within. Allow me to formally apologize again, we had grown complacent. That will no longer be the case.”

“So, does everyone know each other?” Professor Larkspur asked. “Go around the room and introduce yourselves.”

Tommy already knew everyone in the room with the exception of the two girls seated on Jon’s other side. The taller one was extremely quiet and soft-spoken despite her fierce looks; her name was Harper. The shorter girl was only a bit more outspoken than her larger counterpart, her name was Krista.

Professor Larkspur nodded, “Great, with introductions out of the way let’s get straight to it. Our days won’t look too different, mornings will still be lectures, and afternoons will still be battle practice, the only thing that we are going to change is we are going to add in weapons training and strength training. Team Rocket held no qualms about attacking you students with swords and knives so it is imperative that you are able to defend yourselves.”

“We already got weapon training last year,” Jon said. “We have to go through all of that again?”

“It was more weapons handling than anything,” Melanie interjected. “And how many of you actually kept up with it?”

Tommy looked around and saw Spencer and Harper were the only two who were nodding their heads. Tommy hadn’t actually seen Spencer fire his bow yet but he recalled the confidence the boy had projected when he had gone deer hunting with only a single arrow.

“The point is to turn the eight of you into warriors,” Melanie continued. “Who cares if you are the strongest trainer ever? Team Rocket could strike you down with a knife or an arrow. And who cares if you are the greatest warrior alive? You could be easily struck down by a wild Pokémon or a stray move in a battle. The point is to make each of you well-rounded, capable of doing everything.”

“Well put Melanie,” Professor Larkspur agreed. “Continuing on, the principal and school administration have built a dormitory next to the stadium that opens out into the park; starting today all of you will need to live on campus. We have already reached out to each of your families and gotten approval so all that is left to do is to move your things to the dormitory. You will be dismissed early today to go home and speak with your families.”

“I will be in charge of your strength training and education,” Zach spoke for the first time since introducing himself. “Every morning you will report to the Recreation Center at 6 am for two hours of strength training. Following that we will have two hours of general education, I will continue the curriculum that… ‘Professor Hemlock’ had set out and I will teach you about wilderness survival all over again. Many of you lacked the know-how to survive in the wild despite being taught how to do so in previous years.”

“You’ll have an hour break until eleven then weapons training will begin,” Melanie spoke. “I’ll be your weapons instructor. We’ll train for two hours until one o’clock, then you’ll have another hour break.”

“Finally we’ll continue with our battle training in the afternoon and evenings.” Professor Larkspur said. “From two to six. At least half of you only recently caught your first Pokémon within the last couple of months and need as much practice as you can get battling with your new partners. The school day will end at six, and the evening is yours to use however you like provided you stay on campus. To remind you, you can go to the park in the evenings to spend time with your Pokémon, use the greenhouse to craft your own Pokémon food, or spend time with each other in the dormitories. All of the amenities of the school are still open to you including the cafeteria where you can continue to eat for free.”

“The dormitory has three floors, the first of which is a shared space. There is a full scale kitchen stocked with food, a recreation room where you can watch battles and shows on the television, a computer room where you can review your own battle footage, weapon handling and Pokémon battles alike, and finally a plethora of books in a comfortable library. The second floor of the dormitory has individual rooms for each of the four boys plus a shared bathroom. The third floor is the same but for the girls. No boy is ever allowed to set foot on the third floor. Zach and Melanie will be living with you, Zach on the second floor with the boys and Melanie on the third floor with the girls.”

“Alright let’s head over to the dormitory to check it out,” Professor Larkspur said and clapped his hands together excitedly and beckoned the class to follow after him.