But James wasn't much happier than his friend.  Passing the Pokémon Tech exam could have proven that he was good at more than just being a "gentleman."  Now he had lost the chance to prove himself to his parents.  And yet he was returning to Sunnytown, knowing that he had every chance in the world of getting caught, especially if he and Jesse were going back to the shack they had lived in for such a short time.  It had been the place where they started their friendship, so it seemed like the perfect place to start their journey.

        They were so lost in thought that they didn't even notice the two bicycles approaching them.  On a dark blue bike rode a girl with shoulder-length green hair and silver eyes, twirling a chain menacingly as she rode.  On the other bike, a black one, rode a dark-haired boy with brown eyes.  Both wore black leather jackets.  On the backs of the jackets was a logo:  a darkly colored Pokéball with a purple snake resembling an Ekans curled into an "S" in front of it.  The two screeched to a stop in front of Jesse and James.

        "This bridge belongs to the Sunnytown Bike Gang," the girl said monotonously, twirling her chain.
        "And we aren't trying to take it from you," Jesse said with a smile, grabbing James' arm and pushing past the two.

        The boy laughed.  "What we meant was that you don't belong here.  This bridge isn't meant for Pokémon Tech snobs like the two of you."

        The green-haired girl advanced, swinging the chain at Jesse.  Jesse ducked past her only barely escaping the chain, and as James watched, she called out Ekans.  "Bind her bike!" she commanded, and the snake dove at the chainer's front wheel, wrapping around it and throwing her into the air.  She landed at Jesse's feet with a thud, and Jesse yanked the chain away from her.

        "Leigh!" the boy growled.  He glared back at James, pedaling furiously.  James tried to dodge ust as Jesse had, but before he could move, the heavy metal chain flew through the air and knocked him off his bike.  Jesse grinned as he plopped beside Leigh.

        The two gang members weren't finished.  They pushed to their feet at the same time, each looking equally threatening.  A low rumbling sounded in the distance, and a dark red motorcycle approached.  The rider was a girl of their own age.  Her hair was very long, and the colors varied in different shades of brown.  Her eyes were dark purple, and a Haunter loomed over her head.  She parked the motorcycle with a screech and leapt off of it.  "That's enough," she calmly told the other two, then she smiled at Jesse and James.  "That was pretty good.  You've passed the test."

        The black-haired boy narrowed his eyes.  "Giovanna..."
        "They passed, Wade," she cut in.  "They beat you and Leigh."
        "I wasn't aware that we were part of any test," Leigh grumbled.

        "Well, you were, and now you know, so quit complaining."  Giovanna turned back to Jesse and James.  "Pretty good... for Tech snobs.  I'm Giovanna, the leader of this gang.  Who are you?"

        "Jesse."
        "James."

        "Jesse and James?  That has a nice ring to it...  Are the two of you... together?"

        The trainers turned bright shades of red, and Wade and Leigh rolled their eyes.  Jesse glanced at James, and they stared at each other for a moment.  James couldn't stop thinking about their two failed attempts at kissing.  "No," Jesse said quietly, not looking away.  Then she suddenly snapped back to the real world.  "No, not in the way that... you're thinking about.  We're just best friends."  She laughed nervously.

        Giovanna smiled knowingly.  "Would you be interested in joining us?"  Wade and Leigh looked terrified.
        Jesse frowned at her.  "I've heard your name somewhere before.  Where?"

        "You've probably heard of my uncle, Sakaki Giovanni*.  He runs Team Rocket."  She noticed the horrified expression on Jesse's face.  She suddenly had an image of a little girl, lost and alone, and it had something to do with Giovanni and his mother, the former Team Rocket Boss.  "Don't worry, though," she added quickly, ignoring the vision.  "I'm nothing like him.  He's ruthless, and I like to think of myself as a slightly better person."

        Jesse looked to James, and he shrugged.  "It's your call, Jess.  This gang may be a good place to stay until we're ready to start our Pokémon journey.  You know, give us some time to get organized."

        She turned back to the gang's leader and smiled reluctantly.  "Okay.  We'll join."

        Over the next few weeks, Giovanna paid special attention to the two new additions to her gang.  Jesse became famous among the other members as "Chainer Jess" because of the skill she had acquired in being able to ride her bike and swing the chain at the same time.  Leigh was a little jealous... well, insanely jealous since the title of Chainer had been hers.  James was the opposite of Jesse.  Somehow, he had never learned how to ride a bike, and Giovanna had a feeling that he detested the "Trainer James" nickname his training wheels had earned him.  Despite these differences, Jesse and James stuck together, and she had a feeling that there was more to their relationship.

        "Admit it," she said to Jesse one day when they were alone in the tiny shack that served as the gang's hideout.  Sam-- her boyfriend-- and James were both gone.

        Jesse looked up, caught off guard.  "Admit what?"

        Giovanna grinned.  "Admit that you love him."  Jesse turned away, staring out the small window at the stormy night sky.  Giovanni's niece was concerned.  "What's wrong, Jess?  I know you must love him, I can tell..."

        "I've known him for so long," Jesse replied.  "We're just best friends.  We always will be.  And we won't be if I do something as stupid as telling him that I love him.  I've done that before, in the orphanage, before I met James, and--"

        "That was when you were a kid!"  Giovanna shook her head.  "That was before James, when you weren't really even old enough to know what love was.  Then you met, and you've known each other forever.  Trust me, he's is better than whatever brat you thought you had a crush on, and things have changed now.  You have to tell him or live with this forever."

        There was a sound outside, and Sam, a tall boy with sandy brown hair and dark eyes, walked into the hideout rolling his eyes.  "Touchy guy."  He tossed his soaked leather jacket over a chair.

        "Where's James?" both girls asked.

        "Well, we were outside, and I kinda accidentally managed to listen in on your conversation..."  He cringed as Giovanna shot him a glare of death.  "I told James what you two were talking about.  He turned sorta pale and ran off.  That was about five minutes ago."

        Jesse leapt to her feet.  "Oh, no...  He must've known we were talking about him!  And he hates it!"  She turned on the gang's leader.  "You were wrong, Giovanna, nothing's changed!"

        Her purple eyes clouded a moment, and she could see James, running through the rain.  "No," she said quietly.  "No, there's something..."  She shook the image away, and tossed Jesse a keychain and Sam's jacket.  "Go find him, now.  You've been friends far too long to let something like this stand in your way.  If he can't accept that you love him--"  Jesse was already out the door.

        Sam looked at her, confused.  "Jesse loves James?"
        "Wha--?"  She whirled back around, her eyes wide.  "Who did you think we meant?"
        He blinked.  "Uh... Somebody else?  Me?"
        She was horrified.  "Sam!"
        "What?!"

        James was sitting under a foliage-impaired oak tree, oblivious to the rain that was drenching him.  His knees were drawn up under his chin, and there was a dull, vacant look in his usually bright green eyes.  That was how Jesse found him.  She did what she could to smooth back her hair, knocked out of its usual pointy style by the storm, then she grabbed the umbrella that had been with the motorcycle and headed towards him.

        He watched her coming but said nothing, or if he did, the roaring rainfall muted it.  She kneeled beside him and opened the umbrella over his head, and he turned to look at her briefly with his empty eyes.  She attempted a smile, but failed.  "So... you know what Giovanna and I were talking about?"  He nodded, but didn't say a word.  "I know how you feel--"

        "Do you?" he shot back angrily.  She jumped.  He had never spoken to her that way before.  Tears came to her eyes, but she fought to keep them back.

        "Yes, I do," she whispered, resting her hand on his arm.  She was glad that he didn't jerk away from her.  "I do know how you feel, but I also know how I feel.  I'm... I'm ready to admit it.  Nothing can change it.  You really can't help who you fall in love with, James."

        He pulled away and stood up, his back to her.  "That's a cliché, Jesse."

        A tear fell involuntarily from her eye onto her cheek, and she stood up behind him, putting the umbrella back over his head.  "Yeah, it's a cliché," she admitted.  Somehow, her small voice was audible over the rain.  James turned around with anger in his eyes, but his expression softened when he saw her crying.  "Clichés are overused because they're true."

        He wiped the tear away from her face and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder.  "I'm so sorry, Jess... I'm being selfish.  I should be happy for you, since you're my friend."

        She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but she still clung to him.  "We're still friends?  This won't change anything?"

        "We'll always be friends, but things will have to change.  I mean, you know how I feel now, and I'm going to have to adjust to seeing you with Sam.  I--"

        "Sam?"  She glanced down at the leather jacket.  "No, James, Sam is Giovanna's boyfriend."

        His eyes were wide.  "I... I didn't know that.  So... who were you and Giovanna talking about?"  She smiled up at him and brushed the strand of wet hair out of his eyes.  It immediately fell back down.  "You were talking about me?" he whispered.

        "I thought you knew and you just didn't like it."

        "Didn't like it?" he echoed.  His expression was no longer lifeless; he was happier than she could ever remember seeing him.  "Jess, you don't know how glad I am to hear this!  I mean, I'm more than glad, I--"

        "Hold this."  She handed him  the umbrella, and he stared at it blankly as she stepped into his arms again and kissed him.  He slid his arms around her, and the umbrella fell to the ground.  His life with her flashed before him and he kissed her for each of the times that he had wanted to kiss her:  for the little boy who almost died in the snow, for the same boy who found the long lost friend who saved his life, for Christmas, and for the Pokémon Tech dance.  The rain poured down around them, but neither seemed to notice it anymore.

        Giovanna smiled from beneath her umbrella, standing on a hill overlooking Jesse and James' first kiss.  "So, everything worked out after all," she said quietly.  Her Haunter, Alpollo, laughed his agreement, and the Pokémon and its trainer turned away.  Even through Sam's sadly pathetic efforts, Jesse and James were together.  It was nice to know she had helped.

        As she headed back towards the hideout, a flash like lightning filled her eyes and everything turned bright white.  At first, she saw nothing at all.  Then there was a flurry of colors, gray and brown, and a sense of evil washed over her like a tsunami.  She saw red, and heard a deep voice saying I can set you free.  She saw green and blue and a silvery kind of blackness, heard shallow breathing and thundering heartbeats in her ears, neither her own.  Then she saw blackness.

        She opened her eyes, frozen in her tracks.  Alpollo drifted in front of her face, looking worried.  Giovanna covered her face with her hands, taking a deep breath and sinking slowly to her knees.  "Not another one," she whispered.  She had been having these odd, uncontrollable flashes for two years, random bursts of color, light and sound that all fit together somehow but never seemed to make any sense and took forever to decipher.  But this was the first flash to contain her uncle's voice.

        I can set you free...