"Hold on…" Keith said, checking a book he pulled from his backpack. "The population is 14,528, as of December."

"What?" questioned Nick. "You have a guide to Clarkesville?"

"No, of course not," Keith replied.

"Then what is that?" asked Nick.

"It’s a guide to all the cities that have Indigo Plateau sanctioned gyms!" he replied. Nick laughed and shook his head.

"It figures," he said.

"Now what’s that supposed to mean?" Keith turned to Nick and asked.

"Nothing."

"No, really, what did you mean?" Keith pressed.

"Well, you’re just so... so prepared! All that I knew when I left home is that I was going to train for the Indigo Plateau competition. That was my whole plan! All I had was this pokédex, which I’ve only used once, a sleeping bag, that would have let me get wet in the rain without your tent, the money I had saved, Staryu, clothes, and food. I would have even forgotten the extra clothes if Dad hadn’t reminded me, too," Nick explained.

"Oh," Keith said. He laughed, "And you think I have everything planned out?"

"Uh, well, yeah, I had been under that impression," Nick admitted.

"Oh," Keith commented again. "Well, you know what Nick? You were right." Nick started laughing, and Keith added,

"Of course, I had planned on catching five pokemon in the forest so I had a full belt. I hadn’t planned on meeting up with you and -" He was cut off.

"Well, sorry I messed up your plan," Nick interjected.

"What?" asked Keith, just realizing the implications of what he had said. "No, Nick, I didn’t mean that."

"Don’t worry about it, Keith. I mean, it makes sense if you wish you had caught Eevee and Mankey. Well, I found Mankey, and if I hadn’t made us stop then you wouldn’t have seen Eevee in the first place, but - Oh well, never mind. I’m just saying that I’m not offended if it’s not always perfectly easy to watch me catch wild pokemon while you have to stand there. – No, don’t interrupt," he continued. "Listen, Keith, if you find a wild pokemon, feel free to catch it. I appreciate you taking turns with me, but, I mean, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get a really good pokemon if you find one."

"But, but, Nick," Keith broke in stuttering. "That’s not what I meant in the first place. I was just saying that -"

"No, Keith, no apologies. It’s OK."

"But I didn’t mean that in the first place!" Keith cried exasperated.

"Hmm… Well, should I believe you? Naaa," Nick teased, obviously accepting Keith’s explanation but enjoying Keith’s frustration.

"Grr… Stop it, Nick!" Keith finally broke out.

"OK, OK. I’ll stop," Nick finished.

The boys reached the pokecenter, which was a moderately sized, two-story building, and entered through the characteristic swinging glass doors. As they walked in, they saw a few other people milling around in the lobby as well as another group of trainers standing around the check-in desk, blocking the boys’ view of the local nurse. The boys walked around the crowd, up to the counter, detaching their pokeballs from their trainer’s belts.

"Hey," said Nick, to the redheaded nurse as she accepted their pokemon. "Didn’t I see you in Westwood a couple of days ago?"

"Westwood? Hm… No, I haven’t been there for over a week," she said placing the boys’ pokeballs on a black pokeball tray. Nick had the thought that it felt good to have enough pokemon to need a tray. He asked the nurse,

"But aren’t you Nurse Joy?"

"Yeah," Keith said. "I saw you at one of the Westwood pokecenters. Remember? We had to go in twice?" The nurse laughed and said,

"I should have known. That nurse you saw in Westwood is my twin sister. We’re both named Joy, just like our mom. Now, I need to go to work." Keith and Nick walked back to the waiting area and sat down on a bench.

"I’ve never seen identical twins before. And both named Joy? That’s strange," Keith commented.

"Yeah, me either," responded Nick. In little time, Nurse Joy returned to counter, followed by a Chansey, who was bearing the tray of pokeballs. The boys walked up and Nurse Joy said, pointing to the tray,

"Here are your pokeballs. The ones on this side are yours, and these are yours."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Keith spoke for both. Nick picked up his pokemon and started to turn, only to be stopped by Keith and told to wait.

"Nurse Joy," asked Keith. "Can we get a trainer’s card here?"

"Of course," Nurse Joy answered, leaning down and pulling out two sets of papers from a drawer in the counter. "Fill these out and give them back to me. You can get a bunch of promotions from Silph Company and other places if you have a trainer’s card. Of course, there are conditions. Here’s a pen." She handed the papers and writing utensils to Nick and Keith. They accepted them and started filling out the forms on the counter.

"Let’s see," Nick said. "Name, home address, email addresses or modem number, IP address, age, gender, this, that, and - huh? Name of uncle’s brother? That’s Dad. Second cousin’s grandfather and grandmother’s brothers and sisters? ...I don’t know this stuff." Keith helpfully explained,

"That’s your grandparents."

"Oh," Nick replied. "Why didn’t they just write that?" Keith shrugged.

"Now," Nick continued. "Favorite vegetable? What?"

The boys finally finished filling the often absurd blanks on the information sections of the forms and reached the conditions.

"Bla, bla, bla," read Nick. "Of course I’m not going to hold them responsible if I swallow the card. These forms are just stupid."

"That’s what lawsuits do," Keith commented, obviously reading his forms with more care. "Now here’s something important."

"Really?" Nick asked, doubtfully.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Look, in order to receive this card we have to purchase something at one of Silph Company’s Pokémarts at least once a month. We have to eat at such and such restaurant and – so that’s how they make a profit from these cards. If we don’t buy certain products, the cards become inactive." Nick shrugged,

"Works for me." They signed their names (after Keith eventually finished reading the excessive amount of small print, largely involving things like promising to not sue Silph if someone was struck by a meteorite while shopping in one of their stores) and returned the forms to Nurse Joy. She ran the forms through a scanner into a computer, which checked and verified all required fields, and two plastic cards shot out of a small black printing device on one side of the counter.

"There you go," the nurse said, handing the boys their cards. "I’ve always found the legal information seemingly unnecessary, but everyone has to agree to the terms. There have been some strange cases against Silph and several of the other pokemon companies in the past... Anyway, that number printed there is your trainer ID. Will you be at the housing project tonight?"

"What?" Nick and Keith both asked.

"A house is being built by trainers that pass through here on the outskirts of the city for a new treatment center. Mr. Beddingfield is in charge of it. Any trainers who help get points recorded on their card, which can be used as money at some stores. Sorry, I didn’t know no one had told you about it." Nick was still taking in the information, so he couldn't reply, but Keith merely paused a moment, then quickly said,

"OK! We’ll be there!"

"Uhh… Yeah, OK, what he said," Nick answered.

"Goodbye," the nurse said as the boys exited the building.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," they said in leaving. Nick turned to Keith and asked,

"What was all that the nurse was talking about?"

"It’s like this. Basically, a bunch of the giant pokémon organizations like Silph, the Indigo Plateau League, and I suppose some others are working together to make a monopoly on about everything to do with pokémon training. This little card lets us get big discounts at stores that are part of those companies, but only if we do shop at them. It’s a pretty good strategy. They get all the business and control the market," Keith explained.

"But aren’t their laws against that?" asked Nick.

"I don’t know," Keith shrugged. "I’ve never really been big on legal stuff, but since there’s not really any competition anyway, I don’t think the monopoly is harming anybody. The people at Silph, and I think Silph is sort of the head of this thing, really work hard to provide good products at low prices. The Indigo League doesn’t seem to have much to do with it anyway, but Silph is probably paying them to advertise their card, since the League is like the most major pokemon competition for hundreds of miles. I’m not sure about that restaurant bit, though. It might be a little shady," Keith rattled off.

"OK," Nick said. "I don’t feel like thinking about it. So, what’s that building project about?"

"Oh yeah!" Keith said. "So that’s how the League gets into it. We go and work on building a house, and we get money that can be spent only at stores that use this card. Still... Hm, some funds have to be coming in to this whole scheme from somewhere other than Silph stores." He paused, then continued, "I bet that there’s a bunch of advertisement from other companies going on at places where pokémon trainers meet – like at that building project. Tonight we have to be there at some time. We’ll need to get the details."

"I get it now!" it clicked for Nick. "So I guess that’s how I’ll be able to pay for myself when training. Maybe my dad won’t have to just send me money. Well, anyway, it’s 11:00, but believe it or not, I’m not hungry, so are we going to the gym?"

"You guessed it," Keith replied. The boys traveled on across the city of Clarkesville. Nick thought about his three pokemon. It felt cool to actually have them, to command them, to be in charge. Staryu was good. Nick had seen that for the last few months. His new Mankey had put up a good fight too, but... Nick realized that he hadn’t even let it out of the ball once since he had caught it. With the temper that that pokémon had, it – Nick didn’t even know its gender – would probably either attack Nick, ignore Nick’s orders, or, and Nick brightened at the thought, charge wildly at any pokémon it battled against. Thrash attack, he thought. Well, it sure was pretty good, even if his Staryu had been beating it until – oh yeah, and Eevee. Nick hadn’t even thought that she could battle until recently, but she had dealt a powerful blow to Mankey, knocking it out. Nick remembered what Staryu had been doing in the mean while, and began to wonder what attack he had been about to use. It certainly didn’t look like an ordinary Water Gun, but maybe it was just a really strong one, he considered. Anyway, Nick concluded that he might stand a good chance against the gym leader after all. But what about Keith? Nidoran wouldn’t cut it, and Squirtle might not be able to do it by himself. Nick strongly hoped that his new friend would win his first gym battle.