As usual Krystal had managed to locate a restaurant within a few minutes of leaving the hotel. Once the sweet scent of warm food made it's way past, there was no stopping her.

"Look! I think I smell DINNER!" she cried, dragging Jacen along by his arm with one hand and pointing to a small diner with her other hand.

"Joy. Dinner," his eyes rolled, as Buddy rushed to catch up with them.

The diner was fairly large with a neon sign that read: "The Coral Diner - Our food is nice and CRUNCHY!" She approached the door and without looking, barged in and smacked into an outgoing customer.

"Hey!" she cried, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it I-"

"No, I'm sorry, my dear lady," the young man replied, "I probably wasn't being care--Oh it's you Krystal!"

"BRAM!!!" she gave him a bear hug and began to ramble, "Oh! Jacen this is one of my bestest best friends in the whole world! He's great, he's nice, and I've known him for all of my life, my daddy knew his daddy, you know Brock!! He runs the World Famous Pokemon Breeding Center and Bram, he's even older than you are, he's 13 and not only that but he-"

"Whoa, hold on," Bram stopped her from rambling.

"Sorry! Bram, this is Jacen. Jacen, this is Bram," she introduced them to each other and they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you Jacen," Bram replied, smiling genuinely. One of the first things Jacen noticed was his extreme politeness. This guy was so polite, he made Krystal seem rude! He was semi-tall and was a bit pale in color, but his purple hair and friendly eyes made up for it. He wore baggy, black pants and shirt, with a red belt and with a purple velvet-lined, black cape topping it all off. He gave off a sort of air as being well... nice! A definate lady's man, Jacen concluded.

"Why don't you join you for a snack Bram!!!" she offered.

"Sure, I'd love to! Thanks Krystal." he replied, "You don't mind, do you Jacen?" he inquired.

"Um... yeah...I uh.. sure..." he said uneasily.

"Time's a wastin' guys," Krystal called at the door, "Chow time!" she rushed in and found a table by the window and waved to them. They waved back. Bram moved between Jacen and the window.

"You like Krystal a lot, don't you?"

There was a large pause as Bram looked on.

"Um, no. What makes you say that," he began to speak quieter than usual.

Sensing his troubles, Bram lowered his voice too, "Trust me on this one, Jacen, I have experience," he turned to enter the diner and as he left, patted him on the shoulder and whispered, "... and I have a girlfriend."

Jacen's gray clouds began to lighten up and he smiled a bit embarrassed on being confronted on it, but at the same time feeling relieved that he didn't have to compete with a great guy like Bram. He looked up at the dome above him. Coral City was a stunning underwater city and the moon shining high above the waters above their heads made a rippled effect over the curved dome, like a faceted jewel. Florescent fishes floated in and around it like streaming comets. For being under the water, things weren't that bad. Infact, Jacen actually had gotten used to it somewhat. He was surprised that neither he nor Krystal especially had noticed its beauty before.

He turned to follow his new companion into the diner, and noticed something unusual happening in the center square. A pair of suspicious young people were bothering a girl with brilliant purple hair done up in a crazy hairdoo. Beside her sat a really annoyed wartortle. A sandshrew was dancing circles around it, making its eyes spin around dizzly. The young girl had short purple-blue hair, and the short talkative guy had on a really atrocious orange italian suit. Jacen knew these two all too well. This was the not-so-well-known NEO Team Rocket. Extreme Wannabees.

He weaved his way through the crowd, trying not to attract attention to himself, although that wasn't that hard. Jacen never stood out in a crowd, and besides, NEO Team Rocket was attracting ALL the attention.

He got up behind Jannie, (who had on a ruby-red dress that was way too old for her.)

Jared was speaking:

"I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't join, but I can think of plenty why you should."

The girl, who he had identified as Dosa, the gym leader, was not convinced. "Are you threatening me, Little Man?"

Jared made a face. He realized he was wasting his time. "Fine, then. But if something really NASTY happens to your beloved city, it will be all your fault!" This scared her a bit, but she was still standing her ground.

Jacen decided this had gone far enough. "Hey," he called, "Isn't that Team Rocket!"

A hundred heads turned to stare. Jannie recognized her brother. "OOOH! I'll get you for this, Little Brother, and your big dog too!!"

Then NEO Team Rocket disappeared in a puff of neon green smoke.

"I'm your twin," he mumbled under his breath. Then, seeing the danger averted, he decided to return to the diner, before they realized he wasn't there.

As he came in the door, he caught the tail-end of Krystal and Bram's conversation. "I mean Richie, for president! Isn't that amazing?"

"Yeah, he's a very loyal member of the ISPCP," Bram noted.

"What is that?" Jacen asked as he joined them in the booth by the window.

"You don't know? Well, it's the International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pokémon, of course!"

"Oh, I see."

"Aren't you a member?" Krystal asked Bram.

"Yes. My girlfriend, is the junior Vice President. It was started by her father, Tracey."

"Oh! I've heard of him, the famous Pokémon Watcher!"

"When he was younger, now he helps Pokémon!"

"Anyway, what have you been doing lately, Bram? I didn't think you wanted to go on a pokémon journey." Krystal asked.

"I don't, but think about this. Pallet Town has lots of places, the Breeding Center, Pokémon Center, the Pokémon Reserve, and great food! But what doesn't it have?"

"A gym?"

"Right! So that's what I'm trying to do. Open my own gym! But, in order to do that, I have to get signatures from 8 or so official gym leaders, saying that they battled me and they approve me as a new gym leader. It's a rough process. I just beat Dosa, and now I'm traveling on to the-"

"Why don't you stay and watch me battle her tomorrow! Oh Please! Please!" she begged furiously.

"I don't see why not. I've got all the time in the world!"

"Great!" Krystal cheered.

End of Chapter Four
Back to episode 2