A New Journey There once was a boy named Sean, who lived in Purple Town. He was generally a normal boy except for one thing, his total and complete obsession with 3 things: Psychic pokemon(specifically and most of all, Mew and Mewtwo), legends of forgotten pokemon and elements, and anything else to do with his favorite team(Dragonite, Gengar, Alakazam, Machamp, Mew, and Mewtwo). He had an innate ability to befriend any pokemon. This was proved by the 4 pokemon wandering freely around his house: Gastly, Abra, Machop, and Dratini. The gastly was a poltergiest at a local abandoned house. Machop was abandoned and Sean had found it on a rampage in a nearby forest. He found Abra half-dead, a fearow had knocked it out before it could teleport and was about to eat it, but Sean convinced it to leave him alone. Dratini had been abandoned by its trainer but Sean found it and nursed it back to health. He loved them all and trained them skillfully, asking them to train each other in their element. He created new moves for them as well, but none of them could come close to his total obsession, Mew. Sean was so obsessed with mew that he spent 3 solid months(Sleeping 2 hours a week) decoding pokemon language into a method allowing anyone with a quick mind to translate anything into Pokemon or vice-versa instantaneously just so he could understand and converse with a mew if he ever met one. His obsession at first caused his grades to drop to mid-B’s from high-A’s, the worst thing in his mother’s mind that could happen, so she made a deal. For every perfect score, he would get 10 mewbucks(a form of store credit at his favorite store, Mews R’ us, the only place on the planet where the store is guaranteed to have every non-discontinued or one-of-a-kind piece of mew merchandise in stock or available(Note: a mewbuck is 1.5 pokedollars)), and 25 mewbucks for every perfect test plus 100 mewbucks for every perfect exam. Needless to say, Sean’s grades soon became the best in the school’s history, straight perfect scores, despite skipping several grades and taking advanced classes for medschool(note: the educational system on Indigo island is very accelerated in order to allow them to take a journey, but the apprentice system is still in use, for medicine Apprentice level is completed after a certain number of courses have been taken and a test with a short clinical period, Journeyman takes almost 7 years combining classroom and hands-on learning, but it immediately starts with choosing a specialty that they have had experience with during the clinical stage of apprenticeship, most Nurse Joys can perform minor surgery, but the requirement for a Nurse position is minimal because of the invention of the rejuvenator which can deal with almost all external injuries and exhaustion, but it cannot do much of anything about internal injuries. Also because of the use of advanced computer databanks and stabilizing potions only a few surgeons are needed to take care of the entire hospital, but because of the length of the entire Apprenticeship to Master stages causes a shortage of even Journeyman level doctors, especially surgeons, whose Apprenticeship requires a prolonged clinical experience as well as the recommendation from the Joices and Joylenes they work with(very difficult if your not of their family)) from the local Dr. Joice.) Plus, due to his massive obsession with pokemon, he wrote several books(under Alias) and invented several items sold at stores island-wide, and he got 4% royalties. With the money, he now owned at least 10 of almost every piece of mew merchandise(He only had one car and no jets) that were ever made. The only thing he always wore that didn’t have a Mew picture on it was a purple eye pendant with a dark purple, near blue stone as the iris. There was a long story to how he got it… “Hey! Sean! Why do ya’ always wear that stupid pendant?” “Well, considering I’ve told you the story everyday for 5 years, I think it’s smarter than you. Anyway, when I was 5 my parents took me to a cave in an island in South Africa. I wandered off into the cave. When I realized that I was lost, I began to cry. My sobs attracted a pokemon. It comforted me and placed this around my neck. As soon as it was around my neck, the stone began to glow brightly, attracting the attention of my parents, who came to get me. Before they arrived, I caught a glimpse of my savior. It was small and cat-like, floating 4 feet up in the air. That is what started my obsession with Mew, the only pokemon that can float and match that description. Now leave me alone!” I forgot to mention something, Sean never “fit in” at school. He was considered a nerd and was the favorite target of a local gang. No one tried to make friends with him under threat of unpleasant happenings to them by the gang if they did. Although Sean was a magnificent fighter due to Machop’s lessons, he never wanted to hurt anyone, a proof of his Mew-like mentality, he would rather heal than hurt, the reason he wanted to be a surgeon. So he just ran away from battles, making them think him to be a coward. We pick up about 2 days after Sean’s tenth birthday… “Hey! Sean! You get your allowance?” said John, the owner of Mews R’ us “Yep! Any new merchandise?” “In back.” “Thanks.” 3 hours and 56 purchases later… “I think I got everything.” “All but one. Over here.” John leads me over to a transparent containment room where a small white pokemon lay, sleeping. I gasp and silently whisper, “A mew…” “Yep. Took me 15 million dollars in funds, much of which you supplied I might add, to get her. I bought her of an explorer who found her washed up on a beach near the old Cinnabar Genetic Research Center where it was rumored that Mewtwo and his bride were cloned. It was trashed from some kind of battle, so he caught her and brought her to me. Poor thing hadn’t eaten in weeks. I’ve healed her up the best I could, but her level was brought down to 20. Poor thing, she’ll be totally confused when she awakes. We better let her sleep.” “You selling her?” “Yes, for 300 million pokedollars.” I sighed miserably, “I’ll never raise that much.” “Cheer up, you got your license a couple days ago, so maybe you’ll catch one.” “I checked the possibilities: 1, 368, 780, 997, 230, 455, 007, 657, 321 to 1. My chances are better off nil.” “I’ll tell you what, if you come back tomorrow, I’ll let you meet it.” “YOU WOULD!?! THANKYOU! THANKYOU!” “Keep it down! You’ll wake her up!” “Sorry, I’ll see you tomorrow.” The next day… “Hello?” I call into the unusually messy store. The reply was a loud explosion followed by, “MEW!!!” “Sean! Help! Mew’s gotten confused like I said!” “Mew, mew. M ew eew me mew, meew mew mew mmmewewew.” (Mew, calm down. We’re not here to hurt you, we just want to be friends.) “Mew? Mew mew ew me?”(A human? Talking Mew?) “Mew me ew mee meew. Mew mewewme?” (Thank you for ending your attack. Want to come down?) “Mew!”(Sure!) “Mew mew ew mmeew.”(You’re very pretty.) “Mew!” (Thanks!) (** is poketalk from here on. I’m getting tired of double writing.) *Why were you attacking?* *He mentioned selling me to man for tests.* “Were you selling her to a lab?” “No, I wouldn’t do that. That was Prof. Oak, he just wanted her on his reserve so he could study her, no tests that Mew doesn’t want.” *I’m sorry then. I was scared.* “She says sorry. She was scared” “I understand. After what I heard they did to her, I’m surprised she didn’t level the city.” *I would’ve, but for some reason, I’m too weak.* *I meant to tell you. The person who found you allowed your wounds no care. Your level is around 20 at the moment. Eventually, you will regain your strength, but till then…* *sigh…I was afraid of that.* *Are you okay?* *Yep! I’ll get my strength back eventually.* *Glad you’re confident again.* *Me too. Are you going to buy me?* *I’m sorry, I wish I could. John is selling you for more money than I’ve ever seen in one place. But this moment will always be treasured in my heart.* *Mine too.* Mew floats back to her room as an old man climbs through the rubble. “Hello?” “Oak I presume.” “Yes.” “Mew’s in back. If you need help call me, bye!” I dash out with a heavy heart and wet eyes depressed and saddened at Mew’s imminent departure. I eventually stop on the hill overlooking a lake. “I’ll miss you Mew.” Several weeks later… I’ve gotten over the loss of Mew(Not death). I had just finished school for the summer and was helping at the Pokemon Center/Trainer Hospital where I took my required clinical rotations under Doctor Proctor and Nurse Joy. My pokemon were training over time at home. Until one day, a note arrived from Prof. Oak. It read: “Congratulations! You have been chosen to be one of the trainers I sponsor this year! Please come to Pallet by the 25th of May.” “Yeah!” I leapt into the air landing just as Joy screams, “Sean! Look out!” My head snaps around only to see a charlizard had gotten loose! The fire blast it fired was coming straight at me! “YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I scream and close my eyes! The Fire Blast strikes and explodes! I opened my eyes. I stood in an undamaged middle of an area of total annihilation! “Char???” Not willing to take another chance with my luck, I performed a jumping spin kick that struck a nerve bundle in Charlizard’s neck, knocking it out cold! I drew myself to a fighting position as the Charlizard’s owner runs up. “What did you do to my pokemon! I’m gonna’ sue!” “Shut up, Gary Oak. You are the one to be brought up on charges for raising such a violent Charlizard just to beat your rival.” “H-h-h-how di-did y-you kn-know th-that…” Good question. thought I as Jenny arrived. I went home with a headache the size of a Snorlax and a serious urge to sleep. Weakly saying hi to my mom as she got home from work at the hospital(she was a med tech, my dad’s a research scientist) before crashing into bed, just missing our pet meowth, Tigger as she leapt out of my way with an indignant “Meowr!”. In Pallet on May 25… I walked into town, my pokemon in tow. I wore a leather jacket with a Mew stitched on the back over a dark purple t-shirt, and black trousers. I had a small dark purple backpack with a pink Mew stitched on it as well slung over my shoulder. As always, my pendant hung from my neck. I walked to a house near the edge of Pallet to ask directions and knocked on the door. A red-headed woman answers. “Hello?” “Yes, my name’s Sean Curran. I’m looking for the house of Prof. Oak. Could you tell me where it is?” “Oh! A new trainer! Just like my Ash!” “You’re The *Mrs. Ketchum*!!!” “Yes. The lab is down the road.” “Thanks!” I run off, amazed at meeting the mother of the newly crowned Johto league champ! “Abra, spacial warp!” Abra sprints ahead of the pack and glows, forming an effect similar to that of a warp drive from Star Trek but slower. It was fast enough, however, to get them instantly to the lab, stopping right in front of the gate…well, almost. “Umph!” My pokemon and I hit the wall next to the gate rather hard. “Abra, for the twentieth time, watch the end of the warp for obstructions!” Abra looked sheepish, “Sorry, Sean.” I smiled, “It’s all right. Return, guys.” Abra and the others were sucked into the ball. I jogged up to the lab’s door and knocked. “Hello?” The door opened to reveal a very large Kingler. “Gouki, Gouki?” “Hi! I’m on of the trainers that Prof. Oak was going to sponsor.” “Gouki? Gou ki ki.” “What!?! I was supposed to be here yesterday!?! But it said the 25th!!!” “Ki. Ki ki gouki.” “Huh? What do you mean?” “What my krabby friend is trying to say is, I wanted you to come a bit late for a reason.” Said Prof. Oak. “Huh?” I repeated dully. He smiled, knowingly. “I have a felling you know something I don’t.” shouted a joy-filled mind voice. “That sounded familiar…MEW!?!” Mew ‘ported in and flew into my arms, I hugged her tightly. But how’d I he--. The Prof interrupted my panicked thought, “As you can see. Since Mew was unhappy here and I can’t really get allot of information by imprisoning her here. I decided to give her to a worthy trainer. I remembered a certain boy whom she had met when I got her, you.” “Me?” “Yes. You have strong empathy with her and presumably your other pokemon. You are the best choice.” I smiled at the unheard comment. I just accepted the fact and didn’t question how I could hear her in my head. “Now here’s Mew’s ball and your pokedex. You have to name them though.” “Hmmmmmmmm. Hey Mew, what about Psycat?” Mew nodded vigorously, *I love it!* “Now for the ‘dex. Dexter…No, it’s been done. How about--?” All of my pokeballs burst open! My pokemon looked at me and stamped their respective feet. “All right! I give up! I leave it at Dexter! Yeesh! Who’s the trainer around here?” My pokemon shrug. I shake my head and sigh. “I give up.” Prof. Oak chuckles. “You’d better hurry, or else the other 2 trainers will be in Viridian before you!” “Unlikely. Everyone but Abra and Mew return! Mew, follow me through the warp. Abra, if you would.” *You got it.* Abra opened the warp and we ran through it toward Viridian. Mew was amazed with the trick and was soon trying to streamline it. Not always with good results… “Umph!” was our unified exclamation as we fell out of warp, into a girl about my age, Oriental features, raven black hair cut short just beyond buzz length, and the strangest purple eyes, almost as dark as mine. She was about a half foot shorter and dressed more like a boy than a girl with a long-sleeved jean jacket over a pink shirt and blue jeans. A pendant(made of a large, unadorned, purple cats-eye agate cut into an ellipse about 2in. tall and 1in. wide) hung on a neon green string to the middle of her, ah *blushes* chest. After a minute of untangling we got up and looked at each other. I then noticed the pokeballs at her waist, 5. “Watch where you’re going!” “Sorry, bad habit of Abra’s. He never watches where he’s going.” “Oh well, I guess I can for give you…If you can beat me in a match, of course. I Chenxin challenge you to a 2-on-2 match,” she smirked. I smiled in response to her smirk, “I, Sean Curran, accept. Go! M--!” Huh? I thought. I thought about this, as I threw out Machop to compensate for the M I got out. I looked and saw a cute pidgey on it. I smiled, conveniently forgetting that no one knows for sure Mew’s attacks. “I choose, Drowzee!” I smiled, Machop was very resistant to psychics. “Machop! Atomic Buster!” “Drowzee! I don’t care what attack that is! Disable it!” Drowzee glowed blue as he tried to disable Machop. Machop plowed through the attack with his mental discipline, built up from years of training against Abra and meditation, flipped over drowzee, grabbed its head, tossed it up, flipped into the air, wrapped around Drowzee, and spun him into the pavement of the street head first with a spinning pile driver. Needless to say, it wasn’t getting up. The girl was stunned as she returned her pokemon. She then released a kadabra. “Psybeam!” “Machop, Chi Beam!” Kadabra fired a rainbow colored beam at Machop as he thrust his open right palm at kadabra, launching a pale blue-white beam tipped in an egg-shaped sphere. Machop’s and Kadabra’s beams met head on and exploded in a blast of white! When my vision cleared, I saw Kadabra down and out with Machop about to join it. I ran over to Machop, kneeled, carefully hugged and congratulated him, then returned him to his ball. “Well, you won. I don’t know how, but you won.” I looked up to see the girl who I had just battled. “It was a good match. Machop’s Chi Beam has rarely met such a worthy force.” “You’re being nice. Shall we head to the ‘center?” she said, offering her hand. “Sure.” I took her hand and she helped me up. And we headed to the ‘center. As we went a certain bird whispered in my ear. I blushed, I tossed ‘Cat off my shoulder, but she just laughed and flew around my head. “Damn cat.” I muttered under my breath. “Huh?” Chenxin asked. “Nothing.” “Oh well, there’s the ‘center, race you to the desk.” And she took off toward the jet engine-shaped building. “Hey!” And I took off toward the ‘center close behind Chenxin. We soon arrived and dropped off our pokemon to be healed, minus Psycat who flew onto a perch on the ceiling to take a nap. As I was leaving from the counter, Joy called me back. “Yeah, Joy?” “These arrived for you.” She handed me two packages, one long, thin, and curved, the other a bundle of 96 ovoid rolls about 27cm long. “What are those?” said a voice from behind. I jumped, startled, and turned to see Chenxin. After taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I replied, “A couple things I ordered.” She looked at me skeptically, “You didn’t answer my question, you know.” I nodded, “True enough. Joy can you borrow a simulator for a few minutes, alone?” She nodded and tossed me a key card, which I deftly caught from the floor’s rebound. I turned. To head toward the gym-like room adjacent to the lobby and opposite the door to the E.R. “Hey what about me!” I sighed, outnumbered, “Fine, fine. Come on.” I sighed again, turned back, and motioned for her to follow me into the training center. I reached the door, and dropped the card through the slot. The door slid open and I walked in while, Psycat went to fly up into the rafters and perch. The Training centers were a new addition to the major city centers. They were installed from trainers who were weaker than the other trainers in the area or didn’t like to battle often. The T.C.’s contained sets of weight machines for humans and pokemon, several pools, large sectioned padded areas, and several arena/simulators. The simulators used holograms and artificial Barrier generators to form just about anything. They were also programmed with the strategies of many top trainers and their pokemon, also the brain wave patterns of several wild pokemon species. The T.C. wasn’t very popular at the moment, most preferred actual battles, so it was mostly empty. I walked over to the nearest simulator and opened it with the card key. Chenxin followed me in just as the door slid shut. “Computer, 8 archery targets 10 ft. and Cut practice plates.” I commanded the simulator. 8 targets shimmered into position about 20 ft. away and to our left several 6in. thick plates of fake wood appeared. I knelt and unwrapped the packages. First, the long one, a black scabbard and sword I had asked by Sliph Co. to manufacture. I got it for free since I gave them the rights to the manufacturing process used on the metal to make the sword and throwing knives in the other packet. I lifted the black sheath and drew the sword. At the same time, I heard a low whistle behind me. “It’s beautiful…” And she was right. The blade refracted the light into a rainbow along the hardened edge. The sword had been made with a new material I called Lunar steel, a metal found on the moon where meteors from burned out star cores struck the moon and fused into a molecule with many potential bonds that, when formed, are almost impossible to break. I used the Lunar steel in an alloy I called Gundanium after metal used the old TV show to make super powerful mobile suits(Note: the molecule had to be assembled in artificial zero-G created by a grav gen. I originally developed to train my friends. TK was necessary for the molecule to be assembled in that environment). In its natural state the alloy is a silver-like metal with a normal hardness more than thrice that of the strongest alloys. The molecules are layered one molecule-thick layer at a time until it reached 1/2 of an inch thick. Then using magnetic disruption and large pistons made from a diamond/steel matrix powered by fighting pokemon, rock pokemon, and electric motors powered by pokemon of most types, the sheet is pounded to a thickness less than that of paper and the atomic spaces decreased similarly. The sheet is forged as a traditional katana around a core of purest Lunar steel, stamped with ancient runes said to have been used by the legendary dragonite-smiths and condensed to a density twice that of the sheet and molec.-bonded till all potential bonds are used to form a matrix that acts to make it nearly invincible, again using all elements to cool it after the runes are stamped and filled at solar temperatures with synthetic elemental stones appropriate to the rune. The sheet is folded over the core more than 2000 times into a blade that is 1/4 of an inch at its widest and an inch and a half thick and 1m long without the full tang. The front half-inch is packed in carbon clay and heated to plasmic temperatures under a pressure of over 100 atmospheres. This causes a matrix of pure, synthetic, super-dense diamond crystals to form a frame-work-like matrix around the Gundanium’s molecules, this mimics the hamon, the hardening pattern famous on katana but with a translucent rainbow effect. The blade is cooled in every pokemon attack known, even ones unique to a certain trainer’s pokemon, (since even a fire blast is cooler than the blade was at the time of the hardening) before being mounted in a hilt around a foot long carved from a 2000-year-old bonsai tree that seemed to be of ebony(if that’s possible) with a guard formed as the core was and with the “diamond matrix treatment” and the blade was fastened by a pin of super dense Gundanium, even stronger than the core is, and more than 5 times harder than the sheet used to make the blade. The blade was then sharpened to a 1 molecule- thick edge with high powered and focused lasers. Magnetism is then used to use the left over bonds to attach every molecule to at least one molecule on the edge. The blade’s curve was calculated to have the best cutting ability at all angles. The blade was then cryo-treated down to absolute zero. The result was a oddly light sword(only 2 kilograms, very light considering the amount of material used) that was just over 4ft. with the handle and had an edge that can cut through almost anything and can theoretically never wear down since the ebony sheath contained a laser and a magnetic polisher/sharpener/cleaner that used a small store of condensed Gundanium to add single molecules to the edge and add then into the network of the previous molecule. I smiled seeing how perfectly the process had worked, then re-sheathed it and put it down. I then unwrapped the daggers. The daggers were layered from beginning to end, then condensed and hardened just as the sword was. The very tip and edges of the daggers were only a single molecule in width(and depth, in the point’s case). The sheaths and handle were made of lacquered ebony wood, although not as old as the handle of the sword. The blades were just a centimeter in width and a millimeter thin at the center ridge. The handle was 7cm and the blade was just over 14cm and tapered to a fine point. A separate machine had to be use to sharpen them, though. On a whim, I tossed Chenxin 4 daggers. She deftly catches all four and draws one. Her eyes widened at the rainbow lights that danced along the edges. “Wow, they’re beautiful.” I smiled, “Since I can’t throw daggers too well, and you like them. I’ll make you a deal. Whoever gets a better score after one 4 dagger throw keeps all the daggers.” She looks a bit dubious, “What’s the catch?” “The catch is, if you win, you accompany me on my journey.” “Why?” “Well, pokemon aren’t the best for conversations during long trips.” “I see your point. And this has nothing to do with me being a girl?” “You’re a girl? I couldn’t tell,” I said sarcastically. “Why you! I show you!” She grabs the four daggers between her fingers, drawing all four, and throws them, 4 perfect bulls-eyes. I gape and stare, bug-eyed, in surprise. She smiles at my comical position. “How’s that?” I snap myself into attention, grab and draw the sword, jump, spin and slash 4 times(very strange since my training in iaido was actually very minor, but the moves just seemed to flow with instinct), and land, several feet past the 4 cut practice plates, which slowly fall over in two pieces behind me. Now it’s Chenxin’s turn to gape. I calmly walk back and sheath my sword and swing it onto my shoulder by its carry-rope, doing the same with my pack, and head out the door, turning once to say, joyfully… “See you for breakfast!” I then exit, savoring the loud explosion of profanity behind me… That night… “Will Sean Curran please come and pick up his pokemon at the front desk, please,” said a voice from an intercom in the corner of my small room next to the door. I grumbled and shut down my computer’s 3-D designing program and stand up from the desk next to the bed. I stretch, getting my underused muscles, despite protest, to work. I pick my computer, a small silver trapezoid with a trapezoidal, flip-up screen oriented in the opposite direction of the main computer. The computer is about a foot long and 6in. wide and twice as thick as my new pokedex. It was quite powerful, more than that of the supercomputer used to control the poketrainer network that supplies the pokedexes with their information. This was odd because I had found the computer lying on my chest after a sleep that was punctuated with a dream involving a vague, but similar design. It had taken many months to program(with serious help from pen pals on the web), but it worked better than anything else that I had seen. The Computer had(so far, I hadn’t really tested it methodically and logically) been able to link to the net via satellite, link to any number of different ports, and read almost any storage medium. This was on top of a seemingly limitless HD and a processor that had yet to spend more than a few seconds doing any one function, not to mention return continuously without needing to recharge. Oh well, I had to go get my pals, minus Psycat, who decided she’d rather take a nap in the rafters above the E.R. I wonder why she wanted to do that.., Oh well. I headed out to the main desk. Unfortunately, just as I picked up my pokemon, I was interrupted by an explosion that destroyed the front wall of the ‘center. 4 figures were seen as shadows from the last rays of the sun through the smoke. They carried wide cylinders that appeared to be weapons from their still glowing barrels. “To protect the world for devastation,” said a red head woman, appearing from the smoke.” “To—“ began a blue-haired man. “Sh*t u* you two,” interrupted a green haired-girl about 14 years old. “Yeah, I can’t believe, ‘we’, the best ever junior Rockets, were assigned to these lamo’s who had a disastrous training period,” said a purple-haired boy about the same age as the green-haired girl. “Hey! Who’s the one who got these pulse blasters for us, eh?” said a long, lanky form, a Persian!?! “True, one success in a dismal career!” “Well, we were up against the current pokemon master. That should account for a little slack.” “True, anyway…Give us your pokemon!” “I don’t think so,” I said from behind them. While they argued, I had mentally called for Psycat, who used East Wind(a flying-type teleport that I had developed, TM pending) and got me behind them. I drew my sword and destroyed two rifles by cutting though what looked to be the power pack, while the other two were taken out by familiar daggers thrown into the same location I cut through. “I was wondering when you’d show,” I called to Chenxin, who appeared out of the shadows of a corridor, kadabra in tow, as I flipped toward her, spun in midair, landing several feet away, my face toward the Rockets and my back to Chenxin, a certain pidgey landing on my shoulder. The daggers floated back to Chenxin, apparently courtesy of her psychic-type, I assumed. “Maybe I should’ve waited. Then I wouldn’t have to fulfill my end of that bargain we made.” Meanwhile, the pulse blasters’ power packs exploded, right in the Rockets’ faces. Although blackened, they still turned quite red. “Why you! Go! Arbok!” “Go! Weezing!” “Go! Tentacool!” yelled the boy. “Go! Charmander!” yelled the girl. The pokemon appeared in a flash of red light. “Ha! You cannot defeat the Rocket Duo of Jessie James!” yelled the red-head. “And we are the Prime Duo! George!” “Ferocitana!” “Abra! Machop! Fusion style!” Seconds later the tentacool and charmander fell to a combined attack of Abra and Machop. “What!?! Return!” yelled George. “Return.” Said Ferocitana, her eyes burning, so she too knew how to use anger to focus. “Teachers, perhaps you may enlighten us on how to beat this one.” “Of course! Weezing! Smog Sneak!” “Arbok! Take them out!” Smog hid the battle from my eyes. Frowning, I released Dratini. “Charge for Hyper Blast,” I commanded. *Got it! 5 turn?* “No, max.” *You sure? We never had to test it to that level.* “I have confidence in you.” *’Kay!* An aura of rainbow light appeared around him. Soon, as Dratini’s aura of power began to pierce the smog, I commanded Psycat to blow the smog away. Revealing two sweaty pokemon, and two very frustrated ones. “Abra! Machop! Back up! Dratini! Finish it!” Abra and Machop flipped out of the way, just as Dratini fired a massive blast of rainbow energy! The blast dwarfed that of a Hyper Beam, blowing the Rockets out the hole they made, and into the sky! Chenxin blinked. “Nice shot.” “Thanks. It has an exponential power growth rate, so the longer Dratini charges, the bigger the blast. Unfortunately, my bud gets seriously wasted when he does it. Right?” *Yeah—pant--.* croaked my friend, who had just collapsed, exhausted. “Come on, bud. Take a nap. Return.” I held out his ball, and he was sucked in as red energy. “I’m going back to sleep, see ya’!” I turned and started to walk back to my room. “Hey! What about me!?! You’re leaving me to explain this to Jenny!” she said referring to the large hole in the wall, and the recovering Joy, who was slowly emerging from behind her desk. “Why not? East Wind!” I was enveloped by a vortex of wind and as the move shifted me to my room, I heard… “I’ll get you for this, Sean Curran!!!” The next morning… We were walking down the path toward the Viridian Forest. Chenxin was a bit miffed about what happened the night before, and so she was not talking to me. As for myself, I had a great sleep and breakfast. The day was reflecting of my mood, bright and not a cloud in the sky. We even occasionally had some company… “Hey! Wanta’ battle?” called a youngster in shorts. I turned to Chenxin, “You want him?” She perked up a bit and nodded calling to the youngster, “I accept your challenge! Go! Mrs. Mime!” Chenxin called the clown pokemon in a flash of red light while the Youngster released a ratatta. “Ratatta! Quick Attack!” “Mrs. Mime! Barrier Trap!” As the little rat sped toward Chenxin’s pokemon, the clown began to glow a blue color, then suddenly, just as the Ratatta leapt forward, she tossed out 6 square, glass-like, blue “plates” that attached into a cube around ratatta, completely trapping it. “Ratatta! Drat! Cheap trick. Return! Go! Pidgey!” The rat was switched with a small bird, which took off into the air. she thought, blinking at me from my shoulder. “Mrs. Mime! Confusion!” Again the clown began to glow, but this time, so did the pidgey, which was sent careening into the ground. He wasn’t getting up any time soon. They both returned their pokemon, and the Youngster handed Chenxin 50 pokedollars in assorted bills. “Return! You’re great! Can I get you’re phone number for a re-match?” Chenxin looked a bit confused at the request. “Do you have a phone?” “Yeah, I think so…” Chenxin began to look through her pack, which was a light pink. She soon brought out a new, but almost totally unused satellite phone. The youngster quickly told her the number, and Chenxin punched it into memory hesitantly, as if she had not done it in a long while, but soon she was done and we were on our way once more. “Nice move, Chenxin. Very inventive,” I commented after we had walked out of the earshot of the Youngster. “Thanks. It took me awhile to train her to do it.” “I must have been difficult to teach her how to stabilize the matrix for the barrier while letting enough air to past through for the pokemon to breathe.” I soon realized that Chenxin had stopped. I too stopped and turned to look at her, she was gaping at me. “What?” She gulped like a fish for a few moments before replying, “How do you know advanced psychic-based physics?” “I know it because I researched it to train Abra and Gastly,” I lied mildly. “I guess. Shall we enter the forest?” she said in a not-quite-believing tone. I started walking without turning my head, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, “What fore--?” I was interrupted by a very rude tree that knocked me down, ‘cat just avoiding being crushed by diving out of the way. “Oh. That forest…” I said, dazed, as Chenxin and Psycat burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. I did not see what was so funny about me being knocked over and into a knot of roots, where I was now stuck. “Could I get some help here?” I asked, but both girls were laughing too hard to hear. I sighed and concentrated on the little bit of yoga I had learned from Abra and Machop after I had sent them to lessons. With no small bit of effort, I unbent myself and used my arms to force myself up and out of the area enclosed by the roots. After that, I had to wait another minute or so before the girls where coherent enough to move on, although the snickers, verbal and mental, continued for about an hour or so afterward. After that, though, I managed to distract Chenxin by getting her into a discussion on pokemon types. That went on until I began to get that same nagging feeling as we entered a small clearing… What is it this time thou—my thoughts were interrupted by a loud cry, emanating from a man, wearing a stripped down version of samurai armor, who leapt out from the bushes and rushed forward, wielding a sword! My instincts took over as I drew my sword and called to Chenxin, “Get down!” I crouched before leaping past the man, striking a blow on his sword, cutting it in half! I landed, swivelled and jump-kicked the now off balanced attacker to the ground, again the moves seemed to flow from instinct without me having to think about them. I rolled off as Chenxin tossed 2 daggers that embedded themselves only and inch from either side of the man’s neck, and passing too close for comfort from my own as I rolled forward. I stood, sheathed my sword and stepped out of the way as Chenxin called, “Next one goes through your Adam’s apple if you don’t stay still.” “Who are you referring too, Chenxin? I seem to remember a certain dagger nearly nicking my jugular.” She did not look sympathetic, Chenxin just looked angry, “Can we talk about this some other time! I never miss! So shut up and get out of the way so I don’t have to cut it so close again!” “There’s no need for that, miss. I didn’t mean to scare you two so badly,” said the man, lifting himself up and I turned to look him in the face, giving Chenxin a direct shot at him, “Most are unable to defeat me before I even challenge them to a battle,” he chuckled. “You mean to say you attack people just to challenge them to a pokemon battle!?!” yelled a rather frustrated Chenxin. “Yes,” said the man standing and dusting himself off, then he picked up the remains of his sword, sighing, “Oh well, at least I ordered that new one forged. I should be more durable than this steel one.” “What are you having it made of?” I asked, as I was always curious about ways to make swords. “A new Titanium/Tungsten alloy. Its edge is going to be diamond-coated for more strength. I’d like to know what your blade is made of, though. I’ve never seen a sword capable of shearing through another blade like that,” he turned back toward me. “Nor a fighter capable of moving like that.” I sweated and chuckled nervously, “I train allot(only a minor fib, I did train allot with my pokemon, just not with weapons). And my sword is specially forged.” Psycat sent as she perched once more on my shoulder. I glimpsed at Chenxin and agreed that she wasn’t totally convinced. “So you going to challenge?” “Sure. Who wants to battle me?” “You got the last trainer Chenxin. I get him,” I said, turned toward her. “Sure,” she said, sounding disappointed as she tugged her daggers out of the ground. “I’ll clean these while you fight.” I turned back toward Samurai, “Shall we begin?” “Sure! I, Samurai, summon Pinsir!” The crusher bug was released! “Go! Pidgey!” The bird glided off my shoulder and circled the pinsir, waiting for it to move. “Pinsir! Crush that bird with Guillotine!” The large bug tried to snare Psycat with its pincers, but she just wove through it without a scratch. “Pidgey! Blade of Wind!” I commanded. Psycat flapped a few times, slowing, then shot upward, only flipping to face the Pinsir once she was about 20 feet above the trees. Psycat seemed to float in midair, wings not flapping and out stretched. Then she dove downward, wings and tail arranged behind her. Just as she approached Pinsir, she shot upwards sharply, but the wind she had gathered kept going, forming into a blade of air that cut a long trench into the earth before slamming into pinsir, cutting through the first layer of its armor and sending it painfully hard into a tree. The pinsir was obviously unconscious as it slid slowly down the tree. Samurai could only stare at the small bird as it landed on the grass. “Amazing. I’ve never seen an attack like that. Pinsir! Return! Go! Forrtress!” he called, releasing the steel-plated bug. “Pidgey! Searing Wind!” Psycat stayed on the ground, an aura of red forming around her as she drew Mana(a form of psychic energy drawn from vivid memories typed by places) from the mountain ranges she had visited during her lifetime. As she formed the energy into an attack, Samurai called for Forrtress to crush Psycat with Takedown! However, just as the rolling bug reached her, Psycat shot into the air, letting the bug to smash through a tree before turning, without a single wing beat, toward him. The glow around her intensified, concentrating around her wings as she called out the attack… *Searing Wind!* With a single strong beat, Psycat sent a sizzling gust of air at the hapless bug, who was smashed through another tree before being returned, completely unconscious. The gust continued into a boulder, which melted slightly under the heat. I stared at the attack’s effects, making a mental note only to use it in emergencies. “Pidgey! Return! Dratini! Go! Put out the fires with Bubblebeam!” Pidgey slowly glided down and perched on my pack, opening the zipper before making a little nest for herself and snuggling for a nap. I zipped up the pack to the back of her head and positioned it carefully, so to give her the least amount of jarring as I moved. My dragon-bud released a fire suppressing foam of bubbled water. It only took a few moments for all the flames to be put out. I smiled at my friend. “Good job,” I turned to Samurai, who was still stuttering in amazement. “Next?” Samurai calmed down, “Go! Scyther!” “Dratini, my friend, bring honor!” The samurai pokemon met the snake dragon on the field. “Scyther! Double Team!” Unlike the norm, 6 scythers appeared as a result of the attack. “Now! Slash!” All of the images followed in a series of consecutive slashes that dratini could barely dodge! *Sean? I could really use a little help here!* I wasn’t paying too much attention, having been distracted by that annoying nagging. Since the nag seemed to favor on of the images, I called to Dratini, “Dratini! Ice Beam the one at 4 0’clock!” *The what!* “That one!” I shouted, pointing. Moments later, the other images faded, the originator frozen solid. “Return! You’ve won. Congratulations!” Samurai walked over to me and slapped me on the back. I smiled at Dratini, then returned him. Then shook his hand. “I must be going. I believe that there’s a ‘center to the west of us, so I’ll head there. If you follow the path to your right, you’ll reach Pewter by tomorrow.” Samurai waved goodbye as he headed out of the clearing. I turned to a rather stunned Chenxin and asked her, “Shall we go? My pals are really tired after that.” “S-sure. I-I’m do-done polishing,” said Chenxin recovering near the end. She stood after sheathing the two daggers she was cleaning. I led the way through the clearing and along the path, careful not to wake Psycat… 3 days later… We stood on a small cliff over hanging Pewter City. Pale gray rocks were arrayed below. “Wow…This is a great view.” “Yeah…But we need to get into town soon. We spent too much time battling that group of Bug Catchers.” “Good point, the sun’s getting high and my stomach is getting low. Come on!” she pranced ahead, hopping from rock to rock down the side of the cliff. Psycat said sarcastically. I shrugged slightly, I had to jog to catch up to Chenxin, who was approaching the city at an admirable rate. We soon reached the local Pokecenter, which seemed to be rather crowded, it took 15 minutes just to get to the desk where we greeted Joy. “Hello! Do you have any pokemon to revitalize? A room maybe?” she said. “Revitalize and 2 rooms. Please,” requested Chenxin, handing Joy her belt of 5 pokemon. I followed suit, handing her 4 pokeballs and a rather sleepy Psycat. Joy said it would take a few moments to revitalize our pokemon, so we exited the line and walked off to the side. We returned a few minutes later to retrieve our pokemon. “I have something to do. Could we split up and meet later for dinner?” I asked her, pocking up my pokeballs placing them on my belt, then placing Psycat on my left shoulder. She looked a bit hurt but replied in her normal tone while picking up her own 5 pokeballs and placed them on her pack’s strap, “Sure. Is 7:00 fine?” “It’s fine with me. I’ll meet you here, don’t be late!” I said as a Chansey walked up and handed us our pokemon. She took her belt and took off, out the door. I watched her go, then headed to the training center, which was open to all at this time of day. We reached the training simulators, I headed to an unoccupied one. Once inside, I released my pokemon. “Abra and Machop, spar. Machop, work on speed and accuracy while Abra works on Teleportation and elemental attacks. Dratini, I set up some targets for you to attack, work on your agility while charging by avoiding Psycat. Psycat, work on your normal form’s weaker elemental and psychic attacks while Dratini tries to dodge. At the same time, blast the same set of targets he does. Gastly, you’re going to work on illusions so no one sees Psycat ‘kay?” They chorused, *Yeah!* I left the room and headed to the back of the ‘center where several pink haired women waited. One was Nurse Joy, who was speaking to a woman dressed in O.R. scrubs and a white lab coat as well as a pair of thin, round-lensed glasses. Her hair and skin were a darker shade than Joy’s and she wore her hair in a very severe ponytail that hung from her neck, she was the local Joylene. The third female was about my age, but probably younger, who had similar skin color to Joylene, but with a lighter hair color and her hair was let down(in a style similar to that of Misty’s in the mermaid show but shorter and without so much curl). She wore O.R. scrubs as well, but no coat or glasses. “Speak of the devil. Sis, Joice, this is Sean, the young journeyman surgeon I was telling you about,” Joy said, indicating me and waving me over. Joylene put out her hand and I shook it, “Nice to meet you. I have heard many tales about you from my relative in Purple Town.” “She was probably exaggerating. I’m not that good. I just barely made Journeyman before I left,” I said. Joy rolled her eyes, “I know of a certain wild ratatta who would say otherwise,” “A ratatta?” asked the young Joice, which I though odd since we were in a Pokemon Center, not a hospital. Joylene explained, “As you may know, many small towns lack enough qualified Pokemon surgeons, sometimes the local Joy is the only one who can perform even the simplest of surgeries. Purple Town is one of those with only a Nurse Joy. According to my sister-in-law’s sister who works there, they once received as a patient a ratatta missing about a third of its body due to a powerful Acid attack. Joy was about to put it down since it was missing more than half its organs and limbs, but Sean literally shoved her out of the way and wheeled it into surgery. Sean here managed to stabilize the ratatta long enough to clone replacement organs and bones and then implant them.” Joice whistled loudly in apparent awe as my face heated in embarrassment, “That must’ve taken longer then any 4 of the surgeries I’ve done.” “It took about 16 hours,” I mention meekly, I was usually a shy boy content to stay out of the limelight. “Well, as you know, Joylene, we need help. Just you and Joice won’t been enough to handle all of the critical cases during the tournament. We need extra hands and I think Sean would want the experience.” “Ahhhhh, what tournament?” Joice seemed to assume a haughty tone and stance as she replied, “Haven’t you heard of the annual Pewter Tournament of Titans! It’s only the second biggest tournament this side of Mt. Moon!” “That’s quite enough Joice. Sean’s probably just gotten out of the forest, right?” asked Joy. “Yeah. And I’ve heard of the tournament, is it soon?” “Yeah, in 4 days,” stated Joice, still a bit arrogant. “Could I sign up for it, Chenxin too? I promise to still help when I’m not fighting.” “Sure, the sign-up sheets are behind the desk. I’ll send Joy to get them since I believe you’d rather keep your medical skill a secret?” I nodded sheepish, “Am I that obvious?” “Yes, and get into some scubs and gloves, and dive in. We’re already running at full capacity because idiot trainers are driving their pokemon to death to prepare!” “Yes, Ma’am!” “Joice, you show him were the O.R.’s are. Then get a patient of your own!” “Yes, Ma’am!” We jogged off, Joice leading. “So, why are you studying poke-med? I thought Joices went for human medicines.” Joice replied again in an arrogant tone, “I’m studying both. I studied human medicine in my hometown.” “Which is?” “Isn’t it obvious? Saffron. For a Surgeon you’re not that bright, are you?” I mumbled something about how can you tell identical twins apart. Although I knew the difference that sets Joices from Saffron apart from the others, their eyes have the slightest tint of purple. Mine, however, were a near-black purple and I was not from Saffron, so I was never sure why that alone set them apart. We soon reached a locker room where I deposited my affects in a bin to be sent to a room, took off my travel clothes, and pulled on some practically new, light-blue scrubs before exiting. Joice headed off again as I followed. We soon reached the O.R.’s and she introduced me to a senior O.R. Chansey, then wasted no time in heading off. The Chansey showed me at a slower pace to the patients and waited to take the one that I choose needed surgery the most of all to the O.R.… A few hours later… I bent over my newest patient’s stitches. They seemed to be as tight as I could make them, so I took a step back from the table and looked at the time. At that I was stunned, the heart replacement surgery on the Mr. Mime should have taken over 6 hours; according to the clock, this had taken me only 4. The cloning process for a new heart alone had to have taken at least 2 1/2 hours. Weird. I turned and was startled to see a girl in O.R. scrubs; although her face was covered by a surgical mask and her hair by a cap, her voice gave her away… “That was amazing…” she said in awe. “What?” I asked, confused. “Your technique. Even Dr. Joylene can’t perform a surgery that complex in less than 5 hours. I haven’t heard of anyone who can do that…” I felt kinda embarrassed at the comment, “Thanks for the complement. Could you move so I can get to the Biohazard bin?” “Oh, sure,” she stepped to the side as I passed, stripping off by bloodied gown and gloves. That had been the 3rd surgery of the day, and I hoped my last. I said goodbye to Joice and the OR Chansey that had been assisting and jogged to the lockers and changed into my normal clothes and picked up my room’s new key and my sword. I exited and nearly ran into Joice, who was still dressed in scrubs, but was now carrying a small purse. “Oh! Sean! I hoped I’d catch you before you left. Mind if we go get some food?” she asked innocently, batting her eyes at me, much to my confusement. “Sure, if you don’t mind going with Chenxin as well,” I said, spotting Chenxin outside as I rounded the main desk. Joice’s face fell briefly before she replied, “Sure.” “Come on then,” I said motioning for her to follow. The equivalent of a mental scoff was heard, Her only response was a mental chuckle. I mentally shook my head and continued out the door. “Sean! Where have you been! I’ve been—Who’s that?” “Chenxin, this is Joice from Saffron. I met her when my pokemon were being healed. She offered to show us a good place to eat.” Chenxin looked a bit dubious, but shrugged, “Fine.” “Okay, what kind of food do you guys want?” “I’m easy,” I said. “Are there any good Japanese restaurants here?” Joice thought for a moment before replying, “Yeah, follow me!” Joice headed off down a nearby street as Chenxin and I followed. We soon came upon a small building built in traditional Japanese-style. A small wooden sign over the doorway named it the “Meowth’s Feast”. “This is the best Japanese restaurant I know of. Shall we go in?” We entered through draped curtains, emerging into a small sushi bar area. We took seats near the door since only a few people were there. A kindly, old, Asian man stood behind the sushi bar/register. We sat down at the sushi bar. “Ah, Joice! Good to see you! What may I get for you and your friends?” he asked. “I’m not sure. What’s fresh?” “We just received some Lanturn from Johto this morning. As well as tuna, eel, and sea urchin from the mainland.” “I’ll have 2 pieces of Lanturn, 3 of Unagi, and a bowl of Shrimp noodles, Mr. Matsumoto,” Joice turned to Chenxin and me. “Have you decided?” Chenxin looked up from the menu on the counter, “I’ll have the Beef noodle and tempura, please.” I was my turn, “I’ll have 3 pieces of Uni, two of Unagi, and 1 of Lanturn. Could I also get some tempura as well?” Mr. Matsumoto smiled, “Sure. What to drink?” “Water for me,” said Joice. “Coke, please,” I asked. “Same here,” He nodded and departed to the back, soon returning to prepare our sushi. Our food soon arrived and was handed to us. We dug in. The food was amazingly good, although the conversation was not. I remembered the tournament. “Chenxin?” She looked up from her food, “Yeah?” “Did you hear about the tournament?” “Yeah. Should we enter, though? I hear the best trainers in the area come.” “Why shouldn’t we though. This is a good time to test our strength on high-level trainers. Besides, we have 3 days to do some serious training.” Chenxin pondered this for a few moments, “Where do we stay?” Joice piped up, “Sean reserved two rooms at the ‘center. Just in time too, we just got booked up.” I then remembered that ‘centers always had 2 rooms reserved for travelling doctors. I ended my thought-conversation with Psycat. I returned to the verbal conversation. “Well?” “Sure, I guess. My pokemon could use some training. Do you have any sign-up sheets?” “Yeah, here.” I handed her one of the sheets I picked up earlier. “There’s requirement, though. We have to beat Brock, the gym leader.” “That may be a bit harder than you think,” said Joice, a biting her lip. “He’s gone into hiding. He said too many people were around the gym and they were disturbing his baby son.” “Where’d he go?” asked Chenxin. I had an odd feeling urging me to guess an area, “I’m guessing to the east. That’s where there’re a few ruins of a temple to Rock Pokemon. That’s our best bet. Should we head there tomorrow, Chenxin?” She looked a bit stunned at first but replied, “Sure.” “We’d better get back then. The ruins are a good half-day’s walk from here, so you’ll want to start early.” “Fine, you finished, Sean?” “Yeah. Let’s pay and go.” Mr. Matsumoto handed each of us a check, which we paid. Then we left. When we reached the ‘center. I bid the girls goodnight, then headed to my room. I thought-called, trying to see if I could contact my other psychic pokemon. I felt pleased with myself, I heard a shimmer in the air…above me!?! I was soon crushed by over a hundred pounds of pokemon. “Ouch,” was my only comment. Abra, who was on top of us looked sheepish, *Sorry, guys.* said Psycat, who at the moment felt like a squashed feather cushion on top of my chest. We disentangled ourselves and made ourselves comfortable in our respective beds. Before we knew it, it was morning. I made my way toward the lobby, my eyes trying to close themselves again. My pokemon were lucky, they continued to rest in their pokeballs. I dragged myself into the small cafeteria the pokemon centers ran for trainers. There were only a few other trainers awake, so the buffet line was quick. I ended up with some sausage, waffles, cereal and fruit. My pokemon had earlier opted to skip breakfast. I ate at a fairly lethargic rate, slowly chewing my food before swallowing. I was almost finished by the time Chenxin walked in, in a much brighter state than I. She went though the line quickly, taking fruit, cereal, and some bread before heading over to the table I sat at. “Morning, Sean!” “Morn,” I grumbled in reply. “I take it that you’re not a morning person.” “Not really.” She smiled at me, “The early pidgey gets the worm!” I chuckled. “What?” “Pidgey would disagree.” She just shook her head and began eating. We were soon finished and headed out, saying goodbye to Joice on the way out. We headed to the ruins along an unused path. The path was paved in mismatched stones that were expertly placed. After a few hours of walking, skipping lunch to make better time, we reached the ruins of an ancient temple. The 3 main structures were pyramids in a line facing the mountains, each bigger than the last, they seemed to be Mayan in construction, but were carved with different symbols and representations of rock pokemon. Everything was in a dull slate gray. “Monolithic, isn’t it?” asked Chenxin. “Yeah. It sure is. Where do you think Brock would be?” She shrugged, “If you were a gym leader, where would you be?” I thought for a moment, the odd tingling feeling returning to the back of my thoughts. I was struck with a notion. “Where I could see incoming challengers and have a large enough arena to battle in without damaging the ruins. In other words,” I pointed to a large, square stone paved area slightly outside the ruins and much newer than it surroundings, with a large, leafy tree rising near it, “There.” Chenxin nodded, as if I was affirming something she already knew, “I agree. Now what do we do?” thought Psycat from her pokeball. I sighed, and Chenxin looked strangely at me. I put me hand out to her. “Could I borrow a dagger?” “Why?” “I’m gonna’ see if I can flush out the gym leader.” She looked at me as if I’d just suggested that I teleport him in front of us, but handed me the dagger anyway. I unsheathed it and flipped it, catching it point first. I pulled it over my shoulder and flung it with great speed at a random branch in the tree. To my surprise, the branch broke, and a man in his mid- to late-twenties with no apparent eyes fell down, landing softly on his feet, as if he had been practicing the jump. He stood up and dusted himself off. Then he walked over to us. “Hi, I’m Brock,” he said, offering his hand to me(Chenxin had released her Kadabra, who recovered her dagger, I tossed her its sheath before shaking Brock’s hand). “I assume you wish to challenge me for a badge?” “Yeah,” answered Chenxin, returning her dagger to its holder. “Tag team two-on-two. Okay?” “Sure,” I replied as Chenxin nodded. We(Chenxin, Kadabra, and I) headed to the near side of the arena while Brock headed to the other. “You want to go first?” I asked Chenxin. She smiled in anticipation, “Sure. Go! Kadabra!” Her kadabra mimicked her smile as it…er, she…ported onto the arena. “Go! Graveller!” yelled Brock, calling out the rockslide pokemon. The sentient boulder beared its four arms. “Graveller! Ancient Power!” The Graveller smashed both of its hands into the ground and pulled upward, hard. A wave of rock, earth, and cement rolled at Kadabra! “Kadabra! Cancel it with Psywave!” The two attacks slammed together in the center of the field, and exploded in a blast of dirt and light in the center. I shielded my face with my arm, moving it once the blast died down. The dissipating dust revealed an unconscious Graveller and a badly weakened Kadabra. “Kadabra! Return!” she called, somehow knowing, as I did, that her pokemon was too tired to use Recover. She turned to me and nodded. I stepped up, “Go! Gastly!” I called, releasing the gaseous pokemon. “Go! Onix!” The massive rock snake emerged from Brock’s pokeball. “Gastly! Hypnosis Beam!” My ghostly friend fired a spiral red beam that he aimed at Onix, who went out like a light. The ground shook as the heavy pokemon fell over. “I see you are not the average trainer. Return, Onix! You win. Here’s your Boulder Badges,” he said tossing 2 octagonal gray badges to us. We caught them and placed them in our respective places: my badge was pinned to my sword’s carry rope, facing in; Chenxin placed hers on her bag’s carry strap, facing out. I congratulated Gastly and returned her. We bid goodbye to Brock and headed back to town via Abra’s Teleport. There I left my friends to train as I helped Joice and Dr. Joylene to handle the large intake of patients that only increased as the tournament approached. Chenxin said that she was going to battle some of the local trainers to prepare. After the number of cases slackened, I went to eat in the cafeteria and then to train in swordplay as I watched my friends train. The tournament was to be one-on-one and single elimination, so I now understood why the tournament was said to be so difficult, since both pokemon were to be released at the same time, type advantages were of negligible use. Skill mattered more than type. I read up on the tournaments’ history. The tournament had begun centuries before, when a medieval-like society dwelled on the hidden continent of pokemon, before the Merging. Tame Pokemon were rare and only royalty could afford care and training for them, except for the rare and odd bonding between lesser-born and a pokemon they found. The tournament was their equivalent of jousting, and continued into today. The tournament had only 128 registered contenders in order to keep the tournament from dragging on for months like the League Games. The rules were simple: they were the same as the standard Pokemon League’s rules with an extra stipulation, only 1 pokemon and the pokemon had to be decided at a set time just before the match. All matches had no time limit. Non-standard attacks allowed. Points are allotted to the winner of each match on grounds of speed, technique, and training. This was instated to prevent a fluke from winning the championship match. The next couple of days till the tournament were spent in the O.R. for me and the T.C. for my pokemon. Abra finally perfected his Warp technique and could use it while fighting hand-to-hand. Machop compensated by advancing his Foresight abilities to the next level, he could sense when blows were coming and a general idea from where. Gastly managed to combine his Dream Eater and Nightmare techniques into a devastating attack called Recurring Nightmare(yes, I named it after another Magic card), which could restore Gastly to full health almost instantly by rapidly draining the health of his sleeping target. Dratini was now able to charge the ultimate techniques of Blizzard, Fire Blast, Solarbeam, Thunder, and Hyper Beam(Blast when charged). Not to be outdone, Psycat learned to focus her energy(Psychic or otherwise) into extremely focused attacks that even a Shuckle would have trouble defending against. In her Pidgey form, Psycat was very agile from dodging all of Dratini’s attacks. She also had tremendous control over the wing gusts she could create. I didn’t see much of Chenxin, though, she apparently couldn’t stand crowds, but then again, neither could I, they rubbed my senses raw, so maybe she was just training hard. The day of the Tournament was bright and cheerful, again the opposite of my mood, considering I had fallen asleep at around 1 in the morning after a long surgery that Joice had assisted with… “Yawn, why can’t the tournament directors be vampires?” I asked my drowsy pokemon, who blinked trying to stay awake, as I placed their food in front of them. They ate slowly, but heartily, unlike myself, who am a bit nervous. As I sipped my cold milk and chewed a piece of jam on bread at a corner table of the cafeteria, Chenixin, joyous as ever, walked in. I waved to her as she bought a rather large meal of cereal, bread, waffles, bacon, sausage, and fruit. She carried the tray over to the long table my pokemon and I occupied. “Hi! Ready for the tournament?” “Yeah, Abra should be able to take care of my first opponent,” I mumbled, still waking up. “Abra? I trained Kadabra from that level, so I have experience with them. It took me over 2 years to get him to evolve! He would just sleep!” I chuckled, “Abra broke the habit before I got him. He was hit over the head by a Fearow. For some odd reason, it caused his brain to partially evolve.” “Huh? You lost me.” I sighed, “My Abra’s brain is very similar to that of a kadabra’s because it evolved earlier than his body. It’s a 1 in 3 billion chance, but it happened.” “Wow. Neat! So he can use a kadabra’s powers?” “Yeah,” I paused to swallow the last bit of toast and wash it down with the last of my milk. “I’m going to head out to the stadium. You?” She though for a moment, already halfway through her food, “I might as well go with you. I have nothing else to do.” “Fin--watch it Pidgey.” I grabbed her bowl just as it started to slip. The funny thing was that I wasn’t even looking at it, the same itch warned me. This is getting weird. she replied cheerfully. I sighed and Chenxin looked at me strangely. “Don’t ask.” “Shall we go?” she said, gesturing toward the door, swallowing the last of her waffle, and grabbing her last banana to eat on the way with her right hand. “Ready, guys?” At the affirmative mumbles, I returned them and followed Chenxin, who skipped out the door, obviously eager to battle. We soon arrived at the Pewter Stadium, which was just outside the city. “Wow, that thing is huge!” I exclaimed at the stadium, which could probably hold over 5000 people per arena, and there were 10 plain arenas according to the pamphlet I received upon entering. “I hope there aren’t that many competitors,” I commented. “Nope, only 128. There’s a limit to the number of competitors. We made it just in time.” I blushed, thankful that Chenxin had already headed to her first match. I looked up at the screens that held the pairings. I skimmed for my ID number and name(the pairs were chosen by Trainer ID number only to encourage fairness, mine was 54367890) and quickly found it. I was in arena 6 in about 6 minutes. I sighed and quickly ran to arena 6. Once there, I walked into a painted white box. The arena was almost empty since few people were interested in the matches except for the final 8, but there was a single TV camera. Across the painted arena was a rather chubby boy of about 14. “Nice of you to finally show up! The match should’ve started by now!” the boy said in an arrogant tone. “Not exactly, I have about 3 minutes left.” The boy just sniffed haughtily, “You might as well give up now. I’ll win,” then talking as if I weren’t there. “I really don’t understand why they let these no talent trainers in. I warned him that the matches will be boring when one competitor has a pidgey while the other actually has a pokemon that can fight!” I growled at him. I may be a pacifist, but insulting my friends is pushing it. “The first match will now begin! Kenneth Walters of Viridian City versus Sean Curran of Purple Town! One-on-one! No time limit! Begin!” I released Abra. Kenneth released a Sneasal. It was in surprisingly good condition, but by its almost imperceptible sigh when it looked at its trainer was a major hint that it was not truly trained by him, although out of respect to his true trainer, he would obey Kenneth’s commands. “Ha! Easy win! Sneasal! Faint Attack!” I just shook my head, there was no way Abra would be hit by the attack since it would not be completed. I was proven right as the Sneasal disappeared, only to reappear, being smashed by a jumping sidekick to it face by Abra. Flipping head over tails once in the air, the Sneasal landed on its face as Abra ‘ported himself to the ground. Kenneth was red with anger. “Get up you worthless pokemon! Don’t let yourself be beaten by a measly Abra!” The Sneasal groaned and pushed himself up by its claws, then flipped back into a ready position. Very well trained. “Great! Now! Beat Up!” The Sneasal glowed a black light and split into 8 others who were made of pure dark light. The group sped toward Abra. Abra just pounded them out of the air with chops and kicks as they leap toward him. The ones of dark light disappear on impact while the real Sneasal is knocked upward, and falls victim to Abra’s Rising Flame Fist(think Ken’s Fierce Dragon Punch from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo). The Sneasal briefly ignites after impact and burns until it hits the ground, where it lay, burned and out cold. Abra lands lightly, turns to his fallen opponent, bows solemnly and shifts into a ready position. The referee jogs onto the field, checked the Sneasal and declared it unconscious. “TKO! Win to Sean Curran of Purple Town!” he shouted. Kenneth grudgingly returned his fallen pokemon and walked over to the middle of the arena. I also headed over, Abra and Psycat joined me. “Good match,” I said offering my hand. He took it, “Yes, but how did you beat me?” I smiled as we shook hands, “You need to take more of a role in your pokemon’s training. It helps.” He released my hand and looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged, “Might as well. My parents have been trying to get me to lose some weight anyway. Thank you, Sean. Good luck!” Kenneth headed off the field. I hugged Abra and returned him, then headed out myself. We headed toward Chenxin’s match, hoping it wasn’t finished yet. We soon arrived at Arena 9, where Chenxin’s Drowzee was Pounding a sleeping Arcanine into submission. Soon, Chenxin ordered her Drowzee to back off, allowing the Arcanine to fall to the ground. “TKO! Win to Chenxin of Saffron!” The cheering was very loud. I felt Psycat shrug. I watched Chenxin run over to her pokemon, hug it happily, then returned it. She waved to the small crowd before exiting through the lower gate. Psycat and I jogged down to meet her. She waved as we approached, shooing off the three or four boys who were trying to ask her out. “Great match, Chenxin! I managed to catch the tail end of it.” “Well, it wasn’t my best, but how’d you do?” I smiled, “Great. Abra beat the stuffing out of the other guy’s Sneasal.” She blinked and asked, “How?” “My secret of training is that I train all of my pokemon to fight hand-to-hand as well as how to use a variety of elemental attacks. And since Sneasal is part Dark-type, Abra easily beat him.” “Huh. I never thought of that.” “Most people don’t, so it makes a good trick when battling.” She thought about this for a moment, then spoke, “It must be useful. Well, since the next set of matches isn’t till tonight, what do you want to do?” “Well…I kinda’ volunteered to help Joice at the ‘center.” “Doing what?” “I used to help out the Joy at home, so I have some training in Poke First Aid. Since Joice said that the ‘center is being a bit overwhelmed, I offered to help. I’ll leave Pidgey and the others to train. How about you? What are planning to do?” We were walking out of the stadium. “I’m not sure. I might also help out at the ‘center, but I’ll probably just heal my pokemon, then train a bit.” “You know Poke First Aid too?” She nodded, “Yeah, my father was a Doctor at the Saffron ‘center, so I volunteered occasionally.” “So shall we go to the ‘center?” Chenxin asked, cheerful. “It’s fine with me. Care to meet for dinner again?” She thought for a moment before replying, “Sure. I’ll meet you after my match, or vice- versa if you finish first. See ya’!” she called, jogging off to the ‘center, quickly outdistancing me. I shrugged. “Pidgey, East Wind!” And the world disappeared into a swirl of wind… Round 2 I ran into the battlefield. I had eaten my solo dinner too slowly and was late. “It seems Sean Curran has arrived just in time for his match. Now its time to begin the match between Sean of Purple town and Hilde Slate of Pewter City! You know the rules! Begin!” “Go! Onix! Earthquake.” called the blue-haired and –eyed girl of about 18 at the other end of the field, who wore jeans, a slate gray shirt and a pendant in the shape of the boulder badge. Her onix was very well taken care of and very large. “Go! Gastly! Hypnosis then Recurring Nightmare!” “And the match has begun folks!” The Earthquake shook up my pal, but he recovered and blasted the Rock snake with Recurring Nightmare, which unfortunately canceled the effects of the brief Hypnosis, but it didn’t fall. “Whoah! Powerful technique! But it’s not enough! Onix! Iron Tail!” “Gastly! Diffuse!” Onix’s tail flashed and turned silver as it jabbed at Gastly, who exploded into a cloud of vapor and disappeared. “Great job, Gastly! Now Hypnosis!” “Close your eyes, Onix!” But it was too late, with a loud groan, Onix fell with a thump, asleep. The referee raised the red flag, “Win to Sean Curran of Purple Town!” “And what an upset! The top Jr. Trainer of the Pewter Gym’s best pokemon has been taken down by an unknown!” shouted the announcer. “Gastly! Great shot! Return, bud!” I called, returning my tired friend. I walked to the center of the field and shook my opponent’s hand firmly. “Great match, Hilde.” “Thank you, my brother told me about that Gastly of yours, he wasn’t kidding when he said that it was a formidable foe. Good luck in the later matches, you’ll need it!” she released my hand and walked out. We headed out, only to bump rather hard into Chenxin. “Umph!” She and I chorused. “We have to stop meeting like this,” she stated with false seriousness after impact. I stood up, holding out my hand to her, “I agree. Need a hand up?” She performed a neat back-flip, landing perfectly on her feet, then giggled, “Thanks, but no need. ” My mouth dropped open in surprise. Chenxin laughed out loud and ran off toward the ‘center, calling back, “I won!” I asked. The next day… Chenxin and I were looking at the pairings for round three when we first met Draco Gold, the son of Clair, the Johto Dragon gym leader, and Drake, the former Orange League Supreme Gym Leader. He wore blue jeans, a tight black shirt, a black leather vest with short sleeves, and a beautifully-crafted sheath of black leather and gold was strapped to his waist on a black, gold-buckled belt. Around his neck, he wore an Ultra ball as a pendant. On his hands, he wore black, fingerless gloves. His hair was very unruly, similar to Gohan’s from DBZ when he fights Cell. He had blue eyes and dark skin, as if he had spent a lot of time in the sun, travelling. He greeted us, speaking with the clipped tones of a British accent, “Hello, my name’s—“ “Draco Gold. I’ve seen your picture before,” Chenxin interrupted. “Sorry to rush, but my match starts soon. See ya’, Sean.” She jogged off. “May I see you sword?” he asked, eyeing the hilt of my sword from over my shoulder. “If I may also see yours.” “Sure.” We simultaneously drew our blades and delicately exchanged them, both careful to hold the blades up and gripped low so as the other could observe it fully. He sword was about 3ft. long without the 9 in. hilt and hand guards. It was in the form of a thin short sword. The grip was made of roughened black leather topped with a golden arrow point of silver-blue metal representing the dragon type. Where the blade and guard met, a star was inlaid in colored enamel on both sides. The center was white for Normal. The top point was red for Fire, the left point was green for Grass, the right glacier blue for Ice, the bottom left was light gray for Flying, and the bottom right was yellow for Electric. Each color represented an element used by the Dragonite-smiths to forge blades of legendary repute and rarity. In fact, only a handful of the blades still existed, and many of them have been broken as a result of age and use. The blade was beautifully etched to represent wind and fire along the center ridge. The double-edged blade was an inch and a half in width at the hilt and 2 and a half at its widest. I had seen only pictures of this very rare type of antique sword a few times before; it was made using an ancient forging technique I studied in order to use the runes and methods to forge my own sword. “I must say I’m impressed. Your sword is forged of a quality on par with my own. I had not thought they could make swords of this level anymore.” We switched swords and sheathed them. “Thank you, I spent several years researching the method to have it forged by.” “I would like to hear of this method someday.” He looked at the pairings. “Ah. I see that my match is with a Sean Curran.” “That would be me.” He blinked, surprised, “A strange coincidence. Are you prepared to battle?” I smiled, “As a swordsman, I must always be.” We jogged to the arena that we were to use for the match. We took opposite sides. “This is a Round 3 match! It will be a one-on-one battle! Draco Gold of the Orange Islands vs. Sean Curran of Purple Town! BEGIN!” “Go! Dragonite!” shouted Draco. “Go! Dratini!” “And it seems this will be a Dragon-type battle! But it appears to be hopelessly one- sided!” “Dratini! Charge it up!” Dratini, instinctively knowing what I asked him to charge for, began to glow with an icy blue aura. “Stop it before it can attack! Agile Slam!” Dragonite shot forward at an amazing speed, bringing his fist down on Dratini with enough force to cause a small quake. But when the dust cleared, Dratini was not in his expected place: under Dragonite’s fist. Instead, Dratini was in 6 places at once. “Woah, I’ve never seen anyone else, even those who challenged my father, who could train a pokemon to perform two attacks at once,” commented Draco quietly from his side. Out loud he ordered, “Finish it quickly! ARC HYPER BEAM!” “Dratini! Dodge!” Draco’s Dragonite shot into the air with rapid wing beats, his open mouth beginning to glow with the silver white power of the Hyper Beam. “NOW, FIRE!” The Dragonite fired the most intense attack I had ever seen at the first dratini he Locked On too, it was a decoy. Without stopping the torrent of power erupting from his mouth, Dragonite swept his beam across the other Dratini, all copies. “Where’s the real one?” asked Draco as his exhausted Dragonite finished his attack with a Rapid Spin that resulted in a circular pulse of silvery light that kicked up a blinding dust cloud. “DRATINI!” I saw Psycat turn and blink rapidly. I asked. She chuckled faintly, “Can you see?” called Draco from the other side of the cloud. “No! Can you tell who won?” “Of course Dragonite won!” shouted the Announcer. “Was there any doubt?” Psycat performed a precision raspberry in his direction. The dust cloud cleared, revealing a panting Dragonite resting on one extended arm. “Where’s Dratini!?!” exclaimed the Announcer. A bright, glacier blue glow could be seen poking through the cloud. I smirked. “Alright, buddy! You ready to end this!” *Yeah!* “Do it! ICE AGE!” I shouted, bringing my right hand up with index and middle fingers extended, pointing at my friend. Dratini shot up into the air and upon reaching the apex of his leap, 20ft. above the arena. A spherical, blue aura surrounded him making my friend seem as if he were a star of blue fire. *FREEZE!!!* A column of icy power shot down from him, straight down at the tired Dragonite. From the point of impact, a ring of freezing energy expanded, covering the entire arena with a full foot of blue-green ice. Draco stared in amazement at the ridge of ice that stopped mere inches from his black leather-booted feet. My friend, Dratini, landed, half-asleep with exhaustion, on top of the hump in the ice, where Dragonite was contained. Even the loud mouth Announcer was silent in amazement. “Dragonite, return,” said Draco, using his ultra ball pendant to return his friend and a section of the ice he was trapped in to his ‘ball. “Dratini! Great job! But you’ve earned a well-deserved rest! Return!” Draco jogged around the ice sheet. He put out a hand and I took it shaking. No words passed between us, we both understood and respected each other’s strength. “We’ll meet again,” I stated. “I’m sure of it.” Draco turned and started walking out. “Draco! Wait!” I called. He turned toward me. I drew my sword and saluted him with my own signature movement, my “first stroke” in my style, which always seemed to be reinventing itself every time I practiced. He smiled and did the same with his own salute. Then he turned and walked away. Psyxat responded with the same quiet giggle. I heard a clapping from the now deserted stands. I turned to see none other than Chenxin! I waved to her. “Hey! You win?” She shook her head sadly. “Nope, my opponent used a powerful Steelix. Kadabra couldn’t scratch it even with a Fire Punch. I gave up before he could hit her with an Iron Tail attack and seriously hurt her. Nice technique, by the way. I saw it take out that Dragonite. Could you teach it to one of my pokemon?” I thought for a moment before responding, “No, only dragons can learn it, and you train Psychics.” She looked shocked, and stammered, “H-how di-did you know th-that?” I shrugged, actually unsure myself, “Dunno, it felt right. All of your pokemon that I’ve seen have been psychic anyway, right? So why not 2 more?” She puzzled over this for a moment or two, shrugged, and continued, “I think you’ll be up against him next. Good luck.” She turned and walked out, oddly melancholy, somewhat like she had been during the first days after we began travelling together. I was a bit worried that my friend was sad. Then I thought about how I just thought and chuckled. “Dumb ‘cat,” I muttered until my breath, my face very hot with embarrassment as I walked out of the slowly defrosting arena. That night… “Well, folks, it’s time for our 4th round matches! Let’s congratulate our top 16!” shouted a new announcer. The crowd, much larger than the previous bouts’ matches, shouted in congratulation. “Go, Sean!” shouted a familiar voice above the rest. I turned from my position in a line of the top 16 to see Chenxin in the front row. She waved to me, smiling. I smiled and waved back. “The first pair to battle will be Andrew Johnson vs. Richie Trent, both former masters!” A young man in a black-and-orange shirt and jeans step forward into the arena, an unusually large Sandslash at his side. The other trainer was a red-haired young man with a blue and yellow cap and a Pikachu on his shoulder with an unusual hair tuft. I recognized both from the previous year’s League Games. It was a battle of styles. Richie Trent, considered one of the most skilled trainers, and Andrew Johnson nicknamed “A.J.”, considered one of the most powerful, had reached the semifinals of the last 5 League Games only to be beaten by either Ash Ketchum, the current Supreme Trainer of Indigo, Orange, and Johto Leagues, or Gary Oak, the former Johto and Indigo Champ. As they prepared to battle, the other 13 trainers and I headed into the stands to watch the battle. Psycat and I sat down next to Chenxin in the seats she held for us. We watched the titanic battle before us. “Go! Sandslash!” “Zippo! I choose you!” “And it’s a flying vs. ground battle! Normally this would be a mismatch, but A.J.’s Sandslash is infamous for its counters to its typical type-weaknesses!” shouted the apparently best Announcer. The battle was long, Zippo the Charizard held the early advantage, but the Sandslash never stayed down for the full count. And A.J.’s Sandslash’s equally notorious endurance began to show itself. Eventually Zippo was hit hard by a Rock Slide, nearly taking it out. But Richie Trenton’s famous tenacity was mirrored in his pokemon. Zippo rose to face a shocked Sandslash and blasted it with its most powerful Fire Blast. Exhausted from the battle and the final Rock Slide, the mighty titan fell. The crowd roared its enjoyment, myself included, at the amazing battle. Sandslash was revived by A.J. and both pairs shook hands, smiling at each other. The other matches continued, and soon my own match was called. As I stood, Chenxin grabbed my arm and hissed, “Be careful, that’s the same guy I lost to!” The man I was to fight was named Steel Slate. He was the second eldest of the Slate siblings and notorious for his cold, hard point-of-view toward pokemon. It was rumored that this view was a result of pokemon training first taking his Father then his brother away from him for extended periods. I stood at my position as the Announcer began to speak Psycat puffed out her chest while on my shoulder. “And here’s the youngest of our top 16, Sean Curran of Purple Town! This young man has performed some amazing victories, including the one-hit knock-out of Draco Gold’s top Dragonite with just a Dratini!,” Shouted the announcer. “They don’t have to rub it in,” muttered Draco from behind Chenxin. Chenxin jerked abit and turned, recognizing the voice. Draco smiled and said hello to her. “Shouldn’t you be with your father in one of the boxes?” “Nah, I’d rather have a ground-level view of this battle.” Chenxin nodded and turned back to face me. I felt a bit guilty about asking Psycat to easedrop with her superior hearing, but was glad that Chenxin wasn’t as hostile toward Draco now. The announcer began again as Steel reached his position. “And he’s up against our own hometown wonder, Steeeeeeeeeellllllll Slllllllaaaate!” A large number of the females in the stands began to yell. Notably, Chenxin did not, somehow that reassured me. Steel, a gray-eyed and brown-haired man, looked down at me from his towering 2m height, “Hmph. Another softy who refuses to discipline his pokemon. I don’t know how you could have gotten this far.” mind-called a very pissed Psycat. I could feel Psycat smile. I called to Steel, “Better a ‘softy’ than a tyrant with a heart of stone. I would think that the brother of the greatest breeder in Kanto would care more about his partners.” Steel looked stunned for a moment before he recovered his composure and could reply, “Foolish child, you know nothing about training. Pokemon are weapons and should be disciplined with force! This entire generation of trainers has been contaminated by the idiotic ideals of Master Ashura. I’ll show what the true power of pokemon is! GO! METALEON!” What he released was a monstrous form of what looked to be a Jolteon, but gray with fur that seemed to be made of blades. I reeled back in disgust, I knew of the experiments that were directed toward finding new evolutions of Eevee. Many were very barbaric, involving horrendous methods ranging from the near vivissection of young eevees to implant various devices and items to full cellular reconstruction by nanites. “This is my pride and joy, Metaleon. I rescued him from a Team Rocket. He is a perfect example of my training style’s superiority over yours!” “You are the fool, Steel. Your only saving grace is that you’ve taught him how to live as something other than a test subject. But for a pokemon to summon its true strength, its trainer must know its true heart! Go! PIDGEY!” I finished yelling, raising my arm to launch Psycat. The entire arena had fallen silent at our argument. Psycat took off at full speed at the Metaleon, determined to prove that I wasn’t a bad trainer. “Ha! Metaleon dodge, then Buzzsaw!” Psycat barely clipped Metaleon as he leapt aside. He then ran and leapt at Psycat, rolling into a ball as he shot through the air, blades spinning. Psycat managed to dodge most of the blow, but earned a nasty slash from the very tips of the blades. I called urgently, just barely stifling my verbal call. “Ha! Discipline beats emotion! Metaleon, finish it!” “Pidgey! I know you’re hurting, but use Tornado!” *I’ll try!* Pidgey winced as Metaleon turned for a second pass, but Psycat hit first. Driving down with a rapid spinning motion, a small tornado formed in her wake. Metaleon was hit dead on his side and was launched high into the air, spinning, only to come down hard. The crowd was in total shock at the shear power of the attack release from a mere pidgey. Steel growled, “Get up now, Metaleon! I will not lose to this pathetic weakling!” Psycat didn’t respond, instead panting from her resting-place not far from where she had fired off her attack. I bit my lip, noticing the small stain of blood growing from underneath her. She turned her head to me and nodded. She said, finally in mindspeak. Psycat closed her eyes and began to glow with a faint white aura as she summoned psychic energy from her memories of the wide plains she had previously visited. “What the hell is that turkey doing?” asked Steel rhetorically before shaking himself. “Nevermind, Metaleon! GET UP NOW!” At the strong command, the forced-evolution Eevee began to shakily lever itself up. Meanwhile, I could almost feel the calming, healing energies of Psycat’s technique healing her wound. But I didn’t think she’d be finished before Metaleon could pull off and attack. “Pidgey! Cancel the Blessed Wind, convert energy into a Denying Wind!” Pidgey barely acknowledged me, and began the draining task of converting her White- type “spell” into a Blue-type in mid-cast. “Metaleon! Finish the damn thing off, now! Nail Gun!” roared Steel, the whites of his eyes clearly visible around his irises. The Metaleon shakily stiffened itself and its fur, obviously using a variation on Pin Missile. But I did not worry, I could somehow feel that Psycat would fire first. And so she did. Psycat’s eyes flashed a bright blue, signaling the end of her charge. A blast of blue-tinged wind shoot from Psycat with tremendous force. Metaleon’s volley of needle- like pins was blown back into it as well as blowing it off its feet. Metaleon managed to rise again, though. “Ha! Impressive show, but no effect! Metaleon! Blast it!” Metaleon fire off a second Nail Gun, but to its surprise, nothing happened. I just smiled. “That is the power of Denying Wind, for at least the next 24 hours your Metaleon will not have any useable special attacks!” I informed him, admittibly having a bit of an ego trip. “Damn you, kid!” but he smirked. “It doesn’t matter, though, Metaleon! Take Down!” Metaleon tried, but just fell over. Though he began to rise again I shook my head sadly, “Don’t you even know the limits of your pokemon? That last attack has wiped him out, he can no longer battle. Soon, he’ll be paralyzed by the after effects of Pidgey’s attack.” True to my words, Metaleon soon fell, unable to move. I looked Psycat over, although panting, she was slowly recovering by a slower version of Blessed Wind. I felt her mental smile, “And that’s it! The underdog wins! Victory to Sean of Purple Town and Pidgey!” The crowd roared, cheering, including notably Chenxin and Draco as well as the girls who had previously cheered for Steel. I smiled at my friends as I picked Psycat up and placed her on my shoulder, where she blinked drowsily. she was interrupted by a verbal yawn. I placed a finger over her beak. “Just sleep.” She smiled as well she could and snuggled her head into her wing, promptly falling asleep. I turned and walked off the field, slowly heading back to the ‘center, thankful that the crowd was staying to watch the next match. I was approaching the exit when I felt an odd tingle; I turned to see the outline of a figure leaning against the wall behind me, barely visible through the shadows. It started in surprise realizing I saw it. A smaller figure with large ears rested on its shoulder. “Huh, amazing. It’s been years since anyone has seen me,” commented the figure, emerging from the shadows into the low lights, revealing the smaller figure to be a Pikachu and the other to be a tall man in his mid-twenties with a battered old red cap. At his chest hung a platinum medallion marked with a rendition of each legendary pokemon around an inlay of mother-of-pearl and sapphire of the Legendary Guardian of the Sea, Lugia. Only one man on the planet matched that description, my idol, Ashura Satoshi Ketchum, Master of the 7 Leagues and Chosen of Lugia. I openly gaped with this recognition. Master Ash just smiled, “I’m glad that I still have such an impact, but you’ll let bugs fly in if you keep that up.” “Pika, pika!”(Yeah, you said it!) Meanwhile, Psycat had awoken, blinking. That woke her up quick. *Even the pokemon know us, huh, Ash!* “What do you expect, he’s the most famous person on the planet!” I told the Pikachu. Ash sighed, “Unfortunately. I can’t even watch tournaments in public any more. I’m reduced to hiding in the shadows, something I’ve become quite good at. I suppose I should get to the point. I’d like to know where you found…her,” he concluded, pointing at Psycat. “Why would you want to know where I found a Pidgey?” I recovered, trying to seem innocent. Master Ash just smiled, “I’ve met enough Legendaries in my lifetime to recognize one when I feel one.” He touched his amulet. “This was given to me by Lugia in the middle of a vale full of Legendaries. It took me a while, but now I can recognize the techniques the Legendaries use to hide.” I sighed and nodded. Psycat began to glow, detransforming into her natural state. Master Ash whistled at the sight, “A Mew, huh? I’m impressed. I assume that you didn’t catch her.” I shook my head, “No, I got her from Prof. Oak because we had met before in Purple Town.” “Ah, so that was you. Well, I must say that I’m impressed. Do you plan to win the tournament?” I though carefully for a moment before I replied, “No. That last match proved that I’m not ready to take on this level of trainer. I don’t want to risk the well being of my best friends for just glory. I’m quitting here.” Master Ash smiled and nodded, “Good. I’m glad you understand that. It took me far too long to do the same. I believe we will see great things from you, Sean. Great things indeed.” With that he returned to the shadows, but this time outside the stadium. Psycat quickly changed back after using Softboiled to complete her recovery. I headed out, only to be stopped, just outside by Chenxin running to me. “Hey! Wait up, Sean!” I slowed and let her catch up. She ran up to my side and stopped, panting. It was a moment before she could speak. “Where are you going? Don’t you want to watch the rest of the matches?” I shook my head, “I need to get Pidgey to a place she can rest. She was pretty beat up after that match.” “Couldn’t you’ve let the paramedics do that?” “Not really.” She just sighed and shook her head, chuckling, “I would just have to meet up with a travelling companion who holds my own ideals. Where to next?” “The PokeCenter, where I send in my notice of resignation to the Tournament. Then through Mt. Moon.” She took a moment to look shocked, “Resignation! Why?” “I can’t let any more of my friends be seriously hurt. If Pidgey didn’t have a recovery move, she’d be looking forward to an extended hospital period. Abra and Gastly also can restore themselves, but not as fast. To be honest, my pokemon can’t handle much more of this level of competition,” I paused then chuckled, “Kinda’ like me, minimal endurance.” Chenxin as began to chuckle, remembering the half hour long break we had to take after our morning training and the breaks I took after every couple hours walking. We soon began to laugh together as we approached the PokeCenter. The next morning… I rose early to stretch and exercise with my pokemon before we started out on the road again. Then I headed into the OR’s to talk with Joylene and tell her that I was leaving. To my surprise, Joice was also there assisting, and she said to look her up when I reached Saffron as she should’ve completed the last bit of her internship and returned home for residency by then. I bade her fare well and headed to the caffeteria, where I found Chenxin. To my surprise, she had changed her outfit. Most Trainers choose a certain style of clothing and carried several identical copies of it while they traveled, I myself carried 3 identical changes in my bag. Chenxin, on the other hand, apparently had at least one more outfit type. This one kept the jeans but switched out her jacket for what appeared to be one of the new syn-leather jackets said to be impervious even to lower level Pokemon attacks. Hers was a shiny red-white that again covered all of her arm up to her wrists with several visible pockets. Her shirt, now harder to see had changed to a light gray color. She had kept the necklace, but changed the cord to a purple that matched her eyes. Oddest of all was that she was now wearing short, wrist-length gloves made of syn- leather with black fingers and a white hand(see NP’s preview on the next pokemon game for advance, the new female character). A faint psychic eye was visible on the palm as she waved me over. On her head she wore a white headband, most of it hidden by her hair. I quickly grabbed some sausage patties and waffles and headed over. Once I sat down, I asked her about her change in styles. She shrugged and avoided the question. I frowned. “Chenxin, I know you’re avoiding the question. Why?” Her reply was oddly cold for her, “Because.” “Because what? The route to Mt. Moon is very hot this time of year. Your outfit is going to make it unbearable, especially those gloves,” I pressed. She put down her utensils and rubbed her hands subconsciously before replying. “Sean, I don’t ask you what you do while we are apart or why you love Mews so much. Please extend me the same courtesy.” I mentally growled, barely sniffling a verbal one, but somehow Chenxin seemed to have heard it and flinch almost imperceptibly. I sighed, rubbing my temples from the headache that had sprung up. “I know, Chenxin. And I’m sorry. Friends?” I asked extending my hand with a smile. She finally smiled and took it for a strong shake, “Friends.” “Now that that’s over with,” I said, releasing her hand a bit reluctantly, I took out my computer and activated its map program, far more detailed than Dexter’s(in fact my computer seemed to be able to do all I needed and I had yet to use Dexter more than once a day). “Which route should we take?” She smirked, “Why, the one with the most trainers!” I chuckled at her enthusiasm, “That shouldn’t be too difficult with all the trainers coming in to see the top 8 matches tonight.” I suddenly felt that tingle again, but not as insistent as it had been at other times. “I suggest Route 3-a, it has the reputation of having the highest number of battles per day for all of west Kanto.” I started at the familiar voice, but Chenxin, oddly, did not. I looked behind my friend to see the form of Draco Gold walking up. “Mind if I sit?” I shrugged and looked to Chenxin for confirmation. She nodded, a bit reluctantly, and I motioned for him to sit. He turned his chair backwards and sat facing us. “I’ll get to the point. To be frank, Sean, you’ve impressed me. You as well Chenxin. I’ve been looking for a pair to travel with for a long while. My last group split up a few weeks ago when the others had to return to school. I still have a couple years before I have to return to school for good for college. I was wondering if I could go with you two. I think we can learn allot from each other. What do you say?” We were silent for a while thinking. Chenxin spoke first. “I guessed you were going to try this yesterday a the tournament. I don’t have any real objections as long as Sean says it’s okay.” I roll my eyes at her Sure, put all the wait on my shoulders. Her eyes twinkled, as if laughing inside, almost as if she could hear my thoughts. “Sure, you can come. It’ll be good to have a guide who’s done this before.” “Good! Just let me get some food, and I’ll be ready to head out.” With that he entered the food line. As he choose food, I looked at Chenxin, wondering how she could be so undisturbed by Draco’s actions even if she had guessed…It was almost as if she could read minds, but then again, that wasn’t my business. Several hours later… We headed out of Pewter and onto Route 3 right after breakfast. As we traveled, Draco and I kept up a conversation on sword forging techniques, but Chenxin remained relatively silent. Chenxin blinked and looked around briefly before turning her head toward me. I raised my eyebrows in question. She shook her head then turned back to her forward stare. “Well, which do you think would win? Your sword or mine?” “Hmmmm? Oh. Probably yours, I’m not really that good with it yet.”