Chapter One
Tell Mom That Marina Said Hello

"Hey, kid!" Ash Ketchum whirled around, his unruly mane of raven hair quivering 
slightly from the abrupt movement. The wind danced about his feet, stirring up 
dust devils that rode off in the direction of the voice and dissapated. He 
watched the dust devils until they ended at the person's feet. Then looked up.

For a moment, he thought he had just walked into Pallet Town. The woman who had 
addressed him resembled his mother in such a way that he almost smiled and 
waved. But he held himself. This person wasn't his mother. His mother had brown 
waves of hair that shone with that "recently been out in the sun" look. His 
addresser had thick, black hair that barely reflected the sun at all, just like 
his. Another thing: this stranger wore long, black boots that ended at mid-shin 
and swallowed beige, airy-looking pants. Her shirt was a faint grey t-shirt 
sporting the words "Giovine Vecchio" in dull, worn letters. Slung over one 
shoulder with two fingers holding it was what appeared to be a silver and red 
trenchcoat. Over the other shoulder was a green backpack that looked a bit 
empty. The only thing Ash noticed, however, was the belt at her waist, which had 
harnessed to it six small red-and-white PokeBalls.

Then he realized that he had managed to be silent for a good five minutes. He 
snapped his eyes back up to the trainer's face with a sharp poke in the ribs 
from May, one of his traveling companions. May, a young trainer herself, had 
long brown hair pulled back into pigtails. Usually adorned in a red and white 
jacket with matching shorts, gloves, and shoes, she looked like a human 
PokeBall. She spoke in a whisper, "Ash! Say something!"

"Uh, right." He had turned to May to answer her; he turned back to the unknown 
person with fervor. "Yeah?"

"I just wanted to know: Is your name Ash Ketchum?" He watched her expressions 
when she said this. First it was humorous, because he had been poked into saying 
something by a girl, then it was inquisitive, and lastly it was determined. Her 
startlingly pale-blue eyes shone with a fierce fire that Ash had often seen in 
his own eyes. He nodded, then wondered, 'I must be more famous than I thought.'

The woman smirked and pulled her left hand out of her pocket, snatching a 
PokeBall from the space right below her beltbuckle. She poked a button on its 
middle, enlarging it. "Then battle me." Before she had finished her sentence, 
however, Ash had already selected a Pokemon, a small, yellow, mouse-like 
creature with red circles on its cheeks. It hopped off his shoulder and onto the 
ground, charging out a few watts of electricity from the red spots on its face. 
It growled out a challenging "Chuu!" and formed tiny fists with its paws. 

His opponent raised her eyebrows, looking at the Pikachu with interest. She 
smiled a crooked smile and tossed the PokeBall deftly with a flick of her wrist. 
The ball hovered in the air for a second, then opened and from it erupted a 
blast of illumination that touched the ground and began to pan out into a 
massive form. Ash gasped.

Not only was it an unwise choice against Pikachu, an Electric-type, it was 
sparkling in the sunlight with colors that were very different to those of the 
others in its species. Its yellow-white teeth snapped together with an almost 
painful sound. It clenched its large paws into fists, like Pikachu had, and 
lifted its head to the sky, roaring loud enough to wake the dead. The scales 
adorning its entire body were not the usual 
blue; they were neon green. The spikes on its spine weren't red; instead they 
shone a blinding orange. A Feraligator. 

Ash gaped. Then, as the Pokemon behemoth turned its head back down to face its 
opponent, something glinted on its forehead. His eyes flicked up towards it. It 
seemed to be a shard of something purple and jewel-like, somehow perfectly 
lodged into the beast's cranium, dead center. He thought he had seen something 
just like it. Then he remembered. Looking back to the trainer behind the 
Feraligator, his eyes began gluing themselves to her forehead as well. She 
cocked her head to the right, and, sure enough, there was a thin purple shard of 
a jewel in the very middle of her brow. 'Maybe it's just another fashion 
statement,' he thought. He shook his head faintly, then formed his own fist and 
swiped the thumb of such fist across the bottom of his nose. 

"Right. Let's go!" Then, before he could issue a command, the shard in the 
trainer's forehead glinted. An answering flash came from the shard in her 
Pokemon's countenence, and it bellowed in the direction of Pikachu, a thick jet 
of ice spurting from its mouth. Pikachu didn't have much time to react. Slowly, 
as if that moment had deliberately lagged, Ash watched as the Ice Beam attack 
shot at his friend and just barely hit him. When time resumed at a normal pace, 
he discovered three things: 1) the trainer didn't have to speak for the Pokemon 
she possessed to attack, 2) this Pokemon was big enough to squash Pikachu into a 
disk and swallow him like a cracker, and 3) Pikachu's right paw was frozen in a 
tiny cube of ice. If he didn't think this over carefully, Pikachu might end up 
as somewhat of an olive in the opponent's margarita, ice cube included. 

The trainer snapped her fingers in a way of saying "Darn it!" and flashed an 
immediate command to her Pokemon, which was answered and acknowledged. Another 
Ice Beam blasted forward and pinned Pikachu to the ground, a bold band of ice 
spreading from one side of its stomach to the other. Pikachu struggled, though 
it was futile; the ice was nearly as thick as Ash's wrist was wide. Ash snapped 
back to reality (he had been dazed at the speed and silence of all this) and 
shouted, "Pikachu! Thunder! Try and concentrate it on Feraligator!!"

Pikachu tried pulling its way from the ice, gave up, then growled out a "PI-
KA!!", sending an enormous bolt of lightning in the direction of its challenger. 
Once again, time slowed, and the trainer's jewel flashed, not once, but twice as 
the bolt edged closer. Ash figured that the first flash must have been a command 
to dodge the bolt, because the Feraligator jumped into the air and spun a full 
circle, and the second must have been a request to use Reflect, because, as it 
spun, the behemoth swung its tail around, formed a thin, white shield on the 
end, and struck the Thunder attack head-on. The bolt was then promptly delivered 
back to Pikachu, who was still pinned to the ground by the ice. 

The arrow of lightning shot right at Pikachu and hit it square in the face. It 
cried in a pained sort of way before it started struggling again, only this time 
half-heartedly. The hot mid-day sun burned on the ice around its stomach, slowly 
melting it away. Ash knew that Pikachu wouldn't be able to free itself and that 
it was going to be a short fight. One more flicker between the shards and the 
ominous Pokemon sprang onto Pikachu, biting the ice with a loud crunch and 
caught its almost-paralized quarry inbetween its jaws. It pressed down on 
Pikachu hard enough to reduce its energy and, satisfied that it had won the 
battle, dropped Pikachu into its paws and walked with a few thumping footsteps 
to where 
Ash, May, her little brother, Max, and Ash's old friend, Brock stood, placing 
Pikachu delicately at Ash's feet. 

A stunned silence blew across the dirt road; Ash picked Pikachu up swiftly and 
held it to his chest away from the massive Water-type, as if scared that the 
Feraligator might change its mind and snatch up his poor friend and gobble it 
up. In a deft motion, the trainer pointed the PokeBall at her Pokemon and said, 
"Jawbreaker. Return." A red flash of light enveloped Jawbreaker and folded its 
form up to fit compactly into its tiny habitation. She snapped the PokeBall back 
into its spot below her beltbuckle, hiked her backpack farther up her shoulder, 
and walked up to Ash. She was very tall; Ash's head reached up to about chin 
heigth. 

"Thank you for the battle, Ash. It was very challenging." Ash scoffed this. It 
was very nerve-racking to see Pikachu so helpless, especially when it had the 
upper hand as an Electric-type; that's what he called challenging. But for this 
unknown person, it couldn't have been more than an entertainment. "I hope I can 
see you and your cute little friend again." She reached out for Pikachu, but Ash 
pulled it away. 

"Don't get your boxers in a twist. I'm just going to give it this." She held out 
a medium-sized ball with large spikes on it: a Max Revive. Ash considered it, 
then nodded and opened Pikachu's mouth, letting the kind stranger pop it in. Ash 
closed his Pokemon's mouth and stroked its throat; he saw it swallow. A few 
sparks eminated from Pikachu's cheeks, then it opened its eyes and cooed at Ash. 

"Don't thank me; she's the one who gave it to you." Pikachu's slowly lightening 
eyes flicked to the trainer, who smiled down on it with a look in her eyes that 
a mother could have while looking at a child. Pikachu smiled back and said, 
"Pika pi." with a resigned yawn before cuddling into Ash's arms for a nap. Max 
Revives usually had that effect on most Pokemon. 

The woman reached down and petted its head absently for a minute before reaching 
back and holding out her hand. "Give me your PokeNav. I want to register myself. 
Like I said, I'd like to meet you again." She pulled her own from her backpack 
strap, after tossing her trenchcoat over her left shoulder. Ash put Pikachu into 
May's outstretched arms and unclipped his PokeNav from his belt, placing it in 
the woman's hands and taking hers. 

He flipped it open and glanced down the long list. Apparently, from reading the 
owner's name at the top of the page, the woman's name was 'Marina Ketchum'. 
'Odd', he thought. 'She and I have the same last name. I've never met someone 
with the last name Ketchum before.' One name caught his eye. 'Steven Stone', it 
said. That was a little strange. But he ignored it and scrolled down the list to 
the empty nameslot, entered his own name and PokeNav number, and closed it. 
Marina closed his with a final snap of plastic on plastic and traded it for 
hers. 

She opened her mouth as if she was going to say good-bye, but was interrupted 
when Brock, who always became infatuated with a pretty face, raced up to her and 
grabbed her right hand with both of his (his customary greeting). 

"Miss, I hope you'll decide to put your name in *my* PokeNav! I think you and I 
will hit it off real well if we just give it a chance!" Before Marina could 
answer, May cradled Pikachu with one arm and reached out with the other and 
grabbed Brock by the ear, pulling him away. 

"That's very nice....um......", Marina started. Brock finished for her by saying 
his name inbetween yelps of pain. "Yes. That's very nice, Brock. But I'm afraid 
I'm already spoken for." 

Ash spoke up. "By the way, Marina. Did you know you and I have the same last 
name?" Marina drew her attention back to him. She nodded.

"Yeah, I knew. Why wouldn't we?" Ash raised his eyebrows in confusion. "So, Ash. 
I have to go; important emergency. But why don't you give me a call sometime? 
Maybe we can battle again. I'm not so sure that was your best." Ash felt a 
tingle of embarrassment. Marina was right. He had fought like a beginner. "So, 
in the meantime, do me a favor." Ash perked up and listened. 

"Tell Mom that Marina said hello. She'll know what you mean." She winked and 
touched two fingers to her forehead in a salute, her jewel shard glittering. She 
dropped her backpack, grabbed her trenchcoat, slipped it on, and slung her pack 
over both shoulders this time. Then, something strange happened. 

The shard on her brow glittered faster than before and blew a bubble of light 
around her, the lavender color warping the other colors on her person. She was 
lifted into the air and began to morph within the bubble. Her back arched and 
she opened her mouth in a kind of silent sigh, her eyes closed. She spread her 
arms and said, in a clear, crisp whisper, "Pidgeot." 

Feathers started to form on the surface of her arms and back; her hair grew and 
spread out into a black and silver plume. Her legs shrank into her body and grew 
skinnier; her beautiful face almost cracked in half as the tip of her nose and 
her chin bent to touch, forming a beak. 

The bubble shrank back into the shard and disappeared, leaving Marina, now a 
silver and black Pidgeot, to flap powerfully and lift into the air, pack and 
trenchcoat swallowed by the transformation. She flew over their heads, in the 
direction of Lilycove City.