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Pokemon Amber

Episode 1: Burning Summer

Where have my days gone? How can I not even remember the past few months of summer vacation? Maybe it's because it's been a whole lot of lying around and watching TV and lying around some more and doing chores until eventually it all just became one big blur. I've never been so bored in my life! At first I couldn't wait for school to be over and now I find that I can't wait for it to start again. I made so many friends in my classes but they've all gone back home and now I'm stuck here all summer doing nothing. I talk to them online or on the phone sometimes, yeah, but I want to hang out with someone. Go out and do something, maybe have an adventure. I thought your college years were supposed to be some of your best but it's not starting out so good. I don't want to be stuck in Pallet. I want to travel the world and visit all the other regions where most of my friends live.

But how can I expect to do that if I can't even get out of bed...?

I groan loudly into my pillow, feeling the heat of my breath warm my face, which makes me pull away and lift my head suddenly. It was uncomfortable, especially when my room is already a million degrees and to top it all off I've got my comforter on for some reason. And the only spot in my whole room the sun decided to shine on is my face. I reach blindly for my curtains beside my bed since I haven't fully opened my eyes yet and the light is too bright. Instead of actually closing them and going back to sleep, like I originally planned, the top of half of my body ends up falling out of bed and lands on the floor with a rumbling thud. Luckily my chin broke my fall.

I lie there for a moment and actually consider going to sleep right like that. At least the sun isn't on my face. Before I can close my eyes, though, I am jolted awake by a knock at my door. It's my sister. I know this because if it were either of my parents they would have just walked in like there was no door at all. My sister is the only one that ever knocks.

"Katsuko..?" she calls.

"What?" I answer back, sounding more like an angry zombie then a human being. She calls my name again and I answer back a little louder and more irritated.

"Are you okay? What was that banging?"

"I'm fine!" I lie. My chin is throbbing, I'm pretty sure I bit my tongue and my back is killing me at this angle. I surprise even myself that I haven't moved yet despite all this. "I'm just...just waking up!" I shout.

I open the door and Hanna is standing there with a worried look, biting her lip and twiddling her fingers in front of her chest. She's wearing a large gray t-shirt that is so big it comes down to the tops of her knees making it look like a dress. She's also barefoot and I'm guessing she's not wearing pants since she sleeps in that shirt. Her honey brown hair, streaked with a light pink is oddly straight this morning as well.

"Are you going somewhere?" I ask, puzzled by the perfect-ness of her hair.

"No. Why?" she asks, just as puzzled. As if waking up with done-up hair is a normal thing. I just shake my head and decide not to dispute it. My sister has always been beautiful. Her movements are always so elegant, especially with her peach tea hair flowing behind her. I tell her all the time that her hair reminds me of peach tea because of the color. It always makes her laugh.

She has shining brown eyes and fair, milky skin that's so soft you could die. Everything about her is absolutely innocent to her smile, her laugh, and the way she talks to people and the way she composes herself, always having her hands clasped in front of her. Not to mention she has a huge heart. I am so lucky to call myself her sister. Although, I do find that sometimes I rather envy her. It's sometimes common for an older sibling to be jealous of the younger one mostly because of the attention and extra love and care it seems like they receive, which is not entirely my case. Instead, I envy my sister because she's everything a fine young lady should be. She's got the smarts, the manners, the looks, and the passion for the things she loves, which is everything, by the way. More often than not, I find myself wondering if my parents feel like raising children was some kind of experiment that went wrong the first time but then they hit the nail on the head the second time.

I can't help the way I am, though. So I like getting dirty and scraping my knees and climbing things and getting in trouble and hanging out with the guys, and I should be fine with that. But then I see the way my parents look at Hana and pride themselves over every award she receives in school or compliments other parents give them about how well mannered she is, like a prized poodle in a doggy show.

Okay, that was mean, but I can't help but compare the way my dad looks at her with the way he looks at one of his precious projects at Silph.

My dad has been working with Silph Co. for almost twenty years now. He's pretty well known and respected in the scientific community and has quite a lot of fond memories of Silph that he likes to tell Hanna and I. My favorite is the story of his first year at Silph as an intern while he was in college. It was the year the old terrorist group Team Rocket took over their building in Saffron. My dad may have been a huge nerd in college but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to get his hands dirty once in a while. He and his Sandlash defended the building with everything they had, fighting Rocket after Rocket until finally one managed to knock out Sandlash and take him hostage. Since he was only an intern and was of no real value to them, my dad says that they had plans to just kill him so he wasn't taking up space. The only reason they didn't was because every Rocket occupying the building was told to intercept a young trainer that had infiltrated the building and was kickin' ass and takin' names.

It was the pokemon champion Red. He cleaned house and saved everyone at the Silph building, including my dad. He told us that story years and years ago and ever since then I had wanted to be a trainer like Red.

By the time my fascination with pokemon and trainers was rapidly growing, I was already eleven and a year late to receive my first starter pokemon. It's not a huge deal but my parents still got me, even to this day, what I consider the greatest gift I have ever received. It was a tiny Poochyena cub with a deep ebony mask of fur and "gloves" with a slate grey body. It was a girl that I named Sable and fell completely in love with. I can still remember the moment she first opened her amber eyes and locked them with mine and it was then that I knew that everything in my being would go into that perfect bundle of fur to make it the happiest it could ever be.

Now, eight years later, I have a beautiful, strong and healthy mightyena with a drive for adventure as intense as mine. There isn't a single place in or around Pallet that we haven't explored. Our specialty is Viridian forest. We could navigate that place with our eyes closed. I also pride myself with the number of bug catchers we've made cry after destroying their armies of Caterpie.

However, I've never been anywhere passed Pewter City. I have two badges, a Boulder badge and an Earth badge, and one pokemon, my best friend Sable. The truth is, as much as I want to travel Kanto, I can't bring myself to leave Hanna. If I left, she'd have no one. It tears away at my insides seeing trainers come and go with their shiny badges and battle-hardened Pokemon, but it also pains me to see Hanna with no one her own age to keep her company. No one but my parents and I, and frankly I don't think it's enough. But I try. I try because as much as I'd love to see the world, I love to see her happy even more.

"You might want to get dressed," Hanna says softly to me.

"Why?" I ask as I rub my eyes and reach far above me, stretching my back so far that I'm standing on my tippy toes. "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere." She laughs. "I said that already. You're just naked."

She giggles before turning and running down the hall to the steps. I didn't even realize how much cooler I was when I opened my door. Without even looking I just press my hands to my body and confirm that I am indeed standing in my bra and panties. I guess I was so hot last night I just took everything off. But for some reason the rest of my house is fine but my room is the one that feels like the deepest circle of Hell. I huff before closing my door to make myself a little more decent.

* * *

The silence and peacefulness of my house is suddenly broken by the thunderous footsteps of my muddy brown boots running down the steps, to my mother's disgust. Our kitchen is brightly lit by the golden rays of early morning sunshine and our small, round kitchen table is beautifully decorated with an assortment of flowers my mother picks from around the house. It's placed in the middle of an assortment of plates and glasses topped with toast, eggs and pancakes with a fat pitcher of orange juice. I noisily scoot out a chair from under the table and plop myself onto it and immediately begin stacking pancakes on my plate.

"I'd hate to see what happens to anybody who comes between you and your food," my dad says behind a sprawled out newspaper in front of his face.

"Same thing that would happen to anyone that comes between you and the remote." Everything is still silent as I butter my pancakes and my dad still hides behind his paper. I shift my eyes to look at him as I notice him lower his paper and burst out laughing as soon as he looks at me.

My dad is fairly younger than the fathers of other people I know, so his hair is still a rich brown color. He's apparently somewhat of genius and so started Silph Co. early and made his way up the company pretty quickly. His jaw is strong and covered in short stubble and his square glasses sit low on his long nose. It keeps me laughing to see his brown eyes crinkle as he laughs his deep booming laugh that warms my heart.

"So, what's on the agenda for today," he asks as he licks the tip of his thumb and turns a page of his newspaper.

"Eh," I reply as I pour myself some juice. "I was thinking of taking Sable to the gym in Viridian. It's been a while since we last trained and I'm afraid she's gonna get rusty." My dad simply nods as his eyes scan the newspaper for an interesting story but my mom stops cutting into her pancakes and raises an eyebrow at me.

"I don't think so," she says. "You said you were gonna mow the lawn yesterday and you didn't. AND," she starts again on her pancakes and takes a bite, "I want you to take Hanna somewhere. Somewhere she could have some fun, maybe the park. I'm starting to worry. She's been going to her 'secret spot' a lot lately. I don't think she's actually seen another human being besides us since school ended.

I drop my fork and knife on my plate, which makes a loud clanking sound, and groan as I sink down into my chair. "But MOOOOOM!"

"Please don't do that," she says calmly. "You're nineteen years old and it makes you sound younger than Hanna, and far less mature."

I remain quiet as I finish my breakfast, but keep the same, grim look on my face. After I finish eating, I take my empty plate to the sink and drop it in, then make my way out the front door and to the garage. I can hear my mom call out to me to remind me about taking Hanna out but I just grunt and let the screen door slam into place.

* * *

The garage is hot as hell, although it's about the same temperature as my room. The smell of gasoline and a blast of hot air hits me as soon I as pull the door open and a bead of sweat immediately starts to roll down my forehead. I search for about a minute or two for the lawnmower, which is buried under mountains of boxes, tools and other junk. I struggle for a moment to pull it out from under a box of Hana's old books and things and finally wrench it free, sending the box toppling over and spilling the contents all over the place. I curse under my breath as I bend over to pick up the box but something on the floor beside it catches my eye.

On the floor and all over the books are pieces of paper with drawings on them done by Hanna. I'm guessing when she was younger by the looks of them. I pick one up and scan the colorful bit of paper before me and notice several peculiar things: One is that this drawing, along with several others, is of the legendary pokemon Mew, and I mean it's everywhere, flying over a rainbow, in a tree, over the water, hovering in the air, hovering in the air at night, hovering in the air at night over the water. For some reason, Hanna was obsessed with drawing Mew.

The other peculiar thing is the level of detail. The background of the pictures, like the water and trees and stars and such look messy, like what a child's drawing should look like, but the Mew in every picture has a fair amount of detail.

The thought only lingers in my head for a moment until I put the drawing back in the box and start to clean up the rest of the fallen books and papers. The lawnmower bumps and catches on things as I drag it out of the garage where I am welcomed with much cooler and cleaner smelling air. Pushing the lawnmower over to the grass suddenly reminds me that I was angry before going into the garage and I yank the lawnmower to life so hard my shoulder threatens to pop out of its socket. Even though it is so loud, I find peace standing behind the noise of the lawnmower. It gives me an excuse to ignore everything else around me and leave myself with my thoughts.

Hanna's "Secret Spot." She goes there every Saturday morning for about an hour and comes back all smiles, even if she had had the worst morning a little girl could have. My parents never ask her any questions because they figure that it's just a phase she's going through. They figure it's another one of those little clubs kids come up with and no one else is allowed in, except imaginary friends or stuffed animals or something like that. No one worries about her going off into the woods behind our house alone because for one, we live in Pallet, a relatively small and peaceful town, and also because we live on a hill that is kind of behind the rest of the town. It really is a beautiful view. You can see almost all of Pallet under a clear, bright blue sky, green grass for miles, beautiful dancing trees that sway in unison. The combination of the warm sun and the cool breeze reminds me of the good things in life. It makes me feel like the world is a perfect place to live, like no evil exists. That's why no one worries about Hanna.

Until now, that is. My mother feels as if she doesn't spend enough time with real human beings. She feels that Hanna needs more friends and I'm inclined to believe her. I can't recall a single bad thing Hanna has ever done in her entire life. And I'm not saying that she needs to become a delinquent to be normal or anything, but that maybe she could get into a bit of mischief once in a while with some friends, if she had any. At least that's my opinion. Maybe my mother won't see it that way.

The lawnmower all of a sudden craps out on me and I begin to kick it in a blind rage, which only leads to severe pain in my big toe. I almost rip my bandana off of my head and my hair along with it when a voice from across the yard calls out to me.

"I don't think that's going to fix it!" I quickly spot the owner of said voice and grin at the brown-haired, tall and slender boy making his way across the yard over to me.

"Hey, Dom," I say, rather unenthusiastically. The sight of my long time best friend hasn't completely gotten rid of my frustration, but I will admit that it's a start.

Dominic and I have been friends since around fifth grade and we've been inseparable since the day we met. We always used to get picked on for being together all the time, too. Our friends would always ask if we're a couple yet and asked when it was going to happen when we told them we weren't. Over the years it became pretty easy to just shut it all out. No more blushing and hanging our heads in embarrassment. Now we usually just roll our eyes and tell them to shut up or sometimes we don't even give them the satisfaction of providing a response. The truth is, Dom makes me happy and he'd be the perfect candidate for the greatest boyfriend ever but we've gotten really close in a way that we see ourselves as siblings. The thought of being together is just like thinking of being with my brother or something.

Honestly though, we have tried it out. The closeness of our relationship wasn't only questionable to others. We both had mutual ideas that if we were such good friends, how could it not work being in a serious relationship? Well, our first kiss explained it all for us. I don't think that either of us has ever been in a more awkward situation. We both decided then and there that maybe it just wasn't meant to be and actually laughed about it afterwards. Apparently, however, it wasn't that easy to get over it. After that day, we didn't talk for at least a week. We'd greet each other in the hall, pretend to be best friends and try to have our typical, best friend conversations, which turned out to be stale and full of fake, dry laughter and then we'd part ways until the next day. But our hiatus didn't last long. We were eventually our normal, Siamese twin selves again.

"You'd be surprised to see how many things I've fixed by kicking and punching. It works all the time on you." He laughs as I taunt him the way a sister would taunt a brother. Sadly it was true, though. We have a knack for insulting each other and it always ends up with me punching him or causing him physical harm in some way.

"Yeah," he says as he examines the lifeless lawnmower beside me. "I wouldn't be surprised, though, to see that they don't last much longer after that. Besides, kicking this thing won't re-fill the gas tank." I do a mental face-palm as I realize that that should have been the first thing checked instead of wailing on it, but I don't let him see my humiliation. I have too much pride for that.

"No one asked you, you butt." I mockingly glare at him and proceed to give him the evil eye as I slowly turn around and head back to the garage to fetch the red gas container. I hear him chuckle outside as, to my anger and frustration (yet not to my surprise), I find that the container is empty.

"FUU-!" I yell as I throw the useless hunk of plastic down to the ground and stiffen my arms at my side. "Fan-friggin-tastic!."

"What's wrong?" Dom's demeanor has suddenly changed and he looks legitimately concerned about my sudden tantrum.

"The gas!" I snap. "It's empty! Now I have to go buy more and I wanted to go Viridian with Sable and- UGH!"

"Calm down." He laughs. "It's not that big a deal. You know, you always seem to forget that there are people out there willing to help you if you just ask for it." He gives me a weird look as he begins to reach into his pouch, the one he always carries with him that holds his pokeballs, some potions and his fancy-shmancy Pokedex. Rich asshole.

I love my parents, and I respect their way of teaching me responsibility and good virtues by letting me fend for myself money-wise, but sometimes it just blows.

I watch as he takes out a condensed pokeball and presses the center button that makes it expand. He turns away from me and extends his arm out towards the driveway to let the beam of red light that is shooting out of the now open pokeball make the shape of an Ivysaur outside. The blue spotted creature stands about three feet tall, excluding the large, pink bulb on it's back that sprouts four large leaves at its base and gives its wide body a little a shake to loosen them up.

"Ivysaur. Let's help Katsuko with her chores."

"Saur!" the pokemon nods before turning to face the overgrown grass. I step out into the sun curiously to watch Dom's Ivysaur save me a whole lot of trouble and raise my eyebrows as it makes quick work of my yard with its vine whip. With just four swipes of its lightning fast vines and a few razor leaves for trimming, the yard is done!

"So all those times you've seen me sweating and dying in the heat, you and Ivysaur could have come here and done that?!" I ask Dom, slightly bewildered. I can see Ivysaur blushing through the corner of my eye, but Dom just kind of laughs and shrugs.

"Well you never ask!"

I cross my arms and huff at him, sticking my chin in the air. "'Cause I don't need your help, so meh."

"Okay," he smiles. "Well you're welcome, for one. And also, where's Sable? We can all go into Viridian."

"I dunno. I haven't seen her all morning." I didn't even realize that Sable has been missing all this time until now. Deciding that I should probably go and look for her so we can get going, I stop and groan loudly turning to Dom. "I can't. I just remembered I have to hang out with Hanna today." Suddenly I'm frustrated again and begin my ruthless assault of my legs on nearby objects, making Dom put both his hands on my shoulders to calm me down. Sometimes I wonder if he really thinks I'm nineteen.

"Why don't we just bring her along? How long has it been since she's seen you and Sable training? She might have some fun with it."

"She's gone back to her 'spot.' I can't disturb her or she'll get pissed off."

"Okay," Dom says calmly. "Then we'll just wait an hour and ask her to come with us.

So that we do. In that time, I finally found Sable. The high-spirited Mightyena was down by the pond stalking some Ducklett. Bless her heart.

When Hanna came back, she was, as usual, very chipper. We watched her skip her way out of the woods and lightly hum a happy little tune over to us.

"Hi, guys!" she beamed. Her very excited greeting was only met with a bored and monotonous "Hey," from me, but Dom was kind enough to provide her with a smile at least.

"We're going to the Viridian gym." I say as I stand and dust the grass off from my butt. "You wanna come?"

Hanna thinks for a moment and I can see a worried expression start to form on her face. She shakes her head a little at the ground and brushes her hair behind her ear. "No, that's okay. I know mom asked you to hang out with me, didn't she? I don't want to be a burden while you train."

Leave it to Hanna to melt away my icy mood with her cuteness. Boy, do I feel like shit.

"Oh, sweetie," I say as hunch down and hold her hands, "You won't be. I promise." My words do nothing to erase that look on her face or change her mind.

"No, really. It's fine. You can go on without me. We can just do something when you get back! Besides, training isn't a game. You need to concentrate and not worry about me. Go on."

If I were her mother I'd probably cry and squeeze her to death with love. "If you're sure." I tell her. "I promise I won't be long."

* * *

Am I a bad sister? Should I really have left Hanna like that so easily? I mean, I didn't even argue with her, I just kind of left. Does that make me a bad sister? I am a bad sister, aren't I? I do a pretty good job of telling myself that I'm not and I'm fine, but I find myself asking Dom anyway.

"No, you're not a bad sister." He replies, keeping his eyes straight ahead as we begin to see the buildings of Viridian come into view. "I know you love Hanna to death but even you need time for things you like to do. I see you guys together all the time and I know you do a good job at keeping her company, but I think sometimes you might need a little time off."

"Not that it's a chore or anything," I add. And it's true. I've never seen it as a chore so I never complain about hanging out with Hanna. What I do complain about is looking forward to one thing and then completely abandoning that idea for something else, usually something I'm forced to do. If any of that makes sense at all.

We finally walk past a humble looking sign that tells us we've reached Viridian City. Although it's not much of a city to be honest. There are a few shops lined up along the main road, which branches of into a couple side streets where you'll find a Pokemon Center and a some other places that I still don't recognize what they're for. Then off in the distance are some houses overseeing the city on a small hill. In the opposite direction lies the path to Victory Road and onto the Pokemon League, where I probably won't be going for a long time. Not until I complete the gym challenge that is. But our destination is the gym, which stands at the very end of the main road next to the beginning of route two.

Apparently, many years ago the Team Rocket leader Giovanni ran the gym until Red, being the cool cat he is, disbanded the group and Giovanni went into hiding. Now two blundering idiots who have no idea what they're doing run the gym. I managed to win my Earth badge with Sable before she even evolved into a Mightyena because of them. Rumor has it, they used to work for Team Rocket and couldn't find anything to do with their lives after it disbanded. I guess they thought they had what it took to run a gym, a gym their former boss ran. Dear, God, how they were wrong.

As soon as we walk in our ears are filled with the loud sounds of training. There are trainers shouting commands to their pokemon, the sound of bodies colliding, fists hitting pads, and the battle cries of the pokemon. The one sound I'm thankful for not hearing is-

"Welcome to da Virdian-! Oh, it's you guys."

I look down at a very sour faced Meowth, with his brow furrowed and his arms crossed in front of his chest as he taps his foot on the floorboards irritably. His fur coat is rather dull for a Meowth and the gold coin on his forehead looks equally as dull and covered in what looks like rust, or some other kind of crud that I'm pretty sure I don't want to know about. He's obviously pretty old, judging by the gray around his snout and the way he stands with a slight hunch, and I can only assume that his attitude rots with his age.

"Look," he says while giving us a genuinely grim look ", we're tired of cleaning up afta you guys. Da floorboards are new and dey were just waxed the utta day so if you're gonna stay, you can just stand dere with ya pokemon and look pretty or somethin' 'cause ain't nobody gonna battle ya. Ya blacklisted. See?"

We follow his stubby little furred finger and see that there are two pictures of Dom and I hung by the door with big bold captions on the bottom saying that we were delinquents and were not to be battled with. This has to be a joke because I'm having the most difficult time taking it seriously.

We're not actually delinquents. We just kick their asses all the time and I guess they're pretty sick of it now. And the floorboards aren't really our fault. Well, maybe it is I suppose. I guess Sable sending Jesse's old ass Arbok into the ground was a bit excessive. But that's not the point. The point is that this is ridiculous and I really hate this Meowth.

"Listen, you sorry excuse for a.... anything! You're a pokemon so that gives me the right to let Sable here soften you up a bit so I can 'catch' you. Last time I checked, you're neither Jesse's or James's pokemon, meaning you're up for grabs. So let us go or I'll have you polishing my new necklace made out of your own coin."

He hesitates for a second and continues glaring at me, but finally sighs in defeat. "Fine," he says, stepping aside and allowing us passage. "But if anything gets broken I'm trowin' you outta here."

"If anything's gonna get broken, it's gonna be your face," I mutter as we storm past him, ignoring his angry yells and waving fist.

Dom and I stand in the middle of the gym, looking around, occasionally staring at one of the many battles occurring, but I make a beeline for my target as soon as I spot her. It brings me a bit of joy to see that she's sullenly handing over an Earth badge to a very young looking trainer with a rather triumphant looking rattata standing next to him. As the boy walks away, the loser of the battle, Jesse, curses under breath and sits down on a metal folding chair that she has placed on the raised platform for the gym leader to stand. She rises though, quite quickly I might add, when she sees Dom and I approaching with Sable closely trotting along behind.

"What are you doing here, you little twerp!?" she belts. Her fists are clenched tight at her sides and I swear there's a vein pulsing in her forehead. It's kind of gross, actually.

"Get out!" She continues. "Do you know how much it cost to replace the floor? James had to stay up every night making extra bean buns and rice balls!"

Jesse points to her left and Dom and I look over to the tiny food stand set up by James in the corner of the gym. Apparently, he had taken to cooking food for hungry trainers to buy for extra money, instead of battling. There are even a couple of stools at the counter. We see his purple-haired head pop out from behind while holding a tray of a set of freshly made rice balls.

"Ooh, but they're made with a dash of love and selling like crazy! Get them while they're hot!"

"Oh, for crying out loud..." I mutter. "Look! If I apologize for the stupid floor, will you battle me?"

Jesse folds her arms and raises her chin at me, like a snobby little rich kid who was denied another ponyta. "It's a start."

I scoff and hunch my shoulders, not believing that the words I'm about to say are about to come out of my mouth.

"Fine! I'm sorry about the floor, okay? Now can we please just battle?"

"No!" Jesse screams. "Now get out before I have Minnie here throw you out!"

"Minnie?" I ask, thoroughly confused. "Who the f-?" With Jesse's help, my eyes are guided to the corner opposite James' food stand and spot a machoke with a rather nice looking pair of shades. The first thing I wonder is where and how they managed to catch a machoke... or steal one.

"Fine. We're leaving. C'mon Dom... Dom?" I look around and see that it's only Sable and I standing in front of the gym leader's platform. She huffs and turns her head to the food stand where I see Dom stuffing his face with rice balls and James happily supplying more to his plate.

"DOM!"

* * *

"I'm sorry, Katsuko, but they were actually really good! Try one!"

"No!" I yell irritably as I smack the rice ball out of his hand. I don't want any of James' stupid food when Jesse and her stupid face won't even battle me in her stupid gym because of her stupid floor. GAH. I'm so angry, I cou-.

"Hey!" I quickly forget that I'm angry about something because there is a stranger waving his hand at me as we walks out of the gym and towards Dom and I.

"I saw what happened," he says. "Jesse's real immature for a woman her age."

"Is she that old?" I ask, without really thinking.

"Anyway," he continues. "I haven't had a decent battle in a while and since you were just denied one, I thought maybe I could battle you?"

Dom and I exchange glances. The dude certainly looks like he isn't from around here. He's really sweaty, kind of chunky but oddly muscular. He has a dark green backpack, a hoodie tied around his waist, for God knows what reason, and he looks to be in his late twenties. I don't see any visible pokeballs anywhere on his person so that must mean he doesn't battle very often. Looks to enjoy hiking more if you ask me.

"Why not?" I say and turn to Sable while the sweaty man cheers and digs deep into his bag in search of, probably his only, pokeball. I glance back to see a rather tall, bright green scyther that looks in surprisingly good shape. But for all I know it could just be young.

"Okay, girl. Whaddya say? Feel like doing a little pest control?" Sable huffs and nods and I place my hands on each side of her head then place my forehead against hers. Right now we are one mind. She understands me and I understand her. I feel what she feels and she thinks what I think. It feels as if I project my thoughts to her as I think them, mapping out the entire battle scenario and anticipating every action and consequence before it's even started.

"Alright. Now it's a bug and they're not really your specialty and scyther are also much faster so don't try to chase it down, he'll only try to wear you out. Let it come to you, but you gotta be light on your feet. Keep your distance, but not too far so that you can't sneak a bite in there when it swings. If you time it right, I think you can give it a roar when it moves in, then you can make your move. It's got a pretty nice sheen to its shell and its blades look pretty intact, no chips or scratches or signs of wear, so it doesn't have a lot of experience. Look at the way it stands. It's not focused, it's barely paying attention to you. It's hardly even standing next to its trainer so this scyther hasn't been with him for long. You might expect some simple attacks from it. Simple but you should still be on your guard. I'm willing to bet it's gonna open with a quick attack so get ready to hop out of the way and kick up a sand attack at the same time. You'll only have a second so go in for the tackle and follow up with a little assurance. You got this."

Any other person or pokemon would have given me a blank stare and ask me to repeat everything I said, this time a little slower than lightning. But I know Sable understood every word. She might have even been thinking it herself. The point is, she didn't miss a thing and I am more than confident in her abilities.

She takes her place a few feet away from the giant, green bug-pokemon while a small crowd starts to gather around the four of us, smelling something exciting cooking in the air. Sable will keep it short for them.

I guess the scyther realized that nap time was over because it looks at Sable and spreads out its bladed arms and hunches down a bit. Sable remains cool and calm, slowly pawing at the dirt and unblinkingly staring at her oppenent. Scyther's foot scoots back behind it and on its toes and Sable lowers her body, her legs turning into springs, ready to lift her off the ground the moment Scyther moves. To a little bit of my surprise, it does not open up with a quick attack, but I was pretty damn close. The agility of the scyther is as fast as I had expected, but this fresh-out-of-the-grass bug was sloppy, predictable, and Sable had no trouble anticipating where it would end up next. As if it were scripted, the springs in Sable's legs launch her into the air, evading the aforementioned quick attack that now comes as a follow-up to Scyther's agility.

Sable spins on the ground as she lands, kicking up a cloud of dust aimed directly for the scyther, and immediately launches herself at it with her hind legs in one fluid motion, slamming into its unprotected torso. It stumbles for a moment and almost topples over from losing its balance, but Sable gets in her assurance by lifting her head straight up into the scyther's chin then kicking it back with her hind leg.

Scyther rolls through the air and tumbles on the ground but it is quickly back on its feet, though I notice that it staggers in pain a bit, probably from getting hit hard twice in the chest. Once it regains its composure, it raises one of its sickle arms in the air and pushes it's feet off the ground and launches itself towards Sable. But Sable stands her ground and instead of jumping out of the way for a counterattack, she puffs out her chest and lets out a deafening roar that causes the accumulated audience to wince and cover their ears. Scyther hesitates and stumbles, hitting his chin hard on the ground, just a couple of feet away from Sable, landing just in range for an attack.

"Now!" I shout, but Sable is already moving in on her target, jaws open wide and her teeth barred. She sinks them into Scyther's shoulder and launches him into the air then jumps up after him. The scyther takes a moment to come to and look around to realize that it's in the air, but it's a moment too late as Sable already has her jaws locked around his arm and winds up to throw him back down to the ground. A huge cloud of smoke kicks up and everyone around me starts coughing and fanning the air around their heads. I shield my eyes from the dust and wait for it to clear, and when it does, I stick my fist in the air and shout "Yes!" at the sight of Sable standing proudly, looking down at the passed out scyther on the ground.

"Good job, girl," I say to her after I run up to her and hug her around her neck. The sweaty, hiker-trainer-man smiles sheepishly as he holds up his pokeball and his scyther is called back.

"Wow, that was quick. You guys are really good. You're mightyena is amazing."

"Thanks!" I smile and stroke Sable's neck fur as she nuzzles into my side. "Your scyther is still pretty young and hasn't had that much experience yet. I can tell. But just spend a little more time with him and you two will get there in no time."

Sweaty Hiker Man blushes and nods before stuffing his pokeball back in his bag and turning to the opposite direction, probably to climb the first mountain he can find. As I watch him leave, Dom is suddenly behind me, wiping the dust from his square framed glasses on his button up shirt.

"That was good. You guys are really good at reading your opponents. Sable didn't miss a beat, did she?'

"No. She never does," I smile and in her own, mightyena kind of way, she smiles back.

* * *

Dom and I make our way down Route One while Sable runs around in front of us and I play with Dom's dark, curly hair. He hates it when I do that but after a long time he kind of just started accepting that I wasn't going to stop because I just love his hair so much.

"It's soooo soft! I just wanna touch it forever. Can I have it?"

"What? No. Get off." He bats me away but I remain persistent and try with both hands to feel his head, laughing incredibly hard as I see the look of frustration and desperation on his face.

However Sable grabs both our attention. "Look," Dom says, stopping and pointing at her. She's stopped in the middle of the road, as still as a statue, her ears perked up and her eyes staring straight ahead. I walk over to her and kneel down, placing my hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong girl? What is it?"

She huffs but doesn't look at me. Her eyes are still fixed on something straight ahead.

"Katsuko," I hear Dom say off to the side. I stand up and look at him and find that he too is staring off into the distance. Puzzled and slightly worried now, I look behind me and scan the area, but find nothing. But then, I look up and I finally see what has turned my companions into stone.

Just beyond the tree line, rising quickly and endlessly into the air is a massive cloud of black smoke. A fire. A very large fire. In Pallet!

"Oh my God..." I whisper. I take off into a run and Sable and Dom quickly follow suit. Flashes of horrific images pop into my head as I run. Images of the worst possible outcomes I can think of involving my parents and... Hanna!

Please, not Hanna, I think frantically to myself. Why didn't I take her with me? I don't know if I could ever forgive myself if anything happened to her. Especially thinking about how I'd let down my mother for not taking Hanna out and spending time with her like she'd asked. I suddenly think about the last conversation I had with my mother, and I how I had acted. I left her being so upset with her and now there's the possibility that something terrible might have happened to her, Hanna and my dad. This gives an extra push and I run harder through the trees, snapping branches and trampling through bushes as I go. Sable has no trouble at all keeping up with me and surprisingly, neither does Dom.

Please, don't let it be that. Don't let it be as bad as I'm thinking it to be. Please. Just...please.

But it is. The three of us burst through the trees and stand at the hilltop and watch, as a third of Pallet is burned and still burning. My heart sinks when I see the destruction. The black cloud looks even bigger than before and I find that it is difficult to breath, not because of the smoke, but because of the sheer terror. Terror that wrenches my gut when I do not see my own house standing on the far off hilltop, behind the rest of the town, behind the dancing trees, under the clear blue sky. Instead I see nothing but an inferno and everything I love, black, charred and crumbling.