"And that's how we've won!", said Sephia. Professor Oak had listened the whole time and nodded now.
"Just as I thought. Remember what I read to you? If you can manage to control this 'Alliance' or however you call it, you can win against Lugia and Ho-oh. I would ask you to come here so I could find out more, but I think it's better if you continue your journey. Just continue as you did before and I'm sure that you can handle it!"
Sephia smiled. "Thanks, Professor. Goodbye!"
The screen went black and Sephia sighed. Was she really special? Alliance.... she remembered how she was connected with Moltres. It had been confusing, but even now she could still feel the power Moltres had given her. She really had to figure out more.
Deeply in thoughts, she left the Pok�mon Center and turned north, facing a bridge. She had to leave the town, then she could talk to her Pok�mon. But when Sephia had crossed the bridge, a young man came running towards her.
"Hey! Hey! Let's fight!", he shouted. Sephia panicked. What could she do?
"Oh...I just came back from the gym, my Pok�mon are still too weak", she lied. The man looked at her.
"Every good trainer would give his Pok�mon into the Pok�mon Center after a gym-fight. You are afraid of me, huh?" He grinned. Sephia stared back. Could she risk it and let her Pok�mon out? The city was near and the man could tell everyone about her Pok�mon. But being insulted wasn't nice...
"Come on, Cutie, battle me", the man said. Sephia gasped. Cutie?!
"Ok, I'll crush you!", she shouted angry. The man smiled, walked a few steps away and grabbed one of his Pok�balls.
"We may use just one Pok�ball, Cutie, ok?"
"I AM NOT YOUR CUTIE!", Sephia shouted back. The man just threw his Pok�ball. Out of it came the biggest Pok�mon Sephia had ever seen...or at least the fattest. She took out her Pok�dex.
'Snorlax. If it's not sleeping, it's eating. Normally, it's very calm and hates to fight, but if it gets angry, it shows his immense strength', the Pok�dex said. Sephia looked at the giant cat-like Pok�mon.
"My Snorlax never loses! You don't have a chance, Cutie!"
Sephia growled and clenched her fists in anger. "Mewtwo!", she called in thoughts.
"Yes?", a voice spoke into her mind.
"Crush him!", she answered and took Mewtwos Pok�ball.
"Huh?", the Pok�mon asked, but Sephia had already thrown the ball. The psychic Pok�mon came out and looked around confused. When he spotted the Snorlax, he smiled. "Ah, a battle. How nice!"
The man stared at the speaking Pok�mon. "Hey Cutie, what's this?", he asked stunned.
Mewtwo turned to Sephia. "Cutie?", he said.
"Show him that I'm not a Cutie, Mewtwo. Blast him", she answered, speaking a little louder so that the man could hear her.
"Mewtwo?", he whispered, finally realising who his opponent was.
"Alright!", Mewtwo smiled.
"Psychic!", said Sephia, with a voice as cold as ice. Mewtwo simply raised his hand and the Snorlax was suddenly floating. It woke up and tried to move, but it was to late. With the other hand, Mewtwo had summoned a large energy ball and thrown it at the other Pok�mon. An explosion of blue light took place and when Sephia could see again, the Snorlax laid on the ground, defeated.
"I thought that 5% of my full energy would be enough and I was right", grinned Mewtwo. "And now..." He pointed at the man who fell down suddenly.
"What have you done?", asked Sephia, not really worried.
"I just erased his memory, so call me back into the ball now."
Sephia nodded thankfully and Mewtwo disappeared in his ball. A few seconds later, the man stood up.
"Ah...where am I? What happened?", he mumbled when he spotted his Snorlax. "Oh, Snorlax, are you ok?"
"It's ok. We fought and my Pok�mon used...Explosion, I think it hit you, too. Are you alright?", Sephia asked. The man nodded slowly, still confused.
"Well, then...I will go to the Pok�mon Center now. Here is your money for the victory." He gave her a small bag with a few coins in it and walked away after he had called his Snorlax back. Sephia waited a few moments and released all her Pok�mon then. They all looked around before turning to Spehia.
"Great job, Mewtwo! Your gym battle was wonderful, Arti!", Sephia said before smiling at Moltres. "But now, Moltres and I have a story for you."
Then, she started telling them what had happened in the gym. Moltres nodded sometimes and when Sephia had finished, the others looked deeply impressed.
'Wow!', Articuno whispered.
"Do you think we can learn this Alliance?", Suicune asked.
"I don't know", Sephia said. "But it would help us a lot against Lugia." The Pok�mon nodded.
'Let's train!', Zapdos shouted and the others nodded. Then, they realised that something was missing.
"Where's Mew?", asked Mewtwo. Everyone looked around and searched for the little Pok�mon until they heard Mew squeaking.
'I found some stuff!', she shouted and everyone ran into the direction they had heard the little Pok�mon from.
"What stuff?", Sephia shouted.
'Some stuff!', Mew replied. Sephia realised that she wouldn't get a better answer and ran even faster. What if it would be dangerous? And really, when they found Mew she was crawled under a strange brown machine with some blinking buttons. It looked a little bit like a helmet. Quickly, Mewtwo grabbed his little friend and threw the strange machine away.
"Mew! Don't touch things which could be dangerous!", he said. Mew looked sad.
'I thought it would be something to eat, it looks like the chocolate on my cookies', the little Pok�mon mumbled. Mewtwo shook his head in disbelieve.
"Wow, look at this! Sephia shouted suddenly. The Pok�mon went to her and she showed them a sign on the machine. It read 'TM 19'.
"Isn't that this Sesmic Toss TM Professor Oak told us about?", Suicune asked. Sephia nodded.
'It looks old. Maybe someone threw it away because it wasn't working or something'; Articuno said.
"Should I try it?", Mewtwo asked. Sephia thought about it.
"That's your own decision. It may be kinda old and if you can't learn the attack, maybe something bad will happen. However, we might not find something like this again."
She handed the TM to Mewtwo who took it. "Well, since I'm the strongest, I should be able to deal with everything. Even with a broken TM", he said and put it on his head. "And what now?", he asked. Everyone shrugged. Mew flew up to the TM.
'Maybe we should push a button...", she said. "Something's written on this one....it says...o...on! Yay! On!" Then, she pushed it.
'Whoa, Mew! Can't you wait?', Articuno shouted. All the lights were blinking now. Mewtwo looked confused.
"Mewtwo, are you ok?", Sephia asked concerned.
"Yes, I am, everyth-", he started. Then, he fell down to his knees, holding his head. Everyone ran to him, but he was already standing up again.
"I'm fine", he coughed. "But...I know something!"
'I know lots of things!', Mew shouted.
"No...Mew....I think I know a new attack!", Mewtwo mumbled.
'Seismic Toss?', Moltres asked. Mewtwo thought about it.
"Yeah, I think so. So, I'll try to forget Psybeam, right?", he asked. Sephia nodded and Mewtwo closed his eyes. A moment later, the lights went off. Mewtwo threw the TM away. "It worked, I think. I can't even remember Psybeam! But I think I know how Sesmic Toss is performed!"
Sephia clapped her hands. "Wonderful! Now we don't have to buy an expensive TM!" Then, she stopped. "Oh! I forgot to buy something!", she shouted. "Wait here, I'll run back into the city!" And before someone could say something, she started to ran away. The Pok�mon sat down for about ten minutes before their trainer returned. Sephia carried a cassette-recorder.
"Huh?", Mewtwo asked. "What are we supposed to do with that?" He watched Mew when she started to fly around the recorder.
"I told you that we will dance and sing. I just got some music for us", Sephia explained. Mewtwo sighed. He remembered that Sephia wanted them to do this in their first training lesson, but she had forgotten it. He had have the small hope that she might have forgotten it completely, but now he realized that it wasn't that way.
"I'll call five of you back into the Pok�balls now and then I'll fly on one of the birds to a forest where we can train!", Sephia shouted happily. Mewtwo sighed.
Half an hour later, Mewtwo and Sephia landed on a clearing. Mewtwo had insisted on carrying Sephia while flying and during the whole flight he had tried to get the idea of singing out of her head. He had failed completely.
Sephia let the others out and put a cassette into the recorder. "Ok, first, dance how you want to dance. But no flying. Stay on the ground. Ok?"
The Pok�mon nodded, feeling uncomfortable. The music started and Sephia laughed.
"Come on now!", she shouted and started to dance. The Pok�mon stood there, not really knowing what to do. Then, Mew jumped up and down.
'That's funny!', she squeaked. Sephia laughed.
"See? I told you!", she said and jumped together with Mew. Slowly, Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos started to swing their wings forward and backward and finally, Mewtwo and Suicune joined in.
"That's embarrassing!", Mewtwo mumbled.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it!", Sephia said. "We'll do this every day now!"
Her words let Mewtwo jump back in horror.
'You can dance wonderful!', Mew squeaked. Everyone laughed and Mewtwo mumbled something.
Five minutes later, Sephia stopped the music and got out a book.
"This is an Aerobic book. Do you know what Aerobic is?", she asked.
'Sounds funny!', Mew shouted.
"Sounds terrible!" Mewtwo said.
"Aerobic is...well....I don't know that exactly since I hate sport, but I think it's like dancing combined with training", Sephia explained.
"If you hate sports, let's don't do it!", Mewtwo said full of hope. Sephia shook her head, smiling.
"I want to learn, too. We must surpass what we fear and hate. That's the way to get stronger." The others nodded and Mewtwo growled. Suicune took the book and opened it.
"Sephia, this can be a problem", she said. Sephia walked to her. "I have four legs. How am I supposed to do the splits?"
"Just like everyone with two legs does, just with four legs!"
"I can't do this", Suicune whined.
"Hey, I'm the one who is bad at sports. I can't do one, too. We have to learn!", Sephia laughed.
'And how can I do a pushup? I don't have hands!', asked Articuno.
"Train your wings", suggested Sephia. Articuno nearly fainted.
"You have to get stronger, Arti. We have to train VERY hard or Lugia will laugh at us!" Articuno nodded. Sephia put another cassette into the recorder.
"And now, just do your best." She clicked on the "play"-button and music started. Then, a female voice gave aerobic instructions.
'Clap your hands, step forward, put your hands in the air and step backwards', the voice said and Sephia and the Pok�mon tried to follow the orders.
"That's a nightmare!", Mewtwo said.
"Yeah", said Suicune, trying to stand on two legs, but totally failing. "Imagine someone would see this. Six legendary Pok�mon, making Aerobic."
'That's fun!!!', squeaked Mew.
Half an hour later, everyone was exhausted.
"We have to learn to control our breath!", said Sephia. "Then, it will be easier. For now, let's do one last thing. Let's start with the singing!" The Pok�mon gasped.
'No! Mercy! Mercy!', shouted Zapdos, but Sephia shook her head and handed them some sheets of paper. "These are the texts. Today, we won't combine it with dancing. Just sing now." Again, she switched cassettes and new music played.
"Mew, do you want to start?", Sephia asked, knowing that Mew was the only Pok�mon who enjoyed this. Mew nodded happily, but didn't sing.
'I can't read very good!', she said sad.
"That's not a song, that's terrible! I want to be the greatest Pok�mon master... Sephia, that's not a text, that's....", Mewtwo started, but Sephia shook her head.
"Forget it, you have to do it. Remember, you want to be the strongest Pok�mon. This can help you a lot. Since you can read the text, why don't you start?", Sephia grinned.
Mewtwo stared at her in horror. The birds giggled and Mewtwo gave them an angry look.
"Maybe we should sing together first", Suicune suggested. Sephia nodded.
"Ok, good idea. Now, let's start." She started singing and slowly, the Pok�mon joined in. After singing half of the song, she stopped singing to listen. It sounded terrible. Since Mewtwo and Suicune were the only ones who were singing in human language and since everyone sang terribly wrong, she was surprised that she wasn't deaf yet. She let them finish the song, then she stopped the music and sighed.
"Ok, it seems that we still have lots of work to do. But I'm proud of you. I know that you hate all this, and please don't think that I like it. But we need it to get stronger. And we will. We will train. And then, we will crush Lugia!!"
The Pok�mon cheered and Sephia looked up. The sun was already going down. Another day had passed. She thought about her old life. One month ago, she had been an afraid, unwanted orphan. Now, she was a Pok�mon trainer with wonderful Pok�mon. She had changed a lot. And she was sure that she would change a lot more in the next months.
To be continued...
******
AUTHORS (IMPORTANT) NOTE: Ok, now I'll have a biiiiiiiig jump in time in the fanfic. I mean, you don't think that I'll write about getting all 100 badges!? Don't worry, there will still be TONS of chapters since Saga 2 will still last a long, long time and there's still Saga 3 with 30-60 chapters. So, no need to worry!^^ Oh, and I still hope that �splits� and �pushup� are the correct translations for what I mean.^^;;;;;
Oh, yeah, and as usual, please review at [email protected] THANX for reading!
This will be the last chapter in 2001 (I think), so have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!!
~Faria