Fortree City
"Huff... huff... what does that idiot want from me!"
It was not long ago when I heard a cetain buzzing sound emitted from my Pokenav that caught my attention. Fishing it out of my bag, I looked at the caller-id. It was Ruby. Of all times why he must call me now when I'm in the middle of an intense training with my coach?
Sighing, I answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey! What do ya want from me this time?"
"Don't be so rude to me will you? I just want to ask where are you right now." His voice sounded panicky.
"Me? I'm at Fortree with Coach Winona right now. Why has it got to do with ya business?"
"Um... do you mind coming back to Littleroot? Err I mean... now?" I could sense some tension in his voice.
"Why? Why must I go back now when I'm in a middle of a training with Coach? Give me 3 reasons and I'll listen to ya."
"Alright fine, you're sure a bossy girl. Reason number 1."
My ears sharpened.
"One. Your dad's in trouble being screwed up with some wild Pokemon."
"What! Can't you just help him!" Seriously! What kind of reason was that! For a moment I suddenly understood why he refused to help my Papa. "Don't tell me... ..."
"...Because I don't wanna dirty my newly-made fancy clothes! That's reason number 2!" I gave myself a facepalm. "As for the third reason-"
"Fine fine! I shall head back right now!" Furiously ending the call by smashing the button, I tossed the device back into my bag and called out Pilo, my Tropius.
"Leaving so soon?" That's my coach. Winona who came out from the treehouse where all Gym Leaders in Hoenn usually gather to have important meetings related to the Pokemon Association. She had a small parcel which was shaped like a cube in her hands.
"Yep, I had enough training for the morning. Coach, what's that you're holding?"
"Oh, something I would like to give it to you. Here you go and -"
There was a sudden strong gust of wind which ruffled the leaves of the surrounding trees that I couldn't make out what Coach was saying, even though my sense of hearing was sharp.
"C-Coach! I can't hear what ya saying!"
"Nevermind! You'll know when you open up that box! Quickly rush back home now! Your father needs help right?"
She must had overhead my conversation with that neat freak just now and she's right. Papa... hasn't he learnt his lesson with the encounter between the 2 Mightyenas 4 years ago? Sigh... and that jerk! Couldn't he be helpful at least once? Receiving the parcel from Coach, I hopped onto my trusty Pilo and took off towards the sky.
"Littleroot! Here I come again!"
Some unknown area/ place
"Hey! Long time no see!"
"Hi everyone!"
"Yo!"
"How's life?"
"Hi."
"Quickly get those done before someone discovers us!"
"...Why must I do this?"
"Yay!"
"It's all here."
"Thank you!"
At Route 101
After being airborne (staying in the air) for around an hour thanks to my awesome Pilo's flying speed, I finally reached Route 101. This used to be the area where I would help Papa out with his field work. This was also the place my Secret Hideout and my first meeting with... that bastard.
"Papa! Where are you?"
I scanned the area with Pilo. Not a single human (except for me) in sight.
"Papa!"
Hopping off Pilo, I recalled it to it's Pokeball and dashed around the place filled with bushes and puddles of water. It looked like it just rained no so long ago. I looked around again. There were no traces of any fights, incidents or destruction of natural habitat; the whole area was peaceful with a few Wurmples crawling on trees and Zigzagoons running in a zig-zag manner ( I often wonder how do they avoid the enemy in this way).
Did that weirdo just lied to me?
One way to find out: To Papa's lab!
With the parcel still in my hands, I ran towards the lab. I didn't took off the wrapper while I was flying via Pilo as I was afraid that I would drop the parcel that was meant for me.
Slamming open the door by using my elbow, I barged in only to find out that Papa's still at the wooden table with the surprised look clearly shown on his face.
However, I was the one more surprised, or shocked to be exact.
"My dear girl, you do not need to slam down the door to enter you know?"
"P-Papa! Aren't you supposed to be chased by wild Pokemon out there now?"
"What are you talking about my dear daughter? I had been in the lab since the whole morning sorting out research papers!"
Huh. I was right. THAT IDIOT. HE'S GONNA GET IT FROM ME WHEN I SEE HIM.
"Grr! He lied to me! BASTARD!"
"S-Sapphire, which bastard lied to you and where are you going now?"
"Settling scores with that full-time liar!" I stormed out of the lab, leaving a confused Papa behind and headed into the wild.
"I wonder what's that box for..." Papa was staring at the parcel Winona gave me earlier. He studied the box, flipped around and found a note attached to it underneath:
{ To: My student, Sapphire Birch
From: Your coach, Winona
PS: ```` }
"The PS note was smudged with ink... wonder what did she wrote to Sapphire?"
Papa got up from his seat and decided to mark down the dates for the appointments with the other researchers down.
"Today's the 20th of September... wait. This date sounds familiar. OH I REMEMBERED NOW!"
At Secret Base Area
THAT IDIOT. I'M SO GONNA MAKE HIM PAY.
Swinging from one vine to another, I occupied myself with the plan of 'murdering' him when he appears right before me. As I landed on another vine, I noticed that the vine was slightly different from the other tree vines I've been swinging on. I tried to aim for the other vines but I was too late. I soon slammed into what do you call that: a blue leather-like object which has a rough texture, with several banana-shaped leaves (but they were much, much ticker and wider). On top of them sat a large, dark pink blossom. Falling on all fours, I rubbed at the back of my head. Upon taking a closer look, it was a Venusaur that I just slammed myself into.
Wait, why would a Venusaur be doing here? I've been roaming around this area for years and I swore that I never ever saw this creature here before. How did it even appear here?
As I continued pondering over the unbelievable fact that a wild Venusaur appeared in Hoenn (which was ridiculously impossible), I felt a slight pressure at my waist area. Looking down, I realised that I was being hoisted in mid-air by a Vine Whip.
"Hey! Let me down!" I attempted my best to free myself from the Vine Whip as I tossed a Pokeball down to the ground. "Toro! Use Blaze Kick!"
As my Blaziken materialized itself from the Pokeball, it's right leg was immediately filled with fire and hurled the kick at the Flower Pokemon who was holding me hostage. To my horror, just as the flames were about to reach the target, the Venusaur unleashed another Vine Whip and binded Toro's attacking leg. Toro let out a shriek before tripping over.
"Toro, no!"
Upon the next second, I was being flung up into the air. The feeling of being completely in mid-air without any flying aid was awesome, but when it comes to landing... ...
"AHHH!"
I landed with a thud and onto my cavegirl outfit that I discarded over months ago. Thank Arceus that there's this to soften my fall. I quickly retreated Toro back into the Pokeball.
Guess where I landed. At my Secret Hideout's entrance! This little cave used to be an empty base, but when the Hoenn crisis ended 4 years ago, that prissy boy had bought loads of junks which consisted of soft cushions and beanies, Pokemon plushies and some mini furnitures as well as unique mats which made musical sounds when being being stepped on. Out of all the stuffs he bought, I only like the TV which was shaped like a Skitty and the Battle Tent (as I could hide myself in it and store other things that was not meant for Papa to know or what so ever).
But, I could feel a strange prescence inside my hideout. I could detect other scents of *sniff* humans! Moreover, one of the human scent I detected was bearing the aroma emittted from the Venusaur I fought a few minutes ago.
"Guess that Saur did hurt you a little too much huh? I'm sorry if your body still hurts from the attack..."
Turning around, I can't believe that the owner of the voice belonged to one of my Kanto seniors, Red.
"Red-senpai, What are ya doing here?"
"You're asking me why I'm here? Heh, I thought you would be smarter to know what day is it today. Go figure it out yourself."
Today's date? What special day was it today that Red-senpai would appear right at my hideout (how does he even know that I had a personal hideout in the first place?). I knew Red-senpai wasn't one who would go around idling, since he's the Champion of his own region's league. He was also the main reason and motivation of why I went around challenging Gym Leaders and making a bet with that bastard. Both of us ended up completing the bet before my birthday.
Wait. My birthday? I used my fingers to count the number of days that passed. As I counted the number '20', I could hear my senior facing directly at the interior of my hideout shouting: "1, 2, 3!"
"SURPRISE~!"
"W-WHA-WHAT?"
My Secret Hideout became brighter in an instant thanks to artifical lighting. Artifical lighting?
Soon, 10 people appeared right in front of me. Those faces... those were the faces of my seniors and juniors! All of them were here!
"HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY SAPPHIRE!"
There stood Yellow, Gold, Crystal, Emerald, Pearl and Platinum at the front, with their presents outstretched towards me. Standing behind them were Green, Silver and Diamond and Blue.
"Thank ya my seniors and juniors!" I spoke gratefully as I collected the presents from them.
"Love the present I prepared for you, darling~?" Blue, another one of the Kanto Dex Holders, suddenly appeared in front of me after Platinum handed the present to me. It took me a second to realise what she meant by her 'present' prepared for me. My base. It was fully decorated with party banners on the cave walls, nearly covering every single detail of it. One area of the wall was uncovered. Looking closer, there was a stone carving which had chibi-fied versions of each of our faces, with a big heart shape surrounding the faces. On the ceiling, there was a small disco ball suspended in air. There's a tag saying 'Happy Birthday Sapphire' attached to it.
"Not only I invited the Dex Holders to come and celebrate your birthday, I even got them to help out with the decorations to your base or whatever you call it. Since Green and Silver were the only ones who didn't prepare a present for you, I got them to do the stone carvings on the wall. Hope you enjoyed it~!"
"Hey Wild gal! The carving design was by me! I know it's awesome right, since Green-senpai does not have any ideas on designing and it's fun to see Silver having goosebumps while drawing the big heart around the faces! I must admit Green-senpai did a good job in carving the faces. Hehe!" it was Gold, one of my Johto seniors. "No offence!"
"You're so gonna be dead after this party." Gold received 2 death glares from Green and Silver as they sound in unison to threaten Gold.
"Is it time to show the cake to Sapphire-senpai yet?" Platinum, my Sinnoh junior asked.
"Oh yes! The cake! Get it out now from the storage box. By the way Sapphire, the cake was hand-made by Diamond, his present to you. We tried a few samples made by him and it's oishii! Let's get it out now!" Emerald, my comrade, dragged me to the pokeball-shaped table with his spring hand. Yellow soon appeared with the cake in her hands and placed it right in front of me. She then proceeded to heal my injuries I suffered with the fight against Red's Venusaur.
"Arigatou! Yellow-senpai."
"Douitashimashite! Red can be reckless at times..." Yellow was another Kanto senior I had. She sighed as she continued to heal my wounds.
"Err... gomenasai Sapphire. Why don't you give me a request? I'll do whatever you want me to do." Red came in and joined the conversation. Platinum was following behind him with the candles and the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' sign.
"Sapphire-senpai, how would you like the candles to be placed?" She was studying the cake Diamond had made and trying to figure out suitable spots for the candles to be placed.
"Ah! Missy! You shouldn't be doing this kind of things! Let me help you out!" Pearl rushed over, attempting to assist Platinum.
"Pearl, I know you have good intentions, but let me do it. It's my first time doing this kind of thing in my whole life..." Platinum looked down, feeling embarassed of what she said.
"It's alright Platinum, I'll let ya have the honour of doing the arrangments of the candle on my birthday cake then! I'm sure it'll look great!" I gave her an encouraging wink: I can't bear to let my junior to feel bad on my birthday.
"A...arigatou gozaimasu, senpai! I won't let you down!" Having confidence in herself, the female Sinnoh Dex Holder proceeded to arrange the candles on my birthday cake.
"Hey! Did I miss out anything fun here! I was too busy teasing Silver with Blue-senpai! Oh Arceus, it was so funny just now that I couldn't get it off my mind!" Gold was putting both his hands on his stomach while Silver gave him a death glare followed by a hand smacking down to Gold's head. "Yikes! That hurts! Geez, why did'cha do that for Super Serious gal?"
"Couldn't you be more mature and set a good example for your juniors to follow!" Crystal kicked his knee. "And stop calling me that!"
"Can't be helped." Gold said with a teasing tone, sticking out his tongue at the Capturer. Crystal kicked his knee one time (which was much harder than the previous one), leaving my Johto senior swearing under his breath. Blue, Green and Silver were approaching us.
"Ha, nicely done Crystal." The Exchanger smirked at the Breeder and gave the Capturer a high-five. This only added fuel to fire for the Breeder's case.
"Why you two..." Before he could finish his sentence, Gold was interrupted by the 2 Sinnoh Comedy Duo.
"Alright senpai! The cake's ready! Let's sing the birthday song now!" Pearl announced as he lighted up the last candle.
"Wait~! What's a party without party hats! Come everyone! Each person per hat!" The Evolver handed each of us a cone-shaped party hat. Everyone put them on happily, including me. Green and Silver seemed reluctant to put them on their head though.
"Let's get the party started by singing a birthday song for Sapphire-senpai~" Diamond stepped up and gave my seniors and juniors a signal. "1, 2, 3, go!"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAPPHIRE~
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~
Oh... wow... how should I put it... my gratitude to my seniors and juniors is way beyond description! I could tell that they really did put in alot of effort to make me enjoy the surprise they gave me.
"Arigatou... mina! I really loved this surprise all of you came up for me!" Before I knew it, tears started to form in my eyes.
"Don't cry!" "You're so touched, hmm~" "Someone pass her the tissue!" "Got it!" "Thanks..."
Half an hour later
After finishing the cake Diamond made for me, I went to have a training session with Green, to help me come up with strategies to defeat Red, whom I will be battling later. Yep, my birthday request for Red is to have a battle with him so that I can learn from him and gather better tips on battling (Blue was angry that I didn't use that request to ask Red go and kiss Yellow). Apparently, Platinum was also interested, so she was jolting down notes about what Green had told me.
"Aero! Finish off with Aerial Ace!"
"Dodge and use Skyuppercut!"
As Red's Aerodactyl was about to reach Toro, she avoided the aerial attack and finished off by attacking with Skyuppercut. I felt even more achieved when the Trainer said that Toro had hit the vital spot of Red's Aero, thus defeating it easily.
"Nice accuracy and battle movements. No wonder you were dubbed as the 'Challenger'." Green gave me a pat on the shoulder and a satisfied grin.
"Green! What did you told her!" Red was returning his Aerodactyl to its Pokeball. Yellow took the Pokeball from him and began to use her powers to heal it. The 'Healer', that's her title.
"None of your business." Green gave the Fighter a smirk.
"Ohoho! Looks like someone can't accepts the fact that he was defeated by his junior~!" Blue suddenly appeared out of the blue. "Alright Red and Green! Let our Johto and Sinnoh juniors entertain her now!"
So, I had a seat on one of the cushions with the Johto Dex Holders while my Kanto seniors went to join the Sinnoh Trio. Crystal had talked to me about her experiences of capturing Pokemon in different regions while Gold kept finding a chance to annoy her by interrupting her speech.
"Hey Super Serious gal, did you tell her about the time where I saved you from drowning at the Whirlpool Islands 6 years ago?"
"Keep quiet! You didn't save me and I first thought you and Silver were both scary punks."
Silver choked on his own breath while Gold had a tremendous change of his facial expression.
"'Scary punks'? Oh my! Serious says we're scary, Silver! Come on, let's make a scary face in front of her, buddy!"
"As if I would." Silver crossed his arms and legs.
"Grr nevermind... I'll be back for you on your birthday... just watch out..." Gold adjusted his cap. "Hey Wild gal, why don't you and I do it instead?"
"My name is Sapphire, not 'Wild gal'! Hmph, I won't help ya out."
"Alright... Help me out won't you... Sapphire?"
"...Okay."
So, the both of us made a childish monster face for Crystal.
"You know, the both of you look like siblings here..." my female Johto senior commented. The other male Dex Holder just looked at us for a second before shifting his gaze out to the forest.
"Really! Oh yeah! Come on Sapph! You call me oni-san while I call you imouto-chan!"
"Hai! Oni-san!"
"Imouto-chan!"
"I just gained myself a God brother!"
"I just gained myself a God sister!"
The two of us high-fived together.
"Aww, Silver's so lonely." Gold laughed. "See, Sapph's my sister (she's also in the Ultimate Fire Team with me!) while she and Chris were Professor assistants." Oni-san looked back and forth at Silver and I. "I wonder if you two had any similarities."
"Wait! Gold, you always call Sapphire 'Wild gal' right? Silver could also climb trees and jump on a tree to another right? Then maybe..."
"Sapphire." It was Silver, who was looking at me.
"Yes?" I asked curiously.
"Let's have a jungle race together, if it's alright with you." He got up from his sitting position.
"Okay senpai!" I happily went out with him to the open.
"See? I knew this would bound to happen! Another mini event for imouto-chan thanks to me!"
Crystal: Liar.
Silver: Liar.
Me: Liar.
Out of Secret Hideout
Soon, we reached to the edge of the forest. Silver and I prepared ourselves by warming up. Apparently, our seniors also agreed to this mini race between Silver and I.
"Let's get this clear: We could only advance through trees and vines. Can?"
"Your wish, since it's you are the birthday girl."
Both of us climbed up to a tree and steadied ourselves by grabbing a vine.
"Get ready guys! The finishing line will be at Route 102's first tree! 3, 2, 1, START!"
We leaped to our feets while our Kanto seniors watched us by flying thorough the sky. Red was on his Aero, Green on his Charizard, Blue with her Wiggytuff and the Sinnoh juniors cheered for me on Oni-san's Mantine, Mantaro. Oni-san rode with his Togekiss, Toltaro. Emerald also rode on his own Mantine while Yellow just waited for us at the finishing line with Crystal.
"Go for it senpai!" "You can beat Silver, I'm sure of it!" "Go birthday girl~!"
It was intense. I must admit... Silver's quite fast in his movements... no wonder he was able to steal Totodile and the Pokedex without anyone noticing. For the past two minutes, we've been swinging from tree to tree, vine to vine without even stopping to take a breather. We're currently on par now and I could hear my juniors cheering for me.
"Ganbatte senpai~!"
Hearing those cheers definitely gave me motivational energy and thus, I began to increase my speed. Silver must had sensed this and increased his own speed too.
We were nearly reaching the finishing line. I had almost ran out of energy but Silver's still looking active as he swung from one tree to another.
"You're almost reaching!" "Come on Sapphire!" "You can do it!"
Not wanting to look bad in front of everyone, I decided to aim for the nearest vine and swung myself towards the finishing line. As if I had mis-predicted the outcome, I missed the vine and was falling for the ground.
"Sapphire! No!" Emerald, being the nearest to me, shouted as he dived down to me. Just before he could reach me, Silver had already caught me and both of us landed on Emerald's Mantine safely.
"You alright?" Silver put me down gently. "Next time, don't overtire yourself."
"Hai, senpai." I bowed to him. "But it was fun!"
"Fun? You were nearly falling to death, how could it be 'fun'?" Silver facepalmed himself as he made that comment.
"Hehe! My imouto-chan has her sense of humour! Unlike you." Gold landed and stood by my side, feeling triumphant.
"See, you're influenced by a bad senpai." Crystal came forward. "Anyways, please take care of yourself. I don't think this God brother of yours will take care of you or unless... the other way round."
"C'mon Super serious gal, you can't be serious in even this kind of things! Gimme a break!"
"Now now, you lovebirds should stop flirting in front of your juniors! This is what I call a real 'bad influence'! Hohoho!" Blue laughed while Gold and Crystal blushed furiously and talked back with a "We're not lovebirds!". Green muttered a "Noisy woman" under his breath. Silver gave him a death glare (how many times has he did that already?) as he breathed heavily for lack of oxygen. I panted heavily as I slumped down against a tree, rolling myself and lie on the grass. The Kanto and Sinnoh Dex Holders soon landed and lay down on the grass beside me.
The sky was peaceful. I watched the clouds drifting past one another where a gust of wind breezed by and blew some of my hair to cover my face. Brushing those hair off and under the comforting breeze, I soon fell asleep.
"She must be tired from the race with Silver." Yellow stated and began to heal those injured wounds of mine. "Should we bring her back home?"
"Of course! Plus, she hasn't celebrated with her family and him yet." Blue lifted me up to Green's Charizard. "You bring her back okay?"
"Right..." Green muttered as he flew off on his Charizard.
"Better contact him now and ask how's with the preparations." Blue took out her PokeGear and dialed a number.
"Hello?"
"Hey. Everything's been smooth there for you right?"
"Yeah... so how's she now?"
"Being on cloud-nine, thanks to the thrillers we gave her." Gold snatched Blue's PokeGear from her hands. "But our Sinnoh juniors haven't present their surprise for her yet."
"It's alright, since it's still a few hours away from the meeting time. Take your time, no worries."
"Alright. Good luck for later! I'm hanging up now."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye." Finishing the call, he returned the PokeGear to Blue.
"Is that our senpai?" Platinum asked.
"Yeah! Hope he doesn't anyhow ruin the chance we gave him." Gold nodded.
"Don't you think that he may need some assistance?" Red asked.
"I think I'll go and check on him, to be on the safe side..." Emerald released his Mantine again. "Besides, maybe I can give him suggestions to improve on his plan."
"Take care, Emerald!" Crystal waved him goodbye. "And good luck!"
"I will!" Emerald nodded and took off to the skies.
"Hey Dia, shall we rehearse our comedy act again before Sapphire-senpai comes to?"
"Hai~! Let's practise~"