Chapter 1

The grass rustled.

That was Victini's first warning. Her v-shaped ears twitched and gave an indication of deceipt. Something was here, something that was less than welcome in her private clearing.

She sighed and called, "Lucario, 'zat you again? I told you, I'll send a Flamethrower at you if you barge into my area one more time."

Small signs of movement, undetectable by the human ear, were picked up by Victini's hyper-sensitive ears and used to paint a primitive picture of what she was up against.

A small blast of psychic energy knocked Victini off her feet, but she got up and quickly countered with an extrasensory attack of her own. The foe seemed surprised to have encountered a skilled psychic and poured more energy into battling Victini's mind.

The two locked mental horns for several minutes before Victini shouted, both with her mind and soul, and the foe stopped momentarily. Taking advantage of the sudden halt of energy, Victini continued shouting.

"Please! I mean you no harm. I live peacefully in this clearing, and you are welcome to share my food, water and warmth for as long as you need."

The foe hesitated, and finally its attack subsided.

"Reveal yourself!" Victini commanded. The grass moved again, and a Celebi floated out, obviously exhausted.

"And the other one..."

"Eh?"

"Oh, don't act stupid. What's that supposed to be, then? A rose bush?" Victini pointed at the "rose bush", which, after a few moments, moved and meekly walked over to Victini.

"We meant you...no harm," Celebi said aloofly.

"Suuure." replied Victini, her usually gentle voice overcome with sarcasm and guardedness.

"We did! Seriously... we came across you by... accident, we don't go picking fights ...with whatever is unlucky enough... to cross our path," he added, and there was real sincerity in his words.

"Weeelll..."

"The aura you gave off was one of hostility and power. You were the least Pokémon we expected to be residing here, and since there was no other way around, we thought Celebi could overpower you easily," said the rose bush, more commonly known as a Shaymin.

"QED...not." Celebi was still panting from the gruelling battle and was studying Victini as though she was a Pokémon enigma.

"Okay...I guess I can trust you then. But what are you doing out here? I thought nobody knew I was here, except for that old Lucario down the road. He's mad as a hatter. It was probably his aura you picked up, not mine."

"Looking for something..." said Shaymin.

"Yeah, what?"

"Mew," said Celebi.

Victini frowned. "I thought you were based off a fairy, not a cat."

Shaymin groaned. "No, Mew the Pokémon. Pink cat, Mewtwo's sis, the one that learns any move...sound familiar?"

"Nope."

"What rock have you been living under?"

"Oh, just one over here, it's on a really comfy spot-"

Victini seemed all set to give the other two a comprehensive tour of her clearing when Celebi cut her off.

"Anyway, we were looking for Mew ever since Mewtwo took her somewhere..."

"He said something about their...den." Shaymin frowned and looked around, as if searching for clues pertaining to the location of Mew's "den".

Victini was at a bit of a crossroads at the moment. What reason did those two have for telling her all this? They came across her by chance, and surely they didn't want her to come on this wild goose chase...right?

No, she was not going. Victini was sure of that.

She was jerked back to reality by Celebi clearing his throat. "So, like, we were-" Shaymin shot him a sharp glance. He completely ignored her and charged on."-kinda wondering if, maybe, you'd like to-"

"-Go on some far-fetched trip, to places I don't know, with Pokémon I don't know, to stare into the malicious eyes of, surprise surprise, the unknown. Hmmmmm...how about...no? Sounds pretty reasonable to me." Victini's usually joyful face was crazed with a look that shouted 'What the hell are you thinking!?' and her large, v-shaped ears were rigid and glowing. Tiny wisps of smoke could be seen rising from her ears like the waste of a tiny smokestack.

"Well, now that's a shame..."

"Why? Hoping to lead me through routes filled with countless Patrat, Lillipup and Pidove, dodge trainers trying to catch all three of us at once, and too many other obstacles and annoyances to name? No way, fairy-boy."

To Victini's immense surprise, Celebi chuckled. "Fairy-boy. I like it."Victini seemed about to retort, when Celebi looked straight at her. A strange glint assumed the shape of his eye and traveled at the speed of light across to Victini, who blinked she smiled as if nothing had happened. "Awesome. I'll get ready. I've got some really tasty Berries stored over in a tree, so we can eat them if we get hungry." And without another word, she bounded off to find that tree.

"Celebi..." said Shaymin, concerned, "what did you do to her?"

"A little hypnosis. She'll thank me later."

"I'm not so sure."

"Don't worry! Seriously, it's not affecting her or anything."

"But Celebi-" she whined.

"What? Look, I'm doing this for a good reason." Knowing she would never win this argument, Shaymin dropped the topic. Better to worry about it later.

"So should we get started on helping Victini with those Oran Berries?"Celebi immediately softened, and the usual roguish smile returned to his face. "You read my mind."

And they set off to find Victini and begin their adventure.