I don't own the pokemon series, any of the characters, icons, pokemon, or anything other than copies of Pokemon Red, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, FireRed, LeafGreen, Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl, TCG for the GB, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and a handful of other Pokemon-related items like plushies, action figures, and a ton of trading cards. All that belongs to me is the plot.

Pokemon Crystal: Deleted Scenes

Scene I: The 11th number

The rain. A light pattering over the booming bass of thunder. The sky lit by the streaks of lighting dancing jaggedly across the stormy canvas before her. Beautiful. It fell softly, a gentle caress of the glass panes of her bedroom window.

"Regular thirteen-year olds don't have to decide what to do with their lives," she mumbled just as softly into her pillow. "My friends, or rather, ex-friends, don't have to think about anything other than continuing their dreams of becoming the next Pokemon Champion… which is impossible; they have never been able to defeat me in the past."

She pressed her face even harder into her pillow, wishing that all the reporters standing outside with their cameras poised to catch even the smallest glimpse of her would simply vanish. "But fate is—" she paused mid-sentence as her cell phone rang.

The air was filled with a condensed version of the latest hit song from DJ Mary's playlist. It took her a few seconds to realize that someone was actually calling her, only acutely stressing how long she had been in almost total silence.

Opening it, she was surprised to see that it was a number she did not recognize in the least. Of course, it was probably some person smart, desperate, or obsessed enough to track down her phone number (that had happened in the past).

"Hello? This is Crystal speaking…"

There was no answer, only the barely distinguishable sound of light breathing from the other side. A small chill ran down her spine. Wasn't this like one of those silly horror movies?

The silence continued.

Within a minute's time, she heard the familiar dial tone, signaling that whoever had called her had hung up.

"Probably a wrong number. Yeah. That must be it." She resigned herself to lie on her bed once again, her heart keeping time with the thunder and her sighs echoing the howling wind, until her mother called her down for dinner.

When she returned to her self-imposed solitude, her eyes widened when she saw that she had received a text message. On the screen was a simple, over-used word. In the past three days, she had heard this word from everyone.

"Congrats," she whispered aloud. Glancing at the sender, it was clear that it was the same as her mystery caller from earlier.

Just as she had been about to text her mystery caller back, her cell phone rang. That's three times in one night, now, she mused.

"Hello?"

"Congratulations." The voice was low, raspy, and all-too familiar.

"Silver?"

"Is there a problem?" he asked coldly.

"N-no! Of… course not!" There was definitely a problem, like… how he got a hold of her cell phone number in the first place.

"You sound so convincing."

"Since you are the one that called me, I don't think you have the right to be sarcastic, Silver."

"Hmph. You've changed, you know."

"Huh?"

"And here I was actually trying to complime—nevermind. What I meant was that when we first met, you were so innocent and a complete pushover. Literally."

"Thanks?"

"Don't mention it, Crys-tal." He said her name teasingly, though she could find nothing amusing about the situation. Must be a criminal thing, she thought.

"You're in an awfully cheerful mood… why?"

"Because."

"That's not… an answer," the blue-haired Champion finished weakly as the line went dead. "Well, it's not like I was expecting him to have the courtesy to say good-bye."

Sighing to herself, she did not know what possessed her to add his number to her already-full list of contacts on her phone. Maybe it was so that the next time he called, she would answer right away. Maybe it was due to her need to actually talk to someone, a real, if somewhat cruel—no, she mentally amended, he's different from back then… just like me—but honest person. Maybe it was because she felt elated at the fact that he had called her.

If only that overly-warm feeling in her chest would go away…