What a perfect day! What an absolutely fabu –

"Maria!"

Or… maybe not.

I turned around from my carefree strolling through a large clearing in the middle of the woods. Small, pink flowers dotted the ground in front of me.

"MARIA!"

I stopped in mid turn. A thoughtful expression drifted across my face. I knew that voice. It was my dad. Right, what did I do this time. Well I did send Chimchar to have a look at his prized paintings while I go and take a nice long walk – oh yeah! Oops. I forgot that dad didn't exactly like Chimchar snooping around. I sighed.

"Yes, dad?"

My dad was a cheerful man (usually) but right now his mouth was turned down at the corners in a fairly obvious look of disapproval. He was holding my sweet little Chimchar by the scruff of its neck.

"Chim."

Chimchar waved at me, a guilty expression on his face. My eyes flickered from Chimchar's face to my dads. My father's face was strangely twisted. His mouth was slowly curling up in a bizarre grin. Finally, he burst out laughing. I stared at him, dumbfounded. In all the confusion, Chimchar hopped out of my dad's grasp and ran to me.

"Chimchar!" It said as it settled comfortably back in its old place, by my shoulder.

I nodded to Chimchar then turned my attention back to my dad. He was now gasping, clutching his stomach, trying desperately to force back the giggles that threatened to overwhelm him. Finally, he brought himself under control.

"Maria, your Chimchar –

He stopped in mid sentence as another racking round of laughter took hold. Chimchar and I watched, bemused as he laughed and hiccupped. When he stopped, I felt it safe to ask him a question.

"So, what was Chimchar doing? And why is it so funny?"

My dad put on a stern face and replied, "At about 10 in the morning, a scream was heard from the house next door – you know, my rival's home. I went there to investigate and I saw Mr. Quirkiny wailing while your Chimchar leaped from ledge to ledge, shooting flamethrower everywhere. I think it was quite scared and somehow – made its way into the house. Upon further investigation, I found that Mr. Quirkiny's paintings were all burnt to crisp," he grinned, "And his son finally challenged our family to a battle!"

I blinked in surprise.

"Why do you want him to challenge us?"

"Just wait and see."

With that, he took me by the arm and dragged me towards the town square.

The town square was in the middle of Halborough Town, host of the Halborough Town Contest. The town was a well-known fishing location and the Contest Stadium stood on stilts in the middle of the ocean. You had to get a boat to go there – and the boat lenders take it as a good chance to battle. We were going to Black Pebble beach. Although a beach, it was also part of the town square. The beach is littered with black pebbles and occasionally; Suicune is seen pacing the Scarborough stream leading to the ocean. We were going to the Crystal caves – a beautiful cave surrounded by glowing crystals. They were said to be sacred to Articuno when it came down from the mountains to protect the town from invading Gyrados. Articuno managed to drive them out but a couple of missed ice-beams hit the cave and formed tall crystals. Amazingly, they never melted.

"The majestic Crystal Caves will be the place for our battle!" my dad announced this with pride.

"Shhh!" I whispered, "It's sacred for a reason you know."

"Sorry." My dad whispered back.

He touched a finger to the nearest crystal. Immediately, it started glowing a soft, cold light. As the light spread to the crystals around it, they started glowing as well. Soon, the cave was brightly lit. On the other side of the cave, I saw the angry faces of and his son, Vevy.

"There you are!" Vevy shouted, "Your Chimchar has some nerve wrecking my dad's paintings like that, you know! And you're going to lose and be downgraded to level 0!"

I nudged my dad.

"What does he mean by level zero?"

"Err-

's voice cut him off.

"I cannot believe your caring father didn't tell you. Each family in town has a level. Each level gets different priorities. Your family is on level 5." He pointed to my blue hair with purple streaks. "The familes in each level must always have an item of clothing on to match the level colours. In your case, your family dyed your hair. I doesn't really matter as long as people can identify your level." He gestured to himself and his son. "We are on level 6."

I looked at my dad imploringly.

"I still don't see what's so special about this level business."

But my dad already predicted that I'd ask this question. Typical fathers. He produced an aged, wrinkled scroll tied by a blood red ribbon from one of many pockets that lined his coat. He untied the ribbon and the scroll fell open. There was a list of colours and priorities. He pointed to the 5th line from the bottom.

"That's where we are."

Then, he moved his finger to the top of the scroll.

"That's where we want to go."

I stared at the scroll. It was all a bunch of mumble-jumble to me.

"Umm… so why do we want to go to the top?"

My dad looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Because we get free food… lead our clan… become a gym leader… get more opportunities in job… (OK, it get's a little crazy from here on) take over the world… rule the universe…!"

Dad broke into a laugh, which soon became an evil cackle.

"We'll be rich!"

He was now dancing around the cave, waving his arms and legs about in a frenzy.

"Me! Rich!"

I ignored him and turned to the Quirkiny's.

"I don't know what's gotten into him…" I glanced at dad, "But the level business seems to mean a lot. So let's battle!"

Vevy sneered at me.

"Trust me, you'll go down."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I may be better than you think."

Vevy reached into his belt and produced a poke-ball.

"We'll just wait and see."

He threw the ball.

In a blaze of red light, the outline of a bulky figure with wings could be seen. In a flash, the light distinguished and revealed a Dragonite.

I immediately fell in love with it.

Shaking off my sudden dizziness, I took my poke-balls from my belt.

"Who should I choose…"

I probably would have stood there for ages trying painstakingly to decide but my father nudged me urgently.

"Stop delaying the battle like that," he hissed, "This is serious!"

"Oh, all right!" I snapped.

I closed my eyes and counted ring-a-ring-a-rosarade. My finger landed on the first Pokemon I caught. I gulped. The Pokemon tended to wander off more often than not.

Sighing, I threw the ball.

A rather fat Pokemon appeared.

"Blissey." It called. Blissey sighted a mound of flowers over on the edge of the cave. It let out a high pitched cry of delight and went over to investigate.

"Blissey! Come back here!"

Blissey ignored me.

Vevy burst out laughing.

"You seriously think you can beat my Dragonite with a Pokemon like that! Dragonite, teach the little rascal a lesson!"

The Dragonite flew over to where Blissey was still admiring the flowers.

"Drag!" It challenged.

Blissey ignored it.

"That stupid Blissey! How dare it!"

Vevy had enough.

"Dragonite, use dragon pulse!"

Dragonite reared up and a great ball of blue-green light gathered up in its jaws. With a mighty roar, Dragonite released the ball to strike Blissey.

"Oh no." I muttered.

But I didn't say that for Blissey. I've been in this situation before and Blissey will definitely think that Dragonite was attacking the flowers.

"Look out Dragonite." I said, smiling.

Indeed, Blissey put on a determined expression.

"Blissey!" Blissey cried and a great shimmering green wall surrounded the fat, pink and white Pokemon. Dragonite's attack bounced right off.

"Oh, man. A safeguard." I cried in triumph.

Vevy glared at me.

"It's not over yet."

Behind me, my dad shook my shoulder.

"Yes, what?" I asked.

"You're not supposed to be quarrelling, you're supposed to be battling!"

I looked at Vevy and found that his father was talking to him as well.

"Alright then. Hey, Vevy!" I called, "What say we finish this battle off!"

"Fine with me!" he called back.

My father and Vevy's father all stood at the sides.

"I'll be the referee!" they called in unison. Then each turned to glare at one another.

I groaned. "Why don't you just play water, grass, fire?"

The two nodded in agreement.

"Grass."

"Fire"

"Fine, you win." My father grumbled.

Vevy's father produced two flags from his belt.

"Begin!" he called, raising the flags.

Vevy made the first move. "Dragonite, dragon claw!"

Dragonite answered with a powerful dragon claw aimed at Blissey.

"Blissey dodge and use focus punch!"

At the last moment, Blissey leapt out of the way and the dragon claw went crashing into the ground.

"Dragon." Dragonite growled in frustration. But there was no time to waste as Blissey's hand started glowing a brilliant white. Quickly, Dragonite wrenched his claw out of the ground and shot into the air.

"Blissey!" Blissey grumbled and hopped up and down on the ground, unable to get enough lift.

"Dragonite, use dragon pulse!"

Clever, I thought. If Dragonite went to attack Blissey on the ground, my focus punch will easily hit.

Dragonite fired dragon pulse off.

"Blissey, dodge it!"

Blissey obeyed and dodged the torrent of dragon pulses.

"Keep on firing, Dragonite!" Vevy shouted.

Holes were now appearing on the floor of the cave. Suddenly, I noticed that a pool of water was gathering in a hole.

Of course! There's a geyser here.

"Blissey, jump in that hole."

Blissey obeyed.

Dragonite started getting ready to fire another dragon pulse.

Any moment now…

Dragonite gathered more and more power.

Almost… now!

"Blissey! Focus punch!"

The water finally came out of the hole. With enormous force, it pushed Blissey up towards Dragonite.

Dragonite froze in surprise.

At the same time, Blissey crashed into Dragonite with its attack. The combined force of dragon pulse and focus punch smashed into Dragonite. With a howl, Dragonite fell 5 metres into the ground. If the force of the crash wasn't enough, Blissey's heavy weight landed on top of Dragonite ensuring an almost definite win.

"Blissey wins." Mr. Quirkiny said glumly.

As for my dad, he squeezed my and Blissey in a huge bear hug.

"We won! And we are finally in level 6 and they are in level 5! Yippee!"

"Cheat." Vevy hissed.

I felt 's eyes boring into the back of my neck. I turned. Somehow, Mr. Quirkiny's eyes seem brighter than before… I shook my head. It was just my imagination. Right?

Wrong.

The next morning, I felt a little queer. First, I was taken over by a overwhelming instinct to hop around all day. Right after that, I found that I could hop all day – if I tried. Then, to my astonishment, I could talk to Blissey and understand it (I mean her). It was all very baffling. When I came downstairs, my father didn't even recognise me. This is what happened:

Me: Hi dad.

Dad: What's a Buneary doing here… and *gasp* it can talk!

Me: What are you talking about?

Dad: Me? Well, it's not every day you meet a talking Buneary.

Me: Um, dad?

Dad: Yes?

Me: I'm your daughter.

Dad: Gosh! What happened?

Me: I don't know, apart from this desire to hop around all day and being able to communicate with Blissey.

Dad: I bet it was that Mr. Quirkiny.

Me: What's up with him?

Dad: He was rumoured to have once turned a supposedly rude schoolboy into a Rattata for some time. I guess a similar thing happened to you.

Me: But I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a Buneary!

Dad: Hang on a minute, I'll speak to my friend P.P.P.

Well, that was about it. Of course, I didn't think much about our friend P.P.P. Like, when has anybody useful has a name like that? They all have super cool names or last names like Einstein, Galileo and Churchill. But, 10 minutes later, I discovered just how useful P.P.P is.

To be Continued…