AUTHOR'S NOTE: kudos to anyone who can get the easter-egg concerning the title.

actually, it's not that hard, but it's not altogether obvious either....

Chapter 9: the Good Witch

We forged on that afternoon. Much as it irked me to admit it, Casey was completely right: there was no reason to stay where we were and plenty to move on. Dana's Pokemon didn't find us by the time we had finished breakfast, and the odds were that it would not find us… but Chowchow could survive in the wild, I was sure, and who knew, someone might befriend it and take it home. Then again, this was Chowchow we were talking about, and it was perhaps the most ornery and perpetually disgruntled Pokemon I had ever met.

But I had a plan to cheer Dana up. I wasn't sure it would actually help, but it would get her mind off the loss of her companion. I explained my idea to Richard quietly; Dana was slumping along dejectedly ahead of us, and Casey brought up rear, staring at the sky absentmindedly.

"Just sneak into the bushes," I whispered. "See if you can scare something up and I'll try and coach her…"

"Um," said Richard, rather loudly. I shushed him and he continued in a susurrus. "Are you sure this is such a good idea?"

I considered this briefly. True, thrusting an opportunity like this at Dana out of the blue might only deepen her depression. Then again, it might be just what the doctor ordered to perk her back up. It was risky, and though I wasn't usually a gambler, I decided to make an exception for my old friend.

Moments later, Richard had vanished into the foliage and was rooting and weaving along parallel to the road. I smiled to myself as the seconds passed. Any time now…

"Yee-OW!"

I turned and looked in direction that Richard had gone. A few yards down the road, a small explosion burst from the forest. Orange tendrils glowed frighteningly from the ferns. Black smoke lumbered over the path. My spine tingled: somewhere around there was Richard.

With a curse, I summoned my two water Pokemon. Calypsa, the Vaporeon I received from my short-time girlfriend in the Orange Islands, and Stella, the Starmie that had stood by since the start of my journey, combined their powers of hydration and doused the blaze quickly. However, a few tongues of flame remained… but these didn't seem to be attached to any fixed object. No, they were bobbing toward us through the trees.

By this point, Casey and Dana had ceased their respective dawdling and appeared on either side of me, looking perplexed.

"Wait," I said, both to them and to my Pokemon. Calypsa nodded and Stella chimed an affirmative.

Suddenly, with a wild, primal ululation, Richard burst out onto the road, fire streaming off his clothes. He yelped again and dropped to the ground, rolling to remove the flames. My Pokemon hosed him down as he tumbled over and over…

"Keep it up," I ordered with a sigh. The jets of water continued to drench Richard until he stopped twitching. I approached him and nudged him onto his back with one foot. His skin was red and chaffed and his shirt was carbonized around the shoulders. I was just about to ask him why he had spontaneously combusted when the reason came bounding out of the trees.

The red-orange, bristling body of a Growlithe landed on the dusty path before us. Its tiny teeth shined like diamonds from the dense fur around its mouth. The black stripes on its back were stark against their fiery background; the bushy tail was erect and back was concave, poised for a fight. I guess Richard had stumbled on the Growlithe's territory. But he completed his mission, despite his minor burns: he had scared out a Pokemon for Dana to catch.

I rushed behind the girl and forced her forward. Her eyes had gone wide in surprise, and for a second, a blank expression possessed her face. Then…

"Oh my GOSH! It's so cute!"

I resisted the urge to slap myself in the face and immediately began my carefully improvised monologue.

"Dana, look, a wild Pokemon! This is perfect, you've got to catch it!"

Doubt suddenly clouded her face. Dana bit a fingernail. Meanwhile, Richard laid still and tried to be inconspicuous while the Growlithe sniffed him suspiciously. Calypsa and Stella scampered out to form a perimeter so that the wild Pokemon couldn't escape. Casey watched us all, vaguely amused.

"Why doesn't one of you catch it?" Dana said uncertainly. It was pretty clear that she was nervous and trying to remove the weight that had just been pushed on her. I was confident in her, though. I knew she could do this… she just needed a push in the right direction.

"Richard and I already have fire-type Pokemon," I explained quickly. Growlithe began to trot back toward the ferns but was intercepted by my Vaporeon. With a playful tail-slap, she nudged him back toward us… now Growlithe was beginning to look nervous as well. "And Casey doesn't need one, do you Casey?"

"Actually, Growlithe evolves into Arcanine, which is an extremely powerful Pokemon considered legendary in some parts of the world. It'd be great to…"

"Casey doesn't need it," I interjected to Dana. "Don't worry Dana, I'll help you every step of the way."

She looked from Growlithe to me, then back to the Pokemon.

"What do I do first?"

I smiled.

"Call out your Treecko and get ready: you're gonna have to fight for it."

"Ok… like this, right?"

Dana cautiously retrieved the pokeball from her backpack and held it at arms length, as if it might explode in her hand. With a flick of the wrist, the ball was cast to the ground. It chimed on impact, deposited the brightly colored gecko Pokemon with a cheery burst of light, then bounced back to Dana's hand. She caught it, almost surprised by the ease of it all.

"Perfect!" I said. "Now, you're going to need to weaken Growlithe first. Then you can throw a pokeball at it to catch it and…"

With a bark, Growlithe loosed a volley of yellow embers at us. Dana and yelped and dove out of the way, but Treecko was still standing where its trainer had left it, waiting for orders. The starter Pokemon was right in the path of the blast. Half a dozen embers struck it the back and tail, and with a high-pitched shriek of discomfort, Treecko leapt into the air. It ran in senseless circles around its opponent, batting itself with thin green arms in an attempt to quell the flames. Growlithe watched it with a smug grin; its tiny white teeth glinted cheekily.

"Ah! What do I do?"

"Roll, Treecko!" I called, hoping Dana's Pokemon would listen to me.

Treecko took the hint and dropped to the ground, performing the same ritual as Richard had earlier to ease its pain. The fire was smothered in seconds, and with a gasp of relief, Treecko stumbled upright and to its feet…

Growlithe bolted to its foe, mouth wide. A glow emanated from within its mouth, casting weird shadows across its teeth.

"Attack, Treecko!" screamed Dana, desperately. "Hit it!"

Treecko, as jittery as its train, lashed out spastically with its arm. One sucker-cup-tipped hand caught Growlithe in a surprising slap; the fire Pokemon tripped and face-planted, Treecko's sticky hand still stuck to its face.

"YES!" Dana jumped up, pumping her fist in the air. "We got it!"

"Don't let your guard down," I cautioned quickly. Growlithe was already on its feet, trying to pull away, but it could not shake free of its opponent's inadvertent grip. Luckily for Treecko, as long as its hand was stuck to Growlithe's face, the fire Pokemon couldn't get it with an Ember or Bite attack. Treecko was safe for the moment, but it could not last long. "You need to attack again!"

"Um…" Dana wracked her mind. Surely someone had told her about her Pokemon's techniques and abilities! "How?"

I guess not.

"I think Treecko should know moves like Pound, Quick Attack… maybe Bullet Seed!"

But before I had gotten past "Pound", Dana gave her command. She ordered her Pokemon to do the first move she heard, and Treecko complied obediently.

It pirouetted quickly, bushy tail extending from the centrifugal force. The appendage pounded Growlithe in the side. The suction from Treecko's hand was broken and the wild Pokemon was flung away. It tumbled down the road and came to a stop next to Richard, who was trying to remove himself surreptitiously from the scene; the instant Growlithe landed next to him, semi-conscious and growling like a little thundercloud, he cried out in fear and bounded away.

"Ok, pokeball ready?"

I looked at Dana. She was already excavating her satchel for one.

Growlithe got its hind legs upright and was struggling to get its forelegs up as well. It squinted at Dana and Treecko –I must admit, they made a surprisingly good team. I had only coached them half as much as I had expected to. I smiled to myself as Dana's hand reappeared with the small sphere of the pokeball. She expanded it and prepared to toss.

She looked at me, one last time, to make sure she was doing it right.

I grinned.

"Go for it."

"GO!" she cried, tossing the ball at the Growlithe.

Dana had never really been the athletic type: it was little surprise that her throw came up short. It landed on the path a few feet away from Growlithe, but its capture beam extended like a whip and absorbed the fire Pokemon before it could regain its footing.

Growlithe vanished in an empyrean pulse. The pokeball chimed informatively. It was inside, now it just had to stay inside.

The ball was shaken from within. It rolled jauntily back and forth until Dana scooped it up and clamped it up with her hands. She stared at the opening-button, which was blinking red, and her eyes widened. She gripped the ball tighter, afraid it would pop open at any moment…

I crossed my fingers…

And with a final tone, the button stopped blinking and pokeball settled.

"YES!"

(-o-)

That night, we found a clearing, about a quarter-mile in diameter, just off the road that had obviously been recently used by some other travelers (there were scraps of plastic and tin around its edges, and the long grass had been tamped down by footsteps). And my gambit paid off: Dana was so absorbed in her new Pokemon that she seemed to have put aside thoughts of Chowchow for the moment. She didn't open the ball to look at Growlithe, though. She just cradled it in her hands and stared at it euphorically.

"I can't believe I caught my first Pokemon!" she told me for the fortieth time. Casey opened her mouth to say something abrasive, but I shot her a warning look and she deterred.

No one should have their first catch spoiled for them.

Dana hadn't returned Treecko after the fight. The grass Pokemon scampered around giddily, clinging to Dana's shoulder or pouncing through the undergrowth around our campground. It was an exceedingly pleasant evening, so I let some of my Pokemon out for some air as well. Saturn lumbered over and nestled into the grass at the clearing's edge; Calypsa sniffed our bags for remains of food; Combusken quickly dug a fire-pit at the clearing's center and got a little blaze going.

As the sky darkened, clouds drifted down from the north. They moved with surprising speed overhead and began to clot together, thick floes of umber in the sky. The rest of the wilting daylight was blotted out. The wind rustled through the trees.

We stared into the atmosphere for a while, but took little notice. There was not much to see, it seemed, just pugnacious clouds that didn't have the guts to do anything to us.

"I'm hungry," whined Richard suddenly. I glared at him: he reminded me that I was ravenous as well.

"We should reach Violet City tomorrow," I said. "Surely you can make it until then!"

"But what if something else comes up?" asked Dana. "What if we get attacked again and it takes us another day? We'll starve or…"

"We won't starve," I said with a sigh. "We can scavenge for food in the woods if it comes to that, but it won't. We will get to the city tomorrow. I promise."

It was then that I realized that it had been me rather than Casey to tell Dana off. The fact that Casey had not been the first to criticize was strange… I looked around. Where was Casey, anyways?"

She stood at the edge of the clearing, looking through the trees. Mountains loomed on the northern horizon, and the sky churned above them. I walked over to her and was about to ask what was going on when she raised a hand, silencing me. What…

"Listen," she said simple.

I didn't hear it at once, but the second I did, I turned and ran back to the camp. There was a rushing noise, like a river of sound, crashing toward us through the forest. It was accompanied by little bullet-thuds of hail, and final, crescendoed with a blinding flash of lightning, a tumultuous roll of thunder. I realized that Casey was running beside me.

And the storm was on our heels.

"Richard!" I screamed. He and Dana looked up surprised. "Instant tent!"

My dad bought a new version of these handy devises before we left Saffron City. It was a shoebox-sized parcel of nylon and steel with a little ripcord on top, like that on an inflatable raft. Richard dug it quickly out of his backpack and threw it to the ground. Instantly, his fingers began fumbling with the chord.

A hailstone struck me neck. It stung like bug bite, but I ignored it and doubled my pace. I returned my Pokemon quickly; the wind had already put out Combusken's camp fire.

Dana, thankfully, had the foresight to gather up our bags when she saw the sheets of rain on Casey's and my backs. As Richard pulled the ripcord and tent began slowly expanding, she shoveled our packs in and dove after them. Richard followed as soon as the tent was large enough; it was big enough to sleep four or five people, but unfortunately, it had not yet grown to that size.

So, when Casey and I crashed inside, it was a rather tight fit for all four of us and our packs.

Something sticky brushed my cheek and I realized that Treecko was on top of me. In its fright, its clung to my head with its sucker-padded feet. The little Pokemon chattered timidly and only leapt off when another thunderclap tolled in the distance.

Finally, the tent reached its full size and we relaxed, leaning against the walls which were already being cooled by the rain. Hail pelted off the roof and the wind occasionally shook the synthetic fortifications, but we were safe and mostly dry. We all collapsed into relieved sighs and nervous laughter. Treecko still bounced off the walls for a few seconds after each flash of lightning.

(-o-)

We never quite got to sleep, only a dreary half-slumber. There was too much noise and energy permeating the tent's thin walls. Though we were dry, we were still impacted by the weather.

So it was a dark and stormy night: the perfect time to receive guests.

Treecko was in the process of timorously dancing on my head when I detected them.

I wasn't sure at first that I didn't just see the silhouette of a thrashing tree branch when a strobe of lightning lit up the sky. A vaguely human-shaped shadow appeared on the fabric of the tent; something squat and lumpy lumbered beside it, and a jellyfish-like shape was suspended above them both. It could have just been twigs and leaves, rendered invaders by the tempest, but then again…

I pulled Treecko off my head and set it down next to Dana, who seemed to have drifted into a weak, fitful sleep. Richard was similarly indisposed, and Casey was turned toward the wall so that I couldn't tell if her eyes were opened or closed. So it was up to me to determine the nature of the silhouette.

I grabbed Stella's pokeball and crawled a smoothly as I could to the door.

There was another flash; the forms were still there, just a few yards from the tent.

Stealthily, I unzipped the tent door but held it shut to keep the rain out. Wind tugged playfully at its edges, but I held the flap tightly… I counted down from three. At zero, I flung the hatch open and rolled out into the rain.

I was slapped in the face by a thousand dripping hands, and the gale almost tore my breath from my longs, but I forced myself to my feet and released my Starmie. My hair –which was starting to get overlong and hung, glutted with water, in face- blinded me for an instant but I wiped it away. And sure enough, there were two dark shapes standing before me, one thin and one squat, beneath a dark hemisphere of matter that blocked the rain. So I hadn't imagined them.

"Who are you?" I demanded over the torrent. "Who are you?"

A decidedly out-of-place burst of laughter tinkled in the rain. One shape, at least, was female.

I noticed suddenly that a bubble of transparent force surrounded the shadows, deterring the rain and wind. The jelly-fish object that hung above them was an umbrella. And the squat shape was a Pokemon of some kind.

"Am I that unrecognizable? Flash, Alakazam."

Before the sentence was completed, I began having suspicions about our visitor's identity. The sphere of pulsing light that appeared above her Pokemon's palm confirmed my premonition.

Standing beneath an unnecessary umbrella inside a Protection bubble generated by her psychic Pokemon was Sabrina, the gym leader of Saffron City.

A smile lit her face more brightly than the Flash and lightning combined; her square bangs did not sway in the wind.

"Ian, Volkner sent me," she said, her smile quickly fading into a concerned frown. "I'm afraid I come as the bearer of bad news."

The tempest's chill finally permeated my skin… or maybe it was just the cold fear that Sabrina's words instilled. She had a way of speaking that permeated the very soul of her listeners –I remembered it from our previous meetings, all of which concerned the Storm's Eye. Now that the radical organization had been crushed, I had hoped that my next encounter with Sabrina (as well as my encounters with the rest of the gym leaders involved in the Storm's destruction) would be on happier notes.

"Rook has escaped from prison," she said.

Oh my God.

"Could I come inside? I think your friends should hear this too. I recall Richard Davis and Cassidy Ryne, but who is… Dana? I feel her brainwaves… she seems to be trustworthy."

"Yes," I said, but there was nothing to my voice but its sound. It was a hollow shell of waves, because in an instant, my world had gone from slightly cloudy skies to a deluge of Biblical proportions.

(-o-)

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Ah, and finally the plot kicks off.

Sorry to keep you all waiting.