November 27th 20XX

Phoenix was on my shoulder and Raksha was still sleeping in my arms as we walked into the Goldenrod city game corner. I took a moment to look around, take in my surroundings and see if it was like what I had seen in all the pokémon games I had played over the years. Basically it was. I saw multiple rows of various gaming machines totaling in six different rows with five seats apiece. The prize center was in the back of the room and I could see stuffed toys, pokémon enhancing items, and a giant poster featuring the grand prize of the Dratini sitting in the window display behind us. Two people that I assumed were staff managed the prize area and I saw people with matching uniforms moving about the center helping out customers in a smiling manner serving drinks or answering question the gamers might have. The uniforms consisted of white shirt, with red vests and black pants.

I glanced back behind us to look at said Dratini. The window display the little guy was sitting in reminded me of one of those pet shop windows you'd see in pet stores at home. There was a crate lined with paper two bowls one for Poké food and one for water. There wasn't much else in there aside from a lonely looking Poké toy. The image as a whole was so sad that I was hit by a sudden pain of homesickness and felt like humming the song "how much is that doggie in the window" I felt like I had gotten smacked in the chest and had to close my eyes a minute and breathe. It was ok, me and Phoenix would find a way to get home. This was not impossible as it seemed. After breathing for a minute and telling myself that over and over, I felt slightly better. I waited until I felt I had collected myself and after mentally giving myself a shake for being silly, I opened my eyes. I was more than a bit surprised by what I found though.

Time had frozen I looked around and the sounds from all the games had stopped their glaring in my ears now eerily silent. The game workers had frozen what they were doing and the customers at the different games had frozen in mid pulling or pushing the game machines. Everything around us had frozen but we remained as we were. It was so very creepy.

"What the flippin' hell is going on?!" Phoenix demanded, her Ditto equivalent of a head swiveling around at the motionless silence around us.

I nodded "Yeah. That's the same question I had, Nix." I paused talking, hearing a sound that was half giggling and half tinkling bells. I turned, following the sound to see the source of the noise coming from the area where that Dratini was.

Low and behold, who did I see talking to the odd colored Dratini but Celebi herself. Phoenix hissed from my shoulder, "That bitch! What is she doing here?!"

At the same time I shouted "Celebi!" And started moving towards her. Here was a chance to talk to her and maybe get some more answers. She seemed to finish talking quietly to the Dratini who nodded at her then looked at me with an intense curiosity. Celebi giggled again and turned to us, smiling, she waved in a friendly manner. Then I blinked and she was gone.

Time restarted and the silence surrounding us vanished, nearly deafening me as my ears were assaulted by the sounds of people talking and the overly loud game sounds from the different machines. "Dammit my ears! That bitch Celebi, I'll kill her!" Phoenix snarled loudly.

My ears were ringing a bit too, but I wondered if Phoenix being a pokémon made her ears more sensitive to sound? Also I made a mental note to ask her later where her ears actually were when she was a Ditto. It had always bugged me that Dittos didn't seem to have any other holes aside from their mouths. But that was for a later time. Looking around to see no change in the gaming place I said "What do you think she was doing here?"

Phoenix growled rubbing the side of her head where I'd guess her temples would be if she were still human. "I honestly don't know, Tori. Maybe just to aggravate us and or me?"

I walked over to the Dratini and smiled down at the pokémon. "Hey there, little guy. I don't suppose you could tell us what Celebi wanted to say to you?"

The Dratini looked at us and chirped; a sound I couldn't understand obviously.

Phoenix chimed in though and said "The Dratini is actually a girl, Toriori and she says that Celebi was here to explain that we were her new friends and not to be sad or scared anymore because we'll take care of her. What the hell? Seriously? You damn, misguided, accursed excuse for a green fairy! Would it kill you to actually talk to us?! I swear Astoria, if I ever get my hands on that bug I'm gonna ring her neck and beat some answers out of her. With something painful and pointy."

I chuckled at Phoenix's comments, although was a tad annoyed at Celebi's apparent meddling in our lives without any answers or explanations. Phoenix stiffened and said softly in my ear "Tori company at seven o'clock.", warning me of someone approaching us.

I turned as a man with a star on his bright blue vest came up to us "Hi there, I'm Joseph, the manager of this fine gaming establishment. I see you're interested in our Dratini, did you want to try and win her?"

I looked at the man and smiled back "Actually, yes I would, but I've never been here before. It's my first time to the city."

The man grinned at my mentioning I was new "You're in luck then, Miss. Because of the convention, we are doing a special event and handing out free coin cases with twenty free game tokens as well. Here you are." He said handing me the small case.

I thanked him and looked inside. Outside it was a gold plated, rectangular case; inside was a soft purple material that I really like and twenty coins were jingling around the bottom. I looked back up at the manager "So how do I win the Dratini in the window?" I asked.

He grinned, but for some reason I felt like this one was fake and he was secretly laughing at me. Were the odds of me winning really that bad? "Well Miss, there are two ways to actually win that Dratini. One is for a million tokens, which obviously takes a while. Or you can try our brand new giant slot machine over here to the side which takes ten coins per pull. It has many smaller prizes to win but the biggest prize to win is the Dratini. You must get three gold bonus coins in a row to win though. Anything else you get a smaller prize or can try to pull again."

Ahhh, here was why that guy was smirking I thought as I looked at the machine. The odds of actually winning the Dratini seemed so far beyond impossible. But what the hell, I had two chances why not try? "Ok, I'll give it a shot." I walked over to the machine and set Raksha's small sleeping form on the floor next to my feet so my hands would be free.

The manager gave me a quick lesson how to bet and pull the machine. I listened and could tell Phoenix was listening intently too. Finally I was ready.

"Ok, here goes nothing." I said as I inserted the coins, pushed a few bet buttons and pulled the handle down.

The wheels started spinning and I caught flashes of pokémon and gold pictures rolling by my vision. I tried my best to time it like I had when I played the video game, slamming down on the buttons when I thought I had a shot of getting a bonus. The angry buzzer when I did not get three matching pictures let me know I lost.

"Oh crap. That sucked." I looked disappointedly at the last ten coins in my case. Did I try and stay here to make a million on the smaller slot games? Or did I risk it all on one last pull? The first option meant Phoenix and I would be staying in this city much longer than I liked. Every extra day here made me nervous and I became more agitated that someone would discover her secret and try to take her away from me. But there was no way I could save up enough tokens to get the Dratini in more than a few days at the very least. I was such a terrible gambler too. It was something I actually hated, but had family back home who enjoyed and occasionally even excelled at it. I knew one thing for certain though, something in my heart told me we could not leave this city without that Dratini. It was the same pulling feeling that I had when I was offered Raksha's egg.

Phoenix cut through my wave of indecision by leaning into my ear and saying "Tori, put the last ten coins in the machine. Trust me, I've got this covered."

I looked at her in confusion, but I trusted Phoenix with my life. It was as simple as that. I turned back to the machine and said "Ok, one last go. Let's do this, Nix!" My voice was energetic and after putting the last coins in, I hit the buttons and pulled the lever.

I watched as the wheels once again spun around and around making me little dizzy. Phoenix had grown quiet on my shoulder, but as she reached out with her blobby Ditto hand and she touched the bare skin on my neck, my whole body tingled with some strange feeling. I could see the machine glowing with a strange blue light and it was like the wheels were slowing down to a speed that I could keep up with. Then my hand moved without me telling it too and pounded down on the stop buttons. I blinked and Phoenix had let go of me. The strange tingly feeling faded and suddenly the machine screamed happy sounds and belted out "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE A WINNER!"

I looked at the machine flashing the bonus pictures and shiny neon lights going on and off as it flashed. I was shocked and too surprised to utter more than a wheezy sounding "What? I won?"

The manager looked just as shocked as I was and perhaps a little annoyed "Congratulations Miss, the Dratini is yours to take home. You must be extremely lucky. Give me just a moment and I will retrieve the pokéball and bring you your prize."

I sat down on a nearby seat and absorbed the fact that in just one pull of a machine I had become the owner of another pokémon. Then I thought back to the details of what happened and froze. I turned my head slowly looking at Phoenix "Nix, you did something didn't you?"

Phoenix grinned and replied "I have no idea what you're talking about, Tori. You just have really fantastic luck. It's amazing, really."

I shook my head "No, I don't, Nix. You've known me for years, I always get the worst dice rolls in board games and I suck royally at slots. You did something. I felt you do something, so tell me what just happened." I looked at her steadily, trying to make her tell me what was going on with my special glare.

Phoenix still smiled, but pointed "Well, my dear Astoria, I'll explain later. Right now you might want to stop my minion cause he's gotten out of his pokéball again and is trying to chew on that electrical wire. I think he wants the electricity in there."

I shot up with a shout, "No! Damn it, Sparky! You little- Get back here! Nix, this isn't over. Now help me catch him before he manages to burn the place down!" I spent the next few minutes chasing my annoying electric mouse around the arcade, but mentally making a note about the talk that Phoenix and I were going to be having very shortly about what had just happened.