I was still reeling from the complete unbelievable chain of events that had just unfolded so rapidly and unexpectedly in front of me, I could barely put one foot in front of the other to leave the Safari Zone. Instead, I allowed myself to collapse completely on the ground and take a well earned rest for two minutes and running over this situation in my head one last time, to be sure I knew what was happening.

The Alakazam told me that Dad and his people were going to go after Kyogre in two weeks time and that this time they were going to succeed. If that wasn't scary enough, he had also said that somehow I was the only one who could stop him… but even with that, apparently I couldn't do it all by myself. I was supposed to find trainers, strong trainers, to assist me. I didn't like the sound of this. At all. No matter how many amazing trainers I found, surely they would be no match for the band of Elitists my Dad had following him? If he had a whole group of people as strong as that man with the Butterfree and the Seviper that wiped me out so easily, this was not going to be easy. It was going to be next to impossible! I mean, I didn't even know where to begin! Who could I talk to? Who would believe me? It was a pretty unbelievable story… even I was struggling to fully comprehend it, let alone anyone else.

Part of me wanted to put aside my pride and phone up Nikki and Jasmine straight away and enlist them to help, but I had to stop myself. I left Nikki and Jasmine behind for a reason. They weren't strong enough trainers to be of much assistance, but more importantly this was my mess to deal with, and I couldn't let them get hurt on my behalf.

Another thought invaded my head. Elliot, I thought eagerly, my heart giving a little leap at even the thought of him. He was a fantastic trainer and I could trust him! Added to that, I was almost sure that of all people, he would believe me? Plus, he was bound to know loads of amazing trainers too! He would be perfect!

But as always, I came back down to earth with a crushing disappointment. I didn't know how to get in contact with Elliot…he could have gone anywhere after losing in the Pokemon League challenge and there hadn't been any contact details available on the League challenge website. It had been a good idea at first, but sadly that was that plan well and truly scrapped.

"Pinch? Pinch! Pinch!"

I looked down at the Trapinch cuddling into my ankles, desperate for attention. Despite myself, a watery smile spread across my face and I stroked the little ant Pokemon.

"Tra! Tra!" It trilled happily at the first show of affection I had showed to it.

I realised then I probably wasn't in the best position to be thinking about all the events that had gone on just now. I was tired, cold, sore, filthy and very confused. "Best thing to do is probably go back to the Pokemon Centre and get some rest…" I decided to myself, heaving myself to my feet.

"Tra!" The Trapinch protested irately as I got up.

"See you later, Trapinch…" I waved to it and began to take my leave…

…only to hit the deck five seconds later.

"Pinch! Pinch! Pinch!"

The Trapinch was clinging onto my ankle. Again. Causing me to fall flat on my face. Again.

"Awww, hell!" I groaned. "Look, why do you keep doing that!"

"Pinch!" it said determinedly and clung tighter. Its little claws were like needles pricking my ankle and pain was shooting through it!

"Ow!" I cursed, shaking my ankle until it came loose. "Look, I can't take you with me," I told it firmly. "You're too weak. I can't protect you all the time like today with those other Pokemon!"

"Pinch!" it wailed, looking on the verge of tears.

I hated to see the little thing so upset, but I couldn't exactly take him with me. Could I? No, I tried to tell myself firmly, the little thing was too weak and didn't seem to have very many attacks! I couldn't afford to look after him and train him from scratch like I was doing with Kiba! Plus I already had the Girafarig now to train and get to know, it would be next to impossible to do that with the Trapinch too.

"Pinch! Pinch! Pinch!" It looked up at me with what I could swear was its best attempt at sad Growlithe eyes.

The little Trapinch was still staring at me. Something inside me fell on its side. I hated to admit; I had grown ever so slightly fond of the annoying, clingy, pain-in-the-arse that he was…"I must be crazy to even be thinking about this…" I thought to myself, shaking my head.

"Okay, okay, you win!" I said, exasperated, pulling out one of the Safari Zone Pokeballs I had stowed away in my bag.

"Pinch! Pinch!" It cried eagerly as soon as it saw the Pokeball.

"There," I said, chucking the Pokeball casually at the Trapinch. "Now don't say I'm not good to you."

With a flash of red light, the Trapinch was engulfed within the Pokeball and after a few seconds, the ball dimmed and stilled with the Trapinch sealed inside. I picked up the stationary ball and sighed. I mentally kicked myself for taking up the last, precious spot on my team with this little Trapinch. Somehow I knew I was going to regret this later.

"Well… no-one can accuse my team of not being diverse, I guess." I thought to myself, looking for a bright side in all this. "A Flaaffy, a Spheal, a Persian, a Growlithe, a Girafarig and a Trapinch… Again, I think "spirited" is a good word here…"

After collecting my Pokeballs from the main office at the Safari Zone, returning the unused Safari Zone Pokeballs and suffering a few taunts at the expense of my apparently "mediocre" haul of captured Pokemon, I stomped off to the Pokemon Centre, my temper very close to blowing.

I did nothing but dump my stuff in my room and collapse on my bed once I got back to my room. It was very late at night, but my brain was ticking away, refusing to shut itself off. I grumbled and tossed and turned for a while, trying everything to shut out my incessant thoughts but it was useless. I couldn't sleep.

I reached for my six Pokeballs. Heh, six Pokeballs. I still hadn't gotten used to that. My Spirited Six, I thought fondly. It felt a little strange. I had a full team now, like a proper Pokemon trainer. I rolled Meloi, Aurora and Monty's familiar, worn Pokeballs in my hands and got used to the grooves and contours of the new ones belonging to Kiba, the Girafarig and the Trapinch. Holding them gave me comfort and warmth spread across my body from the inside out, making me feel strangely content.

I dropped off to sleep almost immediately after.

The morning came all too soon, my room bathed in glorious sunshine. I wanted to take a few moments to admire the beauty of the morning, but I knew I couldn't. I had too much work to do.

I showered, dried and dressed in record time and then grabbed my six Pokeballs. First thing I had to do was introduce the new Pokemon to the old team.

I released the Girafarig and the Trapinch first. The Trapinch immediately suctioned itself to my ankle upon release, making it difficult to move, but the Girafarig eyed me seriously, like she had something she dearly wanted to say. I understood immediately what she was getting at.

"Don't worry," I knelt down to her level (which was surprisingly difficult with Trapinch attached to me). "I'm gonna start work today. I'm not going to let my dad and his people capture Kyogre. I'll train hard and find people to help, I promise." I told her, and meant every word of it.

The Girafarig nodded her approval.

"God, I have so much work to do…" I said out loud, lamenting my problems. "I don't even know where to start."

Common sense kicked in almost immediately. First things first, get the team acquainted. After that, figure out how strong (or weak) the new additions were. Then concentrate on the bigger picture.

"I suppose I should name you pair…" I mused, as Girafarig began sniffing around my room and Trapinch clung tighter. "I guess you first since you technically have seniority," I said to Girafarig, but I wasn't sure she was really listening.

I considered Girafarig for a while. I wanted a good, strong name that would make her stand out, like I'd been doing with my other Pokemon, but also something that played to that femininity I knew she had. I remembered her lovely, tender, musical voice. I wanted a soft, beautiful name for her, nothing too harsh or bland…

It came to me in a flash of inspiration. "Indigo." I said out loud.

She pricked up her head to look at me.

"Indigo," I repeated, liking the way it sounded. "Yeah, Indigo. I like it."

To me, it seemed perfect. To name a soft, gentle Psychic after the Indigo Children, a name given to young children who supposedly had psychic gifts, seemed to fit exactly. Indigo itself was a delicate, feminine name, but as well as that, the term "Indigo Children" came from the supposed colour of the auras of those children.

"What do you think, Indigo? Do you like it?"

Indigo bayed happily.

"Good," I grinned, patting her on the head.

I then looked down at the little critter suctioned to my ankle. "Now, as for you…" I leaned down and prised him off. "What to call you?"

"Pinch!" It cried happily.

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" I said, wearily putting him down again, still in shock that I had been saddled with this little thing. I found it oddly difficult to think of a nickname for the Trapinch… I had to think a long time before something finally came to me.

"Cairo," I decided after a long period of thinking.

"Pinch?" he looked up at me.

"Yeah, you're Cairo from now on," I told him. "You're named after the capital city of Egypt, one of the sandiest desert places in the world. Considering your natural habitat, I think its more than appropriate."

I don't think Cairo was even paying attention; he seemed more intent on squeezing the life out of my ankle. I didn't really mind though, I was happy with his nickname.

"Next job," I said to myself, pulling out my Pokedex. "Let's see exactly what I'm dealing with here."

I pointed the Pokedex at Indigo first.

"Girafarig, the Long Neck Pokémon. Girafarig has a second head on its tail that bite those who approach it carelessly."

Upon some further probing, I discovered my Indigo was at a high level 28 and knew a wide arsenal of attacks including physical attacks like Stomp and Assurance, but to my delight she also knew two Psychic attacks; Confusion and Psybeam.

I reluctantly moved on to Cairo next.

"Trapinch, the Ant Pit Pokémon. Trapinch dig cone-shaped holes in desert areas. Its large and powerful jaws are capable of crushing stones."

I discovered Cairo stood a disheartening level 15 and only had two attacks to its name. Bite and Sand Attack. I let out a low groan of disappointment. I could foresee a lot of training with Cairo to get him strong. Fair enough, Kiba was at a much lower level than Cairo, but with Kiba I saw potential… Cairo didn't seem to have much of that at the moment. And he was also a Ground type…Needless to say; I was more than a little bit nervous around him, even in this weakened state.

I decided then it was time to bite the bullet and introduce the newly christened Indigo and Cairo to the other four. I just prayed to God they would gel together and not cause me too much hassle…

Hah, like always, I was wrong.

After two seconds of the six of them being in the same room together, Meloi had launched herself bodily at the two newcomers, thundershocks flying at random, Monty had darted to a corner of the room and was hissing and spitting, his fur standing on end, and Aurora, completely undaunted by the presence of two new Pokemon had thrown herself at the new object of her affection (Kiba) and was now squashing him with her ample body weight. Cairo started squealing and Indigo attempted to herd Meloi away, but all she got for her efforts was a Thundershock in the face.

I took one look at the scene of growling, snarling, yelping and thundershock throwing Pokemon in front of me and let out a tortured sigh. "All right guys, time out!" I yelled, holding out my Pokeballs and returning them all, two at a time. I purposefully left Meloi till last and glared at her.

"Come on Meloi, what was that all about?" I asked her, folding my arms crossly. "Cairo and Indigo are part of the team now, same as you or Aurora or Monty or Kiba. You can't just lash out like that when someone new comes along. I thought you would know better by now,"

"Flaaf!" She said irately, and a moment later I felt a painful electric shock tear through me. I cursed, Meloi's electric shocks were viciously powerful now and I still hadn't gotten used to the new level of voltage.

"Meloi!" I scolded her sharply after I got over the stinging feeling. I recalled her immediately back to her Pokeball, letting out another haughty sigh. Well, like I'd said before, life with my "spirited" team was never boring.

After the disastrous attempts to acquaint the Spirited Six (I could not get that name out of my head now, much to my annoyance) with each other, I was left to focus on the issue at hand. I had two weeks to train, find strong trainers to convince to help me and stop my dad from capturing Kyogre… and I had no idea where to begin.

I decided to give Professor Oak a call. He would believe me, surely? And he was bound to know some strong trainers? It was worth a shot, I decided. I didn't have anything to lose after all…

I went down to give him a call. Long story short, he, as I expected, was more than a bit baffled by my story after I explained. But after much convincing on my part, he agreed to help. He explained to me he would rally around the trusted trainers he knew, explain the situation to them and have them dispatched to Sootopolis within the week to assist me. I was ecstatic! He also explained that if I needed further support to go to the leader of the Sootopolis gym, give the leader (a man called Wallace) Professor Oak's name and explain my situation to him.

With the knowledge that a team of expert trainers were being dispatched to meet me at Sootopolis Pokemon Centre within the week, and the idea to go ask the leader of Sootopolis gym for his help, I was beginning to feel a little more confident. Not exactly singing in the rain type confident, but you know… a little better. I decided to immediately take the ferry to Sootopolis and appeal my case to the Gym Leader.

I thanked Professor Oak for his help and hung up the phone. Within half an hour, I was packed and ready to go, on my way down to the ferry terminal. As I bought my ticket and waited for the ferry to come in, my mind strayed to my mother. I wondered, was there even the slightest possibility that she was aware of the imminent attack to come on Kyogre? I wished with all my heart that she did know. If she did, and her team showed up, along with the team of trainers Professor Oak had promised and whatever help I received from the Sootopolis Gym Leader, there was no way dad could succeed! From what I had seen so far, mum was always either one step ahead or toe-to-toe with dad on every move he made. She knew that something was going to happen in Sootopolis, that much I knew, but did she know how soon it was going to be? I sincerely hoped so.

I boarded the ferry and found myself a seat. Soon enough, the familiar, uneasy sensation of the boat moving over the waves washed over me and I couldn't really focus on anything else but that. The ferry ride this time seemed to take a lot longer than I remembered and it was already mid-afternoon by the time it docked in Sootopolis.

"Right then," I said looking around the familiar surroundings of Sootopolis. "Where do I even begin?"

My eyes fell first on the tiny prick in the distance that I knew was Sootopolis Gym. Professor Oak had told me to speak to the leader Wallace and ask him for his assistance. Part of me wanted to get started on working with my Pokemon, especially with Cairo, Indigo and Kiba, but I knew it was vital to get help secured as soon as possible.

I started off towards the gym, praying to every God in existence that the Gym Leader would somehow believe me and my incredible story, and not dismiss me as some raving loon…

"Wish me luck!"

Author's Note

So Sienna got her Trapinch after all!

Just a quick chapter here. The next chapter is mainly filler, just a cute little story I had kicking around in my head that I wanted to work in at some point, but I've managed to tie it in so that it's contributing SOMETHING to the story line. :) Also on the cards in the future is a two part filler story and a Gym Battle, then a return to the action :)

After the next four chapters, this story will be reaching its climax and then it will end within the next 10-15 chapters. There will be an Epilogue, but then I think I will leave it be. HOWEVER, I will be uploading a Short Story collection about the Spirited characters which will also shed light on the actions of Jasmine and Nikki during Sienna's absence, due to popular demand.

I was so happy with the kind, enthusiastic reviews I recieved for the last chapter that inspired me to write this chapter so soon

I have a dictionary here: It is an interesting question... unfortunately you're just gonna have to wait and see what's going to happen

WildCroconaw: Haha! Yeah, I hope it wasn't too much to take in at once...

Splashstorm: Thank you SO SO much for your reviews! I love it when people take such an interest to the extent you did. I had already settled on Indigo for Girafarig's nickname, but thank you for all your suggestions! I'm afraid that adding Nikki/Jasmine POV chapters would spoil the flow of the story, BUT I will write some chapters anyway and upload them into a seperate story if the demand is high enough. :) I can confirm that yes, Nikki and Jasmine are still searching for Sienna. And don't worry, they'll return to the story a few chapters before the end to lend a hand in something very important. I can also confirm that Elliot WILL be showing up soon too and will play a major part in the story from then on.

Anonymous: Surprise! Trapinch is part of the team!

AmpharosLover666: As I said to Anonymous, Trapinch is a member of the team. Perhaps not an honourary member yet, but he will prove his worth :)