THEME SONG: 'Kaze to Issho Ni' – Pocket Monsters: Myuustu Strikes Back (Walk With the Wind)


I was standing in the middle of a field – as far as I could see were blood red flowers, that came up to my waist and leant gently in the breeze. There was a girl in front of me, with dark, dark hair and eyes, and she was looking at me, intently.

She slowly bent down, and picked a flower with eight petals, and lightly touched each one of them. She held the stem between her fingers, and slowly pulled one of the petals off and crushed it in her hand.

Unexpectedly, she threw the rest of the flower to me, and I caught it in my hands. I felt the thorns on the stem puncture the skin on my palms.

"Don't let your guard down," the girl whispered.

Sarah looked around at the group of quietly shocked people after retelling her dream. Tracey stood up slowly.

"I think I know what kind of flowers she means. The shuurajou. They grow on an island in the Orange Archipelago," he grimaced.

"It's a long way away though; it's all the way out near Shamouti." Ash shuddered, and Tracey shrugged helplessly. "If that's what we've gotta do though…"

Tracey reached out his hand to help Sarah up from the sofa, but then recoiled in shock.

"What?" cried Karlie, jumping to his side immediately, and gasping herself as she caught sight of Sarah's outstretched hand. Sarah looked down in puzzlement, and almost fainted at the sight of several bloodied slits in her palm, where the 'imaginary' thorns had been.

~*~

"Bye Mom! We're all going to the Orange Islands!" called Ash as he pulled his green backpack up onto his shoulders and grabbed a handful of éclairs out of the bowl on the table.

"Okay darling!" called Delia in her airy voice. "Be good this time!"

"Okay!" replied Ash bustling his sweatdropping friends out of the little white cottage and trying to keep his handful of sweets from being stolen by Rachel and Misty. "See ya later!"

"Let's get going," murmured Todd, grimly.

"Don't forget to change your-" cried Delia, before her voice was cut off by Ash slamming the front door in a hurry. Suddenly, her head stuck out from the kitchen window. "-you-know-whats, every single day kids!"

Everyone facevaulted.

"Let's get going quickly," repeated Todd, as he helped Michelle, who was rubbing her chin, off the ground.

~*~

The large group walked soberly onwards, on the shortest possible path through Viridian Forest. Ash was practically dragging Misty, who was seeing Caterpie lurking in every shadow. Erin and Rachel were discussing what would happen if they told Ash about the whole 'Mewtwo' thing, and Mia was setting herself to smiling in a sickly sweet way every time Gary turned around to scowl in her direction; it was working – he was freaked.

Michelle was busy having an evils match with Duplica – the two did not exactly 'gel'. The battle came to an anticlimactic ending when Duplica tripped over a log. Trish was walking along quietly, not really an active part in the conversation between Brock, Richie and Todd. She fidgeted with her hands in a troubled way, and every so often reached up to adjust the frilly collar she detested.

Sarah was walking next to Mia, and although she had certainly been troubled that morning, and shy of the rest of the group at first, she had now entered into the conversation with Erin and Rachel, and the topic was now changed to the UK Big Brother 2: Rachel was having withdrawal symptoms as she had 'left' before she had had the chance to discover whether or not Brian had won it.

Tracey walked along, looking untroubled as usual with his hands in his pockets and a care-free attitude about him. He kept a careful eye on Sarah as he walked, and Karlie trotted along beside him, her arms folded obstinately and her face set in a hurt scowl. Tracey smiled lazily at her, amused at how jealous she got and about how she couldn't seem to care less about Richie. No one had ever shown such a obvious interest in him before, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't flattered – but did she have to be so scary?

"Karlie," he said, softly, "how are you today?" A shy smile replaced her scowl.

"I'm fine thanks," she beamed; suddenly, her face clouded over again. "But shouldn't you be asking Sarah how she is?" Tracey tutted, and shook his head smiling.

"Don't be jealous," he said, gently. He was really quite worried, because he was very fond of the loud-mouth girl already.

"Here." He reached into the front pocket of his large orange pack and pulled out a slightly rumpled, light red bandana, and handed it to the girl. Her eyes lit up behind her glasses.

"For me?" she asked, tentatively.

"For you," he nodded. "I have 6 others," he grinned, "one for every day of the week!" Karlie sweatdropped as she wrestled it over the top of her head, so that it fit snugly on her forehead. She beamed up at him.

"How do I look?" she asked, striking a pose.

"Like me," he teased. Karlie grinned; she reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek…millimetres away…

"Prepare for trouble!"

There was a strange noise from Karlie, almost as if she were being strangled.

"It's true!" she fumed. "They do interrupt at the WORST POSSIBLE TIME!!"

"M-make it double…" continued James as he looked around him in puzzlement.

"Huh?" sounded Jesse, as her deep blue eyes darted from one face to the next. "Having a party twerp?"

"Hey! It's dat girl!" yelled Meowth, pointing a claw at Trish, who was looking almost weak with relief.

"Thank GOD we've found you!" she cried, confusing Meowth no end.

"Hey girl, we're the bad guys," pouted Jesse, tossing her hair and almost knocking James unconscious. "You're not supposed to be happy to see us!"

"You're not the bad guys this time, Team Rocket," interrupted Brock, in his 'wise' voice. "Sit down, cos we've got something to tell you."

"And why should we listen to youse?" yowled Meowth, menacingly. Brock pointed over his shoulder to Trish, who was blushing lightly and twiddling her fingers in an embarrassed greeting. "Because without this lovely young lady, you may die."

~*~

After going over the story many times for the benefit of James, it was nearing mid-day, and the group stopped for a picnic lunch. Karlie was boring Michelle to death with the seventy-fifth retelling of 'how she got the bandana', and Erin was complaining that everything Brock had packed, she was allergic too, until Rachel pulled a chocolate dipper out of her backpack and tossed it in her face. Everyone else was engrossed in the fight between Gary and Mia over who would get the last packet of crisps.

"You're no gentleman!" screeched Mia, her emerald eyes flashed in a way not unlike Misty's.

"Well that's okay cos you're no lady!" spat young Oak, in his nasal voice.

So nobody noticed when Erin gave chase to the piece of litter that was blowing away from their camp-site.

~*~

"You get on my nerves," spat Author, as she watched the litter lure Erin further and further away from her friends. She grasped the biro in her sweating hand, and carefully printed out her full name onto the paper in front of her: ERINA-LOUISE LAWLESS.

"Now to shut off her sound…" Author grinned. "Aaaaaaand…" She positioned her biro at the ready.

"Action…" she whispered, with an air of sadistic pleasure.

~*~

Without so much as a warning, the entire area glowed a bright violet colour, startling everyone, even Gary and Mia into silence. Something passed through Sarah like an electric shock, and her eyes flew open: they were all brown, and she looked deeply in a trance. Suddenly, she screamed, and her arm lifted instantaneously so she could point straight outwards with a quivering finger.

"Erin!" she screamed, her pendant glowing even brighter. Rachel whirled around to where Erin had been sitting a second ago, to find nothing but an area of slightly flattened grass.

"Riny!" she screamed along with Sarah, jumping to her feet. Within a second, everyone was running through the surrounding areas, calling out Erin's name in fear.

~*~

Erin felt strange – she couldn't hear anything. Not the occasional cooing of a Pidgey, or even the wind through the tree branches. Everything was deathly silent. She felt the wind however; and it was strangely warm against her cheek. A strong smell niggled in her nostrils, but everything around her was calm and peaceful, so she ignored it.

In front of her she saw the top she had peeled off the dipper carton, teasing her as it flew around on a wind that was ever changing direction. Erin hated litter, and thought it an extra shame here, as you never saw litter in the Pokémon world. She gave chase again.

~*~

"She can't have gone this far," sobbed a frantic Rachel. "She was behind me just a few seconds ago! I gave her a dipper carton!"

"Sarah are you sure she's in danger?" asked Todd, skeptically. Sarah nodded.

"Maybe she 'had to go'," smirked Gary, earning a slap round the head from a worried Mia.

"After that dream she had…" Mia murmured, looking around her. "Still don't know what the HELL is going on, but I have a really bad feeli-" Suddenly, she stopped, and sniffed the air. Jesse followed suit, sniffing around her delicately.

"I smell smoke…" Jesse announced.

"We've gotta find her," said Ash, grimly, as he fingered Croconaw's Pokéball apprehensively.

They could see violent, orange flames licking the tops of the trees now: a forest fire. Michelle squinted her eyes, and could make out the small figure of Erin in the dancing shadows the fire was creating.

And she was walking straight into the flames.

"Erin!" called Michelle in anguish, choking on the smoke. Erin didn't hear, or if she did she didn't reply.

"It's like she can't see the fire," murmured Tracey.

In a flash, Brock released Onix and Graveler. Misty released her various arsenal, Tracey released Azumarril, Ash released Croconaw, and swiftly pressed the white button in his Pokédex, switching one of his Pokémon for Kingler. Duplica ordered the six Ditto she sent out to transform into the Blastoise that Richie sent out, and Gary released a Tyranitar and a Lapras.

Within a split second, all Pokémon went to work: either using various attacks of HydroPump, WaterGun or Surf to quench the flames, or throwing large amounts of dirt on the fire. Those left without Pokémon to command: the authors, Team Rocket and Todd, continued to call Erin above the noise.

~*~

Erin whirled around, but saw nothing but an empty path behind her; a leaf blew across it and twirled entertainingly. That was strange – she could have sworn she heard people calling her name. Suddenly, a searing pain swept up her arm, and she looked down in shock, jumping back a few steps. A large blister was formulating on her arm, and she looked up again in shock: what had burnt her? There was nothing in front of her but a tree.

She felt flames lick at her leg, and jumped again, but saw nothing. She could still hear the voices, but they sounded so far away. The heat seemed unbearable now – it was all around her. She would have run, but she didn't know where it was coming from.

Wincing as she was forced to shut her eyes against the constant waves of heat, Erin whimpered slightly. Guess this is what qualifies as letting your guard down.