Disclaimer: No, pokémon isn't mine. Jill is. The nicknames of Jill's pokémon are mine. The nicknames of Claire's pokémon belong to… er… somebody else. You know who you are. I don't claim the credit. *winks* Claire herself isn't mine either. She's the same other person's. The male trainer who appears at the beginning is loosely based on someone else. Technically, he and his pokémon are mine, because I decided what he'd be like. But hey. He knows he's in here, but he's probably never going to read this anyway, so what does it matter? Nurse Joy, pokémon centres, names of the species and type of pokémon all belong to Nintendo and Satoshi Tajiri, yadayada, and so on and so on. You know the drill. Now. Here's the next part.
The Espeon rolled over, then sprang back up onto her feet. Her trainer glanced at her watch, then yelled "Morning Sun!" The Espeon stood still for a moment, healing herself. The boy's Rhydon shook its head, then prepared itself for another Body Slam. The Espeon glanced to her trainer. "Sunshine! Use Psychic!" Sunshine turned back to the Rhydon as it came charging, and blue fire surrounded both pokémon, before Rhydon was stopped in its tracks, then thrown back. Its trainer jumped out of the way as the Rhydon skidded to a halt on the ground. It struggled to get up, then collapsed back down. The boy gasped, then returned it to its pokéball.
"You did fine, but I think Charmeleon'll have a better shot."
So saying, he tossed a pokéball up, releasing his Charmeleon.
"Quickly! Flamethrower!"
The girl yelled to her Espeon. "Dodge it Sunshine! Bite attack!"
The Espeon threw itself to one side, and landed running. Her trainer ducked to avoid the Flamethrower, keeping her eyes on the battle as the Charmeleon turned to face the Espeon, which ducked around behind it and used Bite on the Charmeleon's tail, staying away from the flame. The boy danced anxiously on the sidelines.
"Ember it!"
The Charmeleon powered up an Ember attack, and the girl called to her Espeon again.
"Timing! Let go!"
The Espeon rolled away as the Charmeleon fired its Ember, causing it to flame its own tail. The psychic was up again in a moment.
"Alright! Now finish this with a psychic!"
The Charmeleon stopped trying to take the pain away from its tail as it was surrounded with blue fire and the same thing happened to it as had happened to the boy's Rhydon. It was returned to its pokéball, and then the boy turned to the other trainer, who was hugging her Espeon, praising it.
"You're too tough!"
The girl laughed. "You challenged me! What did you expect? Are your pokémon okay?"
The boy nodded, and left, grumbling. The girl shook her head.
"Some people, eh Sunshine?"
There was a laugh from nearby, and the black haired trainer glanced up to see a brown haired girl with dancing eyes leaning against a tree, with her blue jacket hung up beside her. She made a show of looking around the forest clearing, then back to Sunshine's trainer.
"A very impressive display, if I may say so. Did he know you had an Espeon when he challenged you?"
The black haired trainer smiled, nodding.
"I should think so, seeing as Sunshine stays out of her pokéball nearly all of the time. I just don't think he knows much about pokémon, that's all." She looked after the way the boy went. "It's his pokémon I feel sorry for."
The other girl nodded. "I don't think he knew anything about Espeons at all. Certainly not that they were psychics, not until you defeated his Rhydon like that."
Sunshine's trainer nodded. "That's why I beat his Pidgey with Bite attacks. It's always handy to have a surprise waiting."
The other trainer smiled. "I quite agree. You appear to know a lot about pokémon."
She straightened up with a chuckle. "What type is an Umbreon?" She asked quickly.
Sunshine's trainer smiled. "Dark. The only pure Dark type known."
"Steelix?"
"Steel of course."
"Houndoom?"
"Dark and Fire."
"Celebi!" The brown haired girl grinned.
Sunshine's trainer laughed. "Grass and Psychic!"
The other girl snapped her fingers in mock annoyance.
"Darn. There goes my evil masterplan. But what colour is Skarmory?"
"Silver!"
"What's its evolution?"
"It doesn't evolve."
"And Chansey?"
"It's pink and it turns into Blissey. They both carry eggs but Blissey has white wing things like a necklace."
The brown haired girl laughed. "Well put. What colour's Ho-oh?"
Sunshine's trainer frowned, then smiled. "Rainbow!"
The other girl nodded. "And what does Eevee evolve into?"
"Vaporeon with a Water Stone, Jolteon with a Thunder Stone, Flareon with a Fire Stone, Espeon when it's delighted in the daytime, Umbreon when it's happy enough at nighttime!"
The other girl smiled. "Okay, okay! Point taken!"
Sunshine's trainer nodded. "Good. Name the leader of Blackthorn Gym."
The other girl started laughing, but managed to say, "Clair the Dragon Master, sister to Lance!"
"What about Goldenrod's Gym?"
"Whitney, with her Miltank."
"Azalea?"
"Bugsy the Bug Pokémon Master."
"Who's Falkner?
"The Violet City Gym Leader, and he uses Bird Pokémon."
"Pryce!"
"Um… Ice pokémon, Mahogany Town!"
"These are too easy for you, aren't they?"
"Yup."
Both girls laughed, then Sunshine's trainer narrowed her eyes. "Name the Elite Four and what types of pokémon they use."
There was a pause, and Sunshine's trainer almost thought she had defeated the other girl before she started speaking.
"First of all there's Will, with his psychic types like Xatu. Then you meet Koga, with his ninja-like poisonous pokémon like Venomoth. The third is Bruno, he uses Fighting and Ground type pokémon like Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee and Hitmontop. Karen is next and likes Dark types like Houndoom, and Lance with his dragons was the champion!"
Sunshine's trainer paused, then smiled slowly. "Right. But you said Lance was the champion? Past tense?"
The brown haired girl nodded. "He was. Until I beat him."
There was another pause, and then Sunshine's trainer nodded.
"Would you care for a battle?"
The other girl nodded. "Certainly, if it will make you believe that I'm the League Champion."
Sunshine's trainer frowned. "Did I say I didn't believe you?"
The other girl smiled. "No. But you don't anyway."
Sunshine's trainer laughed. "Alright then. Three on three?"
At a nod from the other girl, she tossed up a pokéball.
"In that case I'll start with Fury!"
The brown haired girl laughed, and unclipped a pokéball from her belt. She cradled it in her hands, then tossed it straight up with both.
"I choose Canth!"
She neatly caught the pokéball again as her Dragonite appeared. Then the fight began.
The black haired girl's Typhlosion used Flame Wheel straight away, but Canth flew away from it. Following her trainer's orders, Fury jumped up as high as she could, firing a Flamethrower at the peak of her jump. Canth spiralled down lower, dodging it with ease as his trainer noticed something clutched tightly in Fury's paw.
"Canth! Stay away from those fire attacks! She's got Charcoal!"
Canth nodded, and dodged another Flamethrower, then suddenly coming down in a stoop dive and seizing Fury around the middle as she fell back from her jump. He flew up high, then wheeled around and came back down towards the ground at high speed. The Typhlosion twisted in his grip, and fired a Flame Wheel. Canth promptly dropped her, spiralling down for a clumsy landing, glancing mournfully at his injured wing before folding it away. Fury rolled over and got up, and powered up a Flamethrower.
"Canth! Hyper Beam!"
The two attacks met in a blaze of fury halfway between the two pokémon, but Fury's Flamethrower was pushed back quickly, and the Hyper Beam struck her hard. She struggled to get to her feet, and flopped down again. Her trainer ran over as her flame collar went down.
"You did your best. It was only a battle, it doesn't matter. You matter. Get some rest in your pokéball."
The other girl turned away from praising her Dragonite. "Is she okay?"
Sunshine's trainer nodded, getting up with a smile.
"Nothing a quick trip to a pokémon centre won't fix. You're good. But are you good enough?" She turned to her waiting Espeon. "Your turn now, Sunshine!"
The other girl laughed, putting her Dragonite back in its pokéball.
"We'll play fair. Separate battles, switch the winning pokémon as well."
Sunshine's trainer nodded, and the girl smiled slowly.
"Are you sure about using your Espeon yet?"
There was a pause, then the girl laughed. "Sunshine, come and wait back here for this one. Go on out Alakazam!"
The other girl grinned. "A psychic! Perfect!"
Sunshine's trainer hardly had a moment to think, "Sunshine's a psychic too! Why swap?" before the other girl had another pokéball out and called, "Go Pawa!"
An Umbreon blinked and looked around, then focused on Alakazam.
"Bite down on that psychic!"
Pawa did so before Sunshine's trainer could yell "Psybeam!" in desperation for something to hurt the pure Dark type with. Alakazam received the maximum amount of damage from Pawa's Bite, and staggered backwards as the Umbreon attacked again, hardly deterred at all from the Psybeam.
"Alakazam! Recover!" Sunshine's trainer yelled, but too late.
Alakazam stumbled forwards, then fell over and was zapped back into his pokéball. His trainer made an attempt to look disgruntled.
"Type advantage! Sunshine, you're up."
The Espeon trotted forward, and sat down.
"Pawa, come back over here. You did great."
The girl stroked her Umbreon's ears, and he sat at her side to watch the last battle. His trainer smiled, and plucked the first pokéball in the line from her belt.
"Now then. A battle you wanted, a battle you've got. Psychic against psychic. I want to prove a point."
She tossed the black pokéball into the air, and the other trainer saw the M shape whirl around once before the ball opened. There was a red line, similar to a lightning flash, connecting a red silhouette to the ball, then the ball snapped shut and dropped down to the girl's waiting hand as Mewtwo flexed his paws. Sunshine's trainer frowned.
"What…? It's not possible! You can't have a legendary! That's not fair! It must be a Ditto! Sunshine, Bite it!"
The Espeon raced forward, and Mewtwo held up one paw.
"I am no Ditto."
Sunshine kept running, but she couldn't move forwards. The girl clenched her fists.
"I don't want you to hurt her! She can't hurt you!"
Mewtwo nodded. "As you wish."
Sunshine floated backwards, and was released at her trainer's feet. The Espeon ran forwards again.
"Sunshine! Psychic!"
Sunshine was stopped in her tracks again, but her Psychic attack flashed forward. It stopped a centimetre away from Mewtwo's face, who didn't even blink before it curled round and shot back towards Sunshine.
"No!" Both girls called out at once, but the attack spread around Sunshine, as if around a sphere.
"Sunshine!" Yelled her trainer.
Mewtwo glanced at his trainer. "The Espeon did not raise the shield. Why did you?"
Sunshine's trainer sighed with relief as the other girl blinked.
"I told you. I don't want you to hurt her."
Mewtwo looked faintly annoyed. "The attack would have stopped before it hit her."
His trainer shrugged. "I know. But Sunshine didn't, and neither did her trainer."
The other girl smiled. "Okay. We can stop fighting now I believe you on two things. You are the League Champion, and somehow, I don't know how, you have a Mewtwo."
Mewtwo's trainer laughed. "That's not all I have. Mewtwo, let Sunshine go will you?"
The psychic did so, and the Espeon slunk back to her trainer, managing to look surprised as the girl released Mew as well, much to the little psychic's delight.
"Meeeew!"
Sunshine's trainer started to smile.
"Mewtwo, show her what else I've got tucked away on my PC."
Mewtwo smiled, and 3D pictures of Lugia, Ho-oh, Entei, Raikou, Suicune, Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno and twenty-six different forms of the Unown appeared before Sunshine's trainer, who laughed.
"You have got to be joking."
The other girl waved a hand and the pictures disappeared.
"I joke a lot, but not this time. Now, both of our sets of pokémon are hurt and tired, but there's a Pokémon Centre nearby. Why don't the two of us head along there?"
The Nurse Joy of Goldenrod City was very surprised when two girl trainers strolled into the Pokémon Centre, with two Espeons beside them, an Umbreon trotting ahead of them, and Mewtwo and Mew behind. For a moment, everything stopped in the Centre as in unison, all of the pokémon trainers flipped open their Pokedexes.
"Mewtwo. No further information. Mew. No further information. Espeon. The evolved form of Eevee. Psychic. Umbreon. The Evolved form of Eevee. Dark type. Immune to psychic attacks."
There was a pause, then all of the pokémon trainers leapt up and raced over, swamping the two girls with offers for trading, or offers for battles. A space grew around the two girls, as if the trainers were being pushed back. Nurse Joy watched in amazement as the girls trotted forward, and the trainers seemed to walk into an invisible wall when they tried to follow. The girls exchanged a glance, and the black haired girl smiled as the other suppressed a giggle, before turning to the still surprised Nurse Joy.
"Can you heal our pokémon please?"
Nurse Joy nodded, managing a smile as the brown haired psychic continued.
"They aren't badly hurt really, but we'd like to see them fully better."
Nurse Joy nodded, and took Canth's, Fury's and Alakazam's pokéballs to be healed while the two girls went outside to sit in the sunshine instead of the dull, in comparison, inside of the Pokémon Centre.
On the way up to Goldenrod from the Ilex Forest, the two girls had gotten to know each other quite well. Sunshine's trainer was called Claire, and the trainer of Mewtwo was Jill. After the little display in the fight, it came as no surprise to Claire to learn that Jill was a psychic, but it did surprise her that she was a stronger psychic than Mewtwo and Mew put together. But as she put it, "I've disbelieved enough for today, so I might as well believe you on this one!" They found that each loved pokémon as much as the other, they knew as much about pokémon as each other, and between them they had nearly every pokémon that had been discovered.
"Celebi would be good to have…" Jill mentioned wistfully.
Claire smiled. "Good for you to have, or good for me to have?"
Jill laughed. "Good to have in general!" Then she glanced back into the Pokémon Centre. "Fury, Canth and Alakazam are healthy again."
Claire glanced back then got up and went to fetch them. Jill looked to her Mewtwo, peacefully watching the sun.
"Is it her?" She asked.
Mewtwo blinked, then looked back down at his friend.
"And before you ask 'is it her, what', I'll tell you now you know fine well." Jill added.
Mewtwo smiled. "She is one of the few, yes."
Jill grinned. "I knew it!"
Claire returned, laughing at Fury and Canth's animated conversation, while her Alakazam was bending spoons in a preoccupied way. He jumped when they all straightened up again suddenly, and glanced up to see Mewtwo look away quickly, with a very rare grin on his usually blank face.
To be continued…
