A/N: The good news: I'm not dead! And I have LOADS more of SS to update with! Yaaay! I am so sorry for not updating for such a long time; I feel really bad about it…

The bad news: My email is still screwed up, so I'll probably not be replying to emails for quite a while Meh. Still, it's great to be back and I really missed you all!

Dedication: To everyone who reviewed Loving Memory. You sure know how to make me feel better :draws you all into a tight hug while crying eyes out: Okay, maybe I'm still a little emotional about it… And to the guy who fixed my computer! I LOVE YOU!

Disclaimer: Tell you what; you give me the legal rights to Pokémon and I'll give you this… um… Water Energy Card!

-

Sianne's Story

By Dannichu

Chapter 4 – In which we have Danni getting into to the Safari Zone and a load of stuff actually vaguely conductive to the plot happening.

A little later, after Luke had asked directions from a wild Linoone, we found the Safari Zone. From the outside it looked large, with a big, white building serving as the Safari Entrance, where you paid to enter, left your Pokémon and got your Safari balls.

"Excuse me miss," came a gruff voice from behind me, "If you're going to the Safari Zone, you'll need to leave your Pokémon with us." I turned around and saw one of the Safari Wardens. He was a large man dressed in green, with a short beard and a hat, sitting behind a counter.
"Of course." I said, handing him my Pokébelt, before recalling Luke and handing him over, too.

"That's five hundred, please." He grunted, holding out a hand, into which I put my money,

"Thank you," said the man putting my money in a small till and my Pokémon in a shelf behind him. I looked up at the other shelves and saw hundreds and hundreds of Pokéballs on shelves, each with a name sticker below, indicating who the trainer was. I gulped, knowing what was coming next.

"Name, please." said the Warden, now at a small computer, ready to type in my name.

"Umm… I said uncomfortably. "Can I just give you my ID number as identity?" I never gave out my full name to anyone, not even Sarah or my Pokémon friends, all the way all the way through Kanto, Johto, Oore, or anywhere. It wasn't without is drawback, however; it restricted me from doing things that everyday trainers take for granted. I couldn't even enter the Pokémon League competitions because I had to give out my name, and they would announce it on nationwide television. Mercifully the Gym leaders didn't ask me my name, and if I did, I could tell them it was unimportant or at least give them my Christian name. I just didn't want to give them my surname because… well, I couldn't, since I hadn't really got one. Ever since my parents had been killed by a psychopathic Rhydon, I never used my full name, since as far as I was concerned, their names, along with their bodies, were six feet under. I had never wanted to make one up, as that would mean me pretending to belong to a family, with a mom, dad, brothers and sisters. I had never had that; I had just grown up with just Sparky for company.

I had no family and I didn't want to pretend I did.

The man looked up from the flatscreen computer. "Huh?"

"Would it be possible", I said, feeling myself go red, "for me to give you my Trainer ID number instead?"

"Why?" he questioned, staring at me, making me go even redder.

"Because… " I stumbled, "It's easier." I looked up hopefully.

"Okay then." The Warden said, his gaze never leaving me, "if you'll hand me your Pokédex there, I'll enter your number instead."

I handed over my blue Kyogre Pokédex, one which I was nowhere near to completing, with only about the data of six Pokémon in, since I was totally against the idea of leaving my Pokémon in a computer with no friends, no company, no nothing.

"Okay, so your number is 04453, yes?" he asked.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Okay then." He said, taking a strip of paper from his printer with my identification number on and sticking it just below the shelf, "you'll need to take this." He handed me a small, mechanical device, which had a kind of clip on the back.

"What is it?" I asked, taking it from him.

"A pedometer." Replied the man. "You clip it onto your belt and it will measure how many steps you take. This is how we know when your time is up."

"Okay," I said, clipping it onto the top of my pants, since I had just handed over my Pokébelt.

"And no taking it off, mind, or it'll set off an alarm, which will lead you to a lifelong ban from the Safari Zone."

I nodded.

"Enjoy yourself." He said, opening the door, and leading me out into the huge expanse of the Safari Zone.

If I said that I thought that the Safari Zone was large from the outside, it was absolutely gigantic from the inside. The grass was so tall, going above my waist, giving me a huge sense of suspense with every step I took. Of course, since trainers were going in unarmed, the Pokémon inside had a special computerized chip that disabled all of their attacks until it was removed by a special machine in the Safari Entrance. I had read all of this in a trainer's book, but it had never mentioned the pedometers before. They must have been a new feature, to stop dishonest people from cheating to gain extra time.

Anyway, it was time for me to catch a Pikachu.

"Pikachu, where are you?" I said aloud, hoping that no other trainers were around. I was looking over the grass, hoping to catch some sign of a thunderbolt-shaped tail. Suddenly, I felt something connect sharply and painfully with my leg. Stunned with the sudden pain, I fell over, clutching my shin. "Ow!" I shouted, probably scaring off all Pikachu (and other Pokémon) in the vicinity. Sitting up, I was ready to scream at whatever or whoever had caused my injury. Looking up, I saw it was a Pokéblock Feeder. Sheepishly, I stood up, careful not to put too much weight on my left leg. I opened by bag and took out my Pokéblock Case. Opening it, I found just one badly made Red Pokéblock (Pokémon weren't all that great at amking Pokéblocks, especially ones with fins for hands. Yeah, I had tried Pokéblock making. I took it out and placed it in the feeder. I then sat down, rubbed my leg a bit and waited.

After a few minutes, I saw a movement of the tall grass. I looked, almost bursting with anticipation. A Girafarig walked over to the feeder and began nibbling at the Pokéblock there. I wanted to walk over to it and attempt to capture it, but I didn't. I didn't want to use up one more step or ball than was necessary. I would sit and wait until my Pikachu came along. Another rustle. A Rhyhorn came out of the grass and pushed the Girafarig out of the way of the Feeder and began eating the Pokéblock inside. Still I sat patiently. I saw many Pokémon come and go; Doduo, Phanpy, Heracross and multitudes of Oddish. Suddenly I heard something move behind me. I whirled around while still sitting down and saw a bright yellow mouse with red cheeks and a curious expression looking up at me. "Chu?" it enquired.

Trying not to explode with anticipation, I began to crawl slowly toward the Pikachu. It looked at me curiously, but still with intelligence in its bright eyes. It knew I was a human, and it knew I was trying to capture it. And yet it didn't run away. This made me want to catch it even more. I came as close to the Pikachu as I felt was necessary before throwing a Safari ball at it. The Pikachu looked surprised when the ball hit it, but the ball sucked it up in a flash of green light. I stared at the Safari ball intently, expecting it to wobble. It however, offered no resistance whatsoever. It just vanished inside the ball, and the ball itself closed and remained stationary.

Hardly daring to believe that I had just caught a Pikachu, I crawled over to the Pokéball and picked it up. It felt warm, as all kinds of Pokéballs did when they contained a Pokémon. Suppressing the urge to scream something along the lines of 'YES!', I hugged the ball close to me, stood up and began walking around, trying to find another Pokémon I wanted to catch; a Natu maybe, or perhaps a Psyduck. Then, as if a Jirachi had just read my thoughts and decided to make my wish come true, I saw a Natu hop out right in front of me. I had read in a trainer's manual that Natu will not flee as long as you retain eye contact, so I stared intently at the little bird while reaching into my pack for a Safari ball. My eyes were beginning to water from trying not to blink, but I continued stating at the Natu. I enlarged the Safari ball behind my back and then threw it at the Natu as quickly as I could. It tried to hop away, but the ball hit it on the back, causing it to fall over, while the ball opened and sucked the struggling Pokémon inside. I clutched the ball of my new Pikachu as tightly as I could with anticipation. The ball wobbled once. Twice. Three times. Then it split open, beyond use, and the Natu rematerialized. I turned around to grab another Safari ball, but by the time I had got one and turned around, the Natu was nowhere to be seen. I inwardly cursed, then decided to put the ball of my new Pikachu in my bag while keeping two empty Safari balls out, ready to throw at the first opportunity.

About fifteen minutes later, after failing dismally to catch a Girafarig, Doduo and Gloom (I managed to make them run before even getting the chance to chuck a ball), I sat down and wondered if it would be better if I were to stay here and wait for the Pokémon to find me. Then I decided that I should walk around, seeing as I had already caught my Pikachu, and anything after that was merely an added bonus. Also, since I had given all my money to get into this place, I might as well enjoy it, instead of kneeling down in a pile of damp grass. Standing back up, and noticing my leg was feeling a little better, I looked around. There were no trainers in sight, though I could make out a Rest House in the distance. There was a large lake to my left, but I had no fishing rods, so I couldn't catch any aquatic Pokémon. Up ahead there was an almost vertical cliff of mud. I wouldn't risk trying to climb up it; you could only hope to do so using either specialist climbing equipment or being a professional Mach Bike rider. So I turned right, where there was even taller grass, reaching up to my chest. If it got any taller than this, I wouldn't be able to see. I hated being short. Wading into the river of grass, I tried to listen for any Pokémon that may have been nearby. I walked along, straining my eyes and my ears while still holding a Safari ball in each hand, trying to detect any movement or noise that could be that of a Pokémon. I was constantly looking up ahead, desperately trying to see a rustle of grass or something, and not looking at all where I was going. Mercifully there were no Pokéblock feeders in this particular area, so my shins were safe. Then I heard a noise. I stopped dead in my tracks and listened.

'Chaaa…'

That was, make no mistake, the sound of a sleeping Pikachu. And I should know, having spent over four years in a house with one of them, one by the name of Sparky who slept about thirteen hours a day. Even though I had already captured one Pikachu, another one would make me even happier, so I broke into a run, while still treading as softly as I could, so as not to create noise or earth vibrations.

"CHUUU!" came a scream from underneath me. Looking down, I saw a very angry-looking Pikachu glaring up at me, with my foot on its tail. "CHUUUU!" it tried again, squeezing its cheeks as hard as it could, but it was no use. The attack–blocker wouldn't break. Seeing that 'Operation: Fry Human' wasn't going to work, the Pikachu tried Plan B: run. Dodging between my legs at lightning speed, it ran in a constant direction. Suddenly, I remembered something; there was a lake in that direction, and the Pikachu was running straight towards it very fast. I knew from going to the local pool with Sparky when I was a kid that while Pikachu could swim, they had to learn over time and have the water at a certain temperature. Horror struck me; if that Pikachu drowned because of me, I could never ever forgive myself. Dropping the Safari Balls in my hands, I ran as fast as I could in the direction of the Pikachu. Pikachu are faster than humans, but I was motivated and was running so fast it seemed that my legs weren't even part of me any more. Looking up ahead I saw the Pikachu, running and still yelling, obviously frustrated because of the attack-blocker. And even further ahead was the lake. It was running straight towards it, at a pace I could never hope to catch up with. And a pace at which it couldn't stop when it suddenly saw the water. I slid my bag of my shoulders while running and dropped it on the floor, hoping that no wild Pokémon would come and steal it. My gaze was constantly flicking between the Pikachu, which was still running blindly, and the lake. The Pikachu was within twenty feet of the lake now, and it showed no signs of slowing down at all. Ten… five… three… it seemed totally unaware of the lake's existence. Then suddenly the land gave way to it and the helpless Pikachu splashed into the huge, deep lake. I shouted in horror, continuing running before kicking off my shoes and then leaping into the water, fully clothed, hoping against hope that the Pikachu was okay.

I wiped the slightly dirty water out of my eyes and looked around; there was no sign of the Pikachu anywhere. A sudden feeling of dread suddenly washed over me; what if there were Gyrados or Sharpedo in the lake? Sure I had never read about them being there, but Magikarp are everywhere and if there's a Magikarp…

"No!" I shouted to myself. I wouldn't think like that! I swam around, looking for a pair of black-tipped yellow ears, or a lightning bolt-shaped tail. I discovered that I couldn't touch the bottom; the lake must have been very deep. "Pikachu!" I shouted. "Pikachu!"