Negrek: I heart Animal Crossing. I also took a conversational Japanese course, though, so that helps. Though it was awful...

Facia: In 8 of the 10 Pokemon games, as well as in the manga, the only place you can get a Pokedex from is Prof. Oak. In fact, they are so exclusive in the manga that, when Red pulls his out,quite a fewpeople don't even know what it is at first. As usual, Ruby and Sapphire spoiled everything. And yes, so far there is one more town with a Japanese name. I like things to have meaning. All of my names mean something.

The next day didn't bring anything exceedingly significant.

Gina awoke early. How early she couldn't tell, but the sun wasn't entirely up yet so she assumed it was before seven. She was greeted by her catiel. He came bouncing over to her (from where she couldn't guess), chirping happily.

"Hey, bud," she said softly, "Oh yeah… I think I have a name for you. How do you like Sproing?"

The little bird cocked his head to the side, considering this proposal. He then looked at her and nodded, giving a loud shrill chirp. And so it was decided; he was Sproing the catiel.

It wasn't much longer before they were packed up, had eaten, and were on their way. Sproing hopped ahead of Gina, following the swerving path. Every now and then he'd pick up a berry that had dropped from either a nearby tree or had been abandoned by another Pokemon. He'd run back to Gina with it; she would either take it and place it in her berry bag, or allow Sproing to eat it. They went on like this for a while.

Then Sproing stopped. He skidded to a sudden halt. Gina also stopped when she saw this, unsure of what to think of this uncharacteristic silence. Sproing tilted his head to one side, then the other. He did this when he was thinking, so Gina assumed he had seen or heard something, and was trying to figure out what exactly it had been. Nonetheless, she was worried by this abrupt change in his behavior.

The grass moved. Gina's heart skipped a beat. Slowly, Sproing raised one of his feet. He set it down a few inches further than it had been and leaned toward the grass. And, just as suddenly as he had stopped, Sproing shot up into the air, and upon his landing dashed into the tall grass. Gina stared for a second before running after him.

What she saw surprised her. A trio of meditite sat in the grass, meditating—the perfect training for Sproing.

"Ready for our first win?" she whispered to him. He nodded eagerly. "Okay… ready… set… go."

Sproing dashed into the area where the meditite were sitting. Judging by their size, Gina assumed them to be a fairly young—not much older than Sproing. One at a time, the monkey-like Pokemon opened their eyes and stared at Sproing.

"Peck whichever one you can! And stick with that one!" Gina ordered.

Sproing lunged at the nearest Pokemon. The meditite went tumbling, and it couldn't recover before Sproing landed another peck. This time, the meditite stayed down.

The fallen Pokemon's companions scattered upon seeing this. In his glory, Sproing dashed after the next one. He received a kick in the beak, but shook his head and continued his chase, unphased. He landed peck after peck, and succeeded in silencing two of the monkey Pokemon.

"Yes! That was so awesomely lucky! And you did great!" Gina scooped up Sproing. The catiel cooed happily. Gina decided to try their luck with the next zigzagoon they saw. Maybe they could win now…

--

Sproing walked alongside Gina as the sun lowered. Exhausted from unsuccessfully battling three zigzagoon, the spring had left his step. There had not been any signs for Cuamenara Pass, and it wasn't visible in the distance.

Gina plunked down on the path. She opened her guide book to the page about Cuamenara Pass.

"Four Ways"

Named after the four paths leading to and from it, it has been said that all roads lead to Cuamenara. Though the Pass is encased by a huge mountain and looks impressively ominous from the outside, especially from afar, it is actually a series of four simple, small underground passageways. Instability of not only the surrounding ecosystem but of the mountain itself prevents further spelunking and excavation. See next page for map.

Cuamenara is almost always swarming with new trainers, mainly due to its population of young Pokemon. Studies show that once these Pokemon, such as Larvitar and Aron, mature they move steadily to either Widow's Peak or even to places such as the Panobi Desert or Mount Sci. Occasionally a Pupitar will grace a lucky newbie.

When approaching, the mountain will become visible when only a few more hours are needed to reach the Pass.

Virtix City Journey Time: Less than a day possible. See pg.6

Sunrise City " " : Approx. three days. See pg. 2

Widow's Pass " " : Approx. seven days see pg. 9

Centrimark Town " " : Two days max. See pg. 14

Gina closed the book and stood up. They still had another day to go at least. Sproing cooed softly, wanting to stop for the night. Gina took the hint, and they entered the next patch of trees and set up camp.

Gina was up and about early again the next morning. Catiel lay next to her, still asleep. She sighed. Two days had passed, their destination was nowhere in sight, they couldn't beat zigzagoon, and she was exhausted. She sighed and lay back down as another thought crept up on her, And I got a Catiel as a starter Pokemon.

The catiel stirred, his sleep aggravated by his mentor's movements. He raised his head and let out a chirp, happily greeting the morn. Soon enough, they had eaten their miniscule meal, and were off again.

Sproing hopped to and fro characteristically, and Gina walked along the dirt part sullenly, hoping desperately for a view of any mountain, even if it wasn't the one they were looking for. The way the field stretched monotonously in almost all directions out made her feel as if they were making little if any progress.

Much to Gina's surprise, the hours passed quickly. They lost to another Zigzagoon, beat another Meditite, and had a picnic in the grass. The day was cool and traveling was simple. It wasn't long before a dark shadow appeared in the sky, and Gina sighed in relief. Their first excursion was almost over.

As the guidebook said, they reached the mountain in another few hours, arriving in the late afternoon. The lodges and Pokemon stores and centers scattered about were all crowded, and Gina even got glimpses of some people she knew. Sproing bounced around, energetically exploring his new surroundings.

Cuamenara Mountain itself was gigantic, but, as the text had read, the paths inside it seemed quite simple. An oversized map was taped crudely to a table outside the Pokemon Center; Gina was relieved to see that each tunnels' passage was either a straight line or only slightly curvilinear. As Gina was reading the caption below the map, Sproing came hopping back to her side, chirping loudly and looking toward the many buildings lined up next to each other.

She looked down at him, "Hey, bud. What's up?"

"Ca! Titi!" He bounced to and fro, nodding toward the structures.

"Those are buildings, Spro. That one is a Pokemon Center. It's where you get healed when you're hurt, and where we rest so we don't have to camp out. And those are called PokeMarts, where I can buy things," Gina replied.

Sproing nodded, taking this in and trying desperately to understand it. His thoughts were interrupted by Gina, "So, do you want to hang out in the tunnels for a bit? I think we're gonna stay here tonight, and maybe we can decide where to go by tomorrow. I mean, though, if you're too tired, we don't have to go into the tunnels now." The little bird titled his head, his mind draining of any prior thoughts as it considered this proposition. Eventually, the catiel gave a nod and the pair headed toward the tunnel entrance.

The inside of the passageways was dimly lit by hanging lanterns strung haphazardly across the ceiling. Hills of rock separated one road from another, as well as the travelers from the perils of the inner mountain. The caves were full of people to the point that Gina started to wonder how everyone fit. Both she and Sproing gazed about in awe, neither of them having ever seen much outside of the fields surrounding Sunrise City.

As she finished taking everything in, Gina shoved her way through the crowds and, after many failed attempts, she managed to find herself a small spot on a bench. Sproing hopped into her lap, chirping excitedly, as his partner pulled her guidebook out of her bag.

"I wonder how you find any Pokemon in here," Gina thought aloud. Sproing gave a chirp of agreement. He wouldn't like to live with so many people. "Well, apparently," Gina continued, "we can find aron, larvitar, geodude, machop… a lot of Pokemon in here. I wonder if this thing tells me how…" She continued to scan over the pages for a minute or so, before finding the passage she was looking for:

Though Cuamenara is littered by hundreds of people at a time, it is still possible to catch Pokemon. In each of the four tunnels, there is a reservation where Pokemon may roam undisturbed by the crowds, and a set number of people at a time may enter to catch however many of these Pokemon they like. Some of these include: larvitar, aron, lairon (rare), pupitar (rare), magnegram (exclusive to Widow's Peak area), and bagon.

Gina sighed, "Well, apparently we can't train or catch or whatever until we decide which way we want to go. But… with all of the people here, maybe we can get ourselves into a real battle. Most of them look like us. New to this, I mean. So I bet they have some Pokemon from the cave, which might give us a slight advantage. Okay… so we don't have any Pokemon from the cave yet… but we will!"

Sproing squawked happily, jumping down to the ground. His new mission, all other thoughts aside, was to find someone for them to fight. As soon as Gina was ready to start heading back toward the entrance to the cave, the little bird shot out into the crowd, looking for someone he found suitable. He paid no mind to the girl running after him, shoving her way through the hoards of people. Finally, he came to someone sitting on the ground, playing with a small Pokemon. He recognized this Pokemon. It had spines and was striped brown and an off-white color. Its little face scrunched up as its human offered it food. It was a zigzagoon.

Gina, panting, ran up to her catiel, "Sproing! Never, ever do that again! I could've lost you, buddy!"

Sproing gave his best pitiful look before pointing his foot toward the small rat. Gina looked the pair opposite them over before she replied, "Spro, I don't think… we couldn't beat the wild ones, and that one is bound to be better. It's with a partner." Sproing shook his head defiantly and continued to point. The zigzagoon wasn't taking food from its human. It didn't trust the boy. They would have an advantage.

She sighed, "Alright. We'll give it a try. There's a Center right outside if we need it, I guess." Sproing jumped and gave an elated chirp. He ran up to the mouse. Gina followed.

"Hi…" she said, not entirely sure of how to go about this, "My catiel really wants to battle your zigzagoon for some reason… uh… do you mind?"

Gina figured she had said something right, because she didn't receive a strange look and there was no sarcasm in his voice when he said, "Oh, sure. Sounds like fun. We need to find a place, though…"

"Well… the crowd seems to have just stepped aside for those two over there…Maybe we just start," Gina suggested, not having thought of this problem.

"Maybe we should meet outside… just in case we're not supposed to, or something," the boy offered, "Why don't we meet by the map table in front of the Pokemon Center in about a half-hour. Sound good?"

"Alright. I'll see you then, I guess," Gina agreed. She scooped up Sproing, waved to the boy, and started to head out of the tunnel.

--

The Pokemon Center was huge. Though that was something, Gina realized, that she should probably have expected. Then again, it looked like the normally sized one in her hometown from the front. But it stretched back into a crag, making it, from the inside, seem very much like a hotel.

The rooms were very much like that of a hotel also. They each boasted their own bathroom, something Gina was extremely grateful for, as well as a bed and television. Unlike most Pokemon Centers, however, this one required a small fee per night. It didn't surprise Gina that a place like that couldn't run on donations alone.

Gina wasn't sure whether or not being fashionably late applied to Pokemon battles, but she had no interest in finding out. She stood in front of the map, by her time five or so minutes early. The boy showed up soon after. The acknowledged each other, and then started to head away from he mass of people and Pokemon.

"Alright, are you ready?" the boy asked, calling his zigzagoon out of its Pokeball.

"Yup!" Gina replied, nodding to Sproing. The Pokemon took their places between the two trainers. "Oh! This is a one-on-one, okay?" Gina said to the boy. He nodded in reply.

The zigzagoon puffed itself up, and Sproing bounced in place, each awaiting an order from their nervous trainers, each of whom was about to participate in their first battle. Gina finally took a deep breath, and said quietly to Sproing, "Alright, Spro, you wanted to do this… do your best. Let's try the… uh…well, the butt-peck thing again. That we did to that first zigzag." The catiel cocked his head to the side, considering for a second, before nodding, and charging at the zigzagoon.

"Alright, Spiny!" the boy shouted, excitement taking over, "Charge him!"

The zigzagoon, presumably named Spiny, complied and rushed at Sproing. Sproing jumped over the little animal and tried to peck his backside, only to tumble in the dirt. He righted himself, and Spiny turned around for another charge. The command "Tackle!" rang through the small battlefield, but Sproing wasn't sure who had said it. The zigzagoon didn't make any move to answer it, and instead curled himself into a ball and shot forward at his opponent. Sproing made the quick assumption that the tackle order hadn't been for him, and he jumped the rollout.

Spiny uncoiled himself, much to his trainer's delight, but still refused to listen to the order of tackle. Gina stood attentively, hoping that Sproing understood that their original plan was still in play. The two small Pokemon stood, staring at each other, for several seconds before the zigzagoon raised its spines, put its head down, and charged in full headbutt.

Sproing again leaped over this attack as well, but managed to land a hard peck on the unprepared zigzagoon's backside. The small mouse squealed and swung its tail around vigorously, trying to hit a Sproing who had already retreated.

"Okay, Spro, razor leaf!" Gina ordered.

"C'mon Spiny, rollout!" the boy pleaded.

Sproing quickly called upon foliage, and Spiny, realizing that his mentor had chosen the best possible strategy, tucked himself into a ball.

"Sproing! Uh… can you fly? Not like the attack! Just normal flying!" Gina shouted at the battlefield.

Sproing nodded, and flapped his wings, rising just enough off the ground to avoid the zigzagoon's charge. He came down with a plunk, as well as to the command, "Quick! Jump!" He jumped, but to late. His small legs were kicked out from under him and he fell backwards hard.

"Oy! C'mon, Spro, you can do it. Razor leaf again!" Gina called. Sproing stood up and shook himself off.

"Spiny! Rollout!" the boy shouted.

The zigzagoon looked at his trainer, his face harboring an awfully malicious expression. Sproing stood in place, near his end, waiting for the rat to move. Gina stared on.

If he listens, he wins.

It came to everyone at the same time.

It was out of their reach now, Gina realized. Whatever happened, her catiel had fought well. They just needed to lay off those zigzagoon for a while.

Day THREE

I skipped yesterday. Nothing really happened. Spro and I got sorta discouraged, and we lost to some zigzagoon, so we just moped around all day, and went in earlier than we did the night before. But we also won our first battle against some meditite. It wasn't as glorious as I thought it would be. Sure, Spro jumped up and down and I hugged him, but… that has happened before. I thought it would be a little more exciting, but it just happened. Then, boom, it was over. I can go on with my life. I wanted something much more, well, cliché.

So, anyway, we finally got to Cuamenara Pass. It's this huge mountain that people won't excavate or spelunk (which is an awesome word, by the way) because it's unstable. So it's just these four separate tunnels. Worse, it's overflowing with people. It's like an amusement park. You look up; you're going to lose whoever you're with. That's what happened, actually. Spro and I went into the caves to catch Pokemon ( which, incidentally, we couldn't do because there are only certain areas near the intersection of the tunnels where you can catch them—you really need to decide where you're going before you can get anything). Well, we found we couldn't. So I said to him, "Maybe we can find someone to battle instead." There were hundreds of people who only had one Pokemon, and plus, the guidebook said that a ton of new trainers gather there. I feel really cliché… this time, at least.

Anyway, Spro took that as, "Go find someone for us to battle!" That was really not cool because he shot off into the crowd! He ended up picking this kid with this awful disobedient zigzagoon. Seriously! He picked a zigzagoon, the one Pokemon (well, not the one, but one of the Pokemon) we haven't been able to beat yet. So this guy and I decide to meet later for a zigzag vs. Spro match.

You would never believe this Pokemon center. Getting back to the whole amusement park this, it is a HOTEL! The place is huge! It has a swimming pool, for God's sake! I got a hotel room! There's this awesome, weird-smelling bed and a T.V. with one of those little controllers that you can play Super Nintendo games from (Kirby rules), and a cute little bathroom complete with mini shampoo bottles. Yeah, I did have to pay a little to get in, but it's worth it. I could live here for the rest of my life with the fee they charge. And, hey, I could make money by battling people like that guy and his zigzagoon.

Anyway, that guy… yeah, we battled him. I think Spro saw the zigzagoon, Spiny, being a jerk to his partner, so he thought it would be easier if the Pokemon we battled didn't listen. Wrong. It was much harder. We never knew what he would do. It was like battling a much stronger wild one. We actually did well for a while, Sproing landed a lot of pecks and a razor leaf, but the stupid little porcupine knew rollout.

So we eventually got to a bit of a dead heat, and nobody was landing attacks. Spro was starting to really get tired (though I guess it would be hard for anyone but me to notice; he was still bouncing around like a lunatic), and then this guy, who had been shouting tackle and headbutt the entire time, finally decides to order rollout, which would obviously be enough to finish the battle. I almost exploded. I felt so bad for poor Spro. I really wanted to do something, but I couldn't think of anything but to wait and see what this little rodent would do. He looked so evil.

I guess it was only a few seconds worth of suspense before the zigzagoon shifted that mean little glare of his from his trainer to Sproing, but it felt like forever. He tucked his head down and pulled his legs in. I really wanted to close my eyes, or run for the guidebook. They need to put like a "Strategies for Defeating Zigzagoon" thing in there or something like that. So, this zigzagoon starts to rollout, but suddenly, he changes his mind and unrolls, running to tackle Spro instead. Sproing was totally unprepared, and so was I, so he took the full force of the attack. This wasn't extra-effective like rollout, so he was able to get up. I was about to call him back, but he charged at Spiny, who thought he had won by surprise. Instead, Spiny got pecked in a really uncomfortable place.

So now Spiny is running in this little circle like a delibird with its head cut off, squealing. Sproing is just standing there chirping loudly. I swear he was laughing. I think, to him, it was like payback to all of those zigzagoon we lost to that we were able to see this evil, juvenile little zigzagoon acting so ridiculously. Maybe it was kind of mean to laugh (which I didn't), but it was great to see. The guy was just standing there, totally stunned. Once the zigzagoon calmed down, which was almost a full minute later (which is actually a pretty long time to run in little circles squeaking), he rolled himself up and did this full-on charge at Spro, who wasn't ready for it. So, yeah… we lost. But it was worth it to a surreal degree! I seriously think we can beat the next zigzagoon. Last time I was wrong, but I have a good feeling now.

On another note, I think we're going to head toward Widow's Peak tomorrow. So, next time I write, I'll probably have a new Pokemon! Well, I hope so, anyway. I hope it's as bright and fun as Spro. It must really stink to be stuck with a Pokemon with a bad disposition. The fun part will be naming it.

Yeah, right.