Chapter 8

"Ready, kid?" a man said to me, holding up his fists in a fighting stance. I gritted my teeth and spat some blood on the ground. He was getting me pretty good, but I won't go down without a good fight.

"Yeah, let's go!" I replied with a determined smile. "I'm ready for you." The man smiled a little and ran towards, about to land a punch. I blocked him successfully, holding up my arms in front of his knuckles. I landed a few punches to his face, but in return, I got hit in the nose. I'll definitely have a nosebleed either during the fight or straight after. However, I wasn't going to give up yet. This time, I aimed for the chest, landing my hits a few times on his collarbone. He grunted a little but kept on fighting me. This was a typical afternoon routine for me. Sometimes it would be sword sparring, while other times it would be fist fights. This was all part of my training, to get better at self-defense and overall combat. I got into the routine that every summer, I travel to Sector Seven to train. But I've learned a lot more than just defending myself. My friends taught me some street smarts and Papa Ray got me into alchemy and making potions. I even found a new friend, a little Pocket Monster named Shinx, who I've taken upon myself to take care of, along with some of the kids that Papa Ray has been raising. That didn't matter at this moment though. What mattered was if I could win this fight!

"Let's see what you think about this!" my opponent exclaimed. He grabbed my shirt and pummeled me to the floor hard. I yelped, but I had to focus because he was trying to grapple me. After a few minutes of struggling, I bit his arm and kicked his stomach. My opponent let go of his grip, and in the next second or so, I had him on the ground with one of my hands on his neck while the other hand pinned down his chest. The man tried to get out of my grip, but I held him down tight, desperate not to let him get away. After a few attempts of struggle, the man panted, "Okay kid, I think that's enough. You win."

"Are you sure?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "Or are you just saying that to have me let go of you and you get the final blow?" The man chuckled at my response.

"I taught you well, kid," my opponent said.

"Baby girl, I think you can let go Rick now," Ray said, who was watching us the entire time. "You've done enough damage already to him."

"Sweet!" I exclaimed. I let go of my hold on him and stood up straight, stretching my hands and arms. "That was a good fight, Ricky! Glad you didn't take it easy on me this time."

"What are you talking about, kid?" Ricky smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "I always take it easy on you."

"I didn't sense that this time~" The two of us laughed as we shook hands, courtesy of having a good fight.

"All right, Fi!" Lumi exclaimed in the background. "You beat that man down!" He and my other friends, Naty, Sagi, and Rocky, were watching the fight too.

"Yup, I did!" I said proudly, giggling.

"Hey, don't get too cocky," Ray cautioned, walking to me. "You still got a long way to go before you can walk freely around these parts."

"But what else do I need to learn?" I asked, fixing my nose from the fight. "You taught me tons about self-defense and magic. Is there anything else that you want me to know?"

"Of course, there is, child. I don't want you to just defend yourself. I want you to fight alongside us, to do what's right for our people." My eyes widened in shock. Me, fighting for Sector Seven? But I'm only 12 years old! How could I possibly do that?

"Yeah, fight with us, Fi!" Sagi exclaimed, agreeing with Ray. "It's not going to be fun without you around to help."

"But what can I do?" I questioned, lowering my head. "Aren't I too young to get involved with this? I know you guys want to liberate Sector Seven from all the bad pain it's felt for years, but are you sure you want me?" I felt a hand on both of my shoulders and looked up to see Ray, staring into my eyes. It was awkward to see him up close, but it was usually because he was serious.

"I want you to help us out, Fiore," Ray said softly. "Our people are suffering, and I don't know how long we can stand this."

"Didn't you try to rebel years ago and failed?" I asked with a frown. "How can we reach people from the other sectors?"

"Well, first we got to work within Sector Seven. We can't get people's attention individually. We have to act like one. So, first things first, we figure out how to convince people around here to make some noise!"

"How are we going to do that?"

"I don't know yet, but what I do know is that when the time comes, we'll need you to be ready for it. Do you get where I'm getting at, child?" I thought about it for a few seconds. I guess they would want me to be prepared for a rebellion, but I didn't get what type of resistance Papa Ray was speaking of. It could be just protesting, but doing it as a whole sector is better than doing it as a little group.

"Yeah, I get it," I replied with a smile.

"In that case, it's time for a brand-new lesson," Ray announced, letting go of my shoulders and glancing up at the roofs of the buildings that surrounded us. "A lesson that will take you to different places in Sector Seven quickly."

"Ooh, what is it?" I asked, instantly fascinated.

"Your friends are going to teach you how to hop around quickly on the rooftops."

"Yay!... Wait, what?" Ray laughed and turned to my four friends, who they all nodded as a silent code to each other. Naty, Rocky, Lumi, and Sagi went over to me and grabbed my arms.

"Make sure you bring her back before sunset as usual!" Ray hollered as they began to drag me away from him and Rick.

"We will!" my friends said in unison. I looked around in shock and confusion. Where was I going? Where were they taking me? Why did I have to learn how to hop to different rooftops?!

"Have a good time, kids!" Rick exclaimed with a small wave. "Don't take the poor girl to the high roofs yet. Make it easy for her."

"We will don't worry!" Lumi yelled.

"Oh boy, Rocky is gonna have so much fun teaching Fi!" Rocky said happily.

"Okay, okay, I know that Papa Ray said that I needed to learn more things to help liberate Sector Seven," I began with a nervous chuckle, "but is this absolutely necessary? I'm pretty sure I can just teleport to different places!"

"But if you do," Sagi started, "the police will catch you because you're a sorceress. They'll know that you can teleport and make sure you go to jail, girl!"

"Well, that is a fair point."

"It'll be easy, Fi!" Naty said as the group went into an abandoned building. "We'll teach you how it works and then we can travel all around Sector Seven, even places you haven't been to before. That's the exciting part of it all!"

"That does sound fun," I said, imagining how fun it would be to travel with my buddies.

"Then we are doing this!" Lumi announced. "Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for some fun!" We finally got to the top of the building, and my friends let go of me, preparing for their flight across the neighborhood. I watched them, not knowing if I should prepare myself too or not. "Just follow our lead, and you'll just fine!"

"Okay then..." I decided to go near the edge of the building and look down from there to see how high we were from the ground. It didn't look like we were too high up, but I still had some concerns lurking in my head.

"If all else fails, we're gonna catch you," Sagi said. He turned to Rocky to see if he had anything to say on the matter. "Right, dude?"

"Yeah, Rocky and Sagi will catch Fi!" Rocky replied with pride.

"I'll hold you to that," I said with a soft smile. "Now let's get started! I'm kind of excited and nervous at the same time."

"Yeah!" everyone else cheered.

What an exciting way to end my memory dream! I don't even know if I made it through my first try or not! But considering that I am alive, I made it through all right. Maybe I can ask them sometime when I'm in the area? Then again, I'll probably remember it soon, or at least I want to. I'm only getting bits and pieces of my life, and I want to know everything! Why can't I know everything yet? Is there an actual reason, or were my injuries that bad that I have to remember everything in pieces before getting the whole picture? That is very frustrating, but I don't show it to other people. Only to this journal, and maybe the ones that choose to read it.

Now in this memory-dream, I was in the middle of training with a guy named Rick. I also won, which makes me think that I was a pretty good fighter. Whether I am now is up for other people to decide, but the thing that caught me by surprise was that Papa Ray didn't want me to just learn self-defense. He wanted me to learn to fight to help him liberate Sector Seven, to set them free from all of the suffering that they have endured. I'm only familiar with Sector Seven and the current one I'm in, which I believe is Sector Four or Five. This sector is way better off than Sector Seven, but I am not sure about the other sectors. Maybe they are better off too. But then, Papa Ray knew that we had to work within the sector first before moving to the other sectors. I found that to be pretty smart, and I hope that he's figured out what exactly to do.

At the end of the memory-dream, my friends and I were about to practice hopping onto different rooftops. I didn't know that these people jump from roof to roof! Is it a more convenient way to travel in Sector Seven? I'll ask my brother as soon as I'm done with this journal.

Lizzy's attention was soon on something else when she heard a strange, familiar cry near her closed, bedroom door. She barely kept the door closed, but she wanted to this time because there was a lot of people in the house and she wanted some alone time for a bit. However, she was very curious as to what that cry was beyond her door. She got up from her bed and strolled to the door, being cautious and strange at the same time. Lizzy opened the door, and a creature jumped onto her chest, making her fall back to the floor. But she couldn't tell what this creature was since it was licking her nonstop. "What is going on?" Lizzy yelled, very confused.

"Lucky decided to say hi to you!" Melody laughed. She was at the door the entire time. "I'm sorry if he scared you."

"No, it's okay! It's just that...who's Lucky?" The creature stopped licking her face and tilted its head towards Lizzy, curious as to why she couldn't remember its name.

"Lucky is the little Shinx that was licking you just now," Melody replied. "I've been taking care of him, his two siblings, and their parents while you were away and in your coma. I wanted to reintroduce them to you since you're getting better. Lucky is a Pocket Monster, Pokémon for short. They're different from Duel Monsters because they live in a little ball capsule and have more interactions with their owners. I hope you don't mind meeting Lucky right now. He was just too excited to see you."

"Oh, I don't mind at all!" Lizzy smiled. "It seems like I was the caretaker of Lucky and his family." She then looked at the Pokémon and said, "It's very nice to meet you again. You must be the Shinx that I remembered in my memory dream one time."

"Nope, that's not him!" Lizzy's friend giggled. "If it's a memory from your past, then it must've been Star, Lucky's mother."

"Ohhhhh...well, I'm still happy to see an old friend." Lizzy kissed Lucky's little nose, which made the creature smile and licks her again. She giggled and looked towards Melody. "Thanks, Mel!"

"You're welcome! Now...do you want to see the rest of his family?"

"Sure!... Wait, the entire-" She couldn't stop her sentence because two other Shinx ran to her and began to lick her as well, along with Lucky. Lizzy laughed at the sudden attack and enjoyed every minute of it.

"That's Buddy and Kiki," Melody explained with a giggle. "You can tell because Kiki has shorter hair on the top of her head while Buddy and Lucky have longer strands of hair."

"Yeah, I can tell!" Lizzy exclaimed. "But can I play with them a bit later? I want to try to finish my memory journal entry for the day."

"Oh, but your dad has someone on video chat and wants you to go see him. I should've told you sooner, but Lucky jumped out of his pokéball and ran to your room."

"Oh! Well, why didn't you just say so? I'm up for that. Where's Papa at?"

"Downstairs." Lizzy nodded at her response and stood up in the midst of the three Shinx. She cleared her throat and announced,

"Attention, my little friends! I must attend to something downstairs. Can you please let me get to my bedroom door and go down the staircase without making me trip on? I'm still a bit sensitive to injury."

"Shinx!" all three of them cried, with determined looks on their faces. They didn't want their human friend to get more injured than what already happened. So, the three made way for Lizzy to get to the door where Melody was at.

"Thank you!" Lizzy smiled, walking to the door. She smiled more at Melody, ruffling her hair before going into the big, wide-open space that stood around separate bedrooms and the staircase. The three Shinx decided to follow Lizzy to the staircase and down to the first floor of the house, leaving Melody to watch her dear friend and smile with relief. "Papa, you wanted me?" Lizzy hollered, walking past the stairs and into the kitchen. She found Ronald in the kitchen with a laptop set up on the island table.

"Yup!" Ronald said with a proud grin. "Ray and I managed to set up a video call between here and Sector Seven."

"Really?! How did you do that?"

"I'll tell you about it later, but right now there's someone that wants to say hello. Come to the camera."

"Okay!" Lizzy went over to her dad and stared at the laptop screen, seeing a face that she hasn't seen in a long time. She gasped happily at the screen. "Papa Ray!"

"Hey there, baby girl!" Ray exclaimed from the other side of the screen. "How's it going for you over there? I heard about the accident from Ron."

"I'm doing good, Papa Ray," Lizzy replied with a soft smile. "I got these memory dreams that I've been having, and they have been helping me remember everything."

"Memory dreams, huh? It must have something to do with your magic...anyway, I'm assuming that you remember me?"

"Uh-huh! I remember you, Naty, Rocky, Sagi, Lumi, Rick, and your wife!"

"Wow, that's a lot you remember, baby girl. How were you able to do that?"

"One memory dream at a time!" Lizzy then began to explain what has been happening in some of her memory dreams. Ray listened intently, chuckling at some of those memories that Lizzy managed to remember. It made him think of the days when Lizzy and the other kids were still young, playing in Sector Seven and watching over them, and small tears were in his eyes. The girl kept talking for a while longer until she saw Ray's tears. "Are you okay, Papa Ray?" Lizzy asked sincerely.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ray replied, wiping away those tears. "The things that you were talking about bring back so many good memories of when you kids were little. Man, I wish I could relive those days."

"There are times when I think that and times that I definitely don't think that," Ronald admitted with a chuckle.

"I think that too sometimes!" Ray said with a hearty laugh. "But speaking of my wife, there are some things I need to talk to you about, Fiore."

"Oh boy, if he's using my actual name then that's got to mean trouble," Lizzy noted in half joking and half serious.

"Don't worry, it's not too serious yet. I think you are going to be excited."

"Excited? What do you mean?" Ray smiled warmly with a twinkle in his eye and asked,

"How would you feel about being an aunt?" Lizzy furrowed her eyebrows, questioning why he would ask her that. She didn't get the hint.

"Aren't I technically an aunt already with all the kids that you've raised?" she asked.

"I know, I know," Ray replied, holding back the excitement that is inside him. "But I mean, an actual aunt!"

"You know what that means, right?" Ronald asked Lizzy. "Think about it for a second."

"Okay..." Lizzy said, pondering. "But if I'd be an actual aunt, then that would mean.." The realization hit hard as a rock, and her mouth dropped in shock. "MAMA MAY'S PREGNANT?!" Ray laughed at her loud comment.

"You got it!" he said, still laughing.

"How and when did this happen?!"

"Well Lizzy," Ronald started with a twinkle in his eye, "when two people love each other very much..."

"Okay, I know how it happened, Papa!" Lizzy interrupted before the conversation would get weird. "I'm just wondering when this happened."

"Many months ago!"

"...How long is many months ago?"

"Exactly eight months ago," Ray said. "I remember that because May told me on her birthday."

"Wow!" Lizzy said in awe. "So, she only has a few more weeks to go until the baby is born. Is it a boy or a girl?"

"So far, it's a girl."

"Yay!" She was super excited to be an aunt, and that it's going to be a baby girl. "Where's Mama May?"

"She's taking it easy on the couch," Ray explained with a slight sweatdrop. "You have no idea how hard it's been to keep my woman relaxed for the past few days. She's anxious about the baby."

"Don't worry, I'm sure the baby will be happy and healthy when it's born," Ronald said with confidence. "I'd send Lizzy over to you to do a checkup, but I don't think she remembers how to do that yet."

"I can do that?" Lizzy said, looking at Ronald with wide eyes. "That sounds amazing!" Suddenly, Lucky jumped up onto Lizzy's shoulder and licked her cheek casually. "Hi Lucky!" she smiled. "Guess what? A new member of the family is coming." Lucky tilted his head in confusion of what she was talking about, and then Lizzy pointed at Ray on the computer screen. "Do you remember Papa Ray?"

"Shinx!" Lucky cried, waving a little with one of his front legs.

"Hey there, Lucky!" Ray said with a wave. "You're going to have a new friend to play with, or at least when she gets old enough." Suddenly, May appeared near the corner of the laptop screen.

"Honey, what are you up to?" she asked, looking at her husband.

"I'm talking to Ron through the power of the new video camera I installed earlier. Take a look, babe!" He pointed at us on the other side of his screen, and May looked at us through the computer screen.

"Ooh, it's Ron and Fiore!" May cried in joy. She waved happily and exclaimed, "Hi Ron, hi sweetheart!"

"Hi, Mama May!" Lizzy replied, holding Lucky in her arms. "I just heard that new addition is coming to your family. Congratulations!"

"Aww, thank you! I'm hoping that my delivery will turn out fine."

"You don't have to hope for that, honey," Ray encouraged. "I know that it will be just fine."

"Yeah, it'll be a happy and healthy baby," Lizzy said in agreement. "I just know it!" May smiled warmly and said,

"I'm glad that I have you two for a little encouragement." Ronald then cleared his throat, which made the woman add, "Oh yeah, you're there too for support, you and your wife." Lizzy and Ray laughed happily of had just happened. Lucky, still in Lizzy's arms, began to paw at the laptop, wondering if he should touch it or not.

"Liz, I think Lucky wants to play with the laptop," Ronald noticed, looking at the little Shinx. "You should put him down before he starts doing any damage."

"Ok, Papa!" Lizzy exclaimed. She put Lucky down on the floor, but he was too curious about the laptop that he jumped up to the island table. "No, Lucky! You'll press the buttons on the laptop." Lizzy grabbed Lucky and walked away from the kitchen, having the other two Shinx siblings follow her.

"Shinx, Shinx!" Lucky cried, squirming in Lizzy's arms.

"I know that you will, my friend! I know you, and you like to play with new things. So how about we go upstairs and get you a ball of yarn? Would you like that?" Lucky grinned, happy that she mentioned yarn. "Then let's get some yarn for you." Lizzy headed for the stairs and walked up each step with ease. After getting to the top of the stairs, she went to her bedroom and searched for a ball of yarn. "Where can I find yarn?" Lizzy thought to herself. She searched through most of her furniture drawers until she found a little ball of yarn. Lucky and his siblings saw it and cried,

"Shinx!"

"Yeah, I found it!" Lizzy smiled. "Now go play with it!" She through the ball outside of her room, and the three sprinted after it. She chuckled softly and looked around her room, spotting the red violin case that she saw a while back. "Hmm, I wonder.." She stood up and went to where the case was on the side of her desk. She grabbed the case and opened it slowly, revealing a violin with a used brown color. She took the violin and held it close to examine it more. "What a pretty instrument," she said to herself. "This was mine, wasn't it?" She could barely recall any instruments, or anything music related, that was in her memory dreams. Was this something that she held importance to? This was something that Lizzy wondered and was soon going to find out.