And the beast reared its ugly head again, extending to his full height and towering over Sakura, who was simply looking up curiously. The Onix moved so slowly, as if it were taunting us, and curled into a Tornado shape, spinning around slowly... then quicker... and quicker, and quicker, and quicker until he was in the shape of a tornado and moving almost as fast as one. Sakura trilled happily and waltzed closer to the giant spinning rock snake. She waggled her finger back and forth while hopping on one foot and then the other, like a little dance. It was sort of like when Rune used Metronome...

And then, a jet of water sprayed out of her two tiny arms, aiming straight at the Onix tornado. Although they were small streams of water, they were defiantly moving at a very fast pace, likely to sting even a grass Pokemon. She looked determined, and didn't let an ounce of water get away from the Onix, making sure every single droplet hit him - and it did. It may not have been enough to knock her opponent out, but it was enough to make him roar painfully.

The Onix spun faster, desperatly and quickly moving around the arena to hit Sakura, but she managed to move out of the way just in time. When she decided she was far away enough, she shut her eyes, and began to move her tiny pink arms around in the air, as if summoning something.

And then, a literal storm of leaves came out of nowhere, slashing at the Onix and from what I could see, even chipped off a few rocks. The storm of razor-sharp leaves eventually settled, and the Onix was groaning each time he tried to move around. He didn't give up, oh no, he couldn't do that, but he was moving much slower than usual.

Onix stopped spinning, knowing that it wasn't getting him anywhere. Now he was just launching himself at Sakura, trying to squash her beneath his mighty rock-like body. Checking out her surroundings, I could see my Cherimu's gaze direct at the sunroof; the tops of the two red buds on her head opened, and sunlight streamed into them as she charged power for what I expected to be Solarbeam.

And then, the unthinkable happened. Onix dived fowards as she was charging energy, and Sakura didn't notice quick enough. She was squashed beneath Onix, who was now grinning proudly. Giovanni stepped forward, gun gripped in his hand. "Well, it looks like my job here is done. Goodbye, you pathetic childre-"

And suddenly, just as I was about to start crying my eyes out, a miracle happened.

Giant beams of light erupted from under the Onix, and an explosion could be heard that was so loud it was nearly deafening. The beam of sunlight sent Onix flying through the sunroof, causing glass to shatter and drop down to the ground. When the beam stopped, all that was left was Sakura, waddling towards me happily as she chirped her species name.

Giovanni was stunned, his eyes wide and mouth gaping open as he stared in disbelief at what had just happened. "That puny thing... beat my Onix?" He stuttered, looking up at the ceiling for any sign of his Pokemon. He sighed, and slipped the gun back into a drawer in his desk. "I am a man of my word. But that does not mean I won't be back. I'll be seeing you little kids very soon..." He then stepped onto an oddly-designed floor tile, and teleported away.

Sakura jumped into my arms, shut her eyes, made some sort of purring noise, and went to sleep. All I could do was stare at her with my eyes wide open and my jaw on the floor in amazement - somethinng barely half a foot tall beat a 20 foot tall Pokemon made of solid rock? Regardless, I smiled, and hugged her tightly. "Mommy's so proud of you, Sakura." I cooed gently, scratching behind where her ears would be. She squealed in delight, hugging me back.

Katsu was just staring in disbelief. "How on earth..." he stuttered, blinking. "How did she do that!"

I laughed a little. "She's pretty powerful for a baby... guess we underestimated her."

He simply shook his head in reply. Then he pointed at the desk with a confused look on his face. "Now that that's over with... What's up with that Pokeball over there? It's all... purple."

We walked slowly over to the desk, and lifted up the glass case carefully and picked up the Pokeball. There was a slip of paper under it. I picked it up and read it over slowly:

This is the Master Ball, the most powerful ball ever. It can capture any Pokemon without fail. There is only one in existance so far.

"Without fail!" We exclaimed at the same time, "That's... amazing."

"Well," I replied, putting the Master Ball in my bag, "We might need this sometime... For what, I don't know. But we should get going." Katsu nodded in agreement. I released Rune from his Pokeball. He had regained some health. "Rune, could ya Teleport us out of here?"

Rune smiled, closed his eyes, and in a split second, we were back at the Celadon Pokecenter.

-----

"Alright, Fuchsia City is just a few more minutes away... the gym leader there specializes in Poison types." I said as I looked at my Pokenav. "Oh, and look at this brochure!" I held up a pamphlet of papers that someone had given me when I said we were going to Fuchsia. "It says there's a Safari Zone too, where you can catch rare Pokemon!"

Katsu grinned. "Let's go there before we go to the gym. We could use a new Pokemon to help us defeat Koga." As we neared Fuchsia, I counted my money to make sure I had enough on hand to get in. "Let's see here... It costs 15$ to get in, and a discounted price of 22$ if we pay for two tickets." I thumbed through my wad of money and smiled. I had at least 50$ on me, and that was defiantly enough.

As we walked towards the Safari Zone, we went by a mini-zoo. There were Chanseys, Kangaskhans, Rhyhorns and all the rarest Pokemon they had in big, tidy cages. The Chansey caught my eye the most; I'd defiantly try to catch one of those. They were supposed to be lucky, after all - and if all the cooking shows Mother used to watch are right, then Chansey eggs are an extremely delicious and nutritious part of any meal.

"Two tik'its? Thatull be twenteh tyew dollahs." said the man at the ticket booth, trying his best to fake an accent. Katsu and I rolled our eyes, paid for our tickets and began to walk outside, when a women stopped us. "'Scuse me," she asked, holding out a tray, "You'll have to leave your Pokemon with us. We don't want you to fight with the Pokemon in the Safari Zone."

We shrugged, recalled all our Pokemon (it was rather tough coaxing Rune and Sakura to get into a Pokeball, but eventually we convinced them), and put the balls in the tray. She smiled and handed us each 30 Safari Balls and some bait. finally we were able get out into the fresh Safari Zone air.

We saw dozens of Doduo, Rattata, and Nidoran, but none of the rarer ones; I wasn't about to give up, though, I had at least three hours to waste and I was going to spend them looking for a Chansey. Katsu proudly declared he was going to catch a Rhyhorn, no matter how many Pokeballs or bait it took.

I continued my hopeless search throughout the 'zone, hoping each time I heard the rustle of grass that it might be that big pink blob of luck, Chansey. I did find one, but what I ended up catching was completely unexpected...

"Chansey! Chaaaansey!" squealed a high-pitched voice.

I spun around to see a Chansey right in front of me, jumping up and down and pointing somewhere. I blinked, surprised, but I followed her as she began to tug at my shirt frantically, squeaking, frightened. "Alright, alright, I'm coming. Where are we going?"

"Chansey chan!" She replied, pointing in the direction she was leading. I sighed, "Well, that was helpful..."

Finally, after fifteen minutes of "Chansey!" and my shirt being tugged on, we came to a large clearing in the forest. I looked around and saw nothing, and scratched my head in confusion. "I don't see anythi-"

"Grrrrroarr..."

A weak combination of a roar and a moan could be heard, and I finally saw it. A few dozen feet away, there seemed to be a large Pokemon lying on the ground, extremely weak. I immediately rushed over, concerned, with the Chansey eagerly waddling after me, wanting to help. When we got there, I gasped.. That was the exact pokemon Giovanni had used against us! A Kangaskhan!

It was badly injured. I'll have to refrain from giving to many details, but here's the main one: it looked like she was hunted down and eaten. And by looking at the tooth marks, the criminal? ...A Mightyena. Immediately I was fuming, clenching my fists and cursing Mew for ever creating such a bloodlust creature.

Her arms were protecting her pouch, but it didn't seem like there was a baby in there. Her arms were badly bruised, bitten and, from the looks of it, she was also poisoned somehow. Her eyes had lost any sparkle and luster that they might have had before, and her mouth was hanging open as she groaned painfully. This wasn't something the Nurse Joys at the Pokecenter could fix; this Kangaskhan was almost gone. We had gotten here to late.

Chansey and I tried our best. I gave her potions, berries, Chansey supplied dozens of eggs to her, but it was all for nothing. Sooner than I had gotten there, the Kangaskhan moaned one last time, shut her eyes, and lay limp. Not in a fainted way, no. ...She was dead. I hung my head sadly. What was I thinking? I should have alerted a Safari staff member! I sighed, and I was about to walk away when a heard a faint, sad squeak.

"Khan?"

I spun around, hoping to see the Kangaskhan alive and well again, but no. All I saw was Chansey desperatly trying to move the Pokemon's arms off of her pouch. I turned around again, and... wait... Pouch? The squeak? That must mean...

I ran over, and using all my strength, moved the arms of the Kangaskhan off of her pouch, peeked inside, and saw a scared, crying baby Kangaskhan, who was whimpering with fear. I pulled her out, patting her head and wiping her Mother's blood off of her armor. Her scales were a light purple colour; and I still don't understand why Kangaskhans are born purple. She was quite heavy for just a baby. Actually, from what I could see, she was no baby; she was more of a child now, but still growing. Small enough to cradle in my arms; about one foot tall, you could say.

She looked a bit weak, so I handed her a few berries to regain her health. I smiled sadly at her. "Poor girl... You don't have a mother." I whispered, looking into her big black eyes. "Would you like to stay with me? I have another little baby, too. I'm sure you'd love to play with her." She seemed to give me a small smile as I rubbed her head softly. "So, would you like to come with me?" I asked, and she squeaked a meek, "Khan!" in reply.

"Alright, but to officially catch you, I have to put you in a Pokeball for about ten minutes, okay?" I replied, and she nodded her head with a bit of hesitation. I threw a Safari ball at her, and it wiggled a bit at first, but eventually it stopped.

I smiled at Chansey, who bowed to me proudly, and handed me an egg as a gift. "Thank you," I said to her, and patted her head, waved goodbye, and went off to find Katsu.

-----

"So you really caught a baby Kangaskhan? Can I see?" Inquired Katsu curiously. I nodded, and released my newest Pokemon after we exited the door of the Safari zone. She looked around her surroundings, and all our Pokemon quickly crowded around her, curious.

"Bulbasaur!" exclaimed Minoru, little anime hearts popping up in his eyes. "Saurrrr!" He extended a hand as an offer to shake hers, but she ran and hid behind my leg. Amaya trotted over and inspected Kangaskhan suspiciously. After a few minutes and some sniffing, she patted the new Pokemon on the head in approval.

She ventured from behind my leg, and into the circle of Pokemon. "Khaaan.." She whispered nervously, blushing a bit as Bulbasaur continued to lust over her. Rune smiled and shook her hands gently, whilst gripping his silver spoon in his other hand. The spoon caught Amaya's eye, and she quickly sprinted at it, grabbing it in her mouth. Rune blinked, and began to chase after her. Kangaskhan giggled quietly.

"Cheri!" squeaked Sakura as she managed to wiggle out of my arms and to the ground. She waddled over to Kangaskhan and shook her hand enthusiastically. Kangaskhan seemed to like Sakura and they began to talk to each other in their own little Pokemon language, laughing and chatting.

Soon enough she met all of our Pokemon, and became friends with most of them; though she was a bit scared of Shuppet. Just as we were about to leave to the gym, she tugged at my pant leg and reached her arms up as if she wanted me to carry her. I smiled, nodded, and picked her up and placed her in my backpack like it was a pouch. She clapped her hands delightfully.

"So what should we name you, little girl?" I asked her, and I could only hear a chorus of squeaks and 'Khan's. "Hmm.. I wish I could understand you. How do you like the name 'Kasumi'?" I asked her, and she nodded happily with a happy squeal of "Gask!" I grinned. My team was complete; with Rune, Amaya, Minoru, Sakura and Kasumi, I was nearly unstoppable. Perhaps with Kin, I could be fully... I shook my head, trying to just forget him for the moment, and be happy that I had found Kasumi.

With our inseperable group of ten, we all ventured into the gym with confidence in our minds, and a spoon in Amaya's mouth.