Chapter 6: Sweep the City!

For the rest of the afternoon, we played around in the interspecies sections of Gaijin City. We played in the water park (I had to buy another blue one-piece swimsuit and goggles and a pair of water shoes, obviously), the jungle gyms, the different modes of transportation, and even in the arcades. See, although they had Dance Dance Revolution, it was extremely advanced. Instead of just four ground arrows, the whole booth was motion sensitive. It tracked arm and body movements in addition to the legs. As a result, it took a long time to really get the hang of the system, but once we did, we enjoyed every minute of it. We had so much fun! Whenever Grovyle and Chikorita wanted to do something I felt I wasn't ready for yet (like roller coasters and bungee jumping), I went shopping for things such as an actual spacesuit.

I found one that looked like Colette's outfit from Tales of Symphonia for the outside layer, only the blue lines were pink instead. Underneath, I found a sleek black jumpsuit that was impervious to extreme temperatures from -350 to 1 million degrees Fahrenheit. To my delight, they also invented things called membrane helmets that automatically shaped themselves according to your head shape, yet also provided oxygen for breathing. Finally, they said that the suit as a whole provided all life-support services (yes, I mean ALL services). I was sold. It was relatively expensive (about 150 credits), but it was totally worth it. After all, they said that a spacesuit was a requirement if I wanted to learn how to drive a spaceship.

Oddly enough, the longer the day went on, the more we found that Big Amy and I had exactly the same interests. We went to see the latest "4-D" full-sensory sci-fi comedy movie (we didn't know whether it was more hilarious, awe-inspiring, or just plain mind-blowing), browsed the bookstore a bit more, and admired galleries of the most current 2-D and 3-D art. I even found that she was left-handed like me! Soon enough, we couldn't ignore our stomachs anymore and met with Chikorita and Grovyle again to decide which restaurant we wanted to eat dinner at. Of course, I had to explain the concept of restaurants to them first.

We sat at a table located 50 stories in the air somewhere in between our two mega-malls. I ate my favorite meal, while they ate a multitude of berries, half of which I had no idea what they were. But yes, it consisted of mostly Pecha Berries and Apples. While we ate, we had time to discuss things. That is, just Grovyle and me. Big Amy and Chikorita decided to swing around on the ceiling beams, playing with the other alien children. Jeez, didn't they know they could upset their stomachs that way? Oh well. Maybe Pokémon weren't affected by that kind of thing. Maybe. I wasn't really sure.

"So Samus was serious when she said she'd just leave us here permanently?" asked Grovyle.

"That's what I assume," I replied.

"Hmm…" He started thinking. "If that's the case…then we're going to have to learn how to drive a spaceship. Think we'll go here after dinner?" he asked, pointing to the location on the hologram map from his passport.

"I don't know…I had to drive supervised for 45 hours before they let me get a driver's license. And that was for a car!" He looked at me, confused. "That is, a land-based vehicle common to Earth in the past," I explained. "What I mean to say is, since a spaceship is an air vehicle, the requirements might be much stricter. Wait. What are they, again?"

"You tell me. I can't read these runes."

The "runes" were in fact, perfect English. I accessed the Internet through my passport and found the official instructions. "WHOA!" I exclaimed.

"What?" he asked.

"It says here that you need to take a knowledge test before getting a permit. You need to get every one of the 35 questions right to pass. Then you need to take 14 all-day classes in simulators, and at the end, they'll give you a test that lasts a full day. Only if you pass that, with two mistakes at most, you get licensed. DANG!"

He stared at me in confusion. "Wha—huh?"

So I had to explain every single word he didn't understand. By the end, he finally conceded, "Okay…so your point is, there's no way we can fly a ship back to Planet…uh…"

"Planet Portania?"

"Yeah, Planet Portania! There's no way we can fly there and get Dialga to send you back to the past by nightfall, right?"

"Nightfall! Right! Not then! Wait—you want me to go back already?"

His eyes narrowed. "Think about it. Wouldn't the people on your home planet be worried if you never come back?"

"I'll come back eventually!" I complained. "I've been having the best day of my life! I've never been worried about that until YOU brought it up. Come on, at least wait a few more days until I get used to this city. Then we can think about going back, okay?"

"…Fine," he curtly replied. He sighed, and slumped down onto the table. "…So what now? Nightfall is coming. What'll we do when we get too tired to move?"

"Rent a hotel room, of course!" I declared, smacking my right fist into my left hand again. Unfortunately, an official public service announcement on the Internet popped up that announced that every single room in every single hotel Gaijin City was booked for the night. "Arrgh. So much for that idea." I whispered. "Let me think…maybe we could go camping?"

"What's camping?" he asked.

"Didn't you and Big Amy and Chikorita do that all the time? I mean, you Pokémon are lucky—you can just find a random crevice in a random cliff, or a random tree in a random forest, set up a campfire or something, and just go to sleep there! Me? I need a tent, at least!"

"Oh, I get it. I think you mean making a Secret Base. I can do that."

"A Secret Base? Sounds good, but I'll need to buy a few things first," I explained. I immediately remembered my Pokémon Ruby game. In it, I made a base on Route 118 in a reddish cove with all sorts of cute decorations. At the time, I really wished I could live there. It's too bad they took the feature (or reduced it) in the newest Pokémon games—I loved making them. But this time...this time, maybe I could live in one for real! Of course, with Grovyle and Chikorita coming along, it might have to be more tree/grass-based. Oh well. I guess I'll try to make it work.

"How far away is the closest forest?" he asked.

I looked it up on the Internet and groaned. "30 miles. We'll never get there before dark…"

"Can't be that bad. Let's get whatever stuff you need, and then we run all the way there."

"RUN? No way! Are you saying—?" Right when I was about to scream from frustration, a genius idea occurred to me that was so obvious, I wondered why I didn't think of it beforehand. "Or…we could catch a ride on one of those airbuses!" I said, pointing to one as one passed by.

I told the plan to Big Amy and Chikorita, and after we were finished eating, we went to the official camping store. Since Grovyle memorized the Secret Power move (likely out of necessity from running around that dark future world with Amy Purima all the time back then), I didn't need to buy a tent. That was good, because the less money we spent, the better off we were. In the end, all I had to buy was an Amazing Shrinking Backpack to put my old backpack in, some cute furniture items and bedsheets that also went in there, and something called a "privacy dome". The label said that it prevents ectoplasmic (that means "ghost-like") aliens from invading your privacy, and it also repels any tracing technology, too. Finally, you can see out, but no one can see in. Chikorita encouraged me to buy one, mostly because of the ghost protection.

We took an airbus to the station on the outermost rim of Gaijin City. Along the way, we chatted with some of the passengers, admired the sunset, and gazed at the rest of the city. We got off. From our point, the forest was five miles away, so we ran the rest of the way there. We managed to get there within an hour and ten minutes or so. I was tired, but not dead-tired, since I was used to running 4.66 miles at Burke Lake Park almost every weekend. Grovyle still had tons of energy left. Big Amy and Chikorita were the slowest. After only 3 miles, I had to carry Big Amy and Grovyle had to drag Chikorita the rest of the way.

He expertly climbed the squiggly trees to the highest point, where the foliage was by far the densest. I mean, the trees looked like normal Earth trees, except that maybe alien fertilizer was poured on them. He was really high up, but I could still see him generate a mysterious ball of energy and launch it right at the foliage. The energy bunched the foliage into a sturdy-looking tree house, and a vine ladder popped out of the entrance, snaking down the tree trunks and landing right in front of us.

"Whhooooooaaaa…" I uttered in amazement.

He jumped down and motioned for us to climb up. "After you guys."

I excitedly climbed the whole way, even though I haven't climbed a tree in forever. Big Amy and Chikorita took a little longer since they were so tired, but Grovyle helped them out. Inside was a wide-open space with two floors. I guessed the upper lever was for me. Since it looked like no nasty insects were crawling about, I placed the privacy dome device in the center, set the radius to just outside the Secret Base, and activated it. Oh yeah, and I set it so that no one's but our genetic signatures could get inside.

"So how do you like it?" he asked me.

"This…is…AWESOME!" I then looked at my watch. It was 8:45 pm. "Hey guys, can we set up the beds now? It's almost my bedtime."

Big Amy asked, "Why now? I want to see the stars tonight!"

Chikorita agreed, "Yeah, they probably look different on an alien planet!"

"I don't think we can. Cities have nasty photochemical smog that usually blocks out all the stars—" Right then, I looked outside through the window and saw how wrong I was. "—WHOA! Never mind!"

The three of them joined me. We sat, transfixed. There were thousands—maybe millions—of stars dotting the sky in the wake of the sun that just completely set. For a second, I was confused. How come we could see all this? Then I realized that the lights from the city were extremely dim, and every single vehicle emitted no pollutants whatsoever. It was the era of hydrogen technology, or better.

A shout interrupted my thoughts. "Hey! New neighbors!" We looked back down to where it was coming from. Hanging from a tree in the distance was a 6-meter (18 feet!) tall plant creature with a seed-like pod for a head with leaves sprouting from it, and sinuous root-vine systems for a body. But the voice came from a 12-feet tall version of that creature, and besides, it was much closer to us. I wondered how it could talk.

Big Amy, Chikorita, and I just stared in shock, wondering what to say. Finally, Grovyle asked, "What are—I mean, who are you? Do you live here?"

"Why, yes. My name is Loz-Nom. We're Wuudites."

My eyes widened. Wuudites? Did he mean, like one of those guys from Meteos?

"We hail from Planet Wuud, but we wished to learn how to live in harmony with the citizens of this galaxy, so we came here and formed a colony. We cannot afford to forget about our home, though..." he sighed.

Another Wuudite swung in from the tree branches of the weird forest to meet us. "Los-Nom? What are you—oh! New neighbors!" she said.

"Um...hi?" I tentatively greeted.

"Hello! Los-Nom probably introduced himself. My name is Plu-Thrim. I am really sorry we couldn't greet you sooner—we need to rest up for the Sunrise of Life Ceremony. Perhaps you'd like to join us?" she requested.

Grovyle considered it. "Sunrise of Life Ceremony? Hmmm...sounds intriguing..."

"What's it about? What are we supposed to do?" asked Chikorita.

Los-Nom explained for us. "We can never afford to take this planet's sunrise for granted. Without it, we would never remember our homes, our lives, or even our purposes for living. Every seven days, we give thanks up on top of the highest tree in the forest over there, as you can see." He pointed to it. There were lots of unusually tall trees in the forest, but that particular one almost looked as if it could touch the sky. We gasped in amazement.

Plu-Thrim continued, "It is difficult to express in words; you can understand it best if you experience it directly. There will be singing and dancing, but anyone can participate; not just us Wuudites. It begins tomorrow morning one hour before the sunrise. What do you say? Would you like to join us?"

"An hour before...?" whispered Big Amy and Chikorita in shock. Obviously, they were remembering what it was like when they were in Wigglytuff's Guild.

"I could try it. Guys, what do you think?" I asked.

Grovyle smiled. I mean, I hadn't seen him smile like that the whole day. "Where I come from, no one celebrates the sunrise as much as they should. So yes, I'll participate too."

In the end, even Big Amy and Chikorita couldn't resist their curiosity over what alien dancing might be like, so they agreed too, even if it meant waking up early. We introduced ourselves to Los-Nom and Plu-Thrim before they went to join the other Wuudites wherever they lived.

When we finally went to bed (the three of them on the bottom, me on the top), I gazed at the stars one more time and smiled. Human society managed to reach a sustainable level, even if some aliens like the Wuudites had to help them out. Now this was a future I was happy to be living in. I thought back to everything that happened today; I got to be friends with Team Pecha and Grovyle, and got to go on their space adventure with them! Furthermore, I really was in the city of my dreams, doing things that I never would've thought I'd ever do. There was so many times throughout the day that I pinched myself to see whether it was all a dream. But it wasn't, and I was glad.

"Hey, Little Amy? Do you think we're going to be forced to live here forever?" whispered Big Amy.

"Yeah, I don't know about you, but personally, I don't think this is much of a space adventure," added Chikorita.

I thought for a moment. "You're right, Chikorita. If I were to write a story like this, tomorrow would be about the time something would happen to move the story forward. But life is life. Who knows? Anything could happen. Maybe nothing."

"You write stories?" asked Big Amy in amazement.

"Yeah. I've always wanted to be a manga artist since I was 14." When they looked at me in confusion, I quickly explained, "That means I draw pictures to tell the stories I write, but you can also read what the characters are saying."

"That sounds so cool! You probably have good storytelling instincts, too!" speculated Chikorita.

Storytelling instincts? Now that sounded cool. Maybe I did have them. "Yeah, maybe..." I yawned. "I'm tired. Goodnight, guys..."

"Goodnight..."

Just before I went under, I thought to myself that if I were to write a story, I tended to prefer adventures to everyday life. True, the characters would have to be on the move all the time, but it would seem like an actual story to me. But like I said, life was life. Anything could happen tomorrow. After all, I started a new journal just last night. I wished I remembered to bring it along so I could write down everything that happened to me today. But on the other hand, I was so tired, I wouldn't get very far...even if I...wanted to...*yawn*...good night.

Samus and Adam are floating in orbit around Capital Planet. Apparently, when they fired Samus, they also kicked her out of her own private room in the Galactic Federation Headquarters, so she's stuck with living in the ship for a while. She and Adam continue to "discuss" things.

Adam: …I can't believe it! I still can't believe it! How could they fire you just like that?

Samus: I told you! I told you we should've ditched those stowaways when we had the chance!

Adam: They're just children!

Samus: They're civilians! Besides, one of them was practically a legal adult!

Adam: She didn't LOOK like a legal adult…

Samus: Whatever! They're the ones that got us into this mess in the first place!

Adam was about to retort with something, but then a thought comes to his mind. He starts processing all the data files related to the Galactic Federation, especially the ones concerning Samus' termination of employment.

Samus: Aren't you going to say something? Uh…Adam? What are you doing?

Adam: I'm looking though these files. I just thought of something…about that termination.

Samus: What about it? Stowaways always were a bad—

Adam: Didn't you think it was kinda weird that Commander Tierney made such a big deal about them?

Samus: Not really.

Adam: What I'm interested about is why he thinks no fewer than two of them have, quote on quote, "unusually powerful energy signatures". That's pretty vague, don't you think?

Samus (kicking back and relaxing): Maybe. I don't care.

While they ponder over that, let's take a look at what's happening above the city, unbeknownst to them. There is a massive Space Pirate fleet hovering from above that is taking orders from an unseen Boss-Man.

Pirate ship A-1: Wii r redi & aw8 yer orders, l33t Boss-Man.

Boss-Man: Good. Sweep the city, boys! We're looking for two beings with an unusually powerful energy signature. Got it? SWEEP THE CITY!

Pirate ship A-1: Aye-aye, Boss-Man!

All pirate ships: w00t! w00t! w00t! w00t!

The ships scatter and run scanners over every square inch of the massive metropolis. They encounter a lot of privacy domes along the way, but they're not worried…yet. From each ship, about half of the Space Pirates leap out, make themselves invisible, and land in a storage building, manning 50-feet-tall vacuum cleaners known as Sweepers, which aren't invisible. These Sweepers look suspiciously like the ones from Robots, the Movie. They then drive the Sweepers out of the building and patrol the city, sweeping up garbage. Eventually, a random lackey from Sweeper S-23 speaks to the commander of the Sweeper.

Random lackey: Uh…sir?

Random Pirate Commander: Whut?

Lackey: Do ya think Wii r B-ing 2 literal?

Commander: No, u dooshebag. Teh Boss-Man sed 2 "sweep teh city", so Wii r sweepin' it!

After a few hours, the Boss-Man first calls all of the ships via radio.

Boss-Man: Found anything yet?

Pirate ships A-1 through M-99: Not yet, Boss-Man!

Next, he radios all of the Space Pirates running the Sweepers.

Boss-Man: How about you guys?

Sweepers N-1 through Y-99: Not a thing, Boss-Man!

Finally, the Boss-Man radios the two meanie-butt Space Pirates from ship Z. Both of them are invisible, but unlike the others, they are merely carrying brooms, sweeping the ground.

Boss-Man: …And what about you?

Zork (in frustration): R u 4 reel? Wii ain't found—!

Right then, Zork's broom hits something on the ground.

Zork: Hold up! Whut's dis?

Zark: Lemme scan it.

Zark picks up what looks like fragmented torn-up ratty remains of a book. Zork runs the scanner over it. The scanner suddenly emits a loud high-pitched beeping noise, and the monitor on it shows that the blue-lined outline of the mess has a whole swarm of pink, high-energy particles around it.

Zark: Whoa-ho-ho! Wii found som'tin', Boss-Man!

Boss-Man: Ah, excellent! All fleets, get back up here at once.

All the Space Pirates drive the Sweepers back into storage and are beamed back aboard all the ships, which have stopped their scanning. In the meantime, hovering high over the city, the Boss-Man's ship beams Zark and Zork up from the ground. When they arrive, their invisibility shields turn off to conserve power. The meanie-butts hand the evidence over. It disappears into the next room, and the only view they have of it is a monitor with their Boss-Man's face on it. It's completely backlit, so they can't see his face at all; only a shadow. Zark and Zork discuss this.

Zork (whispering): Dude. Dat guy really needz 2 get more lights.

Zark (also whispering): Yeh. I can barely c nothin' in dere.

Finally, the Boss-Man completes his analysis.

Boss-Man: Muahahaha…You did well, boys. This is the energy signature!

Zark: So didja piece dat mess back 2-gether, Boss-Man?

Boss-Man: No duh. This here book title is called How to Be Human. Foolish n00bs, letting us track them to…Muahahahaha!

Zork: So where r dey now?

Boss-Man: … … …

He tries to telepathically track the energy signature back to its source, but no luck.

Boss-Man: …Slight problem, boys. I can't find them yet.

Zark and Zork: Whut teh-?

Boss-Man: YET. They're probably hiding under a privacy dome or something. Get some sleep, boys. Tomorrow, we'll try again. During the day!

Zark and Zork: w00t! w00t! w00t! w00t!

Back to Samus and Adam…

Adam: He also said that you have a chance of being re-employed if you not only find them again, but abandon them back where they came from, which is to say, Planet Portania. Something smells suspicious here.

Samus: Too bad there's no way to know where they are right now.

Adam: …You know what? Let me look them up right now. I want to know why they're so special.

Samus: Suit yourself. Good night.

Adam: …How do you spell "Per-EE-muh", again? P-U-R…

Samus: That's right. …*yawn*…

He manages to find the file of Amy Vee Purima, but doesn't get very far when he sees something weird.

Adam: …Uh…Lady?

Samus: *Zzk*—huh?

Adam: She IS still living, right?

Samus: Yeah. Why?

Adam: Look at this.

Annoyed, a sleepy Samus reluctantly takes a look at the monitor and examines the area that Adam is furiously highlighting.

Samus: And…? Yeah, she died on August 23, 2499—WAIT A SECOND HERE!

Adam: Like I was saying—it's a discrepancy. This is the year 2510. It doesn't match up.

Samus (reeling with shock): No way…no way…Who IS she, really?

Adam: I can feel it. There's something that no one's telling us. Commander Tierney knows something, those children know something, even the Space Pirates know something. But we don't.

Samus (with finality): That's it. First thing tomorrow morning—we find them and make them explain themselves.

They finally call it a night and conk out.

"Little Amy! Little Amy!"

"Uugh…huh?"

"GET…OFF...ME!"

It was Big Amy. How did she end up pinned under my head? "AAAAH! I'm sorry! I'm sorr—how the heck did you get there?" I gasped, pushing myself off her as fast as I could.

"Why are YOU using me as a pillow?"

Just then, I heard Chikorita and Grovyle stifling laughter. I shot my best, "why the heck did you do that?" look at them. They just shrugged. Chikorita asked innocently, "Didn't you like it?"

We both stammered at the same time. "W-well, yeah, but…"

I stopped. "You liked it too?"

"Yeah. You're hair's fluffy. I mean, really fluffy."

"Huh? I thought you were the fluffy one. I mean—didn't you yell at me to get off?"

"I did, but only because we were going to be late for the Sunrise of Life Ceremony."

"Sunrise of Life Ceremony? What time is it, anyway?" I looked at my watch. 5:30 am. "Wait...you mean...?" We ran to the window and saw the two Wuudites hanging outside, waiting for us. "AAAH! Are we late! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry—"

Plu-Thrim cut me off and explained, "Um...Little Amy? You are not late. Come. We'll take you there."

So I ended up riding on Plu-Thrim while Grovyle, Chikorita, and Big Amy rode on Los-Nom. They carried us to the base circling the tallest tree of the forest, where Wuudites of all sizes (anywhere from 8 to 18 feet tall) were wound tightly around, shaking back and forth in time to a drumbeat coming from somewhere. As we approached, the drumbeat stopped, and the Wuudites turned to face us. The 18-feet tall one slithered forward to address us.

"Fellow Wuudites. Today we welcome four new neighbors as friends-Big Amy, Little Amy, Chikorita, and Grovyle!"

They all cheered and made space for us on the stage ringing the tree. We jumped on, while Los-Nom and Plu-Thrim slithered to both sides of us. For the next 35 minutes, during a song that was a beautiful opening choir of some sort, Los-Nom and Plu-Thrim taught us some basic to advanced dance moves. I'm serious. Even though their body shapes were radically different, they still knew how to teach us moves that we could physically perform. I was really surprised. I guessed that was what they meant when they said that anyone could participate. Or maybe the two of them had lots of experience teaching other people that came here before us.

It was a strange setup; as soon as one Wuudite started a chant of some sort, it became a song, and everyone started dancing to it, very much like a musical. It was so addicting! After about 5 of those, all detailing things such as the history of their world, epic fairy tales with lessons that taught the values of their culture, and more, Plu-Thrim had an odd request. "Little Amy, might I ask you...do you know of any songs you made that you'd like to share?"

I gulped. "Uh, sorry. I don't write songs. I write stories and poems."

"Poems? Why, songs are merely poems with music. Why don't you recite one of your poems? We can figure out its true melody."

"I-I dunno. It doesn't exactly praise the sunrise, so it might not work here—"

"It doesn't have to! While that may be close to our hearts, we want to know what's close to yours."

"...Okay. Thanks. I think I've got one." I reached into my Amazing Shrinking Backpack and pulled out a piece of paper that I planned on showing Big Amy and Chikorita, but got distracted with the whole space adventure before I could. The paper had the most random poem I ever wrote for AP English Literature class. Big Amy and Chikorita they were practically begging me to read it. I cleared my throat and recited, as dramatically as possible, to my enraptured audience.

"Why Can't I Just Be Normal?"

says those who need to be accepted in
the eyes of their friends,
To be in common with, to make amends,
To not be freaky. To be on the ball.
They can't risk the pain of having no friends
at all.

But I've never bought into this "normal" stuff,
For me, normal is just a dryer setting,
A type in Pokémon, on one which is
not worth betting,
Somewhere between casual and formal.
See, I never had to worry about
being normal!

I don't like Dance Clubs, I don't like the Mall,
I don't like loud types of Music at all,
I don't like Cars, or anything hence,
And Cell Phones and iPods make no sense!

I like cartoons and all kinds of movies,
I draw and write stories as much as I please,
And I think clearly by myself unseen,
Besides, this is what I really mean:

Right now I think it's the friends that I choose,
Those that accept whether I win or lose,
And care about what I like to do.
But it makes more sense that there's a balance;
I need to accept them too.

Everyone conforms to some degree,
If it's not a stretch, it's fine with me.
But I think that we, too, should always seek
Those hidden traits that make us all unique.

"Why can't I just be normal?"
says those in a jam,
My normal? Who I really am.to protect your privacy, do not give your middle name, last name...you get the idea...]

By Amy [

I finished. Everyone was stunned with silence. Finally, Los-Nom said, "Th...that was...That was excellent!"

What do you know? All they had to do was add music, and then they turned it into a song. Well, a musical. Whatever! Luckily, I only had to participate as part of the choir, and leave the professional singing to those like Big Amy. Good thing, too—I might've participated in a choir last year, but had to quit not only because I didn't have the skills, but because I couldn't make friends with anyone there for some odd reason. Maybe the age difference was too much—I never had much luck dealing with middle school-aged kids. That seemed to be happening more often to me; not being able continue with any new interests if no one else is interested. But I digress. For the next 15 minutes, we actually danced to the song, and finally, we switched to their traditional performance rituals when the sun was about to rise.

As we heard the official chant (unfortunately, it sorta went in one ear and out the other because I'm not too good at audio learning), I realized that before, I had no idea just how beautiful the sunrise really was. I mean, photographs didn't do it justice. Seeing it while jogging yesterday morning didn't do it justice. Even Grovyle's point of view on it didn't do this one justice. To the Wuudites, that was what their whole lives depended on. If their planet ever got paralyzed, they would all die. They were right. That very fact of their lives wasn't something best expressed in words; it was meant to be danced, to be sung, to be experienced with every fiber of our beings. It was as simple as that.

Plu-Thrim came up to me and said, "Now you understand, don't you? This is who we are."

"I do. I totally understand." I seriously did.

"And I understand you. Whatever you do, you, too, should remember who you really are...no matter what happens. Promise?"

"...I promise."

I meant it. I took back what I thought about not being able to continue with new interests without friends—I vowed to not let that impede me anymore.

We sat there, enjoying the wondrous sight. At that moment, I realized that back at home, I was way more like Tiana than I thought I was, always busy with work, work, work. I don't think I've ever stopped to enjoy anything for that long in my life. And I smiled. Furthermore, in Meteos, Wuud was merely another vague planet you had to defend from annihilation by colored blocks. Getting to know them like real friends, being able to experience the true richness and values of their culture...even though I've had to travel to the future and completely leave my former life behind...I was still glad that I finally got the chance.

A few hours later, after saying goodbye to Los-Nom, Plu-Thrim and all our Wuudite neighbors, we ran to the bus stop and rode the bus to the center of the city again. But by the time we got there, we were at a loss as to what to do next. So I decided to take another look at my passport card. I gulped and slapped my forehead for not being more observant. Back at home, I always kept a close eye on my money. "I only have 47 credits left. What about you guys?"

Big Amy, Chikorita, and Grovyle respectively had 102, 34, and 72 credits left. Not a good sign. "What do we do?" asked Chikorita in despair.

I thought hard. At this rate, we were going to be really screwed, big time. No more enjoying the city, no more buying more awesome technology from the future...we might be reduced to living on the margins, which made me gulp. For a long time, my mom and dad provided me with a comfortable middle-class life. Would we be forced to live the way they did when I was 5 or younger, trying to find jobs with very little money? Us, poor? In the FUTURE? I realized I was beginning to panic and stopped myself in time. I sighed, "We have to find a way to get more money…either find a job…or—"

An announcement interrupted me by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Calling all first-time performers! If you've never participated in the Pokéathlon Contest before, sign up now for a chance to win 10,000 Federation Credits per participant!" It was coming from the 72nd floor on the building in front of us.

A Pokéathlon and a Pokémon Contest rolled into one? I stopped and stared at my three friends as a genius idea occured to me, and I'm sure a huge, silly grin must've crept onto my face.

"Or what?" they asked, completely confused.

I looked back and forth from the building to my friends, and back again. "This…could work."

To be continued…

Coming up next: Yay! The Pokéathlon! I've played it all the time on my Pokémon Heartgold version! But what's it doing in Gaijin City? Will we be able to win? Will I be able to muster up enough courage to stand in front of a massive audience in a sports free-for-all? SPORTS? My worst subject at school? I really hope there's some sort of art competition to balance it out…Oh well! Whatever the case, you know what they say…Let the Games Begin!