MISC: Distance and Travel. Okay… where to start… How fast do everyone travel? Or rather, how far apart are the towns? If it took Sapphire two days to get from Littleroot to Petalburg Forest, and six days to get from Rustboro to Dewford, how far apart are the towns? It took her 11 days to get to Slateport from Dewford. Damn. 19 days from Lavaridge to Fortree, and Sapphire flew on Tropius… How the hell did Platinum manage to beat the first 6 Gym Leaders within 25 days? Is Sinnoh like a third of the size of Hoenn? Isn't Sinnoh supposed to be larger than Hoenn? And how the hell did Sapphire take three days to get from Fortree to Sootopolis (with a two-day dive to Seafloor Cavern), if it took her 19 days from Lavaridge to Fortree? Bah! From this point on, I'll have some consistency for city to city travel. Something that feels reasonable, not too fast, but not as slow as a paralyzed, Iron Ball holding Munchlax that spammed Curse (for full specifics, Brave/Relaxed/Quiet/Sassy Munchlax with IV and EV 0).

Let's say, for consistency and simplicity, that it takes 6 hours to walk through a route, 2 hours by bicycle, 30 minutes by vehicle (if this occurs) or Running Shoes (Ruby only), and 15 minutes to Fly. Same goes for sea routes, seeing how Surfing is faster than walking but routes are longer (ignore Fly, as time differences are trivial). Of course, these time values are for average, as there are special cases. Such as… 30 minutes for flying on Wigglytuff, and like 1 minute for Deoxys Speed Forme. And let's say Cynthia can ride the bicycle as fast as using Fly (she's ridiculously fast, after all).

Sevii Islands: from Vermillion to 1, 2, 3 Island: 4 hours by ship, 2 hours by Fly. Same for 1, 2, 3 Island to 4, 5, 8 (Navel Rock) Island and from 4, 5, 8 Island to 6, 7, 9 (Birth Island) Island. And let's say 1 hour by ship from 1 Island to 2, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and so on.

Inter-regional: two days by ship for Sinnoh to Kanto/Johto, two days for Kanto/Johto to Hoenn, and one day from Kanto to Johto. Saffron to Goldenrod via Magnet Train: eh… 15 minutes, let's say.

Whew… we shall ignore all the distance-time-speed related inconsistencies so far.

Anyways, this is the start of a Gold & Crystal burst. This series (Special Events) has Gold and Crystal as the main two characters, yet there are 6 Diamond & Platinum and only 3 Gold & Crystal (4 including this one). So the burst shall fix the problem.

Primary: Gold & Crystal.

Party:

Hearthome City, Sinnoh, 6:10 pm…

The Ballroom was packed, filled with people celebrating. The Pokémon Association had decided to throw a party, celebrating the 3rd year in a row without any world-threatening disaster. A very rare and joyous occasion indeed. All those who were involved in all of the world-saving moments were invited. Apart from Lorelei, Lt. Surge, Koga, Sabrina, and a few others (who were reluctant to come because of the stuff that they did at first), every Gym Leader and Elite Four members were there. Of course, all the regions' professors, their assistants, and every Dex Holder were invited as well.

Winona stood in the corner with her arms crossed. Although the whole dance and party began 10 minutes ago, she didn't feel like dancing. She didn't really fit either, as she didn't bother attending with a dress (rather, wore complete flight gear, ready to climb onto her Altaria and fly off if needed) and didn't like the idea of dancing to begin with. The only reason she came was because she was the supervisor of the Hoenn Gym Leaders.

Winona grumbled as she watched some of her friends and colleagues dance. She was really bored, and her only possible source of entertainment had yet to arrive. She shut her eyes, wishing Sapphire and Ruby would hurry up. Watching them bicker was definitely better than doing absolutely nothing.

When she opened her eyes, she could see Wallace standing right in front of her. She jumped in surprise at his sudden appearance, but quickly regained composure. Winona scanned him head to toe, noting the really expensive looking suit.

"What?" she asked.

Wallace took a graceful bow. "Would you care to share a dance?"

Winona adjusted the goggles on her helmet before crossing her arms again. "What do you think?" she retorted.

"Come on, Winona. It's a party. Lighten up!"

"What exactly makes you think that I'll dance with you?"

"Because we used to, all the time."

"That was a long time ago. We aren't related that way anymore, and your second attempt failed miserably too. So why keep trying?"

Wallace suddenly spun her around by her shoulders, caught her hand and kissed the back of her hand. "Because I know you like it." Before Winona could protest and hide the massive blush, he led her to the center of the room. The Fortree Gym Leader struggled for a while, but eventually and reluctantly agreed to dance.

Before long, the double doors opened and the regions' professors strode in, followed by their assistants. While the younger assistants scattered to participate in the song and dance, the older professors headed straight for the liquor corner, where they'd all have a drink and celebrate the rare occasion in their own way (discussing possible upgrades for the next versions of Pokédex). The Dex Holders entered right after.

Gold, still wearing his hat, goggles, and carrying his billiard cue despite the fancy suit, saw all the people dancing and nudged Crystal.

"Hey, Super Serious Gal, do you even know how to dance?"

Crystal shook her head. A blatant lie, but she didn't want to be seen in public dancing, especially with Gold. She already felt ridiculous enough in the dark blue dress she was wearing.

"How about I teach you?" Gold offered with a grin.

"Not in a hundred years," Crystal muttered.

With a sigh, she headed towards the food corner. Most, if not all, Dex Holders didn't eat dinner yet, so they all headed towards the food corner. Gold however, chose to have a little fun before eating, and ran off somewhere.

Sapphire grumbled as she took a seat. The red dress Ruby made was really uncomfortable. Not to mention the fact that she had no clue how to dance, and didn't want to either. And Ruby was now bragging about his 'beautiful' suit and how great he can dance. She resisted the urge to tell him that the suit and the dress he made sucked, and that his dancing skills were below average. She knew that arguing of such things would result in her telling him that she was better at dancing than he was. Sapphire turned to Green, who simply sat on a chair, waiting for the event to end.

"Green, you're a Gym Leader. Can you tell the Pokémon Association that this whole idea really sucks?"

"Your teacher is also a Gym Leader, and the supervisor of the Hoenn Gym Leaders. Get her to say it," Green replied. "There she is," he said, pointing towards the center of the room. "Along with Wallace, I see."

Ruby turned, saw his master dancing with Winona, and dragged Sapphire towards them. His intention: brag about the 'excellent' work he did on his suit and Sapphire's dress.

"Ruby, I swear I'll kill you if…" Sapphire trailed off, stunned by the fact that her coach was dancing with Wallace. "Coach!" she yelled, as she ran towards them, dragging Ruby along with her. Her intention: congratulate her coach about getting together with Wallace (or so it appeared), and attempt to bring up 'that topic' with Ruby.

Half an hour later…

Blue and Yellow sat by a table quite far away from the food corner, talking to each other. Blue suggested that this was a perfect opportunity for Yellow to get together with Red, and the younger girl could do nothing except blush. The girls glanced at Red, who sat beside Green and stared into the crowd with a blank look, completely oblivious to what was about to happen to him. The girls whispered a plan and headed towards Red and Green.

Green saw Blue stand up in his peripheral vision and soon became alerted. He spent enough time with her to know that something was about to happen. Seeing Yellow with her, he realized that something was going to happen to Red as well.

He nudged Red and with his eyes, pointed at Blue and Yellow who were approaching them. The Gym Leader then extended a fist at Red, and miraculously, the champion understood. Green drew scissors while Red drew paper.

"Damn," Red muttered.

Green rose to his feet and walked away (towards the thick crowd), leaving the poor sap to deal with the coming trouble. Someone had to stay behind and distract Blue. But unfortunately, Blue left Yellow to stammer in front of Red and chased after him. Her intention: not to bother him at all (for once), but rather talk with him and reminisce about the hectic events that happened years ago.

Meanwhile, Crystal searched through the crowd of dancing couples, trying to find Gold. Though she had no intention of dancing with him, she wanted to make sure that he wasn't with some random girl either. Blue would call it jealousy. Crystal would call it… something else.

"Crystal, is that you?" came a suspiciously familiar voice from behind.

Crystal turned around and it took her a second to recognize who she was looking at. "Eusine?" To her horror, he reached forward and clasped her hand.

"Crystal, it's been too long. And might I say," he said, kissing her hand. "That you look beautiful today."

The Johto girl blushed in embarrassment and tried to pull her hand back. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"I seriously doubt that you were invited to this event."

"Please… of course I was invited!"

"What? All these people had a major role in saving the world! From Red and Green to the trainers who sent their Pokémon to calm Lugia and Ho oh, they all saved the world! What did you do?"

"Why, Crystal! I'm offended! I saved you and the Cerulean Gym Leader from my beloved Suicune's crystal wall! How could you forget such heroism?"

"Everyone knows that you only did so to save Suicune. There's no way that you could've been invited!"

"Very well," said Eusine, pulling her closer. "I will be honest. I had Morty pull some strings."

Crystal sighed. "I figured as much." She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes with her other hand and smiled. "Anyways, it's been a while. What are you doing nowadays? Still chasing Suicune? Still selling Suicune pictures?"

"That doesn't matter right now. Come, Crystal, I will show you how to dance!"

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you…"

Meanwhile, Platinum stood near the corner, watching all the couples dance. She wished that someone would dance with her, but so far, she didn't like anyone who asked her. Mainly because they all tried to grab and kiss her hand, and she disliked such physical contact. Unbeknownst to her, Diamond was watching her, wishing that he had the courage to ask her to dance.

Instead, he chose to sit at a table, stuffing food into his mouth. He occasionally looked up from his food to glance at Platinum, looking at the glittering silver dress, and how stunning it made her look. Pearl noticed the look on his friend's face and shook his head.

"Dia, just go and ask Miss Lady for a dance!"

"I… I can't!" Diamond said, hoping that no one else heard. "Besides, I don't think she wants to. She refused to everyone."

"That's because they all made the same mistake. Haven't you noticed that she kept pulling her hand away from them?"

"Well… yeah. I noticed it too. Every time someone touches her, she pulls away."

"So go and ask her to dance before someone else takes her! You're her friend, so she won't say no!"

"I… I don't know. What if she refuses?"

Pearl sighed. "Fine." He walked towards Platinum and watched another poor sap try and fail to get the heiress to dance. He even tried to drag her towards the center of the room and received a slap to the face for his efforts. Pearl couldn't help but snicker. "Miss Lady!" he called.

Platinum looked at him and smiled. "Hello, Pearl."

"Miss Lady, would you like to dance?" he asked, extending a hand towards her.

The heiress hesitated and took a quick glance around her to find Diamond. She couldn't find him in the split second, and instead noticed that there were few more people looking in her direction, waiting for a chance. Recalling that Pearl was quite a dancer, the heiress beamed at him. "If it means that I shall no longer be bothered, then yes, I accept."

Platinum took Pearl's hand and allowed him to lead her in the dance. As they participated in a slow dance, the heiress couldn't help but wonder if Diamond was as good as Pearl. The heiress slightly frowned when she realized that Pearl was leading her somewhere while dancing.

After 10 minutes, Pearl stopped. Platinum took a step backwards and steadied her breathing. The last dance was quite fast paced, and when it ended, the heiress was out of breath. When she took a look around, she noticed that she was standing right in front of the table which Diamond was sitting at.

"Whew," Pearl said from beside. "Hey, Dia, take over, will you? I need a break."

Diamond jumped in surprise and nervously nodded. He wasn't expecting Pearl to dance with Platinum just so that he could pass her over to him. Diamond nervously took Platinum's hand and took a shuddering breath.

"I… uh… I'm not good at dancing, so… please forgive me," he said. He avoided looking at her beautiful eyes and hoped that she would not notice him blushing.

The heiress was avoiding eye contact as well, and also hoped that he would not notice her blush. "That would not a problem, Diamond. But if… if you wish, perhaps I could teach you?"

"I would like that," Diamond replied. 'A lot…' He kept his gaze down, watching his feet so that he doesn't step on Platinum's toes.

"Diamond, you are doing well. Do not be so nervous," the heiress said (ironically) nervously.

Diamond took a quick glance at her face. Maybe it was the lighting, but to him, it appeared that the heiress was blushing…

Gold, who was taking a break after a short dance with Liza, Roxanne, Flannery, and just about every female non-Dex Holder from Hoenn (except Winona, as Sapphire would surely murder him if he did anything), saw the two Sinnoh Dex Holders dance and rose to his feet. He was going to find Crystal and see if she's willing to dance now. Noticing that she wasn't near the other Dex Holders, he left to find her. Before long, he found her, and what he saw made his blood boil.

"Come on, Crystal! You dance beautifully!"

"Seriously, Eusine, let go of-"

"Hey, Suicune-freak!" Gold yelled, gaining the unwanted attention of the people nearby. "What the hell are you all looking at?" he yelled to them, making them all look away.

"Gold!" Crystal gasped out. "I-"

"Don't know how to dance, huh? Didn't want to dance, huh?" Gold said through clenched teeth.

"Now, now, Crystal is a very good dancer," Eusine said from beside. He still held Crystal's hands and ignoring Gold, proceeded to start another dance.

Gold withdrew his billiard cue and slammed the indestructible thing on Eusine's hand, forcing him to break away from Crystal. When he tried to protest, Gold thrust the cue forward, as if he intended to stab him with it. Eusine quickly dodged, but the cue still pierced through his 'signature' cape.

"You, keep your hands off of my girl!"

"Gold! I don't like him any more than you do, but this is-" Crystal tried to say, but abruptly stopped when Gold glared at her.

"This is completely unnecessary!" Eusine said as he examined the hole in his cape. "This cost me a fortune, you know!"

"If you want to keep that brain inside your head, get the hell out of my sight, you son of a-"

Eusine quickly scurried away and Gold put his billiard cue away while still glaring in his direction. He sighed and turned to face Crystal.

"So what exactly were you doing with him?"

"I was trying to find you, but Eusine saw me and… Look, I didn't want to dance with him, okay?" Crystal replied, carefully selecting her tone so that Gold would calm down. She crossed her arms and grinned.

"What could possibly be funny?" Gold asked.

Crystal grinned even more. "I guess now you know how I feel whenever I see you flirting, huh? You were jealous."

"Come now, Crys. We're… dating, and you refused to dance with me but instead you were dancing with Suicune-freak. It's not jealousy, but rather… … something else."

Crystal shook her head. "Gold, we went out once. And that trip to Lilycove City's make-out point didn't go so well either."

"But… we had fun!"

"You had fun. Pushing me into the ocean isn't fun for me. Anyways, admit it. You were jealous."

"Alright, fine. You win, Super Serious Gal! I like you. And I was jealous at the fact that you were dancing with Suicune-freak and not me. Let's just… drop the subject."

Crystal smiled as she took his hands and moved closer to him. "Don't worry, Gold. I'll only like you, and no one else."

"Good! Because I only like you too. All the other girls mean nothing, so don't worry about them."

Crystal stomped on Gold's foot. "Seriously, Gold. Stop flirting with others. It's one thing to have someone hit on you, and a completely different matter to have you hitting on them."

"Fine, I won't do anything that'll make you jealous, Crys," Gold said with a sigh. "But for the record, I never hit on another girl. They all came onto me."

Well, this isn't necessarily a Gold & Crystal, seeing how lots of other pairings were in here. Oh well. After this burst, I'll shift my focus onto the 'other' thing, whose title and two main characters will be decided later. For now, here's a preview scene (advertisement), or rather a scene that I want included somewhere (probably not anywhere near the start) in that 'other' thing:

Gold staggered around aimlessly in the top floor of the Sprout Tower. He let his guard down, and now this… thing took him over. What the hell was this thing anyways? A failed science experiment, that's what. A mind-control device, that clearly wasn't working properly since it didn't control his mind. Well, not fully, at least. He kept getting urges to eliminate the Dex Holders, though…

Gold could see his reflection on a puddle of water (created from melting ice) in the center of the room. He looked like a twisted abomination now. An ice exoskeleton that covered pretty much his entire body except for half of his face, and three extended tentacles on his right arm. He wasn't deformed or mutated in any way, at least. Just… this experiment stuff formed on top of him. He wondered if throwing himself into an open fire would melt the stuff off of him. He moved towards a window and looked down at Violet City, wondering if he could ever return to himself and whether he would see her again. He wouldn't want to see her right now, though. The last thing he wanted was her to see what happened to him. Then he heard her voice.

"Gold?"

Gold spun around and saw her. Crystal… Instantly, the experiment took control over his body and he ended up charging straight for her.

'No, not her!'

Gold tried his absolute best to prevent himself from attacking, but couldn't stop. He could control his left arm, but nothing else. With his usable arm, he tried to point to the exit, hoping that Crystal would take the hint and leave. But even as his left arm pointed to the staircase, his right arm was lashing at her. Crystal ducked and rolled out of the way of the three tentacles.

"Gold, what happened to you?"

Hearing her voice again, Gold gained more strength. He grabbed his right wrist so that he may no longer attack Crystal. But when she came closer, the experiment became stronger. It gained control of the left arm, and in an instant, aimed a punch directly at her.

Gold shut his eyes in a futile attempt to stop the experiment, under the thought that it needed to see through his eyes to find its target. But Crystal's screams busted his theory and Gold was forced to open his eyes. He almost passed out when he realized that the tentacles on his right arm had hit Crystal's left leg, and shattered the bones in three separate places.

She lay on the floor, screaming in pain as she clutched her horribly misshapen leg. Seeing her in so much agony made Gold freeze, and the experiment took over. By the time he realized what was happening, his left hand was choking Crystal. Her cries have died out but now she was struggling to breathe. Tears from her eyes fell onto Gold's hand, and it made him want to cry as well. But apparently he couldn't do that either. Gold struggled in his efforts to loosen the grip over Crystal's throat. He was losing in the fight, and he could feel the pressure increasing slightly. Before long, he would end up killing her…

'Crys! I know you can't hear me, but… I'm sorry. I have no choice… I hope you understand!'

Before he lost control, he threw Crystal through the window… Since the target was out of its sight range, the experiment stopped trying to control Gold, and he could finally focus on something other than stopping himself from killing Crystal. He approached the smashed window and looked down. If he threw her far enough, then she would've hit the lake that covered a big portion of Violet City. If not, then she would've hit the forest and it was possible that she did not survive the fall. He didn't realize that as he became more and more angry at the thought that he seriously injured Crystal and almost killed her, he was getting closer and closer to breaking free of the experiment…

A little longer than I thought it would be, but whatever. This scene would be fixed up before it appears some time on the 'other' thing. And the inspiration for the 'experiment' is… somewhat obvious (in my point of view, at least). The only change from the source of inspiration is that the victims are not mutated and aren't deteriorating, and that the whip-like tentacles are on the other arm.

Anyways, leave your questions and comments as reviews, expect more from the Gold & Crystal burst, and expect some more (shorter) preview scenes.

Added after SE #024: The Set Up II…

What Could Have Been:

Gold sat by a table near all the other Dex Holders, taking a break from dancing with every female non-Dex Holder from Hoenn, except for one. Emerald seemed to have noticed, as he saw Gold dancing with all sorts of ladies from Hoenn while he was searching for potential prank targets.

"Hey, Gold," he said as he stood beside his senior. "I saw you dancing with all those people," he started.

"And?"

"Well… why not Winona?" Emerald asked. "I thought she was going to be the first one you asked for a dance."

Gold grinned as he rested his head on his hands. "Well, let's just say that… she's too old for me."

However, Winona happened to be talking with Sapphire nearby and she heard the goggled boy. Gold could hear some commotion behind him and turned around, only to see Sapphire holding her coach's arms, trying to stop the Gym Leader from mauling her senior…

"I'm not even 30 yet!"