The last of the Gold & Crystal burst. The 'other' (Special Adventures, as it's called) is set for release a week after.

MISC: Height. Groudon is 11 feet tall. Yes, 11. Which would make it roughly twice the height of a human being, yet in the Ruby/Sapphire arc, that Groudon is HUGE. It's like 50 feet tall! Well, I guess it makes some sense that Groudon will be massive. In that regard, Regirock, Regice, Registeel should be around 6 feet tall, but appears to be 11 feet tall in Ruby/Sapphire and Emerald arcs. If everything was up to scale, the top of… err… Registeel's… head wouldn't be big enough for Wallace and Steven to sit on it simultaneously. But it's apparently big enough for Steven to lie on it once he (shouldn't be a spoiler) dies… (shouldn't be a spoiler) temporarily. … If any of the mentions of events prior to the Platinum arc are spoilers to you, then… catch up.

Primary: Gold & Crystal.

Surprise Day:

"Silver, where are you?"

"Johto. Why?"

"Could you go spy on Gold for me?"

"… Why?"

"Because his birthday is in 3 days and I want to make sure that he doesn't know what I'm getting him!"

"His birthday's in 3 days? … Eh, whatever."

"So will you spy on him?"

"Why exactly do you need to get him a gift without him knowing?"

"Because I want to surprise him! I… owe him one for my birthday…"

"… Crys, the guy's an idiot. He'll be surprised with anything."

"Silver, please. I want to make it a special event… just him and… me."

"… I will pretend that I did not hear that… Sorry, Crys. You're on your own."

"Silver, Silver! … Darn…"

July 21, 6 am…

Crystal gently landed in front of Gold's big fancy house (or as Silver would call it, big freaking house or occasionally big f*cking house) and took a deep, shuddering breath. She had no clue whether Gold was expecting anything, thanks to someone's lack of cooperation. Only thing she could do was hope that what she planned was going to be a surprise. She reached into her bag and withdrew a notepad that consisted of her plan with Gold for the day.

1st phase…

Crystal looked around to make sure that no one was looking. Once she was satisfied that she was all alone, she got her Tupeon to use Psychic to unlock the door from the inside. Once the door opened, she noticed Gold's Explotaro sleeping right behind the door. The Typhlosion woke up and realizing that the door had opened, prepared to use Blast Burn to remove the intruder. But it recognized Crystal, and although it was confused why she would break into its trainer's house, stepped aside and let her through. She put a finger to her lips, telling the Typhlosion to remain silent. She then proceeded to head towards the stairs. If she remembered correctly, Gold had moved his bedroom to the 3rd floor from the 1st for whatever reason.

After silently making her way to Gold's bedroom, she peeked inside. Suiting his nickname (Pokémon Boy), Gold was asleep in the room with all of his Pokémon asleep scattered around the room. The Pokémon woke up and noticing an intruder, prepared to attack.

Crystal opened the door and tried to calm everyone down, but they only did so after Gold's Aitaro recognized Crystal and told the others to calm. The Johto girl sighed and made a note to herself to never sneak into Gold's house too early in the morning.

She approached Gold (who was snoring really loud) and shook his arm.

"Hey, Gold, wake up!"

But the sleeping boy didn't wake up. Instead, he tossed and turned, accidentally striking Crystal in the face with his other hand.

"Ow! … This isn't going according to plan…" Crystal muttered. She rubbed her sore cheek and looked into a mirror. Her cheek was starting to turn red. Grumbling, she approached Gold once more and sighed. "GOLD, WAKE UP THIS INSTANT!" she yelled, making every Pokémon in the room jump in surprise.

Gold, who was facing Crystal's direction with half of his upper body almost off the bed, also jumped in surprise. He tried to sit up and because of his precarious positioning, fell of the bed… and onto Crystal. The Johto girl yelped as Gold knocked her down to the floor.

"Hey, what the hell?" the Johto boy yelled. He scrambled off of Crystal and backed away. "Super Serious Gal? What the hell are you doing here?"

'Ungh… this is really not going according to plan…' "G – Good morning, Gold, and happy birthday!" Crystal said with a fake smile.

"Sh*t, you almost gave me a heart-attack! Is that your idea of a birthday gift? Or was it payback for what I did in Snowpoint?"

"No, no, I was just trying to wake you up," Crystal explained. "You're the one who slept like a rock! If you woke up when I shook you, none of this would've happened!"

"How'd you get in here anyways?"

"I just… listen, that's not important. Just brush your teeth, freshen up, and get ready for the day. I'm buying you breakfast today."

"Sheesh, Super Serious Gal. You could've just called me instead of sneaking in. What are you, one of the kidnapped duo? Sheesh."

Crystal waited outside the room and sighed. 1st phase failed horribly. She rubbed her sore cheek and seriously hoped that the other parts of the schedule would go smoothly.

2nd phase…

Crystal looked at her notepad. She was going to buy Gold breakfast, but not in New Bark Town. Way too many random girls who know Gold… To avoid running into states of jealousy in this special day, Crystal chose to get breakfast in Violet City. The problem with this part of the plan is that… Gold would be complaining a lot during the half hour flight to Violet City (15 minutes to Cherrygrove, 15 minutes to Violet from there).

Within a few minutes, Gold came out, fully dressed in his regular attire. He yawned and stretched his tired limbs.

"What now?" he asked.

"Well, let's go eat breakfast in Violet City," Crystal replied.

"Why in your hometown? Why not mine?"

Crystal instantly thought of an excuse. "You've probably been eating at restaurants in New Bark just about all your life. I think it would be a nice change for you to eat in Violet City, don't you think?"

"Fine."

Crystal grabbed her boyfriend by his wrist and dragged him downstairs towards the front door. Gold's mother saw her son being dragged out of the house by a girl (who she never saw entering), and looked at the doorway for a second before she resumed focus on her own breakfast.

30 minutes later, Gold and Crystal arrived in Violet City. Gold looked freshened up from the flight; Crystal did not. She blew a strand of hair away from her eyes. That flight was rather rough. The wind was strong enough to mess her tidy hair (mess a bit at least), and Gold's whining during the flight partially depleted her patience.

But sensing her change in mood, Gold had stopped complaining. He silently followed his girlfriend as she took him to a restaurant. But before Crystal pointed at the restaurant she picked, Gold ran towards a better looking restaurant, which was also a lot more expensive. Crystal sighed and followed.

Inside the high quality restaurant that Gold picked, he took a seat on a small table for two. Crystal sat down and looked through the menu (and noticing the prices). Much to her surprise and horror, Gold selected 4 separate courses.

'I don't have enough money for all those… Even if I eat absolutely nothing, I can only pay for one course… But… it's his birthday! I can't limit his options… I can't make him pay either…' Crystal stifled the urge to tell Gold to pick just one course. Instead, she let him order all he wanted, and she didn't order anything for herself. There was no need to make the debt even larger.

The moment the food arrived, Gold dug into it at light speed while Crystal watched. She was so hungry… and watching her boyfriend eat like a Snorlax didn't help either. She grumbled to herself that Gold probably didn't even notice what was wrong.

But he did. When the 4th course arrived, Gold claimed that he was full and gave the food to Crystal. The Johto girl knew that the goggled boy was nowhere near full, but accepted his offer. It wasn't common for him to sacrifice anything.

Once Crystal finished eating, she headed towards the cashier to pay the bill. Gold followed. She pushed him out of the restaurant so that she may deal with the embarrassing situation by herself. She took the bill and noticed that the price of the meal was over 5 times the money she had…

"H – Hey, listen," she whispered, signaling the clerk to come closer. "I don't have enough money to pay for this, but… I live in this city. Can I buy on credit? I'll pay back within this week…"

The clerk shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am. No can do."

"Please, I'm beg-"

"Hey, Super Serious Gal, what's taking so long?" Gold asked as he walked up to her.

"N – Nothing," Crystal quickly lied. "I… um… you should wait outside!"

Gold grinned; he knew what was going on. He quickly dug into Crystal's bag and found her wallet, much to the girl's horror. He took note of how much money she had, and then snatched the bill away from her.

"Yikes…" he muttered, noticing the huge gap. 'She has 3000 PKD, and our meal cost 16000 PKD…' "Hey, your food is too damn expensive!" he said to the clerk. "For a price this high, I expected some quality food! The food wasn't even all that great! You're ripping us off!"

"I'm… sorry, sir, but I am not responsible for the prices."

Gold glared at the clerk for a second before he changed his expression. "Fair enough." He reached into his pocket and withdrew two 10 000 PKD bills. He winked at Crystal and gave the bills to the clerk. "Keep the change. Let's go, Crys."

Crystal looked surprised for a few seconds before she ran after Gold. "H – Hey, wait!"

"What?"

"Why did you do that?"

"Well, if I didn't, then you would've had to either beg for a long while, or work the debt off. I can't see you begging for something like this, and you already have enough stuff to worry about to get another job."

Crystal smiled and hugged him. "Thank you, Gold."

"You know, you could've just told me that you didn't have enough money. I wouldn't have ordered all that."

"It's your birthday, Gold. I didn't want to limit your options."

Gold laughed. "Fair enough. So, I saw those tickets in your wallet. I assume we're going to the movies now?"

Crystal nodded. "Yes. I picked the movies that I know you'd like… … the ones that I hate. And Gold, don't look through my bag. Don't you know any better?"

Gold started to walk, and replied in the tone that he knew would irritate Crystal. "Yes, ma'am, I won't do it again." He turned to face her and grinned. "Oh, and you owe me by the way. Seeing it's my birthday, you owe me double."

Crystal's face became pale for a second. '40 000 PKD?' "… Let's discuss that later… tomorrow, maybe." 'I'm not going to argue with you on your birthday. But the moment the date changes…'

3rd phase…

Crystal groaned as she kept her eyes shut. She knew she wasn't going to like the movie… it was way too gruesome for her taste. And now, to prevent tainting her mind, she chose to cover her eyes.

"Hey, Super Serious Gal, aren't you going to watch?" Gold asked from beside.

"Of course not. Just tell me when the violence is over," Crystal muttered.

"Okay, it's over," Gold said a minute later.

Crystal looked at the screen just as a man got his head blown off by a shotgun. She quickly shut her eyes again and groaned.

'Like I didn't see that one coming… Why did I trust him?' "You're a jerk, you know that?"

Gold was trying not to laugh. "Sorry, Crys, I just didn't see that coming!"

"Thanks to you, that image will be stuck in my head forever…"

"Well then, it's a good thing that you didn't see the scene where a guy gets his arms and legs cut off by a-"

Crystal put her hands over her ears and kept her eyes shut. "I don't want to know!"

Gold grinned. After waiting a few seconds, he yanked Crystal's hand off and whispered in her ear. "Scizor."

"I didn't want to know, you jerk!"

"Look, there it is!"

Crystal looked at the screen for a split second before she shut her eyes again. She saw a golden Scizor (shiny), covered in blood, smash a person's head with Bullet Punch. Crystal checked her watch. 55 minutes to go…

An hour later…

Crystal staggered out of the Violet City theatre. She fell for more of Gold's tricks and ended up seeing more of the movie than she was comfortable with. Why does she keep believing him? She sat in the shadow of a tree and sighed. She brushed strands of hair out of her eyes and groaned. Why did Gold's birthday have to end up so tiring?

Gold sat beside her. "I'm starving here, Crys," he complained.

Crystal reached into her bag and tossed him a plastic bag. Gold caught it and looked inside. Apparently Crystal had made some sandwiches… that tasted like paper. He immediately regret his decision to eat half of the sandwich in a single bite. He was about to complain when he noticed that the Johto girl seemed to be experiencing a headache.

"How are they?" she asked. She kept her eyes shut and tried her best to forget those bloody scenes from the movie. When Gold didn't reply (trying to think of a non-insulting way to say that they sucked), she sighed. "Not good, huh?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Sorry Gold. I tried."

The goggled boy put his sandwich down and put an arm around Crystal. "Relax. You did great. You're trying too hard." He forcefully swallowed the paper tasting stuff in his mouth and kissed her in the cheek. "Thanks for today."

"I owed you for my birthday. I heard that it was you who planned the whole thing."

"And so it was," Gold said. Noticing that Crystal still had her eyes closed, he took the half-eaten sandwich and tossed it to the nearest garbage can. He grinned when the sandwich successfully went inside the garbage can without creating any mess. "So, now what?"

Crystal sighed. "Well, I was going to take you to the lake, but…"

"I think I'm a little tired, Crys," Gold said. "I think you are too. Why don't we just stay here and relax?"

"That sounds good." Crystal leaned against him and sighed. "Did I surprise you with this though?"

"Well, even without that near heart attack you gave me earlier today, yes. I'm surprised that you were willing to put up with me all day long."

"This is a special event. I wouldn't put up with you all day long every day."

Whew. And so ends the Gold & Crystal burst.

Next up: I have no clue. Probably Ruby & Sapphire. Probably.

Also, here's the 3rd and last preview scene:

Sapphire peeked through a bush into Violet City. So far, no one was in sight. Since the city was abandoned, the only people she expected to find were bad guys. No civilians would have remained.

According to what Professor Elm told her team, the bad guys were hiding something near the lake, and Red had dispatched her to see what it was. Depending on what was hidden, Sapphire was ordered to destroy it, leave it, or call for help.

Sapphire ran from the bush and climbed onto a tree. Remaining hidden behind the thick leaves, she looked towards the lake. She could see a group of 6 people doing something.

'Hmm… how strange,' she thought. 'They don't look like they're hiding anything… They seem like they're… waiting…' She gasped upon realizing something. 'It's a trap!' Just then, something hit the tree and Sapphire jumped off. 'Forget stealth! Assault!'

"There she is!" came a voice from the lakeside.

Sapphire pitched her Blaziken's Pokéball at the nearest bad guy as hard as she could. The ball hit him right in the face and knocked him unconscious as the Blaziken came out of the ball in midair.

"Blast Burn!"

The Blaziken thrust its arms forward, shooting powerful flames from its wrists. Sapphire quickly ducked to avoid an attack from behind. Noticing the attack to be Sludge Bomb, she sent out her Aggron and hid behind it.

"Iron Defense," she ordered.

The immunity to Poison-type moves served well and Sapphire intended to use the time to heighten her Aggron's defense. Once the smoke from the attack cleared, she peaked around her Aggron. She noticed that apart from the 6 at the lakeside, there were 3 more bad guys who seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Sapphire pondered whether she should call her teammates for help, but seeing how the bad guys were only sending out the evil-team-standard-issue Pokémon (Zubats, occasional Golbats, etc), decided not to. She snapped out of her thoughts when one grunt made a blind charge at her. While Blaziken punched the grunt's Golbat out of the air, Sapphire slugged him in the face with full power.

"Boss, we're going to lose if you don't intervene!" one of the grunts yelled.

'There's a boss?' Sapphire thought to herself.

She noticed a shadow of a Pokémon suddenly fly past her. She turned to prepare for another enemy, but upon seeing the Pokémon, gasped in shock and started to tremble. She was looking at her worst nightmare… Salamence. Scenes from that dreaded event many years ago started to flash across her mind. Getting attacked by a Salamence, watching Ruby fight it, watching him get hit by a Dragon Claw in the process…

Sapphire tried to focus on the ensuing battle but couldn't. When the Salamence roared, she gasped and trembled backwards. The Dragon-type Pokémon charged at her with Dragon Claw, and instead of swiftly jumping out of the way, she simply dropped to the ground, using her arms to protect her head. Suddenly, she heard a loud thud and felt the ground shake. She looked up and saw the Salamence look straight at her. She backed away at the intimidating glare…

"Look, I've chased away the Salamence!"

"…Scary… so scary…"

'Scary…' Sapphire looked up at the Salamence. She remembered her vow after the first Salamence event. 'I must get stronger… I must learn to protect myself and the others…' She clenched her hands into fists as determination ran through her veins. 'Yes, I can beat this. I can win…' "Chaka, Blast Burn!" she yelled out as she rolled away from the Salamence.

"Hydro Cannon."

Sapphire jumped in surprise as her Blast Burn was neutralized by the Hydro Cannon. There were only 4 people who knew Hydro Cannon (5 if Platinum learned), and all of them were on her side… She looked at where the Hydro Cannon came from. She could see… Swampert…

"Zuzu?" she muttered in disbelief. She quickly looked left and right and suddenly froze. The boss of the enemy grunts, standing near the grunts, wearing an ice mask, was… "Ruby?"

Ruby pointed at her. Sapphire turned around just to see the Salamence swing its tail at her head with Iron Tail…

Does the scene seem familiar? Well, it should. Expect more in Special Adventures. The preview scheme went as follows: preview 1 had shock, preview 2 had something different, and preview 3 had something familiar.

More information on Special Adventures: As mentioned, not a compilation of one-shots. If you were hoping for a compilation of one-shots, well… Special Events will still be up and running. The two main characters will be Gold and Crystal. Any scene in Special Adventures that seem particularly pairing-heavy will also appear in Special Events, just modified. Soul does NOT exist, and as such, Crystal will have her HGSS attire.

Review. Now. Because lots of reviews are appreciated.