"Where are we going now, Krystal?" Jacen asked as he packed up his camping gear. A slightly sheltered child, Jacen was getting sick of "camping out" all the time. His back ACHED for a soft, feather bed - or for any bed for that matter. But, as awful as he felt, he didn't complain. Krystal was completely at home in the wilderness, and it was beyond Jacen to let a girl know that she was tougher in the rough than he was.

He tried so hard to figure out what made Krystal tick. Pokémon was the most obvious answer he could find. Krystal's fahter, Ash Ketchum was the leading expert on Pokémon, and the owner of the world-famous Pallet Town Pokémon Reserve, and a huge "Poké-maniac". He even competed in the old Indigo League Games, but was knocked out in the fifth round. Krystal decided that she was going to win THAT title for the Ketchum name. She had her mind set on it, with her father's unstoppable determination. Only now something had stopped Ash...

Jacen paused in his work to glimpse over Krystal. She sure was taking her own sweet time. The sun had just barely begun to peek over the horizon, turning the once star-speckled sky a shade of red that was the exact color as Jacen's shoulder-length hair. Krystal, although absorbed in her quest, knew when it was time to pause to take in a beautiful sunrise. That was a quality that set her apart from her father.

Krystal sat on her still open sleeping bag, slowly brushing her long, jet-black hair. Buddy, her claustrophobic Bulbasaur mascot, was curled up at her feet, snoring softly. She paid no attention. In fact, she seemed to be a million miles away, in another dimension. "How about we go to *uhh-haaaaaa* Coral City. I hear it's aaaahh beautiful plaaaace," she sluggishly suggested.

"I've never heard of it," Jacen commented flatly. He was already packed and she had barely started.

"It's a new city built inside a coral reef in such a way that it doesn't hurt the enivornment," Krystal almost mechanically, "There's a water-trainer named Dosa who runs the local gym. She's no older than you are, but I hear that she could kick your butt big time."

Jacen had finally run out of patience with his camping companion. He snatched the brush out of her hand, plopped down behind her, and proceeded to brush her hair into pigtails. Hey, if he didn't, no one would, and he hated the thought of being outside for another hour. "I am a fire-trainer. She is a water-trainer. Water-type pokémon have a NATURAL advantage over fire-type pokémon. Even if her pokémon are at a lower level than Arfie, my arcanine, they will probably still beat him. You of all people should know that Little-Miss-My-Daddy's-THE-Leading-Expert-On-POKéMON!"

The sun was mostly over the horizon at the time. The golden sky had swallowed the night's stars whole. A bird chirped out a sweet melody that served as a wake-up call for Krystal. Slowly, she drifted back from her "dream land" to the land of the living. "Are you upset about something, Jacen?" she asked.

Jacen sighed. "No, not really." He finished putting up her hair and finished the look by shoving on her worn-in Pokémon League hat. That hat was her most prized possession because her father had worn it on his pokémon journey. "Say, do you think you can actually beat this Dosa?"

Krystal turned around and looked at him with a hurt expression. "Of course I can. I'm a "water-child". My mother and all three of my aunts are excellent water-trainers. I know how to handle them, thank you very much! Besides, I have Buddy! Together, we'll kick her Poké-behind!!!" she stood up and did a stupid pose. Buddy rolled off the sleeping bag, but was sleeping like a rock. A very heavy rock.

"I wouldn't be so sure of yourself if I were you," Jacen said skeptically, "You don't even know what pokémon she has."

Krystal grimaced, "Sure I do, Dexter3000 told me."

"Dexter3000?"

"Yeah!" Krystal flashed her Pokédex out of her jacket pocket and flipped it on. It looked exactly like his, expect hers was metallic red and had numerous buttons; too many to count.

"Dexter, Tell me what pokémon the Coral City gym leader has," she instructed it.

There was a two-second pause as Dexter analyzed the information. It began to speak, "Dosa, the Coral City gym leader uses two pokemon: Wartortle and Starmie."

Krystal snapped it shut, and stuffed it back into her pocket.

"My pokédex doesn't do all that..." Jacen complained. It was an ancient hand-me-down from his BELOVED twin-sister, Jannie. All it did was identify the pokémon, and it didn't even do that very well. Once it had said that Arfie was a Nidoking.

"Of course it doesn't, Jacen! This is a new 'experimental' model. There are still a few bugs left to it. Every time I use it... it's voice gets... higher, and eventually, - I won't be able to hear it all!" she threw up her hands violently, "At all!" Krystal explained.

"O-kay..." Jacen said, "Do you have a strategy for beating this gym leader?"

Krystal stood up and slung her purple backpack over her shoulders, "I don't need a strategy. I've got Buddy, don't I? That's all I need," she nudged Buddy gently with her foot to waken him from his rock-like sleep.

"Bulbasaur, saur..." he mumbled and opened an eye.

"Get up, Sleepyhead! Daylight's a burnin'," she told him.

"Saur-saur. Bulbasaur." He pulled himself up to a standing position, which wasn't hard since bulbasaurs are so low to the ground.

"Finally! Let's go!" he stomped off, glad to be going somewhere at last.

Krystal hurriedly grabbed all of her stuff and jammed it into her small backpack. How she fit it all in, we probably will never know. She flung it back on and dashed off to keep up with Jacen, suddenly full of endless energy.

Jared pulled the binoculars back from his eyes and turned to Jannie, his girlfriend, "Ah, so they are going to Coral City...I have always wanted to visit there."

Jannie rubbed her eyes. Her mouth had been hanging wide open from a yawn, but she never quite got it closed again. She yawned again, "Why is that Jared?" her tiredness bugged Jared.

"That place is so environmentally sound...it makes ME SICK! Very sick...Hey! I've got an idea," it looked like an evil plan was unfolding in his brain.

Jannie nodded and began to nod off. Her head bobbed and bobbed like a dipping bird, sharply rising up and slowly drooping down again. Jared took no notice of this strange behavior, and was so immensed in thinking about his plan that he was talking aloud to himself.

"We could try to convince the gym leader, Dosa, to join NEO Team Rocket...and if she refused-" he glanced towards Sandy, Jannie's sandshrew who was staring at him though her cute little toy binoculars that Jannie had bought for her because "they looked so cute".

"Why are you staring at me???" Sandy continued to look in silence; he raged, "WHy? What did I do to you??? I'm not your trainer... SHE IS!!" he pointed to the now drooling Jannie, "STARE AT HER YOU WEIRDO!!!"

"Shrew! Sand, SHREW!" Sandy explained.

"Oh...okay. That's understandable. Well, if she DID refuse, which she won't, of course," he smiled at Sandy, "Because 'NEO' Team Rocket is invinceable! Who could resist that?"

"Shrew?"

"Right. But if she did refuse, then why...We'd just BLOW THE PLACE SKY HIGH! MWAH-HA, HA, HA, HA-HA-HA-AH, HA, HA, Ha, Ha-ha-ha, ha...yeah... perfect." Jannie still slumbered like a lumpy muk, and this angered him. So he reached for her binoculars and pulled back far so it almost choked her and then slammed them at her nose.

"OOOOH! My nose! JA-AIR-RED! You creep! You ruined perfection, AGAIN!" she screeched like a whining Victreebel.

"Come on, time to go," Jared ordered sliding down the hill they were on and walking towards Coral City.

"Wait!" she squealed, "Where? HUH? You NEVER tell me ANYTHING!!!" she cried and tripped over Sandy, and rolled down the hill, "Sandy, 'on't yust stand hair like a bump ood odd frog, ppppbtt!" she said spiting out grass, "HELP ME!!"

End of Chapter One
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