This is a story which is based loosely on real people. Sean’s name is pronounced
‘Shawn’ for the people who thought it was ‘Seen’, and I’m sure your smart enough to
know the pronunciation of everyone else’s names.
	Allison (Narrator):  17
	Anne:  17
	Sean:  16
	Jill:  15
	Elizabeth:  15
	Jackie:  14

	Disclaimer:  Uh, I guess there isn't one because no one owns people! Except God.......
			    But I don't own the idea of Pokemon or anything else related to it

	Rating:  PG13  Some violence

	Dedicated to my best friend Anne (a.k.a. Pinky)

					                     ********

	With a Twist
	By Silver V
	Chapter 1- The Light



	RING! RING! 
	"H'lo?" I clumsily picked up the phone, rubbing the gritty sleep out of my eyes. 
	"Allison! Come over right now! I've got a surprise for you!" I glanced at the clock
and groaned. 10:00. Typical Anne, calling at an unholy hour. Anne was my best friend,
who lived about four houses down the street from me. 
	"Anne! Can't this surprise wait until I'm ready to get up?" I love my sleep, and will kill
anyone who dared wake me up before at least eleven on summer vacation. Anne’s usually
pretty smart, but she knows I would get lethal toward my light brown-haired friend if she
phoned too early.
	"Well, it can't wait! You are going to be so happy!" Woah. This must have been some
surprise if she was brave enough to persist.
	"Well.” I shook my long hair out of my eyes and yawned. “Just let me shower and I’ll
come over. Give me half and hour.” Curiosity is a terrible temptation.
	"Okay whatever, hurry up. Bye!"
	“Bye.” I mumbled to the dial tone. I hung up and rolled out of bed, somehow making
it to my salvation. The hot spray of the shower. After finally getting out, I threw on my
favorite clothes (Which for once were all clean! Miracles!), and brushed out my waist
length hair. Ouch, it felt like I was getting surgery done to my scalp, the way my hair was
pulling. I took the stairs two at a time to get upstairs and ate a quick breakfast of
‘wheeties’ or something like that. Cheap parents. Whatever happened to sugared cereal?
Alphabets. Or frootloops. Yum. After finishing I rooted around in our closet, finally
tracking down my sandals. That’s what you get for living in a family of four kids. And all
younger than you too. 
	I thought since it was summer, I wouldn’t need a coat. Wrong! After stepping outside
I was almost bowled over by the wind, but I didn’t stop to get a jacket. I loved surprises
to much and was anxious to see what Anne’s was.
	When I got to her house, I tried to force open the door. Dang, they had locked it.
Usually I would just waltz right in, but occasionally, on a whim, they locked the door.
Now I had to stand and freeze and wait for an hour for them to realize the doorbell rang.
Another reason I hate it when they lock their door. 
	DING-DONG! 
	Tap, tap, my foot went. Brr, brr, my mind went. Shiver, shiver, my body went. Oh I
was cold, why did I forget my coat? The wind was tossing my dark hair around, getting it
hopelessly tangled. And after all that careful brushing to. Some people were going to die.
	*Creak* The door! Its opening! 	
	"We don't  want any!" Jill, (Anne's little sister) tried to close the door on my face, but
I blocked it with my shoulder.
	"Nice try Jill. Took you long enough." She didn't answer, she was to busy giggling.
No matter how many times she did it, it was still funny. I had to smile. She looked like a
normal fifteen year old with her shoulder length black hair that she actually washed every
day now and cool clothes, but she could act like a five year old sometimes. We all can. I
walked in, slamming their stupid door that always got stuck, and slipped off my sandals. I
tried to run my fingers through my hair, but soon gave up, as my fingers were getting tied
up in my hair.
	“Hey Anne! Where are you?” I called out.
	“I’m in my room!” came the muffled reply. I passed Jill playing on the computer and
strolled into her room.
	“Anne! Why’d you wake me up so early? What’s the surpr-” I stopped short when I
saw the surprise. Jackie and Sean, Anne and Jill's cousins, had come for a visit. “Aaahhh!
Jackie! Sean! Hi!” I ran forward and hugged the short, stocky girl with light strawberry
hair named Jackie, while grinning at the blonde Sean. I wouldn’t hug him because Anne
has this stupid idea in her head that I like Sean, and we should get together. He’s a year
younger than me, and I just like him as a friend. Actually, what had happened originally
was me and Anne tried to get Lizzy and Sean together, saying they were perfect for each
other. (Elizabeth is my younger sister.) Even though they hadn’t seen each other in like
five years, and even then it was only being introduced to each other. But when they did
finally meet about a month ago, they didn’t like each other, and instead of Sean and Lizzy,
it was Sean and me that hit it off. We became friends. Now Anne thinks we should be
more than friends. Silly Anne. 
	“Where's Liz?" Sean asked ever so casually. Hmm, maybe I was wrong. Jill strode
into Anne's room and almost tripped over me. She may be younger than me, but (damn
her!) she’s still taller. They all are.
	"Allison! Get out of the way!" 
	I moved, and answered Sean. "She's still at home."
	"Who?" Jill asked.
	"Liz," Jackie replied.
	"What about her?"
	"She's still at home," this time Anne answered Jill.
	"So?"
	"Sean wants her to come over," I wiggled my eyebrows at the poor, blushing Sean.
	"Ooohh," Jill said slowly, winking at the very embarrassed Sean. "I'll go phone her."
Jill skipped out of the room and to the phone. A couple seconds later (Well, minutes) we
heard the doorbell ring. There was a stampede to go let Liz in but I held back the girls,
letting Sean race for the door alone. We all giggled when he realized we weren't
competing with him, and he knew he had just made himself look like a fool. He opened the
door, knowing we wouldn't.
	"Oh! Sean! What are you doing here?" Lizzy was puzzled. "Jill never told me you
were here."
	"She wasn't supposed to!" Jackie cried, and rushed over to Liz, giving her a hug.
	“Come here bum, I want you to read one of my stories.” Anne dragged me to the
computer, while I rolled my eyes at her old nickname of ‘bum.’ When we were weird
thirteen year olds, we had used the words ‘bum’ and ‘crumb’ for almost anything. Swears,
names, sayings. Whatever. We had gotten out of the habit (Thank God! We were strange
kids) but occasionally we still said it. For old times sake. 
	Lizzy, Jill, and Jackie went to Anne’s room to play with her lava lamp, (They
seemed to like burning themselves) and Anne eventually joined them to make sure they
didn’t break it, leaving me and Sean reading her story.
	I was sitting there at the computer, peacefully reading when a sort of strange
ringing started in my ears. I shook my head, trying to get rid of it, but it persisted. It kept
getting louder, and I glanced at Sean. He was hitting one ear with the heel of his hand, so I
assumed he heard it to. 	
	“What is that sound?” he asked.
	“I have no idea.” My ears were just starting to really ache when it suddenly
stopped. Ahh, blessed quiet. We resumed reading, dismissing the weird ringing sound
when all of a sudden a sharp, blinding flash of light lit the room. I screamed, covering my
eyes, and I could hear answering screams come from Anne’s room. The light must have
got them to. What was going on? I tried to crack one eye open but was nearly blinded by
the sting of white, hot light. I sat there with my hands covering my eyes, while they were
squeezed shut when I felt Sean’s hands on my wrists, gently prying my hands away. 
	“Alli, the light is gone.”
	“Oh thank God. What was that?”
	Sean’s eyes were wide, and his face white. He shook his head, slowly. “Weird.”
was his only comment. We both were sitting there, stunned and dazed, when I heard a
scream come from Anne’s room, and I remembered the earlier screams during the light.
	“Sean, come on, we’ve got to check if our friends are okay.” We both stood up
(Rather shakily) and ran as fast as our wobbly legs would allow us. I burst into the room
before Sean and looked around wildly. One, two, three. Jackie, Jill and Anne. Liz? Where
was Liz?
	“Anne? Where’s Liz? Did you guys hear that ringing sound and then the flash of
light? Where is Liz? Is she hiding?”
	I glared at the three girls sitting, shaking, on the bed. Anne was the first to speak.
	“Allison, I have no idea where Liz went.”
	“Me neither.” Jill said.
	“I do.” Jackie spoke quietly. “We heard the ringing in our ears, and then the
blinding flash of light. I heard her scream, and I tried to reach for her. I opened my eyes.”
	“That must have hurt.” Jill commented. (Huh, there was her five year old humour
coming out again) I sent her a steely look. 
	“Shut-up and let Jackie finish!” 
	“Anyways,” Jackie continued, “I opened my eyes against the light, and I saw her
sort of dissolving back into the light. I screamed then, and the light stopped.”
	“So, it came, got Liz, and left. Where’d that cowardly light go?” Sean was
cracking his knuckles and Anne rolled her eyes.	
	“Sean, you can’t beat up light, it has no substance.”
	“Yeah whatever.” Sean muttered but a flush crept up his neck.
	“What are we going to do now? Lizzy was taken by ‘The Light’ and now she’s
stuck in light land. Or wherever The Light tossed her.” Jill said, summing it all up.
	“Yeah.” I sat down beside Anne and rested my head on her shoulder.  “My sisters
gone. Stolen by The Light.” I started laughing, (I think I was going kind of insane) “That
sounds so absurd. Stolen by The Light.” Now my laughter turned into sobs. “My stupid
little, annoying sister is gone!”
	Anne hugged me and Sean stroked my hair. (Don’t be reading anything into this!)
Jill looked about ready to cry too, her and Lizzy being best friends and all, so Jackie
hugged her.
	That’s how we were, Sean and Anne comforting me, and Jackie comforting Jill
when The Light found us again. It came like before, a searing flash of white relentless
light, except this time with no warning ringing. I had the strangest feeling, almost like I
was being lulled to sleep. My eyes had started to close when I felt a terrible pain go
ripping through my body. It felt like I was being pulled apart limb by limb. I screamed and
I could feel my friends all around me shrieking or shouting manly shouts. (That would be
Sean)
	“Hold hands everyone! We don’t want to be separated!” Anne gasped out. We had
all pretty much figured out by then that we were being pulled to wherever it was The
Light had taken Liz. I grabbed hold of Anne’s hand, and I felt someone else’s clasping my
other one. 
	When the pain was so great it felt like I was dying, I felt myself being pulled away
from my world. Everything was black, with stars breaking the blackness every now and
then. I thought I was being pulled through space, and the only thing I could feel was the
feel of my hands desperately grabbing other peoples in death grips. I was numb and
floating through space when I felt myself being hurtled into another dimension, this one
with ribbons of color floating everywhere. It lasted a couple of seconds (But felt like a
couple of hours) and then everything went still. The twisting colors seized movement and
I felt my whole body freeze. Even my hair wasn’t daring to move. 
	In a flash, all of the colors went into lightning speed and then The Light came
back, blocking out all of the streams of color, and tearing screams from my throat as I
tried to wrench my hands free to cover my eyes, but the other people wouldn’t let me, so I
just squeezed my eyes shut as tight as they could go. 
	After a while of being tortured with The Light, (I swear, I felt my eyelids starting
to burn away!) I saw us flying toward a world, that looked much like earth, except for the
fact that it was mostly green instead of blue. I saw ground rushing toward me, acres of
green ground, and closed my eyes again, fearing the impact I knew would break a couple
bones, if not kill me. Right before I hit the ground, (I could feel the grass tickling my
cheek) everything slowed down and I was gently let down on the field. I felt my linked
hands go limp in the grasp of Anne and someone else and we all blacked out, falling into a
deep sleep.

					********

	“Go’way.” I mumbled. Giggling. Again that tickling feeling on my ear. I batted my
hands in the air, fending off my invisible attacker. I smiled in my sleep, and snuggled closer
against the really hot guy in my dream who had just saved me from a shark.
	“Wake up Alli, wake up, wakey wakey,” The voice of my dream guy blended with
someone else’s, “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!” I heard a sing-song voice close to my
ear, that sounded suspiciously like.........Anne! I sat straight up, knocking the giggling
uncontrollably Anne away. I glanced around at the faces of my friends, glad to see they
were okay, until my still-fuzzy-from-sleep brain registered something. I blinked, not
believing what I saw. I blinked again and then rubbed my eyes with both fists. I still saw
what I saw. 
	They looked like the people off my comics. To be more specific, my manga
comics. They looked like japanamation versions of their real self.
	“Aaaaahhhhhh!!” I cried, scooting backwards. “What happened to you people?” I
cried again. 
	“Same thing that’s happened to you,” Anne replied. I just stared at her. 
	“You mean I look like you too?”
	“And why not?”
	I didn’t have an answer for that, (As Anne knew I wouldn’t) and she spoke up
again. “While you were snoring away over there,” she nodded her head to the indention
still left in the grass made by my sleeping body, “We came to some conclusions. One, we
have obviously somehow been transported into some type of japanamation world. Which
one, we don’t know yet. And two, Lizzy isn’t with us. She’s still lost.” 
	For the first time I realized that, and I gritted my teeth in frustration. Going
through all that torture to get here and we still hadn’t found Liz? I groaned through my
gritted teeth. Now we’d have to go tramping around the country looking for her instead of
just quietly letting The Light take us all back to the real world. Darn that Liz, she’d always
seemed to have a talent for getting lost! Absent-minded idiot! I started getting irrationally
mad at Elizabeth in my head, I suppose because anger was easer to feel than pain. 
	“Anyway,” Jill’s voice broke through my increasingly murderous thoughts, “Did
you notice our clothes have changed too, Allison?” My mind diverted from thoughts of
murdering Liz, I let out another ear-piercing shriek when I finally realized that little fact.
(You’ll have to excuse my slowness, but my brain was a little muddled right then)
	Anne sighed. Apparently at my lack of brains, I guess. “And isn’t it funny how they
all slightly resemble each other? Just like the outfits of a team or group do on various
animes.”
	“Yeah, I noticed that too,” Jackie put in.
	I heard a gasp come from my right, and turned to face Sean. “What?”
	“I didn’t get that before!” he said, eyes wide. Everybody except me groaned; I was
to busy starting in fascination at the little sweatdrops that appeared on their heads. 
	“And there’s one more thing that we all realized. Look,” Anne stretched out one
long leg in front of me and pointed to a black leather sort of pouch, attached by two straps
at the bottom and the top of the pouch. She adjusted the angle of the case on her thigh,
and then flipped open the top. Reaching in, she pulled out a mini.....walkie-talkie.
	“Sweet!” I cried, taking it from Anne’s hand. It was grey with dark green trim and
has glowing lime-green buttons. I played around with them for a bit before handing it back
to Anne. She tucked it back in its case and snapped down the flap. I waited patiently for
an explanation before having to ask,
	“And why exactly do you have a walkie-talkie?”
	She gave me a strange look before answering. “Haven’t you noticed anything that
your wearing? You have one too! We all do!” she leaned over and touched a pouch
exactly like hers that was high on my left upper arm.. I blinked at it for a moment; indeed
it had gone unnoticed before. I then pulled out my own walkie-talkie and it had red trim,
with glowing pink buttons. I examined it for a moment before replacing it back in its little
carry-on case.
	 I absently reached up to fiddle with a side lock of my hair, and when my hand
touched the bouncy strand I remembered the fact that we were anime or manga
characters. I wondered what I looked like. I pulled the strand of hair in front of my eyes,
and was kind of disappointed to find out it was the same dark chestnut color it always had
been. It was fuller and softer, but just as thick, reaching down to past my butt. I let my
hands roam over the top of my head and realized that on the left side of the straight part
there was a small section of hair done in a loose twisty and tied at the end with a red
ribbon.
	I wished The Light had given me one of those hairstyles that seem to defy gravity.
I’d always wondered how the manga characters had managed to keep those styles; a ton
of gel I supposed. I shrugged, and tuned myself back into the conversation going on
around me. 
	“Your eyes are...” Jackie squinted, peering closely at Anne’s eyes, “sort of a
greeny-brown. Hazel, I guess.”
	Anne sighed. “Same as before. Yours are a light blue,” she said to Jackie.
	So they were assessing there appearances too. 
	“What color are mine?” Sean, who was still sitting next to me, asked.
	“Dark blue. Me?” I replied. 
	He stared into my eyes before answering, “Black. No wait, actually they’re brown.
They’re just so dark they look like they’re black.”
	“Same as my hair, and they’re still the same color they used to be. I guess our
coloring didn’t change, just our, our, uh...”
	“Human structure? As in, we’re now animated?” Anne thought up. 
	I shuddered a little bit. “It’s to weird to think that we’re like drawings, or comics
or something.”
	Jill agreed with me before asking for the color of her eyes. I told her they were a
light green, and she seemed satisfied.
	After that there was a rather long silence between us all.
	“Well, we can’t sit around here all day discussing what we look like. I think we
should go find Lizzy,” I finally announced, and after having said that, stood up, took a
step...and neatly fell flat on my face. “Owww! I tripped over something! What was it?”
	Anne crawled over on her hands and knees, and stared at the ground in, well I
thought it was shock.
	“Anne?” I asked, getting a little nervous.
	There was a short puzzled pause before she said, “I think it’s a sword. A sword
that looks a heck of a lot like the Highland one we used to dance with. Remember?
	“Oh yeah! You! Dancing! Wahahahahaha!!” I dissolved in laughter at those fondly
remembered memories. Anne was not known for her dancing skills and it had been a battle
between her and the sword every performance; the sword doing its level best to trip her up
and Anne doing her level best to try to stay upright and on the right step. And then there
was me doingmy level best not to crack up and laugh hysterically in the middle of
the dance.
	Anne just kind of cleared her throat while a blush lightly stained her cheeks. “Yes,
well, dancing maybe wasn’t for me, but that’s not the issue right now. The issue would be
why there’s a Highland sword laying on the ground,” she paused, still on her hands and
knees and then continued, “Everybody get down and look, I want to know if something
else is around that’ll give us a clue to this Highland sword.”
	“Yes, ma’am!” Sean gave her a mock salute before starting to search the ground.
Jill and Jackie just rolled there eyes, but they obediently started looking.
	While everyone else crawled around in the tall grass (Looking like idiots, I might
add), me and Anne examined the sword.
	“Hmm, it does look like a Highland sword, but I think it also looks like one the
Musketeers used,” I commented. (Ever seen The Three Musketeers? Awesome movie, I
tell you)
	“It does,” Anne replied absently, and then she slowly pulled it out of its sheath. It
made a soft hissing sound, and when it was finally free of its case, me and Anne both
‘oohed and ahhed’ in wonder. 
	The blade of the sword was silver, thin, like the Highland or Musketeer swords
were, but it was the end, the handle I guess that was truly magnificent. The actual place
where your hand grasped it was just a plain gold-colored handle, but there was a sort of
bell shaped covering over top of it that had me and Anne shouting for the others. It was
gold, with an intricate, delicate sort of twisted and twined gold filigree. 
	“Oooh, it’s really pretty,” Jackie breathed, gently touching the gold filigree mesh.
We all ‘mmm-hmmed’ and agreed with her as we passed the sword around between the
five of us. After my turn with the sword I picked up the case and looked over it. Nothing
special about it,  it looked like any other sword case-sheath thing I had seen on the
movies. Black with silver edging around the open end, and a black leather strap close to
the open end that I guessed you strapped over your waist or some other part of your
body.
	Sean grabbed the case from me and slipped the sword back inside. He studied it
for a moment before suddenly asking, “Who gets to keep it?”
	We all looked startled for a moment, none of us had thought of that. We stared at
each other and a charged silence settled over the place. We glared for a couple more
seconds before--as one--turning to stare at the sword. It seemed to jerk convulsively,
once, twice, before it lay still. I eyeballed it nervously--moving swords weren’t that
comforting--and when a name began to slowly form on the black sword case, and boy let
me tell you, if there had been a feather handy, I’m sure I would have been knocked over
by it. 
	Jackie spelled it out as the gold fancy writing was slowly enscripted.
“A-L-L-I-S-O-N.”
	“That is really, really scary,” I said, eyeing the sword with my name scripted on the
its case. 
	“Yes I know.” Anne eyed the sword along with me for a few moments before
sighing and picking it up. “But I guess it’s yours. The scary problem is yours, and I feel
sort of sorry for you. Having a sword that knows its owner and can spell,” She gave me a
cheeky little smile and I scowled at her before snatching the sword from her outstretched
hand. I stood up and tried to figure out how to get it on. 	
	“Where should I put it?”
	“Swords usually go on the waist,” Jackie said, rising to help me. We tried
strapping it around my middle, but it was too big. 
	“Try your back,” Sean suggested. I just stared dumbly at him for a few moments
before he sighed and got up to help. He took the sword from Jackie and moved around to
my back. “Hold up your hair,” he instructed and I lifted up the heavy mass with both
hands. Unbuckling the silver buckle on the strap he wrapped one end under my left arm
and the other over my right shoulder. Holding out the two straps in front of me I could
almost feel him turning red. “Um, could you, uh, snap them together yourself? I, uh, um
well I don’t want to...touch you, um....there.”
	I snorted and grinned at his uncomfortable admission, but I dropped my hair.
Taking the ends from him I buckled them together between my breasts, the place Sean
wouldn’t touch. I lifted my hands from the buckle and shifted my shoulders under the
unaccustomed--but not entirely unpleasant--weight of the newly acquired addition to my
strange outfit. I looked down at myself to see how strange I actually did look. My clothes
were a bit ‘risque’ for my tastes, but now I at least had the body to wear them being an
animated character now and all. I looked around at the rest of us and decided that we all
seemed to have ‘Indiana Jones-ish’ outfits. What I mean is, the big boots, and sort of
brown leather clothes he wears. But of course, all the girls had girly Indiana clothes, and
(Yet again, of course) all were skimpy. And Anne even had an Indiana Jones hat perched
atop her short hair. A shout from Jackie interrupted the evaluation of our clothes.
	“Whoop guys, look over there!” Jackie pointed to the tall grass on the right side of
us. Two pairs of eyes blinked out at us. Two pairs of Oddish eyes. A Pokemon’s
eyes.
	“Huh, I think we just found out where The Light threw us,” Jill commented.
“Pokemon land.”
	“But, but, Pokemon land? That’s impossible! Pokemon is a TV show! We
can’t have walked into it!” Sean exclaimed, and scrubbed a hand through his sandy hair
agitatedly, making it even more spiky.
	“And being dragged here by light and being anime characters is any more
realistic?” (Not to mention a sword with my name on it) “If there’s Oddish’s lying around,
and swords but that’s weird because people in Pokemon don’t have swords but anyway, if
there are Oddish’s laying around then that means we probably are in Pokemon
world.”
	“I suppose,” Sean said doubtfully, still looking a bit rattled.
	“Well! Now that we at least know where we are, and we have some form of
protection,” I gestured behind me to my sword, “I think our next step should be trying to
find Liz.”
	“Yes we should do that, but I think we need a bit more information. Like where
we are for one thing,” Anne mused. We all raised our eyebrows and shuffled our feet,
staring weirdly at Anne. (Someone’s going senile at a young age) 
	“Um Anne, we have found out where we are.” Jill pointed to the Oddish.
“Remember? That place we were discussing two seconds ago? Pokeland?”
	“I know that! What I meant was where in Pokeland we are. Like, Viridian
Forest, or near Cerulean City. We need directions.”
	“Ohhhh,” we all sighed in relief. Anne was still sane.
	“Well, I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere going that way,” Sean pointed to
the endless green that stretched out on one side of us, “But we might get somewhere
going into that forest.” 
	“Well, whadya know! Sean actually had a good idea!” Jackie giggled, while Sean
stuck his tongue out childishly at his younger sister. (It’s that inner five year old emerging
again)
	“Through the forest would probably be our best bet,” Anne said satisfied,
“Everyone agree?” They all nodded except me, and started off towards the forest. It didn’t
really matter to me where we went, I just wanted to find my sister, so I shrugged and
followed. 
	
					*******

	When we emerged from the forest after being crawled on by a million bugs
(Shudder. I do NOT like bugs), we were staring at the outskirts of a big city. Sort of like
the Pokemon equivalent of New York or Chicago. 
	“Um. This is new,” Anne stated brilliantly.
	I nodded. “I don’t remember this town in Pokemon at all. Have any of you guys
seen this city before on a Pokemon episode I may have missed?”
	“Nope.”
	“Uh-uh.”
	“Zip.”
	“Nada.”
	“No way.”
	“Zippo.”
	“Are you stupid?”
	“I don’t have cable.”
	“Of course not.”
	“Dumb parents. Why can’t we have cable?”
	“I know. I hate parents.”
	“Yeah, really.”
	I rolled my eyes and let them keep on babbling for a few seconds. 
	“Well, let’s go find out what the name of this city is,” I interrupted during a short
pause in the babble, and strolled into the city.
	We shuffled along, gaping at the huge sky scrapers and the scruffy people lining
the streets. We got more than a few stares ourselves (Remember, I did have a sword on
my back) and a lot of *ahem* indelicate requests. 
	“Hey there,” a dirty, slimy, disgusting man leaned out of a dark alley. I wrinkled
my nose; I could smell the stench of alcohol even from where I was standing.  “Wanna
come *hiccup* over here? We could maybe, y’know, shleep a lil’ bit?” he snickered
drunkenly. “Though we wouldn’t, whoa! The floors a’tiltin on me! *hiccup* Won’t be
shleeping much, ey?”  The man leaned out even farther, and the floor seemed to be
‘a’tiltin’ on him again--or else it just liked his face--because he was stretched flat out on
the concrete. Without, may I add, without one of us.
	Jill sniffed, and looked imperiously down her nose. “What a loser. As if anyone
would be desperate enough to have anything to do with him,” she sniffed again. Words of
wisdom from Madam Jill. Jackie bent down and prodded him gingerly with one fore
finger. 
	“Yo, you still awake?” An intoxicated reply which sounded something along the
lines of ‘wheest’ answered that. “Probably not,” Jackie stood up again and gazed around
until her roving eye landed on a greasy looking man standing a couple of meters away. A
greasy and dangerous looking man, but at least he looked sober. He also looked as though
he was waiting for someone, at the way he kept looking around every couple minutes.
Probably a drug dealer.
	“Hey!” she called out at him. “You over there!”
	The man looked over at us, and I could see the admiration light up his face. We
were four teenaged, moderately pretty, but most of all clean girls. (Not including
Sean) Even if we had been butt-ugly I bet he would have been interested. “Ya? What’cha
want, little lady?”
	Jackie snorted, clearly unimpressed. “Just tell us the name of the city.”
	“Torontopi,” he answered.
	Torontopi? What in God’s name kind of name was that? I’d never heard of a place
called Torontopi.
	Anne echoed my thoughts. “Torontopi? What’s Torontopi? Are there Pokemon
here?”
	“Pokemon? Sure, you looking for a fight? There’s a Charizard fight goin on at the
old barn a coupla blocks down from here,” the guy jerked his thumb in a direction
somewhere behind him. “I got some good bets goin on that one.” The picture he was
describing made me absurdly think of cock fights. (Giggle. I think I’ll use the words
‘rooster fights.’ Siiiigh, now my inner child has come forward. I think I’ll name
him ‘Sammy’)
	I shot a quick glance at Anne and she shrugged.
	“What do you mean, there’s a Charizard fight. Do you mean a Pokemon match?”
Jill asked.
	“Where are ya peoples from anyway? Look, no ones has Pokemon matches
anymore. There’s no point, it’s more interesting and ya make more money this way.” He
shook his head. “I don’t care on wastin my time talkin wit ya, I gots someone to meet,”
With that nice farewell, the greasy guy in the tacky clothes strolled away. And left us there
to wonder even more.
	“You guys? Can we get going? There’s a lot of freaky guys staring at us,” I asked
nervously. A lot of freaky, drunk guys, who aren’t courteous to girls even when they’re
sober.
	“Yes, let’s do that,” Anne was also eyeing the scary looking men.
	“There’s a nice restaurant right over there,” Sean pointed. “And I’m hungry,”
	I glanced over at it, and rolled my eyes. “Honestly Sean. That’s a strip joint, and if
you really want to go in there, go ahead, but I don’t!”
	Sean turned and interesting shade of red.. “Yeah, uh, well.........you think of
something then!”
	“Let’s just keep walking around and see what happens,” Jill said hurriedly to stop a
fight. We were all pretty stressed out right now, and a fight could come about with the
most offhand remark.
	“I vote that we go to that Charizard fight, and see what that guy meant,” Anne
suggested, in a most offhand manner. (Recognize the word offhand? Fight! Fight!)
	“Yeah we should, but after we find Liz,” I said miserably. God, I hoped she was
okay. Just to be safe, I uttered a few prayers.
	“That could take hours!” Anne held up her hands instinctively when I rounded on
her. “Hold on! I want to find her just as much as you do, but we should get our bearings
and find out what’s going on before we rush into things. There are a lot of un-answered
questions you know.”
	“Yeah I realized that. But we could find the answer to those questions
afterwe find Liz!” 
	“And get ourselves killed in the process? How will we help Lizzy then?”
	“We won’t kill ourselves!”
	“We could! We have no idea what kind of a world this is, it sure is different from
the Pokemon one we know, and rushing into things isn’t going to help!” 
	“Yeah but I thought you just wanted to find out where we are! And we’ve done
that!”
	“Torontopi! How the hell knowing that we’re in Torontopi help us!”
	We were toe to toe by this time, shouting into each other’s faces while the other
three looked on in fascination. It was a rare time when me and Anne fight, but when we
do we go all out.
	“CAN’T WE FIND LIZ FIRST?” I shrieked, feeling my face turn red with
frustration and anger. Anne’s hazel eyes glared at me.
	“Allison. Listen to me. We need to find out why we were sent here, why you have
a sword that knows who its owner is, why we’re manga people, why our clothes have the
similar look of a team. AND WE CAN’T DO THAT BY KILLING OURSELVES!”
	“We won’t kill ourselves! AAARRRGGHH!!” Why was she being so stubborn
about this? I just wanted to find my stupid sister! I decided to try a different tactic, and
forced myself to lower my voice back into normal tone. “Anne, how will going to the fight
you seem so desperate to go to, help us?” I congratulated myself on my rationale sounding
voice.
	“We’ll learn something about this world, and it won’t take that long! We’ll search
for Liz right after the fight, but can we please just go and check it out?”
	I narrowed my eyes at my best friend. Anne, who I share a million inside jokes
with (Crunched glasses!), with her big hazel eyes and light brown hair that’s cut in the
short, messy style she likes it in. Anne, who always has some witty comment about
everything, and who is one of the smartest people I know. If Anne really wanted to go to
this fight, there must be a good reason for it. “Okay,” I said shortly. “We’ll go to this
stupid fight but then we don’t do anything else until Liz is found. Deal?” 
	I stuck out my hand (A difficult feat considering we were still nose to nose) and
Anne regarded it critically for a moment. Lifting her eyes to mine, she said slowly, “Deal,”
and shook my hand.
	We turned to three very wide-eyed friends who were deliberately backing away,
and burst into giggles. That was me and Anne, fighting like wild-cats one moment and
laughing like hyenas the next. 
	“All right guys, let’s go to this fight.”
	
					********

	Well that Charizard fight was either cursed or it didn’t exist. It did NOT want to
be found, and it succeeded in its mission. We couldn’t find it, and we were all tired and
cross and hungry.
	“I’m starving! Let’s stop somewhere and eat,” Jill complained.
	“Oh of course, but wherever would we find the money tree to pay for our meal?”
Anne answered ever-so-sarcastically. Jill pouted, and turned away from Anne. 
	“Maybe there’ll be free popcorn or something at the fight,” I said to Jill, not
thinking for a minute there would be, but just to soothe her. She gave me a disbelieving
little smile.                                              
	“Look! A sign for a Charizard fight!” Sean cried excitedly, pointing to a sorry
looking wooden sign. It was hanging crookedly on a street sign that read ‘Neon Avenue.’
	“Yes! Finally!” Jackie shrieked, and we gratefully searched the street until we
spotted an old run down barn with the stench of beer and rowdy voices emanating from it.
	“Guess that’s the place.” Anne said rather miserably. Who could blame her? I had
never even wanted to go to this stupid fight in the first place, and the poor state of the
building didn’t help my mood either. I shot a look at Anne that could have peeled paint.
Oh, she was going to pay for making me go in there. I’m not the type of girl that faints
when they see a mouse, but I am not fond of them, and absolutely hate hate hate hate hate
bugs. Especially beetles. *Shudder* 
	“Let’s get it over with,” I said, resigned to my fate.
	We started to inch in there and I ducked behind Sean, trying to do it rather
inconspicuously. (But I guessed it failed when Sean sent an amused look over his shoulder
when I grabbed the back of his shirt. Hey, a large disgusting beetle had just crawled over
my shoe)
	Once our eyes adjusted to the dimness of the interior, I was shocked into silence at
the sight that greeted us.
	“My God!” Jill exclaimed, putting it very nicely. A large ring was in the middle of
the barn, and inside that ring were two very bloody, very enormous Charizards blowing
fire at each other.  (And scratching and biting and using all sorts of moves I didn’t know
Pokemon were allowed to use) Surrounding the ring was an abundant amount of mangy
peoples. Drunks, dealers, addicts, gangs, every sort of low-life you could imagine, and
they were all caught up in the excitement of the brutal, fierce battle. It wasn’t a Pokemon
match, this was a fight. Pitting two great strengths against each other, and allowing them
to do what they want. Two un-trained, wild Charizards that wouldn’t have listened even if
you’d tried. 
	I felt tears prick my eyelids at the sight of the fight for survival.
	Sean absently patted the top of my head, I suppose he thought it was some
comfort. I glanced up and saw him biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. He felt it too
then, the sorrow and misery of the Pokemon.
	Our little group stood there, transfixed and horrified. Whatever happened to the
fluffy Pokemon battles on TV? The kind where getting a mere scratch was a major offence
and injury? 
	“Let’s go,” I heard Anne say roughly. She grabbed my arm and we pushed and
shoved our way to the front of the crowd, Jill, Jackie, and Sean following in our wake. 
	I was standing there staring up at those huge beasts when I saw one turn its head
and stare right back. What I saw in its eyes frightened me to death. There was a little pain
and fear, but mostly misery. No willing to please its master, no thrill of the battle, no
triumph, nothing. Except misery, plain and clear. In that one unguarded moment where the
Charizard stood gazing at me the other one fastened it’s teeth in my Charizards neck and
ripped. I turned my face away, tears obscuring my vision, and I could feel drops of blood
splatter my clothes and hair. I thought I was going to be sick.
	 Cheers were erupting around me, and I saw money being exchanged from hand to
hand. Winner and loser. A bet made on two Pokemon where one died. Not fainted and
went back into it’s Pokeball to rest and heal, but died. In a gory and undeserved death. I
saw men step into the ring and throw ropes and chains around the roaring, still alive
Charizard’s neck. Much like roping a bull or something when it got out of hand. They
yanked it out of the ring while others came and started to drag my Charizard away. Who
knew what they would do with it. Eat it? Probably.
	I turned around blindly and bumped into Anne. I threw my arms around her,
squeezing hard. (If best friends didn’t exist I think I would have committed suicide a
couple years back)
	“What was that?” I asked faintly, feeling numb. “What kind of a world is this?”
	Anne squeezed me back and answered in a small voice, “I don’t know Allison. But
it’s not right, whatever it is.”
	Over Anne’s shoulder I could see Sean standing with one arm wrapped around
Jackie and the other Jill. He face was white and drained, and I couldn’t see Jill and
Jackie’s, as they had their faces in Sean’s shoulders. We stood there, rocking and
comforting each other, until the words of the guy who had been chattering away beside
me penetrated the fog around my brain. (It was because his voice was as high as a
chipmunks)
	“That Gary. He breeds him like nothing else. Blood thirsty animals that’s what they
are. The other one didn’t stand a chance. Lucky I betted on ‘im. I hear he’s got a new
Ryhorn and he’s training it, they say, with whips an’ all sorts a smart things. That’ll be a
real fighter.” Here, the stranger’s voice stopped and chuckled. (A rather annoying sound)
“Did you hear bout that fight down at Gullian’s? The one with the Clefairy against the
Aerodactyl? Ha ha! That was a real sportin thing to watch! Got a good laugh. It was all
for fun though, no one would be stupid enough to bet on the Clefairy! The Aerodactyl’s
trainer kept calling back the Pokemon right before ‘e was bout to finish off the near dead
Clefairy!” The man laughed uproariously. (I winced) “Ho, was that a funny thing ta
watch!”
	I almost stopped breathing. They pitted a Aerodactyl against a Clefairy for fun?
Too watch it die? Clefairy’s were my favorite Pokemon! The numbness I had been feeling
right then disappeared and left my vision red with a blinding rage.
	“You disgusting, no good, lecherous, ugly, vile, stupid, dumb.............idiot!” I
burst out for lack of a better word. “How dare you stand there talking of such things! I
can’t believe it! Is that what you do now? Train Pokemon and make them fight against
another Pokemon for the sport of watching them get ripped to shreds? Why you, you, you
make me sick! What happened to the honour and love of training Pokemon, and Pokemon
battles?” 
	I balled my hand into a fist and punched him as hard as I could, the punch actually
hurting the person receiving it for once as it was fuelled by anger. When I think back on
that punch,  I am positive that if I had remembered my sword I would have used it instead.
	“Why you little wench! I’ll teach you a thing or two!” The man grabbed my wrists 
while I struggled to break free. But for all of his stupidity he was alot stronger, even me
being as angry as I was. He was spitting in my face with his angry words, and stupid
chipmunk voice. (I swear, that voice gives me nightmares now) 
	 “No one has Pokemon battles anymore! That’s like, something you did in the
stone ages! What’s the point of Pokemon? Worthless creatures! Only good for one thing!
Fights and amusement!” He was shaking me and I saw him pull his hand back for a blow I
knew would render me unconscious when he was suddenly stopped. I heard an
unmistakably male voice say while having an iron fist locked about the guy’s upraised
hand:
	 “You’ll leave her alone.”
	Mr. Chipmunk slowly let go of my wrists and stepped back. “All right man, you
can have her for yourself.” And with that the coward scurried off like the rodent he was.
My angry bravado vanished and my knees threatened to give out under me. Grabbing
Anne’s hand, we ducked behind Sean, sacrificing him to the tough stranger. He wasn’t
holding Jackie and Jill anymore and I briefly wondered where they went.
	“Who are you?” Sean asked the stranger in what he hoped was a steely voice. The
amused ripple came back to him. 
	“Don’t worry, I won’t touch your girl.” We both went beet red at that remark.
(Sooooo untrue! ‘His girl’ Ha!) “I just don’t like seeing weak, innocent girls picked on,”
he continued and I turned beat red again but for a different reason this time. Hadn’t he
seen me punching that guy? I wasn’t weak! Well, at least in anger I wasn’t, and I wasn’t
really innocent, I hadstarted the whole kerfuffle.
	“I’ll be going now,” and with that, my sort of hero turned and melted into the
thinning crowd. I let go of Anne’s hand and wrapped my arms around my body to warm
up my suddenly chilled skin.
	“What kind of world has The Light thrown us into? This isn’t Pokemon land, this
is ButcherPokemonland.”
	Anne turned her troubled eyes to me from where they had been scanning the
crowd. Probably looking for Jackie and Jill. “Alli, don’t worry. We’ll find Lizzy and go
back home, then we can forget this ever happened.”
	At that remark my head came up. “We’re not going to be able to go home. The
Light tossed us here for a reason and that reason is probably to help.”
	“Or to torture us,” Sean said, sounding suspiciously cynical.
	“Or that,” I agreed sarcastically.
	“No it’s probably to help,” Anne spoke up, completely missing my sarcasm. “How,
I don’t know, and why us I really don’t know. But aside from that, where the heck are
Jackie and Jill?” The nervous look in her eyes was growing more nervous and she was
starting to shake slightly from fatigue and worrying. “I’m getting scared.”
	I scanned the almost dissipated crowd and didn’t see any Jackie or Jill. I could feel
my body starting to shake, and my feet grow cold. That’s what happens when I get
nervous, my feet get cold. I was already missing my sister, I didn’t want to lose two good
friends too. 
	Suddenly I felt a hand grip my shoulder. It hurt, and I looked up at Sean in
surprise. “I see them!” he yelled. “Look!” he used his free hand and pointed to three
figures racing towards us. Wait a minute, three figures? Who was the third? I spotted the
tall black haired Jill and the shorter, redhead Jackie, but who was..........
	“AAAHHHHH!! Oh my gosh! Liz! Is that Liz? I think it is! C’mon guys,” Me,
Sean and Anne dashed towards our younger siblings. When the two groups collided, there
was much hugging and laughing, even in the sombre mood we had been in. I looked at my
braided, red-brown haired sister and I could feel the tears spout on again.
	“Argh, where were you? I--we--were worried sick! Jeez, Liz, isn’t that just like
you to get lost,”
	She grinned at me, her sherry colored eyes dancing. We were both brunettes, with
brown eyes, but Lizzy leaned towards red while my coloring was almost black. Of course,
I had to get the really pale white skin while Lizzy got the dark sort of Indian skin that
doesn’t need a tan. Lucky.
	She tugged on her braid and wrinkled her nose at me. She always did that and it
warmed my heart to see the familiar gesture. “It isn’t my fault that The Light thought I
was special.”
	“Phfff, yeah right. You were just stupid enough to get taken,” I replied, tugging on
her long braid myself. 
	She yanked her braid away and glared at me; I always did that to her. “Jill and
Jackie told me about the big field you guys landed in. That’s where I was thrown down in
too, and I also made my way over to the fight. Good thing you guys came, or who knows
how long it would have taken us to meet up again.”
  	“Yeah, good thing,” Anne said, starting pointedly at me. I ‘harumphed’ and
ignored her.
	“We spotted her in the crowd and went after her when you were busy telling off
that guy and getting yourself beat up,” Jackie helpfully filled me in.
	“Getting yourself beat up? What happened?” An interested Lizzy asked.
	“I went after this guy when I overheard hm telling another person about this
Clefairy they had tortured. He had my wrists and was on the verge of giving me a rather
hard smack, when this guy rescued me.” The faint image I had of my hero came back to
me. I frowned and shrugged. “Don’t know who he was, and probably won’t ever meet
him again. Doesn’t matter.” 
	Jill spoke up quietly. “Could you guys tell Liz what happened in the ring? I don’t
really want to talk about it.”
	I glared at her. “Oh, and like we want to,” but in the event I did end up filling Liz
in on the horrific fight we had witnessed. By the end of my explanation I was rather
rambling but I saw Lizzy nod slowly in understanding..
	“Instead of Pokemon battles, they have Pokemon fights, where two Pokemon try
to kill each other and the people bet on them?” She wrapped her arms around herself, in
the classic gesture everyone uses to comfort themselves.
	“Yeah, that’s about it. But if this is really Pokemon world, then where are Ash and
Misty? And Brock? And Team Rocket, and all the rest of the characters? Or maybe the
TV characters don’t exist in this world,” Jackie wondered aloud.
	I shook my head. “Nope, they really do exist. The guy that was talking about the
Clefairy also talked about a Gary, and by the way he was describing him, I’d say it was the
Gary we all know and love,” I finished sarcastically.
	“So then what happened? Why is this world so convoluted?” Lizzy’s voice said. I
couldn’t see her, so I looked around, starting to panic when I realized she and Sean were
sitting down resting against each other, her at the exact right angle where she was hidden
from view. I tried to hide a smile. This wasn’t a time to be smiling.
	“Who knows. Nobody here has any answers to our questions, we’re going to have
to find someone who does. Possibly Ash or Misty,” Anne answered calmly enough but I
saw her eyes flick to the barn door more than once.
	“That’s exactly what we’re going to have to do, but not tonight,” I cut in. “We
need a place to sleep and talk things out a bit more, and I dunno about you guys but I
don’t want that place to be here.”
	“Yeah, but where else? I don’t think any of the hotels around here are going to be
any more respectable,” Jackie stated.
	“Well, I want to sleep, and I’m getting to the point where I don’t care where. Why
don’t we go rest in a big field or something?” Sean asked.
	“And be robbed or worse in our sleep? Nuh-uh,” Jill said.
	“Can we just get out of here at least?” Anne snapped more than asked. “I don’t
want to stay here any longer than I have to!” I realized that we were still grouped together
by the ring. I felt a lump rise in my throat and swallowed vainly to try to force it down.
	“Yeah, can we leave?” Lizzy asked tiredly, and she looked about ready to fall
asleep sitting there, with her head resting on Sean’s shoulder. (Awww)
	“Okay, I say we walk around and try to find a place that’s halfway decent to
sleep,” Jackie suggested. Everyone nodded and we all dragged ourselves up and out the
door.

				********

	I felt like dying. My feet were aching and my head was pounding. Lizzy had
already dropped off, Sean was carrying her now. (I seem to be proved wrong again, and
again) Anne and Jill were leaning against each other, shuffling along and I was practically
dragging Jackie. I felt sorry for the poor kid, she was the youngest of the group and only
fourteen, although I had a tendency to forget that.
	I was guessing it was around one in the morning and we hadn’t found anywhere to
sleep yet. Having had such a rough day already we had all been bone weary by eleven
o’clock. Two hours later and we were ready to fall down and sleep where we were
standing. Even if we were still in the grungy part of town.
	A sketchy figure stepped out of the shadows of the street, to stand bathed in hard
light. “You seem to be lost or something. Looking for a place to sleep?”
	I stood there in a dazed stupor. Sleep? Did he say a place to sleep? Lead me to it!
But wait, (the sleepy wheels in my head started to turn) we didn’t know him.
	“What?? Where can we sleep?” Jackie stepped forward eagerly, nearly tumbling to
the ground. I grabbed her arm to keep her up and held her back.	
	“Who are you?” That was what my brilliant mind came up with. 
	“Someone you probably already know.”
	I stared, confused. Uh, I just met him, how could I already know him? Man, was I
tired. Then it hit me. My hero! The guy who had saved me from that weirdo back at the
barn. I looked up at him and said sleepily, “Is it safe?” before pitching forward from
exhaustion, and landing (I hope) in my hero’s arms.

				********

All right then, that’s the first chapter in what promises to be a long story. I hope it’ll be
good.
FEEDBACK! I want feedback! It helps and with enough prodding I’ll be able to write the
next chapter!
(Hint! Hint! Email me!) silver_fairy@angelfire.com


Silver V