| Pokemon Conclave
Episode 26: The Lady of the Lake © 1999-2000 Willow McCall Aoife held her new Soul Badge up to the sunlight and admired it, grinning. “So, where should we go next, guys?” she asked brightly. Petra checked their Nav-Comp and looked back up at Aoife, smiling. “You know what’s in Fuchsia City? The Safari Zone!” “Ooh!” Sora squealed. “The Safari Zone! Raven and I came here on vacation once and we loved that place.” Even Ferio looked slightly excited. “It’s Mankey season now, I think. Although I don’t really need a Mankey, there should be other fighting Pokemon out too.” “Erm, hello?” Aoife tapped Petra on the shoulder. “What exactly IS the Safari Zone?” “Oh, it’s the best place,” Petra said eagerly. “It’s a game reserve. They give you 30 of their special Pokeballs—Safari Balls—and they let you go around and catch all the Pokemon you want!” “Although there is a downside,” Ferio reminded them. “You’re not allowed to fight any of the Pokemon in the Zone with your Pokemon. You just throw the ball at them and leave it up to chance.” “But!” Sora added. “They do give you bait to distract the Pokemon with. That makes it a little easier. And you have 30 Safari Balls so you can use as many as you want on one Pokemon.” “Sounds like fun,” Aoife said. “Maybe a little hard, but fun. So let’s go!” *** “You each have your 30 Safari Balls, right?” the warden asked. Aoife, Sora, Petra, Ferio, and Aidan nodded. “OK. Now you may explore the Safari Zone—here’s a map—and catch whatever you like. Although if you use one of your Pokemon against one of the Safari Zone Pokemon, and you’re caught, then one of our officers will have to remove you.” “Officers?” Petra repeated. “As in…Officer Fiona?” “Why, yes,” the warden answered. “The Fuchsia City branch of the Justin family has always worked at the Safari Zone.” Petra already looked elated. “Now, is everything clear? Have your Safari Balls and your map? Good. Off you go, then!” Petra thrust the map into Aidan’s hands and ran off. “I wanna find an Officer Fiona!” Ferio rolled her eyes. “Typical. Here, lemme see that…” she took the map from Aidan and pored over it. “Okay. Apparently there are five zones, and you can catch different Pokemon in each one. So where you want to go depends on what kind of Pokemon you want to catch. Oh, and there are rest houses along the way too, in case you need a break.” Ferio handed the map back to Aidan and started walking. “Which I won’t, probably.” “Wait, Ferio!” Sora called after her cousin. “Maybe we should stick together…I mean, this is a big place, and Petra’s already run off…or assign a meeting place, and if anyone runs into Petra we’ll tell her where to meet us.” “Sounds good,” Aidan agreed. “Let’s see, the rest houses are numbered, aren’t they? Which is the closest to the exit?” “Rest House 1, of course,” Ferio replied. “So we’re meeting there?” “Guess so,” Aoife agreed. “Okay, let’s go!” She went marching off into the bushes in search of Pokemon to catch, with Sora behind her. Ferio turned and went off on her own, while Aidan took a path parallel to Ferio’s so that he could watch her. “You know, Aoife,” Sora said, as they walked along, “even if you don’t catch any Pokemon you can still fill up your Pokedex with the variety of Pokemon they have here.” “Oh yeah, I know,” Aoife said. “I know I may not catch any but I’m fine with that anyway.” “Good,” Sora said. “Hey, what’s that in there?” Aoife stopped and looked where Sora was pointing, off into the bushes. There was something glowing from the darkness of the bushes, something with two menacing red eyes. Aoife took off at a run. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out either!” she yelled. Sora soon caught up to her. “Me neither!” she agreed. They both ran out of breath in front of a small pond and fell on their knees, gasping. “Good afternoon, girls!” a bright voice above them said. They looked up to see an Officer Fiona, holding an armful of fishing rods. “Welcome to the Fishing Zone. Would you like to have a go at the fishing pond?” Aoife grinned. “Sounds like fun!” *** Aidan peered at Ferio through the bushes. She was sitting on a rock aside a pond, dangling a fishing pole in the water. “She is really pretty,” Aidan thought, “and she does look a lot like that girl I saw at that gym leader’s convention three years ago. But is she really the same girl? I have a feeling she is, but I don’t know…” “Cu?” a voice behind him asked, and he felt a tap on his shoulder. Aidan turned around slowly and found himself staring into the eyes of a skull. “Whoa!” he cried, jumping up, but upon a closer look the skull turned out to be a Cubone. “Just a Cubone,” Aidan said. “Sorry, little guy, but I already have one of you. Well, I used to anyway, but it evolved and now I have a Marowak.” The Cubone shrugged and crawled off into the bushes. Aidan heard some more voices from further along the path. “Leave me alone and let me do my job!” “But Officer Fiona…” said another voice, which Aidan recognized as Petra’s. “Just leave me alone! Go catch some Pokemon or something. You say you like rock Pokemon? There are lots of Rhyhorn in the fields of Zone 3.” Aidan stood up—Zone 3 was where he was—and he looked around. He was in a field, but he saw no Rhyhorn. “Ooh, Rhyhorn?” Petra’s voice asked. “This I’d like to see. Could you possibly show me where this field might be, Officer?” “Yes, all right,” Officer Fiona’s voice agreed, sighing resignedly. Aidan heard footsteps along the path coming towards him, and he sat back down again just as Officer Fiona entered the clearing, with Petra on her heels. “Oh, hi Aid,” Petra said, waving to Aidan. “Officer Fiona’s going to show me where the Rhyhorn are…aren’t you?” “I already have,” Officer Fiona said. “They’re here. In this field. Now will you please stop following me around?” “Oh, she will, officer!” Aidan assured Fiona. “I’ll make sure of it.” “Thanks.” Fiona retreated down the path, with Petra staring after her. “She’s great, isn’t she?” “Yeah, sure,” Aidan said. “You going to catch a Rhyhorn?” “Nah,” Petra said. “Already have one. I just wanted to see a few of the Safari Zone’s specimens so that I can compare them to my own.” “Uh-uh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Petra,” Aidan said. “If you release your Rhyhorn here, the officers might think you’re trying to battle with it and they’ll kick you out. Or the Rhyhorn might start battling each other, and then you’d really be in trouble.” “Guess you’re right,” Petra said. “Still, I can observe how the Safari Pokemon behave and see if being in a game reserve has affected their behavior.” “That’d be interesting,” said Aidan. “Mind if I come with you?” “Of course not,” Petra agreed. “Let’s go.” (Who's that Pokemon? It's Dratini!) “Boring,” Aoife moaned, yawning exaggeratedly and trailing her hand through the pond water. She and Sora, having found nothing but Goldeen and Magikarp in the first pond, had packed up their fishing gear and moved on to a bigger pond, where they hoped to find a little more variety in water Pokemon. Which they hadn’t. “Why don’t we go somewhere else?” Sora suggested. “If you don’t like fishing, I mean. There are plenty of other places to catch Pokemon in the Safari Zone.” “Eh,” Aoife shrugged. “I’ll give this pond ten more minutes, then I’m out of here.” “Fair enough,” Ferio’s voice behind them said. She had been in the Fishing Zone herself and while wandering about had found Aoife and Sora. She had been watching them for five minutes without their knowing. “Ferio!” Aoife jumped. “How long have you been there?” “Few minutes,” Ferio said. “Guess you guys haven’t been having much luck?” “Not exactly,” Sora said, pressing her index fingers together. “Just Goldeen and Magikarp. And Psyduck, which I was going to catch, but Aoife said not to bother with them.” “My mom had one, and it drove her INSANE,” Aoife explained. “Wouldn’t learn attacks or evolve or anything, and it always had a headache so it was kinda inept.” “No Pokemon is useless if you train it right,” Ferio said. “Not even Psyduck or Magikarp, because they eventually evolve and then they’re really powerful.” “I guess so…OUCH!” Aoife pulled her hand out of the water, as though it had suddenly become boiling hot. “Something just bit me!” “Really?” Sora peered under the surface of the water. “Maybe I can see what it is…” A head poked out of the water, a blue head with white ears, black eyes, and a round white snout. “Niiiii,” it said. “A Dratini,” Ferio breathed, sounding excited for once. “Aoife, it’s a Dratini! Catch it, quick!” “Dratini?” Aoife repeated. “Are you sure?” The Dratini slithered up onto the bank of the pond and started to crawl off into the bushes. “Tini, tini,” it said as it trundled along. “Cool!” Aoife shouted. “I got you now, Dratini!” She hurled a Safari Ball at it…which bounced off a rock. Dratini dove back into the pond and crawled up onto a rock in the middle of the water. “Tini…tini…” Dratini said in a shaky voice, hiding behind the rock. “Pi?” Chu-Chu said to it. “Pikapikka?” “Tini dratini,” the dragon Pokemon replied. “Dratini tini dra.” “Pika!” Chu-Chu’s eyes widened, and it turned to Aoife. “Pika, pika pikachu! Kachu, pi pikachu!” “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Chu-Chu,” Aoife scoffed. “What?” Ferio asked. “What did it say?” “Chu-Chu says,” Aoife interpreted, “that the Dratini said not to catch it because it’s not really a Dratini.” “Then what is it, if not a Dratini?” Sora wondered. “Could be a Ditto,” Ferio reasoned. “But it’s not,” Aoife said. “Chu-Chu says that Dratini is really a human.” “Maybe it knows Humanize,” Sora speculated. “Look!” Ferio yelled, pointing to the Dratini, which was glowing. “What’s it doing? Is it evolving?” “Tini…tiiiiniiiii…” The small dragon Pokemon grew slightly in length and changed shape, growing legs and arms until it was able to crouch on the rock in the middle of the pond. Loose clothing and medium-length purple hair formed as the Dratini changed into a human, one with green eyes and wearing a black shirt and green pants. “It does know Humanize!” Ferio said. “But how? Kobi said he hasn’t released it to the public yet.” The Dratini girl studied the faces of Aoife and the others. “I told your Pikachu that you shouldn’t catch me,” she said, “and this is why.” “How did you learn Humanize?” Sora wanted to know. “Do you have a trainer?” She shook her head. “I’ll explain it to you in a minute.” The girl then changed back into a Dratini and swam across the pond to the side where Aoife and her friends were. *** “My name is Ruari,” the Dratini girl explained, as she sat in Rest House 1 with Aoife, Sora, Chu-Chu, and Ferio. “I guess you could call me a…a mutant. I’m a clone made of combined human and Dratini genes. The scientists had hoped for a half-human, half-Pokemon, but instead they got me, a person who can change into a Pokemon…or a Pokemon who can change into a person, if you want to look at it that way.” “Where is this laboratory?” Ferio asked. “Because I used to work on a lab in the Orange Islands and I might know of it…but I haven’t heard of any experiments like that.” Ruari shook her head. “You probably wouldn’t have. The experiment that created me was 14 years ago, and there were a few even earlier than that. The lab is on Cinnabar Island, but I live in the Seafoam Archipelago.” She smiled proudly and showed them a green triangular badge. “I’m the gym leader of the Chartreuse City gym.” “Oh, cool!” Aoife cried. “That’s great. I want to be a gym leader too…oh.” She stopped and laughed. “I guess we haven’t introduced ourselves properly, have we? Well, I’m Aoife Ketchum from Pallet Town and I’m on my Pokemon journey with these two, and Aidan and Petra…where are Aidan and Petra, by the way?” Sora shrugged. “No idea. Anyway, I’m Sora Starling and I’m the gym leader of Azure City.” Ruari nodded in recognition. “Yeah, I’ve seen you around before…and you too,” she said to Ferio. “Saffron Dojo, right?” Ferio nodded in reply, and Ruari smiled. “I always used to go to your karate competitions and watch, and I’d love to try it myself sometime…but I’d be too scared.” “Chicken,” Ferio thought, but she said nothing. “It’s just karate. What’s there to be scared of?” “So you run the Chartreuse City gym, do you?” Aoife said. “I already have eight badges, and I’m assuming yours is the one I need to get next?” “Yep,” Ruari confirmed. “Hey, know what? I’m going to be going home soon so why don’t you just come with me there? I mean, since we’re both going the same way…I think it’d be easier for all of us.” “Thanks,” Sora said, “but are you sure? I mean, there are five of us...” “Six now,” Ruari winked. “Don’t worry, it’s no problem.” “The only question is…” Sora said, “how are we going to get out to the Seafoam Archipelago?” Author's Notes Yay-yay, Ruari's joined the group today! And I've met my goal, which was set for Halloween, a month early! I'm very satisfied with this episode...although I suppose I should have written a scene where Ruari meets the rest of the group (Aidan and Petra) but that'll be in the next episode. Ruari's given the impression that she's just going to be with them until Aoife gets the badge from her, not telling them yet that she'll be freeloading off them for the rest of Aoife's journey. ^-^ And yes, Ruari IS a self-insertion. Nye-hee. Pics: Ruari back |
